2001年リリースのオリジナル12インチには2～3万円もの値が付くディープ・ハウス大人気盤が待望の正規復刻！

The Coastal Commission名義で知られるBig Sam が主宰するレーベル Pacific Coast House から、The Coastal Commission と Teflon Dons を迎えた The Rendezvous が復活。90年代前半のL.Aアンダーグラウンドで育った空気を、そのまま閉じ込めた一枚だ。

Sam と Aaron Parr の出会いは1992年。Melrose Avenue の Beatnonstop Records を中心に、L.Aのクラブやアフター、ウェアハウス・パーティが毎晩のようにうねり続けた時代。レコード店がDJとダンサーのハブとして機能し、すべてが勢いで転がっていった頃だ。Aaron は当時 Streetsounds Records で働き、Steve Loria や Barry Weaver といった地元のキーパーソンと共にシーンの中心にいた。

その後 Sam は L.A に拠点を移し、Beatnonstop の運営に携わると同時にレーベルを立ち上げ、地元のアーティストを巻き込みながら Pacific Coast House の世界観を固めていく。その中で生まれたのが、Teflon Dons をフィーチャーしたこの楽曲だ。

リマスタリングは Martin Iveson。25年の時を挟みながらも、当時の空気を崩さず輪郭を引き締めている。ざらついた質感のキックと酸味のあるベースライン、夜の街の湿気をまとったような反復フレーズが濃密に重なり、East Coast と West Coast それぞれのクラブ感覚を一つに溶かし込んでいく。NYの DJ たちが早くから反応したのも納得の、アンダーグラウンド特有の推進力をもったトラックだ。

The Coastal Commission、そして Teflon Dons が持つ L.A 特有の深い土臭さと、Sam のNY由来の感性が交わったときにしか生まれない質感。倉庫の暗闇の中で鳴らすと、一番底のグルーヴだけが前に出てくるような、そんな強さを持った作品になっている。

A1. The Coastal Commission – Our Music
B1. Teflon Dons – Vice

I met Aaron Parr back in 1992 aka the golden era of electronic dance music. Everything was kicking off in the L.A Underground and he was working slap dap in the epi-center at Beatnonstop Records on Melrose Avenue in the heart of Los Angeles. At the time I was living in Santa Barbara still doing my college radio show “The Joy of X” and coming down to L.A on the weekends almost every week since 1989. Aaron had been a mainstay down the street at Streetsounds Records where my then Young friend 19 year old Steve Loria worked alongside warehouse dj & underground legend Barry Weaver.

These were heady times. Clubs, after-hours and renegade break in warehouse jams were the order of the day…every day! The shops fueled the dj’s with the dope records and the ravers with the party flyers, the Record Stores were the hub of the whole scene and the key was befriending these upwardly mobile soon to be underground superstars if you wanted fat slabs of wax AND to know where the real deal undergrounds were shaking…literally.

In 1992 I got selected for the U.S Olympic Basketball team and headed back to Europe in an effort to make it to Barcelona and get smashed for the GOLD by the dream team in front of the whole World…no thanks! We got knocked out by Petrovic and the Czechs right b4 Barcelona!
Anywho after 3 months I returned to Cali and there had been a shift, Steve Loria moved up the street from Streetsounds & opened Beatnonstop and it was HUGE! It had quickly become the largest independent record store in the U.S. The scene was massive, everything had exploded. I got in where I fit in and started a weekly Techno club “Happy Planet” on Tuesdays and a House club “NYC” with Doc Martin on a Friday. Both were rammed.

Aaron the industrious Brit from Nottingham & his bredren Dave Fong went to work early too, putting out the Rudiments EP on Worldship Records and then following up with Psycho Ray in 1998.. In 1998 II closed my Culture shop “Soma” down in Santa Barbara, packed up my studio & sound system and moved to L.A official. I had gotten the offer to manage Beatnonstop on Melrose after Steve Loria left and jumped at the chance.

I quickly put together the Beatnonstop Record Label, releasing a double pack “Pacific Coast House EP” feat myself and local producers Aztech Sol, CPen and Kenneth Graham/Steve Loria. I then kicked off PCH Records with “Rhodes Through Space” and after a drunken rendezvous at the Hall of Records Studio one night I signed Aaron & Daves Teflon Dons “My Vice” to the labels.

Vice was right down my alley a dark, grimy acid track with menacing Pacino samples.
After a buying trip for Beatnonstop to NYC. Harry the Bastard from Watts took me down to meet fellow Brit Stefan at Dance Tracks in Manhattan where I found the sample “Our Music” on an accapella in the bins. Super inspired after two weeks trolling round every record distributors warehouse (Watts, Nemesis, Syntax, Downtown etc) and hitting every record store in Manhattan (Vinyl Mania, Discorama, Frankie Bones shop, Satellite and on and on) I came home to L.A and me and Nate loaded up the Emu 64 Ultra sampler and penned “Our Music.”

The track is obviously very New York inspired and was received well by Big Apple Dj’s David Morales, Junior Vasquez, Roger Sanches & Baby Hec Romero. I would definitely say this track was a slow burner elsewhere and took off later getting the nod from DJ Deep in Paris, + Terry Francis, Eddie Richards and Mr. C in the UK.

It got no love in L.A surprisingly but everywhere else across the country with Miguel Migs and DJ Garth in the Bay, King Britt in Philly and DJ Pope in Baltimore. Now it’s back on wax after 25 years remastered by the mighty Martin Iveson and I think the World is finally ready!