For some it May never have gone away, but house music’s return to the fore in dance music is undeniable. The past couple of years alone have seen the reemergence of some of house’s most seminal names, from Larry Heard with “The Sun Can’t Compare” to Green Velvet (”Shake And Pop”) and DJ Sneak, whose’ been remixing everyone from Sebo K to A Trak and Laidback Luke. Another name who’s taking charge of his formidable legacy and reintroducing himself to a generation of partiers that were in diapers when he got is his start is Todd Terry.
One of the principle architects of the New York house music sound, Terry went harder and more progressive when peers like Kenny Dope and Lil Louie Vega went deep and his production for the Jungle Brothers on “I’ll House You” more or less created the short-lived genre of hip-house. His 2002 remix of Playgroup’s “Front 2 Back” revisited that sound to murderous effect… A veteran DJ and prominent hitmaker overseas, Terry spent much of the 90s and early 00s remixing pop stars like Bjork, Garbage and even the Rolling Stones. He even flirted with drum & bass on his 1999 Astralwerks album Resolutions. But for my money, the real classics are from the old school. The Todd Terry that helped shape my own sensibility as a DJ samples heavily from disco and hip hop and fuses the rough and smooth into a storming mix that is as devastating on the dancefloor now as it was back then.
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