Hed Kandi album cover, come on…seriously, the only way this picture could get any better was if the girl was real

Or rather house in the house. My musical taste has varied through my many years from appalling (New Kids on the Block at the tender age of 10), to less appalling (Boyz II Men around 13/14) to what I like now, which happens to be largely indi, alternative music. Of course the (5) regular readers of this blog I’m sure are aware of my obsession for Snow Patrol but I do have a range of other favourites, ranging from the Killers to the Shins, Trouble with Sweeney, etc. Of course two of my perennial favourites are the Smiths and the Pixies, classics but bloody excellent. Before I get attached by the culture vultures (or culture monkeys) let me add that I do listen to pretty much every music genre including Amaradeva and Iraj (two different genres again).

Recently though a song has come close to dethroning Chocolate as my all time favourite and house as a genre to dethroning alternative. The song is Empty Streets by Late Night Alumni, check it out here. Similar to the connotations I get from Chocolate (addressed in previous posts), Empty Streets reminds me of a full moon on a beach in Hikkaduwa this time around and just pure, heartaching relaxation. Late Night Alumni is what is known as deep house, I’ll be fucked if I know what that really means but I like very much, especially to chill and not just deep house, but most house, progressive, trance, etc.

My introduction to house music (well the second coming so to speak, I came across it in college but was more interested in the pathe wade associated with it, see below) came with a trip to NoCal for a drinking session with R during which he introduced me to Uncle. He of the tight T-shirts put on Buddha Bar, to which my response was “nice…wash that?” This was obviously after a few rum and cokes and despite getting excessively wasted at what I believe was a house party (though I vaguely recall people in fancy dress, including a devil and a cowboy, not entirely sure what that was about) I did have the sense to get Mamme (he has various Unclified nicknames) to rip me a CD of his stuff. Actually R might have done that but I’ll take credit…and the rest as they say is history. Ares and Amazon helped build my House collection, though I did sadly lose some of the CDs along with my car.

At the end of the day alternative’s nice but requires far, far too much thinking while listening, so I can’ really handle it under stress. Put some Kaskade, Ian Pooley and good old Mark Farina and one can drift off. And this is without the chemical inducements so often associated with House music. Funnily enough now that I’m really into House, I haven’t done any drugs in a long time (yes Evil, not even weed). The pill popping days (very brief mind you) are far behind me and even though I was into house then I think it was just the rhythmic beats that I needed to accompany said popping. Now House is for relaxing, working (i.e. writing innumerable cover letters and reading fascinating documents on soilless potting mixes) and most of all for the gym and driving. Though for the two latter Deep House doesn’t really cut it, you need more Trance of the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Armin Van Buuren. Put a couple of hour mixes on your Ipod and you can run for miles. Tis a beautiful thing, especially for someone as lazy as I am.

Current favourites include, Savvas Fellas, the artists mentioned above, Rufus White and anything Hed Kandi. One also can’t forget the deities of dance and progressive house, Leftfield and other more chilled out electro groups like the Beloved. The dream, a bar somewhat like Tantra, less open, more beach views, glass, funky fishtanks, skimpily dressed bartenders of the female variety ((hey if Justin Timberlake can do it, so can I) and a few of the male as well (cos I don’t discriminate!), progressive, deep house music and the ultimate chill out joint. Hmm…another project to be added for the future.