Sherelle
Trigger Happy – Untitled
The track I always get asked about is this UK hardcore tune by an artist called Trigger Happy. I found them via Bandcamp. All of their tunes are called Untitled, and this is the third tune on an EP that is also called Untitled. I’ve decided this track has become my anthem now, it’s so euphoric; I always play it as my last tune. I closed my set at Dekmantel in Amsterdam, with it this year. I was wearing a Netherlands football shirt and I took it off and swung it around because I was having such a good time. It was my Chloe Kelly moment. I played it once in front of [American DJs] Eris Drew and Octo Octa in Australia, and they asked me about it. They said they love euphoric tracks like this because there’s something so queer about them, they evoke community and harmony. But even if you’re not queer, it’s a very loving song – and love is a universal language.
Errol and Alex Rita, Touching Bass
Ben Hauke – Turn It On
Sometimes we see the vibrant blue of the Shazam when we’re DJing or sometimes you get people that hover over the decks, in the front row, who try to read the CDJ as it’s playing. There’s a whole assortment of ways in which people try to get hold of this track. But this is one of the ones that we love sharing. It comes from the compilation that we put out this year and we were test driving it in our sets to see people’s reactions before we released it. It’s not only one of our favourites but the crowd’s. Everyone loves a killer bass line. When it drops, the hands go up in the air, it gets the stinkfaces going.
Norsicaa
Thep Thunder – Rap Kaek
Last year I was cruising the website of Zudrangma Records in Bangkok and thought I’d place a substantial order as it was going to cost me about the same shipping for three records as it would for 10. I’m pretty picky but I was getting impatient so for giggles I added a 7in that claimed to be a Thai cover of MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This. Anyway, when I finally received the package I listened to it – hilarious – but on the B-side was this kind of hip-hop beat with sitar, again with this Thai vocalist Thep Thunder rapping over the top. It’s so catchy I’ve included it many times in my sets.
The first time I played it in the UK, a south Asian couple ran up to me and said I was playing a cover of one of Britain’s greatest Indian producers, Bally Sagoo, and that this song was a staple at every British Asian wedding in the 90s – the original is called Gur Nalon Ishq Mitha.
The actual Thai song itself is not Shazamable. It’s a little quirk of music discovery that technology isn’t always the thing that’s going to lead you there; it’s taking a chance on a B-side. Every time I play the original or the Thai cover, south Asian crowds go wild and new audiences come running to ask what this synth hip-hop masterpiece is. It makes me happy to see people reliving nostalgic memories or others discovering a part of British musical history – via Thailand!
JD Twitch, Optimo
Mariah – 心臓の扉 (Shinzo No Tobira)
Jonnie [the other half of Optimo] and I discovered this in the Eurasia record shop in Tokyo in the early 2000s. It was playing and we both simultaneously raced to the counter to ask what it was. Luckily they had two copies. For years we had no idea of the title as the sleeve only showed it in Japanese characters. It became a cult favourite and word spread and spread. We started to get a lot of people asking about it when we played it. I shared an MP3 of the track with some friends, and that MP3 found its way to YouTube, still with no English track title, and it then took off – the translated title was added later. It is a sublimely beautiful piece of timeless music that really resonates with people. I lost out in the race to reissue it in 2015. The reissue helped spearhead a massive interest in 1980s Japanese music, which is ongoing.
Coco María
Juan Pablo Torres – Cacao
The first time I heard Cacao by Juan Pablo Torres was a few years ago at one of my first DJ sets. I was playing back to back with Samy Ben Redjeb from Analog Africa at Fusion festival near Berlin. The timing was perfect, the party was good and this song was everything I wanted in life at that exact moment. Samy shared the song with me – but without the artist’s name. Some friend! For a couple of years I thought I had something obscure and unreleased in my hands, and every time I played it, people danced and got into it as much as I did – but I didn’t know the artist’s name.
One day in Mexico, I found this record and realised it was not an unknown artist as the original MP3 said, but the great Cuban trombonist. I was happy I got the vinyl and I carry it with me all the time when I play. It is a fun song: playful, theatrical. People let go and dance wildly. It starts with a humming, blurry scatting – in Spanish, we say canturreo – and then suddenly it hits and you find yourself dancing to a Latin funk track. Often someone asks for the title and I am glad I can let them take a photo of the record and spread the joy.
