Felix Da Housecat, Vince Lawrence & Jamie Principle Team Up On ‘Touch Your Body:’ Exclusive Premiere

"House has survived and is constantly being reinvented."

The 312 brings together three important figures in the history of Chicago house music: Felix Da Housecat, Vince Lawrence, and Jamie Principle. "We [have] all known each other since early 80s," Felix tells Billboard in an email. "We all grew up together on the same scene. It was like a movement and they were the driving force. Especially Jamie – his voice pretty much carried house."

On Friday, the three release the Touch Your Body on the Crosstown Rebels label, and the title track is premiering today exclusively on Billboard. Principle sings in his usual mode – tense, pleading, lusty – while a big bass line steps purposefully in the background. The song ends in a whisper, as if Principle is about to evaporate.

How did you meet Vince?

I've known Vince since the beginning of House Music when he was A&R at Chicago Trax. We became very good friends in 1991 and remain friends to this day. I look at Vince as like a Guru Ala Rick Rubin of House Music.

What do you like about Jamie’s voice?

Jamie and Prince were my childhood heroes. His voice to me you can't explain – it's like you asking me, "What does the Holy Spirit feel like?" Or, "what is it like to feel the creator's presence?" You can't put a question like that into words.

Did this track come together in the studio or remotely?

I flew to Chicago with the plan to create this song. Originally it was supposed to be myself and Jamie, but I asked myself who would be the perfect person to sonically destroy the dancefloor with, and Vince and his recording studio came to mind.

What was the creative process like?

We all sat in one room and jammed. I sat there by the synth, played the bassline first. I asked Yuki (the engineer) to give me a simple kick snare, so I can just get a simple vibe and I had the music done in about an hour. That's when Jamie started writing away whilst Vince joined him. While I was finishing overdubs on the music, I said, "Jamie can I pretend to be you and lay down melody for verses?" He looked at me like I was crazy. So I took that as a yes. I asked Yuki to mic me up at the start of the track, and I sang the song melody without words, pretending to be Jamie. Then Jamie cloned me being him and Jamieized it. Jamie then whispered in my ear and said, "I got the chorus." I was like, "cool, sing it."

How did you first hear about Crosstown Rebels?

I've known Damian Lazarus since him signing me with Phil Howells on City Rockers in 2000, Kittenz and the Glitz. After that he would start Crosstown. So he's always been like a brother and mentor to me.

How do you feel about the current state of house music?

House Music is here to stay; it's not going anywhere. It's always been changed up with names, trends, titles. Trends always die. House has survived and is constantly being reinvented.

Have you worked with Moodymann before?

No – always been huge fan of his work, so I reached out to him, and he smashed the rework. Best remix I've heard in ages.

Original Article >>

Songs We Love: The 312, ‘Touch Your Body (Moodymann Remix)’

I was already planning on writing about this track weeks before the events that took place in Orlando early Sunday morning. It seemed a no-brainer. Because whether you like house music as deep dance music, as great pop music or as secular gospel, there's little not to love about this incredibly potent collaboration between three Chicago house giants (producers Felix Da Housecat and Vince Lawrence, with vocalist/producer Jamie Principle) and one of Detroit's best contemporary musicians (the one and only Moodymann, a.k.a. Kenny Dixon, Jr.). It's a great, sensual love song that takes place on the dance floor, with a release both carnal ("I want to touch your body one more time," Principle coos in the chorus) and spiritual ("I need relief" is the vocal loop Moodymann's remix brings to the fore — a reminder that, no matter when it may've been recorded, we all live in a world that requires a modicum of "relief"). It might seem like hyperbole to call the song an instant classic, an addition to the vocal-house pantheon of which Principle is a co-founder, but that is exactly what it sounds like.

Yet in light of the horrific attack at the Pulse nightclub, the murders of 49 men and women who almost all identified with the LGBTQ community, there is something else that is important to point out about "Touch Your Body": This is music rooted in the gay experience, in the experience of people of color and in the culture of gay nightclubs — experiences that took place long before the victories of the gay rights movement made progress seem inevitable. That's why listening to this song this week and not thinking of what happened in Orlando isn't really an option — especially when the sounds and codes of "Touch Your Body" hearken so prominently to sites that once offered temporary reprieves from gay discrimination. Sites like Pulse.

Here's a reminder: House music was born almost entirely of gay liberation, in the post-Stonewall Inn disco parties of New York and then in a Chicago club called the Warehouse (hence, "house") commandeered by a gay expat New York DJ named Frankie Knuckles, who first put on Jamie Principle. The dance floors at these clubs may have been integrated (all races, genders and sexual persuasions welcome), but there should be no mistaking that this was music first and foremost programmed by the gay community, for the gay community, based on things deemed important in the gay community. All lovers of late-20th century American culture have profited immeasurably from the creative ideas and the unadulterated emotion initially nurtured in the safety of gay clubs populated by bodies of color. As "Touch Your Body" asserts, we continue to bask in the wonders of that creativity and in the open-hearted notions of inclusivity it fostered. Never forget that.

Original Article >>

Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle, Vince Lawrence are The 312 on Crosstown Rebels “Touch Your Body”

Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle, Vince Lawrence are The 312 on Crosstown Rebels “Touch Your Body”

Crosstown Rebels curate an A-star team of pioneers and legends for the labels next release ‘Touch Your Body’ by way of Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle and Vince Lawrence aka The 312 with two invigorating remixes from Moodymann to be released 24th June.

With a career spanning more than 30 years Felix Da Housecat now brings us his latest venture as producer of The 312 project. One of house music’s most recognisable voices Jamie Principle alongside another true Chicago house music innovator, Vince Lawrence and Detroit Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann is “the coming together of three of house music’s legends” label boss Damian Lazarus explains and “was always going to produce something special, in ‘Touch Your Body’ we have nothing short of an all time classic. Add to that incredible remixes from Moodymann and the dream release is complete for Crosstown.”

Felix Da Housecat explains how “growing up on south side of Chicago I was a huge fan of Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle. Vince Lawrence was over at Chicago Trax and was the blueprint A&R and catalyst there signing anything hot.” “Frankie’s passing woke me up. I wanted to go back where it all began and work with the originators.” “I called Vince and said I need your mind, guidance and your studio and all of us in one room to bring that spirit back in my soul. I told him we had Jamie Principle and the rest I guess is history. I wanted Crosstown for the project as I felt Damian was the only guy worthy and would understand and treat this project right. House Music needs this right now.. So here we are.”

Original Article >>

FELIX DA HOUSECAT, JAMIE PRINCIPLE, VINCE LAWRENCE AKA THE 312 – TOUCH YOUR BODY (CROSSTOWN REBELS)

Crosstown Rebels assemble an A-star team of pioneers and legends for the next mammoth release on the label. ‘Touch Your Body’ comes courtesy of Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle and Vince Lawrence aka The 312 with invigorating remixes from Moodymann.

Felix Da Housecat’s career spans more than thirty years with two Grammy nominations. Never failing to impress, he now brings us his latest venture as producer of The 312 project and ‘Touch Your Body’. Jamie Principle is one of the most recognisable voices in the history of house music, featuring on some of the first house records ever made including the seminal ‘Your Love’ with Frankie Knuckles. Business man, producer and Trax Records organizer Vince Lawrence is another true Chicago house music innovator, responsible for the pivotal house track ‘On & On’ with Jesse Saunders and the ‘Virgo Tracks’ releases. Mahogani Music founder Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann grew up in Detroit with his first several releases appearing on Carl Craig’s Planet E imprint. 2016 saw him next in the series to mix the respected ‘DJ-Kicks’ with outstanding results.

Felix Da Housecat explains how “growing up on south side of Chicago I was a huge fan of Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle. Vince Lawrence was over at Chicago Trax and was the blueprint A&R and catalyst there signing anything hot. By this time I was around 14 and I had just made my first record ‘Fantasy Girl’, with DJ PIERRE. Over the years I was becoming obsessed with Jamie’s sound. We soon became friends and always discussed working together and it took 15 years. Frankie’s passing woke me up. I felt I wanted to do something special and it was time to fly back to Chicago to my roots. I wanted to go back where it all began and work with the originators. I called Vince and said I need your mind, guidance and your studio and all of us in one room to bring that spirit back in my soul. I told him we had Jamie Principle and the rest I guess is history. I wanted Crosstown for the project as I felt Damian was the only guy worthy and would understand and treat this project right. House Music needs this right now.. So here we are.”

Label boss Damian Lazarus spoke about the project “the coming together of three of house music’s legends was always going to produce something special, in ‘Touch Your Body’ we have nothing short of an all time classic. Add to that incredible remixes from Moodymann and the dream release is complete for Crosstown.”

‘Touch Your Body’ will be available via Crosstown Rebels from 24/06/2016.

Original Article >>

Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle & Vince Lawrence are The 312 on new EP

Crosstown Rebels will release the record, complete with remixes from Moodymann.

The 312 will release its debut single, Touch Your Body, on Crosstown Rebels next month.

The group consists of three well-known figures in Chicago house: Felix Da Housecat, Jamie Principle and Vince Lawrence. "Growing up on the South Side of Chicago I was a huge fan of Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle," says Felix Da Housecat, real name Felix Stallings.

While Stallings may be the more recognizable of the three, Principle and Lawrence's careers extend back to the earliest days of Trax Records. Principle was behind one of the label's early hits, "Your Love" with Frankie Knuckles, while Lawrence worked as the label designer and A&R guy. "Jamie and I always discussed working together and it took over 15 years," Stallings says.

Their first single, Touch Your Body will land on Damian Lazarus' label Crosstown Rebels next month, accompanied by two Moodymann remixes.

Tracklist
01. Touch Your Body
02. Touch Your Body (Moodymann Remix)
03. Touch Your Body (Moodymann Dub Mix)

Crosstown Rebels will release Touch Your Body on June 24th, 2016.

We All Wanna Be Prince The Purple Ones Impact On Dance Music

We All Wanna Be Prince: Exploring The Purple One’s Impact on Dance Music

October 4, 2013
By Michaelangelo Matos

"Walk around like you're bigger than Prince," Curtis A. Jones mutters on his current club hit in his Green Velvet guise. At first "Bigger Than Prince" sounds like it's throwing shade, but it's actually advice – this is how you get past people talking smack about you on YouTube, or anyplace else that, as Jones puts it, "what they say is cra-zay." (That word choice is itself another Prince-related nod: "Crazay" was a 1986 single by former Time guitarist Jesse Johnson, featuring Sly Stone.)

The admonition is funny anyway. Partly that's because it's widely believed that Prince Rogers Nelson is only five feet two inches tall when he isn't wearing the heels in which he typically walks around. And partly it"s because the original track is a dead ringer for the Minneapolis auteur's iconic mid-'80s sound – a flat downbeat with swinging accents programmed on a LinnDrum, spooky synths that recall the spacier moments of 1999 and, at one point, near-directly quote Apollonia 6's "Sex Shooter."

Go ahead and call "Bigger Than Prince" mere dance-music retromania; it's certainly shameless enough. But it's hardly alone. There's Apollonia, the French label of Shonky, Dyed Soundorom and Dan Ghenacia, named for Prince's lover in the movie Purple Rain; its first issue in February 2012, by Shonky, was a EP called The Minneapolis Touch. Three years earlier, Chicagoan Felix Da Housecat issued a single whose title laid it out plainly: "We All Wanna Be Prince."

But moreover, this is all part of a longstanding tradition. Electronic dance music has been steeped in Prince since the beginning, and as the post-house/techno diaspora has spun out in all directions, his DNA has gone with it. In U.K. hardcore, an exhortatory "Let’s Go Crazy" sample ignites the fuel of Warp-style bleeps, dancehall vocals, and rattling breakbeats in Ragga Twins' "Hooligan 69" – produced by Shut Up and Dance, and one of the first fissions that led to drum & bass.

The iconic dubstep-and-beyond label Hyperdub kicked off in 2006 with "Sine of the Dub," Kode9's weed-drenched cover of "Sign 'O' the Times." Shortly down the same line, Bristol dubstep producer Joker dubbed his gleaming-neon synth sound "purple" – Prince's signature color. Appropriately, Joker & Ginz' lurching 2009 dubstep anthem "Purple City" featured linoleum-piercing keyboards that could have been swiped off the work tapes for "Jack U Off" or "D.M.S.R.." Whatever his position in the pop market at a given time, Prince has been a constant in dance culture from the beginning.

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Here’s Why The Music Labels Are Furious At YouTube. Again.

Katy Perry Performs Live In Indonesia

Jefta Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

You’ve heard this song before: The music industry is mad at YouTube.

In the old days, the music business used to complain that YouTube took their music and didn’t pay them. Now the complaint has changed: Now the music guys say YouTube doesn’t pay them enough.

The music labels have been grousing about YouTube for a while now, but they have recently turned up the volume.

Last month, the RIAA, the labels' American trade group, lobbed a volley at Google’s video service, arguing that YouTube doesn't pay a fair price for all the music it gives its users for free. The IFPI, the label’s global trade group, should have a report out shortly which repeats the same charge. (UPDATE: Here's the IFPI report.)

The complaints come as the big three music labels — Universal Music Group, Sony and Warner Music Group — are set to renegotiate contracts with YouTube.

It would seem like the best way to get more money from YouTube would be to get a better deal this time around. But the labels say their bargaining power is reduced by the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives broad protection to YouTube and other services that rely on content that users upload.

I asked RIAA head Cary Sherman to explain his industry’s beef with both the DMCA and with YouTube. Here’s an edited excerpt of our conversation. There’s also a response of sorts from YouTube at the end.

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