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Body and Soul Sundays

Ninu Nina

Music Can Touch us in the most intimate way.

Back in the day, Sundays in New York City were all about Body & Soul. I only experienced it a few times but the music and the dancing I heard there became anthems in my life, because one thing is to have a favourite song and another is an era in your life where music touches you in the most intimate joyous way. Hearing it now takes you back to that time, to a happy moment, like a smell -the anthems in our life, are like the soundtracks to our being.

Body & SOUL was founded in 1996 by François K. and John Davis. The Sunday afternoon party, which took place at Club Vinyl in New York’s Tribeca area, soon became one of New York’s most revered weekly parties. The three DJs, Danny Krivit, Joaquin ‘Joe’ Claussell and François K. delivered a unique soulful mix of very organic and spiritual dance music grooves, and became standard-bearers for New York house. On any given Sunday at Body&SOUL, people from all walks of life, all ages, all races, raised their hands in the air and gave thanks for the unifying force that brought them back week after week: the music.

Ever since I can remember music has always been everything to me and has played an important role in my life. In the 70’s I loved dancing to disco with my mom at home, she’d play her Donna Summer records and I’d love to see her get excited about what vinyl to play next. I was into everything in the 80’s particularly depeche mode and the cure, the 90’s was about Nirvana, trip hop and hip hop, although I had a stage in the early 90’s when I was living in the U.K where I was really into dance music like the Prodigy, 808 State, etc. I’ve always been an eclectic little raver I guess.

This weekend I was discussing music anthems with a friend who’s an amazing dj, @eriax ( just posted his last set on IG so check it out -it will make you want to fly to ibiza right now) . I asked him about his “ life anthems”, and I guess for people like us who love music that’s just an impossible question to answer, at least on the spot. I had to think of my response and only came up with a few, hence why I decided to write this post.

In my own case, Pachanga Boys " Time" for example, was my Burning Man anthem for years. Every time I heard it ( actually even till now) it still makes me feel something. Nostalgic and melancholic music are the ones that typically have been “ anthems” . My last one I’d say is Rufus Innerbloom. This is just a tune I can play over and over and over and never get tired of in fact I like it even more, the more I listen to it. Lately however, as we all go in different life stages/moods I’ve gone from enjoying dark techno to Happy House, which reminded me of my Sundays at one of the best places that has ever existed- Body and Soul. The music there, the legends of Strictly Rhythm , the energy, the soul. Also the influence that 18th Street Lounge had on my life with the music of Thievery Corporation ( yes Lebanese Blonde is definitely one of my life anthems)! Buzz parties in the 90’s in East D.C. -for sure!. In those days, also the excitement of buying the latest Ministry of Sound compilation, those weren’t songs I liked, those were my summer anthems.

If you love music as much as I do, I’m about to go down memory lane and share below just some classic tunes * (I’m sure I am missing so many, this is just the tip of the iceberg).

If your into this then check out this SPIN link. I added a bit more detail to my list;

  • Kerri Chandler, Atmosphere EP (Shelter, 1993)

“I’ve always been in places where somebody has a gun, somebody’s getting shot, and we’re running,” Kerri Chandler has said of growing up in East Orange, New Jersey. “It’s daily. There’d be a war every night. The minute you heard something, everybody got on the ground. It’s routine. The cops would never come while this was happening, they’d just come to pick up the bodies. That’s where we grew up.” The son of a DJ, Chandler found his escape in music — first as a DJ and engineer, and later as a producer of his own records. What he took from New Jersey wasn’t the darkness, but the gospel influence of his church-going community; the pumping chords and effortless atmospheres of his tracks have led him to become one of the most imitated house producers in recent years. His Atmosphere EP, from 1993, lays down crisp, swinging drums daubed with horns, DX chimes, and graceful, bubbling keyboards — a perfect study in balance, proportion, and playfulness. P.S.

  • DJ Koze, “Cicely” (Philpot, 2007)

DJ Koze — a.k.a. Adolf Noise, Monaco Schranze, and Swahimi (The Unenlightened) — is an unreconstructed weirdo with a sly, squirrelly wit. The former International Pony member has covered “We Are the World,” Photoshopped himself alongside an octogenarian Spanish duchess, and given us a catalog that veers from the chopped-and-screwed kitsch of “My Grandmotha” to the deranged, dangerously unvarnished “Dr. Fuck.” But every now and then, he proves himself to be a total softie at heart.Released at the tail end of mnml’s reign, “Cicely” is modest in its materials but expansive in its reach. Three tuned toms serve in place of a bass line; save for 19-and-a-half bars of skittering hi-hats, there are virtually no drums at all. The bulk of the melodic burden is carried by wispy chords and a fine filigree of jazz guitar, and while nothing about the song follows virtually any of dance music’s standard dictates, the whole thing feels as natural as breathing. It’s probably a coincidence that it shares the name of a Cocteau Twins song, but it’s equally as apt a soundtrack for a rainy day, as ephemeral as fog on a windowpane. 

  • Saint Etienne, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Masters at Work Dub)” (Warner Brothers, 1991)

For proof of house music’s abilities to unite all and sundry under the power of a groove, look no further than this fundamental, history-making remix. First, British indie-poppers Saint Etienne tackled a song off Neil Young’s 1970 album After the Gold Rush, of all things, turning his mewling lament into a shuffling breakbeat soundtrack to the waning of the so-called “Second Summer of Love.” Banged out in producer Ian Catt’s bedroom studio in two hours, the song got them signed to Heavenly and even made it into the U.K. pop charts, landing at No. 95; when reissued in 1991 as a double-A-side with “Filthy,” it made it all the way to No. 39 in the U.K., and it topped Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play rankings, thanks to a slow, dubby remix by Andrew Weatherall. (Oddly, it also hit No. 11 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Chart.)That’s already a pretty tangled family tree, but Masters of Work went one better, grabbing a vocal snippet from “Your Life,” a 1984 song by the Downtown funk band Konk, and extending it into a long, stuttering loop. The chord changes, meanwhile, are dead ringers for the stabbing keys in Nikita Warren’s “I Need You,” an Italo-house tune released the same year, although it’s unclear whether one song influenced the other, or whether it’s just an instance of the trans-Atlantic synchronicity that’s so common in dance music. Whatever the case, MAW’s organ chords turn up the next year in Chez Damier’s “Can You Feel It,” one of the most essential tracks in the whole house canon. Neil Young’s Trans may have failed to ignite the techno-pop revolution he hoped for, but with this song, he set off a far more unpredictable — and productive — chain reaction. P.S.

Also check out this link- 30 tracks that shaped dance music

I hope this list or post got you thinking on what are the anthems of your life……