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Baker's Dozen

Secret Weapons: Luke Una's Favourite Music
Julian Marszalek , May 31st, 2023 09:35

As he prepares for the second volume of his É Soul Cultura series, Luke Una takes us through 13 of his favourite tracks, from his secret dancefloor fillers to the beauty of Pharoah Sanders

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Incognito – Out Of The Storm

Do you dance or do you chill to this? Both. It was a record that myself and Justin picked up on. This was a huge tune at the Electric Chair at The Roadhouse in Manchester, this little rock club with sticky carpets, shit toilets and a huge sound.

This track has three things to it. One, it’s definitely dancefloor, but at a time where, post-house, music was becoming very generic and what I call ‘shandy’; or ‘handbag’. This generic, shiny shirt conveyor belt of rubbish and we were like, ‘This is not what I've got into music for.’ Drum & bass was happening [however,] and I guess what they call trip hop, people listening to different sounds. Electric Chair came out of this post-house scene, although we still love house music. We weren't rejecting that in any way, shape, or form. But this was one of those slo-mo, heavy duty drum tracks which would never have worked at the Hacienda on a Saturday night, but suddenly, everyone's ears were open and they wanted it, and so it's very much a dancefloor record.

Secondly, it's Carl Craig. And Carl Craig, for me, had this surety of brilliance to rework tracks. I love all his stuff, and his remixes are what I love the most. He's a genius. He really is. This is probably one of the greatest things he ever did. And the arrangement is fabulous. It builds and it builds, and these huge, clunking drums drop in. On a big system, it's momentous. It’s never ever left the box. I have it on vinyl, digitally and people love it. The youngsters don't necessarily know it because it's 30 years old. Thirdly, it has that Detroit sound, Carl Craig was really pushing the boundaries and doing things that no one else was or could. It's definitely a Desert Island Disc, and it's very understated in a no-vocals-necessary kind of way.