1.
Cherrelle & Alexander O’Neal – Saturday Love 12"
To be honest it’s just about the production, it really is, just that beautiful, effortless, mid 80s… or maybe late 80s, actually. It’s interesting, I wasn’t around at the time so it’s hard to perceive, but it sounds to me as if [this era] was the sound of those guys moving from making straight up funk to actually making pop – and totally succeeding. The blend was effortless, you know. I guess I feel like funk would have been some kind of jagged, almost aggressive dance music to some people at the time, even though it’s smooth. It’s hard to generalise. But I just love the production.
I think Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who produced for those guys are so edgy, but because they’re so musical, it comes off as really effortless, and they can get away with really crazy things in their music. Especially later on – and we’ll probably get round to talking about this later – but the stuff they did for Janet Jackson, it’s so angular, so cool. They’re amazing. I got back into it while working on ‘Melba’s Call’ with Kelela, and it never used to be a favourite but it became one.
There is no Jam and Lewis solo album, but if I could I would have just put them, their whole repertoire really. I’ve gotten really heavily into it while making the new record, but it’s always something I’ve been really passionate about. I definitely collect their dub mixes – you know, there’ll be an extended dub on the back of the single. Cherrelle has a banging one, the ‘Didn’t Mean To Turn You On’ dub. I love that stuff as early night music; rather than going in and playing some low bpm techno that’s very faceless or something, it makes people feel nice and cosy and warm. It’s nice to start with those foundations, you know, ’cause it’s like the foundations of our music too, so it’s good to play that stuff in the club. It’s not just a homage too, it sounds great.
