Category: Quadzilla Is Spinning!

Quadzilla Is Spinning.10

Posted on by quadzillabynorth in Quadzilla Is Spinning!

Once again it’s “get-off-the-couch” time with some thumping, energetic tunes from the genres of house, dance, and punk. There are eight tracks, ranging from 1997-2019. So load up on the carbs and go for it!

Franky Rizardo is one of The Netherlands’ finest music exports across the globe with his driving music that blurs the lines between Techno and House. He’s a regular at Ibiza, as well as hitting the “decks” at venues such as Fabric (London), Selter (Amsterdam), Amnesia, and Sound (Los Angeles). The featured track on this playlist is a single from 2019, “Rave Machine,” and it’s the first track for a reason!

Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, known professionally as Kygo, is a Norwegian record producer. He first received international attention with his 2013 remix of the track, “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran, followed by his 2014 single, “Firestone,” featuring Conrad Sewell. By late 2015, he reached one billion streams on Spotify, faster than any other artist, and by 2016 he had reached two billion streams. His debut album, Cloud Nine, was released in May of 2016. My featured track, “Fiction,” featuring Tom Odell, is from this debut album.

The Planet Smashers are a Canadian ska punk band from Montreal. You can’t blame a guy for giving a shout-out to his home town! They formed in 1993 and have been a staple of the Montreal music scene ever since. During the third wave of ska, they performed nationally and later internationally, with tours in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Founding member, Matt Collyer, helped establish Stomp Records in 1994, which featured many ska and ska punk bands, including Montreal’s The Kingpins, The Flatliners, The Know How, and Bedouin Soundclash. The band’s lyrics often deal with topics such as love, partying, and good times, although they sometimes use tongue-in-cheek innuendo. My featured track, “Whining,” is from the album, Life of the Party, which is appropriately named given their lyric content mentioned above. It was released in 1999. Although there have been some line-up changes over the years, the core duo of Matt Collyer and Dave Cooper are still at it with a variety of different sidemen, and their latest release (their tenth full-length album), On The Dancefloor, was issued in August of 2025.

Enjoy!

Los Angeles 2025

Quadzilla Is Spinning.9

Posted on by quadzillabynorth in Quadzilla Is Spinning!

If I had to choose form the many quotes about spinning and spin classes, I would have to go with the following that best describes what went through my head when I went to my first spin class way back in the early 90s: “First you feel like you’re dying, then you feel reborn.” The first part is bang on; however, I might suggest a rewording of the second part to something like: “then you feel like you might be able to walk again…hopefully.” So, hop on a bike and see how you feel at the end of 45 minutes. Here is some music to get you started on the path to rebirth!

This playlist features eight tracks of electronic, dance, R&B/soul, and pop (although I question the classification of the two tracks on the playlist as such). It is rare for me to have three tracks from one artist on a playlist, but that is exactly the case with this one, two from one album and the third from another. All the tracks range in release dates from 2006 – 2021.

GoldFish (the group with three tracks on the playlist) is an electronic duo originating from Cape Town, South Africa, and now residing in San Diego, California, consisting of Dominic Peters and David Poole. They primarily create dance music containing elements of house, pop, jazz, and African music. Their debut album, Caught in the Loop, was released on vinyl in 2005. Their latest release from 2025 is Live in Amsterdam. The two jazz musicians first met while studying music at college. After the release of their debut album, the group went on to open for artists such as Fatboy Slim, Mr Scruff, Audio Bullys, Stereo MCs, Basement Jaxx, Faithless, Paul van Dyk, and Peter Tong. They have won numerous awards over the years and many of their singles have been used commercially by the likes of Nike and Kia automobiles. Two of my featured tracks, “This is How it Goes,” and “Wet Willy,” are from their 2009 album, Perceptions of Pacha, while the other, “Late Night People” (feat. Soweto Kinch), is from their 2017 release, Late Night People. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of their music.

Luke Solomon (Luke Francis Matthew Solomon) is a British DJ, producer, and record label executive. He kicked off his DJ career at Middlesex University in the early 90s and quickly rose to the upper reaches of house music. He worked at Narcotic and Freetown Inc in the early to mid 90s, and after a gig with Derrick Carter, which led to them becoming friends, they established Classic Recordings in 1995. For nine years, the label introduced the world to the likes of DJ Sneak, Tiefschwarz, Isolee, and Freedom 5, garnering them a cult following. He has, and continues to have, a diversified career working with many different artists and groups. He continues to travel around the world DJing, playing in places like Panama Bar, Berlin, Fabric, London, Maxa Club, Italy, Zukunft, Switzerland, and D-Edge, Brazil, as well as releasing new material. To date, he has released 31 singles and EPs, 3 compilations, and six DJ mixes. My featured track is a single, “Light You Up” (feat. Queen Rose & Amy Douglas), and is a remix by Louie Vega, who is an American DJ and producer.

The Shapeshifters is the current alias of British house producer, Simon Marlin, and a former duo comprising Marlin and Swedish producer Max Reich, from Gothenburg. They were signed to the label Positiva, switching to Defected Records in 2008. They are probably best known for their debut single, “Lola’s Theme,” which went to No.1 on the UK Singles Charts in July 2004. Marlin has continued working and performing under the Shapeshifters moniker as a solo act since 2017. His physical releases in the United States appear under the name Shape: UK, in part due to a trademark conflict with the Los Angeles-based hip-hop group, the Shape Shifters. My featured track comes from the duos 2006 album, Sound Advice.

And now for some music. Enjoy!

Los Angeles 2025

Quadzilla Is Spinning.8

Posted on by quadzillabynorth in Quadzilla Is Spinning!

Time again to get a move on! This month’s “spin” list is dedicated to house and dance tunes from the 2000s (2009 – 2020), with the lone exception going way back to 1988. There is another track that dates back to 1997 (“Make The World Go Round”), however my featured version is a deep dish house mix from 2009. I will tell you that this particular list is a rather punishing 45 minute workout. It is also interesting to listen to how Dance music evolved between the first featured track from 1988 and the last track from 2020, with the former labeled as electronic/dance compared to straight Dance.

“Let Me Love You for Tonight” (1988) is a song written by Jerry Ferrer, produced by Bob and Jerry Ferrer, featuring American singer, Kariya. It was released as an EP with five different mixes of the song: House Radio version, hip hop radio version, hip hop club version, radical hip hop version, and my featured version, house club. The multiple version format for releases for a song is fairly common, especially with electronic, dance, and house artists/producers. The song was a success across the US and European club scene during 1988 and also in the UK when it was re-released in 1989. On its release, Billboard described the track as having a “Latin/pop rhythmic bed” and an “aggravated female vocal.” Hmm, I guess that’s one wat to describe someone’s voice! When it was re-released in the UK, a British journalist for the Reading Evening Post had this to say: “’Let Me Love You Tonight’ is a rare specimen indeed. A house tune without that God-awful jangling piano bit that seems to find its way into almost every ‘black’ song you hear these days. Kariya has that distinctive housey (sic) feel, but the difference here is frighteningly contagious.” Ah, the 80s!

Not only was this song a “one-hit-wonder,” but there is precious little info available on the singer Kariya, although my search did pull up the scoop on Käärijä, aka, Jere Mikael Phöyhönen, a Finnish rapper, singer and songwriter. If you are curious, check out “Sex=Money” from his 2024 album, People’s Champion. It’s an E cut, but unless you speak Finnish, you won’t be offended!

The third track, “Bloodlines,” is by British house music DJ and producer, Daley Padley, also known as Hot Since 82 (one of the better monikers out there, especially when you consider that he was born in 1982!), who has been releasing music under that name since 2011. Originally from South Yorkshire, Padley entered the electronic music scene at a young age, beginning to frequent area nightclubs at the age of 14. His DJ education started at 17, playing 12-13 hour sets each Sunday at a local club under his birth name. His residency soon became a top “afterparty” destination for clubbers in the area. Padley launched his own imprint, Knee Deep in Sound, in 2014, hoping to release music from up-and-coming artists with an underground “vinyl” sound. He has toured in Europe and North America and has headlined many of the world’s leading electronic music festivals, including Creamfields and WMC. In 2017, he introduced his ‘Even Deeper’ concept to the public, a concept in which he explores countries and cultures, known and unknown places, while touring there. The first three episodes were shot in Mexico and Japan, and in 2019 he released another installment, Even Deeper Brazil, exploring dance culture and more in Brazil. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9gJRMa_UIw

The extended version single, “King Kong” (track #5), is by Icarus, a British band from London that specializes in electronic drum and bass with elements of experimental jazz and rich instrumentation. They formed in 1997 with cousins Ollie Bown and Sam Britton, and their music has been described by Kieran Hebden (an English electronic musician known as Four Tet), as “really beautiful and also quite kind of evil.” Hebden included an Icarus track, “Benevolent Incubator,” on his 2005 Late Night Tales compilation, as a payback for Icarus’s remix of the Four Tet track, “My Angels Rock Back and Forth,” on the 2004 EP of the same name. In 2002, Icarus founded the independent label Not Applicable, which became a collective project with other improvising musicians. They have been less active since 2008 when Bown relocated to Australia, working on other musical projects, but still producing music together as Icarus.

In 2012, Icarus released an experimental “album in 1,000 variations” called Fake Fish Distribution, which used parametric software techniques to allow the band to make 1,000 distinct versions of the record, with elements varying such as the rhythmic patterns of the drums, effects parameters or the order of progression through the tracks. Sound Cloud has a “version 500 sampler.” Let’s just say, this will not be everyone’s jam, but I’ll let you be the judge of that: https://soundcloud.com/icaruselectronic/fake-fish-distribution-version/sets .

Enjoy the music. Enjoy the workout!

Los Angeles 2025

Quadzilla Is Spinning.7

Posted on by quadzillabynorth in Quadzilla Is Spinning!

Another eight tracks to motivate you to…This playlist is heavy on dance labelled tunes (five), along with one electronic and two house labelled tunes. All of which translates to a great deal of thumping bass and infectious beats.

From Richy Ahmed a 2018 dance single, “Can’t Stop Us.” Ahmed is a British DJ and producer from South Shields, England. His music is influenced by disco, techno, funk, electro, and hip hop. He has performed at DC10 Ibiza, Glastonbury Festival, Tommorowland in Belgium, BPM – Mexico, and Blue Marlin venue in Dubai.

Peter Dougherty who goes by the stage name, Moon Boots, is an American DJ and music producer from Brooklyn, New York. He attended Princeton University where he planned to study electrical engineering but switched his major to music. Most of the program was academic, focusing on classical composition, musicology, and music history, although it also included jazz and world music. After finishing his degree he relocated to Chicago to pursue a music career. Dougherty joined fellow musicians Saam Hagsheras and Jonathan Marks, becoming the keyboardist of the indie band Hey Champ. He left the band in 2011, returning to DJing again. His debut album, First Landing, was released in 2017, which is “a hypnotic synthesis of soul, funk, and French house.” While my featured song, “Tear My Heart” featuring Lulu James, is from this debut album, the version on the playlist is an extended remix by Marquis Hawkes, one of eight from the album, Tear My Heart, released the same year.

Infinity Ink is a London-based vocal/music production/DJ duo made up of Italian Luca Cazal, and British, Ali Love. They had originally formed as The Benedictions, playing 1960s and 1970s folk-rock inspired music on acoustic guitar. Their new name came to them when they were on tour in Moldova, and they noticed a factory with the name Infinity Inc. The changed the “c” to a “k,” giving the name a different twist. After several releases, the duo joined Jamie Jones and Lee Foss to form the live ac,t Hot Natured, who, along with Anabel Englund, released a string of hits. Their debut album, Different Sides of the Sun, was released in 2013.

Lee Foss is a record producer and DJ from Dekalb. Illinois. His music is inspired by the musical heritage of Chicago, and his influences include classic, house, R&B, 90s hip hop, 1980s electro, and Detroit techno. Foss claims that, after meeting the aforementioned Jamie Jones in Ibiza in the early 2000s, he changed his whole approach to music, which eventually laid the foundation for his later career. The pair became close friends, which paved the way for their Hot Creations label partnership with Richy Ahmed (see above) and, later, their Hot Natured band project with Infinity Ink. The featured track, “Till The Light,” is from Foss’s 2017 album, Alchemy.

While the first six tracks of the playlist are from 2017-2019, the last two are from the 1990s, including Bizzarre Inc’s 1992 track, “Love will Save the Day.” Bizzarre Inc were an English techno/house group formed in 1989 as a duo between English DJs, Dean Meredith and Mark “Aaron” Archer, re-formed a while later as a trio consisting of Meredith, Andrew Meecham, and Carl Turner in 1990. In October of 1992, they released the album, Energique, which includes the featured track mentioned above.

And now for some music. Enjoy!

Los Angeles 2025