House music producer dies of COVID a month before expected birth of son he always wanted
Matthew ‘Turk’ Agostini, 50, of Logan Square, and his partner Jessica Tapper already had the name picked out for their son-to-be: Matteo. He’ll have his father’s nose. By Mark Brown@MarkBrownCST Dec 4, 2020, 6:20pm CST Matthew “Turk” Agostini playing guitar with his 3-year-old daughter Violet. Provided Chicago house music producer Matthew Agostini’s first son is due to [...]
TRIBUTE TO NICK MARTINELLI — SELECTED & MIXED BY WALLA P
If you’re familiar with the Boogie/Funk scene, you’ve definitely came across the name “Nick Martinelli” in the credits somewhere; whether as a producer (solo or with his acolyte David Todd), as arranger, writer, mixing board or remix duties. He has contributed some of the most notable song within the genre, songs such as Loose [...]
Amazon’s New Sylvester Mini-Documentary
https://youtu.be/o3q-cKZX2Og "When I saw Sylvester, my life was altered, my life was changed for the better," Porter attested. "As a Black queer gay man, any glimmer of seeing oneself reflected back at them, through our culture, changes lives." “He crossed over, he was a genderfluid Black man in mainstream music. That hasn’t happened since. There’s been [...]
Hillard ‘Sweet Pea’ Atkinson, Legendary Vocalist With Was (Not Was), Dies at 74
Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns Sweet Pea Atkinson performing on stage at La Zona Rosa as part of the SXSW Festival. When Chris Blackwell signed Hillard "Sweet Pea" Atkinson to Island Records, he wanted to do more than just make a solo album for the Was (Not Was) singer. "He wanted to make a comic book where Sweet [...]
Artists Mourn Death of Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider: ‘The Man Machine Lives On…’
Artists in the electronic music community are turning to social media, following the Wednesday (May 6) news of Florian Schneider's death, to mourn the loss of the Kraftwerk founder. "Farewell to the extraordinary Florian Schneider (1947-2020) of @kraftwerk - the man machine lives on through an astonishingly original back catalogue of inspirational music," Scanner tweeted alongside a [...]
Larry Sherman, founder of pioneering dance label Trax, dies of heart failure
Record label head put out Chicago house classics including Can U Feel It and Your Love Trax records’ Larry Sherman with the Chicago-born ‘queen of house music’ Screamin’ Rachael Larry Sherman, whose record label Trax changed the face of dance music, has died of heart failure. The news was confirmed by the current head of [...]
Pitch shift: 10 Records that Sound Incredible at the Wrong Speed
DJs have long experimented with the speeds of their records to add a little bit of personality to their sets. Patrick Ryder follows in the footsteps of the great dancefloor innovators to pick out ten records which shine when played at the wrong speed. Words: Patrick Ryder If you grew up in a house with a [...]
10 EARLY-80S POST-DISCO TRACKS THAT HELPED INSPIRE HOUSE
Because it didn't go from 'I Feel Love' to 'Strings Of Life' - the early 80s saw the birth of what we now know to call ‘post-disco’ When Frankie Knuckles famously described house music as disco's revenge, it set in motion an origin story tantamount to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. House and disco [...]
