knoziz – Knoziz

Wash on a new spin cycle

February 11, 2021 by admin

acapella, dance music, deep house, house, house music, knoziz, vocalists, willy washington

Meet legendary music producer and song writer Willy Washington – Knoziz Recordings’ co-creative kingpin and par excellence craftsman of house, writes Andy Stevens

Here’s a quick test for you. It won’t take long, fret not. Well, it’s no great shakes test-wise: let’s call is more a labour of musical love.

Look again at every great record label. Then train your gaze once more on each of the finest music genres. You don’t need to strain your eyes or wreck your head that much, if at all, to clock a common thread.

The best labels which play their pivotal – and successful – part in music’s pageantry as free-thinking, creatively whip-smart, cute and astute cradles for artists’ output and oeuvre each boast particularly prized inspirational wellsprings at their heart.

You know: those stand-out characters who elicit sage nods in hushed tones from the cognoscenti, in recognition that these are indeed the chaps and chapettes in the know and on the money. And record-wise, whose releases are consistently sit-up-and-listen events, steeped deep to their core with the hallmark of quality.

Remember your test at the top of the page? We’re not going to force you to strain your synapses any further. We’re nice like that. Your man Willy Washington is the correct answer to the quiz.

Hear that heart-juddering, metronomic thump of a driving force coupled with a creative source? You do? You’re getting good at this, aren’t you?
That’s the sound of scorching new label Knoziz Recordings’ own inspiration-sensation in the shape of the self-same Mr Washington: famed house producer, vocal producer and song writing legend, bringing his floor-filling, deliciously danceable, global hit-making pedigree right to the heart of the party.

Willy has rocked up right now as the dynamic co-founder of Knoziz alongside creative partner and great friend Adam Graham, who’ve teamed up together on this thrilling new musical mission for our times.

As well as the UK and mainland Europe, for a good couple of decades Willy’s top-notch house/dance production and writing rep as the-man-who-can with the magic studio touch was zoned in on the beating heart of the US east coast scene, after the great late ‘80s/early ‘90s house music migration from sweet home Chicago into the Big Apple and its satellite cities’ booming bosom of energy, reimagining and invigoration.

Willy says: “Over the years I have written hundreds of songs. I have been writing and producing for about 20 years. In that time I have created, written and produced lots of acapellas for and by incredible singers.

“It’s all about finding the right way to bring that to the public and to get the music out there.”

These days Willy has permanently base-camped for new and creative musical projects in that other wickedly wunderbar world dance capital, Berlin. Willy says he prefers the summers in the city – you’re not wrong there, don’t we all? – when the unrelentingly gobsmacking German capital becomes majorly, incorrigibly ‘unglaublich’ – ‘incredible,’ says Willy.

Here’s a guy who’s smashed, mashed, fashioned and forged down the years a massive club and studio reputation as the king of the killer top-lines, epic acapellas, explosive builds and breaks, soulful song craft, foot-to-the-floor fills and get-you-right-in-the-guts house groove-gasms.

Now here’s a new thing: with Knoziz going full steam and stream ahead, Willy is still fully primed and brimming with the same high-octane levels of creative pizzazz, after decades bestriding house’s twin pinnacles of studios and song writing.

With Willy, where does this come from – and where is it going to? Rewind those soulful spools right back to one of Willy’s earliest ambitions as an eager-beaver young NYC dance scenester, after experiencing life-changingly joyous eureka moments of musical freedoms in illustrious temples of the house groove, such as New York’s Paradise Garage.

Influenced by the likes of house music top guns including the legendary Tony Humphries from Newark NJ’s pivotal Club Zanzibar and New Jersey deep house guru Kerri Chandler, huge inspired dreams then thundered thick and fast for Willy after this uber-club Damascene. He vowed to stake his claim and thwack his unique stamp of sound on the sleepless city’s sundry house studio desks. Willy ’fessed enthusiastically a while ago of once wanting to make his mark as a version of the ‘Q’ which stands for musical Quality worldwide: he dreamed of becoming the “Quincy Jones of dance music,” he said to one reporter.

Back to the present, with all those house hits behind and ahead of him, Willy reflects. “I have so many different influences,” he told us. “I come from a gospel background, and my dad was a big jazz guy.

“All of that stuff is in what I do. My intention in music is to make music that touches people. When I write something, and when they hear one of my songs, I want them to feel something deep: be that happy, sad, joyful.

“For me that’s the craft of making a record.”

In making music that’s at once culture barrier-blasting and emotionally rich, the creative and production processes behind the tunes pique Willy’s penchants in some ways more than others, though.

“When making a record what I really, really love is writing,” enthuses Willy. “I love that writing ‘thing’; that’s what’s close to me.”

Here’s the way it pans out: the house song-happening gospel, Willy-style. “I start getting melodies and hooks. I love that process; it’s really great. The tedious part is what words are going to go where, and all that stuff.”

And let’s kick on by throwing around and name-tagging a serious smattering of his distinctive writing and production numbers here.

For one thing, Willy has a genius, alchemic knack of first identifying and then divining untapped vocal majesty from his singing muses and collaborators. His song craft is signified by depth within its emotional orbit. He squeezes out the superlative qualities from his chosen singers: with heart and soul always as the key, the soulfulness underpinning each track’s rigorously refined central locking system.

Willy is the man behind not just a vast but totally nailed-on, well-thumbed musical catalogue of perennial dance floor classics. Tunes that are always written and produced with sensational vocalists at the helm, with that Willy Washington quality song craft schtick right out there, front and centre.

“I just love working with singers: producing vocals, arranging vocals,” says Willy. “Getting singers to try different ideas; getting singers to try things they wouldn’t normally do.

“I’ve had the great pleasure to work with people who love to sing, who aren’t necessarily professional singers. That has happened a lot to me in my craft.

“There was Caroline (Johnson) who I did a lot of records with. Gary (Adams) is another guy I work with, and then Helen (Webster) on Living It Up by Adam and me (under the artist name Berlon) is in the same vein.”

Among the many vigorous dance vignettes indelibly stamped with Willy’s writing and production credits, think of such all-time house favourites and classics as Joi Cardwell’s Trouble and You Got To Pray, Jazmina’s Rescue Me (Y Don’t U) and It Ain’t Easy, Losing Control featuring Sha-Sha, Paula Ralph on Ain’t No Runnin’ Away and Mood 2 Swing’s Can’t Get Away.

Gary Adams’ soaringly anthemic Can You See My Light?, a recent release on Knoziz, is another of Willy’s bang-on-form club cuts, which hits more house top-spots than you can shake a stick at, or indeed anything else of your choosing.

Can You See My Light? Let there be light. Or Fiat Lux as those Roman bods would have put it. Charisma, aura, charm, other worldliness, that indefinable je ne sais quoi, call it what you will…Willy tracks back and tells us what first pulled his song “…Light”out of the ethereal and into the motivation station.

“I remember having a conversation with my friend Supreme about people’s auras and the light that they give off,” explains Willy. “That stuck in my head. I’d got a Warren Clark track from my publishers and I just kept thinking “can’t you see my light?” – meaning my aura, or the light that I give off.

“I laid that down and the melodies for the verses. Gary came over and changed the verses’ melodies, and then wrote lyrics for the verses.

“We changed the hook to Can You See My Light?, laid that down, and thought it was pretty cool. Then we just multi-tracked all the vocals – and we were done.”

Willy has been hugely, well, instrumental and vocal as his new co-owned Knoziz welcome supercharged house sensation Jazmina to the label’s ever-growing musical menage.

Jazmina and Willy go way, way back – and then way, way back a little bit more. With a voice that honey-drips mellifluous tonality and mines arrestingly deep-felt soulful seams, Jazmina is one of Willy’s major league musical muses.

You heard this here first, too, you lucky people: Jazmina’s latest deliciously down-tempo In Our Time EP is a genre-crossing bossa nova-folk classic in the making, available right now here on Knoziz through a selection of streams.

This essential five-track release is also reviewed here for your perusing pleasure.

Willy is stoked by his continuing creative connection with Jazmina and recalls: “The great thing about Jazmina is she just works with you; I love her voice and her flexibility. She will try anything, and that is how we got that really unique-sounding record on tracks such as Rescue Me (Y Don’t U).”

“The essence of me as a songwriter and producer.” That’s what Willy fondly thinks of Runnin’ Back featuring Caroline Johnson.

“This song will always be my favourite song by my great friend and muse Caroline. Classy, sexy, moody pretty and deep. It features Dave Warren on keys and John Ciafone doing the programming.”

Willy waxes large about the seriously successful recording session which delivered Belezamusica’s stratospheric U Got Me Spinning – complete with its joyous, hands-in-the-air horn stabs and all.

“I wrote this song with Jill Jones for Tom Bruce, for a session he had with Darryl D’Bonneau, Carol Sylvan and Michelle Weeks,” says Willy. “Tom got me to come and produce and arrange the vocals with the singers.”

“Years later, Julian Bendel from Bah Samba got a hold of the acapella. He did a mix of the song that was released under the name Belezamusica on Seamus Haji’s Soul Love label.”

A roof-lifting dance floor sensation came in the shape of Ain’t No Runnin’ Away by Willy with Paula Ralph, which was the first of his six consecutive singles for the UK’s Estereo label.

Willy takes hold of the tale. “I was working a lot with keyboard player James Preston at the time. He came back with the song, played all the music and sang it. I loved his voice on the song. We mixed the song but couldn’t find a label that was interested in it.

A few years later, James introduced me to Paula Ralph and I started working with her. I needed a great song for her, and a friend suggested I try her on Ain’t No Runnin’ Away. I did and it was pretty cool. Paula brought a different vibe and feel to the song.

“A couple more years passed until Ben Johnson from Dance Trax heard it and signed it to the label. Once it was signed, I had Jon Kevin Jones come in and lay down the guitars, and Paula redo her vocals.

“Ben sent it to Danny Jones at Estereo, who loved it and suggested getting Frankie Feliciano to remix it. And that’s how that song came about.”

Just Another Daydream, produced by Tom Noble featuring Alice Russell of Bah Samba, is another Willy classic, co-written with Chip Landry.

“I was doing work for the guys at Laws of Motion Records in London. They said they had a producer Tom Noble, who was working on an album and needed a few songs. We got this track, and this is what followed.

“I had just worked with Alice Russell on a Bah Samba release. So when they mentioned Alice, I said I knew her and gave her a ring. On this song, Chip does the background vocals in his classic vein.”

Willy’s Trouble, showcasing the vocals of Joi Cardwell, became the biggest-selling record ever on Eight Ball Records. Meanwhile Willy and Joi’s You Got to Pray rightfully secured Eight Ball their publishing deal with BMG.

Will explains: “The birth of Trouble was organic. It just clicked. I got James Preston to put down the keys, Joi recorded vocals and I just laid down the song. I came up with the little background Trouble part – and the song was done in an hour.

“I’d never worked with a singer like Joi before. She always knew what she was going to do vocally. She would work out the song at home, and just come in and sing it down.”

You will find Knoziz Recordings’ latest fine releases here.

She is Jazmina!

February 1, 2021 by admin

Christoper Flowers, jazmina, knoziz

By Christopher Flowers

In the summer of 1986, Chicago house music had pervaded the northeastern part of the US, particularly in the underground clubs of New York and New Jersey. Of the two prominent NY underground venues of the day; Paradise Garage and The Loft, at least 35% of records played in both clubs were of this new “house” sound phenomenon. However across the Hudson, 30 minutes by PATH train (a commuter train that links midtown Manhattan to New Jersey), 20 minutes by NJ transit train via the Northeast corridor lies what was once called “The Renaissance City”, Newark, New Jersey. How strange that at the peak of the Disco era, the Black communities of Newark and the surrounding Black communities of East Orange, Orange, and Irvington was extremely fanatical about Disco and had venues that were packed to capacity to prove it. They weren’t bothered having to standing the shadows of the Disco capital of the world, New York City. They had their own party going on.

Of all the clubs in Newark, East Orange, Orange and Irvington, Newark being the largest city in New Jersey, held four core venues that drew the most crowds and were pivotal in promoting new music, La Jock (Newark’s first underground type venue), New Experience/Club Sensations, Club Zanzibar and Docks. Even after the demise of Disco, spawned by that racist and homophobic Disco Demolition in Chicago’s Comiskey Park during a White Sox baseball game by angry white terrorists led by ousted WDAI radio DJ Steve Dahl, Dance Music as it became known continued to flourish undaunted by music industry’s fear to be associated with anything reminiscent of Disco. It is in these Newark venues where Chicago house music pounced upon Essex County NJ’s innocent club heads. By the dawn of the mid80’s, Club Zanzibar and one of its more popular resident DJs, Tony Humphries took the proverbial Chicago bull by the horns and rammed every Chicago house track into Zanzibar’s dance floor every week. This had a significant impact on the up and coming local Newark dance music producers along with the influences of Gospel, Soul, Funk, R&B and Jazz.

By 1985-86, the first offerings of what would be deemed “the Jersey Sound” began to germinate. These early demos and subsequent releases were jewels in the hand of Humphries who promoted these “Jersey” bred tracks in earnest at Zanzibar and on his weekly WRKS 98.7 KISS FM Mastermix show. It is at this point; the Newark-bred, glucose shrill queen Jazmina “rites of passage” into R&B dance underground were initiated at Ace Beat’s Records’ legendary Campsite Studios. Owned and operated by the label’s namesake Ace Munchin (who awkwardly professes AceBeat was the first “House” label). Ace Beat’s campsite and label launched the careers of such Jersey House artists as Jomanda, Charvoni, Joey Washington, The Voices of 6th Avenue and Brothers Of Peace (BOP). Musician/Talent scout, Joe Watson caught a whiff of Jazmina’s feathery vocal while she was rehearsing with her university’s choir and later set up an audition with his cousin, producer/musician Tyrone Payton along with his new outfit, Intense. Also at the audition was intense lead vocalist Khison, and Ace. After the audition, Ace was wary of her vocals; however, with Tyrone’s insistence, Jazmina joined Intense becoming a musical threesome.

She was given a rough draft of “Can’t Treat Me This Way” to demo which became her first recorded lead song as a member of Intense and was released on Ace Beat’s Garage Movement EP in 1989. A thumping piano driven, bass heavy, percussive ditty Jazmina’s swirling femme falsetto pleads throughout the track reaching dizzying heights. However, her epic breakout moment came during the remix by Humphries of Intense’s massive hit, “Let The Rain Come Down” from the EP lead by Khison. This remix released on Movin’ Records, feature an ample solo on the breakdown by Jazmina. That performance was the turning point in her career making Jazmina the centerpiece of the trio.

Born into an ancestry of gospel singers and musicians, one Sunday at church after taking in Desiree Coleman’s show stopping performance of the Broadway production of “Mama, I Want To Sing”; Jazmina stood in front of the pulpit and sung the gospel classic, “God Has Smiled On Me” as the church gazed in awe! That passionate performance made her devotional leader mother drop her microphone! The entire congregation turned around and the pastor looked out of his office and gasped. Jazmina, alumni of the famed Newark’s Arts High School that produced many future Jersey dance music vocalists, later became a graduate of Rutgers University with a BA in English. Her vision was to become a college professor and novelist. It’s no wonder her profound and introspective songwriting skills are so exemplary.

Of all the AceBeat releases during this period, the Movement Soul EP captured the pure, gospel-tinged purity of the Jersey Sound. Jazmina’ stellar vocal performance of “I See You” featured on the EP is masterful. A mid tempo symphonic “swing beat soul” groove and holding down the backing vocals are emperors of Gospel & Deep House, Kenny Bobien & Eddie Stocky along with the earthy chanteuse, Charvoni. Unfortunately, a lack of solid distribution and major promotion plagued The Movement Soul EP. Rumor has it that a RCA deal was on the table based off that EP that was tragically iced.

As Intense ascended the ladder of underground house music success, irreconcilable differences sent Khison to an uncertain solo career reducing the trio to a duo. Jazmina and Tyrone were left to wing it on their own which would not be a problem. Though they had a depository full of quality material, the releases weren’t forthcoming. Taking advantage of this release dry spell, Jazmina took a stab at producing, thus birthing the 1991 AceBeat house jam, “Lock It Up” by the CRJ Project (Charvoni, Ruby and Jazmina).

She continued to “keep up her skills” doing cameo appearances on songs for other AceBeat campsite producers on cuts such as “Call Him Up” by the Voices of 6th Ave and the unreleased, explosive Tony Humphries tribute, “Do You Know What’s On His Mind?” Both tunes featured 18 of Jersey’s reigning underground dance music celebrities.

According to Songwriter/Producer, the liberated tune wizard, Willy Washington, the song grew out of his total appreciation for Humphries and what he doing by showcasing new producers and up and coming artists, “His birthday was coming up and I was hanging out a lot with Kerri Chandler in his studio. I knew Ultra Nate because at the time I was friends with Bill Coleman and Ultra and I had just done a record called “Paradox” for Virgin UK. While hanging out with Kerri, I suggested we do something for Tony’s birthday.”

With Kerri on drum programming detail and possibly the late Larry Rauson on keyboards, Willy sent the track to Bill to give to Ultra, who was opening for Deee-Lite on tour. Ultra called in and sung her part on Willie’s recording set up, which he subsequently over brought to Kerri’s studio. Kerri summoned all the vocalists over, “And the rest was just magic,” says Willy. “Larry played sax on it. Jazmina was not at that session, she came in after we finished it. But I remember, Kerri got everyone in, mixed the track and we gave Pops (Tony’s nickname ‘for those who know’) a reel of it at his birthday party. It was a great project.”

Blessed with the Creator’s gift of euphonic beatitudes, the sentimental spirituality of this songbird emanates from her sleek frame and gold-lined lungs. Just listen to “Good Time” produced by leftfields/Producer guru, Johnny Dangerous; it’s a forthright “R&B-downtempo-jazz-hip-hop-with-a-house-twist “released on KULT Records (originally released on Hourglass Records); that squeezed through the barbed wire fence of predetermined 120-125bpm house tracks. Jazmina parades in those downtempo, swing beat R&B/hip-hop stilettos with a Jersey swagger, gouging an opening in that “fence” for others house music vocalists with the nerve to follow suit.

That mysterious rapscallion, Mr. Dangerous, a progressive thinker cast convention aside and formulated the idea to merge the instrumental of Frankie Knuckles Presents Satoshi Tomiie’s celebrated “Tears “with Jazmina singing the full vocal of “Let The Rain Come Down” on top. It was a beautiful marriage that never saw a release even though the conglomeration was a smash in the underground clubs. It’s also surprising that a bootleg 12” of this track never surfaced. This mash-up of “Let The Rain Come Down/Tears” has been floating around on cassette for years, and there are a few acetates of it, as sound technology developed, it’s around on mp3 in DJ circles if you’re lucky enough to know someone who has a copy of it. It is no surprise then that Singer/Songwriter/Producer, Willy Washington whose keen ear and high taste for quality female vocalists formed a unique bond with Jazmina. For those immersed in the Jersey house music scene during Humphries reign at Zanzibar, one would find Willy rubbing elbows with the local Jersey producers and recording artists; as well as, building a spirited relationship with Humphries, and of course “catching his life” on the dance floor. It was fitting that two of his earliest 12” house productions were on the Jersey-based label, New Generation, Determination featuring Darryl D’ Bonneau with gospel-fused, “Not Just Sunday”, and haunting “Here We Go” also with Determination that featured the sultry, Jackie Wakefield. By the time Willy and Jazmina started working together, he garnered roughly 15-25 productions, remixes and performances under his belt.

This union of two highly creative minds dropped the deepest and thoroughly emotive offering on an unsuspecting underground house music populace. Released on the NYC-based, Dance Tracks label, “Rescue Me (Y Don’t You)” has a sweet darkness to it. A beauty buried within the sadness of asking only to be loved yet tormented by her lover whose affections are somewhat questionable. Jazmina pulls you in as if you can feel the warm breath of her words on the face as the thickness of the production engulfs the soul. Willie and Jazmina then followed up with the funky-soul house tune, “It Ain’t Easy” on Defected Records. This track swings! With this performance, we get to hear the sassy side of Ms. Jaz. She bounces across the blues-soul styled production like a brazen southern gal. The sub hook is a killer, something pulled right out of a boiling Memphis Soul stew. It is painfully obvious tithe even to the average listener that there is much more to Jazmina than “four-to-the-floor “grooves. Although having excelled in the house music arena and that beat pulsates between her joints and marrow; however, there is a career to be had that extends beyond the thump-thump-thump of the underground. Strip away the house music production that cradles her vocal and there lies a captivating, poignant storyteller who has the uncanny ability to paint the deepest emotion unafraid to be vulnerable and transparent.

That’s why she is…Jazmina.

Jazmina – In Our Time EP review

January 30, 2021 by admin

bossa, bossanova, folk, house, inourtime, jazmina, knoziz, soul, willywashington

The tinderbox roof-raising house heroics which have cemented Jazmina’s stellar club reputation down the years are put on pause in this quality five-track EP, packed tight with emotional pull and resonance.

In Our Time is a pearler of a package, that’s at once very much in our time and of our time. Its winter 2021 release – and in mind of the stuff everyone’s dealing with at this particularly fractious juncture doesn’t need labouring much further – is properly timely indeed. In Our Time brings our precious friend – time – to your door, to think deep and draw big, restorative breaths.

Lyrically and musically, the lead track flickers for the listener with a mindful, candlelit, slow-burn lure. Its gentle pace and simple melody light that very same candle for the timeless, object lessons which underpin the craft of good songwriting. What you receive in return has the plaintive quality of a childhood prayer; it’s an invocation to keep on keeping on as those struggles will – yes they will – ebb away, laced with the shy buds of spring just around the corner, promising renewal.

This EP is a prize proponent of those unshakable virtues of strong songs, where the strength is to be found in their seeming simplicity. That quality runs strongly from song one to five – start to finish and then back again, with Jazmina’s rich voice showcasing its spiritual soulful ache in every heartfelt lyric.

All five tracks take a bow as bossa-folk-infused melodic earworms – think Terry Callier and the early ‘70s Linda Lewis folk-soul school at their finest if you’re taking notes – that will pleasingly resonate on repeat through your day.

Track two Daylight takes a concerned, self-critical peer into the voids of widening silence and regret as a relationship shows its cracks. Then as the sun comes up the next morning, Peace in our Town shakes itself off to grab the new day with spring-like zest, a capricious skip down the street peppered with jaunty positivity.

The haunting introspections of Jazmina’s voice drive Travelling, with this bossa’s minor keys drawing on the timeless spirits of Jobim and Brazilian guitar great Luis Bonfa, while sensitive background vocals breathily snake across the peaceful piece.

At once stripped down, acoustic and percussive – the power of Jazmina’s vocal presence draws you in ever further on Hard for Me. The harmonised chorus lends a sympathetic ear, as the push-and-pull of love and doubt find a melodic outlet to wage their own internalised battle on this unmissable five-gem set.

Jazmina – In Our Time is released on February 1st 2021 and is available here

The story of “Can You See My Light”

December 12, 2020 by admin

canyouseemylight, garyadams, housemusic, knoziz, willywashington

Willy’s Track Stories

Knoziz Recordings’ co-founder, DJ, producer, songwriter and all-round house scene legend Willy Washington takes you to one side and tells us how some of his most feted and famous tracks first saw the light of day:

The story of Can You See My Light (featuring Gary Adams) I remember having a great conversation with my friend Supreme. We were talking about people’s auras and the light that they give off. And that stuck in my head.

I got a Warren Clark track from my publishers and I just kept thinking “can’t you see my light”; meaning my aura, or the light that I give off.

I laid that down and the melodies for the verses. Gary came over and changed the verses’ melodies, and then wrote lyrics for the verses.

Then, we changed the hook to Can You See My Light and laid that down.

We thought it was pretty cool, so we just multi-tracked all the vocals and then we were done. It was a pretty easy session.

Willy Washington starring Gary Adams – Can You See My Light review

December 10, 2020

canyouseemylight, conan liquid, conanliquid, deephouse, garyadams, house, knoziz, thecriminal, willywashington

House DJ, producer, songwriting legend and Knoziz Recordings co-founder Willy Washington has a blinding backstory to the genesis of this incandescent floorfiller par excellence, which he shares with you here.

The deep dancefloor dish that is Can You See My Light is served in three illuminating ways, pooling the incendiary electronic talents of The Criminal and Conan Liquid.

Stabby, spiky, while lunging headlong into soaring and ethereal in barely a blink of a beat, The Criminal’s What Could Be Mix trips the Light fantas-mic as it makes its euphoric climb, climb, climb to a head-spinning house resolve, after the klaxon of drop-the-beat neatness.

Conan Liquid (Crates Motel Mix ¬– nice Psycho ref there, diggers) pours heaps of Ibiza azucar into the irrepressible party proceedings. Thrill to crunchy bass foundations showing no signs of subsidence, while Gary Adams’ uplifting vocal line fires skyward a beacon of hope and joy. Conan’s dub reimagining of Light meanwhile pursues a driving groove topped off with a swirling outro that meet up at just the right time.

Available now here

The story of “Living it up”

September 1, 2019 by admin

berlon, housemusic, knoziz, living it up, willy washington

The story of Living it up by Berlon featuring Helen Webster)

An unfailingly feelgood euphoric house floor filler, with the super stylish ear-catching talent of a breakthrough vocalist simply smashing it out of the park. That’s Berlon’s sun-baked sizzler for all summers Living It Up (featuring Helen Webster) for you.

This irrepressible dance smash is a tale of two men in two cities – Berlin and London – pooling the stellar song writing and production pedigrees of house legend Willy Washington and Adam Graham under the Berlon moniker.

This buzzing creative partnership is living it up on the bar raising new Knoziz Recordings, a label on a singular mission to create timeless modern music with a strong soulful steer.

And like Berlin and London themselves, the results are just capital.

Willy and Adam explain how the soaring sound of Living It Up sprung into life.

“Living It Up came about when Adam sent me a disco loop, and he and I wrote a song to that,” says Willy. “I wanted to do something for summer…Ibiza, you’re going out with all your mates and you’re having a good time.

“Summers are incredible here in Berlin, and part of that got into the song.”

Adam says: “Willy and I have known each other a long time. Being based several hundred miles apart means that our writing process is very much a two-rooms approach. I write the track and then send him over a backing part.

“Willy then sings a scratch melody over the top, sends it back to me, and I write some lyrics to go with it. Then we put it all together, get into the studio with a vocalist, and they lay down the actual vocal.

“We’ve discovered we’re quite quick in this process and we’ve managed to churn out quite a few tracks we’re really proud of – so it’s worked really well.

“That’s how we wrote and produced Living It Up.”

As for the dynamic vocal display by Helen Webster on Living It Up, Adam says was only a matter of time before her untapped talent was unleashed on a wider audience.

“I’ve known Helen a very long time and she’s got an amazing voice,” says Adam. “Everyone who knows her knows what a fantastic voice she has. She’s always singing, but she’d never been in the studio before.

“When Willy and I wrote this track, I knew it would be really well suited for her voice. We got her in the studio to give it a go, and unsurprisingly she knocked it out of the park.”

Adam and Willy say there are more tracks coming down the line featuring Helen at the vocal helm. The pair will also be working with other vocalists, with loads of exciting projects in the mix.

Willy says he’s always loved to work with talented vocalists who aren’t necessarily professional singers and adds: “(Helen) has always sung and she was just great.

“It’s great to work with raw talent and Helen did a great job on this song. I’m looking forward to doing really good stuff with her.”

Living It Up is available now in all your favourite online record shops.

Living It Up reviewed – read it here.

Berlon featuring Helen Webster – Living It Up review

August 30, 2019 by admin

berlon, dancemusic, helenwebster, house, knoziz, livingitup, vocalhouse

Knoziz Recordings’ Berlon (Berlin-London, see?) dance trailblazers are swishing straight out of the terminal and onto the autobahn of UK-Euro house sophistication with this lush classic in the making, showcasing the effortless poise, depth and grace of singer Helen Webster’s vocal stylings.

Pristine production and polish, smoothed to a finish with a killer life-enhancing hook single out Living It Up as the complete crossover deal, oozing heavy radio, club and home airplay credentials to the hilt.

And yes there’s those breakthrough vocals to savour, proferring a distinctly British pop-dance burr to a package of sound perfection, of which you lucky bods will be hearing much, much more.

Tap up both the Radio and Club mixes of Living It Up for guaranteed double-the-fun listening pleasures

Available here and all your favourite music sites.