New/Old George T vinyl release - "I'll Do Anything EP"

Hello again. Been a while but now for some news. One of Tribal Funktions residents George T has been spotted in London releasing undiscovered 90's gems from his vaults for Greco-Roman Records. Currently available on 12" vinyl and getting some fine reviews it will be available for download from the usual outlets fairly soon if not already. With the sleeve designed by master embroiderer Laura Lees you could not hope for a finer package. Say hello to George on Facebook should you feel inclined, he has been known to get a bit lonely. And likely to do anything.

In the meantime...

....you couldn't do any better than checking out the new Frosty J mix tape. Genius!!!

Click here

More recordings from 90's Tribal to follow soon!!

Film

I promised this ages ago. A dusted down VHS tape of Tribal Funktion, filmed back in 1997. September the 13th to be exact, Cajmere, a stunning evening. There is an hour and a half on the old video tape but I thought I'd post the last ten minutes. At least for now. The full length film was shot by Kristina Glitters and is in three unedited sections. It's very natural, charming, I see many old faces (or should I say 'young faces') and the mood is ecstatic. I want to be there now, everyday, for ever and give you all a big kiss! Gx

The Legend of Mark Farina

So here's how it goes. We're deep in the Chicago sound. Dance Mania, Relief, Prescription, Trax and all the wax that could never come from anywhere else. And the Chicago dj's? Incredible, original, inspirational and all making those insanely good records. I mean, thats how we found out about them! Whenever we booked one of our Chi Town heroes, Cajmere, Gemini, Farris, Carter, it was primarily because we knew their tunes. Bought their tracks!

But back then Mark Farina never released records (one in 89 under a pseudonym). His outstanding reputation filtered through to us from his Chicago compadre. From in the know agents and old friends. They all said the same thing.

Mark Farina is legend!

Then the opportunity arose to book him.

The recording here is from, I think, his first visit to Tribal Funktion. Some time in early 96. I have stacks of DATs from Tribal nights but currently no DAT machine and this recording has been lifted from a chrome cassette bearing only his name, TF and the year 96. No matter. It sounds great and as soon as I clapped my ears on it I was transported back like a tardis on steroids.

Who else could blend Jeff Mills with Sting or anything with something you'd not expect. And this was no gimmick. This was just how he djed. How he expressed his love for music. That and his compulsion to play records in a way you've never heard them before. To take chalk and cheese and blend them to sound like Ella and Louis. And all this with two (or three) turntables. No laptop, cd's, software or modern methods that dj's all take for granted now. It made it all so bloody exciting.

So before I settle into my "back in my day" armchair please click here to download what I think is Mark's first visit to Tribal. Enjoy and stay tuned for more in the very near future.

The Danny Tenaglia Night.

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It was Saturday the 6th of August 1994. Tribal had vacated student union Moray House, bid bon voyage to the Blue Oyster Club at the arse end of Rose Street, ended its transitional Thursdays at the Venue and now played host on Saturday nights at that same delightful whore of a nightspot.

We were in love. And booking international guest djs for heavens sake. We'd been bitten hard by the house music bug and it was time to nail it to the wall. Our sets were always fairly international but the dubs of a lot of the NY/Chicago Garage tunes were often exquisite in their own right and, to our minds, overlooked. Producers like Todd Terry, MAW, Kerri Chandler, Mood II Swing, Murk etc all fed our insatiable appetite. That heavy swing and almost hip hop production that lived happily alongside the roughest techno and the deepest soul. It was this 'hidden world' of US Garage that really brought Tribal Records to our attention. They seemed to like the same things.

So when we caught wind they were touring europe to promote a spate of now timeless releases we jumped. The tours official dj was Danny Tenaglia. There was very little in the Tribal catalogue we didn't have in our collections. Or so we thought.

The night itself was incredible. Mere words cannot do justice to the impact it had on me. I was not alone. This was real house music played the way it should be played. That perfect period of Danny's career where he was still very NY and not so Ibiza. A bridge between the two. Emotive, exciting, hypnotising, both alien and familiar, deep and ecstatic. Mr Tenaglia played an incredible four hour set . He literally rearranged my djing DNA. His experience, patience and restraint gave every rise and every fall a near spiritual significance.

So I've decided to offer up both halves of that evening for your downloading pleasure. Part one and part two. You'll hear now classic house tracks making their official auld reekie debut and rare beasts you wish you knew the name of even now. Listening back it's clear Danny Tenaglia was not the only star that evening. Tribal Records had hit their stride with an incredible rosta of artists and an unparalleled run of releases and they knew it. They wanted to be the ones to drop those monster tunes on you for the first time.

Label boss and founder Rob Di Stefano was present at every night of that tour. To him even now that night in auld reekie at that delightful whore of a nightspot was the perfect Tribal night. At Tribal.