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Out now, Mother Tongue's 'Message is Love'.

Vinyl: https://www.rushhour.nl/record/vinyl/message-love
Bandcamp: https://rushhourmusic.bandcamp.com/album/message-is-love

The United Kingdom has long been an ardent supporter and consumer of African-American music. Dating back to the electrifying earliest performances of blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy during the early 1950s – an influence on Eric Clapton and John Lennon – right through to the dawn of Chicago house and onwards. In fan clubs, like the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, started by soul writer Dave Godin, to the numerous fan magazines that have documented dance music culture from Blues & Soul to Mixmag, there has been an extended obsession with black music culture.

This lineage continued into the house era, our generation’s defining dance genre, and one with which British producers were swift to adopt. This record is a prime example of this. Although Mother Tongue was a one-off project, its history is rooted in this long-standing culture stretching back decades. The main man behind Mother Tongue was a drummer and record producer named Richie Stevens. Stevens was steeped in music and the industry, thanks to his father, John Stevens, also a professional drummer. Stevens senior played in numerous jazz ensembles during the 1960s and onwards, including performing with Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and was a session player with John Martyn (among numerous others) during Martyn’s finest period (it’s John’s drumming you can hear on ‘Big Muff’).

His son, Richie, was playing professionally while still a teenager for the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and has subsequently backed everyone from Tina Turner and Simply Red to Hugh Masekela and George Clinton. He is also a long-term collaborator with Boy George. But the story of Mother Tongue begins with a band called Well Red. This group, effectively a studio creation by Richie and his then manager Martin Poole, recruited vocalist Lorenzo Hall, a fixture on the London reggae scene and sold the concept to Virgin Records. Well Red yielded two albums – Motion and Respect Due – but never really got the crossover success their songs perhaps deserved. “Virgin were very supportive of us,” recalls Poole, today. “They gave us a lot of money. They pumped money into it, and it never quite paid off, but we did okay. We recouped and got to make a second album with George Clinton. It was a good move, recording with him. It did us a lot of good here and in America. We did pretty well in the US. We were very well-supported over there.”

This same team, working in a tiny studio near Richie’s house in Wood Green, north London, called The Watershed, produced ‘Message Is Love’. It features the vocals of Syn-Dee (Sindy Finn) and Lovebase (Louise Porter), who co-wrote the track with Richie and Alan Lane, another Stevens collaborator, and Ian ‘Spy’ Austin, who’d previously played in the same reggae band, The Instigators, as Lorenzo Hall from Well Red. “Remember it well,” says Martin Poole. “We were just writing it there and then in the studio. It was me, Richie, Spy, and I think Syn-Dee was there as well. When I got home later, Richie played it to me over the phone and I said, ‘That just sounds brilliant,’ from how we'd started it off, you know?” Thanks to their experience in the studio with Well Red, they managed to produce a song that has the timeless feel of all good music.

Mother Tongue was the opening track on a compilation called On The Loose Volume 1 on their own Furious Fish Records. Every track on the album, despite having different artist credits, was done by Stevens and Poole, often using a rotating cast of characters that had also appeared on ‘Message Of Love’. Although it did not sell especially well at the time, it’s become a collector’s item over the years. This is the first time Mother Tongue has appeared as a 12-inch single, a long overdue (but very welcome) happening.

(Notes by Bill Brewster)

Mother Tongue - Message Is Love

Tracklist:
Anita Baker - Sweet Love
Toyin Adekale - Smile
Simplicity - For the Love of You
Toby Glider - Mamachari
Jazzi Bobbi - f-ca
Lolo Zouaï - Give Me a Kiss
Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - It Hit Me
Janet Jackson - If (Kaytranada Remix)
Voyage - I Surrender
Nina Atsuko - Hi Way 1
Bibi Flash - Histoire d'1 soir (Bye bye les galères) [Discomix]
Future World Orchestra - Miracles
Yaeji - One More
Park Hye Jin - ABC
Space Ghost - Emotional Healer (Space Ghost's Dance Mix)
Omar S - Start This Over Again (ft. Supercoolwicked)
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - End of an Era
Monlithic - Alone With You (Hush Hush's Heavenly Mix)
Kassian - Bad Habit (Alma Negra Remix)
Retromigration - Never Been
Björk - Hyper-Ballad (David Morales Classic Mix)
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Garden

NTS Summer of Love Mix

The Mess Mix (NTS Summer of Love Mix Submission)

London duo @404eros mix street soul, boogie, broken beat, house and more for the Fresh Kicks series, and speak to Martyn Pepperell about their storyteller’s approach to music, starting out on Peckham’s Balamii Radio, and their 5enses’ cassette mixtape series

Interview: https://djmag.com/features/fresh-kicks-212-404-eros

Interview

Fresh Kicks 212: 404 Eros

baby’s first trainwreck! s/o phil mateo, this one is for you!

Pioneer Blvd

Brandi Wells - Watch Out

some more amateur level practice reps! stuff on current rotation. :-)

98.7 Dontcha (carmackinho ta virando idontcare)

amtr hr

One of Mexico City's key players in session.

Paulina Rodriguez, AKA Paurro, came to club music relatively late in life. It took hold of her for the first time when she was in her twenties, during a chance visit to the legendary London institution, fabric, in 2008. One look at her CV today would confirm that she's definitely made up for the late start. 

Sixteen years later, Rodriguez has worn nearly every hat in the industry, from radio programming, label management and PR to residencies at Mexico City's finest clubs. Nowadays, she's just as hard to pin down as ever, with a global reach: she currently holds a residency with Munich's Radio8000 and tours extensively across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The House of Paurro, her party series, is much like its globetrotting founder: this year alone it's hosted events at Tresor in Berlin, Making Time in Philadelphia and Public Records in New York City. Oh yeah and don't forget, she's also producing absolute bangers, such as 2022's "Galavision," in the moments in between. It sounds like a lot, but you get the feeling the sky really is the only limit for Paurro.  

Rodriguez's journey wasn’t without struggle. She's openly addressed challenges like breaking into the industry as a Mexican artist and facing sexual harassment. Today, she's a champion of community-focused global club culture, embodying optimism and ambition.

At the heart of it all: sharing unabashed joy, wherever that may be. Her RA Podcast is no different—it's a joyride through the House of Paurro, weaving together influences spanning a rich fusion of UK, Latin and truly borderless sounds. 

@paurrro
ra.co/podcast/966

RA.966 Paurro

Ape Coffee Valentine’s Special 02.15.2025

Download

7 Opus III - It's A Fine Day (Carmackinho Edit)

Italiana Vol. 2

It's Your Move (2001 Remaster)

Follow my social media: 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/djnardini
DJ Nardini Tracks: 
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hyq-FN7gzFfMfrPlVs8Uvq9KvpP6qk_7?usp=drive_link

The Mess Mix (NTS Summer of Love Mix Submission)

phil

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