‎Mike Maurro's remixes are set for The Peak Hour!

Tom Moulton is the Godfather or The God of the remix, but a new Prince has arrived via, Mike Maurro's forthcoming album on Harmless records. The Mike-Maurro-Peak-Hour-Remixes  is a new collection of 21 classic Disco Soul & Funk favorites, remixed with love from the original Multi tracks. The album includes classic by, The Trammps, Detroit Spinners, Ashford & Simpson, Change, Blue Magic, George Duke, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Candi Staton. The collection is already climbing the Amazon sales chart on pre-orders alone! 

 Mike Maurro, a native New Yorker, was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1973. He lived there for the first seven years of his life before his family made a permanent move to Queens, where his passion for music first surfaced. In 1984, after watching the motion picture “Beat Street”, Mike began following dance music by scanning the top dance hits on New York City radio stations such as 100.3 Z-100, Hot 103.5, 98.7 Kiss FM. It was during these years of intense music study that Mike discovered dj's & producers such as Arthur Baker, John Robie, Afrika Bambaataa, John "Jellybean" Benitez, The Latin Rascals & "Little" Louie Vega who fueled his desire to become a DJ. By 1986 he was ready to start mixing. His DJ career began with a handful of 12" records and 2 mis matched turntables he set out to learn the art of beat mixing. By late 1987 and 1988 He began working mobile jobs such as weddings, birthdays, and block parties with a neighborhood DJ company "All Night Long DJ's"— before he was even old enough to drive. 

By 1991, Mike owned his own DJ company "Dj's In Control", but his first real break did not happen until a year later at The Harbor Club in Queens. One night the regular DJ was unable to perform, and Mike (who was working as a bus boy at the time) was called upon to replace him. He began spinning there from time to time, but left the night club in 1993 when he was passed up for a regular position. The next few years were quiet for Mike, who didn’t return to the scene until 1998 when he submitted his mixes to “Brooklyn’s Own” Joe Causi for his WKTU "Studio 54 Clubhouse" show. Causi was impressed at the skill level of the tracks, and placed Mike into rotation with other popular NY area DJ's such as Jenny Costa, Johnny Rocks, Johnny D, Jimmy Yu, Antonio Corrao, Delmar Browne, George Calle, Sally Boy Curto, Louie Mangione and others. Not far after that, Mike began doing a once a week midday mix for 103.5 WKTU, as well as classic dance mixes for 102.7 Mixx FM.

Mike entered the remix world in 2010.......with only a modest desktop computer, a copy of Ableton Live , and a handful of multi tracks downloaded from the internet he began to practice dissecting a song looking for the best combinations of instruments, creating breaks, lengthening intro's etc. After meeting the great Tom Moultonin 2011, he began to understand the true art of the remix.....under the guidance of Tom, Mike began to discover his own style of remixing. And with the tips from other legends in the remix game, Mike has created a signature sound with unconventional methods of mixing. His extra long drumless intro's and acappella endings have been widely accepted and praised by artists, dj's and dancers all over the globe from the US, UK , France, Australia, and Italy. He now owns a powerful Pro Tools based digital studio and is equipped for all types of remix work.

The album is released on January 26th 2015 on download and a deluxe 3 CD box set edition with a very special low price tag, then you might have had to pay for just one of these tracks on 12 inch vinyl.

The collection is, three hours, thirty six minutes & thirty eight second of heaven! Recommended.
Pre-order or listen to more link: Mike-Maurro-Peak-Hour-Remixes remixes pre-order it here!

Gary Van den Bussche

Last Night A Remix Saved My Life!

So what makes the perfect record? 
So often you can have an outstanding voice or song, but the production sucks. So it does not show the real potential the song has. In these days with recording budgets being cut, mostly as a sign of poor sales, more and more artists are recording their projects at home, then getting them remixed to a more mastered state for release. 

 Quality production with real instruments luckily still happens, as we have recently heard with Rumer, even a real string section was included. The days of big soulful orchestras like Barry White's  Love Unlimited Orchestra or MFSB  (The Philadelphia International Records House orchestra/ Band) are rare, as many of those had in the region of 50 musicians. This year, I signed a demo of a song that was over seven years old and first I arranged some edits / Re-Edits on the track, which then lead to a remix, which resulted in one of Soul Music's biggest songs of the year in the UK. Do the artists like remixes of their work? They stated after the releases prior to their album presentation to me, after gaining a name from the remixes, If I'm totally honest. ''If you want an album full of other peoples mixes etc then i suggest you ask someone else to write the songs and release their own album''. So the big question is, do some artists feel offended that their work has been changed? or the fact that the remix producer has stolen the limelight, but the song at the end of the day remains the same! To me, the remix reaching other market places the original mix might not have & therefore expanding the songs potential.

 Promotion is a key element to the singles success, no point spending the earth recording the song, then not spending money on promotion. Just how many artists think that their Facebook friends and fans will buy it in droves & then wonder why they have no chart position?. 

Back in the day there weren't so many genres, so if it was a new single by say, Kool & The Gang, it would have climbed in all the charts including the Dance, Soul, National chart, without the later worry for the label to establish the track to the House or other market places, although many classic's has been remixed since, they do bring a new younger fan base or new audience to the song and quite often establish a top selling album for all involved, be it in the title form of ,Re-Loaded, Re-Hashed, The Remixes, Expanded edition, or even a greatest hits with new extra remixes.. 

Melba Moore recently used our services to promote her latest single, ''Just Dance'' the original mix had an R&B vibe, with Radio DJ's asking for other remixes, with Melba's permission, I got the single remixed for her, the first two remixes released just before Christmas with the other two remaining remixes set to be released in the new year.

They say a good song never dies, where in fact in some cases the artist might have passed, but their music will stay with us forever, often becoming more popular after rather than before their death. The remix does benefit all parties! The remix producers normally or often has to re-write the backing track to fit the original vocal part of the song, therefore they could receive co writing royalties cheques for their work, but if it generates sales that would not have happened without the remix, then fair is fair. Most of today's artists expect remixes to be done. The most recent work by Lisa Stansfield  has just been re-released as part of a remix album package, whether or not the artist gets to hear all the remixes is another thing, as quite often they are writing new songs for the next album. 

(Lisa Stansfield talks to Gary Spence on Solar Radio)

Often the remix can also re-chart a song like Drizabone, Rufus and Chaka Khan experienced in the UK top 20 with their classic songs, Real Love and Ain't Nobody.
If you are a re mixer or producer it would be great hearing from you, likewise if you have your own Soul classic stored on a computer somewhere - You can send your show real to me Gary Van den Bussche at  discosoulgold@live.com. Thanks for reading.

Soul Music in 2015

Soul Music as much as we love it, but why has it been removed from today's  musical categories? Sam Cooke was one of the first to release a #1 Soul single, as far back as 1957 with, ''You Send Me''.

The single went on to inspire many Soulful artists including, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Jackie Wilson, were also on the same path. Motown Records, Berry Gordy enjoyed his first taste of early success making, Wilson into a R&B / Soul superstar. Gordy used the money from, ''Lonely Teardrops'' single success to form Motown Records within a year in the January of 1959. Motown records had hit after hit, with such greats as, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Four Tops and many other great artists, songwriters and producers. 

Other record labels followed including, Stax Records, Atlantic Records, &  Philadelphia International Records, who later enjoyed much success in the 70's & 80's .
Soul Music was selling by the bucket, even back then labeled as Rhythm & Blues (R&B), in some cases, later in Billboard Magazine listing a chart as, ''Best selling Hot Soul Chart.''

 As we went on through to the 70's, many Soul artists started recording Disco Songs, as the  Disco scene exploded we then had, The Disco Charts and The Disco category remained popular with the mainstream until about 1979, although it's never really disappeared, as even today artists such as, Robin Thicke, Daft Punk, Bruno Mars, and the likes, we will keep having hits with the Disco Style sound as it's a Genre we once accepted and still love & will always accept again.

Boogie followed in the 80's, with many Disco artist recording under this tag, oh how we must love putting Music into Categories, Funk, Jazz-Funk,Psychedelic Funk, Blue Eyed Soul etc... 

What has happened in 2014 is the big question? 
These days the Award ceremonies have forgotten Soul Music, they have many categories even, Gospel, Country, Jazz, Rap, Latin, Dance/ Electronic (which includes House Music), R&B , but No Soul or Soulful. 

True the likes of, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Mary J Blidge, can fit into the R&B category, but where do we place such artists such as, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, who have had strong sellers this year? 
Ron Islet, Kem, Will Downing, Chris Jasper, Earth Wind & Fire, Betty Wright, have no music category to fit into as such! 

Maybe it would be a good idea to do a Soulful category? If  Anita Baker's new album ever gets a release i'm sure this would fit this section as would many Grammy award winning Soul artists that are still recording today. 

It's a great pity, not only have the record shops (that we have left), but the download stores also, are just not sure where to put Soul music!
Lisa Stansfield has just had a top 20 UK album, with so many people still saying, we did not know ,Lisa Stansfield has a new album or where do we find music like this?
Please help spread the word! SOUL MUSIC is here to stay, as we all need it! The music we love & grew up with so, Lets keep it Soulful. 

After watching an awards program back in 2005, Ola Onabule wrote the song, ''Soul Town'' asking why ? has the music we love so much, been removed from all the award ceremony categories...
Soul Town by Ola Onabule the remixes will be released on 13th April on DSG Music to see if we can't bring Soul back to the place we love ... 

If you have a Soulful track new or old that you would like released? We can't promise you millions of sales, but can promise you the best in promotion! You even get to keep your own music publishing! Please send your tracks to: discosoulgold@live.com
Thanks for reading,
Gary Van den Bussche

Colin Watson CW Remix, Mike Maurro House Of Soul Remix, Nigel Lowis Remix 

to be released 13th April on DSG Music.

Radio Promotions earns you Money!

Radio is still the best way of getting your songs heard, plus a way of earning money from the song via radio plays. It goes without saying, the more familiar the song becomes, it should work out that more people will become aware of it then- buy it!  It's a weird thought that most releases today are only on Download , every year around this time, we are told this will be the last Christmas for CD's.
It's also an incredible thought that the record companies let this happen!  Not only have they lost their sales to companies like iTunes, but the biggest problem must be people file sharing their latest music download's to friends.

 It's bad enough in the Soul Music field, but, imagine how many teenagers, who after all must be more likely to share their latest, Ed Sheeran, One Direction or Beyonce album with their mates.
The honest down loader knows how important the sales are to get recording artists back performing in the studio to record more tracks.
You would have imagined in this day of technology that a downloadable non sharing system would have been invented to help the struggling recording artists rightfully get their due sales royalties.

Vinyl sales are up and on increase once again. Numbers show more than 7.6 million records were sold so far in 2014, a record in itself compared to last year's 6.1 million. We no doubt could do with a designer turntable made that could fit into a cosy position of any household once again, like Dre did for headphones! 

The Modern/ Northern Soul scene has seen 7 inch vinyl on certain titles, fly out of the stores we have left, which is indeed another promotion tool in itself. 
So the big question is how do we make money from the record business we love ? After all are you happy earning $0.00080000 from  Spotify per stream for all your hard work ?

Here at DSG Music, we offer a Radio Promotion Service that services most UK  Soulful Radio. so, ''every spin you win'', we also use other mail out companies, so the whole world could be playing your song, while you are earning money from the plays, so in no time at all your in profit from the promotion!

Think about whether you want to release your product on Vinyl or CD you could do this as a pre-Sale via the remaining record stores!

Live gigs & festival is another way most artists survive today, then often sell their music at the event.
Try to keep your music publishing or if not get a great deal for your music.

Sell your music, merchandise, on your web site...

If you have a Soulful track that you think deserves a release on our label, or promotion  via DSG Radio promotions ? then please send it to me...

Gary Van den Bussche (Disco, Soul, Gold Music)

 discosoulgold@live.com .

Recent success's include, Ola Onabule featuring Drizabone- Soul Town, SouLutions- Listen (Drizabone remix), SouLutions- Philly Line (CW's After Philly Remix), Trammps -Get Your Lovin', Melba Moore - Just Dance (Remixes), Boogie Man ep, Los Charley Orchestra Everlasting Love,  Melina- Maybe Not Today, Brenda Jones Girl  Experience -What Your Love Has Done, Mike Maurro  #1  ''Peak Hour'' various artist album, Gina Carey Album, Mario Marques,  Neo featuring Drizabone -Your Smile, Cardell- My Best Friend, Gina Carey Dance Nigel Lowis, Tom Moulton, remix (Remix package masterminded by Gary Van den Bussche DSG Promotions), Samuel D Sanders- Make You Mine remixes, Ola Onabule- Soul Town remixes, Gladys Knight- Soon,  Will Downing 2015, Terry Ronald -What A Child Needs, Danita Mumphard- Sincerely Yours, Mather & Kingdon- Album, '' Life's So Sweet'' , The So Soulful Collection Vol 2 - Various Artists, Dennis ''Youngblood'' Taylor.  McCrei - Show Me, Samuel D Sanders Thinking Out Loud... 

 ....    
DSG RADIO PROMOTIONS- FOR LESS THAN YOU WOULD THINK! Giving you more than you 
would expect!

Melina - Maybe Not Today ?

Melina - Maybe Not Today remix- Woodward Avenue Records.

Producer Paul Brown has worked on projects for such influential artists as George Benson, Al Jarreau, Kirk Whalum, Patti Austin, Norman Brown, Luther Vandross, Larry Carlton, Euge Groove, Boney James, Rick Braun, Peter White, and his lasted project, which is by,Texas born Melina. 

Melina has been described as in a similar style to, Eva Casidy, Rumer or maybe she has her own unique style setting with her blend of, R&B, Jazz, Blue eyed Soul or classy Pop.. Her latest album was released in September this year, which included covers of, Luther Vandross/ Carpenters, ''Superstar '',Etta James, ''At Last'', plus a further 8 songs including this gem, which is currently #19 on the American Smooth Jazz top 20 chart hosted by Allen Kepler..

Jazz Drummer, Colin Watson has taken the ballad, '' Maybe Not Today'' and given it his unique stamp and turned the song around into uptempo remix , fingers crossed this remix will be released soon. The good news is the uptempo and ballad version will be released on 26th January 2015! 
Reviewed here ....

PY's .Future Soul Cellar' tune this week! on Peter Young (at Jazz FM)Gary Van den Bussche (DSG Promotions) 

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes with David Ebo

David Ebo (9 Nov 1950- November 30, 1930) had the hard job in 1975 to replace the great Teddy Pendergrass as lead singer of, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. The group signed to ABC records and got off to a good start in 1977 with the gold single,'' Reaching For The World'' from the US R&B top 20 album of the same name.

David Ebo was a school class mate of Teddy Pendergrass, who was just starting his career with Philadelphia International records. Later on the same year , the group released their second album for ABC records called, '' Now Is The Time'' the album was a disappointment as far as sales were concerned , it only climbed to the lower regions of the US R&B Chart. The album did included this, Jerome Jones written gem called, ''Feels Like Magic''. The album was produced by Harold Melvin and
seems like it was overlooked missed at the time. 

In 1986 David Ebo did release his only solo album called,'' I'd Rather Be My Myself '', which was also

the title cut of the album. The Album was arranged & produced by Allan Felder.

Neo Featuring Drizabone - Your Smile - Now released!

Just released on DSG Music through, i Tunes, Amazon, Beatport, Juno and other download sites. The song is currently in the top 10 of Solar Radio's  ''Sweet Rhythm's Soul Chart'' and has been played on many BBC Radio shows. The song was also a record of the week on John Leech's popular radio show. The song also entered the Amazon's best sellers chart.     

REVIEWS POSTED BELOW:

Texas-born singer Rudi Wilburn has more than a touch of classic soul singers like Barry White in his voice. But it was a trip to Europe that introduced him to Stephane d'Esposito, aka Neo, a talented producer and songwriter, with whom Rudi wrote the song “Your Smile” in 2005. The song became a hit at selective venues throughout Europe, but never got the shine it deserved until this year, when noted producer Billy Drizabone reworked the backing track to give it a new, hotter sound.
Review with thanks to Soul Tracks

Rudi learnt his craft in the juke joints of Texas and cites his influences as Barry White, Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye and it's his wonderful sonorous voice that graces the song... no wonder it's been a popular spin on the modern soul scene for a number of years.
Review with thanks to Souljazzandfunk.com

Currently the hottest tune on the modern soul scene is 'Your Smile' by NEO. Neo of course, is French piano man Stephane d'Esposito and he penned the song with the vocalist Rudi Wilburn. The song first came out in 2005 but this year it won the attention of Gary Van den Bussche who runs the wonderful Disco Soul Gold organization which includes the boutique label DSG Records. So, Gary got his old mate Billy Freeman from Drizabone to remix 'Your Smile'. Big Bill retained the magic of the original but added those special, infectious Drizabone elements to the cocktail and the new version took the modern soul world by storm.

If you want more of 'Your Smile', the good news is that it's about to become available in two new mixes.

First up is CW's Soulful Mix. Slightly slowed down, this one will once again appeal to the sophisticated modern soul crowd. With a lush, spoken passage, the ambience is Barry White meets Lou Rawls ... and that can't be bad can it?

The second tweak – the 12 Shades Dirty Groove Mix – is a touch more experimental. Almost in soulful house territory, it features a loping bass line and some wonderful Donald Byrd style trumpet which creates an appealing, ethereal atmosphere.

Whatever mix you go for, you'll enjoy some classy, proper modern soul..

Review with thanks to Bill Buckley

 Top 10 on Indamixworldwide

Drizabone will be Live in London's Jazz Cafe 24th January 2015 with Solar Radio's Mike Gee as
musical support.

Thanks to everybody for your support ...

The CW Soulful remix, 12 shades and Soul2heaven remixes are now also released!

  

Gary Van den Bussche (DSG Music)

A tribute to Jimmy Ruffin - What becomes of a broken hearted.

To many Jimmy Ruffin is best known as the older brother of former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin , the position he turned down himself in choice of a solo career. Jimmy Ruffin had a solid career of his own scoring his biggest hit with, ''What Becomes Of A Broken Hearted'', which was first recorded by The Isley Brothers under the tile of, ''Smile'' then rewritten and offered to the Detroit Spinners whom rejected the song.

Jimmy Ruffin's version became a UK Hit twice, once in the 60's and then an even bigger hit on re-release in 1974 where it climbed to #4. Ruffin followed the American charted 1960 hit "Brokenhearted" with two more major 1967 UK / US hits, "I've Passed This Way Before" and "Gonna Give Her All the Love I Got", which were also covered by David and the Temptations. A year later Jimmy Ruffin again cracked both the US & UK charts, with the hit single, ."I'll Say Forever My Love'' reaching as high as #7 in the UK. The US hits dried up. but in the UK further hits followed, "Farewell is a Lonely Sound" & "It's Wonderful (To Be Loved By You)" . He also teamed up with brother David to record the album I Am My Brother's Keeper, a modestly successful 1970 album for Motown that included, a cover of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" & The Hollies, ''He Ain't Heavy He's my Brother''. Versions of some of his recording were later being covered by other Motown artists, most prominently "Everybody Needs Love," a hit when released by Gladys Knight & The Pips, & "Maria (You Were The Only One)", a hit for Michael Jackson. He then left Motown, and signed with the Polydor/Chess record label where he recorded the UK top 40 US R&B/ Soul hit, "Tell Me What You Want".

He surprised the music world when he re-emerged in 1980 with an unlikely top 10 worldwide pop hit, "Hold On To My Love" on RSO Records,plus the accompanying album, Sunrise, which was writer/producer by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. In the 80s, Ruffin moved to live in Britain, where he continued to perform successfully, he collaborated with Paul Weller of The Style Council for his benefit single "Soul Deep" in 1984.  

When Jimmy Ruffin passed away earlier this week, it reminded us of some of his lesser known work. “The Foolish Thing To Do” was released in 1986 as the A side of Jimmy's release with Heaven 17, but tucked away on the B Side of the 7 and 12 inch only release was Jimmy's version of the Luther Vandross classic “My Sensitivity.” The act, Heaven 17, also known as B.E.F. for their production work, brought Tina Turner back to the public eye with their version of The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” in 1982, after which Tina signed to Capitol Records and, with B.E.F.’s production help, scored the worldwide hit with her cover of Al Green’s ''Lets Stay Together '' which served as her hit comeback single in late 1983; from that moment she never looked back. If only the same success had been brought to Jimmy Ruffin he also no doubt would have carried on recording hits and gotten the recognition he deserved. Read more here from Soultracks 

Peter Young  of Jazz FM wrote ''Foolish Thing To Do' must be one of the great undervalued gems of the whole of the 80s. Pure class.

. I was luck to have met Jimmy Ruffin in 1985 when he was on a club tour for EMI Records to promote his UK top 75 hit, "There Will Never Be Another You" which was coupled with his version of, The O'Jays ''Backstabbers (strangely Tina Turner also covered when she was on U/A records). In the 90's Jimmy Ruffin hosted a Radio show on BBC Radio two. It was reported that Jimmy was gravely ill and had been taken into an intensive care unit at a Las Vegas hospital. Jimmy Ruffin died on November 17, 2014, in Las Vegas, aged 78. He will be missed - R.I.P Jimmy Ruffin.

STATEMENT ON PASSING OF JIMMY RUFFIN by  Berry Gordy.

Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer. He was truly underrated because we were also fortunate to have his brother, David, as the lead singer of the Temptations, who got so much acclaim. Jimmy, as a solo artist, had "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted," one of the greatest songs put out by Motown and also one of my personal favorites. He was a wonderful human being, quiet and unassuming, who touched many lives with his music, not just here in the states, but overseas, as well.

Jimmy Ruffin will always be a part of the Motown legacy, and I extend my sincere condolences to his family, friends and fans.

Berry Gordy, Founder
MOTOWN

November 19, 2014