Forty funky house cuts, and the conversation starts at number four: 'Get On Up' by Moon Boots and Pinto (NYC) on Jackies Music Records. Moon Boots is Peter Dougherty, a Brooklyn producer trained in classical and jazz composition, seasoned as a DJ in Chicago, with three albums on Anjunadeep — the latest, 'Ride Away', in 2023. His blend of house, soul, funk and disco has earned support from Annie Mac, Diplo and The Blessed Madonna, and finding him on a club selection like this one, running 6:10 in F minor at 128 BPM, is the kind of crossover that elevates a list.
The second proper name carries even more genre history. 'Dance With You' pairs Seamus Haji with the voice of Hazel Fernandes on Big Love Music, the label Haji founded in 2002 after A&R stints at Slip'N'Slide, Strictly Rhythm and Defected. This is someone who has been DJing since the mid-eighties and scored a UK club chart number one in 2007 with 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life'; here he works at 125 BPM in E minor across 6:48, the most generous runtime of the three cuts holding this review together.
The third needs no résumé: 'Till My Feet Got Numb' by The Funk District and Sokur on Kaninchenbau is, at 7:23, the longest cut of the forty, and that length is a statement in itself. On a list built for closing sets, where the average hovers around five minutes and names like Block & Crown dispatch four productions below that mark, giving seven and a half minutes to a single F minor groove at 127 BPM makes its intended moment clear: the final stretch, when the DJ is no longer fighting for anyone's attention and can let a track breathe.
Around these three, the selection moves within a narrow band, 121 to 130 BPM, with labels showing up repeatedly, from Guareber to Acetone. But a list's curation is better measured at its peaks than at its average, and here the peaks have first and last names.
Sources: Wikipedia · Anjunadeep · RA
