Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

You’ll recall Berlin’s Watergate last compilation was by Konrad Black (see Watergate 03), but the latest CD is the new talk of Phonica Records.

Sebo K is a totally new name to me so in my ignorance, I wasn’t expecting too much from this CD - don’t make the same mistake. It’s a fantastic mix with undercover agents a plenty to get you up and in the mood. But what do you expect from a guy that began at Alec ‘The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven’ Empire’s Bass Terror in the early 90s and have progressed to become a resident at the Watergate club.

I recognise the name Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts on the track listing as he’s featured on Secretsundaze presents Tobi Newmann and is DOP the French dOP, the proclaimed saviours of house music championed by Gilles Peterson? Yes it is! Perhaps ‘saviour’ is going a little too far but nice jazzy bits in a deep house/techno style. And it’s not all minimal by a long way. If you want a reference point, think Ray Okpara or Moodymann meets Frankie Knuckles as there’s loads of spoken voice samples on these tracks and a lively up-tempo house beat

And it’s one of those that just gets better as you go along; particularly Sebo K’s own remix of Martyn’s ‘Elden St’ (a track previously released on 12”) and how many tracks in history of popular music have been called ‘Wakefield’?

There’s lots of soul in these selections and it’s, dare I say, uplifting percussive house as ‘Music Got You Movin’ as Je Davu would say (huge track and where’s that funky organ and bongos from?) And for more organ, in an irreverent spiritual house or Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts is so baaaaaaaaaaaad.

The reliable old hands of DJ Koze on the remix and Nina Kraviz finish things off but handily the CD tracklisting provides all the labels of the individual tracks so I’m off to do some homework - Sebo K knows some tunes.

The cover by Matthias Last is even better than 03 and as the mainstream party season is starting to warm up, here’s the antidote to predictable seasonally fair. Phonica are on it as you’d expect for such friendly folk but this is so cool; Sebo K is currently he’s on a DJ sabbatical returning in Belfast on 9th Jan 2010 followed by gigs all over the world and doesn’t return to Watergate until 6th March. Predictions for next year, Sebo K will be so big - who’s go my DJMag copy?

Various - Watergate 04 (Sebo K) (Watergate Records) Cat. No. WG004 Release date:12th October 2009
Tracklistings:
1 dOP - Intro (3:25)
2 Rick Wade - Night Station (3:39)
3 Koljah & Oliver Deutschmann - Eaten Back To Life (Exclusive Watergate Edit) (4:11)
4 Mood II Swing - Move Me (3:39)
5 dOP - Cold World (5:58)
6 Session Victim - Contribute (3:40)
7.1 Daze Maxim - Strange Things (6:17)
7.2 Patrice Scott - Excursions (Reprise)
8 Blagger - Strange Behaviour (4:08)
9 Agnès - Who Cares (3:39)
10 Martyn - Elden St (Sebo K Watergate Edit) (5:40)
11 Rndm - Wakefield (Exclusive Watergate Edit) (3:52)
12 Je Davu - Music Got You Movin (Exclusive Watergate Edit) (5:12)
13 Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - The Pussy Shepherd (4:08)
14 Sid Le Rock - Naked (DJ Koze Remix) (5:46)
15 Nina Kraviz - Voices (4:54)

Links:
www.myspace.com/djsebok
www.water-gate.de
www.myspace.com/watergateclub
The Big Chill Bar Aunday 29th November Big Chill Sundae and Phonica presents - It’s not all minimal bigchill.net/bar