LIVING FOR THE CITY

TRACKLIST It's Too Late Love Is The Message People Of The World Victim Of Your Love Living For The City Open Invitation INFO When Ron ˜Robot™ Friedman, former bass player for local rockers Rabbitt, was winding down his label On Records in the early 90s, he reached out for new inspiration as the popularity of ˜bubblegum™ disco waned. For one of the label™s final releases he hired young DJ/producer Quentin Foster, obsessed with the new soulful house sound coming out of the US, to take the reins on a studio project dubbed Citi Express. On Robot™s insistence it included a cover of Stevie Wonder™s ˜Living for the City™ (from 1973™s Innervisions) as the title track. Foster set to work in his home studio, dubbed Tone Def, selecting and re-working other US and UK tracks ž ˜It™s Too Late™ (originally released in 1989 by Kelli Sae), ˜Love is the Message™ (influenced by the 70s soul anthem and credited to Gamble & Huff but bearing a closer resemblance to Better Days™ 1990 release written by Steve Proctor), ˜People of The World™ (recorded by Sorell Johnson in the UK in 1990) and ˜Victim of Your Love™ (released in 1990 by Gary Vonqwest as ˜Victim of Love™) ž adding some signature South African touches in the process that foreshadow the imminent rise of kwaito. One original composition was added for good measure, ˜Open Invitation™. The result offers a glimpse into those early days of house, a uniquely South African take on a global sound that still resonates today ž reissued for the first time on Afrosynth Records.