Baby Doc & S-J & Trade's Last Dance
Author: Jonty Adderley
Saturday, October 26, 2002
When Trade boss Lawrence Malice decided to wrap up his seminal London weekly club Trade, it was fitting that he decided to record his farewell track (Last Dance) at the studio of Baby Doc & S-J. Long term friends of the legendary promoter the pair had also regularly partied at the Shoreditch club as well as producing some of the key tracks that came to characterise the club's hard dance roots.
Rightfully acclaimed as original pioneers of the hard house sound, London production duo Baby Doc and S-J have recently been cutting down on the bpms, to make funkier chunkier house that they refer to themselves as "sleazy uplifting house." Through their earlier work including 1993's Mantra to The Buddha, Exigent and Batteria, they gained support from Trade's definitive DJ, the late great Tony De Vit, and by the end of the decade were firmly established as the first couple of hard dance.
The sleazy house progression is showcased on their new compilation Never A DJ 2, which is split into two CDs labelled That Was Then and This Is Now. Mixed together seamlessly by underground DJ Leonard Alexander, the collection includes productions and remixes from fellow hard dance/ nu energy pioneers Commander Tom, Pete Wardman, Mrs Wood and Len-E (the alter ego of Leonard Alexander) as well as a featured guest appearance from Trade head honcho Lawrence Malice.
Skrufff's Jonty Adderley caught up with the duo recently in their Shoreditch studio.
Skrufff: The new compilation's called Never A DJ 2, what have you got against DJing-
Baby Doc: "The reason we called the first album Never A DJ was because we thought the whole world was being overrun by DJs and nobody was profiling the actual producers. Everyone's a DJ these days. If you walk into MacDonalds, the staff are all DJs and, I dare say, policemen walking down the road are DJs. It seemed like a good title before and we still like it now. We've also never been DJs."
Skrufff: The collection's split into two CDs, That Was Then and This Is Now; why the distinction-
S-J: "Baby Doc and I have evolved musically and we wanted to do another double album, in one sense to put together the last two years work onto CD, but also to introduce our new sound to our pre-existing fans. They'll still get the music they're used to but for the same money they'll be getting a brand new CD introducing them to our new sound. Hopefully, we'll be able to carry our fans with us to the next stage, without it being a sudden jolt. We call our new style sleazy uplifting house."
Baby Doc: "When we were making the fast stuff, we were always making different music we just never actually released it. What happened with the hard house thing was that we actually stopped making that kind of music a number of years ago but we were so tagged with the label. We liked the music we were making that people like Tony (De Vit) used to play but in the last few years, lots of what was labelled hard house started to sound like happy hardcore."
Q: Were you friends with Tony De Vit-
S-J: "Not initially, but we happened to be friends with Blu Peter and we had a mix on the B side of one of his records. Blu Peter introduced us to Tony one night when he was playing at Trade. We didn't know anyone there at all when we first went there. Lawrence (Trade boss Lawrence Malice) is a terrific friend now."
Q: Were Mrs Wood and Pete Wardman (both on the new album) also original Trade faces-
S-J: "Mrs Wood is part of the clubbing establishment, she helped introduce the entire Nu Energy sound. Without her and Blu Peter there'd be no such thing as Nu Energy. Friday nights at Heaven where they both used to play were religious. People still don't realize how talented they are. The three tracks she's written on this a Tags