Moods And Grooves Profile

Moods & Grooves Records
"While thinking of a name for the label one really struck me, Moods & Grooves. It's able to express more than one feeling or vibe. That's my vision of a label, sometimes its tracks are moody and deep, other times they're groovy, uptempo, or harder. A name like Moods & Grooves gives you that flexibility…” - Mike Grant

It starts in Detroit with a vision…

Moods & Grooves Records was created by Mike Grant. Its agenda includes presenting distinctive music for listening and dancing pleasure. Moods for the soul: sophistication, deepness and emotional expression. Grooves for the body: rhythms that massage the body into movement with force and subtlety. Moods & Grooves is committed to continuing Detroit's musical legacy while forging new links with producers and listeners around the globe. Moods & Grooves consistently puts out quality music that fits its ideological goals. This long-term dedication to quality has resulted in an ever-growing interest in the label. A recent limited release from Detroit house producer Kenny Dixon Jr. caused a flurry of interest that has carried on to the latest releases and spurred discerning listeners to investigate the labels outstanding back catalogue. Moods & Grooves future releases will include an EP from Anthony Shakir in his Da Sampla guise. Also planned are offerings from Theo Parrish, John Tejada, and second Eps from Alton Miller, Brian Harden, and Mike Grant. The caliber of these releases promises to cement Moods & Grooves reputation and carry it to new levels of respectability and popularity.

The Artists:

Mike Grant

Label founder Mike Grant has been involved in the electronic music scene from its earliest days. Growing up in 'Motown' he had early success with DJing, joining Blake Baxter's DJ collective The Beat Sound Company in high school and in 1983 gaining a residency at one of Detroit's hottest clubs, Studio 54. During his days at Studio 54 Grant met Eddie Fowlkes who introduced him to Derrick May and Juan Atkins and the three soon began working together. In 1985 Grant was approached by May to become a member of Detroit's first Hot Mix radio show 'Street Beat”. This show premiered Detroit Techno and featured its finest: May, Atkins, Mills and later Kevin Saunderson. Prior to joining the show Grant had made a decision to join the military not knowing what doors were about to open for him. Grant kept in touch with the music scene while in the military by DJing at clubs on the base and in Seattle – introducing house and techno to the West Coast. After his discharge Mike attended college in Chicago returning to Detroit to play occasional parties. Since his return to the music scene Grant has released collaboration as 'Black Noise' on Metroplex and started his own successful label Moods & Grooves. Moods & Grooves has seen releases from Alton Miller, Mike himself, Brian Harden, Rick Wade, Kenny Dixon Jr., G Flame and Mr G, Brett Dancer and Anthony Shakir. Mike's production like his DJing combines the best that techno and house have to offer deep expressive synths and strings and powerful percussion.

Alton Miller

Alton comes to the world painting a musical canvas. Molded, shaped and reared on Stevie Wonder, Santana, Parliament Funkadelic and the Philadelphia sound, he grew to be an avid clubber. Influenced by Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan and Timmy Regisford, Alton, along with friends, opened the world-renowned dance club the Music Institute in Detroit - one of the epicenters of the underground House and Techno movements. Alton's affinity for rhythms led him to take up conga drumming and becoming an accompanist for a local Katherine Dunham based dance company. Drumming and its connection to rhythms of all music have proven influential to his musical growth. Alton has had a long and successful recording career with releases on Serious Grooves / KMS, Guidance, BPM records, Planet E, Distance and Moods & Grooves. From 1989 to present, Alton has toured France, Chile, England, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany ... defining House music to the world as he has experienced and lives it. Miller's intimate connection with the drums and varied African influenced rhythms result in compositions that move people physically and emotionally and hearing him DJ defines what House music is all about!

Brian Harden

Born and raised on Chicago's south side, Brian Harden was reared on Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and other classic jazz musicians. Harden was involved with Chicago house from the very beginning. By 1988 he was DJing professionally all over Chicago for local clubs and parties. After meeting Phuture (responsible for the seminal 'Acid Trax) and Felix began producing music and had his first release on Dancemania 'Phuture presents III Phase - Do You Wanna Get Funky' in 1990. He has since recorded for Relief, Nite Life Collective and Moods & Grooves. While many producers hope to progress to running their own labels, Harden hopes ultimately to turn his skills to producing scores for films. Brian Harden plays by 'instinct' never having had any formal training he has strived to learn everything himself and has had remarkable success. He has avoided sampling in order to prove that instrumentation exists in house music – in the playing and programming of its instruments. Brian's production subtly combines the influences of deep house, jazz and 'original techno'. The result? A sublime blend of tight techno percussion, emotion drenched synths and the jazzy gyrations of horns and vibes.

Rick Wade

Rick Wade began DJing in 1983 spinning classic disco material. Growing up in Buchanan MI, 1 hour outside of Chicago he was influenced by Chicago radio station BMX and the Salsoul material and local stations that played the likes of Al Green and Isaac Hayes.
"I loved the way they could blend two songs together and make it sound like one. I didn't know what a DJ was I just wanted to blend songs together. When I went to the record store those songs were available on 12” vinyl, then I needed turntables to play them and then I needed a mixer if I wanted to blend them. I've always been into the music first. At parties I had the records and I had the turntables so I became the DJ almost by default.”
Attending the University of Michigan, Wade had the first house mix show on the college station WCBN called 'Journey to the Land of House' which aired on Saturday nights. Other presenters were impressed with his material and mixing skills and soon asked him to prepare mixes for their own shows. Some time around 1990 Rick was working on a mix for Brendan Gillen's 'Crush Collision' show and ran out of tracks that he wanted to include. Having produced hip-hop since the late 80s Wade turned to his studio to create a track that would fit the mix perfectly and hasn't looked back since. In 1993 he started his own label Harmonie Park to release house material and in 1995 he started another label Bass Force primarily as an outlet for the Booty / Bass material that he records under the 'Big Daddy Rick' moniker. When producing house Rick Wade makes modern day Soul music to refresh your mind and make your body move

KDJ

Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann has emerged as one of Detroit's most enigmatic and most successful house producers. Perfecting a unique blend of samples and original instrumentation KDJ's music is slower than typical house – for maximum groove. Drenched in soul, funk and jazz KDJ gathers the full force of his musical influences and recontextualizes them within the house genre. His material ranges from the slow and moody to the up beat and energetic. KDJ was responsible for a much sought after limited single sided 12” on Moods & Grooves early this year.

G Flame and Mr G

G Flame and Mr G is really one man: Colin McBean. Colin McBean formerly recorded with Cisco Ferreira under the tile The Advent producing intense and relentless techno. Colin originally moved to London from Derby to study Fashion Design and has worked with the likes of Zandra Rhodes, Issey Miyake and Michiko. In 1989 through Cisco he met Keith from Bang The Party, they then formed the DJ trio KCC, where they used to play as residents at the Confusion parties. Colin and Cisco started working together in 1990 on an engineering job for Jay Denham's Fade To Black. Their first release, "Bio Rhythms 2" was on Network, they also produced Salt Tanks ST1 and ST2 on Internal. Signing to Internal Records in 1994 the pair released a series of critically acclaimed albums and eventually started their own label Kombination Research.
McBean ended the partnership in 1999 citing his reluctance to continue touring. His work as G Flame and Mr G bridges the gap between house and techno with murky disco basslines and the sharp clean high end percussion of techno at the pace of house. The tracks roll with an undeniable groove embellished by muted samples and synth notes. G Flame and Mr G explore the funk available at lower velocities.

Brett Dancer

Brett Dancer was born in Kalamazoo, MI and grew up between there, Lansing and Detroit. He grew up with a broad range of music in his home; the family always had an extensive record collection – although none of them were recording artists. Attending high school in Lansing he was DJing by the 9th grade, playing a mixture of funk and hip-hop. He first heard house music in 1986 and was drawn to the sounds of Trax Records, Underground, Mr Fingers and Hercules straight away.
In 1992 Brett began attending university at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He didn't realize that he wanted to produce music until he met Jay Denham who was just about to start his Black Nation label. Dancer worked on a house track with Fanon Flowers and Denham under the pseudonym 'Incense and Basslines' which was intended for the unreleased BN001 a various artists, 6 track EP.
A year later Brett decided that that he wanted to start his own record label and moved to New York to learn about the record industry business (Having experienced Detroit and Chicago growing up). His label Track Mode Recordings was soon established - a label for tracky house with a deep electronic edge. The label has established a strong following and gained particular attention for its Abstract Fusion compilation released last year. The future will see the release of Abstract Fusion 2 and a diversification for the label, the release of organic and more traditionally musical material. The only criteria will be quality.
Brett Dancer debuts for Moods & Grooves with a track on the forthcoming Various Artists project. 'Delayed Reaction' utilizes snappy percussion and a grinding bassline juxtaposed with sweet melodic fluctuations - highly electronic sounds that accumulate into infectious harmonies.