Operating between 1988-92 from an office on West 38 Street, Nu Groove was the first independent New York label to give its own slant on the Chicago house music revolution, after being launched primarily as a vehicle for producers Rheji and Ronald Burrell. While credited with initiating the deep house movement that gripped the city by 1990, Nu Groove gained an intangible underground mystique in the UK, sparking the trainspotting mentality which saw devotees buy anything released on certain labels.
Along with the Burrells trading under several aliases while also producing the likes of Bas Noir and Lisa Lee, names such as Bobby Konders, Lenny Dee, How & Little, Joey Negro and Joey Beltram were drawn to the label, leaving one of dance music’s most idiosyncratic but influential catalogues after releasing 110 12” singles (and no artist albums).
This set, constructed by talented young Italian producer Nicholas, sees him take a brave gamble but managing to plug into the label’s spirit to present his own take, using seminal gems as launch-pads. Once used to hearing him make lustrous, hypnotic dubs out of much-loved vocal pieces like Lisa Lee’s When Can I Call You or Roqui’s exquisite I’ve Just Began To Love You, his new versions become delights in their own right.
