20th Anniversary Collection
20 years of spinning, 20 mixed sets, 20 songs per set
Volume 01: 1996 Hits
From Eurodance to Underworld - The rise of e-music in Brazil.
1996 was indeed a magical year to me; on July the 22nd, I bought myself a second-hand DJ gear with two of my best friends, completely unaware that during the same period, a major musical change in the Brazilian club scene was taking place.
In most clubs of São Paulo, the first semester of 1996 had been all about dance music, with touches of rock, R&B and hip-hop from the likes of Alanis Morissette, The Fugees, Puff Daddy, OMC and others. You could have the peak time of the dance floor with the fast-paced Italodance “Feels like Heaven”, or also with a dance cover of Cher’s “Save up all your Tears” (also covered from Bonnie Tyler), sung by a completely unknown amateur Brazilian singer called Surama K.
And then….all of a sudden, we started to hear some strange songs without vocals on the radio. Robert Miles, with his beautiful and non-vocal “Children”, does deserve a huge merit for making electronic music rise to mainstream in São Paulo in the 2nd semester of 1996. Ears were still adapting to that new kind of sound when Underworld crashed in and made this drastically wonderful mess in people’s heads, with its unique, powerful and everlasting anthem “Born Slippy”. From there on, club scene in Brazil would never be the same again, and so would my DJ career, as e-music has completely upgraded the relevance of the DJ, moving him from the dark corners of clubs to the center of stages that would be built for him.
And all that happening in 1996, coincidently in the very same year I decided to start djing at Saturday afternoon teenage parties, so that I could make some extra money to go out at night. How funny life is, realizing now how much pleasure and fulfillment music has given me over those 20 years of spinning.
This first set of my 20th year anniversary collection contains 20 hits that were either recorded or released in 1996. During 90 minutes of a non-stop journey, it tries to capture the essence of this magical and diverse melting pot that was 1996 in São Paulo…from Eurodance to Underworld.
Hope you like and dance to it!
Dj Gui Issa
