8 labels that shaped the New York City house sound

Emotive Records

Founded by David Chang in ’91, this is old NY house heavyweight doesn’t seem to have picked up the widespread recognition it deserves. The manufacturers and distributors behind early releases by Cajual, one of Chicago’s best house labels, Emotive also raised a whole host of sublabels like Clubhouse, Gee Man, New Generation, Play House, Thumpin! and more. By ’97 their output wrapped up, but within the six year period they pushed the parameters of the sound with releases exploring tribal grooves, wild pitch and uplifting piano house. Some of the label’s finest moments came from 95 North, Murk, DJ Pierre, Jovonn and Victor Simonelli in various guises.

---

Cajmere Featuring Dajae
Brighter Days (Remixes)
(Cajual / Emotive, 1992)

Listen / Buy

One of the earliest joint Cajual / Emotive releases. A follow-up to the original EP, this 2x 12″ remix bundle produced by Cajmere and David Chang saw Masters at Work, Todd Terry and Cajmere deliver 10 interpretations on Dajae’s vocals. A certified banger is Cajmere’s Underground Goodies mix with its big drums and choppy vocals, but there’s a version to suit every house head.

---

Jovonn ‎
Out All Nite E.P.
(1991)

Listen / Buy

Flute-house perfected by house maestro Jovonn on side A and two deep cuts on the flip including ‘N.Y. N.J.’, a homage to the two cities’ close musical connection.

---

Karen Pollack
You Can’t Touch Me (You Can’t Hurt Me) (Remixes)
(1992)

Listen / Buy

The Murk A-side of this record is a complete bomb – both the vocal and tribal remixes epitomise the sound that the Tribal America label and Danny Tenaglia later developed. It’s in the same bracket as Murk’s other dark garage house style releases under their alias Liberty City – check out ‘Some Lovin’, ‘If You Really Want Someone’ and ‘That’s What I Got’ for more devastating cuts.

---

DJ Pierre
Selections From The Remix Vault (Vol. 1)
(1994)

Listen / Buy

After pioneering acid house in Chicago as Phuture (with DJ Spank Spank), Pierre moved to NY in 1990 and got cracking on a new subgenre: wild pitch. Built on layers of strings, filtered hypnotic sounds, repetitive vocals and obviously 303 twiddling, wild pitch became hugely influential with early ‘90s producers like Junior Vasquez, X-Press 2 and Felix Da House Cat. Selections is a classic Pierre exercise in wild pitch, especially the two 10 minute-plus versions of ‘When The Music Takes You High’ on the second record.

---

Instant Exposure
Wanna Be With You / I Need A Little More
(1992)

Listen / Buy

The only release by Instant Exposure, one of Victor Simmonelli’s dozen or so aliases, this is something of a masterpiece in feel-good, disco-sampled house. A-side ‘I Need A Little More’ samples Womack & Womack ‘Baby I’m Scared Of You’ and B-side ‘Wanna Be With You’ lifts its vocal from Barbara Roy ‘Gotta See You Tonight’.

---