LEGENDARY UK HOUSE MUSIC PRODUCER & DJ
MIKE WOODS
NEW SINGLE “I’M IN LOVE”
OUT NOW ON ALL MY FRIENDS/REPTILE DYSFUNCTION
“Been heating up all my sets recently on the interwebz.” — DESTRUCTO
A re-energized serving of classic disco boogie and funk-infused house music arrives today (May 8) on U.S. shores from legendary U.K. DJ and producer Mike Woods. His single “I’m In Love” is out now on ALL MY FRIENDS/Reptile Dysfunction, a joint venture from producers DESTRUCTO and Doorly’s labels.
Listen here: https://empire.ffm.to/iminlove
“I guess you could say that Mike Woods was one of my first influences in house music. I first saw him play when I was 15 or 16 at a nightclub in Warrington in the north of England called “the world” where he was playing all these hypnotic tracks, a sound I’d never heard before being so young and not really knowing what was going on. I head no idea that his music was going to be such a huge part of my life but I remember vividly my adoration of Mike playing and knowing I wanted to know more about what was going on here,” shares Doorly. “I moved away from Warrington soon after this having finished school and it wasn’t until years later that I met Mike again when we played together when I went back to play in Warrington. He started giving me these incredible demos and the man’s depth of knowledge of house and disco is second to none so it was a huge pleasure to release some records of his on Reptile Dysfunction and welcome him into our crew! This one ‘I’m In Love’ is by far his best yet and Gary Richards (aka DESTRUCTO) loved it as much as I did so we decided to co-release it to give it the audience it deserves. I often joke to Mike that I’ve got first dibs on buying his record collection when he retires, and the guy is a machine of a DJ so this will be a big year for Mike.”
About Mike Woods:
Mike started DJing in 1989 after being a regular at the legendary Hacienda club especially Park and Pickering’s Friday Nude night. After meeting another Hacienda DJ Steve Williams who also had a couple of sidekicks with Laurent Garnier and Sasha, it was Williams who introduced Woods to Eastern Bloc Records. Woods soon started to pick up his own collection of records and DJ local parties in his home town of Warrington. It was around 1989 that the Thunderdome opened in Manchester where he got to play a few Thursday nights and also later that year got to play local clubs in Warrington. The next logical progression was to get a Saturday night and that came in the shape of a club called Legends in Warrington where he became a resident from 1990-93’. It still stands out today with a unique music policy as it started around 90 bpm with a Balearic vibe and slowly built up to anything from deep house to Techno and even the odd disco track. It was also around 1990 that Mike produced his first record “Flashback — You,” a white label that was pressed up by himself. The next record produced was under the name BBR Streetgang, which was signed to Scottish label Hubba Hubba, and followed up with the United House EP—a reflection of the music policy at Legends with a disco sampled house feel and also a couple of downtempo tracks. BBR Streetgang went on to sign to Transworld Records, a subsidiary of Dead Dead Good Records, home to The Charlatans. BBR’s biggest hit followed in the shape of “Feel The Music.” Featured on some of the big compilation CD’s of the time, it was a disco-infused track which was played live in the studio and still sounds great today. Mike eventually left Legends in 1993 and was looking for something new and found that in the shape of the World club, again in Warrington and this is where Mike’s love of the disco sample was played out on his own productions in the studio with tracks like “Disco Groove,” also remixed by New York’s production team Roc & Kato, and in his sets with new music coming from the likes of DJ Sneak and G.U. and his love for the American sounds. Mike eventually had a family and settled down in Melbourne Australia but after ten years decided to make the move back to the U.K. in 2016 and also started to produce new material under his own name, releases for Masterworks, Reptile Dysfunction, and ALL MY FRIENDS to name a few.
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