One of the reasons Sasha and Diggers built such a strong rep in the States is them always hitting up the local shops. Halo’s “Future” had been around for a bit on White Label in Tweekin’ and other stores but never made much traction. It was looked at as a rip-off of “Fathers Of Sound - Water” before it got picked up by Siesta and then Hooj. Tyrant smashing it out changed a lot of things. Point being, those two invested in local music, like the SF “West Coast Sound”, as much as they benefited from it. Back when different cities had different styles of dance music.
KLF
jonattonyeah lots of great san fransisco djs from that period too. mark farina plays here every canada day still and he’s as good as ever.
Sun kissed records was florida though I think. Had a few records on that label.
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SF had and has a very strong breaks scene. Miami was more tied to Hip Hop (think DJ Icey) where the West Coast thing was more Acid and trippy (think, “Loose Caboose” or Simon’s “Two Crates”; Uberzone if you head down LA-way). The blending with Prog around here came with the Hardkiss brothers (think, God Within “Raincry”).
Trippy House and Breaks have always ruled the roost in the Bay Area.
Mark Farina made his name as much with his House as he did with his Mushroom Jazz discs if that gives any perspective (tremendous DJ, mind). Even the more recent exports like Dirty Bird have had a left of center and humorous approach to dance music. That’s just how it’s always been around here. Weird, funny, trippy, and danceable. Same can be said for Bay Hip Hop - always weird and humorous.
This was an excellent place to be in the late-90’s.
EDIT what a monster this is…
3 months later
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Solid State Logik 2 is up on YT Music and Spotify.
There was also a new mix of Chill Out called Come Down Dawn released in Feb