DJ Sneak — The Records I Bought Blind

In 1995, there was one DJ Sneak record I kept hearing at Rote Liebe:
Forever Disko on 83 West Records. It was not a record that quietly appeared somewhere in the middle of the night. It was a primetime record.
The kind of track that was played when the dancefloor was full and the club was exactly where it needed to be.
And I loved it. That was my introduction to DJ Sneak.

I had already started discovering the sound of labels such as Henry Street Music around that time, and there were similarities.
Sneak himself would release several records on Henry Street, and his music often used the same raw material.
I was beginning to love: Disco samples, loops and small vocal fragments. But his records somehow felt different.
The beats seemed punchier to me. The rhythm pushed harder. Disco samples were cut out of their original context, filtered,
rearranged and turned into something completely new. And then there were the vocals. Or rather, just enough vocals. Just Enough Vocals

As anyone who has read my Kerri Chandler story will already know, I had a difficult relationship with vocals in House music.
Actual singing? Verses? Entire songs? No, thank you. But a tiny vocal fragment cut out of another record and used almost
like another rhythmic element? That was completely different. I loved that.

DJ Sneak used those fragments in a way that worked perfectly for me. They did not turn the track into a song. They became part
of the groove. And once Forever Disko had introduced me to his sound, I wanted more. A lot more.

Buy First, Listen Later

Between roughly 1995 and 1999, I bought every DJ Sneak record I could find. Blind.
I didn’t need to hear it first. If DJ Sneak’s name was on the record, that was enough. Considering how many records he was
releasing at the time, this was not necessarily the most financially sensible policy I have ever had. There always seemed
to be another one. New labels. New EPs. New tracks. Month after month.

For a few years, Sneak became one of those rare artists whose name alone was enough to make me take a record home.
Looking back, though, I can also draw a fairly clear line through that period. For me, his most exciting and creative years
were between 1995 and 1997. There are a few earlier tracks I like, but that short period contains the DJ Sneak sound that really
stayed with me. After that, despite continuing to listen, I found fewer and fewer records that connected with me in the same way.
That didn’t stop me from checking. It still hasn’t.

Not the Hit

In 1997, DJ Sneak released what would become one of his best-known tracks:
You Can’t Hide From Your Bud on Classic Music Company.

Naturally, it is not my favourite DJ Sneak track. In fact, when I played that record, I usually turned it over. On the other
side was Derrick Carter’s version. That was the one for me. And it still is. There is probably something appropriate about that.
Even during the period when Sneak was one of my absolute musical heroes, the famous track was not automatically the track I preferred.
The record still had to work for me. The name on it could make me buy it blind. It couldn’t decide which side I would play.

Following Sneak

Buying all those records did something else. DJ Sneak became another way into the wider world of House music.
I started paying attention to the labels his records appeared on. From there, I found other artists, other releases and other sounds.
83 West Records, Cajual Records, Jinxx Records, Relief Records, Downtown 161…
Some of those labels I might have discovered anyway. But probably not as quickly. Sneak gave me a route into them.

And once again, one artist led to a label, the label led to another artist, and suddenly I was searching through a completely
different part of House music. That way of discovering music has stayed with me ever since.

Still Checking

My intense DJ Sneak period did not last forever. I never stopped following his releases, though. Even today, when a new DJ Sneak
record appears, I listen to it. For many years, very little ended up in my collection. But recently that has started to change again.
Over the last couple of years, I have found four or five newer releases that I liked enough to buy. I don’t expect them to recreate 1995.
I wouldn’t want them to. That moment belonged to a particular time, a particular sound and a particular version of me.
But it is nice to find new Sneak records that make me listen again. The Ones That Still Come With Me I don’t DJ very often anymore.
But when I do, there are usually two or three DJ Sneak records in my bag.
After all these years, with thousands of other records to choose from, they still earn their place. And yes, they are the old ones.
The records from 1995 to 1997. The period that started for me with Forever Disko playing at Rote Liebe. I have bought a lot of music since then.
My taste has expanded, changed and moved in all kinds of directions.
But some records never really leave your record box. Even when the record box itself doesn’t leave the house very often anymore.