Croatian disco DJ/producer Ilija Rudman first appeared on my radar back in early 2007 with the After Midnight EP on Love Is War. Its killer cut bore a distinctly different lean than many records at the time, sounding like a mix between Steve Kotey’s Bear Funk productions and LFO’s rather exceptional electro. By this time he’d been kicking around for a number of years, releasing tracks on his own Red Music as early as 2003. Since then Rudman has slowly risen through the ranks, courting remixes from the likes of Pete Herbert, The Revenge and Mark E over the years. The original “Call Me Tonight,” which dropped in February, was a sharp turn for the boogie — all slapped bass, cowbells and 808 drums. Here, however, he teams passes this joint to a few of his old friends for a workout.
greg wilson
Greg Wilson, Credit to the Edit 2
There’s something about the name Greg Wilson that tends to inspire awe in even the most hardened of musos: His legendary turns DJing and creating re-edits from reel to reel tapes through to spreading the sounds of electro-funk throughout Manchester via his 1983 residency at The Haçienda. That’s combined with his abandonment of DJing at his pinnacle to concentrate on producing the likes of the once timely Ruthless Rap Assassins and Yello. As one would expect, he made a rather loud return to the fray in early ’00s during the heady days of nu-disco, dropping the killer LP, Credit to The Edit, on Tirk. Consisting of hand cut edits a la 1983, one saw a number of tracks which harked back to the ’70s and ’80s. Cuts such as Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You,” “I Can’t Turn The Boogie Loose” by the Controllers and “Rockers Revenge” all made an appearance, complete with the excellent, seams ‘n all cuts and bounces. The LP was such as classic that after speaking to one of the Tirk chaps, apparently it’s still shifting units today. CTTE 2, however, is something of a different breed — as if Wilson’s been fully updated with the contemporary technology and his forays back onto the dance floor have provided him with some new inspiration.