“I’m so glad that I’ve been given sweeter days”
Much like the now-immortal Nile Rodgers, Marquis Hawkes is finding success later in life, riding a dance craze so intense, it has mined every decade and every continent in search of the ultimate selector set. Hawkes isn’t quite as seasoned as Rodgers, but he dug crates in Berlin for 15 years before finding success on the Glasgow imprint Dixon Avenue Basement Jams. Could either of them have guessed that disco and Chicago house would suddenly come roaring back into the frame, the preppy, pastel-and-permed pastiche recast as innocent escapism? Probably not, but the beckon of the club is stronger than ever. In America, dance roots are slowly being rediscovered, and EDM is as strong a brand as “adult alternative” and country. In the UK, even the most meager flock of brutalist apartment blocks will have its own Cheesy 60s Night, Cheesy 80s Night, Cheesy 00s Night, and Madchester Cheesefest. Adults with hideous scars, Stag Doers, and underage teens alike will get pinging to Dead Mow 5, Human League, and Mister Fingers all on the same street.
“I wanna be, where I wanna be”
Ultimately, whatever form it takes, a club is about love, though. Love, and being glad for being alive, and for being in a club. Let the club take you to a decade when you never existed — time travel is real. Experience the thrill of discovery at the end of the 20th century all over again, without any of the wars or complicated politics, return to your home unharmed at the end of the night, in your current time. No butterfly effect, no nasty time paradoxes. In “I’m So Glad,” which features vocals from dance-vocalist veteran Jocelyn Brown, the pleasure of re-experiencing nostalgia for the first time ever comes right straight to your laptop screen. The release is for fabric London’s Houndstooth label, known for curating eclectic, foot-stomping wax — it’s already received mad love from the BBC, the quickest avenue to the mainstream airwaves. “I’m So Glad” screams like a stream train, heavy glitz like a golden elevator (listen to that bass snap!), but it isn’t nostalgia, or rebirth, it’s something completely fresh, and starchy. Working with Brown must be a dream for a househead like Hawkes, and it shines through on the track. We all get to live Marquis Hawkes’s dream this time.
Check out the video for the track below. The Houndstooth edition, which contains remixes by heavyweight DJ Paul Woolford and the Polish duo Catz ‘N Dogz, is almost sold out. It’s still snaggable for now on Bandcamp.
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