Still Mixing It Up While Clubs Are Closed: Kylie Minogue, Joel Corry, Louie Vega & More Stay-at-Home DJ Picks
Each week, Billboard is polling club DJs, with venues shuttered due to the coronavirus.
With clubs closed across the country and Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart on hiatus, we’re asking reporting club DJs what they’ve been listening to lately, while at home, of course.
This week, we spoke with Springfield, Missouri, DJ CEO; Tampa, Florida’s Bruce Devery; and Los Angeles’ Glovibes.
CEO
CEO (real name Darin Gloe) reports that he’s been loving Joel Corry and MNEK’s “Head & Heart.” “This is definitely where house music is going,” CEO proclaims to Billboard. “Gone are the big drops and in is a smoother, more refined sound that can still get the dance floor popping but also allows people to post up on the wall and nod their heads.”
CEO, who would normally be playing at venues across Missouri, including Luna in Springfield, in addition to DJing for the the Springfield Cardinals, a AA affiliate of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals, has also been enjoying Codeko’s “Chance,” which is built around a vocal sample from “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5. The DJ calls it “a great modern take on an absolute classic.”
The Jackson 5’s original topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (then known as Best Selling Soul Singles) for four frames in 1970.
Additionally, CEO, who produces daily mix shows on top Springfield 40 station KSPW (Power 96.5) and Saturday night shows on rhythmic outlet WJQM (93.1 Jamz) in Madison, Wisconsin, lauds another track that borrows from a classic, Breathe Carolina, Robert Falcon and Conor Maynard’s “If U.” “They have a real gem with ‘If U,” CEO says. “Again, taking a famous vocal sample from ‘If You Had My Love’ by Jennifer Lopez gives this one an unfamiliar-familiarity that is sure to get heads to turn.”
Lopez’s first Hot 100 hit and a five-week leader in 1999, “Love” reached No. 5 on Dance Club Songs that year. Lopez has 18 No. 1s, the sixth-most among all acts, on the latter list, including her most recent, “Baila Conmigo,” in February (less than a month before the chart’s pandemic-induced suspension).
Bruce Devery
Bruce Devery has been enjoying Becky Hill and Sigala’s “Heaven on My Mind” (Colin Jay & Jose Knight remix). “It’s just a happy pop/house track,” Devery tells Billboard. “It lifts everyone’s spirits and makes you dance around the house!”
“Heaven” hit No. 8 on the Aug. 15-dated LyricFind Global chart, and jumps 17-14 this week on the Official UK Singles chart.
Devery, who would usually be spinning Friday and Saturday nights at Cristoph’s in Tampa, has also been digging Kylie Minogue’s “Say Something” (Danny Morris Disco 2020 remix). The DJ muses, “Morris takes the new Kylie track, pumps up the BPMs slightly and gives it a little disco punch to make it soar.”
Additionally, Devery, who hails from Detroit, extols the virtues of Purple Disco Machine and Sophie and the Giants’ “Hypnotized” (club dub mix). “Tino Piontek, aka Purple Disco Machine, does retro disco house the best,” Devery says. “‘Hypnotized’ sounds like it’s sampling a retro track, like his previous work, but if it is, I can’t place it. It sounds great.”
The track is enjoying international success, hitting No. 4 on Italy Digital Song Sales earlier this month and lifting 17-14 on the latest Euro Digital Song Sales list.
Glovibes
Glovibes (real name Leonardo Abbate), who has charted three Dance Club Songs entries, including the top 10s “One by One” (with Luciana; No. 5, 2016) and “Watch Out” (with Gary Caos; No. 7, 2017) and whose latest effort, “Dangerous,” just dropped Aug. 6, has been boogieing to Boys Noize’s “Mvinline” (extended mix).
“The way Boys Noize [German DJ Alexander Ridha] produced this jam, based on a 40-plus-year-old sample of Black Ivory, is simply divine,” Glovibes tells Billboard. “A perfect mix of disco and house, with a bouncy solid groove, ‘Mvinline’ is one of the best dance productions of 2020 for me so far.”
Black Ivory’s original “Mainline” made it to No. 57 on the Dance Club Songs chart (then published as the Disco Top 80) in August 1979.
Glovibes, who but for the pandemic would be playing at a variety of Los Angeles-area venues such as The Abbey, Ish at the Standard Hotel, Megawoof at Precinct DTLA and more, has also been into Louie Vega and The Martinez Brothers’ “Let It Go,” with Marc E. Bassy (extended mix).
The Italian-American DJ explains, “When two house music legends decide to get together in the studio, expect nothing less than a masterpiece! Everything in this track is what I define as pure house.”
Additionally, Glovibes, who has been producing a monthly livestream at the Social Sanctuary warehouse studio, has been liking Horse Meat Disco and Kathy Sledge’s “Jump Into the Light” (Aeroplane extended remix). Gushes Glovibes, “Been waiting for this for too long. Aeroplane’s amazing remix brings the perfect summer vibe.”
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