Review: Honey Dijon – DJ-Kicks

Fashion icon, catwalker, curator, historian, commentator, activist, Grammy winner and DJ, there ain’t much these days that Ms. Honey Dijon doesn’t do with aplomb. Most of her achievements thus far came via her passion for clubbing and the art of DJing, from those early Chicago parties to her role as a de facto ambassador for world dancefloors.

Chatting to Honey for a few minutes, you swiftly realise when it comes to records, labels, releases, she’s a house music nerd, having been schooled by some of the Windy City’s masters and is as adept at bringing the past into the future as anyone else in the business. This compilation is a testament to someone whose knowledge of the underground labels of yore is encyclopaedic and Ms. Dijon has dredged the recesses of her clubbing memories.

I’m a huge fan of research. So putting this compilation together was basically going into my dancefloor experience and finding gems I wanted to present to people that they may not have been familiar with or that they didn’t even know existed.

Thus we have Psychedelic Research Lab’s anthemic NY banger ‘Keep On Climbing’, which came out on producer Scott Richmond’s own store label, Satellite, or Sir Lord Comixx’s London vibes on the aptly-named ‘Soul House’ which, says Honey, ‘I heard Danny play it at 7am in Twilo and it was so fuckin’ weird’. Kingsley O, the London boy marooned in Connecticut, contributes the Jersey vibes on Maydie Myles’ brilliant debut single, ‘Keep On Luvin’, reinforced by Blaze associate Cassio The Cassmaster’s ‘Gettin Hot’.

This compilation is a pan-global, multi-era waltz through house music’s storied past. Repping Chicago, there’s Dance Mania’s Dance Kings, Blackjoy and Art Of Tones carrying the flag for Paris and even Shaboom’s Blackpool gets a nod. Some of these are forgotten classics, some are dollar bin finds, and there’s also a brand new Dijon track, sprinkled with her usual mustard-hot flourishes and lightly seasoned with some more recent efforts by Wajeed and Kiko Navarro. This can be consumed on a dancefloor, in the back of a cab or relaxing at home with a glass of something cold (or, if you must, hot).