December 2009 : First Touch

.: The Soulmovement Hot One :.
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The 'Soulmovement Hot One' for December is First Touch

What's to know about First Touch?

It was around 2000 when Nanthara Vorabouth and Zeljko 'Jelly Jam' Pijuk Schmitt got in contact with each other seriously through buying records and crate diggin. Coming from the city of Mannheim/Germany and deeply rooted in the local hip hop scene, both soon realized their similar love for so called soulful music, from jazz, funk, modern soul to disco, boogie and 80's funk. They immediately hit it off and started spinning records back to back at several local funk'n'soul partys.

With their demand to bring DJ-ing to another level they started using keyboards and percussions live on stage. The dj breakthrough came with the monthly resident 'Soul Delicious' event at the Soho club in Mannheim around 2003/04, playing all genres of soulful music. Besides the DJ-ing there was always a strong attempt to produce and release their own material. In 2006 Jelly Jam produced a deep house remix of a’ Thomas Sifling Trio’ jazztune and achieved international acclaim with following licences to London and Japan.

So 2006 is also the point where the project “First Touch’’ was created by Nanthara and Jelly and first saw the light of the world. First Touch is a synonym for classic disco, boogie and 80’s synth funk with an approach to keep it as original as possible. Beautiful chord progressions combined with complex song structure and authentic sound engineering are the main ingredients. To make a long story short: Positive, good feeling funk music.

Finally here it is, the long awaited First Touch debut longplayer. During a creative period of almost two years and several unexpected breaks and ups and downs, the two band members put all strength together and selected ten fine boogie tunes to please your thirst for authentic true 80's funk'n'disco grooves. It's officially released early 2009 on their own homebase label Highsteppin records. The tunes were completely mastered by our partner in crime Reeno at spazzoid studios NYC. The group's first release got a great approach that hints at more sophisticated soul styles, but which is still firmly in charge of those bass-driven grooves that made the late 70ies disco, early 80ies funk years so fascinating to funkheads all around the world.

Originality is the ruler of the set, and most tracks here vamp around in a very smooth modern soul style of groove. Lots of chord progressions jumping around irresistible rhythms, a reduced but effective ensemble arrangement style, and not to mention an armada of synthesizers help keep things clean and mean. From the smooth midtempo tune 'all because of you' to the more uplifting gem 'it's yours', you can't help but smile. Groove & move to the debut lp from this Germany/Mannheim based funk group, delivering a long lost goodtimesfeel along with the side-dishes of boogie and modern soul.

Click here to visit the official First Touch MySpace website.

(please note that registered users are allowed to vote on this months' Hot One)