Ken Doh – The Nakasaki EP

Complete dancefloor monster which got play right across the spectrum from underground hard dance places like Strawberry Sundae and Sunnyside Up in London through the big house superclubs to the pop mainstream clubs. As has been says it has to be the original instrumental mix.So many times the record companies thought they needed to put a dodgy vocal on a club instrumental that was then ruined. Even with the unnecessary vocal the pop stations still wouldn't play it so it was a completely pointless exercise. Striaght off the top of my head I can think of 'Flowtation' by Vincent De Moor, Moonman's 'Don't Be Afraid' and OT Quartet's Hold That Sucker Down' which were all ruined by vocal mixes you never heard out and were still not played on pop radio so they actually damaged the tunes chances in the pop charrs because the vocals ruined what made the original tune so great in the first place. Even pop fans like instrumentals if they're catchy or good enough.

An absolute mid-90s club classic, never understood why it was released as an EP as it was essentially one track with remixes. The full-length mix boasted one hell of a breakdown filled with a shimmering synth arpeggio and monumental drum crashes, making those male diva vocals carry even more punch. It wasn't a peakless chugger or a layered progger, but somewhere in between. According to Mixmag around the time of its release in early '96, the track was loosely based on Outrage's 1992 single 'That Piano Track', which can be heard in the pre-breakdown section.

Big hands in the air tune ! Massive in its day, really use to get the clubs rocking.
Big piano lines and even bigger strings and drum rolls, this track just builds and builds.
This is the 12" to go for, the future releases were too polished and when you add vocals etc, 99.9% of the time you lose what the track was about. Great tune that really captures the time it was released and still enjoy listening to today.

An unforgettable track, not a favourite, but certainly one that jerks you back to that point in the night, if you were that age, at that time ! Just came across this, interesting how history 'repeats' itself, non? ;) https://discogs.sitiodesbloquea.com/Monumental-Mandala/release/181557 - Check 'The Crunch Mix'

Forget the commercial mixes released on FFRR, when this came out in late 1994 on white label via Nice Vinyl simply entitled Nakasaki it created quite a stir in clubland. The original mix was just the piano driven instrumental without the vocals and because it was in short supply (I still only have the FFRR version), I the buzz being similar to when Gat Decor released ion back in 92. One of the biggest piano driven tunes from the mid 1990's and although it did go very commercial (played at the all the cheesey clubs up and down the land)the original mix is still a fantastic slice of UK club culture.