Cargo Records

The Nu Groove Years 1988 – 1992 Part 1

Recording under different aliases, the Burrell Brothers were the backbone of Nu Groove Records. This New York label started in 1887 and took inspiration from Trax Records, both musically and aesthetically. This compilation compiles the absolute best of the Burrell's output and in doing so it gives a valuable insight to the much overlooked roots of New York house music.

It is now close to 25 years ago that Nu Groove Records started operating from New York City, in which its house scene was starting to blossom at that time. In the four years the label existed, 1988 till 1992, it released over 100 records. Nu Groove started by releasing records by Rheji and Ronald Burrell and continued to do so until the label folded. The brothers were scouted by the label's a&r after they had recorded a ton of material for EMI America that never came out. The album that did came out flopped commercially. The deal with EMI was discontinued and the pair started to release stuff through Nu Groove.

The label famously went on to put out early releases from other artists such as Bobby Konders, Frankie Bones and Joey Beltram, who went on to have big careers after that. The Burrell's have always stayed under the radar, which has largely to do with the various aliases they used for different projects, such as Aphrodisiac, Equation, Houz' Neegroz, Metro, N.Y. House'n Authority and Tech Trax Inc. This release is a celebration of the work of the Burrell Brothers. The album includes a wide variety of their music under all their various guises. And despite their different guises, all the music they made always had a grainy quality to it, like house music with a sepia tint. In Rheji's words: “The first House’n Authority was straight to cassette. That’s how we’d record our demos and stuff so we didn’t want to change what we did because it worked. I liked the fact that house music was crusty. Like an old jazz record, I liked the hiss.”

The first LP zooms in on Rhehi's N.Y. House'n Aurthority project. With its raw drum programming and going both in a energetic jacking direction as well as a more deeper reflecting direction, it reminds of early Fingers and Trax Records. Also included here is Ronald's K.A.T.O project which shows a deep and hypnotic side to their music. Another highlight is the much sought after house classic 'I'll Say A Prayer 4U' by Equation. Too much good music to mention, just listen and take it all in.