DJ Duke, Freedom Love Don't Come Easy - Power Mix (1993)
Next to Chicago and Detroit, the birthplaces of house music and techno, respectively, New York ranks among the most influential US cities in the history of dance music. NYC played a pivotal role with its vibrant disco, garage house and ballroom scenes, all of which laid the foundation for the New York house music movement that flourished in the early 1990s.
As a cultural melting pot, the type of house that emerged from NYC during that time was infused with elements of disco, garage, Latin, hip-hop and other genres, resulting in an emotive and percussive sound. One of the key figures in the scene was DJ Duke, born Ken Larsen in Denmark in the late 1960s. His sound was characterized by hypnotic grooves with heavy percussion and soulful, gospel-infused vocals, creating a truly deep sound that was labeled, well, deep house.
A prime example is “Love Don't Come Easy (Power Mix)”, featuring vocals by Lee Smith Jr. Originally released under his Freedom alias on his own Power Music Records in 1993, this dancefloor banger by DJ Duke is our song of the day.
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