Graham BerryPete Tong & HER-O
Chilled Classics (Universal Music)
For two and a half decades, Pete Tong has hosted BBC Radio One’s Essential Mix and Essential Selection. Through his tenure, he became the voice of what is arguably electronic dance music’s most important show and a seminal fixture in Europe’s vast and competitive music landscape. Renown for his insights, Tong even co-hosted NPR’s All Songs Considered in a thought-provoking analysis of the impact American dance music has had over the years on the European scene.
In 2016, Tong’s Album Classic House defined the genre. Then, in 2017, he released a steamy romance between the island tropics and deep Playa at Burning Man in the album Ibiza Classics.
For the third album in collaboration with the venerable Jules Buckley and the follow up to the prior two, yesterday Pete Tong and The Heritage Orchestra (HER_O) released the full-length album Chilled Classics on Universal Music. The project includes breakthrough talent and industry figureheads like Wiley, MNEK, Langa Mavuso, Zara Larsson, Alison Mosshart, The Kills, Grace Carter and more. With grooving undulations and sensual cadences, Chilled Classics shines. Tracks like “Symphony of You” featuring the legendary Boy George, “Alright” with the soulful Au/Ra, and “Let’s Go Crazy” with New Jersey house icon Todd Edwards are firm reminders of the keen ear for style that make Tong the pioneering house music authority that he’s globally known to be.
“Todd used to be signed to me back in the day at FFRR,” Tong shared in a press release. “We always stayed in touch, and he moved to L.A. and I kept bumping into him. I gave him all the references of what I was looking for, sent it over to him, and a month later he came back that with this. He came up with the line, ‘go crazy’, which was a no-brainer for us, for the show, for everything. I’m super-pleased to be reunited with him and really proud of it. It’s an amazingly powerful three minutes, with the Heritage Orchestra vocalists backing him up.”
The 18-track album pours respect and technical prowess into “classic” songs that span continents and generations, effectively making it the perfect go-to album for die-hard house heads and a solid orientation for anyone who isn’t already head-over-heels for the genre.
“We hope our versions are true to the visions of the original songwriters, producers and artists – but equally, they have to stand alone as a worthwhile tribute, alternative and complement to those visions.” says Tong of Chilled Classics, “We’re trying to make timeless music, and we think these [songs] fit in.”
(Universal Music)
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