For those of us who are stuck in a long time warp — stretching from the Seventies to the Nineties — it’s comforting to know that things don’t really have to change to be okay. Louie Vega, for example, never changes. Bar his name. That’s been updated from Little Louie to, simply, Louie.
Vega is the king of Nuyorican house and a partner in Masters at Work with Kenny Dope Gonzalez. Vega’s official biography tells us that he was influenced by his sisters Myrna and Edna who had some involvement in the alternative New York disco scene of the Seventies. Alternative disco? Yes well, one has to remember that once upon a time disco was regarded as underground. More so in South Africa where gays got down despite the law and dance floors went multiracial long after midnight, once the cops were tucked away.
Which is not to suggest that disco was ever a political movement. But there’s always been something mildly subversive about a bunch of people having fun without regard for social restrictions — be they religious or political.
Vega’s Elements of Life came out in 2004 and formed the basis of his subsequent project Elements of Life: Extensions (House Afrika/Yfm) that has now hit the country care of House Afrika records and Yfm. In the best sense, it’s pure fun.
The basic concept is that the world is made up of interconnected rhythms that form one big, happy family of groovy sound: bossanova, samba, Afrojazz, salsa and soca. As you will have gathered, the refurbished Elements of Life ticks along nicely, to say the least.
The new big thing is Vega’s patronage of Cape Verde songstress Anané, now based on Rhode Island where she doubles as a supermodel and princess of Latin pop. Anané does a big job on both albums, obviously in Portuguese. Vega calls Anané his “secret weapon muse”. On the track Ma Mi Mama, mixed by deep house wizard Glenn Underground, the sweet-voiced Anane; has been cooked to shit.
To love Extensions you have to be into that overproduced Latin whispering, a sound that is pretty enough to sell expensive cars in commercials. On the grittier Journey’s Prelude, there is some limp yacking by Ursula Rucker about saving the planet through common cause. Not my favourite, but not entirely out of place.