Sometime last year we attended a live performance by Jersey’s Pink Stallone in a Bushwick warehouse party, hosted, I believe, by Vietcong Disco. It was sort of perfect. There was a ton of smoke machine smoke. There were several guys behind a small fortress of analog gear making beats. And there was Joey Washington, a veteran house singer, on the microphone, belting out confessions and emanating positivity. It felt raw and classic, this churning, robotic sound and soulful voice pounding through the fog, as if emerging for the first time, out of the primordial murk. I remembered wishing that more house music parties would feel this way: chaotic, edgy and passionate. I have reviewed Pink Stallone releases for Resident Advisor and always look forward to their gritty, smart productions. The Pink Stallone podcast for CCC, helmed by Dan, one of the group’s central figures, or the central figure, it is unclear, draws heavily on the classic-house update they’ve carved for themselves, to the extent that I at first thought it was composed entirely of their own productions, so seamlessly do the bristly analog drums and dreamy synths blend into one another.
Dan has this to add:
“When i was listening back to the mix, i picked up on the dude in the traumprinz 12” saying something about “hanging in the corner at shelter”. I quickly remembered when I heard this that a decent number of the records in this exact mix were chosen at the WFMU record fair with the guy who ran Shelter, Freddy Sanon. It was like a ghostly reminder of how experiential the genre of house can be, and why making my own music and finding the music of others will continuously fascinate me.”
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