The Ritual with Anane and Louie Vega presents Masters at Work at Heart Ibiza! The event will take place Tuesday, August 21st.
There are few names in dance music today which need less of an introduction than the 4 time Grammy nominated Masters At Work. The duo of Louie Vega and Kenny Dope have forged a reputation for genre-eschewing DJ sets and flawless house production during careers which have spanned three decades and seen hundreds of releases and remixes. Their influence and reach changed house forever. Taking the distinct and already highly praised production aesthetic of Vega and fusing it with Gonzalez’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Breaks and Hip-Hop, Masters At Work created an accessible yet defiantly underground sound that is still being copied and referenced – but crucially never bettered – by many of today’s contemporary producers.
MAW has a history as remixers, having reproduced tracks for various acts both inside and outside the world of dance music. Some of the artists remixed by the two producers include Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson. Madonna, Donna Summer, Aaliyah, Gus Gus, Jody Watley, Jamiroquai, Earth Wind & Fire, and Stephanie Mills.
Masters At Work have always operated according to their own rules and their own sound. Whether it’s the sampling techniques of hip-hop, the swing of Latin and jazz styles or the soulful euphoria and minimal sounds of deep house – they’ve always added their own special ingredients, which is what makes Masters At Work genuine dance music legends.
When the Masters At Work got together to work on their own tracks their mutual taste for blending and melding different styles was evident on one of their first releases on Cutting Records; ‘Blood Vibes’, which mixed Junior Reed’s classic reggae cut ‘One Blood’ with MC Shan’s ‘The Bridge’. These influences came from Vega’s famed sets at Roseland and Studio 54 where he combined Hip Hop and Reggae alongside early House and Freestyle music. On the other side was ‘The Ha Dance’ which became a staple of the voguing or ballroom scene in New York, and, in fact, is still sampled to this day by the new generation of ballroom producers like Mike Q. It was an auspicious start for the pair, setting their standards sky high, as well as being a precursor for how influential their style would become.
Text by Pau Kural
