Crate Diggin': The Guiding Tracks Of Jane Fitz

If you've been lucky enough to find yourself at the relatively new, "word of mouth" London party, Night Moves, which was born out a joint collaboration between Jane Fitz and Jade Seatle, then you'll know all about its bare bones musical ethos that aims to preserve the true spirit of the underground in our capital city. With no flyers or listings to tell you where the next party is, Night Moves attracts a wonderful mix of purists and new school music lovers who are there to enjoy the undiluted intimate deep techno and house session with guests who are friends of Jane and Jade. We first introduced you to Jane Fitz and her colorful panorama of music tastes in an introducing feature with her back in 2011. She educated us on her legendary Peg parties that once took over Shoreditch’s wasteland and her long-running Monday night show on radio myhouseyourhouse.net which once saw Jus Ed MCing live from her kitchen. Jane quickly made a name for herself here at fabric, not just for the way she talked about her passion for all shades of music irrespective of tempos, genres and styles, but in her eclectic and intense Room Three DJ set that left us reeling for a follow. Favourably for us, that falls at the end of this month for the first ever EDJ Music takeover. Before she joins Jus Ed and Jenifa Mayanja up in Room Three on 27th July for what is set to be one of the best nights in our July programme, Jane has taken us on an surreal journey through some of the weird and wonderful guiding tracks that make her one of those DJs that we always look forward to jumping on the turntables. Lonnie Liston Smith - Expansions (Signature) The first time I heard this record I was probably about 10 years old. Andy Peebles played it on his Radio 1 Soul Train show. I couldn't get my head around it - it was so much more roomy and free than the soul records I'd heard growing up - I guess because it's really from a jazz musician and musically it just went a lot further. The synths on it are super spacey and the percussion feels really loose - except that mental triangle. I can never get enough of this record so that's why it's my number 1. Duran Duran - Anyone Out There (EMI) This was a tough one to call. It could have been ‘Planet Eart’h or ‘The Chauffeur’ or ‘Rio’ or ‘Friends Of Mine’ - I was such a MASSIVE Duran fan when I was younger. They taught me about buying albums and I obsessively scouring the covers and labels for information. For me, it's all about Nick Rhodes and his endless banks of synths and sounds, all riding on John Taylor's frankly arrogant bass-playing. Compare their first three albums to any pop music you hear today and you'll realise what risk-takers they really were. Yazoo - Situation (Mute) Yazoo, like Depeche Mode, came from Basildon in Essex, which is about half an hour from where I grew up in Barking. This always made them more relevant to me - they made super-modern music, they were on Top Of The Pops, and they were local. Vince Clarke squeezed more groove out of his synths and boxes than any other pop artist I can think of at the time. I still play this today. Xena - On The Upside (Emergency) Few records have stayed as relevant and present in my music collection as this electro-funk sex-fest from 1983. I first heard this via the Crucial Electro 2 album - which I bought when I was 12 and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get my head around Russell Brothers and B-Boys Break - they were so sparse and I didn't understand them. This on the other hand was INSTANT. I've always been a sucker for the 808 cowbell and this record has a lot to do with it. When I tracked down the 12-inch a few years later and heard the dub I think I lost it a little bit more. Eddie Flashin Fowlkes - Time To Express (Spinnin') What a loose groove on such a jam-packed tune. It's like Eddie threw every idea at the wall to see what would stick - thankfully all of it; farty basslines, choirs, sex noises, electro drums, rubbery sped-up vocals, pianos - this record has it all. I first heard this on a compilation that came out in 1988 - Techno: The New Dance Sound Of Detroit. And it absolutely smashed my little 16-year-old ears to pieces; I don't think I knew what had hit me. I still can't really describe what this music is either - techno, electro, house, funk, I really don't know what it is - except I know that I love it. Slam - Phuture (Trax) Hearing this marked the beginning of my conversion to house music. I was 15 when I heard this - at a party in the backroom of a pub in Dagenham that I use to go to every week for about a year. It was about 1988 and at that time they used to play a lot of UK hip house, old soul and funk classics like Gwen McCrae and Cheryl Lynn, a bit of hip hop, and whatever house was around, which wasn't that much really. At that time it was stuff that was making it into the charts, vocal records such as ‘Jack Your Body’ or ‘Love Can't Turn Around’. So when they played this, it completely shook me up. Nothing sounded anything like it, and to this day I think it's the rawest yet most complete acid house record. DJ Pierre and Gene Hunt going absolutely ape shit on the 303, and the drums are almost gladiatorial. Not for the faint-hearted. A serious heads-down thump. Cantamilla - Tranquility Bass (Exist Dance) By the early 90s, when I was a student, I spent most of my time at jazz and soul clubs such as Dingwalls, The Musiquarium at the Iceni and Talkin Loud. I really liked the range of music you could hear, I liked the vibe and I liked the fact people really went for it on the dancefloor, to almost anything. As the mid 90's approached a lot of the clubs started playing some really far-out new music. I remember Bob Jones playing this at a basement just off Oxford Street, and the next day I was buying it in Soul Jazz Records. It was totally different to anything else at the time. I thought the whole EP came from outer space. I still do. Cloud 9 - Jazzmin (Moving Shadow) This record was a huge influence on me. I first heard this at a house party in Hackney in 1995 and was blown away that jungle could be really soulful. This is by Nookie, who has also made some impressive techno records along the way. I don't I would have got back into house again if it wasn't for this record because it showed me maybe I’d been a bit immersed in rare groove records for too long and needed to hear something new and different. I played this at the last Night Moves party in June as well - I doubt anyone expected to hear any drum and bass from me, but it fitted perfectly. It's a record I come back to time and again, the vibe is brilliant - I'll never tire of it. Francois K - Time and Space (Wave) This came out in 1998, which was a pivotal year for me. Everything changed. I went to New York City for the first time; made the decision to switch back to playing house music because of what I'd heard there; got my first proper residency, in Hong Kong, at a proper leftside little party called Robot, where I caned this record all summer. I made the decision at the end of the year to move back to London. This choice could easily have been DJQ's ‘Delirium’, because we played the living daylights out of it, but I think I still play this more. It's a seriously layered track that used to send people, and me, into orbit. "Mystical journeys in time and space..." Come on. Pixelife - Seeing Through Smoke (Horn Wax) Something bang up to date. This was released last year on Horn Wax, which I think is such an exciting label. Last year I was getting really weary of house - loads of young people were getting into it for the first time in ages and buying records, which was great, but they seemed to all be buying the same ones, and producers were making endless pastiches of 90’s records. I found it so depressing. It's fine to dig out old records, because if you've never heard them before then they are new. But don't stop there - dig deeper, challenge your ears a bit more. So I was over the moon when I heard this - it's new, exciting, imaginative, deep, skirting the edges of psychedelic, bringing the trance (small t) element back to the dancefloor, not giving a fuck what anyone else is doing. That's what I strive to do and thankfully, records like this allow me to do it. I played this at a festival in Bulgaria in June at sunrise, and it was the perfect fit. Big up Horn, and Tusk, Wax for arming me with weapons like this.