Artist: Boogie Balo Feat Roxy
Title: Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Label: Yo Recordings
By: Michael Schreiber | 20 January 2004
Tracklist:

• A: Original Squish Mix
• B: Double Dee Mix
• C: Balo's Creamy Blend
• D: Sidekick Mix

Boogie Balo Feat Roxy "Chocolate and Peanut Butter"

Back in July 2001, Dubfire & Sharam released their Global Underground: Moscow mix compilation, on which two bonus accapellas were included. Both of them were from Louie Balo productions - one of them was the vocals for this track, intended by the Yoshitoshi camp to spark interest for it.

Years before though, "And It Goes Squish Mix" and "Instrumental Mix" were a 1994 Emotive Records release by "Roxy & The Squish Committee" and in October 2003, Yoshitoshi's sub-label, YO! followed-up the GU comp's accapella inclusion with this double-pack release of four mixes and two accapellas.

Artist "Boogie Balo" is actually Louie 'Balo' Guzman. He's no stranger to Deep Dish's label imprints, with his previous release of updated "Activator (You Need Some)" summer 2003 mixes under his "Whatever Girl" collaboration with Bill Coleman. Louie's house music career is phenomenal shown easily by his classic works of Gisele Jackson's "Love Commandments," Loleatta Holloway "Stand Up" and Matt Wood's "What Am I Gonna Do With You.” These stand alongside a stellar roster of remixes and works on labels including Emotive, Tribal America, Nervous, Vicious Musik, Eightball (as their House Engineer), West End, Strictly Rhythm, Wave, Kult, Maxi and King Street. One can't forget to mention some examples of his noteworthy studio production/engineering collaborations that include Danny Tenaglia, Mood II Swing, Johnny Vicious and Jeannie Hopper.

NYC Drag-songstress Roxy was a fixture at Paradise Garage and Midtown 43 and is currently signed to Twisted America. She is no stranger to working with Louie, serving up the dance floor runway-themed diva tracks "Get Huh!", "Love To Do It!" and "Accident" under the moniker "Ride Committee feat. Roxy." July 2003 brought another Ride Committee release on the Wave Music label called "Curtains For You," which was a tribute to legendary NYC vogueing ball MC, Moi Renee, who sang "Miss Honey." That track paved the way for "bitch tracks" like those which Roxy is known for.

The YO! label decided to revive this campy track with these fresh mixes, that were even thrown down regularly by notable dj Timo Maas, proving that many of the house tracks of days gone by are timeless and still will move even today’s younger generation of clubbers worldwide.

Original Squish Mix

Dirty, scratchy filtered drum beats pound along as a one minor key digital beep interjects after each two beat repetition. A tin “clik-clak” slapping effect accompanies these as well. Simple cymbal crashes accentuate Roxy’s heavily echoed vocal repeats of “Chocolate…Peanut Butter…Squish!”

Another raw spinning sound, similar to an old diesel engine rattling and an eerie haunting wa-wa sample rustle about in the main segment of the mix also. This track brings back the old stripped-down Chicago filtered house sound which is raw, gritty and very repetitious, and at the same time funky, contagious and groovy. It’s a sound from the old Sound Factory days of the early 90’s when anthems with peaks, build-ups, etc. weren’t what the crowd was hitting the dance floors for.

This mix starts off with some infectious beats and rasping percussion as it is swiftly met with the freaky vocal and the crazy effect it creates. Swishing, swooping sounds are constantly creating a bouncing-from-speaker-to-speaker effect as the track gets funkier, with a twist of tribal madness. A great array of sounds is added into the mix and are actually quite hard to describe. The breakdown gets all warped with the vocal playing along while some rattling sounds take over in the percussion department. A very unique mix to say the least.

Double Dee Remix

A bit tranceier, and somewhat sounding as if Danny Tenaglia put his touch on it, pulling from his Tunnel-era productions. And this sound is not foreign to Louie, for he provided addt’l percussion, engineering and digital editing for tracks on DT’s “Hard & Soul” album.

The composition is similar to Tenaglia’s (feat. Roxy) track “$ (that’s what I want)” where there are a few metal tapping sounds, including some rapid tin-drumming playing above a steady 4/4 beat. Large, low-toned, drawn-out synth chords flow inward, blanketing the track with its sound. As the one chord fades out, another one higher in key and smoother and softer in flow takes its place. Many more percussive elements come in just after the 2:00 mark including high-hats, claps, louder hammering pounds and some distorted bassline. As a whole, they are the mix’s driving force, putting forth a very progressive tribal vibe. Roxy’s short phrases are again echoed heavily and remain at the forefront by each word falling upon each other as the echoes are drawn-out in time.

Balo’s Creamy Blend

In this mix the percussion is almost identical to that used in his Whatever Girl “Know You Can” bouncy drum-laden production comprised of some bongos, tambourine rattles and heavy bass dropping beats that are a very mechanical repeating sequence. A deep melody plays into this, tending to blend into the swirl. A stuttered one key repetition sounding like a robotic sounding of “la” is another stand-out element.

A guitar-like air synth bellows out towards 3:00 and crashes into an electric synth chord that is only heard twice. Around 6:00, a drop-out happens to just a 4/4 beat, some cymbal brushes and a tabla drumming rep. leading into a breakdown of some deep key notes. That launches abruptly back into all the percussive elements ending out the track. The best part of this mix happens between 3:00-6:00 when the mix becomes very funky with an echo filtering effect sounding like everything is being stirred into a liquid state and you can hear all elements, especially all the beats going around in a circular motion through the speakers.

Sidekick Remix

Liverpool talent Gregg Patterson follows-up his YO! “Respond/What You Want” release with an appearance for this remix. This stands out as the big-room, peak-hour dance floor pleaser mix on this d/p. The hard bass drum beats, cymbal taps and clap accentuations are feverishly fast-pitched similar to those of “Respond” with a droning 9-note minor key melody trailing next to it. A rolling synth sequence becomes a main element throughout, and it’s accompanied by some buzzing electro-squelched stabs. Lush atmospheric chord progressions are held for about five seconds before they change to another one, adding a lot of depth to the overall soundscape. The structure of this mix is tight and each element sounds clear and precise as they weave and stab around each other, compared to some of the other mixes which swirl them together. Gregg easily grabs this release’s spotlight by putting forth this complex over-the-top energetic production.

Fluff Accapella & Roxy’s Peanutless Accapella

These accapellas are very heavily echoed with long delayed fade-outs of the reverberation of each word. Roxy puts forth a silly campy dialogue of a grocery shopping list and multiple short catch-phrases about chocolate taste sensations and peanut butter fluff. The most bizarre vocal is her thoughts about letting 1960s actress Annette Funicello borrow her peanut butter. Her voice pitches upward extremely and draws out some words for “diva-sounding” prominence and emphasis.

You can find this double-pack at your local record store, or shop online at yoshop.com and get the added choice of downloading the mixes in mp3 format. By doing this, you can either purchase all four mixes for $3.99 (USD) or individually for $1.49 (USD).

Be on the lookout in March for Roxy’s new single on Twisted America entitled “Turning It” with "Irresistibly Turning It" produced by Tom Stephan “Superchumbo” and "Sonikally Turning It" produced by Geoff Gains.

Soon thereafter, Twisted will bring us ROXY's long overdue debut album which will include tracks "Doing Shows and Carrying On" (produced by Danny Tenaglia), "That Voice" (produced by Louie Balo) and "Mind Your Business" (produced by Adam Freemer)…along with many more surprise treats!