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All Tracks remastered by ColourSound / Barcelone

It’s been now 25 years that Olivier Portal has been Playin’ 4 the City.

Very versatile in the beginning, he has nurtured his productions while doing club residencies in Paris and Chicago, making his music all the more dancing and developing a very original touch drawing near to the sounds of Chi -Town and New Jersey. By the end of the 90’s, he collaborated with many DJ’s and producers such as DJ Deep, Julien Jabre and Franck Roger among others, thus gaining a real credibility and much respect from the underground Parisian house scene and the world at large.

The Music & The Rhythm 1997-2003 brings back to the forefront some of the most anthemic tracks reflecting a very creative period in which Olivier Portal hooked up with great vocalists and players to produce his own style of deep house rich in soulful vocals, jazzy harmonies, funky bass lines and his trademark keyboard layers
This compilation, besides offering the best of the Straight Up era with some great classics like the smooth "Music and the Rhythm", the seminal "More Than Ever" and crucial tracks like "The Shore" and "Deep Inside", also entitles us to retrieve very in demand gems like "Atmosfear’s Vibe", "Spirits" and "My City Life" that now fetch hefty prices in the 12” market.


The Silver edition.
Last november Betino’s Records released the triple vinyl compilation. I am very pleased to announce that the record has sold out and that we have ordered a re-pressing. I took so much pleasure in curating those tracks that when the moment came to issue the digital version of the compilation, I wanted to take the advantage of not having anymore the time constraint of the six vinyl sides. It became obvious to bring back together more memorable tunes from that era and have them properly remastered. I did an in-depth research through my old DATs and found five unreleased tracks worth sharing. On top of this, I added several tracks that either had a very confidential distribution or alternative mixes of tunes that are on the vinyl version. The vinyl version has 14 tracks altogether when this digital Silver edition counts 29 numbers.
I think that I am now entitled to call this silver edition an anthology, which was not the case for the vinyl version.
I hope that you will enjoy listening to my music as much as I had making it.

Peace.

Created in 1996, Playin' 4 the City is the brainchild of the multi instrumentist and producer Olivier Portal. Besides his own production, he has collaborated with the likes of DJ Deep, Franck Roger among others on labels such as Straight-up, Distance, Seasons, La Rosière, Music 101. His latest release is on La Mamie's records.

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