An orchestra, Robert Owens on vocals and the jazz groove of St. Germain’s “Rose Rouge”: that’s the record that sets the tone early in Feeling Factor Vol. 46. Ludovic Navarre’s original came out on Tourist in 2000, and hearing it carried by Owens’s gospel voice in Pete Tong and HERO’s orchestral version still sounds extraordinary to me.
Feeling Factor is the series where I don’t overthink the selection. I just play what feels right. Each volume is a snapshot of where I am musically at that moment: what I’ve been listening to, what’s been working in sets, and what’s been sitting in the library waiting for the right context. By volume 46, the series has its own logic.
This one is jazzy, deep and soulful, three words that get overused as genre labels but that I mean specifically here. Jazzy for harmony that goes past the standard house chord palette. Deep for emotional weight and an unhurried tempo, more than sonic heaviness. Soulful in the old sense: music that carries a feeling through the performance, not just through production polish.
Radio Slave’s “Strobe Queen”, in Eric Kupper’s remix, takes the house energy somewhere more contemplative. Ben Westbeech’s “Something for the Weekend”, from his 2011 Strictly Rhythm album There’s More to Life Than This, has been in my sets for years and shows no sign of leaving. Kings Of Tomorrow’s “Vibes” is exactly what it says it is.
Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful”, in the Scott Wozniak and Master Kev version, still catches me off guard when I play it, which is usually a sign that a record is doing what it should. The closing selections open out into something more spacious and atmospheric, and the final Logan Dataspirit remix brings the set to an ending that feels earned rather than abrupt.
This volume of Feeling Factor doesn’t have a home on YouTube or Mixcloud yet, but you can find earlier volumes of the series on both by searching for Feeling Factor. The full audio is available on request through the contact page.
This one is for late evenings and good headphones. Or an empty dance floor at four in the morning, when the crowd has thinned and the people left are the ones who came for the music. You know who you are.
🎵 If you liked this mix, try these: Get Down Vol. 2 | Get Down Vol. 6
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For the roots of this sound, the family tree entries on soulful house and deep house trace where these records came from. My piece on late 90s chill out albums covers the slower, listening side of the same mood.
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