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v/a - only 4 u: the sounds of cajmere & cajual - strut - cd

Genre: House - Chicago

1. Cajmere - Percolator (Remastered Original Mix)
2. Cajmere - Conflict
3. Cajmere - Chit Chat (Clubhouse Remix)
4. Cajmere feat. Dajae - Brighter Days (Louie's Masters At Work Mix)
5. Cajmere feat. Derrick Carter - Dream States
6. Dajae - U Got Me Up (Danny's Club Version)
7. Johnny Fiasco - Taurus
8. Cajmere feat. Terence F.M. - Feelin' Kinda High (Vocal Mix)
9. Cajmere feat. Dajae - Get Up Off Me (Cajmere's Mix)
10. Gemini - If You Got To Believe In Something
11. Dajae - Day By Day (Chez 'n' Trent Vocal Mix)
12. Gemini - Le Fusion
13. G.U. - Beyond
14. Adam - Moments In Time
15. Braxton Holmes presents John Redman - People Everyday (12" Mix Basement Boys Style)
16. G.U. - The Wheel
17. Deep Sensation - Get Together (Deep Vocal Mix)
18. Andre Harris - I Can't Take It (Andre's Original)
19. Cajmere feat. Walter Phillips - Midnight (Original Mix)
20. Cajmere feat. Dajae - Say U Will (Original Mix)
21. Green Velvet presents Jamie Principal - Lalalalala (Nside My Mind)
22. Cajmere & Russoul - Let's Dance

Celebrating 20 Years of Chicago’s Cajual Records than with a Strut & Only 4 U collection of 20 Years of House Classics! Jam packed with absolute monsters this is an amazing look back at one of the most sought after labels from the past. Check!

It started from a love of early Chicago house and as a hobby, piecing together tracks on a "sixty-buck keyboard, a cheap four-track and a cheap drum machine". Curtis A. Jones, chemical engineering student and long-time '80s video games obsessive, then left a Masters course at UC-Berkeley, returned to Chicago and unleashed his first DIY tracks in 1992 on the 'Underground Goodies' EPs for ClubHouse, setting the blueprint for his early raw, cut-up production style. Soon after forming his own label, Cajual (with the CAJ taken from his initials), he unleashed the madcap, bubbling groove 'Coffee Pot' (later re-titled as 'Percolator'), a worldwide club hit.

The early years of Cajual confirmed Cajmere’s reputation for gritty dancefloor perfection with the infectious, tongue-in-cheek conversation 'Chit Chat' and his first release with vocalist Dajae, who would become a regular collaborator. Their 'Brighter Days' became a definitive calling card, exploding in a host of mixes by Cajmere himself Todd Terry and Masters At Work's Louie Vega and reaching no. 2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music / Club Play chart.

Jones would unleash his green-haired electro-punk alter ego, Green Velvet, in 1993 and create the Relief label for this very different side to his work. Meanwhile, Cajual continued its reputation for raw quality with a collaboration with Derrick Carter, 'Dream States', and further Dajae classics ('Get Up Off Me', 'Day By Day', 'U Got Me Up'). By 1993, Jones had begun to bring the second generation of Detroit techno pioneers into the Cajual fold. Glenn Underground and Gemini both stepped up with deep dancefloor workouts - the epic 'Detroitism', 'The Wheel' and 'Le Fusion' as Cajual continued to set the underground pulse.

Although releases became more sporadic during 1995-2005, the later period of Cajual set the bar high throughout. Scottish house producers Deep Sensation cameo-ed and Chicago underground favourites Andre Harris and Mark Grant both released later singles and mixes. Jones has continued as a much-revered mainstay of dance music culture, focusing on his work as Green Velvet into the new millennium and bringing in a whole new raft of Cajual releases in recent years.

'Only 4 U' brings together the many shades of Cajual for the first time in a definitive label overview covering 1992-2012, released in conjunction with Cajual Entertainment.