S'Xpress - Hey Music Lover (12" Spatial Expansion Mix)

S'Xpress - Hey Music Lover (Spatial Expansion Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Version (HQ Audio)

Mark Moore was born in London in 1965. His mother, originally from South Korea, was among the first to relocate to the UK after the Korean War. She'd established a successful property business and been recognised as the London Evening Standard’s Businesswoman of the Year but faced financial difficulties after divorce from Moore's father, leading to bankruptcy.

This plunged the family into relative poverty, and Moore and his brother were placed in care, later attending Wolverstone Hall, a grammar school known as the "poor man’s Eton." Moore describes his childhood as unhappy and depressing until he discovered rebellion, which he said gave him a feeling of hope.

Moore became involved with the London club scene at a young age, building a great network of friends in the scene, and at 18 became a DJ at the famous Mud Club in Leicester Square. The Mud Club was launched by Philip Sallon, a nightclub promoter and one of the original Blitz Kids, along with Malcolm McLaren, playing trashy disco to an audience who were more likely to be let in if they were wearing particularly bold and inventive outfits.

His popularity at the Mud Club led to a residency at Heaven, where he became one of the UK's early champions of Chicago House and Detroit Techno, while also playing tracks by the likes of Yello, Soft Cell, New Order, and Cabaret Voltaire. Moore also began playing at key acid house venues, including Spectrum and Shoom, along with various raves around the M25.

This lifestyle helped Moore build an understanding of what audiences respond to on a dance floor, whilst growing a network of record industry connections as label representatives pushed for Moore to play their records. Moore became friendly with Jay Strongman, one of Rhythm King's founders, and eventually began recommending tracks to him. Most notably, he recommended Taffy's "I Love My Radio," which became the label's first hit, before introducing them to Renegade Soundwave and The Beatmasters, among others.

Moore was soon offered an A&R job at Rhythm King Records and, at the age of 22, produced his first remix for them - the Moore Heavenly Mix of Taffy's "Step by Step." Within a year, he'd created S'Express, and their debut track, "Theme From S'Express," co-written with producer Pascal Gabriel, was Rhythm King's first number-one single. Moore and Gabriel co-wrote a further top five hit, "Superfly Guy," later the same year (1988).

For the third single, "Hey Music Lover," Moore worked with different collaborators, including producer Mark McGuire, who'd recently engineered Stock Aitken Waterman hits, including "I Should Be So Lucky" for Kylie Minogue, "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, and "F.L.M." by Mel & Kim. "Hey Music Lover" recreates and incorporates many elements of "Music Lover" by Sly and the Family Stone - so much so that it is credited as having been written by Sly Stone.

The male vocalist on "Hey Music Lover" is Eric Robinson, who had become a prominent figure on the London club scene, having previously sung on Diana Ross' Motown records, and contributed to several Sylvester records. The female vocalist is Billie Ray Martin, who met Moore shortly after she arrived in London, after responding to his ad for musical collaborators. Martin would soon see chart success of her own, first with Electribe 101 and then as a solo artist.

"Hey Music Lover" was released in August 1989 and made it to number 6 on the UK chart and the US dance chart.

Two 12-inch singles were released, featuring remixes by Philip Glass, Daniel Miller (founder of Mute Records), and William Orbit, who would become one of the world's most in-demand producers by the mid-1990s, producing hits for Madonna, U2, All Saints, Brittney Spears and Blur.

Back in 1992, Orbit was Moore's favourite producer, mostly due to his own project, Bass-o-matic. Moore says this remix, the Spatial Expansion Mix, is one of his "favourite remixes ever". As a result the two would work together again, creating the next S'Express hit, "Mantra For A State of Mind", and producing remixes together for Malcolm McLaren and Prince.

Orbit made quite a project of this remix. Moore says Orbit went three days with no sleep, creating many different segments, beats, and variations. He then rang Mark and played different bits down the phone, and the two decided on the edit that way. The end result is almost like a mega-mix, and, whilst the sound palette is obviously very different, it has the same spirit of joy and abandon as Sly Stone's "Music Lover," which inspired the S'Express track.

Note also the change in spelling of the band name on the sleeve of "Hey Music Lover": S'Xpress rather than S'Express. Moore decided the band should "drop an E" for this track, and greatly enjoyed being asked in press interviews why they had done so, by unwitting journalists.

Year: 1989 Label: Rhythm King Cat no: LEFT R30T