Dave Lee announces forthcoming album, ‘Produced With Love II’
House legend Dave Lee has unveiled details about his new album, Produced With Love II, which is set to land on 10 June on Z Records.
The album is a follow up to 2017’s Produced With Love, and incorporates aspects of house, soul and disco across its 12 tracks.
Commenting on the forthcoming release, which is his first long player since he retired the ‘Joey Negro’ moniker in 2020, Lee said, “Writing new memorable songs is difficult. It’s much easier coming up with a good backing track or using a sample than it is a killer new top line. There were about 200 releases a week in the 90s, now there are apparently 8,000 on Beatport. How many of them are decent original songs? I’d say it’s about the same as the 1990s, maybe even less”.
Lee has always been a passionate collaborator, and the album features vocalists Omar, Lifford and Valentine Brothers’ Billy Valentine, who bring some soul to proceedings. The first single from the album, Starlight (which can be downloaded here) sees Lee team up with Omar on a silky, mid-tempo dance record.
“It helps enormously when you’re working with some really talented people,” Lee said.
On his decision to retire the ‘Joey Negro’ identity, a decision taken as the Black Lives Matter movement brought issues of race and cultural appropriation to the fore, Lee added, “I would like to make it clear, there wasn’t enormous pressure on me to change it, I just felt it was the right time to move on.”
Lee had recorded as Joey Negro since 1990, although he admits he was “never mad [about the name] in the first place.
“I was struggling to think of a name for my first solo release in 1990 which i’d licensed to Nu Groove. I had a pile of records on my desk, J. Walter Negro’s Shoot The Pump and Reach Up To Mars by Pal Joey, and put the two together,” he said. “In my mind, the Negro was the Spanish pronunciation of black and sounded like a hip NYC street kid.
“I never saw it as a long term alias but I did re-use the name a year later and that song Do What You Feel was a big club hit, on the back of which I signed to a major label. After that the name became known to most clubbers”.
.@daveleezr will be releasing his new studio album Produced With Love II this June. Further details incoming, but for now check this incredible cover artwork 👌 pic.twitter.com/aXchaKCX6R
— Additive Music PR (@AdditivePR) April 27, 2022
Dave Lee – Produced With Love II is released on 10 June. Words by Márcia Costa.
Tracklisting
01- Raw Essence feat- Lifford – Do it Again
02- Mistura feat- Tiffany T’zelle – If You Ever Need Somebody
03- Dave & Omar – Starlight
04- Dave & Maurissa – Look At The Stars
05- Dave Lee feat- Billy Valentine – Taste My Love
06- Mistura feat Jemini – Want Me Back
07- The Sunburst Band – Magnificent Mango
08- Foreal People feat- Xan Blacq – Raise a Blaze
09- The Sunburst Band feat- Angela Johnson – Face the Love
10- Dave Lee feat- Billy Valentine – Power of the Mind (Power Trip Mix)
11- Jayenne feat- Gina Carey – Love Walked in The Room
12- The Sunburst Band – Let’s Do It in Style
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