The eclectic sound of Paradise Garage in just three tracks

Peech Boys Don’t Make Me Wait, 1982

1 Levan’s own studio career saw him produce, write, mix and remix an impressive catalogue of tracks. We could choose from a wealth of Garage favourites here. It’s hard to omit Loose Joints’ Is It All Over My Face? (Female

Vocal) or Taana Gardner’s loping 100bpm stomper Heartbeat (which would reportedly clear the dancefloor when first played, later becoming a crowd favourite), but we’ll plump for the Levan-produced Peech Boys project. Don’t Make Me Wait is a proto-house classic: gospel-inspired vocals, LinnDrum beats and funky synths. Pure perfection.

Jeanette Thomas Shake Your Body (House Shaker Version), 1987

2 By the late ’80s, Levan was still playing R&B, disco and other styles, but he’d also embraced the emergence of what we’d now consider to be more conventional house. Shake Your

Body falls under the broad, loosely defined banner of Garage house; Levan played it at the Paradise Garage closing night in September of 1987 and continued to play it in sets at other garage-friendly clubs including New Jersey’s Zanzibar.

ESG – Moody, 1981

3 The early Paradise Garage sound always embraced the full musical spectrum, branching out from Levan’s disco roots to explore everything from avant-garde music to rock. NY post-punk/funk group ESG’s Moody is a perfect example of something that feels like it shouldn’t work in a typical dance club context – and indeed, it seems impossible to believe music like this could ever have worked in the ’70s disco scene – but its edgy, sinister groove became a Garage favourite.