RECORD MIRROR: COOL CUTS 2 (1988)

As house music began to dominate in the late 80s, Record Mirror considerably boosted its coverage of all aspects of dance music in an attempt to gain credibility and keep ahead of the other music weeklies. This filtered through to the FreeEPs which began to promote club culture as much as the usual indie acts of the day. This EP released in conjunction with Cooltempo records is a prime example:

1. Jingo (Remix) - Jellybean

John "Jellybean" Benitez was one of the decade's most in-demand producers and remixers who worked with, amongst scores of others, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and his former girlfriend, Madonna. Benitez, under his Jellybean moniker, also released a number of singles in his own right at the  end of the 80s and scored 4 Top 20 UK hits. Jingo was his third reaching #12 and was a remake of one of the biggest club tracks of the 80s by Candido - first released in 1979 and hitting the UK Top 75 for the first time in 1986. Candido's version charted again after the release of Jellybean's version but could only manage #82. The origins of the track can be found on Nigerian percussionist  Babatunde Olatunji's 1960 album Drums Of Passion under the title Jin-Go-La-Ba. The version is described on this EP as a "special limited edition dance mix" so presumably this is the only place you can find it.

2. Jealousy And Lies - Julian Jonah

Despite this alternative mix being released in advance of the single release, this promotion didn't do much for the single which stalled at #96 in 1988. An album, It's A Jungle Out There, was released in 1990 to little effect but Jonah was to re-emerge in 1997 as one half of speed garage duo 187 Lockdown scoring a Top 10 hit with King Fu and hitting '#16 with the classic Gunman. The duo also released many singles under a variety of different aliases including M Factor, Nu-Birth and Disco-Tex presents Cloudburst - all of which saw chart success.

3. Def Beat Boy - Derek B

An exclusive Music Of Life Megamix of the track which appeared on the late Derek Boland's album Bullet From A Gun. Boland was the first UK rapper to crossover into the mainstream, the album reaching #11 and two singles, Goodgroove and Bad Young Brother both hitting #16. Perhaps ironically, despite leading the way for all UK rapper, Boland's only Top 10 credit was a co-write for Liverpool FC's Anfield Rap  Only a small number of releases followed the hits and Boland faded into obscurity. He died in 2009 from a heart attack at the age of 44.