Tony Boninsegna

The story of dance music is littered with hidden heroes and underground activists whose immense contributions have been overlooked, ignored and under-documented. Tony Boninsegna, a producer who made and released countless classic cuts and forgotten gems during the acid house and rave era, is one such example. Melding elements of all that was popular in underground clubs at the time to create his own dancefloor-friendly sound worlds, Boninsegna amassed a huge catalogue between 1986 and ’94, while hiding his involvement via an array of oddball aliases and opaque pseudonyms.

Cold Blow has joined forces with Musique Pour La Danse to deliver a much-needed restored and remastered anthology of his greatest productions and co-productions – many rare or hard-to-find – for the first time.

Volume one features two previously unreleased recordings that mark his earliest
explorations of the emerging house sound (both as The Rhythm Squad, with Richard Compton), alongside touchstone releases such as Zeco’s ‘The Witch Trials’ (a 1989 production that marked his first outing on vinyl), celebrated workouts recorded with regular collaborator Mykey Tee (Lab Technicians’ bleep-inspired ‘We Gave U Life’, Big Showdown’s epic ‘They’re Here’ and AEK’s mind-mangling, bleep & breaks number ‘Lick It’), and genuinely overlooked gems (the proto-tribal house of Pierrepoint’s acid-smothered ‘Tonnerre’ and saucer-eyed rush of Estudiantes’ ‘Let The Music Into Your Mind’).

Boninsegna’s story first came to light four years ago when he appeared in Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music, Anniss’s critically acclaimed alternative history of UK dance music in the rave era.