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[title]Greg Wilson Live at Ministry of Sound, November 11 by TimeOutNewYork
His name might not be quite as memorable as, say, New York's Afrika Bambaataa, France's Cerrone or Italy's Alexander Robotnick, but within the U.K., Greg Wilson had as much a hand in shaping the dance-music scene as those guys had in their home countries. Born in Merseyside in 1960 and beginning his career as a jazz-funk selector, Wilson was an early adopter of the early-'80s electronic beats coming out of NYC, coming from the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker. By the time he was spinning in Manchester's fabled Haienda in 1983, Wilson one of the U.K.'s preeminent electrofunk selectors, introducing his side of the pond to such U.S. artists as the Peech Boys and Newcleus and playing cuts from similarly-minded Brits such as 52nd Street and New Order, as well as international music makers along the lines of Klein & MBO.RECOMMENDED: More DJ mixes from the world's top spinners
And then—well, not much, really, as Wilson disappeared into semiretirement. But around the middle of the '00s, he reintroduced himself to clubland not only by hitting the decks (and sometimes, the reel-to-reel tape players), but also by unleashing a series of fun-as-hell reedits, including the fab Credit to the Edit series of releases. As a DJ, Wilson pieces together classic material from '80s acts like Loose Ends and D-Train, but he filters it through the prism of house music and latter-day boogie beats. And, we should add, those sets are a stone-cold blast, as you'll discover when you listen to the mix below, recorded live last month at London's famed Ministry of Sound.