Rhythim Is Rhythim – Strings Of Life

DJ, producer, A&R, and label owner Various - Retro Techno / Detroit Definitive - Emotions Electric on his south London pirate radio station Lightning FM / LCR, on 5th October 1989, which was given to him exclusively by Derrick May at the time.

This coincided with Derrick May and Carl Craig's live appearances and performance of this particular version at the Town and Country Club, Kentish Town in north London from around the same period. Where they were ing Inner City (Kevin Saunderson and Paris Grey) at their live gigs in the UK.

Regarding the pirate radio show. Bryan Gee also happened to mix Model 500 - The Chase straight after in his set, another tune which was big in the UK underground and the rest of Europe at the time. Although several minutes earlier he tried blending 808 State 'Pacific' but gave up. He doesn't mention if the Strings remix was a dubplate or a Test Pressing, but it was obviously mixable and a solid object, no digital back then! I wonder how many of these Acetates or Test Pressings were pressed back then? There must be some floating about or sitting somewhere.

For anyone looking to get this on vinyl but not keen on paying huge prices, the best known mix of SoL is also on the compilation, Dance Train Classics Vinyl 4 - probably on lots of others too, to be fair :-)

i'm no musical expert that can tell show about stabs & strings and various musical arrangements, i'm simply and have been a dancer since 88 and this classic just last weekend (2023) had the whole place going nuts, still sounding fresh still rocks a dance floor!

Great record, I personally like the "Move It' track. The mastering job on this record is top notch.

This is NOT techno. This is just some overrated acid house, maybe not even acid.
Can't see how this ever inspired the European techno rave scene. Instead go for Strings Of Life '89 (Juan's Magic Mix), witch is true techno.

this is from 1987?! what a revolutionary sound mah gawd... absolute house classic right here!

24 hrs MAY THE STRINGS OF LIFE PLAY ON !

I read somewhere that Strings Of Life is about the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. gave to the world. Perhaps in the Detroit of 1987 that dream seemed to have died with King but listening to this song, I know that cannot be true. There is an energy in this song, a sense of movement, that I have never heard in another techno song. Somehow the string stabs chafe against the piano line and the drums in a unique way that electrifies my body. Judging by the response I have seen to to this song in clubs, other people have the same reaction. You cannot stay still when the song kicks off after the short introduction, and if there is more than one person listening, something special will happen between the two of you.

Sometimes I feel sad when I look at Derrick May's catalogue and see that he stopped giving us music after only a few magical years near the end of the 20th century, but when I listen through, I find it full of emotional explosions like this one. They are focused and cut like a scalpel to the heart. Maybe he got sick of the pressure, maybe he is lazy (doubtful), or maybe he just burned out after producing a dozen odd songs like this one. I want him to produce more music, but I also feel satisfied with what he has made so far.

An interesting thing about 'Strings Of Life' is that Derrick May didn't name the song, but Frankie Knuckles did. Derrick took the song to Frankie, so he could play it at the Power Plant. The song was played seven times in a row in a night and the people who came to dance loved it. But there was still no name for the song, but everybody called it 'The String Song'. Then Frankie came up with the idea to call it 'Strings Of Life'.

Even though the Soul Central version for "Strings of Life" turned to be a massive hit kinda instantly, the original version from master Derrick May should get the credits for it, 'cause it holds the essence. It may be a bit slower and have a different mood from the more recent tracks, but it definitely has the spirit of a Detroit Techno classic.