Stockholm-based DJ, Producer and owner of the Juswax record store Mark Seven’s Salute mixes have already made their mark as a timeless classics.

Produced exclusively for LN-CC earlier this year, Salute 2 - Reach Out and Touch Your Dream, is a joyous tribute to the sounds of the pioneering US underground gay discos of the 70's and 80's, spread over three hours and three discs. The response to the mix was phenomenal, selling out within a matter of days. Mark has kindly given us permission to make the mix publicly available via download. To celebrate this, we asked Mark to write a few words about the concept behind the series, and pick out a few of his highlights from the three discs.

Mark Seven:

Through years of buying records in the US, I’d often be surprised looking through the collections of gay dj’s at how much downtempo and leftfield music they’d have. I’d wrongly assumed for years that it was only about hi-NRG on the gay dancefloor. Yet it was gay dj’s that turned me on to records like Raw Sex, the Champs boys & wrong speeders like the Depeche Mode. I’d ask my friend Peter about them and he’d shout “Sleaze, brotha…SLEAZE!”

I’d heard alot of stories from people who were there about how we were always banging on about the Garage or the Loft but how it was REALLY happening at the Saint & the River Club. Intense dancefloors with the most discerning of crowds, listening to true masters mixing in key and layering drama on drama til’ the boys lost their minds!

Having finally tracked down some of the recordings, I started to understand how it fitted together, how skilled these dj’s were and just how many more records were out there that I’d never heard, but had to have! Vocals played a much bigger part, messages weaved through the lyrics and the drama & suspense built up to a fierce crescendo until finally releasing into the sleaze & morning music.

I can remember from my own nights of youthful excess how my body would reach a point where it was all in the hips… when everything sank that little bit lower and the energy seemed to transfer way on down. And that’s what it’s all about, that journey – from energy, off out into space and back down to sleaze.

The Salute series is no more, no less than a tribute to a time I can only imagine. It’s important to realise that what I’m trying to do in three hours, the original dj’s did over the course of a whole night: sets of ten or more hours weren’t uncommon. I’ve tried to add my own take, throwing some tunes into the pot that weren’t part of the original soundtrack, and certainly choosing my own combinations & mixes. But you can’t help but cover old ground: I was particularly proud of Ashford & Simpson into Nicolette Larson on Salute 2 and thought to myself “you’ve come up with a great blend there old boy!” until I sat down a couple of months later to enjoy a Saint set from the master of drama Michael Fierman and heard “Get out your hankerchief, you’re gonna cry” rolling into “It’s gonna take a lotta love…”

Enough has been written by better hands than mine about the excesses of newly liberated gay men and the terrible price they paid for that taste of freedom. A wise man once observed “All fashion is filched from faggots!” and so it was that at it’s peak this lush life was so attractive that straights came to visit and partake in it’s thrills but let’s not forget that they were visitors, just as I’m now visitor - only one who arrived way too late.

VOYAGE – FOLLOW THE BRIGHTEST STAR (FROM SALUTE 2, CD1)

The tune that christened the mix – “If you reach out and touch your dream…” I love how you’ve got this swirling space stuff & it’s kind of a cheesy melody and then bang… the tune just takes right off & the vocals lift you off the floor. Pure emotion.

Download Disc 1

M – MOONLIGHT & MUZAK (FROM SALUTE 2, CD2)

I absolutely love this record but I remember the first time I played it at Horsemeat it went down like a sh*t sandwich. That said, it’s so warm & well produced that it gives me a fuzzy glow when the intro comes in. It’s classic space, but also goes to prove that sleaze doesn't have to be slow. One to separate the men from the boys.

Download Disc 2

CELI BEE – SUPERMAN (AT 33RPM, FROM SALUTE 2, CD3)

At the right speed this is feelgood disco, you know… a nice tune. But then you play it at 33 and Celi starts taking on a distinctly masculine edge and the whole thing becomes this sleazy grind. An early morning Saint classic and I thank you Robbie Leslie!

Download Disc 3

Click on the link below to view our full selection of mix CDs, including a recent delivery of Japanese imports from Cos/mes, Chee Shimizu and an exclusive Prins Thomas CD produced for his recent trip to Tokyo.