GOGO Music is extremely delighted to present the first single taken from Ralf GUM’s forthcoming album “In My City”. It features Seattle based Soul-sensation Portia Monique and is titled “Free (Is All I Wanna Be)”. After the huge success of Ralf GUM’s 2012 longplayer “Never Leaves You” which was gold awarded in South Africa and the best selling album of the same year on Traxsource, this song extremely increases the anticipation for GUM’s full length album with easiness.
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Ralf GUM does not need much introduction to House Music lovers anymore. Well known as a purveyor of all things soulful since more than 2 decades, his career steadily rose, since he put out his first tracks in the early nineties. Ralf has countless songs under his belt which are considered classics nowadays, but his insatiate curiosity and stalwart will to explore and enhance the four to the floor House formula is still as strong as it ever was. Ralf started his label GOGO Music in 2001 which serves as platform for his own releases, but as well presented music of Black Coffee, Raw Artistic Soul, Rocco and many others with great success. Due to Ralf’s taste and immovable love for real music he managed to create huge momentum for the label quickly. Today GOGO Music is an integral pillar in the House Music world, as the vast feedback on the label work and press quotes prove. Chicago’s best house music publication “5 Magazine” stated, that “GOGO Music has become synonymous with the best Deep House produced in Europe” and 2010 UK’s magazine “SoulM8” certified that “GOGO Music is one of Germany’s best independent labels”.
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In 2008 Ralf GUM released his long awaited LP debut “Uniting Music” to great plaudit, as for example UK’s “M8” Magazine called the CD „simply one of the best albums of the year”. It was followed by his second long-player “Never Leaves You” in 2012, which was likewise celebrated, as an outstanding release. It included various hit singles amongst them “Take Me To My Love” an official number 1 hit in South Africa. Blues & Soul Magazine wrote “an impressive, truly soulful collection of songs and emphatically demonstrating Ralf GUM’s ability to orchestrate soul-house goodness on the grandest possible scale”, while for example Tilllate Magazine stated “this is simply amazing - now go buy it and support the finest soulful vocal house". In 2014 Ralf GUM will release his 3rd full length album and “Free (Is All I Wanna Be)” gives you now a sweat foretaste on the of the most anticipated Soulful House Music albums of the year.
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The single features Portia Monique, a lady who was simply born to sing. As a three-year-old she was performing at the mirror, by seven was signing in church, and by nine was writing snappy lyrics to further hone her talent. Musical studies followed in her teens and, through that, an increasingly impactful series of hook-ups with other artists and producers. Portia’s beautifully unique voice that blends hip-hop bite with velvety soul via dazzlingly complex harmonies, snazzy, jazzy tricks and some seriously insightful lyrical craft, brought her to the attention of kingpin US R&B producers Rodney Jerkins (Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Mary J Blige), Kyle West (LL Cool J) and Midi Mafia (Brandy, Talib Kweli, Frank Ocean), as well as, across the Pond, Reel People Music’s Oli Lazarus, which opened her up to a brand new avenue of soulful opportunity, which she has exploited to full and glorious effect. All of which bodes well for 2014 when Ms Monique’s debut album will finally land. In her collaboration with Ralf GUM she effortlessly shows why she’s considered a star on the rise.
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GOGO Music manages with this single release once more to bring you deliciously soulful vocals paired with a deep creative production – “Free (Is All I Wanna Be) is a song that should not be missed by any means by any real House Music DJ or music lover.
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GOGO Music … music it is and is it!