Do I really need this record after I’ve already bought the Keep Hope Alive album on King Street last year? I hear you say. Well, firstly congratulations on your good taste in music and secondly, yes, you will need this re-release on SuSu Records. The reason is that it’s more than a simple re-release. SuSu Records has licensed this record for a UK release and added a bonus disc which includes new remixes and previuosly unreleased songs. And everybody who’ve missed Blaze’s Underground Dance Artists United For Life (UDAUFL) project last year will need it anyway since the original disc still sounds great and the mission of UDAUFL to raise awareness of AIDS and supporting lifebeat.org will always be a worthwhile objective.
With this intention in mind Keep Hope Alive comes along as an update of 25 Years Later, the first Blaze (concept) album from 1990 on Motown.
While Blaze (then Chris Herbert, Kevin Hedge and Josh Milan) took care of the lead vocals themselves on 25 Years Later they invited the crème de la crème of house music singers to join them on Keep Hope Alive. The result is so much more than the average, formatted four-to-the-floor house track. Here we get modern uptempo soul sung by Barbara Tucker, Kenny Bobien, Arnold Jarvis, Joi Cardwell and others and every song has the potential to be released as a single. Like mentioned above you could’ve heard this already last year when Keep Hope Alive was released by King Street. But if you’ve missed this album then you shouldn’t hesitate now, because on the second disc you get two new songs (Stephanie Cooke’s What Makes The World Go Round and Blaze’s own Not Far Away) plus remixes like the Shrine Vocal Mix of the title song with Dawn Tallman on lead vocals. If that’s not enough for you then look for an 8 track vinyl release with more remixes including the Roots Extended Mix of Not Far Away and a Bobby & Stevie and James Radcliff remix of A Wonderful Place with Bah Samba’s Julian Bendall on keys and Nathan Haines on flute and sax.
2005 will hopefully the year of Blaze anyway with this great record, Most Precious Love becoming the hit it deserves to be in the Dennis Ferrer remix (included here on the second disc and also available on a 12″/CD-single) and the Soulheaven Presents Blaze album due on Defected.

Tracklisting of Keep Hope Alive:
Disc: 1
1. UDAUFL - Keep Hope Alive (Intro)/ 2. Kenny Bobien - Hiya Luv/ 3. Barbara Tucker - Most Precious Love/ 4. Ultra Naté - A Wonderful Place/ 5. Arnold Jarvis - Make The Time/ 6. UDAUFL - Keep Hope Alive (Interlude)/ 7. Byron Stingily/ 8. Joi Cardwell - Be Yourself/ 9. Blaze - We Are One/ 10. UDAUFL - Keep Hope Alive/ 11. UDAUFL - Keep Hope Alive (Outro)/
Disc: 2
1. UDAUFL ft. Dawn Tallman - Keep Hope Alive (Shrine Vocal Mix)/ 2. Blaze - Not Far Away (Shrine Vocal Mix)/ 3. Stephanie Cooke - What Makes The World Go Round/ 4. Ultra Naté - A Wonderful Place (Fanatix Remix)/ 5. Barbara Tucker - Most Precious Love (DF’s Future 3000 Mix)/ 6. Kenny Bobien - Hiya Luv (London Calling Remix)/ 7. Byron Stingily - Spread Love (Koki’s Saturday Night Fever Dub Mix)/ 8. Arnold Jarvis - Make The Time (Extended Mix)
released 2005 by SuSu Records

For more infos visit susumusic.com and kingstreetsounds.com.

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