Garage House

Garage house on vinyl: the sound of the Paradise Garage

In short: Garage house is named after the Paradise Garage, the New York club where DJ Larry Levan played from the late seventies until 1987. It means house with plenty of soul: warm chords, gospel voices and a groove that comes out of disco and soul. The Vinyl Room currently has 20 garage house records.

What is garage house?

New York and New Jersey: Masters At Work – Louie Vega and Kenny Gonzalez – are represented with “The Tenth Anniversary Collection”, alongside Romanthony with “Hold On”, Gwen Guthrie with “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent” and Robin S. with “Show Me Love” in a remix edition.

From the New York club scene of those years also comes “Go Bang!” by Dinosaur L, a project of Arthur Russell. In Britain, Basement Jaxx (“Romeo / Where’s Your Head At”) and Disclosure (“Settle”) later took up the sound; under this style tag we also have Mariah Carey’s “Emotions”.

What to look for

Many garage house tracks came out as 12-inch singles with several mixes; label, catalogue number and year of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

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FAQ

Where does the name garage house come from? From the Paradise Garage, a club in New York.

Who was Larry Levan? The Paradise Garage DJ whose selections shaped garage house.

Is garage house the same as UK garage? No – UK garage emerged in Britain in the nineties, is usually faster and also includes broken 2-step rhythms.

Which garage house records do you have? Here, for example, Romanthony’s “Hold On” and Masters At Work’s “The Tenth Anniversary Collection”.