Hi-Bias – More, More, More
From Hi-Bias – S/T
Released On Blast Records / Bigshot Records, 1990, Canada

We rarely had the occasion to write about such big names – or at least about people connected to such HUGE names in the music industry as we do today. Indeed, one half of Hi-Bias is Nick Fiorucci, a name who might not sound familiar but this man is a true kingpin of the Canadian dance music industry. Throughout his over 30 year-long carreer he worked with people like Justin Timberlake (!), Jennifer Lopez (!!!) or Britney Spears (!!!!!!). He also produced loads of great Canadian house records, and we believe that Fiorucci’s label Hi-Bias records and its predecessors Big Shot Records and Blast Records played quite an important role in their country’s dance music scene, releasing both underground classics and very high quality house records (check their catalogues, they are impressive).

Many of these records were partly written or produced by the other half of the Hi-Bias duo (as it was during the recording of the self-titled EP), Michael Ova, more discreet than Fiorucci but also highly talented – and probably responsible for the distinctive “loud” (and somehow Canadian?) sound that many of the Blast / Big Shot productions have in common.

Both men’s career might be justified by their great skills (and probably absolute ease in any recording studio). The eponymous Hi-Bias 12” is an amazing record – and a good calling card – tackling different genres, from dark Chicago-influenced house (Don’t Look Back) to Cybotron-friendly electro (Drive It Home), showing complete mastering of production and composition on each song, including on this slow jam, More, More, More.

More, More, More sounds like some sort of RnB instrumental, fitting quite oddly between the 3 other tunes, clearly designed for club-use. But it might also be the freshest and probably the most obsessive song on the record. At first, it may feel like there’s not much going on: no break, no vocals; instead, it’s filed with micro variations (the bassline, for example is not a 16 bar loop as one may think it is) and that’s exactly what’s so addictive about this song. Every occurrence, even the most minimalistic one is exciting : the abstraction of the vocal interventions (the female voice saying “more, more, more”, and the male voice only gasping), the piano leitmotiv, all these elements winded up together by a sublime production.