Happy 30th Anniversary to Deee-Lite’s debut album World Clique, originally released August 7, 1990.
1990 was an interesting year. The dawn of a new decade, an ever-changing global landscape and some of music’s most iconic moments were created. No matter where your musical tastes resided, there seemed to be something for everyone.
Fresh sounds were in abundance, creativity was on tap and dance floors were packed to the brim with ardent music lovers waiting for the DJ to spin their favorite tracks. One such track that changed the game was a funky ditty by the name of “Groove Is in the Heart” by the then-unknown house collective, Deee-Lite.
Just fourteen years old at the time, I had very little knowledge of what house music was or meant, but having been born smack bang in the mid ‘70s, disco always seemed to be close at hand and something I had formed a love affair with from as far back as I can remember. As my years increased, so did my understanding of music, as I grew more attuned to what appealed to me and what left me feeling unmoved. House music, in all its disco based glory, moved me to a place of sonic euphoria—something that it still manages to do to this very day. Deee-Lite’s music also moved and grooved me, and still do, none more so than their debut album World Clique.
From the moment that “Groove Is in the Heart” burst onto the scene in August 1990, music was never going to be the same again. Fronted by maestra Lady Miss Kier, with her electrifying red hair, unparalleled take on fashion and delicious sonant ability, it seemed only fitting that she be surrounded by the likes of DJ Dmitry (first as an initial duo) and later adding Towa Tei, culminating in the trio we came to know as Deee-Lite.
The group’s most synonymous song is most definitely “Groove Is in the Heart,” at least on a commercial level. All three band members contributed as songwriters, with funk legend Bootsy Collins providing the bass and some delicious guest vocals. The song’s main riff was sampled from the legendary Herbie Hancock’s “Bring Down The Birds.” R&B singer Vernon Burch also had his song, the incredibly funky “Get Up” sampled, being the basis for the drum track featured throughout the song, segueing into that now infamous slide whistle and breakdown featuring a rap by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame. With such diverse talent as this, sampling done right and a funked-up concept, this song was never going to be anything but legendary—and it was. It deservedly secured the number one spot in numerous charts around the world and smashed the top ten in countless others.
Continuing with their funky optimism and newfound triumph over the charts, the piano heavy “Power of Love” was released. Failing to replicate the overall commercial success of its predecessor, “Power of Love” became a number one hit not just on the dance charts, but also for house music lovers that had long been yearning for a track like this to fill clubs’ airwaves. The frequency was set to unabashed dance, with smiles and happy vibes the only accessories needed. Deee-Lite had well and truly arrived and for people like me, club kids sitting on the outskirts of “normal” and whatever that concept meant, Lady Miss Kier and her tribe permitted us to break the shackles of said normality and live confidently within our funky, freaky little selves.
Two additional singles were released from World Clique, the psychedelic heavy on house beats of “E.S.P” and the soulful “Good Beat.” In fact, it was starting to become very clear that whilst this was house music in its most authentic form, there was, and is no denying that Kier was bringing a very soulful flavor to her work (think: that “Ye Yay” signaling the end of “Good Beat”), not to mention a little scat and some serious disco elements too. Not to be sidelined by the music, Deee-Lite’s visuals were just as important and none more so than the videos that accompanied each song.
Whether it be the trippy psychedelic visuals of the late ‘60s that encompassed “Groove Is in the Heart” or the flower power element of “Power of Love,” Deee-Lite committed to the visual component of their artistic expression, making sure that it was yet another piece of their holistic puzzle. It would be criminal of me not to mention the video that accompanied “Good Beat,” set predominantly in an underground club to a hyper-mod vibe and the stuff of truly a thousand dreams, not to mention those dance breaks—heavenly. I still revisit this clip today when I need to escape the chaos of this world.
Deee-Lite also brought political messages to their music. At the beginning of the “Groove Is in the Heart” video, Kier introduces Deee-Lite and a “fake fur” caption is placed alongside her white fur coat. Although World Clique sat firmly within the peace and love ethos of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, it was clear that the band stood for more than just number ones and accolades, stances that would play a much more prominent role in their following two albums, 1992’s Infinity Within and 1994’s Dewdrops In the Garden. But for their debut, they managed subtlety in their messages whilst still getting their vision for a brighter, more loving future well and truly heard.
With twelve tracks making up World Clique and the likes of P-Funk lending their horny horns duo of Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, not forgetting the aforementioned other artists that played their part in the making of this album, it was inevitable that something brilliant was going to come of these many and varied unions. Funk hooks coupled with the emotional depth of soul, and then transfusing them with house beats and the euphoria of a club is the unofficial recipe behind World Clique. An unadulterated, unspoiled and carefree trio that stayed true to what they believe, Deee-Lite were able to come across in their musical debut in the most organic, honest and heartfelt way.
All too often written off as “just dance music,” Deee-Lite are the stuff of legend and World Clique, thirty years later, is just as refreshing, relevant and revelatory today as it was back then.
LISTEN: