"Handbag house"

I can't really recommend any since it was so thoroughly despised at the time that I never bothered with it.

yeah, it pre-dates JLC by a considerable degree. Was basically a catch-all for popular, happy, euphoric house, of the kind that women liked. Often characterised by drum rolls, big piano riffs and "take me higher" type vocals.

A lot of overlap with "progressive house" and "hard house" but from 94-96 it was definitely a very distinctive sound.

I think some choice bits of handbag would be:

Gat Decor - "Passion"
Tony Di Bart - "The real thing"
Felix - "Don't you want me"
Kool World - "In-vader" (Tall Paul mix)
Nightcrawlers - "Push the feeling on" (MK mix)
Umboza - "Cry India"
Junior Vasquez - "Get your hands off my man" (Nush mix)
Direckt - "Two fatt guitars"

It was always such gleefully unashamed party music. I'm getting very nostalgic about it. Probably due a retrospective mix of some sort...

I reckon Strike's "U Sure Do" is handbag house.

Wasn't there a British novelty duo that did a song called "Dance, Dance, Dance Around Your Handbag" that was about Essex Shirlies and Sheilas putting their handbags down on the dancefloor and dancing about and that's the origin of the phrase?

that's IHH. (Intelligent Handbag House) shuh!

"U Sure do" is definitely handbag. And yeah, I think it's a right shame that handbag turned into two things - trance and filterdisco, neither of which are as joyous as the root genre. The trouble is that the Jeremy Healy/Graham Gold et al dominance of mid-90s clubland was a dire development, but at the same time a lot of the music was really great.

More handbag:

Billie Ray Martin - "Your loving arms" (but NOT the vasquez mix)
Berri - "Sunshine after the rain"
Farley and Heller - "Ultraflava" (this has aged REALLY BADLY)
Sharp tools vol. 2
Gusto - "Disco's revenge"

Livin' Joy - "Dreamer"

It was basically a perjorative description coined by detroit techno purists and people who liked Sasha to describe the kind of clubs where girls wore fluffy bra's and carried handbags. The carrying of handbags necessitated putting them in a pile on the floor and dancing round them. Hence "handbag house".

This was considered a bad thing because you were supposed to wear shitty combats and dance in a field, not wear glam stuff and dance in a club.

actually, though, those kind of shouts would fit in well because loads of handbag tunes featured the word "house" - remember that "your house is my house is your house is my house is YOUR HOUSE IS MINE" tune?

oh my god yes

Here we lie all alone in my dreamin'
Your eyes move my soul it's unbelievin'
Now you see the me, get my feelin'
How'm I feelin

I feel your hands, your lips the heat of your body
Whisper you love me, you say you love me
Please don't dumb it down and never leave me
I'm a dreamer

Here we lie all alone in my dreamin'
Your eyes move my soul it's unbelievin'
Now you see the me, get my feelin'
How'm I feelin

I feel your hands, your lips the heat of your body
Whisper you love me, you say you love me
Please don't dumb it down and never leave me
I'm a dreamer
Am I dreamer
Am I dreamer

Love and life and laughter
Is all I believe
My Saviour is pure now
Because my lonely heart would bleed
I never learned how to hold love
And stay strong to love
Now I close my eyes now
And I'm dreamin' right where I belong

Here we lie all alone in my dreamin'
Your eyes move my soul it's unbelievin'
Now you see the me, get my feelin'
How'm I feelin

I feel your hands, your lips the heat of your body
Whisper you love me, you say you love me
Please don't dumb it down and never leave me
I'm a dreamer

Here we lie all alone in my dreamin'
Your eyes move my soul it's unbelievin'
Now you see the me, get my feelin'
How'm I feelin

I feel your hands, your lips the heat of your body
Whisper you love me, you say you love me
Please don't dumb it down and never leave me
I'm a dreamer
Am I dreamer
Am I dreamer

Am I dreamer
Am I dreamer
Am I dreamer
Am I dreamer

You're right, but I doubt many of these were meant to sound like Freddy Kruegger uttering them... Excessive Force was a KMFDM/My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult side project, you see.

I suggest "Darkbag" or "Hardbag" for this, probably thriving genre

oh my god, no!

jacob's list above has a few tunes i wouldn't quite consider handbag, felix's tune is more of a northern rave track while i always felt direckt & gat decor were more progressive house circa '93 (see: leftfield). handbag to me is more of a '95/'96 term and encapsulates the pop end of the spectrum, yer livin' joys, yer nightcrawlers, yer jon pleased wimmins. not much room for something as ravey as 'don't you want me'. although a swift google search reveals a handbag comp with carl craig's 'the climax' on it so whaddo i know?

I picked out those tracks because to me they encapsulate what was good about handbag, rather than what was typical...

And actually, these places frequently were quite rave-y - it was only with the ascendence of "funky house" and filterdisco that you stopped getting ravey noises in handbag type clubs - Livin Joy and Gems for Gem et al are perfect examples of this...

>I picked out those tracks because to me they encapsulate what was good about handbag, rather than what was typical...

for sure, those are the tunes i would dance to! livin' joy would be my cue for another drink.

U Girls - Nush ("u girls look so sexy, wish you were here with me...")
Girls & Boys - Hed Boys ("the girls! and boys! are dancing on the floor!") - this also featured a handbag on the cover of the single.
Fee Fi Fo Fum & Wham Bam - Candy Girls
Life's A Bitch (Can't Get A Man, Can't Get A Job) - Sister Bliss
Son Of A Gun - JX
Rockin' For Myself - Motiv8
I've Never Felt This Way - Hi-Lux
Hold That Sucker Down - O.T.Quartet

I'd put some clear distance between Hardbag and Tony De Vit style nu-nrg (although TdV's "Burning Up" would fit within the genre, as would his mix of 99th Floor Elevator's "Hooked"). Hardbag was more yer Tall Paul Newmans and yer Seb Fontaines, mixing vocal hooks with tougher beats, without ever going full-on clattering-dustbin-lid mental.

I think the dance mixes of CeCe Peniston's "Finally" would count, too.

Weren't M People the commercial faces of handbag? They had some good singles, the ones where Heather Small was drowned out by the backing singers especially.

Red 5 - I Love You Stop
The Original - I Love You Baby
Deepzone - It's Gonna Be Allright
Kellee - My Love
Furia - Boy Pan
Gala - Freed From Desire
Kadoc - The Nighttrain
Porn Kings - Up To No Good
Grooveyard - Mary Go Wild
Brainbug - Nightmare
Tom Wilson - Technocat
Ruffneck ft Yavahn - Everybody Be Somebody
Mighty Dub Katz - Magic Carpet Ride
DJ Jean & Peran - I Give My Life
Klubbheads - Klubbhopping
Tori Amos - Professional Widow (Armand Van Helden Remix)
The Course - Ready Or Not
Full Intention - Uptown Downtown
De'lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Remix)
Kristine W - Feel What You Want
Frank 'O Moiraghi - Show Me (Spacer)

Rough Guide To Handbag House

Kim Syms 'Too Blind To See It'
Rhythm On The Loose 'Break Of Dawn ('95 mix)'
Helicopter 'On Ya Way'
DSK 'What Would We Do?'
Happy Clappers 'I Believe'
Sister Bliss 'Can't Get A Man Can't Get A Job (Life's A Bitch)'
Pizzaman 'Trippin' On Sunshine'
Heller & Farley Project 'Ultra Flava'
Donna Giles 'And I Am Telling You'
2 Men Will Move You 'The Goodbye Thing'
JX 'Son Of A Gun'
Bobby Brown 'Two Can Play That Game (K-Klass '95 mix)'
Junior Vasquez 'Get Your Hands Off My Man'
Gusto 'Disco's Revenge'
Lisa Marie Experience 'Do That To Me'
Stretch n' Vern 'I'm Alive'
Outrage 'Tall And Handsome'

as originally posted here

OTM. except I've got a few of them on Now! tapes.

there was a good 2-cd mixset put out by Vague (club) when they were closing their doors, i think mixed by TWA, and really terrific. Goes from prog house (circa 95-96) to handbag to hardbag to nu-nrg and back.
if i can dig up the tracklist i'll post it

Yes!

That's the thing about this kind of music - I never bought it at the time because it was so omnipresent that I felt I didn't need to, and now it's gone and is part of history (ten years old!) These are totally the kind of records that were bought en masse by budding djs in small towns and then given to charity shops when the purchasers got married. Somebody should make a trip to Nottingham and come back with a truckload...

Novy vs Eniac - Superstar ("come on don't hesitate, hesitate, and show me your intentions")

basically people are now recycling a lot of stuff from mid-late 90s dance hits as it seems the limit has been reached for stuff before that - i heard a Mood II Swing track last year that lazily just stuck a vocal over a re-filtered loop of 'Mothership Reconnection'. will it all just catch up with itself?

Oy! Hands off my CD singles collection!

I'd also put Bizarre Inc feat Angie Brown "I'm Gonna Get You" as an early handbag track - same (1992) vintage as the original release of M People "How Can I Love You More".

da-da-da-da-da-da-da! da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!

I bought that on cassette single!

I mainly associate this stuff with the kind of events (wedding receptions, friends' sisters' 21st birthday parties in shit pubs) where the DJ would have been as likely to play Roxette or Ace of Base. While I ordinarily would have run a mile from house of the handbag variety, it was often the best party music for a mixed, drunken crowd. At the very least, it was more danceable than most other mobile DJ fodder. I dunno if it's exactly ripe for critical reappraisal though. The gems to utter shite ratio falls too hard on the latter side.

"Happy", Legacy Of Sound

"Happy is
Happy is
Hap-Hap-py is what we are
Happy is what we are
when we're together"

I remember having a crush on Meja, the singer.

That would be Commander Tom "Attention". The original mix is completely boring (where did it go wrong, this guy once made "Are Am Eye?"), but the Steve Murano remix is fantastic in a Tomcraft-big-room-electro kind of way.

Diva house was added to RYM a week or so ago https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/diva-house/

And more intriguingly, hardbag was approved in the last day or two https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/hardbag/

Look at all those masterworks

we mentioned the hard house revival a few weeks ago but I'm really happy to see some of this music turning up in sets and podcasts from "credible" names - I love how shamelessly joyful and ecstatic this can be

Just found my fake track list from a couple years back for "The Best Hardbag Album in the World...Ever!". Released through Virgin/EMI in 1998, mixed by Richard Evans at Wise Buddah

CD1
1. Felix - Don't You Want Me
2. Candy Girls - Fee Fi Fo Fum
3. Hi-Lux - Feel It
4. 99th Floor Elevators - Hooked (Tony De Vit Mix)
5. Yosh Presents Lovedeejay Akemi - It's What's Upfront That Counts
6. The Ethics - La Luna (To the Beat of the Drum)
7. Amen! UK - Passion
8. Kinky - Everybody
9. Patrick Prins - French Connection
10. Donna Summer - I Feel Love '95 (Rollo & Sister Bliss Mix)
11. Li Kwan - I Need a Man
12. Blu Petetr - Flagship
13. Gems for Jem - Lifting Me Higher
14. U.S.U.R.A. - Tear It Up
15. Brain Bashers - I Am Ready
16. E'Voke - Arms of Loren
17. E-Motion - I Stand Alone
18. Klubbheads - The Magnet
19. Salvia - Fiesta Conga

CD2
1. JX - You Belong to Me
2. Tony De Vit - Burning Up
3. Hyper Logic - Only Me
4. Sister Bliss - Cantgetaman, Cantgetajob (Life's a Bitch)
5. Mrs Wood - Joanna
6. Itty Bitty Boozy Woozy - Tempo Fiesta
7. Mary Kiani - When I Call Your Name
8. Movin Melodies - Don't Hold Back
9. Hotbox - Too Spicy
10. Rollo Goes Mystic - Love, Love, Love-Here I Come
11. Antic - The Ultimate
12. Natural Born Grooves - Forerunner
13. Tocayo - Live in Peace
14. S'Express - Theme from S'Express (The Return Trip)
15. The Handbaggers - U Found Out
16. Dana Dawson - Show Me (Motiv8 Darkroom Dub)
17. Republica - Out of This World
18. Groove Terminator - Losing My Mind
19. Celvin Rotane - I Believe
20. Dorothy - What's That Tune?

That's hardbag not handbag

looks amazing

Was there ever an Intelligent Handbag, or an Ambient Handbag? Seems like those prefixes were glommed onto every other strand of dance music in that era.

JX - You Belong to Me big fan of this one.

Was there ever an Intelligent Handbag, or an Ambient Handbag?

Deep Handbag is big with the heads.

Bagstep

Mrs Wood - Joanna

love this one a LOT

https://www.corbinshaw.com/product-page/handbag-house-t-shirt

I bought this a few months ago and I am ALWAYS complimented by strangers whenever I wear it

looks amazing

― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 15:49 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

thank you. tempted to make it a cd-r reality at some point.