Tuesday, 23 August 2022

UK Number 40s: Jomanda - Never (1993)

 


Jomanda have had a solitary Top 40 hit in both the UK and America and on both occasions the record in question made number 40. In America that was "Got a Love for You" in 1991 and in the UK it was this record.

Despite having this undesirable chart stat, Jomanda were by no means obscure. When Helter Skelter held their first rave in 1989 they flew in a bunch of big American acts which backfired on them because nobody believed an unknown promotor would have such names at their event. One of these acts was Jomanda. 

One of the records they had during the acid house era was "Don't You Want My Love" which was sampled by Felix on "Don't You Want Me" in 1992 which kick started the hardbag scene. 

This record though had nothing to do with hardbag. It was yet another branch of dance music that was emerging: progressive house. Whilst the definition of what exactly progressive house is, one point of reference is if Sasha plays it then it's progressive house.

Sasha did play this record a lot and also did a remix of it. Few progressive house records had become Top 40 hits by this point and those that did generally reached the lower reaches. On that basis this record could be considered a success.

For Jomanda though, they were nearing the end and called it a day the following year.

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