This issue of Ignition Sequence is brought to you in partnership with Blast Box: The World's Smallest Broadcast Studio

Transmitees! Fifth time out, and this is the first Ignition Sequence where every single pick comes from the nineties. One of them went to number one in the UK. Another went out in the very first year of a New York label that took its name from the address of the Paradise Garage.

The curator this week is Marcos Baiano, a house DJ with the best part of two decades behind him and a label launching in 2026. His notes come loaded: a DC10 story starring Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler, a Sunday evening at Panorama Bar with Mike Dunn on the decks, and two mixing tips he is giving away for nothing.

Every pick has a player underneath it. Plenty of email clients strip those out, so if you land on a blank gap, the READ ONLINE link at the top of this email will get you the working version.

Anyway, commencing countdown…

Marcos Baiano started out on saxophone lessons, by his own account, long before the clubs, and he files what he makes now under a genre name of his own coining: electro-black-soul.

The labels behind him read like a house head's record bag. Labella Recordings put out his debut album 'Music & Felicidade 01', Nervous Records in New York signed his 'Groovy Groove EP', Little Angel Records took a run of albums, and in 2012 he remixed Harley&Muscle's 'We Groove U' for Soulstar, a record featuring none other than Marshall Jefferson.

Then he built his own. B.SOUL ran out of Berlin, and its limited vinyl series opened in 2016 with his 'Real Music Needz To Happen', carrying remixes from Jovonn and Terence :Terry:, who had already remixed him on La Vie En Rose, Terry's own label, in 2013.

Rufus and Retro Activity followed on the label's 2017 various artists twelve. Next up is 2HOT2HANDLE, which launches in 2026 with his 'Back To The Future EP'. Terence :Terry: is on board as label mentor and remixer, and Jovonn is working with him on release number two. Keep an eye on that one.

Here are Marcos’ five.

Continued after the break…

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It did not start out with anyone singing on it. Mousse T. first put 'Horny' out in 1997 as a limited instrumental twelve aimed squarely at club DJs. The vocal version followed in 1998 on Peppermint Jam, the Hannover label he started with Errol Rennalls back in 1993, with Hot 'n' Juicy on the credits, and that is the one that went to number two in the UK and ended up on 'Chef Aid: The South Park Album'. As for the DJ Marcos caught playing it at Panorama Bar, Mike Dunn has been putting out Chicago house since 1987, and he has records on Nervous too.

Marcos Baiano: "Something fun, something for everyone, a record that still creates pure emotion and can bring a real sense of celebration into even the darkest underground club.

I was just entering my teenage years when 'Horny' came out, and all these years later it's still an absolute timeless banger. Of course, you need to build the right atmosphere around it and earn the moment when you can finally play it, but when you get there, there's almost nothing better.

I've only heard another DJ play it once in my life. Panorama Bar, 2016, Sunday evening, around 8:30 PM. Mike Dunn was playing. I recognised those little details in the intro immediately and I was already losing my mind at the idea of hearing 'Horny' in a club like that.

And then it happened. Even somewhere like Berghain/Panorama Bar, suddenly there was so much light in the room you wouldn't believe it. Arms everywhere, everyone singing together, the whole Panorama Bar completely united for a moment. Pure party.

One last DJ tip: it mixes perfectly with Basement Jaxx's 'Fly Life'. You can thank me later."

Grab it now on Bandcamp.

An instrumental went to number one in the UK in 1999, and it came out on F Communications, the French label Laurent Garnier and Eric Morand set up in 1994. The Levi's ad Marcos mentions is how it got there. Quentin Dupieux, the man behind Mr. Oizo, also dreamt up Flat Eric, the puppet Jim Henson's Creature Shop built for the campaign, and he has since gone on to direct feature films, 'Rubber' among them. Garnier and Oliver Way's COD3 QR imprint came later, and it is where we premiered Steve Bug and Josh Wink's 'Go Back'.

Marcos Baiano: "I was really young when I first heard it through that iconic Levi's commercial, and it was only when I got older that I fully understood how powerful this record actually is.

Mr. Oizo has such an uncompromising underground taste: an incredible attention to electronic sound design combined with completely hypnotic grooves. Whenever I play 'Flat Beat', I imagine someone from my generation having exactly the same reaction I still have every time: 'Wait… is it really that one?' Fuck yes, it is. The legendary 'Flat Beat'.

I've actually only heard another DJ play it once in my life. It was at DC10, I think around 2010 or 2011, during a Jamie Jones b2b Seth Troxler set. Jamie dropped it and I remember Seth looking almost speechless. I couldn't believe it either. I think I might even still have a video of that exact moment.

For me, this is a record you can drop into almost any DJ set. Completely unmistakable, completely unpredictable and absolutely timeless."

It is available from Beatport.

The friendship he mentions below goes back a lot further than 2HOT2HANDLE. Jovonn remixed 'Real Music Needz To Happen', the 2016 twelve that opened Marcos's B.SOUL vinyl series. The record itself is older still: 'I Can't Make Up My Mind' came out in 1992 on the 'House Ala Carte' twelve for New York's Project X Records, was licensed to UMM in Italy a year later, and got reissued by Clone Classic Cuts in 2013. In 2025 the Brooklyn producer brought it home to Next Moov, the label he founded in 1999, and that is the version on Bandcamp.

Marcos Baiano: "Next has to be a masterpiece from one of the greats of NYC deep house. Actually, forget 'one of the greats'. For me, Jovonn is an absolute legend. He's also become a very dear friend, and we're currently working together on a collaboration for the second release on my label, 2HOT2HANDLE.

'I Can't Make Up My Mind' is one of those records that, for me, can enter a set almost anywhere, as long as you're reading the audience properly. It can become an incredible bridge between different moments of the night.

The flow is hypnotic and completely unique. With basically just the kick, bass and vocal, it already says everything. Then the drums come back in for the second time and suddenly the whole groove catches fire. You simply cannot stand still.

I keep coming back to the same idea with records like this: they don't really have a BPM, an hour of the night or even an era attached to them. It's pure, timeless house music, the kind that makes you want to jump from pure joy.

And one little DJ secret: it mixes absolutely perfectly with 'Flat Beat'. Trust me on that one."

Pick it up direct from Bandcamp.

Before 'Red Alert' and 'Where's Your Head At', there was this. 'Fly Life' first turned up on Basement Jaxx's 'EP3' in 1996, on Atlantic Jaxx, the label Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe ran themselves, and when it came out as a single in 1997 it became the first Basement Jaxx record ever to chart in the UK, peaking at number 19. It grew out of 'Live Your Life With Me', which the pair had produced for Corrina Joseph in 1996, and the single package roped in remixes from Roni Size and Erick Morillo.

Marcos Baiano: "Now it has to be Basement Jaxx with 'Fly Life'. Another absolutely timeless banger that literally takes over the dancefloor.

I've never really understood where this track begins, where it ends, or even where the drop actually is, and that's exactly what I love about it. It gives you so much freedom to play with the mixer, to extend the tension, tease different moments and almost reshape the record while you're playing it.

The tension is incredible. It just keeps growing and growing, surrounded by completely insane sounds. Then you have those house and soul touches in the vocal samples, sitting over this funky house groove that makes it almost impossible for anyone to stand still.

It's chaotic, funky, soulful and unpredictable at the same time. One of those records where you can feel the energy constantly climbing without ever really knowing where it's going to take you, and that's exactly the fun of playing it."

Get it over on Beatport.

His number one goes all the way back to 1993, and to the first year of a label. Hisa Ishioka founded King Street Sounds in New York that year and named it after 84 King Street, the address of the Paradise Garage, where Ishioka had been a regular until it closed. 'The Way I Feel' went out as KSS 1007 in that first year. Tears Of Velva is singer Velva Johnson, and Kerri Chandler wrote and produced it with Yahya McDougald. The Bandcamp release also carries a re-edit from Detroit's Terrence Parker.

Marcos Baiano: "What can I say about this record? For me, 'The Way I Feel' somehow contains almost every emotion music has ever made me feel.

The mood is almost like a mantra, and playing this track has become a real ritual for me. I can close a party with it and watch people leave with a smile on their faces, or I can use it to create an old-school oasis in the middle of a more aggressive, harder set before diving back into a more modern underground direction.

I first met Kerri at DC10 in Ibiza, I think around 2009. I was really young, basically still a kid, and I asked him for a photo. I had just released something on Nervous Records, so we exchanged contacts. From then on, every time I went to DC10, I was almost going there for him.

For me, Kerri is an absolute legend, one of my biggest inspirations, not only musically but also in terms of professionalism and presence."

Get yours from King Street's Bandcamp.

Number five in the bag. Massive thanks to Marcos Baiano for the DC10 stories, for the Panorama Bar one, and for handing over two mixing tips in a single list. Every pick has a store link attached, so go and buy the originals.

Next week DJ Dextro takes the wheel, all the way from Lisbon. Same time, same five slots.

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See you on Sunday, enjoy the rave in between.

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