Ever since its inception around 2016 or so, the garage house sound has had a troubled start. Part of this was not knowing what it was meant to be – something which didn’t really matter in the vinyl days was now developing under the critical eye of the internet. So do forgive Ears To The House for our ambivalent feelings on the genre.

The likes of Marc Cotterell and Danny J Lewis were at the forefront of efforts years ago to persuade Traxsource to introduce a garage house category. Initially, the American digital download store refused – a source close to them said it was because they didn’t consider the genre “sufficiently developed or unique” to get its own category.

However, success was to come in 2021 when Traxsource relented with a wider garage category. Since then, things have slowly progressed – but in our opinion, the lack of proper vocal tracks is impeding its growth. Which is why we were intrigued to discover that Marc Cotterell has been commissioned to provide two remixes for the Defected behemoth…

Those of you who know your house history might remember this track, which originally came out in 1994. Some years ago, the original label they came out on – K4B – was acquired by Defected. The new remixes will be released under the 4 To The Floor banner in March. Rest assured we shall be keeping our ears open.

But why now? This is a question which is never far away from Defected’s thinking, and one taking a higher priority now under new boss Wez Saunders. Are Defected looking at garage house as the next potential growth area in their business? Or is this just a cynical attempt by the label to cash in on a possible new trend?

It’s hard to tell – but this isn’t exactly their first venture into the garage house sphere. Those with long memories might recall when Scott Diaz was commissioned to remix “Heat” by Rapson and Nathan Thomas in 2018. But curiously, Diaz hasn’t appeared at the label since – and nor has anything on the garage house tip.

A source close to Defected insists nothing unusual happened here – “it was simply that something garage house suited that release. Defected never shuts itself off from exposure to any sounds at all and they definitely look closely at what’s selling elsewhere. There’s far more producers on their radar than anyone knows.”.

It’s slightly disappointing that Cotterell was only asked to remix a 29-year old record rather than to release a completely new composition in its own right – although this tactic of testing the waters isn’t unusual for Defected. As for whether “it will give some exposure to the sound”, as Cotterell hopes – only time will tell…