Guru Josh – Infinity
If you export the sun-drenched Balearic vibe back to generally un-blissed Britain, you’re going to get things like this: cardboard uplift, a huckster’s take on youth revolution. Guru Josh queered his career by admitting, a handful of months before Thatcher went, that he was a Tory. His hubris and ham-fistedness would have had the same effect anyhow: “1990s – time for the guru” he growls, revealing that he doesn’t actually know how to pronounce his own name.
So it’s rubbish, right? Well, no, it’s a good example of how something that entirely fails at being one thing – a credible house record – can succeed at being something else, trend-snaffling bubblegum. The spiralling italo piano and keening ‘ambient house’ melody sound like they’ve wandered in from two different records (one of which is “Pacific State”) but Josh’s absurd showmanship makes the whole thing just about work. Shortly afterwards he vanished entirely, though a delicious rumour held that a mid-90s John Peel Festive 50 favourite was in fact the work of none other than The Guru.