Keep Pushin’ — Boris Dlugosch

“Keep Pushin’” started as a demo. A young singer from Brooklyn, living in Germany, met two producers from the Peppermint Jam camp and sang over their track. Credited to Boris Dlugosch presents Booom!, it became an international dance hit and has been remixed and reworked ever since.

Boris Dlugosch and Peppermint Jam

Dlugosch, born in Hamburg on 2 August 1968, started out as a DJ at the club Front in Hamburg’s Hammerbrook district, playing house when others went for happy hardcore or trance. In the early 1990s he also produced happy hardcore alongside Gary D. His partners at Peppermint Jam, the Hanover label Mousse T. set up in 1994 for soulful house, were Mousse T. and Michi Lange.

Inaya Day’s demo

Inaya Day, born Inaya Davis in Brooklyn in 1977, was in Germany when she was asked to cut a demo with Dlugosch and Mousse T. As she later told Le Visiteur, they gave her direction on the lyrics and she sang the rest off the top of her head. The writing credit went to Dlugosch, Mousse T., Errol Rennalls and Davis. The Peppermint Jam release carries an Original Mix plus “Path of Dub” and “Path of Club” mixes, with “Ready” as an extra track.

Release and charts

Peppermint Jam released “Keep Pushin’” in 1996. In the US, MAW Records licensed it as MAW012, adding remixes by Dwayne “Spen” Richardson, Shaheer Williams, Stephen B. Wilson and Derek Jenkins. A Jive release, Keep Pushin’ (The Mixes), gathered further versions, including mixes by Grant Nelson and Brian McDermott. The single entered the UK Singles Chart in December 1996 and peaked at No. 41, and it also charted in Canada and on the US dance charts.

Hold Your Head Up High and after

The team returned in 1997 with “Hold Your Head Up High”, again as Booom! with Inaya Day; it reached No. 23 in the UK. Day went on to front her own hits, including “Nasty Girl”, a UK No. 9 in 2005 co-produced by Mousse T. Dlugosch’s 1999 remix of Moloko’s “Sing It Back” became a club staple, and “Never Enough”, with Róisín Murphy, reached No. 16 in the UK in 2001. He has remixed Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Jamiroquai, Röyksopp and Daft Punk, and worked on Spiller’s “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”.

For Mousse T.’s own crossover hit, read the story of “Horny”. For the New York label that licensed this one, see “Work” by Masters at Work, and for more big-voiced house from the same years, “Free” by Ultra Naté.