Before house became the dominant soundtrack to club life in the late 1980s, there was a style of dance music that swept the northeast United States, spreading like wildfire to South Florida, Texas and beyond. That music, freestyle, was born out of New York's Latino musical community, but soon became a crossover phenomenon. Girl groups like the Cover Girls and Sweet Sensation dotted the pop music landscape, but there was only ever one successful and enduring male freestyle group: TKA. And after a decade apart, TKA is back and ready to conquer all-new territory with their Tommy Boy Music release TKA Forever. TKA an acronym derived from the names of group members Tony, K7 and Angel rose to prominence during the first wave of freestyle success, with 1986's "One Way Love." And through 1992's "Maria," a single lifted from their Greatest Hits collection, they scored hit after hit on both the club and pop charts, including the enduring smash "Louder Than Love." The TKA of today is notably different, however. Gone are the simplistic arrangements and Afrika Baambaataa-nicked beats that defined freestyle's prototype anthems. In their place on TKA Forever are complex, fleshed-out songs with production that often recalls the neo-disco funk of Daft Punk more than old-school queen Debbie Deb. TKA's legacy proved so powerful that it was the catalyst for the band to reunite after a nearly ten year hiatus. After the release of TKA's Greatest Hits in 1992, the trio went on hiatus so that each member could record a solo album. Only one of those, K7's gold-certified 1994 collection Swing Batta Swing, was completed, but the guys all worked in different areas of the music business during TKA's downtime. "We never thought about getting back together, in that whole period of time, until recently," says K7. "We started hanging around the same circles and speaking to the same people, and after chasing each other around continuously, asking each other if we wanted to do it and turning each other down, we finally came to a decision to try it and see what it was like. The initial response from our fans was so overwhelming." After a spate of radio shows in 2000, TKA decided to see if the old magic was still there. "We went in to record one song to see what it felt like, then we recorded another, and the ball just kept rolling," K7 says. By spring 2001, the group had a full album completed, and they began shopping TKA Forever around. Unsurprisingly, they returned to the label where their career first took off some 15 years earlier Tommy Boy Music. TKA have not only committed themselves to promoting TKA Forever to fans old and new, but they are also interested in creating future shock waves in the music world. "We want to branch out," K7 says. "There are a lot of producers and young acts out there that need to see the light of day. Everyone in New York is either an actor or a singer. We're out to find the next TKA and help them get through the door as well, whether through influence or actual help." But nothing will make TKA happier than seeing TKA Forever reach the widest possible audience, which includes even their freestyle-era nay-sayers.
"To borrow a phrase from George Michael, we hope people 'listen without prejudice,'" they urge. Open your mind, then your ears, and get ready to "Feel The Music" like you never have before.
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Before house became the dominant soundtrack to club life in the late 1980s, there was a style of dance music that swept the northeast United States, spreading like wildfire to South Florida, Texas and beyond. That music, freestyle, was born out of New York's Latino musical community, but soon became a crossover phenomenon. Girl groups like the Cover Girls and Sweet Sensation dotted the pop music landscape, but there was only ever one successful and enduring male freestyle group: TKA. And after a decade apart, TKA is back and ready to conquer all-new territory with their Tommy Boy Music release TKA Forever. TKA an acronym derived from the names of group members Tony, K7 and Angel rose to prominence during the first wave of freestyle success, with 1986's "One Way Love." And through 1992's "Maria," a single lifted from their Greatest Hits collection, they scored hit after hit on both the club and pop charts, including the enduring smash "Louder Than Love." The TKA of today is notably different, however. Gone are the simplistic arrangements and Afrika Baambaataa-nicked beats that defined freestyle's prototype anthems. In their place on TKA Forever are complex, fleshed-out songs with production that often recalls the neo-disco funk of Daft Punk more than old-school queen Debbie Deb. TKA's legacy proved so powerful that it was the catalyst for the band to reunite after a nearly ten year hiatus. After the release of TKA's Greatest Hits in 1992, the trio went on hiatus so that each member could record a solo album. Only one of those, K7's gold-certified 1994 collection Swing Batta Swing, was completed, but the guys all worked in different areas of the music business during TKA's downtime. "We never thought about getting back together, in that whole period of time, until recently," says K7. "We started hanging around the same circles and speaking to the same people, and after chasing each other around continuously, asking each other if we wanted to do it and turning each other down, we finally came to a decision to try it and see what it was like. The initial response from our fans was so overwhelming." After a spate of radio shows in 2000, TKA decided to see if the old magic was still there. "We went in to record one song to see what it felt like, then we recorded another, and the ball just kept rolling," K7 says. By spring 2001, the group had a full album completed, and they began shopping TKA Forever around. Unsurprisingly, they returned to the label where their career first took off some 15 years earlier Tommy Boy Music. TKA have not only committed themselves to promoting TKA Forever to fans old and new, but they are also interested in creating future shock waves in the music world. "We want to branch out," K7 says. "There are a lot of producers and young acts out there that need to see the light of day. Everyone in New York is either an actor or a singer. We're out to find the next TKA and help them get through the door as well, whether through influence or actual help." But nothing will make TKA happier than seeing TKA Forever reach the widest possible audience, which includes even their freestyle-era nay-sayers.
"To borrow a phrase from George Michael, we hope people 'listen without prejudice,'" they urge. Open your mind, then your ears, and get ready to "Feel The Music" like you never have before.