Murk

The toast of the American house underground during the 1990s, Cuban-American producers Oscar Gaetan and Ralph Falcon stand behind several of the decade's best house tracks, dark numbers whose soulful vocal lines and high charting position bely an acid-tinged ruggedness at odds with the candy-floss arrangements of many dance hits. Most were recorded for their Murk Recordings label -- later licensed through MCA/Tribal America -- under a variety of aliases and projects including Liberty City, Funky Green Dogs, Deep South and Coral Way Chief. Gaetan and Falcon grew up together in Miami, and though Falcon spent four of his teenage years at a Georgia military school, both discovered and began enjoying house music independently. The duo gradually entered the Miami dance scene, influenced by early domestic producers Farley Jackmaster Funk and Todd Terry as well as later British comers including A Guy Called Gerald.

After producing a single called "Tricky Jazz" for the local DSR Records, Gaetan and Falcon followed with Mission Control's "Outta Limits, which appeared on an Atlantic compilation in 1992. By that time the pair had already set up Murk Recordings and released singles as Intruder and Interceptor. Their next production was Liberty City's "Some Lovin'," a sublime piece of hypnotic mellowed-out trance recorded with singer Bebe Dozier, a family friend. The single broke them to an international audience, and the Murk boys were soon being called on to DJ around the world.

In 1993, MCA's division of Tribal America responded to the fame, licensing the Murk catalogue in total and issuing Murk: The Singles Collection. That same year, another Liberty City single, "If You Really Love Someone," became another club hit. The duo remixed Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, the Beloved and RuPaul. During 1994, both Gaetan and Falcon concentrated on label ventures of their own (Gee Man Soul and Miami Soul Records, respectively) but then came together to record a Liberty City LP. When the album came out in 1996, however, it was under yet another alias from their early Murk days, Funky Green Dogs. Get Fired Up became a crossover hit, thanks to the number one dance single "Fired Up!" and another club hit, "The Way." In 1999, the pair released a volume in the mix series United DJ's of America.

Murk boys Oscar Gaetan and Ralph Falcon were hyped more on respect than sales figures before they broke out of the American dance mainstream with two of the biggest hits of 1996-97, "Fired Up!" and "The Way" by Funky Green Dogs. Gaetan and Falcon had been producing for their own Murk Recordings since the early '90s, and had earned club-play with hits by Liberty City ("Some Lovin'," "If You Love Someone") and remixes of Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, the Beloved and RuPaul, among others. After recording a Liberty City LP beginning in 1995, the pair turned around and released it as Funky Green Dogs, an alias which had graced only one of their previous recordings. The trailer single "Fired Up!" became a big hit on dancefloors (and charts) with remixes by Danny Tenaglia. After the album Get Fired Up appeared in late 1996, second single "The Way" hit number one on the dance charts. The duo added new vocalist Tamara, a native of the Bahamas, for their second album Star.