When party guests approach house DJs and ask them to play something a little more accessible, such as a track with vocal hooks, snobbish spinners recoil at the request. Coming from one of the genre's leading producers, however, such demands carry more weight. After years as a go-to mixer for labels such as Om and Naked, San Francisco's Andy Caldwell created Uno, an imprint devoted to a more melodic form of deep-house backdrops. He altered his approach after observing his audiences, noting that dancers move more when they have lyrical landmarks. His recent remixes include Yoshimoto's "Du What You Du" (which he turns from a frosty new-wave number into a warm dance-pop dynamo) and Mei-Lwun's "Too Late" (on which his percussion pours fuel on a flickering disco inferno). Though he has a progressive view of house music, Caldwell respects the genre's traditions, using vinyl live instead of simply operating a virtual CD changer.
