`Urban house' crosses over.

Dance label Defected made unexpected gains when disaffected R&B fans turned to house

FISH GO DEEP THE CURE & THE CAUSE (DEFECTED)

Defected's club favourite The Cure & The Cause by Fish Go Deep is fast shaping up as one of the biggest house tracks to break in the UK this year. However, in an interesting twist, the track is also proving increasingly popular with the urban crowd, a trend affirmed by 1Xtra's recent decision to cast the track as its record of the week.

Defected has reacted to the development with the launch of a new compilation series entitled Urban House, a collection of cuts currently enjoying acceptance within the urban music world. Head of A&R Simon Dunbar believes the R&B scene has become static in recent years and the increasing popularity of house music is a reaction to this. "The R&B tempo has been so static for so long, people started looking for something new," he says. "A lot of the records we put out are quite soulful, while still being uptempo, so they naturally started to gain play in these areas." The album, which is released on January 22, features 80% Defected repertoire.

Dunbar says the crossover trend was drawn to his attention six weeks ago when a request for eight tracks on the Defective roster was received from leading urban compilation series Twice As Nice. "I was perplexed as to why," he says. "So we did a bit of investigating and other people seemed to affirm the trend." ...