Eli Escobar’s Top 9 Vinyl Records You Need To Hear Right Now

Eli Escobar is a New York City legend building his career over the past decade hosting the Big Apple’s hottest parties and nurturingthe city’s vibrant pool of talent.

He has built his sound on diverse taste that is a culmination of all of his musical influences; including hip-hop to dance and electro.

With a refined taste and professional ear, we at Magnetic Magazine were proud to invite him to curate this month’s best, hottest, and most ear-catching vinyl releases that you need to hear this month.

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But before we dive into the chart, make sure to check out Eli’s long list of upcoming gigs as he is, without doubt, New York’s most sought-after DJ.

Check out all of Eli’s upcoming gigs

Top Vinyls You Need To Hear This Month

Chic -I Want Your Love

This first record is a pink record which is super cool as a side note. The reason I’m starting with this is because I am a DJ who discovered electronic music through disco which for DJs in my age range is a little unusual, I think.

I feel a lot start with house or techno and when they’re interested and then go backwards to discover their roots. I fell in love with disco first.

When I was a kid, my mom, uncle, aunt and my grandma used to do a summer share on Fire Island for two weeks out of the summer and I can remember hearing ‘I want Your Love’ on the beach when I was crazy young – 4/5 years old. It stuck in my head, and I still have a vivid memory.

I still love the song so much, it’s unique because it’s quite sad but it goes off when you play it at a party because of the standard Nile Rogers guitar thing which is kind of happy. It’s one of the greatest records ever made and I love it and I still play it all the time.

Alice Smith – Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Remix)

Alice Smith - Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton rmx).

This is a promo only & also one of the great remixes of the last 20 years in my opinion. Maurice Fulton is such a singular talent. He’s got the most unique sound, he’s so prolific and never comes out with anything whack.

This remix is just superb.

It builds and builds and builds and then finally her incredible chorus comes in and he strips it back down using parts of her vocals that you almost wouldn’t notice in the original version.

It’s exactly the perfect remix and everything a remix can be as far as elevating and transforming a song to something completely different.

AshFord and Simpson – One More Try

This is a promo only 12 inch.

I always loved this record, it’s really warm and beautiful and sort of jazzy. A bit different to the disco AshFord and Simpson would make after this for themselves and Diana ross. It’s more melancholy but has a super sick break in the middle.

It reminds me of the very very early days of buying records on the internet. I bid on it on eBay and it was an intense fierce battle that I got into with another person because the record is so rare and hard to find.

This was before Discogs and even before you could set the price on eBay. But I won it and I was really proud of myself for winning it!

It’s just a beautiful sounding record with a super warm mid 70s sound to it that I love.

Razormaid Mix – A2

I’m a really big collector of the Razormaid series and this is my absolute favorite one. It’s got really cool packaging and the records are yellow; it’s got this pretty cool arty situation going on with the cover too.

The song on here that I absolutely adore is called ‘Hassan’ by the artist Fatima. It’s a very mysterious record, it never came out on any other format and as far as I know was only really ever played in Chicago in a couple of clubs like Medusa’s.

I discovered it sometime in the 2000s when I started collecting Razormaid’s.

It’s kind of a sad song, I really like sad songs incase you haven’t noticed and its synth pop kind of thing has the best vocal melody. It’s one of those records that I find if I play and people feel familiar with it, it really resonates with them and love to dance to it.

Eli Escobar – Up All Night

Okay this is kind of conceded but the next record I’m gonna pick is my first full length album, Up All Night which I released on my own label Night People NYC.

This record was just a labour of love as it was a bunch of tracks, I had lying around that for some reason I didn’t think made sense as singles, but worked together as an album.

My friend Woody did the cover art which was a comic strip insert and it ended up doing really well for me. It was the most successful thing I’d ever released until that point and people still tell me it’s their favourite and love a lot of the songs on it.

I feel great about this album, I can look back on it and it brings back tons of memories. I’m happy with the music on it. It’s pretty hard to come by these days and it’s pretty expensive on Discogs so maybe one day I’ll do a re-issue.

Madonna – Borderline

The next record I’m picking is really special to me. It’s moving ahead a few years and this particular record I have of it is a 45 and the cover opens up to a poster.

This record is really special to me for two reasons, one the song itself reminds me of being a kid in New York City and being pretty obsessed with pop music and dance music and rap and new wave and synth pop and Madonna especially.

Also, this particular physical copy is important to me because my friend Justin Strauss gave this to me as a present during a really sad time in my life when I had just lost one of my best friends to cancer.

He came over to visit to check in on me and brought me this as a present and it meant the world to me, so I love this record so much for that. When I see it makes me think of my friend who passed and Justin and how generous he is as a person.

Ron Hardy – Muzic Box Classics Volume 3

This to me is the ultimate bootleg disco edit record. It’s First Choice ‘Let No Man Put Us Under’ and his edit is the blueprint for house music as we know it.

Just taking one little section of the record and repeating it and pounding it out until you can’t take anymore and then letting it play and it gives off this huge release when it finally does play.

It solidifies to me that he’s the greatest ever and I really treasure this record. I actually feel like I need to get another one because I’ve played it so much it’s starting to sound pretty bad.

Sylvester – I Need You

This version came out in the 80s. It’s a white record and has a really nice picture of him in the middle.

This is another record I got before Discogs and something I’ve never come across. I knew it existed but could never find it and when I did, the burst of excitement I felt just being able to hold it after hearing about it and being able call it my own was the biggest rush. I still think about that when I look at it and it still feels very special to me.

It is also my favorite Sylvester song and one of my favorite songs period. It has just the most beautiful piano, melody and background vocals. It’s probably the record I play most at the end of a night if I’m really feeling it.

Diana Ross – Once In The Morning

My last choice is this. It only came out in Mexico on a 12 inch & no other exists.

It’s like a Diano Ross deep cut for the heads and it’s from the album, ‘The Boss’ that Ashford & Simpson wrote & produced, and I don’t know if I’d say it’s the best song on the album, but I think it’s my favourite. It’s just so good and this 12 inch is pressed so loudly.

I treasure this record and I’ve never seen it ever in my life. My copy is the only one I’ve ever seen so I feel very lucky to own and it’s just the best song.

Since making the transition into producing his own original tracks and remixes over the past few years, his career has taken to new heights – landing remixes and collabs with Lana Del Rey, Bag Raiders, Jessica 6, Dirty Vegas, Ali Love, Diplo, M.I.A., Britney Spears, Chromeo, Holy Ghost!, Pase Rock, and Amanda Blank.