World Clique

De-lovely, delightful, and truly delicious: Deee-Lite’s World Clique makes deliriously fun dance magic with house, funk, and soul music, includes “Groove Is in the Heart” and contributions from Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, and Fred Wesley.

Dig! A rare club album that crossed over into the mainstream and became an international success, World Clique seemingly came from out of the blue from a band whose whimsical, quasi-psychedelic name — Deee-Lite — hints at the sheer fun, quirky personality, and humorous flair within its diverse borders. Renowned for the smash “Groove Is in the Heart,” ranked #233 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 2 on Billboard’s 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time, the 1990 record is a good-time dive into funk, house, disco, and pop waters that never fails to put a smile on listeners’ faces or a spring in their step. 

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents World Clique in audiophile quality for the first time. One of the most important aspects of the effort — rhythmic grooves, natch — tremendously benefits from the fact the 48-minute album gets spread across four vinyl sides. The upgrade allows for a boost in groove velocity and near eradication of inner-groove distortion all the while enhancing high- and low-frequency reproduction. Unless you’ve got out-of-print 12-inch singles from this Billboard Top 20 set, you’ve never even come close to hearing how good it sounds. 

Constructed via a hybrid of instrumentation, singing, and samples, World Clique unfurls with a rainbow of colors, tones, details, and effects. This collectible reissue zeros in on the separation and spatial location crucial to the tracks, with clever touches such as supplementary echoes to panned vocals and hand claps in defined positions amid broad, deep soundstages. The clarity of everything from Lady Miss Kier’s breathy vocals and the group’s effortless hooks to the statement-making horns from James Brown band legends Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley brings Deee-Lite’s joyous delirium to life in multi-dimensional fashion.