After this conversation, I decided to go looking for our house music. I simply couldn't bring myself to accept its death, so off I went looking for its presence in New York.

I began my search on the Web and found numerous house-music sites, but with the exception of a rare few (mentioned here), most seemed empty of soul. I tuned in to what was once an old standard, The Liquid Sound Lounge, a radio program hosted by DJ Jeannie Hopper that airs on Saturdays at 6 p.m. on WBAI 99.5 FM (www.liquidsoundlounge.com). Their Web site is one if the few exceptions. It lists weekly events in New York, promotes those it hosts and provides an informative underground guide for industry types who want to know where to buy records, or find record labels specifically for house music. A play list is available from the show as well as a top-ten list of new house releases. I found some cool things that are happening this summer: On Saturdays, there is an event called Turntables on the Hudson at Pier 61 of Chelsea Piers. On June 19, Liquid Sound Lounge is celebrating its six-year anniversary there.

Another notable site, Codek, is dedicated to promoting "cosmic" music, a little-known genre which, similar to today's hip-hop and electronic dance music, is focused on the DJ and his manipulation of vinyl. What ultimately defines the music as "cosmic" is the DJ's work, evoking tribal, ethnic, and folk sounds combined with a contemporary, gritty, urban-funk feel. The Web site primarily promotes its record label, Codek, and more notably, Organic Grooves, a weekly underground party that moves about, but has been at CBGB's for a while. For the summer, Organic Grooves plans to move its parties outdoors. At the events, live musicians play on top of DJs creating music that's, well, far from cliché.

Eventually, I hit upon my now favorite site, The Classic House Music Page. This site has a highly comprehensive listing of old school and new house music. With an MP3 player, listeners can access a backlog of house hits. Nestor Delgado, who needs to be commended for his work, his knowledge and his record-keeping skills (a true historian), created the site. Links are provided to the History of House page, Larry Levan's Bio and other soulful house-music sites, such as the Tribute to the Paradise Garage Homepage. I asked Nestor whether he thought the house-music scene in New York City was dead. He said, "I would say club Vinyl is the current home of house music today. The house scene may be suffering from lack of exposure, and it may be thrust more into the underground, but it is far from dead. In a typical weekend, club Vinyl sees a considerable amount of followers of the music. Shelter fills up with around 600 to 700 people. [Vinyl] fills up with about 1,000."

After my Web hunt, friends and I went out searching for the clubs and the people at the forefront of today's New York house-music scene. Overall, whether in clubs, at radio stations or on the Net, I found it difficult getting people to talk about the scene, which made me conclude that if house music were dead, these people were the ones digging its grave.

Regardless, if this is what you call death, the crowd at club Vinyl the night I attended was in a collective spiritual heaven. My friends and I were listening to angels in the form of DJs Francis K, Joe Clausell, and Danny Krivit. My friend Ann, who previously proclaimed that house music was dead, said, "I feel like I've been reborn. Everyone here is friendly, getting along, and there is no pressure to try and fit in. The energy is pure and not contrived by alcohol or drugs." Once again, this music united everyone in the room – straights, gays, blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, etc. Everyone was there to get their dance on. House music dead? Hardly – you just have to seek it out.

"There are many who are seeking this sound," said Nestor Delgado. "But without support of radio stations and clubs, there are very few ways to get the message out that the music is still being made. This is the reason I created my site in the first place. I just wanted to give underground club music, past and present, the voice it never had. It may never get as big as some of us would like it to get, but it's always nice to have an alternative to the present commercial music."

June 1999