Both singles were produced in tribute to Howard Marks aka Mr Nice, who sadly died in 2016, and were released on Tuesday, the two year anniversary of his passing away – April 10th.

The two dance music tracks ‘God That Cant Dance’ and ‘Power Of Dance’ are different in style, from funky House beats to underground Techno, both feature Howard’s deep Welsh voice.

Emma Wilkinson, aka E.M.A said: “I was  fortunate enough to be a friend of Howard’s, and I got the sample of his voice from an audio/visual project my father, who is a music and lifestyle photographer, worked on years ago.

“It was called the ‘Black Board Project’. My Dad snapped interesting people holding up a black board which they had written something on, and then recorded them explaining what they had written.

“One of the subjects was Howard, and when I heard the recording I thought it would sound fantastic in a dance music track.”

The music video for ‘God That Cant Dance’ was shot in Manchester’s hipster Northern Quarter. It features cameo appearances from Coronation Street actress Katie McGlynn, professional skate boarder Ben Groves and MC Tunes from Dust Junkys as well as some of Howards close friends.

E.M.A is an up and coming talent in the DJ world. She has DJ’d at one of the UK’s best known clubs, The Warehouse Project alongside Hannah Wants and Danny Howard. She’s also supported Rudimental, Fun Lovin Criminals, Brandon Block, Pussycat Doll Kimberley Wyatt and Erick Morillo.

Making her mark on Manchester, she also has a plethora of festivals in her record bag including: Hideout Festival, Snowbombing, Parklife, Bestival, Eden Festival, Junction 16, Happy Festival, Beat-Herder and last Summer, she played at the iconic Glastonbury Festival and will be playing Bestival later this year.

To add to her list of successes, she has her own radio show on Unity Radio every Friday 1-4pm.

As part of a Unity Radio tour, Emma headed out to Ibiza in 2016 to broadcast live from the party island, spinning tunes at Ocean Beach and Carl Cox: Music Is Revolution, The Final Chapter’ at the legendary Space.

Emma was introduced to Danny Shaples ‘L.E.A’  by The Laboratory Project founder and former Ministry Of Sound operation’s director, Tony Rigg.

Danny has been producing music for five years and has released on White Widow Records, Audiophile XXL and had a top 30 hit on Beatport. He’s also worked with other artists including Monxx, Med, Bleu Clair, M.O.B and Oliver Thomas. 

Emma met international DJ/producer Lisa Lashes a few years ago through an interview with VIVA Magazine which Emma is one of the founders of.

Emma says: “Lisa was the first ever female DJs I saw playing at Cheeky Little Monkeys in Bournemouth when I was 17 years old. My friends and I used to be big fans of Lisa, we still are, so I was really excited to meet her. Interviewing Lisa really inspired me and gave me a big boast into following my dreams as a DJ.

I was looking for some DJ’s/producers to do a remix of ‘God That Can’t Dance’ and approached Lisa with the idea, she was well up for it and said lets do the remix together. Lisa wanted to use some different vocals from the recording I had of Howard so it ended up being a completely new track, which we called ‘Power Of Dance’”.

Lisa Lashes’ prolific career in dance music spans 19 years of entertaining clubbers and festival goers across the globe which at one point of her career got her the crown of the worlds number one female DJ.

Going forward, Lisa is following her heart to the dark side of Techno and the underground, with the support of none other than ‘The Boss’ Carl Cox who heavily supports Lisa’s releases in his DJ sets and his international Global radio show.

Howard Marks sadly died aged seventy April 2016. Described by the press as ‘the most sophisticated and charming drug’s baron of all time’ and ‘a true modern day folk hero,’ they also said, ‘He sounds like Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone.’

His bestselling autobiography, Mr Nice, was published in 1996, and a film soon followed with Rhys Ifans starring as Marks.

Howard also used to DJ and after four years of friendship invited Emma to DJ back to back with him on the festival scene at the likes of Beat Herder and Eden festival, as well as his national ‘Mr Nice’ tour.

Both tracks have been released with Manchester based digital music agency: Modern English.

Modern English are known internationally for their digital immersive experiences, and creative technology. The team at Modern English are global experts in building digital platforms and solutions for artists in the music industry.

Some of their clients include: The Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age and Beck.

Emma says: “I’ve been so lucky to have worked with Lisa and Danny on this special project. Both tracks are completely different vibes and I love them both! Howard’s tasted in music was very diverse as is mine, I think he will defiantly be dancing to both tracks high as a kite, up in the skies!” 

Both tracks are out now on all good music platforms, see some links below:

God That Can’t Dance 

iTunes

Spotify

Power Of Dance

iTunes

Spotify

BEHIND THE SCENES PICTURES FROM THE GOD THAT CAN’T DANCE MUSIC VIDEO (PHOTOS BY ELSPETH MARY MOORE)…