Deee-Lite

Deee-Lite

Deee-Lite are a dance music group from New York, active from 1986 to 1996. Their line-up includes Lady Miss Kier, Super DJ Dmitry, TOWA TEI and DJ Ani, and they are associated with Elektra.

Style and early development

Formed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and performing in New York City, Deee-Lite combine house music with hip-hop and rap, funk and techno. Their music is described as a form of “holographic techno-soul”, and their production company is named Sampladelic. Their work also carries social commentary, alongside humour and club-based energy.

Live presentation and performance approach

The group build their live shows around spectacle. They hand out daisies, use Captain Whizzo’s psychedelic lightshow, and work with voguers and other free-styling club dancers rather than formal choreography. Lady Miss Kier and Super DJ Dmitry are especially committed to live performance, and the group tour with P-Funk figures including Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Fred Wessely, Gary “Mudbone” Cooper and Mike “kid funkadelic” Hampton.

Key releases and collaborators

Their biggest hit is “Groove Is In the Heart”, from the 1990 debut album World Clique. The song becomes a worldwide success and features Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest and Bootsy Collins. Before the release of their third album, Dewdrops in the Garden, TOWA TEI moves towards bossa nova, appears only on the remix of “Call Me”, and DJ On-E joins the group.

Members

Deee-Lite’s original members are Dmitri Brill as Super DJ Dmitry, born in Kiev, Ukraine; Kierin Magenta Kirby as Lady Miss Kier, from Youngstown, Ohio; and Dong-hwa Chung as Towa Tei, from Tokyo, Japan. Brill and Kirby also have an ongoing romantic relationship that ends before the release of Dewdrops in the Garden.

Later history

The group disbands in 1994, shortly before Dewdrops in the Garden appears.