Time honoured drops that define our Sunday gathering.

GALA Sunday in 10 tracks

Step into the house that love built.

After two days and nights of thrills and spills, everyone’s edges are reliably worn away, leaving the Sunday crowd at GALA wide open to feel every ounce of sweetly sentimental sound. The heart and soul of the festival is founded on the emotional outpouring that our cherished selectors bring to the festival’s last stretch, perfectly captured in time-honoured drops such as these.

Words by Oli Warwick

Kerri Chandler & Jerome Sydenham – ‘You’re In My System’ Dennis Quin Vocal Mix ft. Troy Denari

As one of the key architects of US garage house, Kerri Chandler has more than a few anthems under his belt, but this is the one that gets everyone giddy. With Jerome Sydenham, the New Jersey titan flipped The System’s 1983 electro-funk classic, brought Troy Denari in for a new set of vocals and dialled in the perfect amount of bump and shuffle to take the addictive love song onto a higher plane.

Larry Heard presents Mr. White – ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’

By 2006 Larry Heard already had more than 20 years of game-changing house music under his belt, and yet he was still able to casually gift the world B sides that became eternal classics. ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’ is the ultimate demonstration of Heard’s gift, using the simplest of acid lines to create a heart-rending backdrop to Mr. White’s aching croon. It’s deep in all the right ways, and melancholic enough to melt the dancefloor into one great cuddle puddle by the end of the weekend.

Lil’ Louis – ‘French Kiss’

No one was prepared for the kind of fireworks ‘French Kiss’ could ignite on the dancefloor. Even without the audacious, orgasmic slow-down mid-section it’s a late 80s Chicago house bomb, but Lil’ Louis has remained a master of wildcard swerves since he first made waves in the Windy City. As a DJ, his reputation is equally imperious as he serves it the proper way, combing back through the eras with an emphasis on keeping it sexy, soulful, thrilling and unpredictable. Expect unbelievable scenes when he takes control of the Patio at GALA ’26.

Gwen Guthrie – ‘Padlock’ (Larry Levan Mix)

Larry Levan’s legendary club remixes set the template for so much of what would come in dance music culture, but no one could recapture the maverick flair the Paradise Garage legend brought to each and every studio excursion. With Jamaican titans Sly & Robbie on the rhythm section and the mighty Gwen Guthrie on vocals, Levan had the best ingredients at his disposal to twist up into a sizzling disco dub of gargantuan proportions.

Fern Kinney – ‘Love Me Tonight’

Capturing the sweet spot where classic, extravagant disco production was embracing the dawn of the synthesiser, ‘Love Me Tonight’ is an exquisite deep cut from Fern Kinney’s stunning three album run. It’s also a bittersweet singalong with a sentimental run-out that makes it an ultimate closing track, as Midland beautifully proved when he brought the curtain down on The Pleasure Dome with it back in 2018.

Todd Terje – ‘Strandbar (Disko Version)’

Few producers have nailed the balance between organic disco opulence and punchy club modernism quite as effectively as Todd Terje. The Norwegian maestro is dripping in contemporary classics, but ‘Strandbar’ takes the cake with its potent blend of bubbling analogue synths, sizzling drums and spine-tingling arrangements centred around a brutally effective piano chord chop. It’s exactly the kind of party-starting audio luxury that has us eagerly anticipating his arrival into The Pleasure Dome.

Donna Summer – ‘Spring Affair’

What tune captures the mood that hangs over Peckham Rye Park in late May as beautifully as ‘Spring Affair’? Donna Summer’s evergreen classic is full of the joys of the season, with that peppy pairing of Philly strings and perky Rhodes that’s been sampled into infinity, all serving as a vessel for Summer’s own woozy vocal. We could have just as easily reached for Moodymann’s ‘Ol Dirty Vinyl’ flip, but in the end the original just can’t be beaten. This year, as we christen our new stage Donna’s in her honour, it felt only right to let the Queen of Disco take her place in the Sunday story.

Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle – ‘Your Love’

There are precious few records that can genuinely claim to have changed the emotional language of dance music, but ‘Your Love’ sits right at the top of that list. Built from little more than a skeletal drum machine groove, a mesmerising synth line and Jamie Principle’s intimate, yearning vocal, Frankie Knuckles turned raw materials into pure late-night alchemy. In the process, he helped define the DNA of Chicago house — not as hard-edged club music, but as something sensual, vulnerable and profoundly human.

Decades on, the track still feels impossibly modern. The arrangement is stripped to the bone, yet every element lands with devastating impact,

Chaos In The CBD – ‘Orange Blank’

With us since the early days, Chaos In The CBD are exactly the kind of family fixture that make GALA such a cosy home for a long weekend. We’d be spoilt for choice combing through their incredible back catalogue, but it’s only right to celebrate their 2019 gem ‘Orange Blank’ — a dreamy slice of deeper than deep groove that brings that Balearic flavour to South East London, now proudly featured on our freshly minted Ten Years of GALA compilation.

Robin S. – ‘Show Me Love’ (Tonka´s 2002 Club Mix)

Anyone can reach for a monster hit and get a quick fix from the crowd, but it takes a real DJ to dig that little bit deeper and find that hidden mix that brings a well-worn oldie back to life as if it was getting aired for the first time. Palms Trax is exactly that guy, and of his many unforgettable sets at GALA his 2022 turn wound up as one for the books thanks to his pitch-perfect drop of Tonka’s absolute bullseye of a remix of Robin S.

Alison Limerick – ‘Where Love Lives’

If we’re going to let rip, belt the words out at the top of our lungs, hug a stranger and frankly lose it to one of the all-time house greats on Sunday at GALA, let it be this one. With some extra remix juice from the legendary Frankie Knuckles, Alison Limerick serves out exactly the kind of formidable diva turn that we need to take us higher when we thought we’d cashed all our chips. The consummate deal sealer on another iconic weekend — here’s hoping our Sunday selectors are reading…