Why Brass Stabs and a 130 BPM House Groove Work for DJ Jon on Feel Alive
An Essex DJ with Vinyl Roots Pairs Old-Skool Piano and Whitney Breanne’s Soul Vocal
Feel Alive runs at 130 BPM, a house tempo that sits easily in a peak-time set without rushing the vocal. DJ Jon, an Essex DJ and producer whose vinyl releases go back to 1993, built the track around old-skool piano riffs and the voice of Whitney Breanne. He released it on his own WhiteLab Music label on August 22, 2025.
DJ Jon’s Feel Alive, sung by Whitney Breanne, is in the playlist below, and his full run of coverage sits on his artist profile. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Put it on, then keep reading for why the brass stabs matter on a busy floor.
A Soul Vocal and a Short Rap From Whitney Breanne Give Feel Alive by DJ Jon Its Hook
The vocal does two jobs. For most of the track, Whitney Breanne sings a full, powerful soul line that carries the melody over the groove. Then a short rap passage changes the texture, which gives the arrangement a second voice without adding another singer. Indeed, reviewers at the time picked up on exactly that mix of soul and rap.
The piano is the other half of the hook. The riffs are old-skool in the plainest sense: bright, chord-led and repetitive in the way early 90s piano house was. That is deliberate. The track draws on DJ Jon’s own 90s rave days, and the piano is where that memory is easiest to hear. As an old-skool DJ with years of vinyl behind him, he knows what a simple piano riff can do to a room.
Together, the two elements give the track a clear identity within a few bars. In short, the piano tells a dancefloor what era the track is reaching back to, while the vocal keeps it from sounding like a period piece.
A 130 BPM Disco House Beat Carries Pads, Strings and Brass Stabs Through Feel Alive by DJ Jon
Underneath, the programming is a disco house beat at 130 BPM. In addition, silky pads, strings and synth brass stabs sit on top of it. Reviewers also noted that played keyboard parts sit over a programmed bed. As a result, the track has a human touch in the right places and machine precision everywhere else.
The brass stabs are the detail that makes it work in a set. They mark the sections clearly, so a DJ knows where a phrase starts and ends without looking at the waveform. Consequently, the track is easy to bring in during a transition and easy to leave, which matters as much as the hook on a busy floor.
Meanwhile, the Spotify version runs 2 minutes 42 seconds, a radio-length edit. On WhiteLab Music, the single carries two catalogue numbers, WLM0078 and WLM0078A, in keeping with the label’s habit of issuing separate packages of mixes for the same release.
Who Feel Alive Is For
This suits DJs and listeners who like their house music with a real vocal and a piano riff they can recognise in the first few bars. Two reference points help. Alison Limerick set a template for piano house with a soul vocal on Where Love Lives in 1990. In particular, the balance between a big voice and a bright keyboard part is the same balance Feel Alive chases. Purple Disco Machine is the modern marker, for the way records such as Hypnotized in 2020 used disco strings and brass over a steady house beat.
Thirty Years of Records Behind the Track
DJ Jon is a veteran, and his label’s discography shows it. It starts in 1993 with 12-inch vinyl releases on Triumph Records and runs through the mid-90s club scene, with early records issued under project names such as Thai Tribe and Vibe Nation. After that comes a long series of WhiteLab Music releases from his studio in Essex. More recently, in 2026, the label has issued Électronique 3 and the Africa chill mixes. Across that catalogue he has passed 7 million streams, and Feel Alive peaked at No. 7 in the Music Week Club Pop Chart.
From the ElectronicMusic.News curator team:
“The brass stabs are the smart move here. They give a DJ clear landmarks over a 130 BPM groove, so the piano can stay simple and the vocal can do the emotional work, while the stabs handle the signposting.”
Where to Hear Feel Alive by DJ Jon and Follow His WhiteLab Music Label From Essex
The Spotify player at the top of this article streams Feel Alive. The single also has its own Spotify release page and is on Apple Music, and its official audio is on the label’s YouTube channel.
Follow DJ Jon on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Mixcloud, where his DJ mixes live. He also posts on X, and the label site, WhiteLab Music, lists the full discography.
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