Peter Slaghuis (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpeːtər ˈslɑxɦœys]; 21 August 1961 – 5 September 1991)[1] was a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer, whose work was mostly released under the name Hithouse (a literal translation of his last name — slag, a hit, a beat; and huis, house).
[3] After graduating from school, Slaghuis began working as a DJ in a local club in The Hague in his teens in 1979.
Slaghuis' next purchases included a mixing console, two varispeed decks and a Pioneer reel-to-reel, which had "horrible sound quality".
He secured connections with the "Disco Breaks" bootleg label and started creating megamixes and remixes for them.
Atlantic would later make up for this and take him to America, where he was allowed to remix other Nu Shooz songs there for their album, Poolside, only one of which was used.
He also worked for the Disco Mix Club for some time, producing mixes of songs such as "La Isla Bonita" and "True Blue" by Madonna, "Respectable" by Mel and Kim, "Rock the Night" by Europe, and even "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz, for which he was paid decently.
Later that year, Slaghuis remixed "Just Buggin' (Nothing Serious)" by Whistle and "How To Win Your Love" by Spencer Jones, and produced the "Evelyn Thomas Megamix".
[4][5][6] In 1984, Slaghuis was asked to join the Euro disco project VideoKids, which released songs such as "Woodpeckers from Space", which became a number 1 hit in Spain and Norway, and "Do the Rap".
He was featured in the videos for both songs alongside Bianca Bonelli and Tico Tac, the group's cartoon mascot.
The songs were written and produced by Catapult musicians Aart Mol, Cees Bergman (who provided the vocals that Slaghuis lip-synced to), Elmer Veerhoff, Erwin van Prehn and Geertjan Hessing (under the aliases "Adams & Fleisner" and "Tony Acardi"), and recorded at Cat Music.
[9][10][11][12][13][14] Slaghuis had previously done remixes for Cat Music's other projects, such as the "Special European Edit" of "After The Rainbow" by Joanne Daniëls (along with Emile Noorhoek) and "Steppin' Out" by Digital Emotion.
In 1988, he composed, arranged and produced the single "House Control", going under the pseudonym "El Farid" and working with Eric van Vliet.
With the arrival of house music in Europe, he took up the pseudonym "Hithouse" (a literal translation of his last name) and began using his sampling techniques in this field.
The song's music video was directed and edited by Slaghuis himself at Creators International in 1987, with art direction by Cello Hoekstra, and also featured Paul Elstak, Marianne from The Hague (the person lip-syncing to the Kelly Charles sample), Helen Willemse, and other BlueTiek-in employees.
In 1989, "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" would later be used as the theme song for the radio and television versions of the BBC comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience, thus remaining in public consciousness in the United Kingdom.
[5][24] He also released the album Hithouse, which contained every style of music including acid, Latin, Hi-NRG, house and hip hop.
Rob Koning, who was very busy breaking through as a singer, read the advertisement in the newspaper, and responded with a cassette recording and photograph.
They drove to Slaghuis' home in Appeltern, where he showed Koning a demo of "Take On Me", a disco song that he had composed and produced.
As a result, the song was cancelled, much to Slaghuis and Koning's disappointment, as it would have been the producer's third hit after "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" and "Move Your Feet to the Rhytmn of the Beat".
and "I've Been Waiting for Your Love" (made with Réjane Magloire from Indeep), and was part of electronic dance music group Holy Noise, consisting of Elidio Gomes, Elstak, Richard van Naamen and Rob Fabrie, with vocals by MC Alee.
[5][6] On 5 September 1991, Slaghuis died in a head-on car accident involving an oncoming truck on the A2 motorway, while he was driving home from a DJ gig in Amsterdam.
[28][29] A funeral service was held for him by his closest family members and friends shortly afterwards, and his ashes were spread around a local river.
Holy Noise was temporarily continued by Rotterdam Records, and later by ARS Productions to fulfill the obligations entered into.
[31] In an episode of Het Zesde Zintuig in 2007, his mother Helen Slaghuis believed that it is possible that her son pressed the accelerator all the way because someone had drugged him over a money issue.
[34][6] In 2012, he, Koen Groeneveld and Addy van der Zwan did a remix pack of "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" as a tribute to Slaghuis, released on Spinnin' Records.
For his remix, Groeneveld gave it a techy touch while Van der Zwan and Beke stayed true to the housey origin of the track.
"[6][35] On 5 September 2016, Michael Halve of Fantasy Radio made a music video for Disco Breaks 10 to honour Slaghuis.
[36] Three years later on 27 February 2019, XXL Radio Rotterdam produced a music video for Slaghuis' 1987 Yearmix for Soulshow.
[37] On 23 March 2020, Radio Stad Den Haag ran a Special Tribute Show on air to recognize the producer’s genius.