⚡️High Energy: How Evelyn Thomas & Ian Levine Created the Anthem That Defined Hi-NRG — Without Fully Being Hi-NRG Themselves (Part 2)

The Twelve Inch 193 : High Energy (Evelyn Thomas) part 2

1983–1984 was a pivotal period in my life. It was when I came out, something I had always considered “late” at 20 or 21, the result of years of quiet building in my personal life. That was certainly part of it, but I only realised much later that the music of that era also played a huge role in pushing me forward.

1983 was the year friends took me to my first gay bar in Antwerp. Very quickly, the weekend nightlife became my natural habitat. Whatever secrecy I’d held onto at home dissolved almost instantly. Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” became my daytime soundtrack. But at night, the soundtrack shifted: Evelyn Thomas’s “High Energy” was everywhere.

I was never a huge fan of the track itself. I understood its power, and I danced to it, but it always felt a bit too plasticky, too loud, too abrasive for my taste. That pretty much sums up my lifelong “relationship” with the genre it helped usher in: Hi-NRG. I liked the energy of it, and some of my favourite ’80s dance tracks are often label…