Roland Leesker Remixes Inner City's Classic 'Pennies From Heaven' For Definitive Recordings

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Black and white portrait of German producer Roland Leesker, seated outdoors, wearing a dark jacket.

Definitive Recordings has released a new remix of Inner City's 1992 House music classic 'Pennies From Heaven', reworked by German producer Roland Leesker. More than three decades after the original, the track returns in a form built for a very different dancefloor, while keeping its source material at the centre of the record.

'Pennies From Heaven' first appeared during a pivotal era for House music, on Inner City's 1992 album 'Praise'. Built around Paris Grey's melodic, vocal-led delivery, it was one of the releases that carried Detroit's House and Techno sound to a global audience, and it remains one of the defining moments in Inner City's catalogue.

Leesker's version reinterprets the track as a direct, club-focused House cut, built around a steady TR-909-driven groove. The arrangement develops in layers, gradually introducing elements of the original before a breakdown brings Paris Grey's vocal and the record's central theme into full focus. From there it returns to a stripped, rolling groove aimed squarely at the dancefloor, rather than restating the original's arrangement in full."

Inner City's 1992 album 'Praise' is one of my all-time favourites, and it's a true honour to remix 'Pennies From Heaven'," Leesker says. "I've always had a strong connection to the record, and it was important to me to pay homage to it while remaining true to the spirit of the original throughout the process."

Leesker has been active in House music since the early 1990s, with roots in Frankfurt's club scene and a career that has since taken him through New York, Berlin and the wider international circuit. Through his work with Definitive Recordings and Get Physical Music, he has built a catalogue that includes 'My Warehouse', a remix of Roland Clark's 'I Get Deep', and his most recent album, 'Searching For Peace'.

White-label vinyl artwork for Inner City's Pennies From Heaven (Roland Leesker Remix) on Definitive Recordings, catalogue number DEFCLAS030V.

The original is the work of Kevin Saunderson, one of the Belleville Three and one of the founding figures of Detroit Techno, who formed Inner City with vocalist Paris Grey. Through releases including 'Big Fun' and 'Good Life', Inner City became one of the most commercially successful acts to emerge from Detroit's first wave of House and Techno, selling millions of records worldwide and crossing from club play into international chart success.

Both the vinyl and digital releases of Leesker's remix include an acapella tool built from the original vocal, giving DJs the isolated elements for extended mixing, layering or their own reinterpretations. It's a practical addition that fits the record's dual purpose: a remix that plays as a direct club tool while still pointing back to where it came from.

For a track already embedded in House music's history, a remix that resists the temptation to rebuild it from scratch, and instead lets Paris Grey's vocal carry the record into a new context, is arguably the more difficult version to get right.