Stunning triple disc compilation and includes numerous unreleased tracks and beyond hard to find house tracks made in Chicago in the early to late Eighties from the catalogues of Mitchbal Records and Chicago Connection Records. 3CD boxset includes an exclusive mix by Jerome Derradji, and a 28 page booklet documenting the story of Mitchbal and Chicago Connection Records.

For anyone with an interest in the history of house music, this excellent compilation from Jerome Derradji’s Still Music imprint should be essential listening. It focuses on the output of two long forgotten Chicago labels, Mitchbal and Chicago Connection Records, during the early to mid 1980s, when electro, new wave and boogie were morphing into house. As such, 122 BPM offers a mix of rare, largely overlooked cuts that bristle with analogue dancefloor intent. There’s proto-jack in the shape of Jeanette Thomas’s “Shake Your Body” and Z Factor’s “I Am The DJ”, dubbed-out Chi-town proto house from Mitchbal and Larry Williams, and some terrific bodypoppin’ electro from McGhee.

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