Andrew Grant teams up again with Lomez for the sixth release on EDEC Music Outlet. “3rd Wave” definitely nods to the Stateside influence with its classic touches, smooth synth chords and spoken vocal drops. New Jersey´s DJ Qu with his signature cut ups and splices delivers a rework to completes the package.
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.
Two mega dancefloor tracks made by Doug Lee (Stallions, TBD) and L.I.E.S. label boss Ron Morelli. Real Bad News reminds us of the Cajual/Relief records days with heavy drums and a massive breakdown that is sure to totally confuse or drive people insane. The B-side’s More Bad News is a massive morphing track that sounds like a dying animal trying to escape a garbage can. It’s like German shuffle track through the eyes of two drunk and delusional Americans.
Amazing futuristic and forward thinking three track ep by Japanese producers Takuya Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Onozawa and Kouji Nagahashi. Exotic house music from Asia made with a fresh approach thats stirring up influences from jacking Chicago and Japanese pioneers such as Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Tribal/spiritual Chi-house by Chicago legend K-Alexi Shelby, who delivered so many hot classics… x-rated whispering included of course!
Elbee Bad aka Lamont Booker is another great underground house pioneer from the formative days of NYC house in the late eighties. ‘The True Story Of House Music’ is the first time Bad’s catalog gets compiled for re-release. Although the best and most prolific part of his catalog is his late 80’s and early 90’s output, Booker never stopped producing (and dj’ing). Elbee Bad aka LB Bad aka The Prince Of Dance Music aka Lamont Booker aka The Voodoo Man, aka Lord KCB aka BAD currently lives and works in Berlin where he continues to work on music as well as producing and running his Bad’s Label.
Bocca Grande is the alis name under which Kousuke Ishida is producing music focusing and marked by the piano blending in with electric sounds to the expression of music with former piano teacher Yuka Kobayashi. This is a nice remix package featuring Morphosis, Artifact, Chromatic Filters and Corrado Bucci.
Hands Up is the production team formed by The Analogue Cops and Alex Picone. Their analogue joint venture has groundbreaking results. Machine powered house music heavily influenced by the Berliner dub techno and by the funkiest 2step ,with a debt to Detroit. This first release features 2 dancefloor killers recorded on tape and saturated with bass.
Killekill announces the start of a sub label focusing the housier side of music. Killekill House Trax starts with the release of a track by Alex Cortex. Quite uptempo but groovy as hell “Oh Yeah” comes along with a strong reminiscence to classic chicago house with its strong bassline and the catchy vocal sample. Tyree Cooper added a simple but well working piano and packed the original into an even more classic outfit.
While everyone was sleeping Mutant Beat Dance (the production duo of Chicago’s Traxx and Beau Wanzer) were in the studio cooking up something nasty. If you know these guys then you know they are out to push music into a different realm every time they work. On this 12″ we get two very different songs, the lead cut being driven by 727s, JX-3P bass, and some sampled horns which make this a driving and funky excursion bring you back to another time and place. Sketch III clocks in at around 110 bpms and drives on and on and on, plodding through the depths of your mind while conflicting voices (mis)guide you through your trip. Strictly for the freakz.
Protect-U move to Vibrations for this four-track EP of foggy analogue house oddities. “Wild Drift” opens proceedings with a flowing piece of arpeggiated machine funk, shifting through a myriad of hazy moods, whilst “Ultra (Basic mix)” utilizes a conga led rhythm and aquatic bassline in combination with dramatic lead melody. This track is revisited on the flip, as “Slow Ultra” gives a reversion characterized by its shimmering, intertwining pads punctuated by a rich bassline. The EP is closed by “Bright After Dark”, undoubtedly the moodiest track of the bunch; foregoing the relatively rich melodies of its counterparts, it focuses instead on swampy atmospherics and an industrial squelch.
Marcello Napoletano presents the first release from his private collection. This is a 100 copies limited edition only available direct from the producer.
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Nancy Fortune is back with a new EP Dark & Lite on The Orchard. The package includes three original tracks and two remixes by Snuff Crew and Thot.
Justin Vandervolgen presents the latest in his Try To Find Me series on Golf Channel. This release is a selection of electric romping disco that gets looped into a frenzy, something Justin has a knack for. Another duo of obscurities, reworked and rendered in glorious 21st century technicolour. The A Side houses a fierce, camp and snare pounding mid-party banger, while the flip carries the Balearic gem ‘Needs Ending’ , a nice chugging electronic disco rhythm, great percussion and dreamy female vocals.
Australian Michael Ozone, is an artist embodying the purest form of absurdist energy. This debut offering, is but of a fraction of the entertainment we can expect as his career zig-zags forward. “Perfect Systems” is a tuff native track based on the idea of man-made tools, technology and borrowed languages. Imagine failed cities overtaken by jungle life as you’re swallowed by this utopian island groove. A not-so-distant relative on side-b, “Hetrotopia” leads us on a nomadic journey, exploring vast new landscapes and uncharted territories. References to New Beat and Horror soundtracks are apparent, but no matter what fantasies we infer from Ozone’s music, his talent for crafting such fiction is a welcome addition to the ESP institute.
’This outstanding 12″ was produced by the legendary Frankie Knuckles and is a remix of “Out Of My Hands (Love’s Taken Over)” originally from Chicago disco band OMNI featuring vocalist Connee Draper. This record has been hammered at the Powerplant by Frankie, The Music Box by Ron Hardy and is the stuff of legend (ask Dj Harvey). This is House Music in its purest form. And to make the deal even sweeter, we’ve remastered all the tracks from the original tapes and added the two OMNI original versions on a nice D12″.’
The Hipodrome Of Music 