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Intro
Like it or not, house was first and foremost a direct
descendant of disco. Even Farley couldn’t deny that the foundation for Chicago house was New York. underground disco. After all, Frankie Knuckles, the acknowledged “godfather” of Chicago house, got his start in Manhattan, where he was spinning records in the early ‘70s with another legendary deejay, the late Larry Levan. This site offers an historical overview of past, present and future developments in underground house music.
Origins of the Word House
[...] Word spread about Knuckles' disco, soul and funk phenomenon and The Warehouse quickly became the place to be for a party-hungry gay crowd. This, it is commonly accepted, is where the term 'house' originates. Knuckles himself has denied 'inventing' house, so what we are talking about here is more a style of playing music based on the idea of a musical flow and transition - for all Walter Gibbons & co's remixes, no-one had yet made A House Record. [more ...]
Like it or not, house was first and foremost a direct
descendant of disco.
Disco had already been going for ten years when the first electronic drum tracks began to appear out of Chicago, and in that time it had already suffered the slings and arrows of merciless commercial exploitation, dilution and racial and sexual prejudice which culminated in the 'disco sucks' campaign. In one bizarrely extreme incident, people attending a baseball game in Chicago's Komishi Park were invited to bring all their unwanted disco records and after the game they were tossed onto a massive bonfire. Disco eventually collapsed under a heaving weight of crass disco versions of pop records and an ever-increasing volume of records that were simply no good. But the
underground scene had already stepped off and was beginning to develop a new style that was deeper, rawer and more designed to make people dance. Disco had already produced the first records to be aimed specifically at DJs with extended 12" versions that included long percussion breaks for mixing purposes and the early eighties proved a vital turning point. Sinnamon's 'Thanks To You', D-Train's 'You're The One For Me' and The Peech Boys' 'Don't Make Me Wait', a record that's been continually sampled over the last decade, took things in a different direction with their sparse, synthesized sounds that introduced dub effects and drop-outs that had never been heard before. -- [more on Proto House ...]
Japanese Music Machines
Much has been written about Kraftwerk being the originators of house. While this is a nice idea, the truth is far more complex. Due to the relatively cheap availability of drum machines and synthesisers from Japanese companies like Roland (the feted 808 and 909 drum machines both originated in Japan) something was bound to happen anyway. -- John McCready [...]
The First House Records, 1985
The beginnings of house, taking its name from the Warehouse in Chicago
We have talked about how disco with added electronica becomes in a way house music, although the phrase 'house music' had not yet been coined.
In fact, the Warehouse (geddit?) had existed since 1977, and it was only at the time that New York born DJ Frankie Knuckles moved to a discotheque in Chicago that people began to talk about house music, as in, the music that was played over at the Warehouse.
In the mid 1980s, cheap electronica happened, Trax records was founded in Chicago, and a new rawer, sleazier sound was being championed by Ron Hardy at the Music Box. House crossed the distance to New York with the track ‘Mysteries of Love’ by Mr. Fingers. The 110bpm original instrumental becomes an anthem at the Garage after Levan gets hold of it on acetate. In the late eighties, New York rose again with Todd Terry introducing sampling to house music. -- [more ...]
House in the Present Day
The present, still called house for lack of a better word
When future generations look back upon the nineties, it seems most likely that they will recognize the '90s as a time of fusion. Much like the '70s, most of what has pushed the musical envelope in this decade have been the sounds of combined elements; jazz, disco, house, funk, reggae, soul, you know your black music. Much of what today is hailed as electronica in the US and garage in the UK, falls in line with this very '90s mode of creating music. In lack of a name for this genre, I refer to it as nineties eclecticism. -- [more on the nineties... ]
House in Chicago
The birth place of house was the Warehouse
House music's roots lie in the spontaneous combustion that was a handful of Chicago clubs in the early 1980s. In the days when clubs only needed one DJ, that DJ was in a position to make waves. And in a city where the clubs were usually soundtracked by jukeboxes, those waves could become a storm. Chicago was unique in the sense that they had control over their own pressing plants. -- [...]
Right from the start there was a difference in approach between New York and Chicago. "All of the records coming out of New York had been either mid or down tempo, and the kids in Chicago wouldn't do that all night long, they needed more energy" commented Frankie Knuckles after his move to Chicago. The Windy City was seduced to a far greater extent by the European sound and when the
records started to come, it showed. Whereas garage in New York
evolved more smoothly from First Choice and the labels Salsoul, West End and Prelude ... -- [more on New York ...]
Garage
Garage: a Definition
The meaning of the word garage has slipped dramatically. But any definition will pretty quickly run into problems if you name a genre of music after a club [Larry Levan's Paradise Garage] which was known not for one style of music but for its wild eclecticism championed by one DJ.
What we now call garage is music which has evolved from the more soulful, more gospel-inspired parts of disco and it owes its emergence to the taste-making of DJ Tony Humphries at his club Zanzibar in Newark, New Jersey.
Speed Garage
When, around 1997, some London DJs took the descendant of this music and latched it to some cavernous, half-tempo basslines, speed garage or UK garage or the London Sound was born. Just to make things even more complicated, this actually took its first steps thanks to records by New Jersey producer Todd Edwards and adopted New Yorker Armand Van Helden.
Speed Garage The Armand Van Helden remix of CJ Bolland's "Sugar is Sweeter" defined the whole [speed garage] sound with that huge breakdown and massive bass-line. He was the first one to really come up with any sort of formula for the music.
Garage: a Mangled Term
"Garage" is one of the most mangled terms in dance music. The term derives from the Paradise Garage itself, but it has meant so many different things to so many different people that unless you're talking about a specific time and place, it is virtually meaningless. Part of the reason for this confusion (aside from various journalistic misunderstandings and industry misappropriations) is that the range of music played at the Garage was so broad. The music we now call "garage" has evolved from only a small part of the club's wildly eclectic soundtrack. -- Frank Broughton/Bill Brewster
Drum 'n Bass
What is now a complex mixture of influences and genres began from humble roots in the UK. Though many debate the original drum & bass record, it was a combination of Lenny De Ice's "We are ie" and the late 1989 Perfecto release 'Baz De Conga' which pioneered the movement. The cut was an amalgamation of ideas and sounds, combining the sax drop from "Monkey Say, Monkey Do" with Steel City bleeps and a gospel vocal lift. What producer Steve Bicknell brought to the cut however was attitude - the whole mix powered by a tumbling sub roll, clattering breakbeats and an unrelenting synth strike. -- Kingsley Marshall [...]
New York native Frankie Knuckles was the Dj from 1977 to 1982 at the Warehouse. It is widely accepted that his style of DJing and his selection and the appeal of the Warehouse gave house music its name, although in the beginning, the word 'house' was used only in Chicago to denote something which was cool, hip, fresh or bad. Frankie Knuckles had been long time friends with Larry Levan, they had had their musical upbringing together from going to clubs like Loft and the Gallery
Todd Terry introduced sampling in house music in the late eighties
It was into this exciting and transitional environment that a young, would-be producer walked up to Vega and handed him a cassette. "This guy came up to the booth and said, 'My name is Todd Terry. I just wanted to give you these new jams.'" The night was drawing to a close, so Vega had a quick listen to the track that was about to turn Terry into New York's hottest house producer. "I was like, 'Wow! This is powerful!'" With its quick-fire sampling techniques and harder beats, 'Party People' introduced an edgy, hip hop aesthetic to the Chicago house sound, and Vega wasted little time in securing a reel-to-reel copy. "There was an instant reaction on the dance floor," he remembers. "I was playing 'Party People' six to nine months before it came out, so I got everybody into that sound." -- [more on Todd Terry ...]
Masters At Work in the House
Little Louie Vega and Kenny Dope Gonzalez, shaping the nineties
During the early '80s, both were noted DJs around New York, though Vega immersed himself in house and freestyle while Gonzalez entered the rap scene. (The separate interests came in handy later, as dance fan Vega concentrated on songwriting and groove-making while hip-hop head Gonzalez programmed beats and samples.) The pair were also working separately as producers, and Vega had already made a name for himself working on dozens of freestyle tracks and remixes by Nice & Smooth, Information Society and India. Gonzalez, working as a mobile DJ with a team calling themselves the Masters at Work, founded his own Dope Wax Records and worked on production for all of the major New York dance labels: Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Cutting and Big Beat. In 1987, he loaned out the name Masters at Work to Todd Terry for the 1987 single "Alright Alright", then Terry returned the favor one year later by introducing him to Vega. -- [more ...]
Joe Claussell
Organic house, african and latin influence
In the late nineties, there has been the emergence of a new sound in dance music, one that places more emphasis on Latin, African and jazz elements than straight 4/4 beats. This global dance movement can in many ways be traced to Joe Claussell, perhaps the most significant figure to arrive on the scene since the Masters at Work. As a DJ, record store owner, label executive and artist he's been intricately involved with all aspects of music, giving him a unique perspective that's allowed him to avoid the pitfalls of so many pioneers. -- [more on Joe Claussell ...]
Trax Records
Think of a classic house record?
Think of a classic house record and nine times out of ten you'll think of Trax, although you may not realise it. 'Move Your Body'? 'Baby Wants To Ride'? 'Washing Machine'? 'Can U Feel It'? All Trax releases. 'House Nation'? 'Acid Trax'? 'Your Love'? 'We Are Phuture'? 'U Used To Hold Me'? Yup, those too. What's more they introduced the world to producers who've become immortalised as some of house music's greatest innovators - Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles - and have provided an outlet for many more of Chicago's house artists over the years, such as Armando, Liddell Townsend, Robert Owens, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Mr Lee, Adonis, Fast Eddie, Ralphie Rosario, DJ Rush, Steve Poindexter, Terry Baldwin, DJ Skull... the list goes on. And they did it all by releasing crappy-looking records that sounded like they'd been pressed on sandpaper. Now there's a story worth telling. -- [...]
Acid House
Weirdest of all is `Acid Trax' by Phuture, the record that started
the whole fad off. The `Cocaine Mix' starts with a treated voice midway
between a dalek and the Voice of Judgement that announces, `This is
Cocaine Speaking'; spectral eddies of a disembodied human wail
(reminiscent of nothing so much as PIL's `No Birds Do Sing') simulate the
soul languishing in cold turkey; then we're launched on a terror-ride that
again reminds me of PIL's `Careering' or `Death Disco'. `I can make you
like for me/I can make you die for me/In the end/I'll be your only
friend.' If disco was always ment to be about escapism, acid is about
no-escapism. [...]
Micro House
Early 1996, a club in Meinz near Frankfurt, a Vauxhall-Arches-style catacomb carved into the concrete foundations of a bridge over the big river (whose name I forget). That's where I fell in love with house again, after a long period of thinking it the lightweight option c.f. jungle. Accompanied by Force Inc/Mille Plateaux boss and lager connoisseur Achim Szepanski, I'd came to check out a set by Chicago DJ Gene Farris of Relief/Casual/Force Inc reknown. Helped by copious alcohol intake and a contact high from the killer vibe in that murky crowded cavern, a revelation began to unfold: just how much fantastic music I'd missed out on through being such a monomaniacal junglist patriot, and the extent to which house had a rebirth of creativity in the mid-Nineties after a long null lull of tribal tedium and handbag hackwork. Farris played so much great stuff--from early filter-house/disco cut-up stuff to Relief-style nu-acid to stuff so techy, tracky and abstrakkk it was essentially what we'd today call micro-house. But if a single song can be said to have opened my ears it was when Farris dropped "Flash" by Green Velvet. When those double-time snares kicked in, it was one of those whatdafuck?!?!?!?! see-the-light moments. -- Simon Reynolds[...]
Belgium: New Beat
Belgium hooked into the international house-craze of the late 1980's in a unique way : by developing an own brand of house, called New Beat. This monotonous discotheque dance-music, powered by a slow and heavy beat, combined the new elements of house music with elements which existed in Belgian music for a number of years. These were the industrial and underground electrowave bands like Front 242, Poesie Noire, A Split Second and The Neon Judgement. [...]
Deep House
Strictly speaking, 'Deep House' is the name given to classic house
from Chicago and New York in the same vein as Frankie Knuckles' 1987 LP
'Deep House' from which the name originates. Though I am undoubtedly
venturing into highly controversial waters, I will venture to say that
currently, deep house has meaning mostly as a counterpoint to more aggressive house sub-genres like hard house. As a name referring to a stand-alone
genre, I therefore find 'Deep House' quite meaningless. [...]
Other House Sites
http://www.deephousepage.com The "Gman" holding down classic Chicago house and disco site full of real audio mixes from the greatest of the great DJ's of yesteryear and today.
Do You Know House?: Dance Tracks [1CD, Amazon US] One Kiss [Fos Mix] - Pacha
2. Funk de Fino
3. Manhasset [Larry Heard Mix]
4. Starlight - Juan Atkins
5. Stop! (We Need Each Other) - Alexis P. Suter
6. Let Me Love You - DJ Rasoul
7. Nobody's Gonna Love Ya - Norma Jean Bell
8. African Drug [Tribal Remix] - Bob Holroyd
9. Can't Get Over Your Love [Joey Negro Mix] - Simphonia
10. Techno Powers
11. What Is Happiness - Leslie Joy
12. Inspiration - Arnold Jarvis
Selection of late nineties house classics from all over the globe
Mad Styles & Crazy Visions[1CD, Amazon US] With three cd's crammed with the best disco/house-music you can track down out there, this easily competes wih the best compilations I've heard this year. Put your trust in MAW's "Little" Louie Vega. He knows his music, and as soon you drop one of the cd's (one mix-cd and two with selected full tracks, with names like Glasgow Underground, Simply Red and The Sunburst Band) you'll know that I'm right in awarding 'Mad Styles and Crazy Visions' the full five stars it deserves. For hot summer nights and chilly winter parties; A little expensive, this compilation, but what can you expect! It's made by a master at work! -- Erlend Hogstad
[Selection late nineties house classics compiled by Louie Vega from MAW]
Body & SOUL NYC, Vol. 1 - Various Artists [1CD Amazon US]
1. Living in Ecstasy - Fonda Rae
2. Being Single [Mood II Swing Remix] - Valerie George
3. Until the Day - Funky Green Dogs
4. Time and Space - Francois K
5. Dangerous Vibes - Roy Ayers
6. Desire [Masters at Work Dub #3] - Nu Colors
7. Prayer - Jephté Guillaume
8. Why We Sing [Church Mix] - Kenny O. Bobien
9. Can You See the Light? [K.O.T. Mix] [K.O.T. Remix] - The Voices
10. It's Alright (I Feel It) - Jocelyn Brown
11. Escravos de Jo - Kerri Chandler
12. Don't She - Don-E
Best of Chicago Trax [2 CD Amazon US]more on Trax records Only 14;99$ for two CDs, don't know about the liner notes nor packaging.
1. On the House
2. Move Your Body - Marshall Jefferson
3. Baby Wants to Ride - Frankie Knuckles
4. Can't Get Enough - Liz Torres
5. Do It Properly - Adonis
6. You Used to Hold Me - Ralphi Rosario
7. 7 Ways to Jack - Hercules
8. Jackin' Me Around
9. I Like It - Razz
10. Iminxtc
11. Mind Games - Quest
12. Don't Make Me Jack - Paris Grey
Disc: 2
1. Your Love - Frankie Knuckles
2. Bring Down the Walls - Robert Owens
3. Can U Feel It - Mr. Fingers
4. Children of the Night - Kevin Irving
5. Jungle - Jungle Wonz
6. Real Thing - Screamin' Rachael
7. No Way Back - Adonis
8. House Nation
9. String Free - Phortune
10. You Used to Hold Me - Ralphi Rosario
11. This Is Acid - Maurice
12. Ride the Rhythm - Kevin Irving
13. Move Your Body - Marshall Jefferson
14. Let's Get Busy
VARIOUS - Spiritual Life Music -- Label Compilation
[2 CD, Amazon US]
An incredibly rich selection of tracks -- 20 tunes on 2CDs, pulled together from the globally-conscious catalog of the Spiritual Life label! Spiritual Life know no boundaries -- as their artists bring together a world of influences and instruments, filtering them through the cultural hodgepodge of the current New York scene, into a sound that is beyond compare! The set features some of the best singles on the label over the past 5 years or so.
Kerri Chandler's Excursions 01 [Amazon US] 1. Lost Conquistadores Chocolates
| Ain't No Mountain High Enough | There But For The Grace Of God Go I
| Jazz Carnival | Summer Love | Saudacao Aos Orixas | Cada Vez | Irmao | Soldar De Musique | Sunshine | I'll Be Your Friend | Automated People
| Real Thing | Higher | Baghdad Cafe (Callin U) | Freedom (Exclusive)
Silent Introduction - Kenny Dixon Jr [Amazon US]
This piece of electronic soul is a true masterpiece
of music in any way, shape or form. Moody Man is actually Kenny Dixon Jr,
one of the 'new school' of techno producers, and A Silent Introduction
is his first full length album as an artist. The cover has a weird photograph
of Kenny himself, looking like some sort of Afro-John Lennon(!), this bloke
has grooves which could easily cause you to dislocate yr lower vertebrae.
With its tempo sitting in warm confines of the 4/4 house beat, Moody Man
makes a sound that is as pure and smooth as a blow job on a Sunday morning
- concepts that would tickle the willies of you. The 2nd track on the CD
- "I Can't Kick This Feeling When It Hits" - takes a sample from Chic,
slaps down a deep-deep kick & beat, and washes down the concoction
with a sonic wash that wouldn't sound too far off the 'ecstasy' sound of
Spacemen 3/Spiritualised. By the time the perfect rhythm has peaked, you
haven't realized that you've gotten of yr arse and you're dancing, even
if it is like a grooveless spastic. There are tracks on the CD, that I
know, many listeners will say "gee that sounds gay" - the dippy jazz of
"The Third Track" or even "M Traxx" and "Music People" - but for dance
pop, they still work better than anything by Armand Van Helden. Before
you can say "but I thought he was...," you will have your mind fucked and
twisted by the minimal squash of "Oceans," the filtered fuck of 'In loving
memory' and the concrete ugliness of "Dem Young Sconies." For you 'purists'
- which most of you Mojo motherfuckers are - slap your willy around to
the mod-Gospel of "Answer Machine" or the jazz-fusion of "Sunday Morning"
Listen to this fucken' CD, which is already two years vintage, and you
will get some idea of where dance music will be heading for at least the
next 8 years, give or take. -- Aaron Goldberg, Nov 1999 for Perfect Sound Forever
Roy Davis, Jr. in the mix [Amazon US]Transitions - Roy Davis Jr. & Jay Juniel
| Galactic Soul - Roy Davis Jr. | Ladbroke Groove - Kerri Chandler
| Jay's Love Vibration Mix - Freedom Group 'Red Hot' | Green Tea - Freemen
| Gabriel - Roy Davis Jr. | Bless It - Paul Johnson Club Land | The Rock Shock - Roy Davis Jr. | Beautiful One - Roy Davis Jr. | Watch Them Come - Men From The Nile | Home - Mateo & Matos | Fixation - Johnny Fiasco | Reprezent - Louie Maldonado | Dancin' Revisited - Jordan Fields | Pieces Of Funk - Risque De Funk Electrique
Five of Roy's own material on this comp CD: Watch Them Come (!), The Rock Shock, Galactic Soul, Transitions, Beautiful One. All of this is superbly mixed with other people's material, best of which is Jordan Fields 'Dancin' Revisited'.
Green Velvet - Green Velvet [1 CD, Amazon US]
Chicago's Curtis Jones (a.k.a. Cajmere and Green Velvet) is, by far, on of the top producers of house music in the world. In the mid-'90s, his self-run record labels, Cajual and Relief, spearheaded the continuing renaissance of the genre with distinctive tracks that delivered a powerful dance-floor rush and gave DJs a deep arsenal of guaranteed crowd pleasers. While his Cajmere tracks are upbeat vocal workouts, it's his work as Green Velvet that continues to fascinate and gain legions of new devotees. Jones sets his GV material on a bed of dark, relentless, dirty beats, while adding his own twisted vocal flourishes that are one part Gary Numan and one part Bauhaus. Each track has a distinct narrative (i.e., a tour of a night club or an imagined reincarnation as a drop of water); the results are both frightening and hilarious. Long out-of-print on vinyl, the new Green Velvet CD combines such "classics" as "Flash," "Leave My Body," and "Answering Machine" with more recent material, including the fantastic Giorgio Moroder-inspired drive of "Coitus." --David Prince for amazon.com
Give Your Body Up: Club Classics & House Foundations, Vol. 1[1CD, Amazon US] If you want to find out about the roots of modern American club culture, this is the series to start.
Tracklisting: Funky Sensation -- Gwen McCrae
Over Like A Fat Rat -- Fonda Rae
Can't Play Around -- Lace --> Larry Levan mix
What Can I Do For You? -- LaBelle
Always There -- Side Effect
Why Leave Us Alone -- Five Special
Is It All Over My Face (Female Vocal) -- Loose Joints
Free Man (Disco Version) -- South Shore Commission
Bad For Me -- Dee Dee Bridgewater
I Love Music -- The O'Jays
Give Your Body Up: Club Classics & House Foundations , vol. 2 [Amazon US]
1. Just Us - Two Tons O' Fun
2. Baby I'm Scared Of You - Womack & Womack
3. Somebody Else's Guy - Jocelyn Brown
4. Touch And Go - Ecstasy, Passion & Pain
5. Love Is The Message - MFSB
6. Running Away - Roy Ayers Ubiquity
7. Now That We Found Love - Thirld World
8. Bra - Cymande
9. Down To Love Town - The Originals
10. Over And Over - Sylvester
Give Your Body Up: Club Classics & House Foundations vol. 3 [Amazon US]
1. Give Your Body up to the Music - Billy Nichols
2. Weekend - Phreek
3. You Got Me Running - Lenny Williams
4. I'll Do Anything for You - Denroy Morgan
5. Runaway Love - Linda Clifford
6. Girl You Need a Change of Mind - Eddie Kendricks
7. I Want to Thank You - Alicia Myers
8. Clouds - Chaka Khan
9. Vertigo/Relight My Fire - Dan Hartman
10. Music Got Me - Visual
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