Trax was the legendary Chicago label that put out early house records, tracks like No Way Back by Adonis, Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' Your Love, Can You Feel It by Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson's Move Your Body and Phuture's Acid Trax- pretty much the records that invented the scene.
In 2011 with the involvement of Bill Brewster, a DJ and writer who knows his onions, they put out an album of re-edits. Seven years on the album is a bit hit and miss although some of the reworkings sound pretty good (it'd be difficult to make a complete mess consdering the source material). Some of the re-edits are a bit too safe, missing the weirdness and WTF-ness of the original tunes, too reverential. In most cases you'll want to hear the original straight after, just to confirm its mid-80s brilliance. The re-edits also tend to sound a bit samey, using the same kit and software that was then the cutting edge in 2011. But there are some worthy efforts in the double cd. Ron Hardy was as much as anyone at the centre of the mid-80s Chicago house scene, DJing with twin turntables and a reel to reel tape-deck and producing tracks too. Richard Sen's re-edit of Sensation is a juddering monster with synth stabs...
Sensation (Richard Sen Re-edit)
Toby Tobias and Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros add some sparkle and shimmer to Adonis' We're Rockin' Down The House...
We're Rockin' Down The House (Toby Tobias and Hardway Bros Re-edit)
I used to have a cheap 3-CD set of Trax singles, don't know what the fuck I did with it
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ReplyDeleteThe 2 lp Chicago Trax Vol. 1 collection I purchased back in 1987 is among the most important albums I own.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard Washing Machine by Mr. Fingers, We're Rocking Down The House and No Way Back by Adonis and The Jungle by Jungle Wonz (Marshall Jefferson), my musical world was set on its side.
I compare every house music compilation to that one - to this day.
Those early comps are the way it was received over here or a lot of people too.
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