WOEBOT

The Music We Played.

We played lots of records in West Africa. We had records from Mike's collection (which was jointly owned by Mike, Lloyd and Nick Beryl), records which Mike borrowed from Keith* and Watty (who were Pure) and my own records.

We played records from Detroit (see my 29 Detroit records breakdown) not just obscure stuff but all the classics "It is what it is", "Wanderer",The Bango E.P, 4 Jazz Funk Classics, "The Sound", "Take Me Away", "The Beginning", "War of the Worlds", "Wiggin", "Beyond the Dance", "All for Lee Sah" etc. We played New York records like Beltram's "Codes", "Energy Flash" and "Major Problems", Bobby Konder's "Rydims" and "The Poem", the Gypsymen's "Bounce", and Royal Orchestra Ltd's "Get Down." We played Arty European Techno like TSFOL's early Principles of Motion EP, The Black Dog's "Apt" and "Parallel", ART 2.1 and 2.2, Orbital's "Chime" and "Belfast", amazing Eevo Lute stuff like Wladimir M's "Evil" and Florence's "Vineyard" and The Diceman's "Polygon Window." We played early DJAX beats records like Morning Glory Seeds and Like A Tim (Mike LOVED these). We played weird house like Bang The Party's "Release your Body" and, of course No Smoke's "Koro Koro." We played ALL the Murk records, bitchin' Miami house, "Together", "Reach for Me", "U Got Me" and "Release Myself". Then there were the strange tracks that didn't fit any category remixes like Moby's mix of Fortran 5's "Heart on the line", oddball Italian House like Girls on Pills "Na Copessa Nini", Sasha's "Heavenly Trance" (don't knock it till you've heard it), and Nexus 21's remix of Paris Grey's "Don't Lead Me."

What colour is Techno? What a stupid question? The whole point is that it has no colour at all, even though we were at pains to point out that, as we saw it, it was essentially an Afro-american ting. I would say that 40% of what we played was from Detroit, 20% was the stuff described above, and a very healthy 40% was music from Chicago. Dat's right deffo, Chicago!

I made a big play of poor ol' Detroit in my rampaging vinyl break-out in July. But Chicago? Short of one reissue on Rephlex, this music has been pretty much ignored. There was the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING "Influences" Compilation which came out on WARP, and which spun me round in the shop when I first picked it up; "You mean these tracks which I've only come across in a word-of-mouth fashion are actually the accepted classics of the genre?" It was a bit like the experience of picking Simon Reynolds' "Energy Flash" and finding one's 1990s laid out like it had been the place to be, like it had actually meant something, as if it wasn't a disjunctured collage of free-floating random experiences.

People talk about the suppressed-identity nature of Detroit Techno, but Chicago's musicians are swathed in mystery, and it's not some media-construction, no-one knows the slightest thing about them. Well I don't anyway! Look at all these bare utilitarian labels, they tell you what you absolutely need to know, but nothing else. I believe this era of Chi-town music, that's to say after Acid and before the glossy more knowing Prescription Underground and Relief labels, is the bollocks. One listen to Superpitcher's "Mushroom", Matthew Johnson's "Typerope" or Ricardo Villalobos's "Dexter" (the best Microhouse, in short) and if you're not firmly of the opinion that Steve Poindexter is their daddy, THE DADDY, then you need your ears cleaning out. I couldn't help but notice a Chicago remix project just got released on Kompakt in the vein of "respect the originals." And what's more Chicago Trax of this era aren't super-polite, ever so nicely compressed super-naff coffee-table muzak like Microhouse can tend to be. This stuff is the most vicious, brutal, tinittus-inducing, ugly and raw music you'll ever hear. It's monotony is thrilling, it's as if the raw essence of JACK has been discovered, all the trimmings stripped-away.

All Steve Poindexter. We CANED these tunes. All brittle micro-inflexions, drums punching too loud, his signature whistles (as if in honest reflection upon the zone of consumption, a sweaty drug-fucked dancehall, eyeballs on stalks), quasi-acid noises, rolling bleep patterns like on "Computer Madness" sucking the riddim behind them, my absolute fucking favourite the grumbling, paranoid, utterly self-absorbed bassline of "Mental Problems." This man is a god.

What do I know about Da Posse? Absolutely zilch. All these three classic tracks. My favourite being "It's my life." When I first heard this I was totally sold on the deeper vein of Chicago music. Before I turned onto these tracks I'd been into Hardcore. Things like The Criminal Minds "Baptised by Dub", Rum & Black, The Scientist/DJ Hype's "The Bee", those were tunes I had as early as 1992, but this Chicago stuff was so empty, so thoughtless, so unaffected. I switched camps. In fact "It's my life" always made me think of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" LP, same nihilistic beauteous logic.

Lil we all know from French Kiss. "Blackout" omitted here, don't have it anymore. Lil's tracks are thoroughly odd, not remotely like anyone else's. "Frequency" almost sounds like an electro throwback, the rhythmic structure doesn't fit in with anyone else's. Indeed there's quite alot of rhythmic heterogeneity with all this music. Quite like Jungle pre-amen in that respect. With Chicago it's probably a hangover from Disco, and the DJs comfort with odyshape rhythmic patterns (a result of having the chops to mix drums played by human-beings). If you didn't know (give me a minute and I'll tell you) the Detroit "tradition" comes direct from Planet-Rock via Cybotron. Detroit Techno is in fact a mutation of Hip-Hop. Chicago House descends from Disco, specifically things like Patrick Cowley. Chicago and Detroit, totally different things. The linear thing in Chicago trax? That's a disco thing too, trance dance! "How I feel" is a beautiful tear-stained ambient track.

We did play alot of Acid! Armando's "151" and "Land of Confusion", Jamie Principle's "Baby wants to Ride", "Fantasy Girl" etc. Acid is great. The thing with it is it's so elastic, "Reck the Joint" off the Enter into Fantasy the perfect example of this. You hear things like the excerable Hardfloor "Hard Trance Acperience" record and it's so locked-down, also claustrophobic. I wish I had all the records we played in Senegal. (sighs) I do see things we had from time-to-time in second-hand shops and the feeling of connection is astonishing. My records which I took out there I inscribed with a tiny "M" on the label so as to avoid fights with Mike when I got home, and of course ten years later I still have them. Cradling them is so strange, they were there in the dust and heat. I'm sure I'm boring the tits off everyone with this African trip, but it means alot to me. It dates from a time when people REALLY thought music revolutionary. It was totally, wonderfully, bonkers but the rhetoric around Acid House was massively punky and over-optimistic. Real "we're gonna change the world" style. People don't seem to get that worked up these days, it's all style and retrenchment. Let's hope all that changes again soon...

Exquisite pre-ambient house. Virgo and ME the same outfit. I think the Basic Channel sound owes an enormous debt to Virgo. The only thing I thought cut through the bullshit in their recent Wire interview was a reflection that Acid constituted a "year-zero", everyone sold ALL their records and dug deep into piles of anonymous 12"s. Seems like everyone's forgotten, or no-one gives a toss, that Larry Heard's drumless mixes of Finger Inc. were the primary inspiration to Alex "The Orb" Patterson, and it was that wave of ambient-techno which leveraged into IDM and electronica. It was the escape-route. These two records are stunningly beautiful.

This dude seems to have got a bit slagged off. I've no IDEA why? "Ambulance" and "Circus Bells" as tracky and evil as they could be.

Weeps. Made when he was 14 I think? Felix the Housecat something like 13 when he made "Phantasy Girl." I'm only sorry I don't have this on Muzique, which if you don't know already, is one of THEE great labels ever. Period. Up there with Studio One. This 3-tracker possibly the greatest record of this era of Chicago. "Making Love" my favourite. Ron Trent went on to make soul-inflected house records. We actually played Joe Smooth's "Promised Land" alot in Senegal. That's a beautiful tune too. I have that somewhere.

While we're on the Muzique tip. Two more GREAT records. Mike Dunn had a bit of success with "God make Funky" (which I didn't like) and successfully linked up with Tresor. Instead of reissuing Lloyd Barnes why doesn't Maurizio put out a bleeding Muzique compilation. I dunno, I'm forever giving these people hot tips. Where's my commission?

And of course "The Jungle" too. One of the other auteurs.

Larry Heard. The comeback king! "Can you feel it?", yes we can! These are superb. The Jack Trax double LP "Another Side" is cool, I have that somewhere, though "Feeling Sleazy" is by far and away the best track on it.

Cajmere, who soon after these records had a big hit with "Brighter Days" and Clubhouse transformed into Relief. I have another one by Dana on this label, but that didn't come to Africa with us. These two are amazing. "Jouse" is totally weird, a bassline sampled from a double-bass, a flute loop and no drums. "I'm a dreamer" features a Charlie Parker-style saxaphone as a hook. It's all VERY Arthur Russell-ish. Quite unlike the electronic textures in evidence on all these other records. Clubhouse, shh, whisper it!

Damn I love these records! Mention must be made to other Chicago tracks that I missed here which we played particularly Armando's "100% of Dissin you" and "House music all Night Long", the latter of which is a Hip-House track with an MC who sounds like 90s British TV exercise guru Mr.Motivator!

Posted by Woebot at October 1, 2003 08:51 AM