FXHE Records, 2010

Alex has been on a roll lately. I’m still digesting his last record, yet here he is with a completely different-sounding EP. “Kosmos 1402” takes up the entire first side with gritty, distorted snares and spacey synths. There is a break-down, then another build-up with snorts of what may be thunder or waves. This one seems like more of a home-listening track to me—the perfect soundtrack to a worn sci-fi paperback.

The reverse side’s label depicts a crowded star-field above a blue-gray planet-scape. The title track is dark, dramatic, and dare I say “intelligent” (in the classic sense). Low-end notes phaser like some old Warp Records track and the melody is superb. A voice announces, “Too black, too strong.” Next strange samples describe some scary idea of Utopia. Chimes flitter, then “Skynet 2 B” kicks in with a fat house bassline, only to end abruptly like an abandoned experiment. There are primitive locked grooves at the end of each side. I can’t tell whether the sounds they generate are intentional, but they do resemble space transmissions. This EP might not be to everyone’s taste, but I feel like it was designed specifically for mine. It connects IDM, house, and techno in one glorious swoop!

Disco Nihilist: From One Place to Another

Construction Paper Records, 2010

Disco Nihilist is expanding his sound, and the result is a much more mature record. On “Easy,” clear, pure synth notes glide over old school bass and beats. A 303 squelches to life at the end. “Leaving Bull Creek” has a similar gait, but the 303 line is more subdued, with subtle changes. “Gallop” reminds me of early Joey Beltram, with a big pulsing bassline and Doppler-shifting siren-like notes. “SH101 Acid” closes out the EP with two hard, minimal acid lines and a waterfall of changing claps and kicks. Beats stutter into a march at the end. “Easy” may please the heart, but the rest of this record is aimed squarely at the dance floor.

Hieroglyphic Being: The Mysteries of Life EP

+ + +, 2010

I’m not sure I completely understand Jamal’s concept for this new label, but he described it as a way to showcase his output chronologically. It’s as if he’s restarting Mathematics with only solo projects—as though he never released for anyone else. Jamal has been digging through boxes of nineties tapes, so any fan of his more primitive side is sure to be pleased. The title track has some kind of mysterious sheen. Glassy synthesizers are varnished in layers of dubbing. The bass sounds like a distant airplane. Snares explode like thrown paint.

“Injury 2 the Enlightened” has an almost industrial beat. Treble squiggles and chimes dance in a techno track gone crazy. “Shambhala” starts with piercing high notes in the piccolo range. Smeared snares sound almost military. I can honestly say no one else is making music this way.

Vince Lawrence, 46, has always been content to work behind the scenes, yet his ideas and hard work shaped the history of music. He is responsible for many firsts, from the first house record (“On and On” with Jesse Saunders) to the first major label (Trax) to the first house track on the Billboard charts (“Funk You Up,” also with Jesse). Lawrence built his early success into a music industry career, earning numerous gold and platinum awards in the process. I interviewed him in the control room at Slang Musicgroup, Chicago on January 9, 2010.

Jacob: What part of Chicago did you grow up in?
Vince: I am originally a South Sider. I lived all over the South Side. I lived in Roseland, Jeffrey Manor, South Shore, Hyde Park, Lake Meadows, Beverly…. I lived on Lakeshore Drive for a little while. Quickly moved to Diversey and Ashland and then Humboldt Park… then West Loop, now here. I’ve lived all over Chicago. I’m a Chicagoan, in a real sense.

I understand your father was in the music business?
Yes, my father worked with Eddie Thomas, who was Curtis Mayfield’s partner in Curtom records. He had a small blues and R&B label of his own [Mitchbal Records]. Around the time I was fifteen or sixteen he wanted to show me the record-making process, so I made a record as part of it.... That was “Fast Cars.” And I was really fond of that record. I guess if you’re sixteen and you make a record, you’re going to be fond of it. I really wanted to capture the essence of the parties I was going to... First Impressions, The Loft, ultimately The Playground and The Rink. There were parties all over the place.

What were some of your musical influences?
I had a really eclectic record collection, and I would say thanks to the Columbia Music House or something like that. Let’s see, double albums: I had Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key of Life. Obviously. Electric Light Orchestra Out of the Blue. Not so obvious. Michael Jackson Off the Wall. Kiss Destroyer. A lot of the New Wave records we were listening to at the parties, you couldn’t get those at the Columbia Record Club, but I listened to everything.

I listened to rock records, pop records, R&B records, funk records—Parliament-Funkadelic “Aqua Boogie” and things like that—and really became fascinated with these records that were made with synthesizers. I’d gotten my own synthesizer from work that I did ushering people to their seats at ball games and concerts and I was really focused on recognizing synthesis that was going on in modern music at the time. I thought it was great when you could make a record with all synthesizers.

What was your first synthesizer?
It was a Moog Prodigy.

Do you still have it?
No, I don’t. It was stolen from me a couple years after I had it. I was really fond of it, though.

Tell me more about “Fast Cars.”
Well, the session happened after my dad says, “Hey, we’re going to make a record,” and I said, “Great, this is cool.” I very quickly put together a band [Z-Factor] to support my synthesizer playing and wrote this song. We were really excited because the day we were going to go in the studio, we knew about it about three weeks ahead of time, so by the time we got there we were really pumped up and a record that we rehearsed at probably 120, 123 BPM got recorded at 142.

How many copies did you press?
I think initially that we pressed 1000, but we sold those very quickly and ended up pressing 3 or 4000 more. My dad could tell you how many we sold. We got the record on the radio…. WGCI and WBMX, primarily. It was just a wonderful thing to hear your song on the radio.

Were you the first local guy with a dance record at that time?
I wouldn’t say that I was the first local guy, because a couple of years before, I asked my Dad to go to summer camp and we really couldn’t afford it, so he sent me on the road with a guy by the name of Captain Sky, and he had a record. He had a big fucking record. And I have to say that Daryl’s existence was a real indicator to me that there was something that I could do. I could see a tangible result of the effort to make music and get out there. Because Daryl had a record “Wonder Worm” that was a smash all over Chicago, and he had previously had a record before that called “Super Sporm.” I don’t know if you know the song “Rapper’s Delight,” towards the third verse the guy says “He can satisfy you with his little worm/but I can bust you out with my super sperm…” he’s referencing Captain Sky’s record “Super Sporm,” which was a big East Coast hit.

Daryl was on the road and I got to go on the road. I was a pyro-technician, and I think I was fourteen. And I met great singers there. I met Gary Loizzo, who was the keyboard player in Daryl’s band. He had multiple synthesizers, and I was really excited about that. This was before I bought my own synthesizer. I would say that that was one of the things that made me think, “Man, if I could get me one of those synthesizers, I could make music!”

When did you start going to The Playground? Around when “Fast Cars” came out (1983)?
A little before. I was out late at night much younger than I probably should have been…. You know the place had been called Columns, I guess because of the thick pillars in the room, and it was kind of a gay juice bar, but another one of my mentors, Craig Thomson, took over that and made a teen club.

They were spinning New Wave music? What were they calling it?
That was just the music. There were a lot of DJs playing stuff like that. Frankie [Knuckles], obviously, was at the forefront, but there was Mike Ezebukwu and Ron Hardy, and there were a lot of DJs playing good disco music mixed with soul and other things.

There was a man by the name of Herb Kent. Herb Kent created a show at the suggestion of his daughter called “Stay Up and Punk Out” because black kids in Hyde Park were listening to the B-52s and other records like that. New Wave records. We got our punk rock glasses and so on and so forth, and we would go do these dances at basement parties in the middle of the night.... That was another big influence to me, because [Herb] was playing soul records, disco records, and New Wave records in the same [set]. You could hear Parliament-Funkadelic and Kraftwerk back to back. Open format—real open format. That was the radio. I’d stay up for that show. All of us as teenagers would stay up to “Punk Out.” Other mix show DJs started following suit.

You’d go to The Warehouse, which was the epitome of the juice bars. It was the top of the pile, because reportedly they put acid in the punch. I shouldn’t say because of that, but that was one of the reasons. It had a mystique about it. It was hard for me to stay awake late enough so I could sneak out at 1:00 in the morning and go to a party because it didn’t get good until two, and I remember a whole adventure around going to The Warehouse. The few times I got to go there before it closed, those were really exhilarating experiences. I had already made “Fast Cars” by the time I got to The Warehouse parties. I heard Frankie Knuckles spin and heard the music at those parties, it was just so seamless and so physical due to the size of the sound system that it was a different experience for me. That drove us to want to make different records—more records, and get better. I saved up a bunch of money and bought another synthesizer and started looking for other people to be in my band. People that were closer to the scene that I was trying to capture. And that’s how I hooked up with Jesse Saunders.

You got a job at The Playground doing lights?
Got a little gig doing lights, and the next thing I knew I was throwing parties. I had a group called I.S.E., Infinity Space Eclipse. A guy by the name of Vincent Sparks had started a youth group in the neighborhood to keep us kids out of trouble, now that I really think about it. There were several of us in I.S.E., and we became party promoters. We all went to different schools. We organized ourselves, rented a place… and threw a few parties. A party that we threw where we experienced success, we had an idea designed to help police the parties, protect them from fights, and attached to our own culture at the same time. The idea was we were going to have an IZOD fest. All of the “Punk Out” kids were wearing Izod Lacoste and Polo clothing. So we said “bring your ’ZOD and work your bod,” and the fee to get in the party was $5 if you wore anything IZOD and $10 otherwise. Now mind you, in 1981, the difference between five and ten dollars was going to the party or not….

It caught on like crazy. There were 500 people at our party…. We had an IZOD contest—gave away money to the person that had the most IZOD stuff on. Craig Thomson stole that idea, and the venue that we rented that night, and threw IZOD/Polo parties for the rest of that year.

Next thing you know, I was doing lights at The Playground and Jesse and I were hanging out after the parties thinking about music. We met Duane Buford, who played piano better than the both of us, and we started making songs. Jesse started taking some of the money from his DJing and he started buying musical equipment.

Did he have any equipment before you met him?
None to speak of. No music-making equipment. He had a piano at his mom’s house. His mom was a school teacher.

What was the first thing you collaborated on?
“On and On,” pretty much straight away. Well no, first he joined Z-Factor and we recorded “Fantasy,” “Secret Agent Eyes,” “My Ride,” a bunch of New Wave. Kind of a cross between disco records and Prince songs. Most of what became the Z-Factor Dance Party album.

Screamin’ Rachael sang on “Fantasy.” I found her hanging around Universal, but didn’t realize she was active in the punk scene and hanging out at Space Place. Her singing on “Fantasy” was one of the first times the South Side and North Side musical contingencies worked together. Rachel was so open to what we were doing, as experimental as it was. She was important in moving into clubs that weren’t gay and black.

We couldn’t wait for my dad to get the Z-Factor record out. He was just taking too long, too long. Probably two months or so, two and a half months, that was too long for us to wait.

So that’s how “On and On” came out first?
Yeah, we kind of cloned “Fantasy” and put “On and On” out right away.

Same bassline?
Well yeah, a lot of it’s the same.

It was based on a megamix Jesse owned?
Yeah, there was a megamix called “Stars on 69” and it had looped a piece of some other record to make that bassline. And then it had all kinds of other stuff on top of it. “Funkytown,” this, that, and the other. And he had lost that record, so we wanted to go down that path and make a record that moved like that.

Why did “On and On” blow up so fast and inspire so many people?
We made the record and we started playing it in clubs and I got active about really promoting. We started Jes Say records and I became the marketing head for that company. It was my job to make sure that everybody knew about it. I covered every club in the city, with the help of Jesse because he had a car. We mapped out every club in the city, where all the DJs were, and made sure that everybody got a copy of it or at least we took a copy there and played it so they could go to Importes [Etc.] and buy it. We created this network of retailers where people who were interested in our sort of parties were shopping for their records. We really just hustled. A lot.

Our friends were also playing on the radio, so they were very excited about the fact that Jesse and I together had made this record. They really got behind it, and they were playing the thing sometimes three or four times per mix. Can you imagine a mix show where the back-beat record for the mix show was this one record? Then we had a bunch of beat tracks so they were playing other records on top of our beat tracks. They were really wearing it out, committed to the record. So it took off.

At the same time while that record took off, I was pretty active socially, and I just encouraged everybody. You know, “You should make one too. I made a record, you should make one.” My helping other people enjoy the same experience I had… ultimately led me to producing.

Did your father have distribution connections?
No, I ended up helping my dad. We had record stores like a paper route. We’d just go to the stores, show them the new records, they’d make an order. Because of the general limited supply, we could get stores to buy hundreds of records at a time. And because at some point we had multiple titles, it became a real business. I went to Detroit and created the same model there. After Detroit I went to New York, did the same thing, and then Miami. So we had four or five cities that we were selling records to.

Jesse had signed a deal with Paul Weisberg, who owned Importes Etc., to put out his next release, so I went to the guy who owned the pressing plant and made a deal with him. I said, “Hey, let’s make some records. You know that we’re selling these things. I’ve got this idea. We’re gonna make records that are quick and easy to make, they’re fun, they’re not too complicated, because the kids at these parties, they just want to hear these tracks. And that’s what we’re going to call the label, Trax Records.” We agreed to make some records and get some masters in and we were going to split it. We were going to split the profits… and that didn’t really work out that way.

That was Larry Sherman?
Yeah. But really I didn’t care because I got to make all these records. That was kind of what I was in it for. Sometimes people ask me whether or not that was short-sighted, but I think that was part of my process. At the end of the day I’m where I’m at right now, and I’m not really in a bad way. Probably in a lot of ways I’m a lot better off than Larry.

So that’s how Trax Records got started?
Pretty much. I had been hanging out at Chicago Trax recording, and I had become a fan of Ministry who at the time were making all synthesizer-based records on a label called Wax Trax! I was enamored by the industrial movement and what was going on with it, so I said I want the label to be black with white text. And the name Trax, I don’t want it to be in the center, I want it to be off to one side on an angle. And I want the type to be really bold and hard print because I want it to be easy for the DJ to read what record they have. In the dark, even. And that’s how the logo design and image for the label started. I had previously designed the logo for Jes Say Records, wrote that one by hand. I’d hand-drawn a few fliers for some parties. I just loved art.

You said you went to Detroit. Were you aware of what was going on there with Juan Atkins?
Cliff Thomas, at Buy-Rite Records, we found him, and we found the record pool. We serviced Buy-Rite and we serviced the pool, and we would drive up for a party here and there but really knew nothing about it. Apparently Derrick [May] was coming down to Chicago and going to The Music Box, so he was very much aware of us and what we were doing, but we were oblivious. We were in our own world, making records every week.

You got writing credits on a lot of Jesse’s tracks, like “Funk You Up” and “Real Love.” Was that for the lyrics?
Yeah, mostly…. I [also] wrote Dr. Derelict “Under Cover.”

What year did Go Wild Rhythm Tracks come out?
That was ’84. That was when I started working with Marshall Jefferson…. Marshall was supposed to be the act. We only had enough money for a small amount of time, and we really didn’t have a sequencer to connect the 808 to any keyboards, so we just made a record that was 808 and DX-7, only a few patterns at a time per track, and then that was that. We made the best record we could given the circumstances. We only had a couple hours. Marshall wrote that label with his hand. A Sharpie for the big text, a ball-point pen for the small text.

Also, you worked on Ron Hardy’s “Sensation”? There’s a version on some old mix tapes where there aren’t any vocals and the synth stutters and pans. Is that from the same session?
Mmm hmm, it’s all from the same session. I did all the edit work. I was really really into The Latin Rascals and Arthur Baker and I had learned how to stutter edit. We’d cut the section of the song up into 16th notes and then insert blank pieces of tape. It was like this little experiment.

Can you tell me about your role in “Love Can’t Turn Around”?
Lyrics and melodies. I’ve told the story a few times about Farley and Steve being roommates and I don’t know if they were working on the record together or what. They had this falling out and Farley said, “I’m going to make this record. Steve was going to do Isaac Hayes’ ‘I Can’t Turn Around.’ I’m going to make a different record. Vince, call it ‘Love Can’t Turn Around.’ Write it today.”

So I wrote this story, “Now this is how it started/my dreams all broken hearted,” because there was this girl I wanted to date and she just really wanted to be friends. We were trying to find a singer, and I’d just recorded with this guy Darryl Pandy. Rumor has it that Darryl played the Cowardly Lion in the Broadway musical The Wiz. He had this big, bellowing voice and he could get right to the church nitty gritty. He was a good ad-libber. So we brought him in and he killed it. He just killed it. The performances were great, everybody was excited. Farley and Jesse released that record on some offshoot deal with Rocky Jones. They did a great job of getting it over to the UK. The rest is history from there. I was really moving in my own direction at that time, so other than the sessions, I really didn’t participate….

It seems like the UK picked up on the Chicago scene really fast. How did that happen?
J.B. Ross, Larry [Sherman], and Rocky [Jones], together with a guy named Peter Katsis, went to MIDEM, the international music licensing conference.

Then you were signed to Geffen Records?
That was ’86. I had been hanging out at Chicago Trax Recording. I’d been sitting in on these Ministry sessions, listening to Trevor Horn’s work with Grace Jones and The Art of Noise and Herbie Hancock’s “Rock It,” and I made a record that was one-hundred percent Fairlight synthesizer. I started getting it played around the North Side clubs. Peter Katsis and Jeff Kwantinetz threw the Midwest Music Conference…. All these A&R people from big record companies were coming into Chicago. I was just bound and determined to make a partnership…. So I met some people from Geffen…. At the time, I didn’t want to leave [Jesse]…. and they said, “You know what, we’ll give him a deal too.” And they signed us both.

So what came out of that deal?
I made that record [pointing to wall] “Sample That!” by Bang Orchestra! and I spent two years recording a bunch of other stuff that they didn’t understand that never came out. Jesse released an album that had “Real Love” and a bunch of other songs moving in a different direction, and that was pretty much the sum of that. We toured a little bit. I guess at the time they didn’t really realize what was going on. We didn’t realize what was going on, that we could have taken our movement and really expanded upon it. It was a learning experience for us all. We didn’t have any manager, or people like that involved, so we really just didn’t get it.

When did you decide to start your own company?
I want to say ’89. I was off Geffen and I started making indie records again. I had built a small studio and just started making records for myself and other people. I wouldn’t say I decided to start a company, it just kind of happened. I went to work.

Can you walk me through the nineties?
It’s a blur, back and forth to the UK. I worked on CCP, The Swans, converted Taffy’s “I Love My Radio” into a record that could be played in the UK. Radio went off at midnight in the UK and the hook said, “…my guy the DJ after midnight” so we had to change that to “the DJ up ’til midnight.” We hardened the mixes a little bit, made them a little more house-friendly. I got a chance to work with a bunch of great people at a bunch of great studios all over the world…. I worked with Daniel Miller, who is the president of Mute Records.

I think that was my college…. I learned music production from the best of the best all over the world…. They wanted me to incorporate the thinking that was present in our Chicago jack tracks music with the music they were making….

This one’s now my third actual full-on facility…. We’re doing music for The Oprah Winfrey Show, a lot of television and radio commercials, remixes of big pop stars: Beyoncé and R. Kelly.

The sound that you pioneered in the eighties has become part of the mainstream, part of our culture, but it seems that you like being the guy behind the scenes.
Yeah, I do…. Initially, I liked helping people…. I wasn’t that great a singer, and honestly, I was pretty introverted…. Sometimes it’s not even about the glory, because I’ll make records that I don’t even put my name on, just because I want to see something out. I like this stuff [the studio], the other stuff that came along with it.

What do you think of the scene today?
I don’t think it believes in itself like we did. People told us that the music that we were making was not music. “What the heck is this junk?” And the “junk” took over the world.

Narita Records and Concrete Plastic may both be on hiatus, but Yard channels their spirit on this self-published remix album. These mixes push the tech-house side of post-IDM (which I much prefer to the indie rock/folk side).

Arctic Hospital’s take on “Cascade” is digital claustrophobia with overpowering kicks and clattering syncopation. At the end it almost sounds live-mixed as beats go off-kilter and the bass cuts out. Karri O.’s “The King On Queen Remix” of “Whitefog” grabbed my attention with reverberating, distinctly analog sounds. I’m still a sucker for the dubbier side of things. Nice low-key melodies develop as well. Anders Ilar tackles “Portabello” with a mix that’s bass-heavy and murky. It’s too bad the elements aren’t clearer, because they have potential.

On his “Oligolecty Remix” of “Bees,” Eric McIntyre chops the original track into pieces, then slathers the remains with a dubstep amount of bass. Let’s Go Outside also focuses on some mighty low octaves in his version of “Under The Bonnet.” Groans and creaks sound like floorboards bowing under unbearable weight. The Rootsix “Co-Opted Remix” of “Synthetic Waves” has a decent build-up to an organ solo of sorts, but the notes are too jumbled to provide true release.

Rounding out the nine, Fisk Industries’ take on “Canopy” is forlorn, skeletal drum and bass. Yard’s own “Warehouse Remix” of “Pacquet” is surprisingly minimal with speedy, repetitive arpeggios over a rave beat. The album concludes with drones from Celer (Will Long and the late Danielle Baquet-Long). The piece, called “New Beginnings (Copper Globe Remix)” hums with a glowing warmth, in contrast to the almost clinical sounds which precede it.

These are gut-shaking, technical mixes with a lot of sound experimentation. I find it easy to lose touch with the outer boundaries of techno now that so many releases are MP3-only. This collection serves as a good reminder that there is still a tight-knit group of producers pushing computers to their limits.

After a good long set by David Powers, Omar-S killed it last night in what was apparently his first Chicago appearance. He came on at one A.M. and played a little over two and a half hours, mixing his own material with what seemed to be obscure nineties house. The mixing was much smoother than on his old CD-Rs. I take it he’s been practicing. About the only things I recognized beside Omar’s tracks were Quest’s “Mind Games,” Model 500’s “No UFO’s” (which drove the crowd wild), and Midway’s “Set It Out.” It was a fun night!

Leonard “Remix” Rroy, 46, was one of the first house DJs, but his name remains obscure, perhaps because he enlisted in the Army just as the scene hit its peak. A few years ago, he reappeared, posting a series of YouTube videos on the history of house music and his apparent invention of the term. Mike Dunn, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, and Chip E. have all mentioned Rroy as an influence. Rroy is currently serving in Afghanistan, but he was kind enough to answer my questions (in his first interview ever) via email.

Jacob: Where did you grow up?
Leonard: The South Side of Chicago.

How did you get into music?
I’ve always been into music for as long as I can remember.

Where was the first place you DJed?
Oh wow, the very first place I DJed was a party for my second grade class. I was too shy to dance, but my sister had all the hits on 45, so I brought a load of the newest jams to class and we had a ball. I think that was the initial spark that made me want to play music in front of people.

The first official club I played at was The Bitter End, 7300 S. Cottage Grove, Chicago. It was owned by Lowell Tuff. The club was a juice bar.... That was a good thing because the club did not have to operate under the same time restrictions as clubs with liquor licenses.

The Bitter End flyer

What was The Bitter End like inside?
The entrance was a long bar and seating area.... The dancefloor was located to the right of the bar in a separate room. The dance area was all black and the booth was elevated so the DJ could see down.... The speaker system consisted of four Peavey SP 1 speakers and two tweeter systems with four tweeters each mounted in the ceiling facing down. It was all powered by a Peavey CS 800 Amp. The tables were Technics D1s. I brought my own Shure SC35C needles and the mixer was a Teledyne mixer. There was no monitor but the music was loud and clear enough that a monitor was not required.

What kinds of things were you playing?
“One More Round” by Kasso and “Spaticus” by Ian Dury are the two tracks I played back then that were signature tracks saying “Leonard is spinning.”

Who was the first person you heard play their own edits?
JJ Kelly of WKKC, a college radio station located near my house. He did skate party edits of James Brown songs—what has become known as JBs.

When did you start making edits?
I started doing edits after I watched JJ Kelly splice up mixes. I got a reel to reel from my friend Cleve and a splice block from Radio Shack and started. I also discovered that I could do edits with a pause button on a cassette deck. A doctored Sanyo tape deck allowed me to do what we called then "pause edits."

What were your favorites?
“Bad Luck” by Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes, “He’s a Friend” by Eddie Kendricks, “Midnight Girl” by Lenny Williams, “Inside My Love” by Minnie Riperton, “Let No Man Put Asunder” by First Choice, “Big Freak” by Phreek....

Farley “Jackmaster” Funk said in an interview that you’re the first person he heard use the phrase “house music.” How did you come up with it?
The term “house” came from my mother. I was playing music in the basement, as normal, and she said “Why don’t you try to play some of these old songs and see if your friends like ’em.” While playing an edit of “Chance With You” by Brother to Brother at The Bitter End, the owner heard the difference in the song and thought it was an alternate version or remix. When he asked, “What is that?” I said “house music.” That term came to mind due to the fact that my mother asked me to try some of the old music from the basement of our house....

I understand you actually put up a sign that read “We play house” and Frankie Knuckles saw it?
Frankie said in a video interview that he was on the South Side of Chicago and went to a small corner bar. There was a sign in the window that said, “We Play House Music.” The only thing about his statement that was left out was the name of the bar. I stated that it was The Bitter End for a number of reasons: 1. I did have a sign in the window. 2. It was a club that Frankie would stop into every now and again.

Did you go see Frankie Knuckles spin? What made his parties so influential?
I saw Frankie spin once at The Warehouse, but more at The Power Plant once The Warehouse closed. I remember telling someone, “He’s just blending and not scratching… what is so exciting about that?” Then he started working the EQ and the bass blew me away. Frankie was the only DJ I knew of with a system like that and I tell you… a system like the one at The Warehouse made a DJ godlike!

When did you start playing at The Rink Zone?
1982.

Where was it located and what was the capacity?
8920 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago. The Rink Zone held a good seven- to eight-hundred people on the large floor and one-hundred on the small dance floor.

Leonard at The Rink Zone on Technics D2s with Shure SC35C needles, GLI PMX 9000 mixer, Pioneer cassette deck with pitch control, and Sanyo cassette deck (for recording)

How loud was it?
It was as loud as I could make it. We used a variety of sound men and systems. The place came with two four-foot woofer speakers, a midrange cabinet, and a multi-cell horn on the top of each. The multi-cell horns were mono and powered by a Vox Royal Guardsman guitar amp with the amp turned on bright. The mids and lows were powered by Crown amps. We also had two single scoops laid on their sides at the east and west end of the dance floor. They were powered by Phase Linear amps. There were also two JBL double scoops on the south wall that were powered by Yamaha amps. We wanted as much bass as we could get. The highs were beyond good and it’s easy to have loud mids. Bass is always the issue.

one of The Rink Zone’s four speaker towers

The Rink Zone low-end amp rack; James Bunkley of Fox Player Sound

Did people skate to the music?
No skating period, straight jacking.

How would you describe “jacking”?
Jacking is dancing as if you were working out in the gym pumping weights or trying to work someone up to an orgasm while dancing, be it dancing with a person, a speaker, the wall, or any object one could hold on to and go nuts because they love the music they hear so much.

The Rink Zone crowd

What was the crowd like there?
The Rink Zone crowd consisted of the teens that went to schools whose names did not appear on flyers for the downtown parties (where the thought-to-be all-that/popular people went—good schools like Kenwood H.S., Lindblom, etc.). Schools like Robeson H.S. did not appear on flyers back then because that was considered a ghetto school. That ghetto school had some serious house heads, including me....

Do you have any wild party stories?
One night at The Rink Zone, we had a booth set up for customers to stand in as money blew around. Any cash they held in their hand, they could keep. One night while the money machine was not in use, a guy named Paul had a girl inside there. Dwayne Jammin Jackson (the opening DJ) turned on all the lights in the club, grabbed the mic and said “Hey y’all, Paul got a girl in the money machine.” The whole crowd had eyes on the money machine and we were in the booth dying laughing as they were trying to get dressed. Wow, good times back then.

What was your best night spinning?
The night at The Rink Zone when I was playing “Your Love” and I had the system cranked up so loud that the fuse box on the wall exploded and the power line melted away from the building. That night blew people’s minds! I mean the stories that people told all week long about that night went from A to Z. That explosion was another event that made me godlike as a DJ. I was the DJ and house music king of the South Side of Chicago, hands down. It just took a few years and one-thousand-plus people to see it and talk about it.

What other clubs did you play?
The Hummingbird, the Sheba, What’s Poppin, the Kaz Bar, Jeffrey Pub, Relax, The Attic, The Loft (I opened for DJ Larry Williams), The Playground (I lost a DJ battle there to Lil John), Sauer’s (I won a DJ battle against Steve “Silk” Hurley).

The TS Club (Atlanta 1986); The Peppermint Club (Böbligen, Germany); Galaxy (Stuttgart, Germany); The Cinderella Club (Stuttgart, Germany); Wilkins Barracks (Germany); The Engineer Club (Missouri); The Gateway (Korea); The Black Rose (Korea); The Warriors Club (Korea); Bengies (Dolton, IL), Valentino’s (Dolton, IL), The Chosen Few House Reunion Picnic, The Attic House Music Picnic, Leo’s Den.

Can you describe some of the South Side clubs you mentioned?
The Hummingbird was not as good as The Rink Zone and the system sucked when compared to other clubs. Plus, there was this country bumpkin drunk who was in charge when the owner was not there and he gave people problems—including the DJs.

The Jeffrey Pub was small but nice to play in. The booth was jacked up, 3-feet wide, 6-feet long, and it had no stairs. DJs would have to climb in the booth via a bar stool. They had a small system that worked well for the size of the club. Two speakers with 15s and a horn.

The Loft had a system equal to the Richard Long system at the original Music Box on 16th and Indiana. Larry Williams was the headline DJ, and he was beyond great. He was the first choice to open the Music Box, but due to creative differences between him and owner Robert Williams he did not get the gig, and Ron Hardy got it. I lucked up on spinning there because a spot I went to weekly called First Impressions was closed the night a group of friends and I went there to party.

As we walked south on Michigan towards 22nd Street we heard music coming out the second floor of a building about two blocks south of First Impressions. We went upstairs and there we were in a club with the loudest and cleanest system ever! My friend Cleve said, “Why don’t you ask him if you can spin?” I asked Larry and he said OK since the club was still empty. After he heard the selection of music I was playing, he later asked me if I was interested in opening for him. I said “Yes!” Hell, I didn’t even say I wanted to get paid—I was in love with that system.

I only played one time at The Playground. It was a DJ battle. I lost to Lil John (Coleman) and as I reflect back, I did not lose because he was better than me, it was my cocky attitude. I went into the booth doing my best stuff as I pointed Steve Hurley and Farley out, saying stuff like, “Y’all can’t hang with me… I got all y’all beat.” I would set up to do a turntable trick and point at either Steve or Farley and say, “This one’s for you.” I met Chip E. that night and we became friends right off. Good times back then. Farley and I never had a foul word to say about each other. We were rivals at best and we are still friends today.

Sauer’s. That was my crowning moment saying Leonard “Remix” Rroy has arrived! Steve Hurley was the resident DJ and when I beat him in the DJ Battle at Sauer’s, I became official. Soon after that I started noticing people who were loyal to The Playground coming to The Rink Zone. The funny part was the popularity they had at The Playground meant nothing at The Rink Zone—they went from popular to patron all in one shot. I never was one that was stuck on myself and I never tried to play at places where the stuck-up, popular people went.

The only reason any DJ is a star is because of the stars who listen and dance while they play. Without the crowd the DJ is nothing more than a human radio playing music. I always wanted those who felt like they were on the outside looking in to feel like they were on the inside looking out. That is why I’ve never been called a stuck-up DJ. I do have a big ego when it comes to known house DJs, but as to the party people and up [and] coming DJs, I am never too busy to stop what I am doing and talk. If it were not for them, there would be no me.

When did you join the Army?
I initially joined the army in February, 1987 after doing a gig in Nassaw. My mother died two years prior and that put me in a depressed state. I was up one morning watching Oprah and her show was pre-empted because the Space Shuttle exploded. That same day I went to a recruiting station and signed up. My life was going beyond downhill at that time. It looked as if I had it all, but all I had was because of my mother, and her death in reality was the end of me. I joined the Army to deal with the grief and get my head back straight.

Do you still spin regularly?
I play once a week for the house-head military members in Afghanistan and we have a blast.

How do you feel about the house scene today?
All I can speak on is Chicago.... I feel it would be better if some new blood was in the mix. I, for one, do not feel this melodic crap that is being put out and praised like it’s the best song since “Born This Way” by Carl Bean. I call it “la la music” and there are far too many Chicago DJs that are trying to be New Yorkers instead of trying to do more at home. To each their own, but I am not going to turn my back on the city that made me and kiss ass elsewhere just to say I played there. Sorry… that just ain’t me. Everybody has their own local thing and I am not going to dis New York, Jersey, Baltimore, Detroit, or Atlanta or their DJs or their scene. But shame on a Chicago DJ that praises other places and disses home as if Chicago did nothing for them. That is wrong as wrong can be.

What are your plans for the future?
I plan to make it back from the war, go on my first visit to New York, and play with the most incredible house music DJ I have seen in recent memory, Donna Edwards. If I were to talk about how impressed I was while she played a one-nighter in Chicago… that would be a whole other interview!

House and techno were both heavily influenced by prep dance scenes. Some of the biggest and earliest parties were held at upper-middle-class schools. Chicago and Detroit DJs played artists like James White & The Blacks and The B-52’s without irony while New Wave music was at the height of its popularity. For lack of a better term, I’m calling these rock, punk, and synth-pop tunes “left-field,” but in Chicago they were all called “house.”

Liquid Liquid: Optimo

99 Records, 1983

This funk-rock band is best known for “Cavern,” whose bassline Grandmaster Flash used on “White Lines.” In Chicago, however, “Optimo” was the jam, thanks to its dense, frenetic percussion.

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ESG: Moody (Spaced Out)

99 Records, 1983

ESG was formed by three sisters from the South Bronx. As with Liquid Liquid, the hip-hop and house communities embraced different tracks. The former sampled heavily from “U.F.O.” while the latter preferred the conga-heavy “Moody.” The definitive mix appears on the album Come Away with ESG.

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Rolling Stones: Undercover of the Night

Rolling Stones Records, 1983

Mick Jagger must have been quite the club-goer in the early eighties. This dubby effort seems heavily inspired by Arthur Russell’s Dinosaur L track “Go Bang.”

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Ian Dury & The Seven Seas Players: Spasticus Autisticus (Version)

Polydor, 1981

Look beyond the goofy vocals, and you’ll find a much-sampled synth line. In fact, François Kevorkian used it on Gayle Adams “Love Fever” later the same year.

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Brian Eno & David Byrne: The Jezebel Spirit

Sire Records Company, 1981

Ron Hardy used to play this eerie exorcism-themed track from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a collaboration between ambient pioneer Eno and Byrne (of Talking Heads fame).

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Chris & Cosey: Gardens of the Pure

Rough Trade, 1984

I’m not sure how much this track actually got played, but I’ve heard a couple of people mention it, and I think it’s cool that it was on DJs’ radar. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti were Throbbing Gristle members, and this is off their album Songs of Love & Lust. Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records reissued it in 1990 but it’s been out of print since.

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Anne Clark: Our Darkness (Remix)

Ink Records, 1984

Part punk, part synth-pop, this UK single features spoken-word poetry over a sparse mechanical beat. It was quite popular in Chicago clubs.

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Night Moves: Transdance (UK Club Mix)

GC Recordings, 1983

Another UK synth-pop favorite, an early version of which was released in 1981. There was even a Chicago cover on Gallifré’s Chicago Boogie Rhythm Tracks EP.

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Liaisons Dangereuses: Avant-après Mars

TELDEC, 1981

The self-titled album by this German industrial group provided plenty of fodder for Chicago house DJs, who also played “Peut Etre…Pas” and “Los Niños Del Parque.” The Roadrunner Records reissue actually has better sound quality than the recent Hit Thing one.

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Noise Abroad: Vent That Spleen

EMI Music, 1983

I’ll conclude with some obscure Belgian electro. Apparently this is Noise Abroad’s only single. I tracked down a copy at Gramaphone after hearing it in a couple of Ron Hardy mixes. The chopped-up vocal tape loops sound straight off an Autechre album.

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BBE, 2009

John Morales was a Bronx DJ who first gained fame crafting disco edits and medleys pressed to acetate at Sunshine Sound. (See Disco Patrick’s 2007 book The Bootleg Guide to Disco Acetates, Funk, Rap and Disco Medleys.) From there, he went on to work on studio mixes for underground disco pioneers Greg Carmichael and Patrick Adams. After each recording session, Morales would stay late to make personal reference mixes which he used for DJing and radio. In some cases, these unreleased mixes are the only master-quality versions that survive.

This 2-CD/3-LP set from BBE is the first collection of Morales’ “after-session” mixes. The focus is on 1980-1984, house music’s formative years. Kicking things off is the most radical remix, a version of Class Action’s “Weekend” that begins a capella and features extended breaks throughout. Another highlight is Ronnie Dyson’s “All Over Your Face.” The catchy synth-line is given plenty of time to shine at the end. Curtis Hairston’s “I Want You (All Tonight)” is a sweet, slow boogie jam. Two Universal Robot Band tracks show off Leroy Burgess vocals. Oddly enough, Bumblebee Unlimited’s “Lady Bug,” which is billed as the 12-inch, is shorter than the same mix on Unidisc’s Sting Like a Bee CD.

Moving on to the second disc, the “JM 4AM Mix” of Inner Life’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” features a nice instrumental verse at the beginning and various unique solos at the break, but I still prefer “The Garage Version.” Another favorite is Logg’s “(You’ve Got) That Something,” though the “After-Session” mix doesn’t strike me as all that different from the 12-inch version. “(Knock Out) Let’s Go Another Round” by Inner Life (Jocelyn Brown) is a sweet jam too.

A couple of these rare grooves are obscure for a reason. Julia & Company’s “Breakin’ Down (Sugar Samba)” is obnoxiously cheesy. Instant Funk’s electro “No Stoppin’ That Rockin’” seems very dated. Those tracks aside, however, this is an essential compilation for anyone interested in the history of house. Serious collectors will want it for the alternate mixes. On a loud, clear sound system these old tunes still pack a lot of punch.

This year I focused more effort on attending shows and conducting phone interviews than on writing reviews, but I still managed to cover most of my favorites. Look for even more exclusive content in 2010.

Albums

1. Hieroglyphic Being: So Much Noise 2 Be Heard (Mathematics)
2. VA: Ron Hardy: The Muzic Box Classics Collection (Partehardy)
3. Tevo Howard: Dreamer’s Reason Cafe (Beautiful Granville Records) digital
4. Moritz von Oswald Trio: Vertical Ascent (Honest Jon’s Records)
5. Black Jazz Consortium: Structure (Soulpeople Music)
6. Brock Van Wey: White Clouds Drift On and On (echospace [detroit])
7. Ron Trent: Dance Classic (Prescription)
8. Marcello Napoletano: The Space Voodoo (Mathematics)
9. Yagya: Rigning (Sending Orbs)
10. Intrusion: The Seduction Of Silence (echospace [detroit])

EPs

1. Tevo Howard: Everyday House Music (Beautiful Granville Records)
2. Patrice Scott: Excursions EP (Sistrum Recordings)
3. Bocca Grande: Intensive Spot EP (Four Roses Recordings)
4. Miles [Sagnia]: Introspective Soul EP (Atmospheric Existence Recordings)
5. Delano Smith: The Smith Hall Project (Undertones)
6. Theo Parrish: “Space Station” / “Going Through Changes” (Sound Signature)
7. Reggie Dokes: Spectacle of Deepness E.P. (We Play House Recordings)
8. Omar-S: “Still Serious Nic” (FXHE Records)
9. Black Jazz Consortium: Dark Points EP (Soul People Music) digital
10. Andrés: II (Mahogani Music)

Reissues

1. Anthony “Shake” Shakir: Frictionalism 1994-2009 (Rush Hour)
2. Ron Trent: 16 Years of Prescription Vol. 1: Dubplates and Poetry (Prescription)
3. VA: B12 Records Archive Volumes 3-7 (B12)
4. 3 Chairs: Spectrum (Three Chairs)
5. Da Posse: “It’s My Life” (Clone Classic Cuts)

Bocca Grande’s EP for Mathematics Recordings last year stood out with its unique piano solos, but the compositions were too reminiscent of show tunes for me. Yuka Kobayashi’s new record for Four Roses, however, really hits the spot, adding a much-needed dose of darkness. “Intensive Spot” combines eery piano runs with powerful bass and IDM-like beats. Weird voices and knocking noises evoke the image of a mad scientist locked away in a subterranean lab. “Overdose” chops up a piano solo measure by measure, cutting off mid-sustain to let the heavy beat pulse. The 3/4 time signature is occasionally broken by 4/4 before switching over completely. As if that weren’t enough, a robotic voice chimes in with refrains of “overdose” and “set me free.” It’s one of those rare pieces which is simultaneously melancholy and uplifting. Like all great music, this single defies easy categorization, but it seems like perfect home or iPod listening to me.

If you want to make a case for house originating in New York, these are the records to cite. While dub mixes were often an after-thought in the studio, they were club DJs’ bread and butter.

These early eighties tracks range from boogie to electro, but they’re all linked by judicious use of synthesizers and effects. Around the same time, Chicago producers were producing similar sounds on much lower budgets.

Exodus: Together Forever (Dub)

Charlotte Amalie, 1982

This rarity’s famous and much-sampled piano line was certainly a few years ahead of its time. It starts with a great a cappella too.

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Paul Simpson Connection: Use Me Lose Me (Reprise Me)

Streetwise, 1982

I was pleasantly surprised by this mix, especially since I’m not fond of the vocal version. After a lengthy piano solo and jazzy vibes, a fat bassline drops out of nowhere. Plus, the arrangement seems like a precursor to the famous Northend dub “Tee’s Happy.”

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Earl Young’s Trammps: What Happened to the Music (Dub Mix)

Philly Sound Works, 1983

Paul Simpson produced this reverb-happy mix, breaking down Vincent Montana, Jr.’s heavily orchestrated arrangement and turning it decidedly late-night.

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Fresh Band: Come Back Lover (Dub Mix)

Are ‘n Be Records, 1984

While the vocal is pretty catchy, this dub mix is over nine minutes of boogie groove. The horns are reminiscent of Leroy Burgess productions.

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Chocolette: It’s That East Street Beat (Dub)

Supertronics, 1985

From the dream team of Boyd Jarvis and Timmy Regisford, this mix is sparse and deep. The drum machine patterns echo what Trax artists were doing around the same time.

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Interboro Rhythm Team: Watch The Closing Doors (Dub Version)

RCA Victor, 1982

Moving into electro territory, John Morales & Sergio Munzibai (aka M&M Productions) produced this tune from bubbling synthesizer arpeggios and copious handclaps. It all seems heavily inspired by Cat Stevens’s “Was Dog a Doughnut” (believe it or not).

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John Rocca: I Want It to Be Real (Instrumental)

Streetwise, 1984

Arthur Baker mixed this single for Freeez’s John Rocca. The synth line is excellent, though the sampled vocals sound a bit dated. Note the similarities with J.M. Silk’s “Music Is the Key.”

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Solo: Dub Girls (Ah-Ah-Hi)

Next Plateau Records, 1984

A somewhat mysterious production by Mark Berry, “Girls, Girls” was a Ron Hardy favorite. The dub is out-of-control!

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Junie Morrison: Tease Me (Dub)

Island Records, 1984

It’s another Arthur Baker remix, this time for The Ohio Players’ former singer/keyboardist. Sometimes a solid breakin’ beat made for great jackin’ as well.

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Tony Cook & The Party People: On the Floor

Half Moon Records, 1984

I saved the best for last. Boyd Jarvis and Timmy Regisford combined Thriller-style narration over Alessandro Novaga-alike beats. The result sounds like it was made in someone’s basement. The version to find is over nine minutes long. It’s the B-side on US copies, the “Special DJ Master Mix” on UK ones, or “Instr.” (with a mis-labeled time) on Netherlands ones. Frankie Knuckles used to spin this, and you can hear how it must have fit in with early Chicago productions. “Don’t stop us. We’re not all from the Planet Rock….”

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