While the infamous Eric B. and Rakim statement, "It ain't where you're from it's where you're at", is artfully sound advice, from a DJ perspective an appreciative sense of history is also important, as it translates to versatility and range in storytelling on the ones and twos.  Much of the time, it seems like the only DJs who rock oldschool tracks in their sets these days are oldschool DJs.  Some of this may be chalked up to society's seemingly insatiable fixation with all things new and shiny, combined with today's ease of obtaining the latest and greatest with just a simple mouse click - while the other part is often due to newer DJs simply not knowing where to look for said back-in-the-day gems.  Slice it any way you like - good music is good music, and classic wax dropped into a set at the right time can fire up the dancefloor just as easily as this week's top release - sometimes moreso when there's a mixed crowd of both younger and older partiers in attendance.

Over the next several weeks, we'll be delving into early Chicago House, eschewing the usual suspects (Housemaster Boyz "House Nation", Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body") for lesser known tracks that still stand the test of time...





Released in 1986, and produced by Chicago House Music legend Ron Hardy, this piano-and-strings driven pumper begins with the declaration, "I'm never gonna let you go!".  This, and the many subsequent self-assured exclamations ("Nobody knows what I know, I've got ahold of your soul!") may be taken in the context of a relationship between two people, but can also be heard as a soulful expression of the night-long bond between the DJ and the dancefloor.  The grouping of vocalist Curtis McClean, Marshall Jefferson and Rudyard Forbes only produced a handful of tracks (including the seminal "Move Your Body") - out of these, "Pleasure Control" stands out as a truly unique effort.

A little note about mixing classic Chicago House:

One thing to remember when playing oldschool Chicago House tracks is that they were produced with purely analogue gear, which means that sometimes the sequencing can be a bit skewed.  Translated, often the end result is that when a track drops back in after something like a drum breakdown, the timing can be a bit off.  This is why it's so very important to KNOW YOUR MUSIC - avoiding embarrassment when a seemingly locked-up mix suddenly goes awry because the bass kick dropped in a few milliseconds too early or too late.

This picture, of this guy, wearing that shirt, has been making the rounds on the 'Net for some time now.  For those not in the know, Electronic Dance Music (or "music", as some would prefer to call it) is subject to the same sub-sub-sub division that every genre falls prey to.  In the same way that Jazz fragments off into Big-Band, Vocal, Bop, Free, Cool and Fusion - to name a few - the original Dance Music Three* of House, Techno and Electro have been sliced, diced and mashed up to the point where it's getting difficult to tell what's what anymore.  Ishkur's Guide does a pretty decent (and quite often tongue-in-cheek) job of exploring and explaining the various styles, many of which amount to not much more than someone's savvy marketing ploy or media-coined catchphrases that usually tend to elicit quizzical stares, even from those producers/DJs who somehow end up associated with said faux-genres.

These days, the big word in Techno is "minimal" - so minimal that capital letters aren't allowed in its spelling.  It's actually been this way for several years, and sometimes seems to be the only form of Techno that exists in Toronto anymore.  Every DJ out there, as well as their aunties and uncles, plays "minimal Techno".  And that's all they seem to play.  No Detroit, no Chicago , no Electro, no Acid, no Tribal - just "minimal".

The strangest part is that a lot of this "minimal Techno" actually resembles House music.  Pitched-and-stripped down, effects-soaked House music that sounds great when used selectively over the course of a full set, but  when played for hour after minimal hour, prompts people like our gent in the photo to wear pink t-shirts stating the obvious.

There's room for everyone, but bandwagoning is for the fickle.  More Techno DJs in Toronto who can shift the tempo +/- 15 BPM over the course of several hours and/or who make us want to dance like this:



Please.

(* For the sake of simplicity we've excluded the almighty and most revered Hip-Hop in our little rant - no offense intended, seen?)

Last Tuesday was the first episode of our weekly glimpse into the lesser known corners of Classic Chicago House.  We hope to ignite some fond memories in our Oldschool readers and pique the interest of younger DJs, some of whom might not have even been born when these tracks were first released.  With that in mind, it's on to Week 2...

Like many artists of the era, Farm Boy, a.k.a. Dean Anderson, wasn't exactly what one would term a prolific producer.  Many of Chicago's early House pioneers released only a handful of singles, taking the dancefloor by storm one minute, rarely or never to be heard from again the next.  Anderson may be better known for his Boris Badenough moniker and the "Hey Rocky!" single that accompanied it, which liberally sampled - you guessed it - The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but it's this 1986 Trax Records release that moved past the novelty factor and warrants praise nearly twenty-five years after its issue.

"Jackin' Me Around" features all the best elements of the genre, expertly produced and tightly packed into a fierce, funked out number, with a fat, dirty bassline, synth stabs that strike at all the right moments, and of course the titular sample, weaved in and throughout the song to remind the party people about what House music really stands for.

We could only locate the Dub version of this track on Youtube, but we highly recommend giving the "House Mix" a listen if you can find it, which adds Erin Woods' reverb-washed monologue and lends further explanation to the song's title.

We can readily admit to our snail-like pace when it comes to utilising today's social networking tools, but we've finally taken the plunge and created a Facebook page for WestsideWax DJ School.  There may be some cross-over of material being posted on Facebook and the FU blog, but the Facebook page is primarily for use of students of the school and for those inquiring about DJ lessons.

The school is doing quite well, with most students signing up for 5 and 10-block sessions, and several of our budding DJs have either purchased or are currently shopping around for their first setup!

Speaking of shopping around, how do you like our latest acquisition?



What you're looking at is a custom-made, modular, raw steel DJ booth - this unit holds two Technics 1200s and a mixer, has plenty of shelf room for vinyl, weighs a ton, and is destined for permanent install out on our back deck.  Previously, we were using the large table for our summer patio parties, but moving it was always such a tiresome job - disassembling, then hauling it outside and reassembling it each and every time...  $150 later (including delivery!), et voilà - problem solved!  Thanks to Dan, a.k.a. DJ Zirca for hooking us up!

We love it when we make new connections with people who seem to be on the same page as us when it comes to enlivening Toronto's electronic music scene.  Toronto's BassTeasers Digital is an amalgamation of  DJs and producers representing a variety of genres, including Techno, Electro, Breaks and Hard Trance.  Proudly waving the Canuck flag (check the "Canadian Electronic Music" tagline underneath their logo), this crew covers all the bases - local gigs, a digital record label and an online radio show, broadcast twice monthly.

We're particularly enamoured of tracks by Kink ("Ultra Chunkula") and KloneZ ("CrayZeh"), which may be accessed via the DJDownload player on their front page.  Filled with raw, chunky, stuttering and distended goodness, these are surefire dancefloor killers.

We're very much looking forward to witnessing the BassTeasers' musical evolution, and anticipate much attention for this burgeoning crew.  With a fresh design for the website and upcoming gigs for 2009 in the works, you can definitely expect to hear more from these lads in the near future.

The FU Chi-town time machine is now in its third week of rifling through a selection of stellar tunes that first graced airwaves and nightclub soundsystems back in the mid to late 1980s.  Last week we checked in with Dean Anderson, who released all of three tracks, each under a different moniker.  This time around, we visit one of the true giants of Chicago's early days...




Known for his own pioneering efforts, as well as a seemingly infinite list of remixes that reads like a who's-who of dance music, Steve "Silk" Hurley brings the feelgood Disco vibe on this New York Mix of Risse's "House Train".   Featuring a train-leaving-the-station intro, complete with whistle sample and a chugging bassline, and slick vocals by Charisse "Risse" Cobb perfectly complementing Hurley's trademark smoothness, "House Train" is an example of lyrical Chicago at its finest.