I can’t claim to have been there at the dawn of House music, being nowhere near Chicago or New York at the time. But four years of college in Boston, starting in 1985, gave me a front row seat for the genre’s breakout into the underground. The transmission vector was a cohort of New York students, a few of whom had pretentions to deejaying. They obviously brought a lot of fresh Hip-Hop back to campus, but they also mixed in this new higher tempo stuff from Chicago.
Thinking back to those days, and my own delusions of spinning records, I remembered a handful of tracks that were often played at campus events or late night on the college radio mix shows. I eventually got all of these records on vinyl, but by chance looked to see if there were MP3 versions for sale. I wasn’t holding out much hope, but was pleasantly surprised to find the following:
-
Serious Intention, You Don’t Know, Easy Street Records 1984. A little slower than the typical House track, but the synth lines are to die for. The swirling breakdown is legendary.
-
Cultural Vibe, Ma Foom Bey, Easy Street Records 1986. Similar to You Don’t Know, Ma Foom Bey has great synth lines. The chunky organ sound is the hallmark of this track. Also, probably one of the earliest tracks to incorporate African chanting.
-
Nitro Deluxe, Let’s Get Brutal, Cutting Records 1986. If Phuture’s Acid Tracks is the first Acid House record, then 1986’s Let’s Get Brutal is definitely a precursor. The ultra-minimalist 14 minute version, The Brutal House, is sans Roland TB-303 tweakiness, but definitely comes from the same spare, trancy mentality.
-
Strafe, Set It Off, Jus Born Records 1984. This is a little more up tempo and arguably more Electro than House. But I note it here for the emphasized head-cutting hi-hat. Hey, if Walter Gibbons mixed it and Larry Levan threw it down on the decks, that’s close enough for me.
I found the first three on the Amazon MP3 music store. Apparently, a lot of the Easy Street Records catalog recently came available. Set It Off I found on the iTunes Music Store.
Best of all, these four tracks date pretty well. I think House DJ of today worth their salt wouldn’t be embarrassed to throw any of these tracks into the mix right now. Might even be a badge of honor.