Edits of these pieces first appeared in Faith Fanzine’s Chicago special, AUTUMN / WINTER ’22/23

Super selections and wonderful words by Balearic Mike.

After 1989 I think it’s fair to say that Chicago was no longer leading the way as far as house music was concerned. The city was still producing lots of great records, but New York, Detroit, and even those pesky Europeans, were all now making “hot” house. Even here, in the UK, we went through a few years of mind-boggling creativity. However, by 1993 a new generation of Chicago producers and DJs unleashed a tsunami of killer house tracks. Here are some of my favourites:

Gemini – Imagine A Nation – Relief Records 1994

One of the most important labels in the mid-90s resurgence of Chicago house, the vanguard, was Relief Records. A subsidiary of Cajual Records, Relief was founded by Curtis Alan Jones, a.k.a. Cajmere, initially as an outlet for his slightly more deranged alter-ego, Green Velvet, as then, other, tougher musical offerings from this new breed of Chicago producers.

This second wave of music from Chicago found a spiritual home from home in Manchester, at a dark satanic mill, in Ancoats – a part of town which, would have appeared on ancient seafaring maps with the warning words, ‘hear be monsters’. The club in question, Sankey Soap, literally on the site of the old Beehive Mill, was host to the now legendary Bugged Out parties. The resident DJs at these infamous affairs were my Vinyl Exchange colleagues, James “Begin” Holroyd, and Rob Bright. It’s to these two incredible DJs that I owe my introduction to so many records that I might have otherwise missed, including Gemini’s Imagine A Nation. 

Released in 1994, just as Bugged Out was becoming a weekly club night, this track slipped past me when Eastern Bloc initially stocked it. It wasn’t until later in the year that I heard either James or Rob play it early doors, which is why I haven’t got the fancy-coloured vinyl first pressing. Mr. Bright summed up the song perfectly, by saying “It’s the only Balearic record on Relief.” While Relief is a most excellent record label, it’s not renowned for its Balearic sensibilities. It’s better known for a distinctive brand of tough, jackin’, tracky-as-fuck, house music, with a large dollop of acid on the side. Imagine A Nation, however, is a sublime slice of space-age funk. A big, rubbery, thumb-plucked bass-line, that Mark King of Level 42 would have been proud of, is driven along by a drum pattern with so much swing that it often doesn’t sound like the 4-to-the-floor beat that it actually it is. Over the top we have a wonderful wobbling synth squiggle, gentle chords, and a sublime spoken vocal. It really sounds like nothing else I can think of. Such a beautiful and unique record.

Ah! The 90s! Massive excess! New lads and ladettes! Loaded magazine and Jockey Slut! The decline amid the corruption and sleaze of the Tory party! The rise of New Labour! Brit pop! Blur Vs Oasis! The Spice Girls! Trainspotting! Tarantino and Pulp Fiction! That prat Chris Evans (how was he ever popular?)! Euro ’96!

Glenn Underground / DJ Sneak – Midnight Love / Ezekiel 25-17 – Cajual / Leg (White Label) 1995

Distributed by Cajual Records, but without a Cajual catalogue number, both of these tracks were absolutely fucking massive in 95-96. Over a driving, hypnotic, jackin’-as-fuck house rhythm, DJ Sneak overlays the Samuel L. Jackson “Ezekiel 25-17” speech from Pulp Fiction. However, as zeitgeisty as it was, this, now, dates the track really badly. On the other side though, Glenn Underground turns in an absolute, timeless, stonker, brilliantly, and intensely, mashing together two classic Giorgio Moroder productions, The Chase – theme from the movie, Midnight Express – and the Donna Summer classic, I Feel Love. I’ve always called this tune “Midnight Love”, but I’ve no idea if that’s what it’s actually called. 

The intro sees a series of cuts and edits that has your head spinning. It’s more like a hip hop DJ scratching than anything you normally hear in house – all over a nice solid Chicago beat. Augmented with occasional cowbell to give it that electronic Euro-disco vibe. In short, it’s the ultimate sound clash / mash-up, years before 2 Many DJs and Radio Soulwax, and that whole mash-up culture took off with the emergence of the technology that enabled it. The scarcity of this 12 meant that there have been several bootlegs of it over the years, and although it’s now 27 years old (bloody hell!), it still sounds like it would take the roof off most musically discerning dancefloors. If they have a roof that is. Not at Barbarella’s in Tisno then, obviously.

Chris & Derrick – Am (The Metamorph (Intent Re-Interpreted)) – Organico (The Green Label) 1995

Chris and Derrick are, of course, Chris Nazuka and recording partner Derrick Carter, one of the finest DJs to emerge from Chicago’s house scene. I discovered Derrick’s production work in 1993. I’d bought a Dubtribe record, called Mother Earth, on a Chicago label called Organico. It was the first I’d heard of either the artist or imprint, but the track, a bit of break-beat driven house, with a Rasta toasting on it, would be one of my biggest records for years, and go on to have a huge influence on artists like The Chemical Bothers. I checked out a few other things on the label, which brought me to Derrick’s releases under the name, Sound Patrol. These records were great – a kind of wonky house, with swinging and bumping drums. A style that would later be referred to as ‘boompty’. Very musical, with an intense funkiness to them. I would check every release on sight.

Derrick then visited the UK. I was lucky enough to catch him live a couple of times. He was simply phenomenal! I don’t think the UK was quite prepared for how good this new Chicago kid was going to be. Jaws were hitting floors on a regular basis. At Bugged Out, I remember him doing a live remix of Prince’s When Doves Cry, by layering a Roger Sanchez dub underneath it. However, the comment that always sticks with me came from Back To Basics resident and Eastern Bloc counter jockey Huggy. Witnessing Derrick live at Basics, he turned to me and in his broad Yorkshire accent said: “Fucks sake! He makes me want to put ‘L’ plates on me record box!” I could only nod in agreement.

It turned out that I’d owned a Derrick Carter track for years and not noticed. Alongside Mark Farina and Chris Nazuka, he’d released the fabulous Mood, as part of Symbols and Instruments, on KMS Records, back in 1989. He’d also released what to this day is one of my all-time favourite house records in `94, the incredibly beautiful, Tripping Amongst The Stars – which I’ve written about before. However, for this piece I wanted to dig a little deeper and pull something off the shelves you might not have heard before. Am was released in 1995 and became an instant personal favourite. It has an incredibly Balearic feel to it, as it chugs, shuffles, and grooves along at about 116 BPM. It has a gorgeous, light, uplifting vibe, and it becomes all the more Balearic due to its gratuitous use of the same Jesse Jackson  / Wattstax speech that Andrew Weatherall used on his remix of Primal Scream’s Come Together. I think of it as a sort of house version of Come Together, and it was a staple of my sets, particularly while warming up the main room at Home in Ducie House as part of the LuvDup residency on Saturday nights. It still sounds great today – funky and weird, and totally timeless.

After years of not hearing much from Derrick Carter, in 2011 I was lucky enough to catch his ‘Derrick Does Disco” set on my first trip to DJ at the Electric Elephant Festival in Croatia. He played masterfully, taking in disco in its broadest sense, and creating the kind of set which must have been at the roots of house music’s evolution. I spent the entire duration dancing like a tit in a paddling pool with a great bunch of people from Glasgow. Happy days.

(Sorry, this doesn’t seem to be on Youtube – Rob)

Cajmere – Feelin’ / Electric / Eighties – Cajual / Live 1998

Cajmere, a.k.a. Curtis Jones, a.k.a. Green Velvet, is one of the most important figures in the second wave of Chicago house music. As founder of first Cajual Records, and then Relief Records, his imprints released sides from the majority of Chicago house and techno producers during the 90s. Everyone on the scene, from Derrick Carter, who worked for the labels, to Glen Underground, DJ Sneak, Boo Williams, Gemini, Paul Johnson, and a host of others have released their music on one of his labels. Usually Cajmere records came out on Cajual, and the darker, harder tracks he made as Green Velvet would be issued on Relief. However, on this release, on a short-lived subsidiary of Cajual called Live, we find Mr Jones somewhere between these two aliases. Tougher than his usual Cajual sides, but not quite as bat-shit crazy as the Green Velvet stuff, although, he comes pretty close on Electric – a dark, nasty slice of funk, with an aggressive electric guitar part. Eighties is somewhere between Sheffield ‘Bleep’ and Chicago ‘Acid’, a totally off-its-nut, hypnotic, face-melter of track. It’s the A-side, Feelin`, though, that I’ve played so many times over the years. It’s sparse, minimal house groove is augmented with a great throbbing bassline, a few minor keyboard stabs, and then the genius sample which makes the track fly. Grace Jones repeats “Feeling like a woman, looking like a man …”, from her version of the classic Flash & The Pan song, Walking In The Rain. And that’s it. It’s so simple, and yet so perfect, proudly declaring house music’s black and gay roots from every groove, which is why it still sounds incredibly contemporary today, almost 25 years after it was released. My only criticism is that it’s far too short at only 5 minutes. I need 2 copies!

For more from Balearic Mike you can find him on both Facebook and Instagram – @balearicmike. 

Mike has a Mixcloud page packed with magnificent, magical, music, and you can catch him live on 1BTN, from 12 noon until 2 (UK time) every 1st and 3rd Friday.

You can also check out the super silk screen prints of “Balearic Wife” over at @jo_lambert_print