My girlfriend was recently tipped off by colleague about a couple of great op-shops
over in Miramar, so based on today’s clement weather, we decided to go for a
long walk over to the Miramar Peninsular for a spot of thrifting and lunch at
the legendary Chocolate Fish Café.
Last night, I’d been re-reading the fantastic DJ history
book, “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” by Bill
Brewster and Frank Broughton
and had just got to the section on the birth of the House scene in Chicago,
with reference to such pioneers as Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Steve ‘Silk’
Hurley and Marshall Jefferson.
So, on arrival at
the Salvation Army shop in Miramar, I have a rifle through the LP’s and lo and
behold, there’s a load of Neil Diamond, Mantovani and Classical LP’s like every
other op shop in the world.
There was however
what looked like an eighties soul LP (from 1988 on further inspection) the
wrong way round in the stack, with a trio of fairly awesomely dressed chaps on
it:
On scanning the
tracklist and rear cover credits, I was pretty surprised to learn that it was
produced by none other than Marshall Jefferson.
I read the inner
sleeve thanks list when we got home and found shout-outs to basically the
entire eighties US House music aristocracy (Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Farley
‘Jackmaster’ Funk, Tony Humphries, The Hot Mix 5, L’il Louis and Steve ‘Silk’
Hurley, who mixes some of the tracks on the LP) and early instigators from the
UK (Jazzy M, Kiss FM and Blackmarket Records).
On playing the
LP, the opening track ‘That’s The Way Love Is’ (Underground Mix) was
immediately familiar (though I’ve found out it was actually re-recorded by Ten
City vocalist Byron Stingily in 1999 and released on Defected) and the
remainder of the record is really listenable crossover of vocal R&B/deep
house.
In particular,
the track ‘Suspicious’ (which itself sounds like a Marshall Jefferson deep
house tune with Stingily singing over the top) is a bit of a corker and will be
making an appearance on a mixtape I’m making for a friend in the not too
distant future.
All in all, the
edges of the sleeve inner are worn, but the cover and vinyl are in good nick
and it’s a steal for $2.00.
I think it makes
a good companion piece (showing the growing sophistication of House as a genre)
to my V/A “The House Sound Of Chicago” DJ International LP from 1986, which
features many of the same artists that Ten City thank on their sleeve; Steve
‘Silk’ Hurley, Fingers Inc., Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk (with the awesome ‘Love
Can’t Turn Around’ Feat. Darryl Pandy) and Ten City’s producer – Marshall
Jefferson.
The compilation
is considered to be pretty seminal as the way in which many UK listeners first
heard the new “House Sound” that was coming out of Chicago at the time.
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