Capricorn - I Need Love

Capricorn were an Italo Disco outfit fronted by Claudio Simonetti who scored a minor hit in US clubs in 1980 with a song also called Capricorn.  The single here, from 1982, however was a full on smash hit in Chicago.  It was originally released on Biba Records but, like so many imports from this period, it also showed up on several other labels simultaneously including Italy’s Delerium Records as well as the classic New York dance label, Emergency Records.

As is typical of the genre, I Need Love is structurally a very simple tune but it’s signature bassline makes it exceptionally funky compared to much of the more futuristic sounding tracks coming from Italy during this time.   Its distinctive shuffling hi-hat intro and incredibly aggressive snare was a favorite for early beat juggling.  The instrumental to this song remained popular with house DJ’s well into the late 80’s even after other Italo songs fell out of rotation as more music began to get produced locally.  Today, I Need Love remains one of the more sought after tracks from this era. Prior to being re-released a few years ago, this single regularly fetched up to $100 on eBay.

I’ve always thought of Claudio Simonetti as something like the Quincy Jones of Italian Disco.  His name pops up on tons of releases from the early and mid eighties either as writer, producer, or arranger.  He was responsible for a slew of singles under his own name as well as with his other projects Kasso, Crazy Gang, and Easy Going.  Many of these singles (like One More Round, Walkman, and I Love the Piano) were also big on the Chicago scene.

Much later I found out that Claudio Simonetti was also a founding member of the Italian prog-rock supergroup Goblin.  Formed in 1972, this group are most famous for their film scores including many for Italian horror auteur Dario Argento and for George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.  Small world.

Track List

Side A
I Need Love

Side B
I Need Love (Instrumental)

Side A&B

Kenny "Jammin" Jason - Jam Tracks

DJ 891
Jesse Saunders pioneered the tradition of DJ’s pressing and releasing their self-made beat tracks with the B-side to On and On. Within a year or two, most of the major radio jocks and quite a few club DJ’s followed suit with varying degrees of success. Probably the most widely played was Farley “Funkin” Keith’s Funkin With The Drums and Funkin With The Drums Again. The latter was released after he’d changed his name to Farley Jackmaster Funk. The record here was not quite as influential. It was made by Kenny “Jammin” Jason, another founding member of the pioneering DJ collective known as the Hot Mix 5 who presided over the airwaves every weekend on legendary station WBMX.

The influence and effect of the Hot Mix 5 (Farley, Jason, Mickey “Mixin” Oliver, Ralphi “Rockin” Rosario, and Scott “Smokin” Silz) probably cannot be overstated in terms of spreading House Music throughout Chicago. Remember that although in many ways House began as an underground movement, ‘BMX ensured it didn’t stay underground for long. House music began as music played in clubs that were primarily Black and gay but the Hot Mix 5 consisted of a straight Black man (Farley), three straight White men (Silz, Oliver, and Jason), and one gay Latino high-schooler (Rosario),. Pretty soon it wasn't just club kids and party-goers who listened to this music. EVERYONE did. Well at least everyone under a certain age did. It didn’t matter if you never set foot in a club, you could hear this music everywhere thanks to Chicago radio. I won’t go any further into the history and influence of the Hot Mix 5 and how they came to dominate the radio. There is a very good write up of their history here.

Kenny Jason remained a popular radio DJ for years even after leaving WBMX. He dabbled a little in music production too as evidenced by this record and several others for which he has producing credit. The six tracks here are classically unadorned 808 patterns. Personally, I’ve always felt they were a little all over the place and a bit busy sounding to really hold a groove (or a dance floor) on their own but were certainly useful to layer under other tracks to give them that “Jack” sound. I think the strongest tracks here are Jam Track and No Water Needed although obviously the last track has the best title.

Track List

Side A
Jam Track
Jammin The Snare
Jackin The Tracks

Side B
Clap Crazy
No Water Needed
The Shit

side A&B

As a bonus I’m also including a Kenny Jason mix recorded from WBMX sometime in 1984. It’s an interesting mix because you can hear Jason trying out music production as he plays keyboard over a few of the tracks. I don’t think it works very well and actually would probably enjoy the mix more without his intrusions but it’s an interesting historical relic nonetheless and there are definitely some bangin tracks in the mix. 

KJ-WBMX1984 
Track List
Telex – Brainwash
Doctor’s Cat – Feel The Drive
Stephanie Mills – Pilot Error
Shannon – Let The Music Play
Two Sisters – High Noon
Wide Boy Awake – Slang Teacher
New Order – Confusion
Freeez – I.O.U.
Gary’s Gang – Makin Music
RIS – Love N Music
Stopp – I’m Hungry

 

Chip E. - Like This

DJ890
A few different Chicago singles have been cited as the “first” house record. All of the top contenders for this title are associated with Jesse Saunders. There’s Single Girl by Knight Action, two separate Z-Factor songs, Fantasy and I Like to Do It In Fast Cars as well as Jesse Saunders’ own On and On. There’s a case to be made for all of these but in each case it is only in retrospect that these records are considered “House Music”. Without a doubt the first record that consciously called itself House was the 1985 Jack Trax EP by Chip E. This release included the legendary Time to Jack as well as another tune called simply It’s House.

It makes sense that Chip E. would be the first use the word House on record. At the time he was working at the influential record store, Importes Etc. in Chicago’s South Loop. Most dance music historians agree that the term House music was solidified here when employees, in an effort to help customers find the songs they had been hearing, began labeling music played by Frankie Knuckles at his club the Warehouse with the tag “As heard at the Warehouse”. This label was soon shortened to simply “House”. By 1985 the term began to describe all of the local music scene and a new genre was born.

Like This was Chip E.’s second release and it firmly established him as one of the city’s top producers. It is a perfect example of the early house sound with its prominent bassline, thumping 808, and stuttering vocal samples.  (In a 2010 interview, Chip E. revealed that the "like this" sample is actually Frankie Knuckles' voice)  Like This was also one of the first releases from Rocky Jones’ DJ International label. Along with Trax, this imprint became synonymous with the early sound of Chicago House.

Songwriting credit here is given to Chip E. and Kim Salter (the vocalist also known as K/Joy) but further down on the label, credit is also given to J.M. Silk (aka Steve “Silk” Hurley).  The label shown here is actually the less common variant with Chip E.'s name displayed prominently. Most copies showed K Joy as the artist. Both versions share the same catalog number.  Later re-releases changed the artist line to Chip E. feat. K Joy.

Track List

Side A
House Mix

Side B
Radio
DDD Dub

side A&B

Gazuzu - Go Go Gorilla

MS 89
Another fun bit of Italo goodness today although this time the record is actually a Dutch import.  For the purposes of this blog I’m categorizing all these European records as Italo regardless of their true country of origin.  I hope this doesn’t offend any purists.

In previous posts I’ve mentioned some of the common musical traits that Italian (European) singles from the early 80’s had that wound up becoming staples of the House sound.  This song perfectly exemplifies another common trait many of these songs shared that didn’t necessarily carry over to domestic House: It is INSANELY HAPPY!!  The bright, piercing synth leads, over-the-top drum fills, and party-style background vocals combine to create the musical equivalent of a sunny day at the beach …with ice cream …and a circus.

And it's not just the music that makes this song happy.  There's actual giggling in the background at certain points in the vocal version.  Like with a lot of Italo songs, it’s hard for me to catch all of the lyrics but I can definitely pick out something about “Leo Lion and Jake the Rattlesnake keep on funkin” and "the Tiger and the Elephant, you know they have big fun”.  Even the cover playfully replaces the High Fashion Music label’s usual “Disco Benelux” tagline with “Disco Banana”.

Silly as it is, this song was a pretty big hit in Chicago especially among radio jocks like Mickey "Mixin" Oliver.  Gazuzu scored another hit about a year later with Aruba that even more explicitly brings to mind sunny days. The duo Adams & Fleisner behind this group had their hands in a lot of music coming from the Netherlands at this time.  Their names are on releases from Gazuzu, X-Ray Connection, Digital Emotion, and Blanc De Blanc (to name a few) as well as a number of early popular DJ Tools-type records like Mix Your Own Stars.  Many of their songs were also released on several different labels.

BTW - For those of you interested in tracking the early development of House music tropes, check out the series of proto- bass drops that happen around 3’30” on the vocal version.

Track List

Side A
Go Go Gorilla (vocal version)

Side B
Go Go Gorilla (instr. version)
Go Go Gorilla (bonus track)

Side 1&2

Doctor's Cat - Feel The Drive

ART 1016
I miss hearing this song on the radio.  Feel the Drive was all over Chicago when it came out and this record was the first import I ever bought. To me, in 1983, this music really sounded like the future.  Finding out that the song was from Italy only made sense to me at the time.  Americans for the most part weren’t making music like this and wouldn’t be for a few more years at least.  Italian (and Dutch) imports really set the stage for the development of House music in Chicago.

Imports like these were the some of the first examples of all-electronic music that I had ever heard.  American dance music at this time had synths and electronic drums but they still tended to include guitar and bass (Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambatta were execptions).  Italo didn’t use synthesizers to emulate real instruments; it used them on their own terms for their own reasons.   It’s interesting to note that, at least in Chicago, Italian and Dutch imports were at their height of popularity around 1983-1985.  Once local producers started making music like this, demand for European labels fell off (except for labels like Rams Horn that pressed re-releases of older American Disco).

Feel the Drive is pretty typical of the Italo songs that got heavy rotation in Chicago.  Hypnotic bassline, conga driven drums, and female vocals singing pretty much nonsense lyrics.  In a lot of cases the instrumental versions of these tracks got more play but not in this case.  Feel the Drive’s vocal version got equal airtime.  About a year or so later, Doctor’s Cat scored another Chicago hit with Watch Out.  I have no idea if these songs or the group Doctor’s Cat were big elsewhere.  The only Americans I’ve met who know the group are from Chicago.  Same goes for a lot of the big Italo hits of the time.  I’ve often wondered how it was that some tracks became such huge hits in this city.  Did a couple of DJ’s have a good connection to Italian labels like il disc 8 and Memory Records?  Was it driven more by the buyers from the big retail players (Importes, Etc., Rose Records)?  I was too young to know but I did know that this music was the shit.

Track List

Side A
Feel The Drive (Vocal)

Side B
Feel The Drive (Instrumental)

Side A&B

Montana Sextet - Heavy Vibes

PSW 10482
Vince Montana was old school even back in Disco’s heyday.  Born in 1928 in south Philadelphia, he began playing vibes and other percussion at an early age and at sixteen was playing in local jazz clubs reportedly sharing stages with the likes of Charlie “Bird” Parker and Sarah Vaughn.  By the early sixties, Montana was an established and sought after session player who recorded with scores if not hundreds of artists.  None of this really matters to the House fan.  What matters is that Vincent Montana ended up at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, the headquarters of superstar writing team Gamble and Huff and home of the “Philly Sound”. 

It was here that Montana helped form the basis of what would become known as Disco.  He was part of the pool of studio musicians at Sigma who were known collectively as MFSB.  This ensemble provided the backing for many hit acts including Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The O’Jays, The Spinners, and The Stylistics to name a few.  In 1974, under their own name, MFSB recorded T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia) which became a number 1 hit and the long running theme song for the influential musical television series Soul Train.

Eventually differences with Gamble and Huff led much of the group to relocate to Salsoul Records and form the Salsoul Orchestra.  Much like MFSB, this group recorded backing tracks as the house band for the label in addition to recording under their own name.  Many hits produced by both MFSB and The Salsoul Orchestra carried over into the House era in Chicago, most notably, Love is the Message.  This song was a hit for MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra produced a similar song with vocals called Ooh I Love It.  Both versions (actually many different versions with varied titles eventually appeared) were staples in early House sets.  The Salsoul version was sampled by Madonna for her 1990 hit Vogue.

Vince Montana continued recording with the Salsoul Orchestra while also branching out on his own.  Under the name Montana  as well as the Montana Sextet, he had his own success on dance music scene.  Heavy Vibes is probably his best known perhaps because it shares some musical similarities with Love is the Message/Ooh I Love it.  This version (on Montana’s own Philly Sound Works label) also includes the novelty song No Football No More which places tongue in cheek lyrics about the 1982 NFL players strike over an edited version of Heavy Vibes.

 
Track List

Side A
Heavy Vibes
No Football No More

Side B
Heavy Vibes (Club Mix) 

Side A&B 

Fingers, Inc. - It's Over

UN - 110

A perfect example of how the last post’s song wound up all over early Chicago house is this track by Fingers Inc.  Although the prominent bassline and keyboard riff were taken directly from the First Choice original, this song is not simply influenced by Let No Man Put Asunder nor is it a cover version.  It’s more of an “answer song” directed at the woman in the original song.  Answer songs (extremely popular in the 60’s) had a brief resurgence in underground music in the mid eighties beginning with the Roxanne Wars in NY Hip Hop which began in 1984.  This song was released in 1985 but like many Chicago releases of this period, it had a lot of play in clubs long prior to ever being pressed.

Fingers Inc. was a loose group of artists typically including Robert Owens or Ron Wilson but centered around keyboardist/producer Larry Heard.  The vocalist here is Robert Owens who was responsible for several other big hits from the period including Bring Down the Walls and I’ll Be Your Friend.  He recorded under his own name as well as with various groups.

Likewise, Larry Heard’s prolific output was released under a variety of names: Fingers Inc., Mr. Fingers, Fingers, The It, and even simply Larry Heard.  As time went on Larry’s “Fingers” persona produced more and more instrumental music but much of his early stuff is like this record with soulful male vocals and production focused on melody in contrast to other artists’ tracks of the time focused on rhythm.  That’s not to say he didn’t know how to produce a great beat!  While Heard was certainly capable of rocking the house (the acid-influenced Washing Machine was HUGE as was Mystery of Love), he was probably better known for his ethereal and hypnotic synth arrangements (Beyond the Clouds, What About This Love).  The It's-Over versions on this record's B-side give a hint of the densely layered and soulful synths that would become Larry Heard's trademark in time.

Larry Heard was a frequent collaborator and produced tracks for artists on almost every Chicago label.  Unlike many of his contemporaries from the mid-eighties Chicago House scene, Larry Heard continued to produce and release music on a consistent basis into the new century.   His output has slowed since 2005 but he continues to pop up and his tracks continue to make it onto playlists.

Track List
Side A
It's Over (Dub)
It's Over

Side B
All-Over
All-Over (Accapella)
All-Over (Dub)

Side A&B