Posted by Budgie at July 5, 2005 01:07 PM

Time Marches On...

It was inevitable that at some point on The Pipe I would put up some old Chicago House tracks. That scene and sound amazed and influenced my tastes in music as a teenager and to this day it still continues to do so. It was also inevitable that at somepoint a Marshall Jefferson production would appear. In looking out some tracks of his for The Pipe, I ended up being spoiled for choice. So the rest of this weeks posts are dedicated to him and should hopefully cover all the bases with his involvment in that scenes history and its many mutations.

I don't intend to bore you with the History of House Music - if you're interested and want to read a couple of good indepth articles about it then you can do so HERE and HERE - but below is a short potted histroy of the sound.

Born out of Disco, House got it's name from the Warehouse Club in Chicago. The resident DJ there, Frankie Knuckles, used to spin Disco classics and old Philly Soul tracks mixed in with New Wave and Eurobeat tracks from this side of the Atlantic. People who loved the sounds were constantly asking a local record store for that "House style music" that Frankie was playing and they set up a section for these records in the shop - House as a genre was born. Those records in turn influenced a generation of young producers to pick up cheap equipment, start playing with it and recording really stripped down, electronic dance records. They would bung them onto cassette and get their music played in places like The Power Plant (Knuckles' new club after The Warehouse closed down in 1983), The Music Box (Ron Hardy's seminal club) and on the WBMX Hot Mix Five radio show. It was around 1985 that the scene was starting to gain momentum and Larry Sherman, the owner of the only pressing plant in the city, decided to set up his own record label to put out this stuff. The famous Trax label was born and once those records hit Europe they inturn influenced a whole host of people and dance music changed...

Marshall Jefferson was one of those young producers. But his route to becoming one of the main players in the scene was quite different to most. He hated disco. He was a rock fan. It was only by chance when he drove a mate to a local music store, so as his friend could get a new guitar, that the assistant in the shop gave them a demo of the Yamaha 284 sequencer. The assistant managed to get Marshall to buy one, but followed it up with, "if you have a sequencer, you're going to need a keyboard", then "if you have a keyboard, you'll need a drum machine" etc. $9000 lighter, he found himself in his house with a pile of equipment that he didn't know how to use...

From those beginnings he then went on to produce some of the scenes most defining pieces of music and left his mark on both Acid and Deep House. And you can't get better praise when, probably his most famous track "Move Your Body" is dubbed "The House Music Anthem"...

Track : SLEAZY D - "I'VE LOST CONTROL"

After buying his equipment, Jefferson was taken by his friend, Sleazy D, to Ron Hardy's Music Box. It was there that he decided that he wanted to make music that would be played in that club. He made a few tracks and Sleazy handed the tapes to Hardy who played them. A buzz started to build about the tracks, but unfortunately as Marshall was working as a postman at the time, he couldn't make it to the club to see the reaction and his mate was getting all the glory for them!

"I've Lost Control" was one of those tracks. It's recognised as being one of the first Acid House records, due to it's use of the squelchy Roland 303 noise, but the term "Acid" never came about until Phuture's groundbreaking "Acid Tracks" tune that came after it.

The version of "I've Lost Control" here actually doesn't feature the 303 - I wanted to post the more stripped back version - but you can hear the longer and 303 filled version, along with the above mentioned "Acid Tracks" on the pretty damn essential and excellent Soul Jazz comp "Acid - Can You Jack?".

The version here I think is more fear inducing than the more well known one. It's a hard jacking rhythm with cowbells and handclaps going berserk over a tinny beat and the trademark Chicago House hissy hi-hats are coupled with more of Sleazy's slurry vocal and those EVIL laughs and howls.

What I wouldn''t give to have a time machine and go back to the Music Box to see folk going crazy to this. From the sleeve notes of the "Acid - Can You Jack?" album, the Music Box is described as being "minimal to the point of cheapskate design...the room, long and narrow, was painted black. Stacks of speakers lay at one end of the room and the DJ booth at the other, as if someone had set up a makeshift club in a dark and gloomy hallway. The sound system was loud but poorly defined, with the tweeters and midrange on the verge of permenant disintegration. The only source of light emanated from a couple of strobes, which flashed out visual warnings of sonic disorientation..."

You just know that "I've Lost Control" would have sounded great in an environment like that.

Track : VIRGO - "RIDE"

This track from 1989 is relatively new to me. I only heard it for the first time last year on the Eskimo Recordings compilation "Paradisco 3000 : Chicago Boogie". It's a great comp of old and obscure house gems beautifully mixed together and "Ride" is the opener and it sets the tone nicely.

Virgo is one of Jefferson's aliases and sometime collaborative group alongside other Trax talents, Adonis and Vince Lawrence. "Ride" is a moody affair with long drawn out chords, disembodied vocals, THOSE hi-hats, and a bassline that bends and twists throughout the track. It's a lot more polished than "I've Lost Control" but it still has that basic, early Chicago feel to it. The track can also be found on their self titled album alongside their deep house classic, "Do You Know Who You Are?"

(end of pt.1)

Then came the songs...

Marshall worked with some of the best house vocalists around and produced classic vocal house tracks like Ce Ce Rogers' "Someday", Kym Mazelle's "Useless (I Dont Need You Now)" and Sterling Void's "It's Alright".

But the most famous, and probably the most successful, of all the vocal acts he worked with were Ten City. They were a Chicago group who comprised of the talents of Herb Lawson, Byron Burke and Byron Stingley. Stingley's vocals would, alongside other house vocalist Robert Owens, become one of the most definitive voices of the genre. You couldn't mistake it whenever you heard it and nobody could hit those notes quite like Byron. With Jefferson producing, Ten City's songs and harmonies caught the ears of the more soul and R&B orientated listeners on both sides of the Atlantic and opened House up to a whole new audience.

Track : TEN CITY - "THAT'S THE WAY LOVE IS (UNDERGROUND MIX - EXTENDED VERSION)"

I'll be honest with you, I hated this track when I first started to hear it at the tale end of '88. By the start of the New Year it was unavoidable as it entered the UK charts and peaked at no.8. I couldn't care less if Marshall Jefferson produced it. I was too busy wanting to have my mind bended by the harder edged Acid tracks that were becoming easier and easier to pick up. To my ears, "That's The Way Love Is", was far too "girly"...

It didn't sound like a Jefferson track, it had more of a live feel to it and actually sounded like some long lost 70's Disco tune. It lacked the deep, but minimal, production I had come to expect from the man and, at that time, I could have done without those lyrics and Byron's wailing voice. To my ears it wasn't even a house track. Pfft.

I'm posting it though as many years now down the line, I have come to love the song for all the reasons that I hated it for. I love the live band feel about it, the disco wah wah guitar and THOSE strings. Heck, even a smile cracks on my face when I hear Byron sing that cheesy "two people take a vow to be together and live and love each other for ever..." opening line. To my ears now, it's a classic house track.

Track : TEN CITY - "SUSPICIOUS"

Now, this was more like it... I don't know what possessed me at the time but I did succumb and by the Ten City album "Foundation". I hated and loved it - still do - in equal measure. I skipped the clunky R&B numbers and headed straight for the more traditional house tracks. The first one to strike me was "Suspicious". It got my attention as I just loved the atmosphere of the track. This was Deep House. It starts with an echoey keyboard riff, some distant hi-hat business and then Ten City's harmonies come in. So far so good. Then this tremendously deep and hypnotic bassline comes in coupled with the steady beat and Jefferson's love of the hand clap machine. I was lost. The beauty of this track is that it only really has what I have described above and each element only gets a small time in the mix. The building blocks of the track teasingly come and go and constantly keep you guessing where the whole thing is going to end up... A great production.

Track : TEN CITY - "DEVOTION (EXTENDED VERSION)"

The highlight on the album was easily "Devotion". This ticked all the house boxes for me. It's a crossing of the sounds explored on the two tracks above. The deepness of the bass and atmosphere from "Suspicious" mixed with the big string treatment and band feel of "That's The Way Love Is". It also gives Byron Stingley a chance to lay down probably his best vocal performance on the album with his voice soaring and hitting unbelievable heights. "Devotion" is easily up there as one of the best house records ever made. A true classic.

(end of pt.2)

His exploration and progression of the Deep House sound started long before his work with Ten City. Through the years 1986 to 1988 he released a series of 12"s under the name of Jungle Wonz. The production wasn't quite there yet on those early records, but you could sense he was definitely onto something. Of the three Jungle Wonz records, "The Jungle", "Time Marches On" and "Bird In A Guilded Cage", it was "Time Marches On" that was the one I always went back to.

Track : JUNGLE WONZ - "TIME MARCHES ON"

Although the three Jungle Wonz tracks are excellent, I always found "Bird In A Guilded Cage" too short and "The Jungle", a great dance record, had vocals and lyrics that although they were only briefly in the tune, kind of got in the way of the mood of the piece.

On the other hand, Harry Dennis who provided the vocals for "The Jungle" and can also be heard on a couple of records by fellow legendary Chicago House producer Larry Heard under the guise of The It, turns in a much better performance on "Time Marches On".

The track is a bit slower, the spoken word stuff fits the beginning nicely and the track gently develops giving both the music and the refrain of "Time Marches On" enough time to get lodged in your head before some great, but refrained, house piano comes in to lift it up.

A great late night house record.

Track : MARSHALL JEFFERSON PRESENTS TRUTH - "OPEN OUR EYES (MARSHALL'S ELEVATED DUB)"

"Open Our Eyes", was and is for me, Marshall's greatest Deep House record. The production is dripping in atmosphere. A musical Garden Of Eden of running water, animal noises and distant pipes coupled with pseudo spiritual spoken word lyrics to match the mood; "In the beginning there was Paradise, but man, foolish man, wanted more out of life. So he bit the apple to become wise. There he stood naked he realised that when he opened his eyes, he was still really blind..." Get the idea? Corny yes, but it works. Add into the mix Ten City's Byron Stingley on refrained backing vocals and you're onto a winner.

The version I am posting though doesn't have Marshall's spoken word stuff, it's just the music and Byron. The reason? Well, with "Time Marches On" you get some spoken stuff and I didnt want to repeat that sort of style. So here is the "Elevated Dub" mix of "Open Our Eyes" that, with the main bulk of the vocals removed, reveals just how polished Jefferson had got as a producer. All the typical conventions are there, those big and deep basslines, warm chords, precision percussion and my fave, those handclaps!

(end of pt.3)

By the end of the eighties, House had pretty much broken through just about everywhere. Many major labels and artists all wanted a piece of it, So if you wanted a good credible House remix then who better to turn to than some of those Chicago producers.

Track : TOM TOM CLUB - "SUBOCEANA (WAY WAY DOWN DEEP HOUSE MIX)"

Jefferson remixed a couple of tracks from the "Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom" album by the Tom Tom Club. Better known as being members of Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club's original version of "Suboceana" would not have sounded out of place on one of their previous bands albums what with its understated funk and flicky guitar riffs. Here, Jefferson gives it the polished Deep House treatment. Usual stuff, trademark big, deep, warm bass, the claps, piano and some inredibly sharp hi-hats that cut through it all. The great thing about it is that Tina Weymouth's vocal's sound much better in this remix and the music captures the mood of the lyrics better than the original.

Oh, and there is a nice wee cheeky nod to Jamie Principle and his infamous early Chicago track, "Baby Wants To Ride"...

Track : CABARET VOLTAIRE - "SEARCHIN' (CABARET VOLTAIRE REMIX)"

Sheffield's Cabaret Voltaire have never been shy of exploring electronic music. From their late 70's industrial phase, early 80's post punk tracks and CV member Richard H Kirk's continuing work today in the field of electronica, they too were influenced by the House sound of the late 80's.

Instead of getting the Chicago talents to remix their stuff, they went to Chicago to record some tracks for their "Groovy, Laidback & Nasty" album and worked with Jefferson, Ten City and Paris Brightledge. "Searchin'" is the opener on the album. Again, there was no mistaking that Marshall Jefferson sound and coupled with the soft vocals of CV's Stephen Mallinder the track had "balearic" written all over it.

The version above is Cabaret Voltaire's remix. It still has that Marshall feel, but sounds crisper, and with Mallinder's vocals removed you get to hear more of Paris Brightledge's soulful voice.

(end of pt.4)

It seemed during the 90's that Marshall Jefferson disappeared from the studio and was spending more time DJ'ing around the world. Releases by him were pretty thin on the ground and most of the things he did put out were mix albums of either classic Chicago tracks or current house faves. There were rumours abound that he had actually turned his back on music and was spending most of his time playing online games on his PC...

He did release an album, "Day Of The Onion", under his own name in 1996, but, to me shame, I have never heard it. Prior to me buying the "ACID - Can You Jack?" compilation (which prompted this retrospective of his work), the last thing I ever bought that bore his name was a 12" re-edit of the classic Salsoul disco track "Love Sensation" by Loleatta Holloway and that was taken from a mix CD that he put out with other classic Salsoul tunes on it.

I don't know what he is up to now as no new material has surfaced from him for quite some time, but I do know that his work has had a big impact on me and this post is testament to that.

There is only one way to end this week of tracks by the great man and that is with this :

Track : MARSHALL JEFFERSON - "MOVE YOU BODY"

Enjoy.

Go Visit : Discogs entry for Marshall Jefferson
Go Visit : Welcome To The World Of...

Go Buy : The Godfathers Of House : Part One - Marshall Jefferson Presents Timeless Classics
Go Buy : Ten City - Foundation
Go Buy : Various Artists - ACID - Can You Jack?
Go Buy : Various Artists - TRAX 20th Anniversary Collection
Go Buy : Various Artists - Paradisco 3000 Chicago Boogie
Go Buy : Various Artists - Classic House Mastercuts Vol.1
Go Buy : Various Artists - Classic House Mastercuts Vol.2
Go Buy : Cabaret Voltaire - Remixed

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie