Various Artists – Dance Mania Hardcore Traxx: Dance Mania Records 1986-1997
Sometimes when a record gets reissued or a compilation is released, there is a quote on the sleeve that inevitably calls it “an essential piece of history”. While it’s meant with good intentions, this kind of phrasing can also come across as a bit of a passive aggressive jab – another way of saying “we’ve moved on” or “sure, this used to be important, but look how far we’ve come since then”. When it comes to Hardcore Traxx, the first ever Strut-released Dance Mania compilation, those kinds of sentiments couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, the first thing that hits you when listening to the twenty four tracks culled from the Roy Barney’s massive 300+ release catalogue is how absolutely contemporary everything still sounds.
There’s a good reason for that. You don’t have to dig deep to find the debt that the rest of the contemporary dance world owes Dance Mania – be it Night Slugs’ self-professed inspiration from the label, Nina Kraviz’s direct homage in the form of “Ghetto Kraviz”, or the development of Chicago’s house-inspired footwork and juke scenes. And, of course, there’s Victor Mitchell’s “Ghetto Roll Call”- the call-and-response anthem that inspired recent Grammy winners Daft Punk to make their infamous “Teachers” track, which reciprocally shouts out Dance Mania artists throughout, acknowledging them as inspirations.
“Ghetto Roll Call” is a crash course in everything that gives Dance Mania tracks their undeniable endorphin rush. It executes a unique, quirky idea perfectly (in this case, namedropping a list of important players in the Chicago house scene, from label boss Ray Barney to “all the ladies in this Muthafukka”), backed by an inexhaustible drum machine, a rolling infectious bassline, and the euphoria-inducing “HELL YEAH” shouted out in between every line. It’s also a track that (up until now) has been near-impossible to find. Once a Dance Mania record went out of pressing, it was forced to linger in the purgatory of Discogs obscurity – well enough known that copy of Paul Johnson’s “A Nite Life Thang” would sell for almost four hundred dollars, but never gaining an official repress. Even worse, the unauthorized bootlegs of Dance Mania cuts would always pack the wrong type of graininess – sounding like they were recorded off the radio and pressed onto sub-par vinyl.
Thankfully, the versions on Strut’s 180 gram vinyl re-release sound crisp and contemporary as anything released this year. But beyond just sounding modern, there’s something uniquely adrenaline-pumping about this collection. Nina Kraviz recently praised the label in an interview, saying that Dance Mania’s uniqueness is due to the fact that tracks “sound so real and human”. “Sounding human” doesn’t refer to the cacophony of sex-hollering that forms the base of Duane & Co’s “J.B Traxx” – instead, it’s referencing the raw, live-in-the-club feeling that marks each of these tracks – music that embraced the social and physical experience of hearing Paul Johnson’s “Feel My M.F. Bass” blasting through a huge sound system, displacing your internal organs slightly as a result. Jammin’ Gerald’s “Black Women” and Traxmen and Eric Martin’s “Hit It From The Back” are also all about bodies; two raunchy house anthems that utilize their thumping basslines and chunky piano chords as sparsely and effectively as they do their X-rated lyrics.
But sexually explicit club tracks are still progressive. DJ Slugo’s famous “Wouldn’t you like to be a ho?” – unfortunately not included on this comp – removes the gender attached to the word “ho” and assigns it to every willing participant on the dance floor: you, him, her, me – there’s no body-shaming or negative judgment associated with the term. Instead, early Dance Mania artists acknowledged the dance floor as a place of sexual liberation; no matter who you are, you have the right to freak out on the dance floor however you like. And even though Hercules’ “7 Ways” may sound like an instructional manual on creepy club behaviour (with lines like “close your eyes, remember the body you’ve just seen, then slowly undress it”), it never assigns a gender to any of the dancers in the track. Ghetto House is often pigeonholed as being saccharine club-only fare, but there are plenty of politics simmering under the surface of Hardcore Traxx. When Waxmaster gives props to the Cabrini-Green public housing project in “Ghetto Shout Out”, he’s also acknowledging the way that certain historical struggles still inform this kind of music too.
But even if you’re an instrumental purist, there’s plenty here to satiate a range of different moods: Tim Harper’s “Toxic Waste” sounds like a flanged-out teenage Levon Vincent banging out much more abrasive percussive patterns, while Robert Armani’s “Ambulance” imparts the sheer urgency of a frantic SOS signal searing the airwaves. About the closest Hardcore Traxx comes to laid-back ambient numbers is found in Strong Souls’ “Twinkles” – but even then, the soothing synth waves sent rippling throughout the track are disrupted by the glitchy little electronic jerks and jitters.
This compilation is many things at once. It’s the most comprehensive (though by no means exhaustive) Dance Mania retrospective to date, immortalizing some wonderful hard-to-find club gems by finally making them digitally accessible to the world. It’s a big middle finger to bootleggers and Discogs sharks, and a well-needed reminder of Chicago’s trailblazing history of creativity. But more than anything else, it’s proof that the rest of the world has not moved on from the place that Dance Mania occupied in the mid ‘90s – if anything, they’re only starting to catch up.
Brendan Arnott
Tracklisting:
CD 1
1. Hercules – 7 Ways (Club)
2. Victor Romeo featuring Leatrice Brown – Love Will Find A Way (Club)
3. The House Master Boyz And The Rude Boy Of House – House Nation
4. Duane & Co – J.B. Traxx
5. Vincent Floyd – I Dream You
6. Da Posse featuring Martell – Searchin’ Hard
7. Club Style – Crazy Wild
8. Jammin’ The House Gerald – Black Women (Club)
9. Tyree – Nuthin’ Wrong
10. Strong Souls – Twinkles
11. 3.2.6 – Falling (Armando’s House mix)
12. Rhythm II Rhythm – A Touch Of Jazz (Lifestyles Of The Rich mix)
CD 2
1. DJ Funk – House the Groove
2. Paul Johnson – Feel My M.F. Bass
3. DJ Funk – The Original Video Clash: Video Clash II (Street mix)
4. Parris Mitchell Project feat. Wax Master – Ghetto Shout Out!!
5. DJ Deeon – Da Bomb
6. Houz’ Mon – Fear The World
7. Vincent Floyd – I’m So Deep
8. Tim Harper – Toxic Waste (Club mix)
9. Robert Armani – Ambulance
10. DJ Deeon – House-O-Matic
11. Traxmen & Eric Martin – Hit It From The Back
12. Top Cat – Work Out