Various - The History Of The House Sound Of Chicago (BCM - B.C. 70-2060-49)

"The beat won't stop with the JM Rock. If he jacks the box and the party rocks. The clock tick tocks and the place gets hot. So ease your mind and set yourself free. To that mystifying music they call the key".

House music has historic significance for mid aged chaps like me. We were in our fountain of youth when we started listening House music when it was becoming a fully fledged style of it's own. Then came the Acid vs Metal fury and blew it all off. You were to pick a camp. I wanted to be on both camps due to my already varied taste, but you just had to pick one. So in the automatic protesting teenage years, I acted like a Metal man even though I had a secret love relationship with Acid going on. It was more than a fling and the main reason was my background with House.

House originated from the club Warehouse in Chicago where Frankie Knuckles was playing. He is known to be the Godfather of the genre with some true acclaim to it. He pioneered the style mixing RnB & Soul music with dance tunes and created a new mash up style which we today call House music. However, from those days onwards, House music evolved to numerous shapes, sizes and tastes. House music has been the most fruitful of genres in almost all music history since it has bred and fed the most genres afterwards. To name a few, Techno, Tech House, Progressive House, Hard House, Trance, Us Garage, Italo Disco, etc. etc.

This huge box set of 12 LPs is all about the history of the House music. It includes tracks which are mainly from the beginning stages and then covers a certain era (2 years naturally) when the genre was still in it's growth stages. This has limited the span of the tracks relevant in the box set since you just get a glimpse of how House music has started, but not as how it has developed. However, it is still historically significant in all ways.

The artists and tracks that appear in this box set are both legendary and forgotten. Both types are here. Adonis is here, Chip E., Jackmaster Funk, Marshall Jefferson, Phuture, House Master Boyz, and of course D Train. They are all there. There is also a sort of diversification between labels, the first famous tracks and the rest. However, looking back to it after 20 something years, those distinctions are not so clear now though others are more obvious. It would have been or might be a little better if there is a new version of this box set which covers the whole era. Honestly I think even 20 records may not be enough to cover it, but who can blame me for dreaming and hoping. This is House music. This is where it all started. Thank you Frankie Knuckles.

To buy this box set:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs