A new compilation - and L-Vis's own Dance System EPs - are bringing back the minimalist magic of ghettohouse
The first time I came across Dance Mania was through Daft Punk's Teachers in 1997, when I was 13 years old. Who were all these people that Daft Punk thought were amazing enough to credit on their track? It turned out about a third of them were Dance Mania artists, although at that point they were just names to me; it was pretty impossible to find Dance Mania records in Brighton at that time. Then Daft Punk did an Essential Mix, which was the first time I actually heard the music. That mix was what made me want to get into DJing.
The most important Dance Mania record for me is Lil' Louis's The Original Video Clash from 1988. Some element of Video Clash always manages to creep its way into my productions. That track pointed the way forward to what happened in the early 90s, when producers from the west side of Chicago such as DJ Funk and DJ Deeon developed a sound that was a lot rawer and more uncompromising than what had come before. They realised they didn't need as many elements to get the dancefloor moving: it was just a saturated kick drum, snare on the one, clap on the one, a hard 909 high-hat, a bouncing bassline, a crude, booty-style lyric and not much else.
At one point, Dance Mania were putting out a new record almost every week. The producers worked quickly on basic four-track recorders, transferring the energy directly to the dancefloor. Their only influences were each other. They weren't thinking about the outside world, it was all about what would work in their local club.
I've recently started playing back-to-back with Traxman, who's a Dance Mania legend from back in the day but is now probably better known for his footwork stuff. I was playing before him at Lit City Rave in New York under my new ghettohouse alias Dance System. He kept coming up to me going, "What the fuck? How do you know this stuff?!" He came over to my studio the day after and ended up playing my tracks down the phone to DJ Deeon, which was a crazy experience. We've started working on music together and we're hopefully going to be doing a US tour together later this year.
None of the Dance Mania artists have really gotten the recognition they deserve. Thanks to a new Strut compilation though, people are really interested in them again. It's great that the owner Ray Barney has reopened the label; hopefully they can capitalise on it this time.
The reason that ghettohouse has endured over the years is because it's so simple. When you have so few elements it makes for totally timeless music: one idea, no distracting melodies. When I'm making tracks as Dance System, I don't want to "take people to another place". It's just music for people to get their freak on to.
Hardcore Traxx: Dance Mania Records 1986-1997 is out now; L-Vis 1990 Presents Dance System EP is out now
by Sam Richards via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
