House Hunting #32 – Knight Action

So after a brief hiatus House Hunting is back! I just turned 30 over the weekend (shouts to all who represented at the House Hunting party at London Fields!) so hopefully now entering my prime as a purveyor. As my birthday naturally I succumbed to a deep dose of the black crack last week… I made my first purchase when on a swift sojourn to Soho on my lunch break, coppin’ the new Hunee curated Soichi Terada compilation on Rush Hour at Phonica – yeah a new record but on a House Hunting technicality majority of the tracks previously unreleased and as per House Hunting #22 I’m a proper Far East Recording anorak… 

Anyway with my birthday family duties called and I jetted back up to my home environ of Leicester so a perfect opportunity to check out local record joint ‘Rockaboom’ and raid the racks… As the name suggests the shop is built on foundations of rock and indie however there’s always been the odd house 12” lurking in the racks. Whilst my brother got a deep dose of dusty fingers diggin’ through the 50p crates for some slices of wax to sample (hip-hop head), I pulled out one of those DJ Sprinkles & Mark Fell collaborations for seven quid. Not bad, but left that as confident I’d unearth an old house 12” if I kept probing with my persistent perusal. To my amazement at the end of the rack I pulled out an old Chicago 12” on Sunset Records Inc. by White Knight aka Nick Huminsky of Jack Trax and AKA Dance Music fame. This one was the ‘White Knight Jacks’ 12” co-produced with Mark Imperial (complete with boss b-side artwork and in original blue sleeve you know how much I love that…) so for a few quid had to be copped. Forget the helium-induced vox versions and head straight for the instrumental on this one…

However, my best birthday haul came as a total surprise. When I jumped on the decks my House Hunting other half Tomi presented me with a package that I suspected was a record. On opening my surprise present to my amazement it wasn’t just one record but five yes FIVE – these included the loving reissue of Manabu Nagayama & Soichi Terada’s ‘Low Tension’ on Utopia Records (alternate mixes and ace artwork so not just a straight up reissue), the new Ken Gill EP on Alleviated that I’d been meaning to cop, Brian Transeau’s ‘Relativity’ 12” on Deep Dish (all about the Carl Craig Dub – the days you copped a C2 remix on sight), Larry Heard’s rare ‘Space Jungle’ releases on Track Mode (one of the very few Larry Heard records I ain’t got – all about ‘Déjà vu’ proper B-side bliss…) AND if that wasn’t enough to my utter disbelief KDJ’s ‘Moody Trax EP’ was also in the pile mental!!! Jesus I was speechless… Mad love to all the Thunder and House Hunting homies who contributed and to Tomi who hunted down these hallowed house platters definitely a birthday I ain’t gonna forget – the best things in life are for free…

Anyway, we’ll move on from the birthday bonanza and for this week’s edition focus on a record that’s been on the House Hunting hit list for a long time. I’m sure we all treat ourselves on our birthday to that Discogs wantlist weapon or that stash of records that’s been piling up at the counter in your cart, right? Well, on this occasion I’d been eyeing up a long lost piece of Chi-town proto house that had been made available via an eBay auction. The vendor Chris has been selling on eBay for over a decade now and is a dependable source of rare and collectable records whether it’s house, italo, disco or boogie – I always check his auctions as always has a house record I’m after and starts ‘em at a fair price.  Late last year he opened a new record joint in Brooklyn so that’ll be on the itinerary when I jet over to NYC next month… Back to the record and the one in question is a hallowed house 12” by Knight Action – as the labels were clean and in very good condition I was expecting this to go way over the $100 bracket as seen it go for over this figure in the past so I was super-surprised to win it at little over 60 dollars nice one! As ever, the record was here in rapid time and though I had a mini heart-attack when the ‘R-Trax’ side was skipping turns out it just needed a decent clean so a wantlist weapon secured super happy!

So who is Knight Action? Well, Knight Action consists of Duane Thamm Jr. and Mike Macharello who I think are both uncelebrated forefathers of the Chicago House scene and are due some deserved attention for their genre-defining productions and influence in the emerging house scene. Prior to collaborating with Duane, Mike was involved in a couple of funk-fuelled boogie bombs including ‘Blow Me Away’ by MC² and his remix of ‘Ease Out’ my Mid Air which has become a hallowed slice of hot wax that sells for over a hundred quid easily. Have a listen here – maybe the closest you’ll ever get to it…

After his synth opuses Mike hooked up with Duane who both became mainstays of the Let’s Dance label that was born in ’84. Their first collaborative effort was to be on production duties for the italo odyssey ‘Crazy Or Not’ by Mike Tomaselli. Their next 12” gave birth to their ‘Knight Action’ alias and featured vocalist Sedenia on italo anthem ‘Single Girl’ (reissued by Clone via their ‘Clone Classic Cuts series back in 2008) which was a favourite of Ron Hardy at the Music Box. However, on the B-side they leave the italo flavour in favour of a primitive, 303-laced rhythm that consists of 3 raw joints ‘R Trax’, ‘D Rail’ and ‘Single’ (a dub of the lead single on the flip) that all mixed together for some pure Mastermix action. Check ‘em all out here…

Both ‘R Trax’ and ‘D Rail’ were definite precursors to the emergence of house with their raw aesthetic and 4/4 rhythms – you could imagine Ron Hardy rinsin’ the s**t outta these in the sweaty confines of the Music Box… Instead of the aforementioned 12” in which both tracks feature my version is the last release on Let’s Dance which features a Special Mix of ‘R-Trax’ and ‘D-Rail’ on each side so more DJ-friendly. When I got ‘D-Rail’ on the turntable Tonya aka the Mrs said “This is a really gay record” – it’s alright her Dad’s gay and he frequented Heaven in the 80s though regardless all the early house records were rinsed in the influential gay clubs of the era. I dropped ‘R-Trax’ when I played at London Fields last week and it sounded ace so will definitely be in my bag when I’m guesting for the Jelly Roll Soul posse up in Scotland tomorrow. Anyway, along with this 12” they released the ‘Jump Trax’ 12” which has become a proper house Holy Grail – like all those long lost Joe Lewis Target records and Marcus Mixx EPs this easily goes for over a hundred quid. This record unique as both sides have shifting tempos as per the track titles and again early house prototypes in the vein of Jesse Saunders’ ‘On and On’, all the early Mitchbal releases and Master Plan’s ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’. Good luck on trackin’ down a copy – you’ll be lucky to see one in your lifetime the hunt starts now… Have a listen here along with the Knight Action 12” I copped:

Moving on from Let’s Dance and both Duane and Mike became mainstays of Mike’s cult Chicago House stable Play House Records whether it was through remixing a plethora of producers or releasing productions under a myriad of monikers. Though they have a dizzying discography on the label its worth checking out all releases on the label as some proper obscure allure and lesser-known facets of Chicago House. My choice picks include the crystalline synths and italo-house styling of ‘Cut By A Laser’ as Crystalite, the piano-laden, acid induced dub of West Phillips’ ‘Tell Me (That You Want Me)’ and the rave stabs of The Fascination’s ‘The Flight’. Also check out House Hunting #30 http://www.theransomnote.co.uk/music/house-hunting/house-hunting-30-various-artists-3/ where Mike Servito’s choice pick was Denise Motto’s ‘Tell Jack (Jack The House)’ which was also released on Play House Records and is a Duane Thamm production. Have a listen to ‘em all here and make sure you check out the label’s releases most you can pick up for a few quid – proper basement bargain bin specials…

Duane also featured on some classic Chicago House records and was a production engineer too, engineering on ubiquitous house records of the era including Chip E’s ‘Jack Trax’ EP, Laurent X’s ‘Machines’ record on House Nation (also included in the aforementioned House Hunting #30 piece being Steve Mizek’s house hunting pick) and Code 3’s ‘Code Of Acid’ which is one for the acid auteurs – not to mention a load of releases on House Jam Records including Larry Thompson and Rick Lenior’s classic ‘Work It To The Bone’. Duane also released the killer ‘I M N X T C’ along with Denise Motto (that was licensed on various compilations and reissued by Skylax subsidiary Skylax Classic back in 2005) and House Master Baldwin sought his dexterity on the keys on his anthem ‘Don’t Lead Me’ with Paris Grey plus he contributed with his sampler to the Twat Sisters 12” with the equally eloquent ‘Eat My Pussy’ and ‘Sit On The Face’ title-tracks – get a load of all that here…

Still, it’s those early slabs of Proto Chicago as Knight Action and Jump Trax that are my personal faves as they set the scene in what was to become Chicago House… So hopefully this piece give the unheralded house figureheads Duane Thamm Jr. and Mike Macharello some exposure and credit they deserve. Hopefully got an interview with Duane Thamm on the horizon soon so this enigma can give his take on the emergence of Chicago House and the scene’s roots – hold tight…

Aiden d’Araujo