8 Tracks: Of Midwest Rave With Chrissy

Music

The Chicago based Chrissy is an old hand in dance music, having been a DJ for 20 years both in clubs and also in assorted barns and fields spread across the American mid-west at the fertile rave scene that bubbled up there during the 90s. He holds a deep knowledge across many genres but in recent time he's become best known for the output of his excellent Nite Owl Diner imprint. Not focusing on any one corner of the genre, the label is just as happy putting out raw ghetto jams like Ali Berger's WKL as it is to put out the dreamy synth disco of The Black Madonna's "Venus Requiem". So with Chrissy just about to drop a new 12" on the excellent Cool Ranch label, we asked him to dig into his past and pull out 8 tracks of mid-west rave bangers.

"I grew up in the 1990s Midwest rave scene, and it was only later that I realized how regional the music was. Turns out a lot of things that I thought of as anthems were relatively unknown in Europe or on the coasts. I could make a list of the BIG MIDWEST ANTHEMS, but there are already plenty of people on the internet evangelizing about “The Percolator” and “X²” and “Get Get Down”, so I figured I'd go into some of my personal fave cuts that informed my DJing and songwriting instead."

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LISTEN

E-Dancer - Pump The Move (1991)

When UK rave culture started trickling into America, it was divisive. I remember Derrick May complaining about European kids with samplers bastardizing American techno and house music, whereas Kevin Saunderson embraced the new sounds (and even licensed some Moving Shadow and Reinforced tracks for KMS). This tune shows Kevin taking UK rave sounds back to Detroit and making them his own.

E-Dancer - Pump The Move (1991)

When UK rave culture started trickling into America, it was divisive. I remember Derrick May complaining about European kids with samplers bastardizing American techno and house music, whereas Kevin Saunderson embraced the new sounds (and even licensed some Moving Shadow and Reinforced tracks for KMS). This tune shows Kevin taking UK rave sounds back to Detroit and making them his own.
Parris Mitchell & Dj Funk - Follow Me Ghetto (Acid) (1994)

Here’s a hard, jacking acid track on Dance Mania that I still play a lot. I remember every rave back in the day would have one or two Booty House / Ghetto House DJs in the second room, basically only playing Dance Mania, Underground Construction, Jasper Stone Trax, etc.
Bpmf - Welcome To The Foundation

Minneapolis had a huge rave scene that leaned toward distorted acid techno and intense analog synth fetishism. Here’s one from my fave Minneapolis label, Electric Music Foundation.
Underground Resistance - Codebreaker

I wanted to put basically every UR release on here, but I’ve only got room for one so here’s my favourite. It really epitomizes the robot soul aesthetic running through Detroit techno.
Freddy Fresh - Scared

Freddy Fresh was one of the main guys in the Minneapolis scene, and wrote tracks that ranged from house to hip hop to gabber. Here’s a robotic jacking house track he turned in for Sven Väth’s Harthouse label.
X-313 - X-Tension [Generator Records]

Not much to say about this one: Alan Oldham 140BPM Detroit techno heater. It still kills.
Traxxxsters - Da Way U Work (Club)

I mentioned Underground Construction (not to be confused with Underground Resistance) a little earlier, and here’s a total banger from that label. Perfectly walks the line between Ghetto House and Hard House, and had an influence on everything from Juke to Hardstyle.
Paul Johnson - I'M Alone Until You Show Me

Paul has put out over 400 records, and the type of disco-tinged jackin’ Chicago house that he helped pioneer is a huge influence on the stuff I am putting out on Cool Ranch. He has a bajillion bangers, but I thought I’d pick one of his more slept-on cuts.