- The graybeards among us, specifically those of us old enough to have been of partying age when this thing called house music first reared its wondrous head, can remember the shivering thrill the music gave upon first exposure. For myself, it wasn't at the Paradise Garage, the Choice or some other fabled club—instead, it was at the Aztec, an East Village booze-and-cocaine dive (and a rock-oriented one at that) in 1986. A friend was bartending, and he dropped a cassette tape he had acquired from another friend, who had picked it up from a gay club in Dallas. (Yeah, "a gay club in Chicago" would sound more authentic, but no matter.)
The first track was this bizarre, mechanical sounding, alien machine funk—Nitro Deluxe's "This Brutal House," I later discovered—and a rush went straight through everyone's body. "What the hell is this?" the inebriated crowd asked in united wonderment. Someone chimed up with "It's disco from outer space!" a phrase that I still whip out when explaining house to the unfamiliar. (Yes, such people still do exist.)
Anyway, the point is we often forget that good old-fashioned house, far from being a calcified, crusty old genre that's lost its ability to freak us out, can still pack a wallop. Judging from his double-disc mix-CD contribution (accompanied by the tracks in unmixed form) for NRK's Back In the Box series, it's a feeling that Chicago house lifer DJ Sneak remembers well. And he conveys that jolt without any concession to the latest trends; despite the press release's allusions to a Sneak renaissance "due to an infamous back-to-back session with Ricardo Villalobos," the mix is constructed with his usual workmanlike finesse. There's no minimalism, little in the way of anything vaguely "deep-tech"—this is a mix that's awash in the beats that made many of us fall for house in the first place, like Chi-town style thumpers, jacked-up boogie material, French filter cuts and bits of gospel.
And yet, in Sneak's hands, the lack of faddishness works—the moodier first disc even verges on the downright eerie-sounding at moments, regardless of the fact that it includes tracks by the shiny-disco-ball likes of Mousse T and Bob Sinclar. The release certainly has its less-than-electrifying moments—the inclusion of a banal Brand New Heavies remix, for instance, reminds us why some people think that house sucks. But then Sneak will go and drop in something genius like Global Communication's "The Way" or the Daft Punk mix of I:Cube's "Disco Cubism," and you remember the day that house music changed your life.
TracklistDisc One
01. Blak 'n' Spanish - Call Da Vibe
02. Freeform Five ft. Carolyn Harding - One Day (Freeform Re - Form Dub)
03. BT - Remember (Mood II Swing Dub Mix)
04. Blue Boy - Sandman
05. Chris Simmonds - Rush n Soul
06. Mousse T - Ooh Song
07. Deepah Ones - In The Sky
08. Johnny Corporate - Sunday Shoutin (B Boys Shoutin Dub)
09. Global Communication - The Way
10. Studio 45 pres Le Pamp Playhouse - I Like The Sounds
11. Bob Sinclar - Visions Of Paradise
12. Cheek - Venus (Sunshine People Mix)
13. Cajmere feat. Dajae - Brighter Days (Underground Goodie)
14. The Brand New Heavies - Shelter (Danny D Mix)
15. Cricco Castelli - Life Is Changing
16. DJ D presents Hydraulic Dogs - Shake It For Me (Original Mix)
Disc Two
01. Markus Nikolai - Bushes (The Second Remix) (Version 2.1)
02. Johnny Fiasco - Conduction
03. Secret Ingredients - Chicago Chicago
04. The Chicago Connection - Dancin' (Mark Grant Mix)
05. DJ Sneak ' You Can't Hide From Your Bud
06. Paul Johnson - Hit It Up
07. DJ Sneak - All Over My Face
08. Roach Motel pres. 2 Stupid Dogz - Trouble
09. Deaf n Dumb ft. S. Leger & Nicholas de Floraiant - Holiday On Night
10. I-Cube - Disco Cubism (Daft Punk Mix)
11. Happy Human - Horn Junk
12. C-Dock - Traffic Jam
13. Ian Pooley - Higgledy Piggledy
14. Bob Sinclar - The Ghetto (Original Cleared Version)
15. Fantom - Faithfull (Original Mix Par Fantom)