- Chicago institution Smart Bar launched a new record label with curators The Black Madonna and Argot/Tasteful Nudes boss Steve Mizek, naming it Northside '82 after the neighborhood and year the club was founded in. Coincidentally or not, Northside '82's inaugural release makes good on its name in a number of ways. Resident Smart Bar DJ Ike Release sources inspiration from early Midwestern house music for his Dance Equations EP. As such, nothing here will dazzle longtime dance music fans, but most of the tracks are still sumptuously satisfying.
With a massive 909 bounce, the title cut quickly establishes a heady deep house whorl, which Ike Release continues to expand with chunky bass notes and a sneaky earworm of a vocal sample. "Dance me, and I dance you," the female voice intones repeatedly. It's at first a fantastic hook, but as the track wears on the samples get airtime that could have better been used to expand the narrow melodic range. "Bijou" continues the drum-machine thump of "Dance Equations" with less accoutrements, allowing a cyclical, four-note bassline and reverb-smothered vocal snippet to take the spotlight. It would essentially be a gussied up DJ tool if not for all the fog filling the air. Ike uses simplicity and vintage aesthetics best on "Direct Current," an outlier of sorts with its eye on '90s sci-fi and rave signifiers. It's the most obviously derivative track, but the familiarity suits a producer who knows his source material this well.
TracklistA1 Dance Equations
B1 Bijou
B2 Direct Current