- Rich, musical house music recorded with a Larry Heard collaborator.
- For a genre as rooted in tradition as house, the genre's various generations rarely get in the studio together. There are notable exceptions, like Paranoid London's storming collaboration with Paris Brightledge, but for the most part OGs and young bucks admire each other while maintaining a healthy distance.
That's what makes Chaos In The CBD's new record with the Lee Pearson Jr. Collective such a welcome surprise. Pearson, a Chicago house don and occasional writing partner of Larry Heard, was inspired enough by Chaos's 2016 track "Significant Others" (a house cut not far from Heard's legendary house 'n' b style) to write a new vocal, sung by K. Ladawn.
"We met Lee in this bar, had a drink and he was telling us all these stories about working with Larry Heard, going to The Warehouse, his first trip to Japan, Ron Hardy—schooling us about Chicago basically," recalled Chaos's Benjamin "Beans" Helliker-Hales. "We just clicked. Anyway, at the end of the night we jumped in his car and he played our track but with a vocal over the top of it. I think he'd been planning to do this all along."
Back in London, Beans whipped up a whole new track for the new vocals, enlisting the pianist Joe Armon-Jones for jazzy leads and solos. Everyone comes with their A-game on "It's Up To Me," as Ladawn's heartache-laden vocal is perfectly complemented by Beans' moody arrangement. "Emotional Intelligence" also sees Chaos In The CBD move away from their recent psychedelic drum tracks, opting for a musical house style reminiscent of classic Prescription. With the added weight of Chicago house history, it's their most mature effort to date.
TracklistA1 Emotional Intelligence
B1 It's Up To Me (Vocal)
B2 It's Up To Me (Instrumental)