Episode 3 - Why the 1980s & 90's Were the Best

Melding the strut of disco with an electronic pulse, house music took its name from a short-lived Chicago nightclub called the Warehouse. Opened in 1977, the three storey venue booked Frankie Knuckles – a disco DJ from New York – as its main resident, and the Warehouse became a home for many of the marginalised people who first adopted disco a decade earlier. Armed with relatively new technology – drum machines, synthesisers, and new audio editing techniques – DJs and producers picked up where Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer left off with the robotic disco smash ‘I Feel Love’, and then rolled with it.

PROMISED LAND

There are house anthems and then there are classics that transcend even that title. Joe Smooth’s ‘Promised Land’ is one of those dancefloor bombs that has the ability to lift a crowd to new heights like no other track can. Also the title of his debut album, ‘Promised Land’ was released in 1987 and features all the makings of a house classic. The percussion is infectious, the melody is heartwarming and the vocals are soulful and uplifting. By the time it was released Joe had already been a staple at Chicago’s Smart Bar and had toured throughout Europe. His entire catalogue is brilliant, but his pre-90s material is especially worth a look with tracks like ‘Can’t Fake The Feeling’, ‘They Want To Be Free’ and ‘Goin’ Down’ helping to push the deep end of house music forward.

Detroit has a reputation for spearheading techno, and when genre pioneer Juan Atkins formed Model 500, he helped to take house in a harsher, more robotic direction. Long before techno was established, his track ‘NO UFOs’ – with its clear, early hints of the genre he later helped to found – became a regular fixture in Chicago clubs, and when UK label heads flocked to seek out house music, they also scheduled a pitstop in Detroit. Not just a first-rate house track, ‘NO UFOs’ also paved the way for an entire other genre to find its own spotlight: a few years after its release, the compilation album ‘Techno: The New Dance Sound of Detroit’ was released, and another movement was born.