Time To Jack

Check out these odes to early house featuring Chip E. on  D.J. International Records "Like This"

Acid House originated in India!

Stop the presses! It's time to rewrite House music history and the legend of the discovery of Acid House as we know it! It turns out that it wasn't 1987 when a small group of club kids led by Nathan "DJ Pierre" Jones gave Ron Hardy a record to play at the Music Box labelled "Acid Tracks" by Phuture and as the story goes, this uncompromising sound quickly clears the dance floor, but Hardy hammers the tune again and again, until the masses are converted and a new genre was born - Acid House. This is all true yet recently I found this poignant, seminal and amazing body of work by Charanjit Singh. As the story goes, it was 1982 when Charanjit,  known at the time as a Bollywood soundtrack composer, intending to capitalize on the disco phenomenon that just hit India decided to combine centuries old Indian Ragas and set to a disco backing using the latest technological gadgets such as the Roland TB303 bass melody sequencer, the TR808 drum computer  and the Jupiter-8 keyboard.  All instruments  that became the prototype for the Acid tracks that were created 3-5 years later by amateur Chicago house heads experimenting with sound.  Mr. Singh basically created a sound which mirrored, and more importantly, pre-dated the first acid house record - Phuture's "Acid Track", and even preceded Chip E's 'Jack Trax' in 1985!  After nearly three decades of near complete obscurity, the record resurfaced when Bombay Connection label impresario Edo Bouman first heard it while traveling in India.  He inmediately contacted Mr. Singh and said: "He was most friendly and surprised I knew the album.  I remember asking him how he got this acid-like sound, but he didn't quite get my point. He didn't realized how stunningly modern it was." The word "disco" in the title is a complete misnomer since there wasn't a genre called techno or house that could be invoked yet.  Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To a Disco Beat is no novelty record either, capturing the hypnotic potential of acid music in the most extravagant yet simple form, making explicit the similarities with the pulsating bass sequences which defined the soundtrack of dance floors for the next 30 years.  This is vintage futurism of the highest calibre and made more amazing by the fact it came from India, a place hardly renowned for it's electronic output.  This is a brilliant record and it's highly recommended. Acid House came from India! Learn it!

Raga Bairagi - Charanjit Singh - Download

Jack The House

Allow me to end the month with a house song since it's been a while since last I posted one. I will always have a smile on my face whenever I hear this amazing piece of 1986 house music history.  This song embodies the spirit of house music.  The vocals are from some lady by the name of Femme Fion, mixed by legendary Farley Jackmaster Funk and produced by Rocky Jones & Chip E.  The beats here are so visceral and delicious but it is the dialogue that happens during the break between a male voice probably Chip E. himself and someone named Charita and Tony that makes this song a riot.  I remember dancing to this and it sounded incredible on a dance floor.   Here is the scripted dialogue and see for yourself why it always put a smile on my face:

  Male voice:-"Hey girls ugh, who is Jack and ugh...what is so bad about his house?" 

 Tony's voice: -"Everybody knows Jack...He's sweet and smooth and he has this great big house where everybody goes to party at ....say Charita, I'm ready to Jack some of these guys up...look at these guys on the wall...we can't have this at no party...whachu say Charita..." 

 Charita's voice: - ..."well Tony I say you're right...I mean I'm sitting here on this wall and you on one of those walls....we just can't stand for this...I mean some of these guys are ugly...but hey, I'm ready to jack this house so let's show'em and get them off these walls Tony, not one... not two... but four at a time!....

yeah com'on''.

It's important to note here that "jacking" is meant differently and not in a sexual meaning.  The term is a dance technique that most likely came from the multicultural roots in the early underground Chicago House scene. Jacking is a dance technique that comes from moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion, as if a wave were passing through it.  When this movement is repeated and sped up to match the beat of a song is called jacking, or "the jack".  This technique is arguably the most important movement in house dance because it is the foundation that initiates more complex movements and footwork and it has evolved into a full genre on it's own.   Here are two  of my favorite versions of this song for your jacking pleasure. Enjoy!

Jack The House (Club House) - Femme Fion- DJ International



Jack The House (Trax The Sax) - Femme Fion - DJ International