Faces of Chicago House

Passionate lovers of dance music will not deny that the birthplace of house is Chicago. This style then developed and spread across the globe, and now the music has changed beyond recognition. Today, even those who call themselves fans of house often cannot give a precise definition of how it should sound. Detroit house (or tech-house) more frequently uses the Moog synthesizer than the calm Zen-house from San Francisco. In London, star DJs pamper clubbers with energetic progressive sounds. German partygoers generally believe that house encompasses all other electronic music, except for the ever-popular industrial, trance, and hardcore.
But the original Chicago house possesses very definite characteristics. Local DJs and musicians, such as Derrick Carter, Roy Davis Jr., and Glenn Underground continue to promote and advance this structure, not losing sight of the musical foundations. The rules of Chicago house are as follows: a clear beat, gospel-style vocals, jerky hip-hop samples with claps, and blurred synthesized voices with deep funky basses. And to keep the flow of dance energy continuous, one must experiment and try the most diverse things.
Derrick Carter achieves this sound using vocal parts without beat accompaniment, as in the title track from his famous mix "About Now", where the voice recites an excerpt from "The Biography of Miss Jane Pittman". Roy Davis Jr. performs with live instruments, particularly the saxophone.
Agave, a label specializing in house music, recently added to its compilation repertoire a series of mixes that, according to them, will reflect how wonderfully house can sound. The first release of this series, "Q-Burns Abstract Message Mix", indeed represents a quality dance mix in the style of Chicago house. The famous 4-bar beat runs as a single thread through 13 tracks, maintaining integrity.
Master mixer Q-Burns Abstract Message easily assembles these tracks like pieces of a mosaic, one after the other, creating a complete picture. To achieve maximum smoothness, he tries to limit vocal parts. The mix features several names released on the Agave label, as well as world-famous musicians, including Johnny Fiasco, Hanna, and Jay West. However, overall the mix turned out to be a bit dull - too similar tracks were gathered together. Despite the high quality of individual tracks, Q-Burns Abstract Message didn’t add any spice to this mix, and the compilation turned out dry. The similarity of pieces made it easier to mix, but listening was not interesting at all, lacking vivacity, and the sameness of material leaves an overall impression of monotony, and it simply feels like the DJ’s efforts were wasted. In conclusion, it ended up as a rather blurry and sluggish collection of dance melodies with the same beat.
Q-Burns Abstract Message didn’t do anything special or new in his mix. Nevertheless, this product will be handy for party-goers who want to throw a house party.