This Ain't Chicago documentary

Richard Sen, a man some of you may know for his productions as Padded Cell, has compiled an album of early UK house tracks. ‘This Ain’t Chicago’ collects tracks that were influenced by the first wave of Chicago house but carry a British flavour, appearing at the beginning of the rave movement. Now, now – we know that hearing any mention of rave tends to elicit a strong groan from anybody that didn’t live through it, so institutionalised this period of social change has become, but there is no denying that, twenty years on, the music itself is still sweat-inducing and groovy, and it makes a nice change to see somebody trying to tell a narrative about the development of house music that extends beyond the Chicago/Knuckles+Hardy/Trax Records one.

‘This Ain’t Chicago’ comes accompanied by a documentary featuring contributions from those who were directly involved in the movement, and is a hell of a lot more insightful than Idris Elba’s recent foray into the subject for Channel 4. There’s also an accompanying mix to go with the CD, which you can listen to below.