“Who are these dance music artists of Chicago? Oftentimes, they are the club and radio DJs themselves, who understand all too well what the dance music public wants.” This is the beginning of a remedial lecture delivered in 1986 on a 12-inch single attributed to Willie Wonka, titled “What Is House?” House music was in its infancy. The first house record had been pressed just two years earlier, when Chicago club DJ Jesse Saunders replaced a disco medley record stolen from the booth by programming his own version using a Roland TR-808 drum machine.
House music exploded into the mainstream in 1990, the year Madonna‘s “Vogue” topped the Billboard Hot 100. The genre flourished in the underground club scene throughout the 1990s, propelled by stalwart labels like Strictly Rhythm, Nervous Records, and King Street Sounds. The half-decade in between – those fertile years when house both expanded its scope and settled into its signature sound – is best represented by the music released on Trax Records.
Trax Records: The 40th Anniversary Collection assembles 40 songs ranging from the label’s early years of releasing groundbreaking dance music to its quiet reinvigoration in the first half of the 2020s. The tracks are sequenced achronologically, eschewing the approach of a straightforward history. Instead, it plays as a surprisingly comprehensive mixtape, celebrating the bliss that can be found in the combination of 4/4 rhythms, closed hi-hats, and the incessant pounding of the 808 kick drum.
“What Is House?” is the second track on the compilation. Although it now plays like a history lesson, in 1986, the song’s cheeky breakdown explained what, at the time, was a hot new phenomenon. It’s safe to assume that many of those who heard the track were already in the scene, regulars at the Warehouse nightclub on South Jefferson Street, where Frankie Knuckles blended disco and funk records into a ceaseless stream of uptempo dance stimulants from 1977 to 1982.
It’s only right that “What Is House?” is followed up by the man known as the Godfather of House. The arpeggiated synth lead that opens “Your Love” resonated across the Atlantic, soundtracking the UK’s Summer of Love in 1988. The song was originally written by Jamie Principle, who provides the X-rated whispers and moans about a love lost to fantasy. Principle had brought his initial version to Knuckles, who, as Principle said in an interview with Vice, “heard the song and added all this stuff to it”. Knuckles stretched the track, injecting it with an extra-luscious dose of melody and molding it into the format of a house single.
“Your Love” is followed by Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body”, the only other track on the compilation that can vie for the designation of the definitive house music anthem. In fact, “The House Music Anthem” was inked above the song’s title on the center label of the original Trax Records 12-inch from 1986. It was a prescient move. To this day, that jaunty piano melody is one of the genre’s most iconic moments.
The compilation’s biggest disappointment is the exclusion of “No Way Back” by Adonis and “Can You Feel It” by Mr. Fingers, an alias of Larry Heard. Either song would slot in great after “Move Your Body,” completing the lineup of the most acclaimed Trax singles. Neither song made the cut, possibly due to legal battles.
That said, this collection clearly wasn’t an excuse to simply rerelease the hits. In fact, many of the label’s best tracks are also their newest, though the sounds and styles are often rooted in the 1980s. “Jack It Up” by Stylophonic plays like a lost classic from the label’s mid-1980s run, but this appears to be its first release. The track begins with a basic loop of drums, a triangle, and party-time chatter, and builds from there, adding hi-hats, a bubbly bassline, and some lively piano playing that makes it a worthy follow-up to “Move Your Body”.
ANALOG 87’s “rOOmclaSSic” is a jittery TB-303 exercise that feels lifted from the heyday of acid house, but the track came out in 2022. DJs will be flummoxed as to why they can’t track down an original 12-inch of Camilo Do Santos’s “1984”, a slice of funky electro in which every combination of sounds points straight to the title. The track was released in 2024, on digital formats only.
Some inclusions stray from the label’s typical sound. Trax Records founder Larry Sherman provides the sole downtempo track, “Colors”, a lush piano excursion grounded by chunky electronic drums. A pair of mid-1990s techno tracks from Frankie Bones and Joey Beltram appear side by side. David Chong’s “There Is No Place” brings the filter house flavor.
Yuri Suzuki’s “DATA MANIA” (2021) sounds like the kind of meaty electro heaters put out by Ed Banger Records circa the late 2000s, but it’s pieced together with the sounds of 1980s hardware, including a very prominent 808 cowbell. Released in 1985 by current label owner Screamin’ Rachael, “My Main Man” is a little-known synthpop delight.
As can be expected in a collection of 40 tracks, there are lulls. This is house music. Listeners sitting at home might skip over the same tracks that would have them going wild on a dance floor, so any judgment about the quality of a given track at least deserves this context. For example, the first song on the compilation, “I’ll Take You There (Full Journey Mix)”, plays as a conventional modern house track, complete with risers, uplifting vocals, and squeaky-clean production quality.
Ditto for “Free Your Mind”. Slipped into a DJ set, these tracks could deliver euphoria. They were produced for that purpose. Some of the same qualities that make them bland as standalone tracks also make them effective for seamless mixing and sustaining a mood. The listener who enjoys this unmixed compilation while sitting comfortably at home and wearing headphones is consuming the music outside of its intended format and setting.
That same listener, though, will find a lot of headphone candy here, whether or not they have ever touched their sneakers to a sweaty nightclub dance floor. Even with a label as revered as Trax Records, it’s hard to believe how elusive some of these records have been to fans of the genre, especially younger listeners who never had the opportunity to purchase the vinyl singles when they were initially released. This compilation is essential because it helps bring some of these underheard records into the limelight of streaming services. They deserve to be appreciated by a whole new audience.