*listening to this louder enough for fecking abraham lincoln to hear
You don’t have to read any of this, but I’m listening to this 'cause it came on BBC Radio 6 Music today, probably the best radio station in the UK. They had an event on today called ‘All Day Rave’, celebrating 30 years since the Second Summer Of Love when house music swept the UK and the rave culture in the country was born.
In the preceding years, many of the artists and DJs (think: Orbital, 808 State, Paul Oakenfold, Andy Weatherall, Future Sound Of London, The K.L.F., LFO, Happy Mondays, New Order, heck even the f*cking Pet Shop Boys) that would later go on to define the scene in the UK took their influence from artists from Detroit, New York and, of course, the towering pantheon that is Chicago, the home of house music.
Marshall Jefferson was one such artists who emerged in the Chicago House music scene. While there were a number of house labels part of the scene at the time - Cajual, Guidance, DJ International, Dance Mania - none can really compare to the legendary Trax Records, on who Marshall Jefferson released a number of records. One of those was “Move Your Body”, released in 1986, before subesequently being re-realesed, remixed and printed on other labels around the world no less than 35 times.
“Move Your Body” is infamously known as ‘the original house anthem’. Listen to it and you’ll soon understand why. The moment that f*cking piano kicks in, gaaaahhh. One of my favourite 5 seconds of music ever.
In turn, that piano would become HUGELY influential on so many other records, far beyond the reaches of Chicago House. If you listen to any modern dance song which has a piano on it, there’s a good chance it’s thanks to this song that it has it.
In turn, this record saw a huge resurgence in the UK during the late 80s and became an essential staple of house club nights for DJs across the UK.
If you like this, I urge you to check out more from Trax Records - Sweet D’s “Thank Ya”, “Your Love” by Frankie Knuckles (guarantee you’ll know this one), “Pump Up Chicago” by Mr. Lee are good places to start. Trax Records also dipped into Acid House too and helped to springboard the movement with three complications, the best of which are namely Acid Trax Vol. 1 and Acid Trax Vol. 2. I’m going out on a limb and saying they’re two of the best compilations ever released.
So yeah there’s a short essay on Move Your Body, the origins of House Music and Trax.
