Dave Clarke - Back In The Box

Takeing a trip to the darker side of acid house

Much as it elevates the soul to encounter timeless classics by the likes of Frankie Knuckles on the current welter of acid house retrospectives, it’s time someone dug deeper into the wealth of more obscure material from the late 80s electronic revolution. Leave it to Dave Clarke, who long ago plugged into the uncaged spirit of a time when fearless innovation and sonic mischief ruled.

Woven with deadly precision, Clarke’s set is dominated by late 80s Chicago artists including Virgo, Fast Eddie, Bam Bam, DJ Pierre, Rude Boy Farley Keith, Ralphi Rosario. He also nods to Detroit with Prince Of Techno Blake Baxter’s sultry When A Thought Becomes You and New York with Scram’s early Strictly Rhythm outing I Believe and the early David Morales mix of Alternations’ Feel It For You. The UK gets a look-in with T-Coy’s sublime Regret. Any compilation which includes the hugely-underrated Master C&J (represented by their spine-chilling Face It) passes the acid test with flying colours, fitting snugly into the hallucinogenic flow of night-crawling subterranean grooves topped with disembodied vocals. The stellar selection also includes Jungle Wonz’s early house landmark The Jungle, while Paul Waller’s scarce 1990 remix of Gil Scott-Heron’s Space Shuttle closes a provocative but intoxicating journey.

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars

NRK | BITBCD 03

Reviewed by Kris Needs
<< Back to Issue 357

You might also like:

Login Here

Free Newsletter


Subscribe to
our email newsletter by emailing:

anna.bowen@
metropolis.co.uk