To coincide with the 40th anniversary of Chicago house music, Jack Said What release a record by Chip E this month. ‘One of the founding fathers of house’, Chip has already remixed the signature ‘Jack Said What’ track by bossman Steve Mac for the label, and now comes with a fresh track of his own. A stripped-down slab of electronic body music finds him showing that he’s still in touch with the zeitgeist all these years later, with the vocals from Missy simple yet effective.
Steve Mac adds more body in his remix, throwing in an acid line and extra percussion to turn it into a track that bears a passing resemblance to the Soulwax remix of Marie Davidson’s ‘Work It’.
Chip E started DJing in Chicago in the early 1980s before beginning to produce his own tracks. When he released his ‘Jack Trax’ EP in 1985, it was possibly the first record to mention the keywords ‘jack’ and ‘house’ in the fledgling new genre that was setting the dancehalls of the Windy City alight. With its neo chipmunk vox, ’It’s House’ revelled in its metronomic simplicity, while ‘Time To Jack’ precipitated the jackin’ craze that saw dancers jackin’ right across Chicago and beyond.
Being locked into a contract by Chicago label DJ International limited his output during the rest of the ‘80s, although he did go on to co-produce Frankie Knuckles’s first record, and was later hailed by Carl Cox as a crucial house music pioneer. Cox went on to collaborate with him on a ‘Time 2 Jack’ update and book him for some of his parties. It was at his ADE party a few years ago that Jack Said What’s Steve Mac and Carl Loben first met Chip, and became friends instantly.
© justaweemusicblog.com
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