Chicago House B-Sides: Acid Bass and Hi-NRG Edges
Playlist Description
Chicago house and acid house grooves with italo disco and hi-NRG undertow, built from forgotten 12-inch flipsides. Listen to the full playlist on.
About this playlist
The record sleeve has been turned over, and what sits on the back is harder to love. This playlist gathers the unloved flipsides of the Chicago house and acid house canon: squelching resonant filters that sound like they are sweating through a cheap mixer, drum machines stripped of polish and left to rattle in a dim room. Italo disco and hi-NRG enter as cold, mechanical cousins, their arpeggios repeating with the patience of something that does not care whether you dance. The mix space is narrow and close, with dry kicks, little reverb, and synth lines that cut instead of bloom. Tempo sits in the mid-120s and never fully relaxes. This is listening for the back room after the lights come up, when the crowd has thinned and the cynicism.