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Frankie Knuckles

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of dancefloor history knows Frankie Knuckles respectfully as the ‘Godfather of House’. Together with his childhood friend Larry Levan he ran wild on the early disco scene: his first job was spiking the punch at Nicky Siano’s Gallery. Transplanted to Chicago after a residency at the bacchanal of New York’s Continental Baths, it was Frankie’s sets of ballsy older disco at the Warehouse that ignited this polite midwestern city and gave house music its name. This interview was conducted just after the shock

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Cedric Neal

Cedric Neal talks of house music with an eloquence born of true passion. When house exploded in Chicago he was jacking on the Music Box dancefloor, enjoying the sexual abandon of the club and watching the mad genius of its DJ Ron Hardy. While Frankie Knuckles had shown the city the power of true underground disco, it was Hardy who propelled the raw, home-made rhythm tracks made by his clubbers into a new form of music. Here, Cedric explains the seductive power that Hardy released.

 

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House Music: The Real Story – Jesse Saunders, 2007

Though the name came from Knuckles’ disco edits and the musical spark from Europe, with On & On, Jesse was the first to get Chicago’s home-grown minimalism onto vinyl, and here he stakes his claim as the originator of house music. A well-written, detailed and personal tale, evoking Chi-town’s teen heroes and the music biz villains who stole their thunder (including a good old Tong-lashing).
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What Kind of House Party is This: History of a Music Revolution – Jonathan Fleming, 1995

When house was still in short trousers, champion raver Fleming self-published this psychedelic time capsule, took the pictures, did the interviews, wrote the theme tune, sang the theme tune, visited Detroit and Chicago, broke his ankle, collected loads of flyers and a tall stack of his own photos, hosed it all into an stone-age version of Photoshop and hit the button marked ‘SWIRL!’
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Pump Up The Volume – Sean Bidder, 2001

The TV documentary was strong on the origins of house, then got a little cabbaged when it tried to stand up and go anywhere. This accompanying book is similarly disorganised, but worth having for its acres of extended quotes: a veritable oral history. It would be churlish to point out the debt it owes to our own little history book, but we’ll do it anyway.
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