A follow up to last year's Hardcore Traxx, Ghetto Madness is the second trip through the Dance Mania label's vaults. While Hardcore Traxx covered the years 1986 to 1997, when the label laid the foundation for Ghetto House, not to mention juke, Ghetto Madness traces the early to mid-1990s, when the label was dubbed "Ghetto House's Motown" ⎯ a distinction that any one of the 15 cuts assembled here prove was well earned. Classics like Jammin' Gerald's "Pump On The Floor," Parris Mitchell's "Ghetto Booty," DJ Deeon's "The Freaks" and Wax Master Maurice's "Pump The Body" are prime examples of the early Ghetto sound, with raw DIY production, frenzied, accelerated BPMs and gangsta rap-inspired sexual lyrics that updated house for a younger, more audacious generation.
Despite that fact that this music is now two decades old, it doesn't sound at all dated, and Dance Mania's recent revival in Europe (Nina Kraviz favourite, Paul Johnson's "Give Me Ecstasy," is included) is due to the label's unvarnished and unadulterated productions. At a time when house was being absorbed (not too well, by the way) into the mainstream, Dance Mania held true to the music's underground ethos. Extensive liner notes and caricatures of the featured artists by illustrator James Wilson round out this compilation.
(Strut)Despite that fact that this music is now two decades old, it doesn't sound at all dated, and Dance Mania's recent revival in Europe (Nina Kraviz favourite, Paul Johnson's "Give Me Ecstasy," is included) is due to the label's unvarnished and unadulterated productions. At a time when house was being absorbed (not too well, by the way) into the mainstream, Dance Mania held true to the music's underground ethos. Extensive liner notes and caricatures of the featured artists by illustrator James Wilson round out this compilation.