ELBEE BAD Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Elbee Bad continues to provide a direct line to the heart and soul of jacking house music with every new record he throws down. After some strong turns on Thema and LaRhon last year, he's now shored up on Solid Groove with a serious grip of club workouts. "Sock It To Me Mao Fao" is an unrelenting trip through tough drum machine beats, while "In The Key Of N 90's" brings a distinctive, rave stab-like tonality to the table. "Bitten By A Zombie" is a saucy tale riding on sleazy bass and a perilous tale of undead interaction, and "Set Up The Warp Drive" pings off grid for a more experimental kind of groove.

Review: Veteran maverick Elbee Bad pops up in ever-unpredictable places, but somehow he sounds just right on Thema. His fearless, deeply rooted take on house music defies imitation, and so it goes across this full-fat EP. "Request Monster" is a lazy groove embellished with strings protesting the culture of requests in the club, while "A Lot Of Jazz As A Child" doffs its cap to Sun Ra in a subtle way that manages to be both mechanical and free-flowing. "If EYE Was From The D" is a more overtly electronic production that sits somewhere in between acid, techno and deep house. "Crossing Dimensions" is an uplifting workout with a sweet vocal turn from an unknown source, and then "Jami Jam Dubb'd" finishes the record off with a primal set of ingredients working round a stout kick.

Review: Typically for Rush Hour, their recent Elbee Bad retrospective project uncovered more material than they could fit on one compilation, though this addendum 12" does come with a neat conceptual slant to it that merits separation. Entitled More True Stories Of House Music, the four tracks showcase Lamont Booker's work alongside vocalists and fellow producers, with lead track "Show Me" by House Of Fire dominated by Lisa Angel's classic house vocal delivery (Booker's slightly deranged keys also make themselves known too). More than anything, this quartet of productions nails Booker's production diversity as well as further demonstrating his mastery of that distinct early New York house sound. This is perhaps best demonstrated on "The Wiz & The Genius", a 1989 cut as part of The Wizard & The Genius alongside the wonderfully monikered Cutwizard Albee which sounds mind bendingly ahead of the curve.

Review: Lamont Booker is one of house music's true eccentrics. A prodigious user of multiple pseudonyms - LB Bad, The Prince of Dance Music, Lord KCB, Voodoo Man, the list goes on - he was extremely productive in the late 1980s and early '90s and still produces today, though he now resides in Berlin. Much like The Burrell Brothers, Booker was something of a deep house innovator in New York City, producing raw but beautiful music for labels such as Nu Groove and Easy Street. This excellent career retrospective from Rush Hour joins the dots between his well known cuts ("The True Story of House Music", "New Age Track" etc), unreleased gems and little-known jams, portraying his work in all its quirky glory.

Review: Lamont Booker is one of house music's true eccentrics. A prodigious user of multiple pseudonyms - LB Bad, The Prince of Dance Music, Lord KCB, Voodoo Man, the list goes on - he was briefly extremely productive in the late 1980s and early '90s. During that period, he was something of a deep house innovator, producing raw but beautiful music for labels such as Nu Groove and Easy Street. This excellent career retrospective from Rush Hour joins the dots between his well known cuts ("The True Story of House Music", "New Age Track" etc), unreleased gems and little-known jams, portraying his work in all its quirky glory.

Review: Having already documented the Burrell Brothers story this year, Rush Hour have announced details of another retrospective look at a key figure of the formative New York house music scene in Elbee Bad, the self professed Prince Of Dance Music. A forthcoming compilation is due that documents the late 80s and early 90s output of Elbee Bad, aka Lamont Booker, a producer still active today and now residing in Berlin. The compilation takes its title from the Nu Groove 12" that Booker released early in his career and this vinyl sampler features "New Age Of House" along with two previously unreleased mixes that will apparently not appear in any other format. All three tracks are essential listening for anyone with a keen interest in rough and rugged house music from days gone by, and the 12" comes in authentic label art and A6 card insert.

Review: If you like rough warehouse jams dipped in acid tinged menace with spectral moog flourishes and a massive vocal hook repeatedly barking the phrase "House!" down the speakers at you then this new twelve from 4Lux boss Gerd and vocalist Elbee Bad ticks all the boxes. Originally recorded back in 1994, the 4Lux boss opens proceedings with a 2011 rerub that focuses squarely on the titular refrain amidst a multitude of slightly deranged rhythms, and there's even a moment that sounds like the nervous fidgets of a rodent being sampled. It sounds like it might have been recorded in one take as it's all far too loose to be planned and is pretty much great from start to fin. Equally impressive is the cast of remix talent that add that extra hint of wanton indulgence. Uncanny Valley pinup Jacob Korn opts to retain the entire vocal amidst a concrete thump upon which the Dresden don builds the track into an epic raw rave squelch. On the flip Finnish talent Arrtu moulds the track into a crunchy sounding bump centred on the sinewy analogue pulse whilst Neville Watson twists the source into an expansive yet primal sounding slab of dancefloor potency.

Review: Jerome Sydenham's Ibadan imprint is back with the fourth volume in the Leads & Bites series, presenting an exciting selection of soon-to-be timeless dancefloor favorites. Chilean producer Massiande follows up releases on Freerange and Phonica with the NYC basement bounce of 'Mainline' and its familiar vocal samples, while The Prince Of Dance aka Elbee Bad gets deep down and dirty on 'Len's House'. Over on the flip, S.A.T. (Sydenham, AYBEE and Trent) team up for a hypnotic trip into the aether on 'Yaphet' and finally some low slung Balearic flavour courtesy of Swedish duo MLiR teaming up with Arnau Obils (aka Velmondo) on 'Calanda'.