RAHAAN Schallplatten & CDs

Review: The irrepressible Gamm label knows a thing or two about disco, funk and soul. Yet more irrefutable evidence for that claim comes from this tidy 12" two tracker featuring some lost remixes. 'I'm In Love Dancin' takes source sounds from Arthur Russell's classic 'Is It All Over My Face' and repurposes them with gangling percussive lives, sunny flutes and mad horns to make for something that will shake your body loose. Flip it over for the steamy, sensuous, intense disco stomps of 'Imma Phreak' complete with fame coos and cries and plenty of dance floor clout. The legendary Rahaan and DJ Emanuel are in fine form here.

Review: On the debut EP 'We Are The Ones/Fire/Forever', Chicago DJ and all-out living legend Rahaan collaborates with an equally talented group of musicians: Marcus J. Austin on lead vocals, Nancy Clayton on backing vocals, Carnell C. Newbill (also known as Spike Rebel) on keyboards and backing vocals, Todd Swope on guitar, and Lou Terry on bass. Together, the outfit known as The Ones create an extended three-track EP of transcendent proportions, drawing on the avaricious world-passion for music and life heard in the joyous chasms between psychedelia, Afrobeat and disco. Bridging these precipices by way of a vast, suspensory dancefloor held together by firmly mixable kick drums serving as rivets, Rahaan produces and mixes a viscerally eye-popping set of devotionals here. From the impassioned beatitudes and thanksgivings of 'We Are The Ones', to the desirous chic-funk drum circle envisaged on 'Fire' and the eternal gospel-rock-tinged disco-soul ablution 'Forever' (a special favourite of ours), this is a holy chrism in record form.

Review: Another week, another clutch of must-have reworks from Chicagoan master Rahaan, this time on his personal, Hot Biscuit Recordings-funded Typewriter Record Pool imprint. He predictably hits the ground running on 'Ghetto Music', a slowly building and impeccably realised tweak of one of Phildelphia International's greatest moments, 'The Ghetto' by Donny Hathaway. After replicating and extending the original's atmospheric build-up, Rahaan focuses on keeping things rolling percussively, while subtly ratcheting up the energy throughout. Tampering with an all-time classic is dangerous, but predictably Rahaan has done a stellar job. 'Dark Places' is a more intense and psychedelic affair, with Rahaan working a bunch of heavy loops while inserting subtle builds and changes in tone and intensity. It's very good, but naturally lacks the 'wow' factor of his A-side edit.

Review: There are arguably two re-editors whose scalpel works are a cut above the rest: the mighty Danny Krivit AKA Mr K, and Chicago veteran Rahaan. Both are prolific rearrangers, with Rahaan releasing some of his greatest work on Newcastle-based Hot Biscuit Recordings. He's back on that imprint here with two more tried-and-tested revisions. Opener 'One Man' is prime Rahaan re-edit action: an obscure, eccentric, horn-heavy, soul-fired, heavily orchestrated disco jam extended, cut and tweaked in all the right places, with EQs and soul levels lightly modified to ensure maximum pleasure when played over 21st century dancefloors. Arguably even better is 'No Luck', a terrific, lightly stretched-out revision of a slap bass-powered slab of early 80s disco-boogie fusion fronted by a strong and sassy female vocalist.

Review: Chicago's disco-house generator Rahaan Young goes a tad Balearic with 'My Girl Is Better', an exemplar of the artist's much-honoured and much-emulated skill at disco editing. The star track on this record is itself a version of Talking Heads' 'Girlfriend Is Better', which comes backed by an impressively isolated dub version on the B-side, which the original Talking Heads number itself did not come accompanied by. Rahaan's version fattens, monoises and clarifies the beat, adding little more than a DJ edit's worth of space to mix things; the dub version is only subtly dissimilar, its main feature being its echoic breakdowns and word painting.

Review: For a cognoscente of Chicago's dance music scene, there's perhaps no EP name more candid than 'Chicago's Club Culture'. Rahaan Young is the witness in question to this radically open metro-musical hotbed, having continually made his name since at least the early 80s in the Illinois capital initially as a disco and disco-house pioneer, before then eventually branching out into other styles. Unlike earlier releases which focus on more abstract themes, the Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles adjacent first and foremostly pays his due honours to the city in which he grew, sharing six tracks spread out over a double-pack (three tunes on each record) for loud play. The A-side rings truer to percussive disco, 'Touch' being the kettle-banging, femme chorussing highlight, while the B-side is more "strung out", expending more of its energies on emotive lilts and cathartic hell yeahs.

Review: Hot Biscuit Recordings established Typewriter Record Pool as a personal vehicle for Rahaan's in-demand re-edits, which have long been amongst the best in the business - in part because he tends to breathe new life into impossible-to-find obscurities and overlooked dollar bin jams. The label's latest release boasts the veteran Chicagoan's most expansive collection of disco re-fixes yet. He begins with '11 Minutes of Coldbloodedness', a rasping and revelatory disco-funk epic that just gets more intense as it progresses, before stretching out a percussive Afro-disco treat ('Africano'). Over on the second slab of wax, 'Disco Walkin' sees him breathe new life into a Moog solo-sporting chunk of disco-funk heaviness, while 'I.T.T' is an uplifting Afrobeat call-and-response treat re-framed as a percussion-rich Afro-disco shuffler.

Review: Rahaan is one of Chicagos finest exports - he can do it all from edits to disco, dusty house to soul packed delights. He shows that again here by kicking off a new label, Gospel One, with a double 12" of cuts that all draw on gospel. The opener is a raucous and funky cut with belting vocals and noodling basslines, while elsewhere there is fleet footed groove and live sounding drums to 'Message In Our Muzik' that are topped with a superb female vocal. 'Don't You Worry' ramps up the tension with more fast and funky beats and 'He Can' gets down and dirty with some sleazy basslines and call and response vocals. A passionate package for sure.

Review: Rahaan is a Chicago legend and master of the most soulful sounds in the studio. His new EP for BBE, 'We Are The Ones,' sees him joining up with a whole host of top musicians such as Marcus J. Austin and Nancy Clayton on vocals, Carnell C. Newbill on keys, Todd Swope on guitar and Lou Terry on bass. Between them they bring real dance floor adventures that are steeped in proper musicality. Ohio Players' Kenny Anderson on the horns brings some real soul to these four-to-the-floor cuts which mix up disco and house in the finest of fashion.

Review: You can always count on Z Records to bring a deep-digging, dedicated approach to anything they put out, and that goes double for their flawless Under The Influence series. The 10th volume in the series sees them inviting the incredible Chicago-born DJ Rahaan to select some seriously headsy cuts from his collection, carefully cleaned up, de-clicked and remastered for the best listening experience. Given the nature of the series, don't expect the usual suspects, and instead savour the discovery of some of Rahaan's most treasured cuts, presented here on a double LP comp brimming with discoid magic.

Review: Under The Influence is Z Records' effort to document and preserve lost, forgotten soul-and-funk-feeding-into-house finds. Rahaan, from Chicago, here gets their attention and praise; a DJ and early progenitor of Chicago house, these tracks (unearthed from the vaults) are expensive and weighty forays through italo, disco and new wave, all carefully chosen by the man himself.