Trax Records - The 20th Anniversary Collection Part 2

Screamin' Rachael, "Fun With Bad Boys"

Jungle Wonz, "The Jungle " [full A-side version]

Kool Rock Steady, "I'll Make You Dance" [full version]

We're gonna keep looking at the Trax Records label, and this amazing 20th Anniversary compilation. I do hope that people are enjoying this, as I really believe it is some of the best music I have heard in a minute. These tracks come off of Disc 2, which is also mixed by Maurice Joshua and Paul Johnson. My only disappointment with the compilation is that they don't give a better accounting for why these tracks were chosen, or what significance they have. My guess is that Joshua and Johnson were given access to the vaults, and chose songs that would make for the best mix. However, is there a chronological aspect? Is there an attempt to show the way the music developed, from its more disco origins to its later acid period?

The songs here are simply awesome, probably not classic tracks from the label or period. But, these cuts have a more mechanical, drum machine sound, house stripped down and raw. In fact, "The Jungle" really sounds like a hip-house song, as the rap has that wordy, monotous feel of so many classic early rap tracks. Damn, you need these in your life. Grab the full 3CD set here, just in time for your summer parties and late-night dancing. Oh, and remind me to discuss Screamin' Rachael, as she is a pivotal figure in Chicago house and Trax Records, one of those names that gets lost over time.

For real, this shit really does fit in so perfectly with Pound for Pound's interests, that period from the late 70s to the late 80s, when house, post-punk, electro, new-wave, Miami bass, no-wave, all sorts of shit bubbled up in that period in all of the great cities. I'm trying to figure out if there is a common thread to these genres, at least something that doesn't sound forced. I was thinking that they all were open to any sound, whether disco, rap, punk, pop. Or that they were comfortable with the dance floor, sex, filthiness. Or that they all turned away from the human to the more mechanical drum machines, computers and angular chords. (Yes, the last two are probably mutually exclusive, just brainstorming here.) Or is that the scenes were open and diverse for the first time, building on the house disco built with gay and straight, black and white. I think that this one will be destroyed by smart minds, as I know that this is a very idealistic view of the times.

What do you guys and girls think?