Sweden wouldn't be the first place you'd think of for a label releasing this EP, but Rucksack Records isn't an ordinary label. We marked their K-Alexi/Jivaro split EP as the the pick of the litter in the February 2007 issue of 5, and they're getting the designation (complete with shiny trophy) this time for the EP release of two tracks by Gene Hunt, one of which was recorded with the late Ron Hardy.

"Chilites" is a piece that I'm going to put down in the elementary textbook of House Music Tracks 101: this is how you make an instrumental track. I'm not especially partial to either vocals or tracks, but I hear enough instrumentals made in which the creator seems to believe that "track" means "unfinished song". Not so here. Learn from the master: Gene makes the instruments sing. The track starts off with a rolling percussion beat that I can really only describe as "ghetto congas". I don't know how he made that sound, but I haven't heard it before. This is just the entree, however: what follows is eleven-plus minutes of complex, mind-bending arrangement, a melody that rolls and rolls through variations without ever losing track of a hypnotising beat.

"Chilites" was my favorite of the two tracks on the EP, but "Throwback 87" is probably the one that got you reading this far. This is a recording made by Gene and the legendary Ron Hardy in 1987, a few years before Ronnie passed away. As everyone knows, quite a few producers tried to get Ron into the studio, and many succeeded, though his name would appear on precious few records from the era. Gene appears to have succeeded, and this is the result, buried for more than 20 years and now available.

So how does it sound? I expected it to be dirtier, but the audio quality is remarkably clean. This was the heyday of the 303, but it's played here at a much lower register than you're used to hearing on other acid tracks of the era or the ones that would follow. This makes it a lot more danceable. The hi-hats are very high, with that classic Chicago jack sound. I don't think you'd mistake this for something created recently - it does fit neatly into the '86-'93 time frame, but I think you'd have to put it solidly in the upper tier of classic acid tracks, even if it came to us - by way of Sweden - twenty years later.

 

+ Track Listing

1. Gene Hunt: "Chilites"
2. Gene Hunt featuring Ron Hardy: "Throwback 87"