Cat no: CH009
Release date: 10/10/11
Get it from: Juno
I first came across Belfast’s Council House Recordings thanks to the free Moody B download, Dirty Acid, a cracking tune you can get by adding yourself to the Council House waiting, sorry, mailing list, here. The label’s unashamedly in thrall to old skool Chicago and Detroit sounds but has thankfully eschewed the usual route of smiley face logos and bandanas for a punky visual aesthetic that’s pleasingly counter-intuitive, while for those of us who saw the rave explosion as a kind of punk anyway, a perfect fit. The music has a similar sense of intelligently applied nostalgia. It’s inescapable that each of the tunes on this seven-track sampler will inspire Proustian rushes of yearning, but the influences never completely take over.
So, on Humandrone’s House Noir (121 BPM), sinister vocal samples and orchestral stabs combine with highly strung 303 to create a wigged-out old skool tribute that’s as funky as it is dark, while Acid is Safe & Wonderful (120 BPM), by Affie Yusuf is a gorgeous half-awake dream of a tune, more Sheffield than Detroit. dyLAB’s Acid Council (130 BPM) is a hypnotic Chicagoan offering, the Acid duelling beautifully with the percussion, all of it infused with his trademark analogue warmth. He and Council House are a match made in heaven. Meanwhile, Mark Forshaw’s Designer (117 BPM), is a squelchfest of the highest order, think Do You Want to Perculate by the Sweat Boyz, except with a bit more, oh, oomph. Alert the Nation (124 BPM), by label head Moody B is a jack track, pure and simple, raw and funky – the funkiest thing here, in fact. Acid Raw Mix (120 BPM), by Owain + Cliffy has tough, breathy vox in the vein of early Green Velvet, while the Chicago Distortion’s Together (119 BPM) is another irresistible jacking number. Great stuff, then, and proof that Council House has the musical muscle to match its ethos.
House Noir
Acid is Safe & Wonderful
Acid Council
Designer
Alert the Nation
Acid Raw Mix
Together
A Chronicle of Rabbits 
