While I was on holiday I was treated to a non-stop bombardment of modern dance music from the bar, and as it's not really my favourite genre I had to try to drown it out as much as possible by listening to heavy rock and loud indie on the headphones. However, it did remind me that I didn't always dislike dance music, and back in the good old days, when John Peel was alive and Radio 1 was actually worth listening to, I used to record his shows every night and listen to them in the car on the way to work, and if he played something that I liked that I wouldn't be able to find in the record shop then I used to re-record them onto a cassette tape. He played a lot of the new emerging hip hop and dance music in the late 80's, mostly electronic and often including (illegally sourced) samples from old films and TV shows and weird sound effects, and I really liked some of them, so before long I had enough for a couple of hour-long compilation tapes. When I got back from holiday I decided to dig them out to see if I still liked them, and it turns out that I do. They included a number of tracks that have since become House standards, like 'Beat Dis' and 'Doctorin' The House', so I've sourced better quality copies where possible, and mixed them into two forty-minute albums. If you fancy a trip down memory lane to relive the beginnings of the Chicago House scene then dive in, and the second volume will be along shortly. 
Track listing
01 The Finest Ingredient - DJ Megamix / Theme From S'Express - S'Express /Beat Dis - Bomb The Bass / Hey Rocky - Boris Badenough /Paid In Full - Eric B. & Rakim / Check This Out - L.A. Mix / Shake! - Gene & Jim / Sure Beats Working - Beats Working / Beats & Pieces - Coldcut
As promised, here is the second of my mixes of late 80's House music, courtesy of the John Peel show. Once again, a couple of these were quite big at the time - 'Doctorin' The House' and 'Voodoo Ray - but with some of the pieces I never got an actual title at the time and so couldn't find the tracks online, and for those I've had to use my original cassette recordings from 30 years ago. Hopefully they don't sound too bad compared to the newer recordings.
Track listing
01 Doctorin' The House (Speng Mix) - Coldcut Featuring Plastic Man And The Plastic People / Ha Ha Ha - Unknown Remix / Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald /Help! - Unknown Remix / The Dream - Swan Lake / Dance With The Devil - The Project Club / Hey Hey Mama - Unknown Led Zeppelin Remix / Big Band House - Aqua Regia
