JAMIE 3​:​26 PRESENTS A TASTE OF CHICAGO by VARIOUS ARTISTS

It’s one of the coolest comps out there right now: BBE’s ‘A Taste of Chicago’, lovingly compiled by extended Rush Hour family member Jamie 3:26, the broad smiled Windy City veteran who’s been dominating dancefloors for decades with a potent mix of raw Chicago house, bold disco, heavy funk and whatever else works to whip the crowd into a frenzy.

On ‘A Taste of Chicago’ he shares some of his secret dancefloor weapons in the form of personalized edits and reworks of both timeless classics and lesser known floorburners, opening with a track that falls firmly into the latter category, an edit of one of Chicago’s best kept secrets, BSTC’s highly percussive ‘Venus & Mars’. It’s followed by one of Jamie’s biggest crowdpleasers, the crazed out scat track that is ‘The Lesson’ by Mighty Science. Jamie moves into classic Chicago house territory with his rendition of Jungle Wonz’ deephouse anthem ‘The Jungle’ and Quest’s equally anthemic ‘Mind Games’, before cranking it up another notch with the high energy handclapping house of Braxton Holmes’ ‘Stomps & Shouts’. Proceedings slow down a bit on Chip E’s mechanic 1985 house banger ‘It’s House’, before going all out on his version of raunchy New Jersey funk outfit Calendar’s 1976 monster ‘Comin’ on Strong’. Anything goes with Jamie, as long as it’s funky and lights up the dancefloor - It’s that Chicago attitude that makes this compilation for BBE such a strong one (RO).