UNDER THE CONDITIONS by LERON CARSON

(RH Record of the week review at the bottom of this text)

Chicago's Leron Carson offers up a doublepack bassheavy Lo-fi soulful house jams. House music stripped back to its essentials here; no frills - just thrills. Well recommended!!!

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Rush Hour Store Record of the week W46:

With the end of the year fast approaching Sound Signature drops a double album that’s sure to grace a lot of 2021 lists - the big Rush Hour crew favorite that is the late LeRon Carson’s ‘Under the Conditions’.

Apart from four contributions to the Sound Signature catalogue (the debut split ‘1987 EP’, the Omar-S engineered ‘Red Lightbulb Theory ‘87-‘88’, 2014’s ‘Tracks from the Tape’ and 2016’s ‘Lemonlime’), little is known about the near-mythical Chicago producer, who was particularly prolific in his teen years in the late eighties.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, for, in the words of Sound Signature, “to speak about LeRon is to talk about the music itself.” “His dedication was on the border of obsession. He was always making tracks, and if not that, he was practicing mixing. Never once did I hear him complain about the equipment he did’n’t have, records he wished he could afford or material things he couldn’t obtain. LeRon made do with whatever he had access to.”

The eight tracks on ‘Under the Conditions’ were made in ‘88 and ‘89, when Carson wasn’t even eighteen years old and display a unique talent that perfectly embodies the innovative spirit of house music. Restored from the original cassette tapes they vary from Armando-style jack tracks and Virgo- and Fingers-inspired deep grooves to loop-based disco house predating Cajmere’s work by a few years. As it says in the liner notes: “LeRon was miles ahead of us in musical development.” (RO)