Cajmere - "Preacherman" (Relief Records)

Posting a tune for Friday (the awesome Benji Candelario, for those of you who missed out) seemed like the thing to do last week, so I decided I'd have a go at a tune for Friday, every Friday. Sort of like a Friday institution, that will last at least as long as it takes me to get tired of doing it. Which may be next week.

So, this long standing institution continues into its epic second week today with the tune for Friday: Preacherman.

Back in the 90s, when the clubbing house music world was ruled by cleanly produced European "techhouse" and the nth wave of Detroit styled techno, it seemed like house had forgotten its spiritual home of Chicago. Then from out of the blue, the jamming vocal label Cajual Records and it's heavier trackier brother Relief records erupted on to the scene from Illinois. Like a breath of fresh air, Cajual and Relief sprayed boxy, tracky disposable party records across a scene heavy on shoe-gazing and short on partying.

Here's one of the all-time classics that emerged - party animal (later to become hardcore Christian) and Cajual/Relief label owner Cajmere (aka Curtis Jones), with the monsterous Preacherman. Defying every possible rule of how to make a record, it's a furious and ultimately screaming religious rant layed across 8 minutes of punishing jackhammer distorted house drums. These meter-bursting drums would go on to become a feature of Cajual and particularly Relief releases, and while they sounded odd and off at first, it only took a couple of times hearing them on a big PA to realise what was what. Apart from that, all there is in Preacherman is a single synth noise that plays the same note in triplets across the beat the entire way through the track, getting slowly bent further and further out into FM synthesis psychosis as the fury of the preacher rises and falls.

Insane, powerful, unique, and unstoppable on a big system. Is it nearly time to ditch the new Berlin minimal sound, and get back to some old-school Chicago jack-tracks?

A kiss ain't enough!