Boo Williams ‎– Midnight Express

Undoubtedly one of the finest things to come out on the seminal Relief Records, for me it's all about 'Midnight Express'. Boo works the trusty Juno 106 + 909 combination to devastating effect, with heavily distorted drums (actually, make that pretty much heavily distorted everything!), and layered synth loops, crazy fills and a groove to die for, all rounded off with a typical lo-fi Relief pressing, which so many people seem to think is a bad thing! It's all about the distortion - crank those gains... I promise, your neighbours will love you. If you're looking for an introduction to the REAL jacking chicago sound, then this would be a fine place to start. Just brilliant, raw, tracky house music by a true legend.

"Cloud Burst", alongside Tim Harper's "202 Ocean Spray", is the ultimate Relief era Chicago track for me. A bottom-heavy, finger-poppin', grin-inducing piece of machine funk with a groove of Godzilla proportions and all controls set firmly at 11. There must have been smoke coming from Boo's studio the day he made this - you can just tell he was having a hell of a good time when he produced it. Get it, play it, and dance like an idiot.