Back to Prison

This is UK house in its earliest, rawest, purest form. The trio of Keith Franklin, Leslie Lawrence and warehouse party / club DJ legend Kid Batchelor recorded for the Warriors Dance label which had links to reggae soundsystems and Soul II Soul and they approached house as Black music first even as the acid house melting pot was bubbling around them. The huge track here is “Bang Bang You’re Mine”: sinister, sensual and psychedelic at the same time it worked for crowds from Ibiza to Detroit and its insistent organ is often sampled to this day. But there’s plenty more invention to dig into, from the drum overload of “Rubbadubb” to the jittering bleeps and irresistible bassline bounce of “The Latinos Are Comin In,” and for all the limitations of the production tools it still sounds highly advanced.