American Classics

By 1994, DJ Pierre had seen in two key house-music developments: He’d basically invented acid house by twisting the knobs on a Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer, finding the menacing, warped pitch-bending in a castoff piece of gear and helping invent the musical future; and the “wild pitch” sound of his early nineties productions after moving to New York—the same zigzagging idea he brought to every instrument. But Pierre was, crucially, also one of the best DJs ever from Chicago. American Classics, recorded live in early 1994 at Cream, in Liverpool, is full of satisfying long blends—between “Dream Girl” by Pierre’s Pfantasy Club and Liberty City’s “Some Lovin’,” for example, or the blippy freak-out “Ambulance” by Robert Armani, slowed down, into the magisterial vocal house of Dharma B Meet DJ Pierre’s “Love Talks (Wild Pitch),” sped up. The grooves may bump elbows a little, but everyone works up a sweat.