While there’s no shortage of praise for the mid- and late-’80s salad days of classic Chicago house, when it comes to talk of house music’s present, the Windy City sometimes feels grossly underrepresented. That’s certainly not the fault of Tevo Howard, a veteran DJ who has been dropping a steady stream of quality house records in the past few years. His most recent is the excellent Monument EP, which once again finds him mining the vintage drum sounds and stylistic tropes of Chicago house to create his own fresh takes on the genre. As such, we figured now would be a good time for Howard to put together an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series, and although we expected a master course in house music, Howard had other ideas.

In his own words, “This mix is a collection of ’80s tracks that influenced me to acknowledge and explore an electric ‘sort’ of sound circa 2004. I found this electric ‘sort’ of sound, at that time in 2004, to be futuristic, as its sound was the idea of the direction that I thought popular music would go. Today, I am able to say that the inspiration of this ‘sort’ of sound has influenced me as a producer as well as a composer. It is my notion that this ‘sort’ of sound is called electro in today’s terms. I am proud to do this mix for XLR8R.”

Basically, one of Chicago’s top house producers has put together a mix of ’80s electro cuts—some of them totally obscure, others by familiar faces—that began to influence him a full 15-20 years after their initial release. We’re sold.

01 Vicious Pink “Take Me Now (Extended Version)” (Parlaphone)
02 Depeche Mode “No Disco” (Mute)
03 Kinky Go “Give Me the Love” (Razormaid)
04 Taffy “I Love My Radio (Midnight Radio) (USA Mix)” (Emergency)
05 Zinnon “What’s Your Name” (Rush)
06 Michael Oliver “Breakin’ Up Breakin’ Down (Club Mix)” (DJ International)
07 Model 500 “No UFO’s (Instrumental)” (Metroplex)
08 Luke Acid C. “Work It to the Bone” (ZYX)
09 Robotiko Rejekto “Rejekto (Presention Mix)” (ZYX)
10 George Kranz “Din Daa Daa (U.S. Mix)” (Pool)
11 Lil’ Louis “The Original Video Clash” (Dance Mania)
12 Scrappy “Freeze (Mad Dog Dub)” (Zap)
13 Trilogy “Not Love (Vocal)” (Il Disc)
14 Vicious Pink “Fetish (Extended Version)” (Parlaphone)
15 Fantasy Club “Mystery Girl (Set Me Free) (Original Mix)” (International House)
16 808 State “Cubik” (Tommy Boy)

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