RiL013 Boo Williams - A New Beginning (Relief)

I have never met Boo Williams, which is odd as I have had the pleasure of meeting many great house music artists from Chicago. For a man who has made so many great contributions to house music there is not an awful lot about him on the web.  I have found that he was around as early as 1981 on the scene in Chicago and that he was born in 1967 so that would have made him only 14 when he started to get involved in music.  He also came from the South Side of the city.  

I first went to Chicago in 1997 with Luke Soloman and stayed with Derrick Carter. Derrick showed me the sites but I don't mean we went up many skyscrapers.  I mean -the Red Dog, Gramophone records, a loft party with Chez Damier, Chris Nazuka and Honey Dijon ( that got raided) , polish bars that served cheap whiskey, southside shrimp at 6am and White Castle mini burgers when drunk.  We also went to meet Cajmere, who was living in an amazing loft apartment complete with studio. He took us to Cajual, who at the time were also housing Relief and Prescription Underground in the same space. It was a big operation and I was inspired and impressed.

A new beginning was actually Boo William's first record released under his own name in 1994. There was a trademark kick drum that was used on Relief records at the time that I think is just a compressed and EQed TR909 kick but they got it soooo heavy.  Other labels at the time such as Djax and Dance Mania also contributed to the sound which was somewhat pejoratively named ghetto house. I've no idea who thought that one up but I'm sure they weren't from the southside of Chicago.  A New Beginning stood out for me precisely because it still had that hard as nails beat but it's synths and strings deliver a totally different mood. Pressed on clear vinyl I think you'd be good picking up a mint copy for £10-£15.