You can’t really understand house music without grasping the influence of the Black American church. As it coalesced from the remnants of disco in Eighties Chicago, New York and New Jersey, the style brought together important influences: new technology, queer culture, Latin rhythms, and crucially, a sense that the club is a church. All of those joyous piano riffs, full throated singers, songs of peace and harmony / coming together / hope for a better world – which would in turn be sampled and used to amplify the ecstasy experience for UK ravers – and the sense of dancing, even without that MDMA, being a collective act of striving towards ecstatic release in its original sense: all of that is gospel.
Sean “DJ Spen” Spencer from Baltimore understands this to his very bones. Whether solo or with the Basement Boys and Karizma, for not far short of 40 years he’s unerringly kept the original spirit of house alive to huge global success and now he’s made an album that is entirely gospel and entirely, authentically, thrillingly house. It really doesn’t mess about either, going straight in with a massed choir, cascading pianos and hammond organ for a full-blown hymn in “Total Praise”. Crucically, though, the beat under it isn’t just backing: it is locked in to the song, it has the kind of galloping groove that makes you feel guilty for not moving to, it uses huge bass tones as part of the track’s fabric, and its cuts and dynamics are those only a skilled DJ would make.
The fact it’s then followed by “War Cry”, which is tougher still and uses just short chopped up samples of a choir’s crescendo, underlines that the house feel is as paramount as anything. From there on in, we get to see the full range of classic house: shuffly New Jersey garage style tracks with the kind of rich R&B songwriting that used to crash the UK charts regularly, fearsome pounding mania with unhinged sermonising, organic-sounding grooves that reiterate the disco roots. Sometimes the doctrine is subtle – like so much soul through the decades the songs often have dual meanings, with the godly themes doubling up as secular romantic, social or even sexual messaging. But it leaves no room for doubt, to enjoy these world class vocalists, world class rhythms and thrilling energy, regardless of your own spiritual leanings you’re going to have to accept that you are entering into a community’s act of worship.
Listen to "When I Needed You Most":
