The world of Rick Wade, Detroit’s immaculate underground deep house legend, is vast but quiet, like long stretches of snow-dusted road. Wade’s timeless formula was developed early, as he puts it: “Punchy drums, and a standard house tempo, so you could dance to it, but the melody and the vibe was very melancholy.”
Wade has released on classic labels such as Moods & Grooves and Track Mode and in recent years has found new life on up and coming imprints like Shall Not Fade. It’s arguable that his hybrid sound could be chalked up to his outsider status, stuck between worlds of sound. Rick grew up in the farming town of Buchanan, Michigan, near the Indiana border, and was informed by the radio of nearby Chicago. The transmissions of house, as well as Detroit techno, set his mind ablaze.
When finally moving to the city, Wade started working in the ‘Dance Room’ at Detroit’s Record Time shop in 1993 alongside a cast of the city’s most esteemed DJs and producers including Mike Huckaby, Claude Young, and Daniel Bell.
Wade had been developing his sound in bass (booty or Ghettotech, in Detroit parlance) music sound with the alias of Big Daddy Rick (thanks to Ectomorph’s BMG), gaining favor as both a bass and hip-hop DJ. But it was Wade’s friend Dan Bell who encouraged him to put out the house music he was making, and later the two of them established Harmonie Park, Wade’s label, which became one of the most beloved Detroit imprints of the decade. The late Mike Huckaby encouraged Wade to start getting his music out, and quickly. “Whatever moment in time and space you are in...you need to put out your best stuff,” Huckaby implored. He acted as “the network” for Wade’s music, helping spread the word and making sure the right DJ’s had it. “People all around the world would call Record Time to ask about it.“
After releasing two EPs from Huckaby next on Harmonie Park and an EP, Night Trackin’ on Bell’s new Elevate label (with some uncredited production by Parrish). Wade returned to his own imprint, the second of which is 1998’s Late Night Basix Vol. 2. The release seems to reflect all sides of Wade’s house trademarks.
“Detroit Hustle” is that classic house sound, piano stabs and all. According to Wade, it was an attempt at trying to sound like he could “play” the keyboard, by means of his Alesis sequencer and turning the beats per minute as slow as they could go, playing the notes out, and speeding them up again to feign accomplished musicianship. It works.
“I Feel Good” is what Wade and Huck would call “Disco-style tracks”: tracks that helped transition to and from disco cuts in a DJ mix, a style that would set the stage for Moodymann and others, and have that bubbly quality that French Touch artists would later tweak into pop.
“Deep-N-Dirty” is perhaps the most stunning work on this release. Its set up is simple: drums via a Roland R8 with the 909 card (bought from Huckaby), organ/congas/strings via Korg T3 (a Wade staple, those longing strings), and a Juno 106 pad say it all. Wade, overcome by girl troubles at the time, would steal away to his basement studio to “enclose myself and pour all my angry emotions into the music. Transferring that sadness, that despair, into the tracks.” It’s as elemental as Deep House gets, spare and brooding, pure soul.
“Forgotten Track,” named by Huckaby, is the closer. Pitch-perfect sunrise music, joyous and sad all at once. What this EP, and this era in his career, means to Wade is clear: “[it] was just raw sounding tracks. A more innocent time. It was all new and exciting.”
“At the shop, we would try to trick each other all the time. We wouldn’t tell each other what we were playing, especially if it was our song. The goal was to make each other's head nod, and whenever me or Huck would play one of our own tracks, if either of us was bopping our head, we would say:
Rick Wade, the man behind Harmonie Park Records has been producing soulful, timeless grooves and tapping into the essence of
deepness since the early ’90's. A stalwart of Detroit’s rich music history for the past two decades Rick has long been considered an underground hero - one of those guys called a "producer's producer" or the "DJ's DJ", pioneering the Detroit Deep House....more
supported by 59 fans who also own “Late Night Basix Vol. 2”
Moodymann creates innovative soul funky music with deep 70s inspiration. The vocals are simply outstanding. A step back in time, 50 years ago! Superb. jef37