[Guidance Recordings]

It’s hard to imagine a deep house record causing as much commotion as this one did back in 1996. The newly formed Guidance Recordings had one release under its belt but it was this one from Projekt: PM, also known as Edgar Sinio, which caught people’s attention and put them on the Chicago house map. “When The Voices Come” had people talking when it took what seemed like disparate elements and combined them to form an arresting piece of music that sounded extremely original. Sure, there were prior house tracks that had featured flute melodies — Bobby Konders’ “Expressions” (Flute Mix) and Last Rhythm’s “Last Rhythm” for example — but how many merged them with silky vocoder vocals? It was a cross-genre pollination that worked wonders especially when paired with delayed organ chords and a thick bass line ripple. And during the last two minutes when the vocal is left to carry the melodic duties on its own, the effected words echo with a somberness, sounding like a ghost lost in Sinio’s machines.

The remaining tracks on this release are done in a similar style with “Don’t You Forget” standing out for its rubbery snare delay and a series of synth funk squalls while “Take You Higher” features subtle female vocals and a throbbing 303 bass line. They are equally melodic and funky, but nowhere near as daring and stunning as “When The Voices Come.” Sinio only went on to release one more 12″ the following year. I’m surprised When The Voices Come is still widely available on Discogs and at bargain bin prices. When it was released then writer Tim Haslett basked in the glorious beauty of this record but also pondered rhetorically, “What are you supposed to do with a record this good?” 14 years later apparently that question still hasn’t been answered.