Mention Larry Heard’s name and you’ll elicit warmly reverent responses to any number of his aliases. From the Fingers material (Mr. and Inc.) to Gherkin Jerks and productions under his own name, Heard is a veritable legend, a mastermind of truly musical house, and the creator of quite a few classic records. The Housefactors’ 1988 EP Play It Loud — the first of two releases under that name — isn’t a hugely rare record, but its availability 24 years on is sparse enough that Black Market International, its original label, has seen fit to reissue it. For those familiar with Heard but hearing the record for the first time, the title track will not sound like a drastic departure from his work as Mr. Fingers. Its percolating, coiling bass line isn’t so far from the ones on some of his more famous tracks — namely “Washing Machine” — and it’s underlined by charging, insistent drum patterns. At eight minutes, it’s lengthy for a rhythm track, but it fits very cleanly into Heard’s late-80s oeuvre.
On the contrary, the tracks on the flip might be mistaken for the work of a different artist altogether. A frantic siren-esque synth runs throughout “Freestyle”, which is coupled with rattling, frenzied snare and hi-hat patterns, more a precursor to the primitivist ghetto house of the following decade than the soulful, deeper sound with which Heard is typically associated. And finally, “Go Crazy” lives up to its name and then some. Its sporadic melody reminds of some decaying video game, saturated and spiky, and its sheer chaotic oddness is accentuated as it’s positioned atop an unhinged, relentlessly banging, snare-and-clap-led rhythm. The most experimental ends of Chicago house are always worth a revisit — especially in light of the ongoing contemporary flirtation between noise and dance music, where names like Steve Poindexter and Jamal Moss have been strongly influencing younger generations of artists. Play It Loud — and particularly its B-side — is thus a timely reissue, and makes yet another case for Heard’s singular brilliance.
