Drumbalaya

Top Cat - Molten Metal (From Red Zone 12" 1997)
Top Cat - Drumbalaya (from Red Zone 12" 1997)

Right off the bat I'd like to apologize for how poor the quality is on this rip, it's one I haven't been able to obtain physically yet and I don't want to pay 50$ for it on Ebay. The amount of money I make selling vinyl outweighs the amount I spend these days, not because I want to but because food is a basic need for survival. Personally I'd rather be able to hear these old Dance Mania 12"s in any form than wait for them to be put into "print" again. The later of which will most likely never happen if they aren't Deeon, Slugo, or Funk records.

Top Cat remains a mystery to me. Discogs links him to Patrick Prins, a Dutch producer who released a bunch of stuff in the 90s which I doubt is correct. Especially considering there are no records in Dance Mania's core catalog that aren't made by Chicagoans. Not that I know of at least, even Detroit is absent maybe due to Assault's Fuckadancemania. Plenty of the roster appears on European labels but there was no room for outsiders even within the span of almost 300 12"s. What a bunch of snobs! This release contains some great skeletal snare heavy ghetto house tracks (Drumbalaya) and congested synths (Molten Metal) that look good stacked up against some of the weirder, exploratory records released during this era. My favorite ones, that is.