Get it off…

Kerri Chandler - Get it off / Super Lover

Yo, get it off.. get it off, Yo, set it loose... set it loose...

Back in 1989, the ‘house music' sound was well and truly, still in its infancy and being defined, with huge variances in production styles and quality of delivery, coming from a wave of hungry budding producers with their sights set on making their own flavour of electronic music. Using the latest technology a lot of the music sounded raw and was rough round the edges as producers experimented with synths, samplers and recording techniques... but some tracks from this far back stand out (even by today’s sonically brilliant production standards) as timeless pieces of forward thinking music... The Super Lover / Get it EP off is one such example.

With only 250 promo copies originally released in 1989 as part of a 6 track EP on Express Records, (a copy of which will set you back a cool £800+ on Discogs based on copies for sale today… whaaa??), Get it off is widely regarded to be, holy grail house music deity, Kerri Chandler’s first release, delivered as a joint production working with Clint Robinson and Perry Turner under the alias ‘Three Generations’. A year later saw an Atlantic Records release of 2 of the tracks from the original EP, Super Lover & Get it off. This is more widely available and whilst still highly sought after, it shouldn’t cost you a kidney to acquire a decent original 1990 copy for yourself ;)

As holy grail, blueprint 'deep’ style house music goes, Get it off serves as a genre defining moment in time, with it’s (multiple) dubby vocal hooks, exquisitely produced soundscape, solid drum patterns and percussion, grooving baseline and spacy pads. This cult, deep, dubby house music classic has been a long standing, highly regarded member of my record collection and has featured in my DJ sets regularly over the last 3 decades, this serves as testament to the track's quality, longevity and ongoing relevance, as it continues tol wow’s crowds to this day. For Kerri Chandler connoisseurs, it serves as a pivotal moment in the definition of the underground house music sound, and set the unwavering path that Kerri has been forging ever since…

Bravo Kerri, we salute you.

More on the bitter/sweet story of how this holy grail house track came to be below, courtesy of the mighty

Resident Advisor….

Chandler's music often evokes joy, but his breakthrough track, "Get It Off," was born from despair. It was dedicated to Chandler's girlfriend at the time, Tracy Jones, who was raped and murdered outside the legendary New Jersey venue Club Zanzibar. The tragedy upended Chandler's life—the couple were supposed to get married.

"Get It Off" celebrated Jones's love of house music—she often showed Chandler music before anyone else—while also being a cathartic exercise. The hook repeating the track's title was Chandler's attempt to expel the tragedy from his mind. One refrain—"You are so vicious"—was for the murderer. The sound of a needle being ripped from the vinyl, a sample later copied in countless house records, represented a life being ripped away. Chandler's willingness to pour intense emotion into his music was key to his rise. It's remarkable that his earliest tracks had these traits from the get-go. Somehow dark yet uplifting, "Get It Off" is house at its bare-bones best.

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