Frankie Knuckles: "Motivation Too"

Worth the slog: The most capable hands available for this kind of thing.

Widely regarded as the Godfather of House for being one of the pivot men at Chicago’s Warehouse at the dawn of the genre, Knuckles, now 55, here uncorks his second uninterrupted flow of “deep house” (ie disco by any other name) punctuated with pump-up you-can-do-it speeches from divas and would-be preachers.

Scary idea to anyone who cringes at the thought of 70s soul still having a place in the world, but these are probably the most capable hands available for this kind of thing. None of it’s his own work, but that’s the only real-world complaint I can come up with, for the music itself does carry a big, danceable, motivational stick. The warmup is “Faith,” a low-key pair of chords over which Dr. Gary Gray gently proselytizes from a Tony Robbins soapbox, this prior to Big Brooklyn Red dishing the irresistibly floor-filling “He Moves” with its monster Temptations-on-steroids chorus.

Michelle Weeks’ “A Purpose” puts the kibosh on any fun longtime-disco-haters are having, but a nicely modern rub of Jon Cutler’s “One” is worth the slog.

By Eric Saeger

Homepage: Frankie Knuckles
Homepage: Nervous Records