I don’t know what the story is with Maurice Joshua’s huge hit “This Is Acid”. It originally appeared on Trax Records as this droning, dark acid track with distorted vocals. Then it was remixed until almost nothing was left of the original (including the acid) for the smash hit on Vendetta Records. Was Maurice involved in that remix? Or did Vendetta license the track and then remix it until it sounded nothing like the original? Very strange.

Either way, it seemed like Maurice tried to replicate that Vendetta remix sound for Get Into The Dance and Opening Melody by using some similar samples.

I really like Get Into The Dance. Opening Melody is ok. What really stands out on Opening Melody is the absolutely atrocious lyrics. It’s like the rap was freestyled and the only words he could think of that rhymed are “back” and “track”.

I wonder if some people new to the 80s Chicago house scene think some people overexaggerate the low quality of Trax Records. Believe me, it’s no joke. When you would open up a new sealed copy of a Trax Record – the record would be intact, but there would be little bits and pieces of broken records in the record sleeve. Supposedly, they would take old records and print new ones on top of them (which I didn’t know was possible). So sometimes the record quality was good – other times it was crap. This is a crap quality record. I edited out a few pops but completely cleaning up these tracks would take hours.

And as a final insult to the artist, they spelled his name wrong on the record! Under the song title is listed “M. Joshiwa” when his name is listed as Maurice Joshua on every other record he released.

Maurice
Get Into The Dance / Opening Melody

Trax Records TX184
Produced by B.D.
Written by Maurice Joshua and Lamar ‘Hot Hands’ Hula Mahone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i9ueJFEcSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Rm-uzQLFk