Dance Mania was the Chicago label which was home to the Windy City's toughest, hardest house producers during the mid-90s. Tracks full of rudimentary funk and no-nonsense groove from DJ Funk, DJ Rush, Wax Master Maurice, Jammin' Gerald and the rest of the city's new breed established Dance Mania as the place to go for house music which was proudly and resolutely rough around the edges. Ghetto Madness takes off where last year's Strut label retrospective Hardcore Traxx left off with more tracks which colour in the lines and tell the story of a scene which continues to cast a shadow today (see the tributes to Dance Mania and ghetto house from Nina Kraviz, Boys Noize, Actress and others). It's a wild, urgent, thrilling trip. strut-records.com