The return of Dance Mania Records

Barney also took chances on releases that clashed with the clean style of house that was already transforming pop on several continents, and by the early 90s Dance Mania became known for primitive-sounding, stripped-down music. “That’s how guys used to call in and ask for music on Dance Mania—they were saying, ‘Gimme some of that ghetto stuff,'” Barney recalls. He’s sometimes credited with coining the term “ghetto house,” and though he says he didn’t—the first time he saw it was on a DJ Funk record—he adopted the name to describe the label’s sound.

Mitchell has his own take on the term. “When he started talking about ghetto house to me, my interpretation of ‘ghetto’ is deprived, like, missing elements,” Mitchell says. “My interpretation of that was—well really, I thought he was just tired of paying for studio time, so I just assumed that we were gonna do it really raw. So I just thought ‘really raw’ when he said that. So we started doing things really raw, and instead of going to studios and paying studio bills, we would do stuff at home in our bedrooms, or in the basement.”

Quick and dirty was the rule. “Follow Me Ghetto (Acid),” a track on Mitchell’s 1994 Dance Mania LP Life in the Underground, is an unrehearsed jam session with DJ Funk. “He got the drum machines and started programming the beat,” Mitchell says, “and I think while he was programming I was working out notes on the keyboard.” A 1994 Mitchell EP called Traxx, more commonly known as Explicit Lyrics—its song titles include “Masturbation” and “Whose P___y Is This”—was “75 percent” Barney’s idea, Mitchell says. Barney isn’t too eager these days to discuss his role in such salacious projects, though—he’s got four kids, including 16-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

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