Chris Gray

Chris Gray, a connoisseur of deep house with an archivist’s grasp of Chicago’s musical lineage, crafts tracks that stir the same emotional core once touched by pioneers such as Larry Heard and Marshall Jefferson. Early influences included Heard alongside Blaze, Ron Trent, and the Wamdue Project, yet Gray spent his Mississippi upbringing largely cut off from the scene unfolding in the Windy City. A house mixtape passed along by his cousin in 1987 sparked focused listening, and by 1990 he had launched Deephouse Projekt as a clearinghouse for details on house music’s Chicago origins. After earning a degree from Mississippi State University in 1992, he relocated to Chicago and began producing. His opening EPs, The Moonchildren and Very Moody, served as deliberate declarations of affinity for Heard’s landmark pieces “Can You Feel It” and “Mystery of Love.” Both appeared on the British imprint Freetown/Subwoofer Records, while his first full-length, A Deeper Level of Understanding, received a 1997 UK release through Music Is...Records. Additional American outlets such as DC 10 issued his work, including remixes for Kevin Elliott, Greg Cash, and Larry Heard on the latter’s Dance 2000, Part 2. Gray’s second album, Fish & Luvconfushun, surfaced in mid-1998, followed a year later by Emotional Distortion on Deep 4 Life.