Leron Carson

A somewhat mythical figure from Chicago's house scene, LeRon Carson produced stripped-down yet highly emotive tracks using a very limited setup, overdubbing tracks onto cassette tapes. Most, if not all, of his body of work was recorded in the late '80s, when he was a teenager, and released through <a href="spotify:artist:3qMRvSHJpaRjGDkIeNMoGz">Theo Parrish</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sound+Signature%22">Sound Signature</a> label decades later. The tracks range from deep, minimal house to grubby disco loops similar to what Detroit producers like <a href="spotify:artist:6pohviZSNRueSX7uNu63ZX">Moodymann</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3qMRvSHJpaRjGDkIeNMoGz">Parrish</a> himself would become known for beginning in the 1990s. Several singles and EPs by Carson appeared starting in 2001, and a posthumous full-length, Under the Conditions, was released in 2021.

Very little information about Carson has been publicly disclosed, but it is known that he resided in Chicago's South Side, and he named some of his tracks after locations from around his neighborhood. According to people who knew him, he was constantly recording tracks or mixing, and always made the best of his limited resources. He was close friends with <a href="spotify:artist:3qMRvSHJpaRjGDkIeNMoGz">Theo Parrish</a>, who also grew up in Chicago, and the two started producing tracks towards the end of the 1980s, when they were both teenagers. In 2001, <a href="spotify:artist:3qMRvSHJpaRjGDkIeNMoGz">Parrish</a> released The 1987 EP, which contained one track each by himself and Carson, recorded during the titular year. Carson's first full EP, Red Lightbulb Theory '87-'88, appeared in 2009, engineered by <a href="spotify:artist:3BvWiyLcyLMoOIm2U8HepI">Omar-S</a> at FXHE Studios, Detroit. Tracks from the Tape, a pair of tracks co-produced with Dion Wilson (aka hip-hop producer No I.D.), was released in 2014. Carson passed away on January 16, 2016, shortly before the release of the Lemonlime 12". In 2021, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sound+Signature%22">Sound Signature</a> released Under the Conditions, Carson's first full-length. The double-CD edition included every Carson track that had been released up to that point, as well as one song that hasn't been issued on vinyl. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi