Rick Wade

Rick Wade is one of Detroit’s most prolific house producers, having released dozens of records since the mid-’90s. The embodiment of deep house, his tracks generally consist of steady kick drums, minimal strings or pianos, the occasional soul or disco sample, and a smooth, slightly melancholy atmosphere. Highly respected by his fellow DJs and house aficionados worldwide, he is praised for his ability to craft timeless tracks at a rapid work rate. He began releasing 12″ EPs on his own Harmonie Park label in 1994 (as well as ghettotech records as Big Daddy Rick on his Bass Force imprint), and soon put out records on house labels like Moods & Grooves and Track Mode. He began releasing albums during the 2000s, including 2008′s The Good, the Bad and the Deep, and compilations such as 2009′s Rush Hour-issued Harmonie Park Revisited helped listeners catch up with his extensive catalog. His 2015 full-length Golden Harvest was an excursion into downtempo instrumental hip-hop, and a few EPs, such as 2020′s Another Galaxy, offered a more sci-fi-influenced variation on his trademark deep house sound.
Rick Wade was raised in a farm town in Western Michigan, and grew up listening to Chicago radio stations. He studied at the University of Michigan in the mid-’80s, and spun house music at Ann Arbor’s Nectarine Ballroom, additionally hosting Journey to the Land of House on WCBN FM, the station’s first show dedicated to the genre. After moving to Detroit, he started working in the Dance Room at the storied Record Time shop in 1993, where his co-workers, including Mike Huckaby and Daniel Bell, encouraged him to release his own music. He launched Harmonie Park with Late Night Basix, his debut EP, in 1994. He started another imprint called Bass Force and began releasing electro and ghettotech records as Big Daddy Rick, a nickname given to him by fellow WCBN DJ Brendan M. Gillen of Ectomorph. He also released a more techno-sounding EP as Dr. Low-Tech on the M3 label in 1996. EPs arrived at a steady clip on his own label as well as others such as Mike Grant’s Moods & Grooves and Daniel Bell’s Elevate.
Wade’s debut album, Dark Ascension, arrived on the British label Music Is... in 2004. Harmonie Park released the CD-only Darkskills in 2005, as well as the compilation Best of Rick Wade, Vol. 1 in 2007. Germany’s Yore Records issued The Good, the Bad and the Deep in 2008, and Dutch label Rush Hour summarized the first two decades of Wade’s career with the 2009 compilation Harmonie Park Revisited. Requiem for a Machine Soul, a Wade mix-CD packaged with a 20-page animated novel by famed Detroit designer/illustrator Abdul Haqq, was issued as part of an exhibition of Haqq’s artwork at the Ikoi Gallery in Amsterdam. Haqq also provided the artwork for Wade’s 2011 album Never Ending Reflections. Wade’s With Me was released by German label Little Angel Records in 2013, and Golden Harvest, his first instrumental hip-hop release, appeared on Steamed Fresh Beats in 2015. He continued releasing EPs on labels like Shall Not Fade, Unknown Season (who also released the digital-only The Best of Rick Wade in 2020), and Rawax, and Ghostly International sister label Spectral Sound reissued 1998′s Late Night Basix Vol. 2 in 2021. ~ Paul Simpson