Rewind to the early heyday of house.

Chicago house historian Jacob Arnold has built up a great archive of features, mixes and tracklists on his website Gridface, and following the untimely death of Frankie Knuckles yesterday, he’s pointed us in the direction of his huge selection of ’80s mixes from the local legend.

Going back as far as 1981, the mixes come with all-important tracklists that show, as Arnold says, just how broad the definition of ‘house’ was back in the ’80s.

Head to Gridface to explore the archive, and check out the other pages on the site for more on the history of Chicago house. Hat tip to Philip Sherburne for highlighting this one.

Be sure to check out a recording of Knuckles’ Friday Night Jams radio slot from 1986, and tuck into Bill Brewster and RBMA’s Warehouse Top 50 playlist.