One of my most common problems in
life is thinking too much. Sometimes it can have its benefits but mostly I find
all it does is either get me into trouble or keep me awake at night long after
the average human being has disappeared to sleep at a sensible time. Every so
often though it embarks me upon a journey of memories. Whilst a lot of the time
and especially at the moment those memories might not be the most pleasant,
this afternoon during an offbeat conversation my mind started thinking in a
musical manner. Actually that’s somewhat of a lie as it originally started with
slagging off our American cousins for labelling anything dance music related
under the general genre of EDM or electronic dance music to give it it’s full
term. EDM it appears is everywhere in America right now and artists of all
genre’s are clambering to have their music associated with this so called new
sound from rnb to Hip Hop and beyond. The thing is to the historically educated
whilst UK artists are rightly acclaimed worldwide for the sounds they produce
day in and day out, EDM in its original guises was always very much an American
invention in the first place and certainly nothing new to their shores.
They exported it and we put one
or two twists on it. OK so maybe a little more than one or two but as America
really starts to embrace and love EDM with some aplomb it got me walking down
memory lane thinking of some of the tracks that for me have made a real impact
not only on myself personally but on the music scene in this country. Whilst
you may not agree with some of the tracks that I’ve selected that in my opinion
have had a major impact they all have one thing in common namely the original
source of influence; somewhere many years ago in America a DJ was spinning
records with a 4/4 beat. They might have been playing in Chicago or Detroit and
there’s a very real chance the biggest records of the time were being played in
gay clubs which can be described as the real pioneers of EDM. Whoever was
spinning the records and whoever was dancing to them EDM has come full circle
and been given back to the American masses in 2012.
One of the major problems in
trying to compile a list of records in any genre will be the fact that
obviously not everyone will agree with your choices and if this was a video
posted on youtube anyone who chose to comment underneath would most certainly
be calling for my balls on a plate if the sub genre was one that they didn’t
like. If you have no idea what I mean click on any youtube music video and
scroll down the comments. It’s like urban warfare on there with comments
written by people who feel somewhat morally self charged with protecting a
genre of music they like and by Joe - God help anyone that chooses to like something
different. Hopefully those types of people only choose to comment on youtube videos
and have subscribed to the notion or possibility that someone could possibly write
about certain music without using the aforementioned tracks for the purpose of
the task at hand. When that day happens that they find their way onto blogs we
will find a new format and continue to have normal conversations without them
so don’t panic.
I guess for me growing up my love
for music with electronic beats started in the late 1980s and definitely got
into full swing during the 1990s although I was also swayed heavily during the
same period by a lot of hip hop. As a music fan in general I find pigeon holing
yourself into one genre means you can never fully broaden your horizons to a
world of possibilities. The chances that your favourite musician has only ever
been inspired by one genre of music will let’s face it on the scope of things
be as likely as Sir Alex Ferguson doing the running man on the touchline of Old
Trafford if Manchester United were to win the English Premier League title this
season. Whilst not entirely incomprehensible; firstly they will have to de-thrown
Manchester City at the top and secondly good luck on getting odds on that with
any reputable book makers. In case you are stupid enough to want to take that
bet I’ll give you odds of a 1000/1 with the minimum bet being £100. Anyway
digressing back on track (even though I do love the thought of SAF doing the
running man) my first forays into dance music or EDM came through what was
called Acid House. Sadly for D Mob – We Call it Acieeed hasn’t made it into my
list of tracks but those of a certain generation will remember being subjected
to the smiley face icon everywhere they looked. The late 1980s and certainly
the 1990s music culture was strongly linked to the drugs culture of the time with
many clubbers subjected to the effects of drugs such as LSD and MDMA where repetitive
beats became a case of the norm as the shape of dance floors changed from
people only dancing to their favourite tracks to partying till the early
morning. Where previously DJs had talked over records, the microphones were now
a thing of the past and a DJs stock rose with their ability to mix one record
into another.
The growth of the music scene
coupled with the drug taking had seen events move from club land at the time
onto larger industrial scales and the warehouse scene was born. With this came
the problems that rave’s were being held in illegal venues required to meet the
capacity of those who wanted to indulge in Britain’s new found past time. The then
British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher wasn’t taken with the notion of the
nation’s youth being high and as the acid house scene gave way to rave music
Thatcher’s government came calling in an attempt to stamp out the party scene. Some
of the laws passed by Thatcher’s government in the early 1990s are still law to
this day but of course they didn’t try to stop major recording artists like the
Rolling Stones or U2 from turning in huge profits from commercial sell out
tours. They were after the pioneers of the rave scene such as Ellis Dee whose
name was found headlining every major rave event at the time. I can still
remember my father being subjected to mixes by the aforementioned Ellis Dee on
long car journeys taped onto old 45 cassettes and having to swap the tape over
mid mix. His view on the music like all good parents was “What is this crap we’re
listening to.” This questions passes down from generation to generation every time
a new genre comes about and sadly even aged just 34 as a parent I have already
found myself asking the very exact same question.
So from the sound of Acid House
through to Ellis Dee I guess it’s time to stop the waffle and go through the
tracks that I personally think stand out over the past few decades and for me
many of them still sound as relevant today and as fresh as when they were first
recorded and released. I’m not going to try to sub categorise them into other
genres as a general rule of thumb - I’m just going to run with it to save any
arguments. I would however like to hear from readers of others tracks during
the same period I may have missed that you feel have had such a similar impact
during the same period. That’s called comparing notes – Something it seems that
many on youtube wouldn’t understand the notion of.
But where to start?
I could go back further but the
most obvious starting point for me would have to be with The Prodigy. In
September 1992 the Essex group fronted by Wildman Keith Flint released their
debut album ‘The Prodigy Experience,’ on the influential XL Recordings label.
Although the album’s highest chart position was only 12, the album as a whole
has surely had one of the largest impacts of any dance related albums ever released.
Their debut single taken from the album ‘Charly’ sampled the safety adverts of
the 1970s which involved a small unnamed boy and his cat Charley. The reaction
from the music press at the time was akin to my prediction about the Spice
Girls career; namely that it was doomed to failure. Fortunately for the Spice
Girls and The Prodigy - myself and the music press obviously didn’t have a clue
and we can write our names into that list of people who would probably have no
doubt have turned down The Beatles if we’d have had the chance to sign them.
Now the real problem with The
Prodigy isn’t the music, it’s which of so many tracks you’d choose from to say
had the most impact and that in itself is not an easy choice and to be honest
half of this list could indeed be made up entirely of their tracks but that
would make it too easy in fairness. Surely Firestarter and Smack My Bitch Up would
walk into any list but for me that would be pampering to controversy. But I
like a bit of controversy in my own unique way so my first two choices have
been made as such. This list is going in no particular order by the way, just
whatever direction my brain takes me in which on past history could be
anywhere.
1. The Prodigy – No Good (Start
The Dance)
2. The Prodigy – Out Of Space
The thing for me that stands out
on both tracks is the use of the hook especially on the Out of Space track
which samples the classic reggae track ‘I chase the devil,’ by Max Romeo. My
third choice comes once again from XL Recordings and again is heavily
influenced by reggae with the sample taken from Jah Screechy’s – Walk and
Skank.
3. SL2 – On a Ragga Tip
For the musical trivia buffs
amongst you SL2 were DJ Lime and Slipmatt who sat alongside Ellis Dee as one of
the original pioneers of the rave scene. My next choice is one of the first
recordings I can remember using an MC rather than samples to really make a
major impact on the UK charts. For me the jungle sound of the 1990s which later
gave birth to the later drum n bass genre is best encapsulated in this next
choice.
4. M-Beat ft General Levy –
Incredible
If you’ve never seen the DJ set
performed by Brighton resident Norman Cook aka FatBoy Slim then you would be
hard pressed to believe just how many people managed to squeeze onto the beach
of his home town to hear him play that day. At the end of the 1990s Cook was
using samples to great effect with the success of tracks such as Praise you
which samples the beginning of ‘Take Yo Praise’ by Camille Yarbrough. It’s
probably quite easy to forget the impact that Cook had on music at this time
with most people remembering the heavily sample use albums; Play and 18 by Moby
which came along a couple of years after the release of You’ve come a long way
baby back in 1999. The tracks from both albums were licensed by global brands
and at one stage it was hard to watch a set of adverts on television without
hearing at least one or two of Moby’s tracks if not more during commercial
breaks. But years before then Cook had formed Beats International after the
break from his previous band the House Martins who had enjoyed success with the
track Caravan of Love. You couldn’t get more different musical ends of the
spectrum if you tried with his later career. If you look at the video for this
next track you will see Norman clearly sporting a guitar in hand although
whether he was genuinely playing it I couldn’t clarify for definite. Once again
the reggae sound plays a huge part in the underlying dub section of this choice
of track.
5. Beats International ft Lindy Layton
– Dub be Good To Me
As I just mentioned Moby enjoyed
huge commercial success off the re-emergence of sample based music with his
albums Play and 18. I’ve no idea just how much money he made from both albums
and the subsequent licensing of their tracks but it might be safe to assume
that if the money was invested wisely the man wouldn’t have had to have worked
another day in his life if he’d have chosen to. That’s not to say Moby hadn’t
used samples to good effect in the past and my next choice demonstrates this
fact perfectly, yet the fact remains the track itself had very little
commercial success or chart success in the UK peaking at number 10. The track
samples ‘Laura palmer’s Theme’ from the TV show Twin Peaks which can latterly
only be described as the ‘Lost’ of its day.
6. Moby – Go
One track that did receive huge
commercial success in the same year of 1990 selling over 400,000 copies was my
next choice which launched the career as a solo singer for the vocalist. It
remained at the top of the UK singles chart for four weeks in total.
7. Adamski featuring Seal –
Killer
Seal went on to amass worldwide
record sales of over 20 million and married German born model Heidi Klum. I’m
not exactly sure what happened to Adamski but I’m pretty sure he never married
a super model sadly for him.
My next choice also hit the
charts back in 1990 and reached number 9 in the charts. Featuring the vocal
talents of Sharon Musgrave, the British band was a project of William Orbit who
is best known for his work on the Madonna album Ray of Light. Orbit remains a
great example of how EDM has over the years crossed into mainstream American
culture at one time or another and this record like Cook’s Beat’s International
pays homage to their first notable forays into the musical genre.
8. Bass-O-Matic – Fascinating Rhythm
One of the most fascinating parts
the UK has had impact wise over the years on EDM mirrors that of cities like
Chicago and Detroit in the genres earliest days. The city of Manchester which
spawned Indie super groups; The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses for example
was home to the pioneering nightclub The Hacienda where both groups would hang
out during their early days and were heavily influenced by the EDM records of
the day being played on different levels of the club. But travel to a different
part of the country and the music being produced was very different and the
Bristol music scene was equally important as the sounds that were coming
through from the nation’s capital London on pirate radio stations such as Kiss
which at that time were home to DJs such as Pete Tong and Trevor Nelson who
would both go onto to broadcast on the UKs biggest station Radio One. Whilst
artists such as Tricky didn’t receive as much acclaim as some of the other artists
at the time the impact of Bristol based artists can still be very much found
today. Home of the Trip Hop sound my next choice is the grandiosely
string-arranged track which was recorded at the Abbey Road Studio made famous
by The Beatles and features the vocal talents of Shara Nelson.
9. Massive Attack – Unfinished Symphony
I’m going to draw a line and make
this opening gambit the opening top ten of my choice so far so as not to induce
a musically written coma and have some hope that some of you who’ve managed to
get so far in reading this might actually go onto read the next selection in my
list. At number 10 is the best selling track of 1989 but it comes with much
controversy and is a great example of the problems of using samples on a track
and having to gain clearance for them and what happens when artists claim not
to have sampled something and instead claim to be using a vocalist on the
track. The track in question heavily samples the 1980 disco hit ‘Love Sensation’
by Loleatta Holloway. The woman that appears in the accompanying video to the
single Katrin Quinol was considered to be part of the quote unquote group’s
image. Isn’t that what they said about Milli Vanilli?
10. Black Box – Ride On Time
As the time sits at 2:05AM at the
time of writing I use this as proof to my opening gambit that my mind keeps odd
times and odd thoughts. If you’re reading this (firstly – thank you and well
done for sticking with it) and aren’t of an age to remember any of these tracks
then I hope your levels of curiosity might be inspired enough to go and look
the tracks up on youtube where you can if you so freely wish join the line of
commentators underneath the track and slate it to your heart’s content or give
it the thumbs up and think actually that track wasn’t so bad after all. Some of
you might even sit there having heard of the track and have a light bulb moment
go off in your head and go – Oh so that’s what that’s called. I get it all the
time with classical music so don’t worry about it. When I was growing up the
world’s largest global brands would use classical pieces instead of EDM to sell
their products so we’ve all been through the same problems at one stage in our
lives or another when it comes to identifying pieces of music so don’t worry –
just be thankful you all have the internet at your finger tips now. It’s taken
me decades to find the names of some classical pieces that I like. If you are
old enough to remember any of the aforementioned first ten tracks in the
listing I hope this piece has taken you down a good memory lane also. If it
hasn’t then I suspect you won’t be reading Part Two but my sincere thanks never
the less for enduring to get to the end of Part One.
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