underground aliens

 

"Wake up, indie-kids" (Metalheads et al in MM )

 

January 30 1993 - and I made "Terminator" one of the singles of the week - the first time Metalheads / Goldie get single of the week, but not the last time... 

What leaps out now is that assessment "not especially innovative" which is of course dead wrong, but I was still getting to grips with the scene / sound, had yet to formulate the concept of rhythmic psychedelia (copyright me, yes that's right me) (Still I can't complain about "sampling" really can I now, since "chaste, hideous rapture" is stolen from Lautreamont and was probably the fourth - and far from last time -  I borrowed the phrase.)

Also notable about this singles column is the rave review for Satin Storm, which I believe I've mistitled (based on what was scrawled on the white label  I bought) and is better known now as "Think I'm Going Out of My Head"

I wish I had made Satin Storm single of the week instead of The Drum Club tune which is not that great - certainly not as good as their previous 'U Make Me Feel So Good".

And then Metalheads score again in August of '93 with "Angel" - and this time we have a picture of Goldie. It's even worse than the photo of me I think! That strange perpendicular finger... 

Also notable about this August '93 column - see below -  I make Foul Play "Open Your Mind (Foul Play Remix") Single of the Week (or rather, say I would have, but we didn't have a photo of the group. Not that this stopped us with "Terminator", mind) . 

Origin Unknown "Long Dark Tunnel" - better known as "Valley of Shadows" - is reviewed off of hearing it on pirate radio. (Or was it on a CD compilation? I don't think so). I'm not sure how I knew the name of the label, but I know I didn't own the vinyl at that point - bought it much, much later. Also worthy of Single of the Week status.

Aha - and then there's reviews for Omni Trio (yet another SOTW contender surely) while Goldie gets another review with the Rufige Cru "Ghosts". Well now I wish I had made that the second single of the week (or third, or fourth, or fifth)  and mentioned the remix of "Terminator" - "Terminator 2".

                                  The very tune that germinated the concept of rhythmic psychedelia in my brain? It has backwards                                                                      drums and phased breaks, see... 

Ray Keith is misattributed as the author of the Wot's My Code tune rather than remixer  - easy mistake to make as his name was massive on the front record sleeve.

Also this large claim on the label kinda invites confusion

Who's this Knookie chappie then? 

time domain affects

 Chris Richards at Washington Post on South Florida "fast remixes":

"Clock-torquing has always been central to rap music, with DJs and producers perpetually tweaking the speeds of their samples, treating time like gobs of Silly Putty. Houston’s DJ Screw changed the trajectory of rap by famously slowing records down, loosening the tempo until it melted into a beautiful ooze — so it makes sense that a fast remix does something like the opposite. Instead of liquefying, the details crystallize. The beats become light and delicate. The rhymes get tight and Smurfy. Give a fast remix your most undivided attention and it’ll start to sound like a double-refusal of temporality and corporeality — a sort of metaphysical protest music."

Nice

although hearing them I think he kind of oversells a bit...

Some examples he cites: 

DJ Fetti Fee's rmx of WizDaWizard's "Don Dada's"  and rmx of  Wam SpinThaBin x Rico Cartel "Risk Taker"

DJ Frisco954's rmx of YN Jay "Summer Time" and remix of Kodak Black "Senseless" 

 

superhero / superantihero

Looking at the 4 Hero early EP The Head Hunter, with its back cover cartoon of the group as malformed beings grotesquely mutated owing to their experimentation with speeding up the bpm... 

It struck me they had one thing in common with The Groundhogs 

But there must be many other examples of musicians becoming comic-strip characters or animations. 

Well, there's the animated sequences in The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle - a ruse around the non-participation of Johnny Rotten in the movie, the virtual nonparticipation of Vicious, and lack of documentary footage of certain key episodes 

                                                            original cel for Rotten

And here's that whole cartoon sequence from tGRnRS 

another sequence involving Vicious and his mum (plus smack and incest) (not actually in the finished movie) seeded these images on the left of the Great Rock'n'Swindle gatefold

which in turn reappeared on the front cover of this single and its music press adverts