Tuesday, June 25, 2019

only you slow down (donut is a feeling)

this lovely slice of smoov-jungle



has the same gorgeous mellow house-infused vibe as this even lovelier tune - one of my all-time absolute faves of the era  - so slinky



And as if recognising the vibe-ual affinity, YouTube segued straight into it before I even made the selection myself

Met Gavin Cheung aka Nookie early in '94 -  round at Goldie's England's Lane tower block flat

Immortal for this tune above all  - another all-time fave



"you know House is a feeling"

Keeping the house ancestry alive within the hardcore and the junglizm - that was his thing, Nookie / Cloud 9



But he also did tunes like this - whence the "hardcoouooor" whimper-vocal as used in Mark Leckey's Fiorrucci Made Me Hardcore - although he might have got from another track that used it, I think there were several....





And this goofy one



Never noticed before that the daft vocal lick is human beatboxing



Man like Gavin could do that bliss-2-dark distraught-diva ecstasy-edging-dysphoria hectic-histrionic fever rather well

But lover's jungle (perhaps that's why he chose the alter-ego Nookie) was his forte

Did a lot of very nice piano-based tunes that are just a little bit too uplifting maybe



That one is faultless though.

Remodelled for 94



These are a bit too bright 'n bouncy






Ooh but this next one is a classic - and gets the balance just right



And he weren't just about the pianos - the breaks on this are awesome



I suppose he's only a notch or two behind Omni Trio when it comes to the piano-uplift style of jungle.

Rob Haigh's vamps are just a little more bittersweet, more fleeting and spare. Nookie's a little too florid at times.

Here's a great mindmeld of the two piano-core gods - fabulous Nookie remix of Omni's "Soul Promenade", with a great push-me, pull-you swaying rhythm




Of course he actually done a tune called "A Drum A Bass A Piano"  - shades of the Red Crayola tracklisting for Coconut Hotel, demystifying their means of production or something

I like the fact that an early Nookie alter-ego was Windy Milla




Also like the way the bpm actually written after the track titles on this one - DJ friendly!






Ooh some very early indeed Cloud 9



sampled from Scientist / Jackie Mittoo?

7 comments:

Charlie w said...

Another stunner
https://www.discogs.com/From-The-Man-Like-The-Pennywise-Suspension-Of-Disbelief-Mystery/master/453399

Shinin In Da Darkness is like a National Anthem for the UK rave scene. It's got a "we're the ravers, stand up tall" feel about it

Ian)s said...

One of those producers who resisted eliminating the 4/4 kick for quite a period of time deep into jungle.

Jim said...

It's hard to make out which of the 100s of versions of darker shade of black is sampled from, might even be played rather than sampled but it's actually originally a cover of Norwegian Wood by the Beatles. Augustus Pablo's Harder Shade of Black on Santic is the oldest version I know but it probably goes back further.

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

wow didn't know that about the Norwegian Wood thing

he done a lot of tunes Nookie

gathered almost all of the non-album 92-95 output under the various names and listened in one huge bloc and the quality was remarkably sustained

"A Drum a Bass a Piano" was really good, and different .

i shall have to listen to the debut album as well.

the stuff i couldn't find was the Freddie Fudpucker stuff (awful name)

Jim said...

There are a fair few, on paper, bizarre reggae cover versions from the late 60s and early 70s that are actually really good. A couple of personal faves besides Norwegian Wood:
Carole King's Too Late on the Aquarius dub album from 11.35 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVowJNXOj3A
(Also love the psychedelic sleeve on this LP, one of the first dub albums)
Phylis Dillon's cover of Steve Still's Love the One You're With https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oeFzoTi0K0

Dom_Sathanas said...

Nookie has an incredible back catalogue. I've been listening to the Daddy Armshouse releases just last night and today and they are so full of sly energy and humour and they are ruff too. The Man from the The Pennywise record someone else mentioned is fanatastic too - Suspension of Disbelief is rich with melancholy without losing its tuff edge. I prefer his darkside stuff to the smoother cuts but even the "lovers jungle" has enough breakbeat science to it to retain my interest. I'm a big fan!

Alexa said...
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