Monday, November 3, 2014

That Laugh



That girl's laughter = one of the  most recycled samples in the history of dance music

Where did it come from?

Well, I reckon this right here is the source for 99 percent of usages...



Except it's not the original source

It's Alf's laff from this big club tune of the early 80s (especially in American clubs)





Feel like I've heard That Laugh - that liquid trickle of girlish delight - in hundreds of  tracks.

Its only rivals as a Stock Sample Cliche would be Malcolm McLaren's echo-chamber hillbilly whoop at the start of "Buffalo Gals" and "this is a journey into sound" as used by Coldcut, Marc Acardipane, and 15 thousand other producers.

Can you think of any other notable appearances of the Laugh?


Stop press - dude in the comments box points out this rather glaringly obvious example:







Stop Stop press -  another couple of examples from Ricardo Rainho!



Scroll to 4.04 in "Theme From S'Express" and there she is again -  Alison Moyet having a good throaty chuckle in the echo chamber!

And again in the Simon Harris song at 1.02 





Thing that makes it work, I think, is that it doesn't feigned or forced -- sounds like she was genuinely having a giggle in the studio. Perhaps Vince caught it on the sly.... 

Stop Stop Stop PressHere's another lovely use of it right at the start of "What Is Love" by Deee-Lite - easily my favorite of their songs - although there's some other girl mirth sampled in the track as well later on.

6 comments:

Ricardo said...

Er...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck

Ricardo said...

I can actually provide you with two other glaring examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqidtHktME

http://vimeo.com/40676144

Ricardo said...

That second mirth isn't sampled, it's Lady Miss Kier herself.

droid said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Vw-6gir8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up1RUhxpjQI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vARWHcehNdE#t=130

Anonymous said...

I saw an Alison Moyet interview where she described how the laugh happened. It was really quite simple... she and Vince were in the studio and the engineer was working with her vocals. In doing so, he created an unintentional reverb that caught Moyet off-guard mid-sentence. She stopped speaking and laughed while the echo trailed off. Indeed, you can barely hear her voice fading just before the laugh. A candid moment captured for eternity.

Alex Taylor said...

Thanks for Share.. It's so FunnyLaugh