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?
Another stunner
ReplyDeletehttps://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
One of those producers who resisted eliminating the 4/4 kick for quite a period of time deep into jungle.
ReplyDeleteIt'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.
ReplyDeletewow didn't know that about the Norwegian Wood thing
ReplyDeletehe 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)
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:
ReplyDeleteCarole 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
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!
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