Merrie Xmas and a Happy Nuum Year

a bit hauntological this - duetting with the ghost of his former self




merry Jahmas to the great Rebel MC

what a pretty pop star he made





starting to get more 'conscious', less clean shaven






the fully spiritualized beard - sticky with smoke









"it givin' me a pure meditation"

that man Malcolm again!

every year, two or three times I'll hear a new rap song on the radio that samples the hollering-into-an-echo-chamber bit at the start of  "Buffalo Gals'

it's one of the most widely sampled sounds in pop history - an actual talisman and touchstone in hip hop, which is pretty remarkable given that Malcolm McLaren he got no rhythm (at least according to Trevor Horn, who says he had to tap on Malcy's chest to keep him in time during the do-si-doh with ya pardner "rapping" on "Buffalo Gals")

here's a hardcore rave example I just stumbled on



there must be scores more, in many many genres

here's a favorite occurrence, i guess notionally also in jungle (an influence on this album)



i could cheat and go and look at whosampled, but i'd rather see what my memory dredges up - and what parishioners proffer...


postscript 3/8/2020

appears in this Sublime song



as recently covered (sans the Malcolm bit) by Lana Del Rey

one of the great surprises of moving to LA is discovering that I really like Sublime (when they first came out, I couldn't stand them - but that was when I was living in New York and as disconnected from radio as everyday listening as I've ever been - and there is just something about Sublime's singles, the gait of them, that fits the geography and the weather of Southern California).

the future is half a century old

i.e. young people dancing to electronic music

RIP Gershon Kingsley, who reached the ripe old age of 97

interesting, isn't it, that the Future would emerge first under the sign of easy listening - and even kitsch?

c.f. my "friendly futurists" thesis (Jean-Jacques Perrey et al)

the most successful hit version =  Hot Butter




Didn't realise that Jean-Michel Jarre did a version



Makes sense cos "Equinoxe 4" always felt like a semi-rewrite - not literally, but the vibe 'n ' feel, albeit more sedate, less boppy-bouncy




another of the many 'Popcorn' covers



Inane in the Membrane


stop press: some suggestions from Ian S in comments


the DJ Vibes happy hardcore version



the Aphex Twin's 92 breakbeat version

unreal feelings

King George the Immense

George, as in Kelly, as in Sacred, as in Creator of the Greatest Jungle Tekno Song of All and Ever Time



Eyes rolling back in the head bizniz

"Call me a star watch me shine" - almost faint at that bit.

I'm sure he picked the name Sacred because he knew he was a vessel for the divine

Well, I did not know this, but fancy that -  George Kelly was the promoter of Thunder & Joy - one of my favorite jungle clubs, right in the middle of London, mere steps away from Centrepoint -

"Thunder and joy" always struck me as vaguely Baptist or Pentecostal in vibe, or redolent of the "shocks of mighty" idea in rootsifarian reggae.

George put out quite a few other Sacred tracks ("Call Da Cops" was good, nothing quite reaches the heights of "Do It Together" though) and he had  a bunch of alter-egos:

Aliases:

Forte Knox, G-Moni, One Tribe (2), Sacred, T + J, The Firm (9)

In Groups:

4-Play (2), Tit 4 Tat (2), Upgrade Massive, We R Who We R

One of these days I'll have to do the full auteur-y trawl through them.

GK also ran the Grand Larceny label (who had School of Hard Knocks among others) which spun off Paragon Recordings (which had Skyjoose -  who later went dark-garage as Skycap of "Endorphins" renown).

A solid pedigree, a significant contribution, a well-nummy throughline ...

But from where I sit, just based on Thunder & Joy, and that one towering colossal record "Do It Together", you'd have to say that George Kelly was a world-historical figure

Where is he now?

Talking of throughlines...



That's why they call it a continuum, folks! pt 3949506

Mad remix of unknown provenance and status

knickerless parsons

When I embarked on my Hardcore Heroes series, which only got to #5 when it was intended to go deep into double figures, Satin Storm were on the list.

But the Hero status is mostly for this one so-so-peculiar tune that entranced me when I heard it on the pirates in '92 - wobbling like some strange manatee-on-rollerskates creature

One of the first where I really grokked the Frankenstein aesthetic of ardkore, the way tracks were crudely sutured together out of portions of pop and whatnot



Had it on one of those Kickin' comps for years and then picked up the vinyl in the 1995-onwards scrabble-to-trawl-up-recent-history frenzy of old skool buying. Along with a bunch of other Satin Storm 12's, then going cheap and cheerful

I do like the Satin Storm logo

What else did they do that gets anywhere close to the "nicholas parsons nicholas parsons" tune then?


Or did he do, as it seems to be really Travis Edwards

(BTW I do know the sample is not saying "Nicholas Parson" but it was a widespread belief or perhaps a humorous wish that it be so - see this discogs comment:

"I was lucky enough to get a 12' original coy of this in Brighton once. It had 'Nicholas Parsons' written on the sleeve...."

This earlier EP has some good tunes on it






They appear to have been a performing unit, playing at raves presumably - with a whole troupe of dancers, judging by the label info here. Ten "Satin Storm Dancers"!





Apparently Travis Edwards was also a rave dancer - he would come onstage, with his girlfriend, when Break The Limits did PA's

This one is quite interesting, a little "intelligent"



The earliest stuff is more or less bleep



The uuurv requires a proper inventory, but for now, tips welcomed.

"give you a musical crisp biscuit you can't digest"

"Boneman X and DMS are causing stress
Give you a musical crisp biscuit you can't digest"

i shall return to a proper inventory of the genius of DMS (and Boneman X) at a later date

i scream you scream we all scream

looking for their classic "Going Down the Sperm Bank Four Quid A Wank" i found instead this

diamond rings

one of the first big batch of house tunes i picked up  - in NYC, a time where a dance record store might have hip hop all up one wall and house all up the other

loved the distraught male vocals, and the duetting discarded lovers of the cold-hearted Donnie  - "yeah man, she ain't even give me the chance to give her what i wanted to give her!!!!"

later sampled in this

becoming-cartoon

young Sadmanbarty has a whole theory about these sprite-like goblin-voiced dancehall singers, to do with digital technology and identity-morphing and transhumanity - the schizo-Gothic proliferation of personae and mask-selves.









i always finds these tunes insanely compelling the first time i listen but for some reason (same goes for Vybz, for Popcaan, for Alkaline) i don't go back to them - whereas the autotuned Afrobeat or mumble rap is much more repeat-listenable... perhaps it's just because the dancehall stuff is so full on, always going for the listener's jugular, the personality-level volume-knob's always pitched to 11

also find the beats in today's dancehall often seem to have a curiously muffled quality, so glossed up and digi-sheened and hi-def huge in girth, it's like there's a blanket of dazzle smothering them