Wednesday, December 25, 2019

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"



2 comments:

Spiro said...

I actually received the X Project 'Walking In The Air' vinyl as a gift this Christmas! For me it's in my top 5 'ardkore choons ever, the Aled Jones sample in this context becomes one of the most perfectly fitting and poetic articulations of the rave E-xperience to be found in a track: "we're walking in the air, while people down below are sleeping as we fly".

Interesting how Rebel MC moved away from the pop mainstream and down into the rave underground, when it's more common to find artists who move the opposite way and become pop stars (if however fleetingly!) - SL2, Smart Es, The Prodigy etc. I'm trying to think of other examples who took Rebel's route... I think the owner of Production House Records used to be in a successful soul group, and I know one of the members of UB40 made a few hardcore tracks. There must be more...

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

yeah i love that "no sleep raver / creatures of the night" aspect of the repurposed Aled Jones lyric

it is an opposite trajectory to the normal one - a nuum equivalent of Scott Walker going from Walker Brothers to his solo career

yeah Production House was founded by (or cofounded by, i'm not sure) Phil Fearon from Galaxy who were as you say a hitmaking Britsoulfunk outfit of the Eighties. But then with Baby D's "let me be your fantasy" on its 94 rerelease getting to #1, Production House ended up being more successful than Fearon's first venture.

(I suspect, but don't know, that the Baby D success fatally derailed the label, trying to build on it, do a proper crossover album. but then again maybe they couldn't fully transition to jungle.)

i would love to get the full Production House story, maybe i should a piece on it