Looking for the Perfect Beat? Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force were in 1983, they pretty much found it then gave it to Hip Hop who, let’s be honest, hasn’t always treated it well.
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Tag Archives: Hip Hop
Goin’ Old School: Herbie Hancock – Rockit
Synth Jazzasist (yes, I just invented the word Jazzasist, deal with it) and funk futurist Herbie Hancock decided to blow people’s tiny minds in 1983 by releasing ‘Rockit’, a record with synthesizers, scratching and vocoding in it. Everyone was bewildered, it became a massive hit in the UK. Which meant that British video makers (and Pop cryers) Godley & Creme had to make a video that was even more bewildering.
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Goin’ Old School: The Rock Steady Crew – Hey You (The Rock Steady Crew)
I love this song so much words cannot express, the synth riff in it is just so catchy it’s not even funny. The Rock Steady Crew’s 1983 hit ‘Hey You (The Rock Steady Crew)’ followed Malcom McLaren’s ‘Buffalo girls’ in being one of the first tracks that introduced Hip Hop to the UK.
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Goin’ Old School: Mantronix – Simple Simon (You Gotta’ Regard)
Before Mantronix was making R&B, Kurtis Mantronik and MC Tee was not only Electro pioneers but the best in their game. From 1984 to 1988 they produced some of the best Electro Hip Hop in the world and constantly reinvented their sound with evolving music production technology, culminating in 1988’s ‘In Full Effect’ album and the ‘Simple Simon (You Gotta’ Regard)’ single.
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Toque’s ‘Xtro’
Coming up next on the awesome Girlfriend Records is a three track EP from Toque, a side project from HR.
With just the right combination of ElectroPop, Disco and Electro-Funk, Toque’s ‘Xtro’ is dark of content but funky of beats. Like ‘Thriller’, ‘Xtro’ is quality, retro, DancePop with a horror movie theme. The juxtaposition between the get-up-and-dance music and the dark, though I expect tounge-in-cheek, lyrics is actually pretty fun. The thing I like most about this track though, is the prefect combination of 80’s sounding SynthPop and B-boy Electro, two of my greatest loves. One the one hand you’ve got the 808 claps, orchestral hits, Moog-esq funk synths, and some dark, heavily effected, MCing, and on the other shimmering lead lines and sweet as hell vocals. Definatly looking forward to this EP.
The ‘Xtro’ EP is out next Friday on Girlfriend Records, HR is also working hard on her second EP under that moniker.
Also incoming this summer is a Girlfriend Records compilation that they say is their ‘biggest project yet’ which should feature the whole Girlfriend family and some new faces. Defiantly something to be looking forward to!
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Uffie covers Tom Tom Club
Uffie (yes Uffie, remember Uffie?) this week dropped this Medhi produced cover of Tom Tom Club’s hit ‘Wordy rappinghood’, and it’s good!
I’ve always had a soft spot for Uffie, she’s worked with some of the biggest Electro innovators in the Ed Banger stable and has a vocal delivery which is pretty unique and while this cover might at first seem odd, after listening to it you realise it was the cover she’s was always destined for, and with Medhi bringing an Old School flavour to the track, it just works.
♫ Uffie – Wordy Rappinghood (Tom Tom Club Cover) (Evian Mix)
the track comes from Evian ‘s latest ‘Live Young’ campaign.
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Beastie Boys & Passion Pit!
So, unless you;’ve been living under a rock this week you’ll be aware that the almighty Beastie Boys are returning with a new single and brand new album. Produced by Beastie Boys and Cassius’ Philippe Zdar, the album was announced with a hilarious video which you can catch here.
I’m absolutely lovin’ this reMix of the lead single, ‘Make Some Noise’ by Passion Pit. Who give the track a Dreamwave going over! Dreamwave Hip-Hop? DreamHop? Whole new genre anyone? (LexiconDon, are you listening?). Passion Pit give the track that smooth LA vibe and cover it in lush synths.
♫ Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise (Passion Pit reMix)
‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’ is released 2nd May.
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The Vault: Cybotron
The Vault: The classics of Electronic Music. The influential and the groundbreaking. The pioneering and the music we grew up on…
It’s 1986, this blogger is 11 years old. Up until this point my musical world has consisted of chart music and SynthPop (also chart music) inherited from my older brother. Then me and my mates discovered Graffiti, Breakdancing and Electro.
At the weekend we’d go down the underpass with a Hitachi boom box, a piece of old lino and a couple of spraycans for some poppin’, lockin’ and tagging. We’d clumsily practice our windmills and caterpillars to a soundtrack of mixtapes that came from who knows where; traded amongst older kids and eventually passed down to us.
One of these tapes changed my life.
It was a cassette of a pirate radio show, I didn’t know (and never found out) any more about it but amongst the likes of The Kartoon Krew and Mantronix was a track that blew my young mind.
That song, although I wouldn’t find out what it was called or who it was by until years later, was ‘R-9’ by Cybotron.
Everything I has ever heard up until that moment was, for want of a better word, poppy. Even the Electro Hip-Hop we were listening to was upbeat, party music and the darkest of SynthPop was still a verse-chorus-verse-chorus pop tune. ‘R-9’ was strange and dark with washes of eerie synthetic tones and an infectious Electro Funk bassline.
I Loved it!
Here was something that I hadn’t heard on the radio, hadn’t been played to me by someone else. I had discovered a band, and song, no one else around me knew about (admittedly, neither did I really!) and I enthused about it to anyone who would listen. And, so, my mind was opened up to the world of music out there that exists out there beyond the Top 40 and peer’s tastes.
I never stopped seeking out new music.
Cybotron was an early project from Detroit Techno pioneer Juan Atkins, with Richard “3070” Davis. Formed in 1980, taking influences from American Funk, European synthesizer music and English SynthPop, Cybotron became incredibly influential themselves. Juan Arkins, along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, is generally credited with originating Techno.
Cybotron were an experimental inspiration to many electronic musicians that you could break boundaries, yet keep it on the dancefloor.
Hear for yourself why:
♫ Cybotron – R-9 (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cybotron – Cosmic Cars (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cybotron – Techno City (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cybotron – Alleys Of Your Mind (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cybotron – Clear (zShare) (MediaFire)
♫ Cybotron – Enter (zShare) (MediaFire)
Cybotron didn’t really release that much, re-releases can still be picked up, as can a couple of Greatest Hits albums,
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M.I.A. at The Oscars!
So, the Oscar nominations are in.
Heath’s Joker for Best supporting Actor…”check”!
‘The Dark Knight’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Hellboy II’ getting nods in the special effects and make-up categories… a pleasantly surprising “check”!
No love for ‘The Dark Knight’ in best picture or best director categories…an disappointingly unsurprising “check”!
Best original song is an interesting one though:
WALL-E – ‘Down To Earth’ – Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman
Slumdog Millionaire – ‘Jai Ho’ – A.R. Rahman
Slumdog Millionaire – ‘O Saya’ – A. R. Rahman & M.I.A.
That’s right, British/Sri-Lanken Electro MC M.I.A. being recognised by the Academy…nice!!! The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was also released on M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. label.
The Oscars roll around 22nd February.
♫ A.R. Rahman & M.I.A. – O…Saya (zShare) (MediaFire)
Yes…’Paper Planes’ is also on the soundtrack 😉 , ‘Paper Planes’ seems like so long ago!
♫ M.I.A. – Paper Planes (zShare) (MediaFire)
M.I.A. has already made it clear she wants to take your money, so you may as well comply.
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