Month: April 1989

BEATS & PIECES

ARTHUR BAKER and the backbeat disciples’ richly produced Latin/house freestyle ‘It’s Your Time‘, featuring Britain’s Shirley Lewis on main (but by no means all) vocals, has been circulated by Breakout initially as a promo 12 inch twinpack in seven mixes, the (0-)119¼-0bpm N.Y.C. Vocal (although at first incongruously Cockney accented!), 118¾-0bpm Jazz Version and N.Y.C. Vocal Without Rap, (0-)118½bpm Peech Dub and Bass Mix, 118½bpm All City Mix and 909 Instrumental Dub Mix … ‘Back To Life‘ will, but not until May 22, be the remixed follow-up by Soul II Soul, whose album is so much in demand (as previously reported) that the sleeve of the latest hastily pressed batch is no longer a golden mustard colour, having become a cheaper watery yellow instead! … The Funky Worm’s initially promoted commercial A-side ‘u + me = love (12″ version)‘ merely features support singing by Ten City, whose actual remix is indeed along with an instrumental on the commercial flip — hopefully that clarifies last week’s deliberate confusion! … Sheffield’s Living In A Box realised with horror that their new ‘Gatecrashing’ title might be seen as insensitive following the disaster at the Hillsborough soccer stadium in their own home town, and have had the single withdrawn … Merlin here and Big Daddy Kane in the States would appear to be temporarily out of circulation, the naughty boys! … KISS-fm, already joined by SOLAR’s station manager Tony Monson, has also been joined by Graham Gold (at the expense of his own S.O.U.L. plans) to present a stronger united application as a black music station for the Greater London VHF/FM incremental licence, with financial backing headed by printing company Centurion Press … Disco Mix Club is again organising a special travel and accommodation package for New York’s New Music Seminar between July 13-20, costing £747 based on sharing a twin room at the event’s venue, the staggering Marriott Marquis hotel (the single rate is £1,076) — details from John ‘Superstar’ Saunderson on 06286-67276 … WEA’s man of the year (last year, that is!), Fred Dove is marrying on June 3 Zoe Glitherow, until recently his assistant in the club promotion department — any guesses who’ll be doing the disco? … Champion next month release the import hits by Velma Wright and Doug Lazy … US newies that I didn’t have time to review in full this week include (and this one would have been lead review!) the Fly Guys produced terrific timelessly trotting Kechia Jenkins ‘Still Waiting‘ (Profile), 115⅕bpm in its rapidly BPM-ed Fly Guy Mix; Fast Eddie remixed Cookie Crew-ish subdued hip house Sweet Tee ‘Let’s Dance‘ (Profile), likewise 118⅘bpm in its Hip House Mix; Virginia recorded pleasant datedly flavoured huskily soulful infectious sparse go go-cum-swingbeat Dadzie’s New Image ‘Get You Girl‘ (Dadzie Records), 99⅔-99⅚bpm in its Extended Mix; Lamya cooed and panted female Raze ‘Break 4 Love’ answering Razette ‘Ready 4 Love‘ (Da SHEET Records); Masters At Work created sparse house instrumental nine-track (groan!) “Power House” ‘It’s Power House Brooklyn Style‘ (Nugroove); Robert Brookins produced slow tapping jiggly street soul Sue Ann ‘Pleasure‘ (MCA Records); monotonous now suddenly dated seeming downtempo rap Public Enemy ‘Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos‘ (Def Jam) … UK newies similarly include the also lead review worthy CJ Mackintosh & Dave Dorrell remixed go go/hip hop/swingbeat Alyson Williams featuring Nikki-D ‘My Love Is So Raw‘ (Def Jam), around 0-106⅔-106½-0bpm (for fully accurate BPMs of course, check The Club Chart); Coldcut remixed superb atmospheric slowly jogging and weaving reggae accented Cleveland Watkiss ‘Spend Some Time‘ (Urban); urgently rumbling fast rap Mink featuring 2wic-e The Trouble ‘Hey! Hey! Can You Relate?‘ (FON); title repeating attractive gently undulating downtempo dated jogging jazz-funky street soul instrumental Greedy Beat Syndicate ‘This Is London‘ (Greedy Beat Records), reminiscent of Light Of The World ‘London Town’; aggressively rapped jerkily jiggling hip house Mad Mission ‘Energy‘ (Greedy Beat Records); “don’t stop, don’t stop, keep on” repeating solidly pushing jiggly disco instrumental Mr Monday ‘Keep On‘ (Greedy Beat Records); apparently Steve Proctor created clichéd samples crammed frantic hip house-cum-acid Technodelia ‘Technodelia‘ (white label); disappointingly dull Paula Adbul-style jolting Cherrelle ‘Affair (Steamy Affair Mix)‘ (Tabu) … LPs include the variety filled (17 tracks including a bonus 12 inch) but somewhat scrappy and under-produced Coldcut ‘What’s That Noise?’ (Ahead Of Our Time); typical timeless Delfonics-like sweet Philly soul (with some chunkier current swingbeat) Blue Magic ‘From Out Of The Blue’ (OBR); Master ‘The Beatcreator’ Tee produced compilation ‘The Rebel Presents …’ (Intrigue/Unyque Artists), containing hip house, street soul, acieed and straight house by Too Tuff, Soul Connection, Nemisis, Deluxe, The Beatcreator and The Rebel featuring MC ‘Superjam’ IB … Radical Records’ ‘This Is War’ compilation turns out to have divided some of the tracks from the original ‘Rap Trax Volume One’ import set with StreetSounds/DJ International Records’ rival ‘Hip House’ compilation, both UK LPs being augmented by a few tracks from other sources … Radical’s Virgo album does indeed contain all four tracks from the current Virgo Four 12 inch import, plus four others … I’m sorry I don’t have time to BPM everything immediately, but in this age of multi-track import singles it often takes me half an hour to monitor just one 12 inch — hopefully this system which seems to be evolving, where I at least list and briefly describe what’s new, is of some help? … I hear on the grapevine that someone reckons that The Club Chart recently contained a white label of which allegedly I had been sent the only copy, but I cannot imagine what this supposedly was as absolutely nothing gets into that chart without thoroughly researched sales and/or DJ plays (there isn’t any room for flights of fantasy when my main priority is to clear the roadblock of deserving genuine “breakers” that are always struggling to make the 100!) — so think again, whoever is spreading such a silly rumour! … DJs, while we’re on the subject, please do try to get your charts to us by Wednesday, even when FAX-ing them, as it’s such a frustrating waste when fresh new ones don’t arrive in time — also, plugging companies, please stop sending us duplicates of charts we already receive, as they only confuse the issue! … Dino’s only recently reviewed ‘24/7‘ is now out here (Fourth & Broadway 12BRW 128), UK pressings being 86⅐-0bpm with a 115¼-0bpm flip — the 25 year old singer turns out to have been music director of KCEP, the leading black music radio station in Las Vegas, before he began recording himself … I stumbled across (while rummaging through all my old James Brown albums to try and trace a sample) the 1969 Marva Whitney ‘It’s My Thing’ LP and now see that DJ Mark The 45 King was mistaken in his memory of the title of what turns out to be ‘Unwind Yourself‘, the intro sax of which it is that has particular “numerical” significance! … Chris Philips & Paul Bennun have their latest P’funk and purple Get On Down night this Thursday (27) at Exeter Quay’s Warehouse … Martin Collins, Bob Masters. Simon Dunmore, Gary Dennis, Steve Jason, Tony Fernandez, Chris Browne, Dougie Osbourne, Danny Smith, Richard Routledge, and Dean ‘N’ Richie jock across five separate sessions in two clubs, Tiffanys and Scruples, at this Sat/Sun/Monday’s 2nd Great Yarmouth Soul Weekender, for which you arrange your own bed and breakfast accommodation (full details 0733-558355 office hours) … Jeff Young, Pete Tong, Chris Brown, Chris Dinnis, Sean French and Bob Smith host this Sunday’s noon-midnight It’s About Time Soul Event alldayer at Plymouth’s Academy (details 0752-600978) … Rick Robinson, Mark Carrera, Gary G and guests skipper a Sunday midnight-Bank Holiday Monday 6am disco cruise on the Thames, £15 if joined at Greenwich pier or £18 including a coach trip from Bexleyheath’s Drayman … Bank Holiday Monday’s evening gigs include a Shindig at Peterborough’s Videotek with the inevitable Steve Allen, Nik Graham and more, while The Big Sleeze! is above Gillingham’s Catch 22 with Tim Westwood, Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Eddie Gordon, Aadil, Maggot, and Craig & Marcus … South Ockendon, Essex DJ Dave Pinney aka The Pinney Project (0708-852872) is looking for club or pub work while his usual venue is closed … Bobby Brown’s current ‘Every Little Step‘ import appears to be the theme tune to the upcoming ‘Ghostbusters II’ movie … I don’t know what LWT are playing at: two weekends ago they were back with a full night time TV service in London, advertising ‘The Hit Man And Her’ at 4am but then just showing a half hour edited highlights version at 4.30am instead — again, hiss, boo! … WOOO! YEAH!

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HOT VINYL

BIG DADDY KANE ‘Wrath Of Kane’ (Cold Chillin’ W2973T)
Finally out here after being huge on import, this excitingly frenetic fast talking 125⅓-0bpm hip house-ish rap ‘n’ scratch (coming to an abrupt dead stop halfway which DJ Mister “Cee” brings back with a slithery scratching restart) is now flipped for excellent value by the brand new gently jiggling 104⅔bpm calmly reassuring ‘Rap Summary (Lean On Me)‘ — otherwise only available on the ‘Lean On Me’ import soundtrack album — plus his now not so recent album’s revamped jittery chatting and scratching 110⅚bpm ‘Raw (Remix)’, this latter being rather too rudely worded for airplay!

CHAKA KHAN ‘I’m Every Woman (Remix)’ (Warner Bros W2963T)
With the unfamiliar new intro that nobody recognised before Chaka actually arrived on stage at the Albert Hall, Dancin’ Danny’s long awaited clompingly surging and swirling 0-114-113⅔-114-112¾-113½-114⅓-114¼(break)-114⅔-115⅓-115⅔-115½-0bpm remix (half an hour to BPM completely, thanks a ton!) cleverly keeps all the flavour of 1978’s original while being drastically different from the old short 114⅓-113-113⅔-114⅓-115½bpm version, included for comparison (along with an edit of the remix). Obviously it will delight all those who dread the rigidly overdubbed modern style of remixing, as Danny appears to have taken little advantage of digital technology!

ROQUI ‘Lover’ (US Nugroove NG-014)
Rheji Burrell (the more prolific twin!) created terrific bright jauntily jiggling 120⅗bpm girl wailed happy halfway meeting between the hip house and swingbeat rhythms, in five mixes (plus acappella), which those DJs more into the latter beat are vari-speeding down to a slower tempo. Dig the Terry Burrus “vibes” especially in the Super Club Mix! Essential. Continue reading “April 29, 1989: Big Daddy Kane, Chaka Khan, Roqui, Inner City, The Biddu Orchestra”

BEATS & PIECES

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Murphy were the co-hosts of last Wednesday’s Soul Train Black Music Awards on US TV, presenting the awards to such superstars as Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Anita Baker while the likes of Whitney Houston looked on, from the equally star studded audience! … Dancin’ Danny D’s long awaited clompingly striding 0-114-114⅓-115½-0bpm remix of Chaka Khan ‘I’m Every Woman’ will finally be released here next week … WEA have scheduled The Funky Worm’s 12 inch as having a Club Mix A-side, flipped by a Ten City remix plus a dub; however, FON have pre-empted them by circulating a promo labelled as The Funky Worm + Ten City x The Fon Force = U + Me = Love (Club), flipped by The Funky Worm x The Fon Force = U + Me = Love (Dub), both of these somewhat Yazz-ishly vocal but Brass Construction-ishly instrumental fluid treatments of the Undisputed Truth ‘U + Me = Love’ being 121⅚bpm – make of this confusion what you can … Soul II Soul’s album is flying out so fast that the EMI pressing plant can’t keep up with demand! … Les Adams’ currently hot reputation in the States is the result of his remake (only retaining the original vocal) of Maurice ‘This Is Acid’ topping first the Club Play and then the 12-inch Singles Sales charts in Billboard – the US trade magazine which nowadays, incidentally, refers to “new jack swing” rather than “swingbeat” … The Real Roxanne’s video for ‘Roxanne’s On A Roll’ is evidently a send-up of Elvis Presley’s 1964 movie, ‘Love In Las Vegas’, complete with Elvis lookalike! … Paula Abdul’s follow-up is a straight reissue of last September’s LA & Babyface created wriggly trotting 116⅙bpm ‘Knocked Out’ (Siren SRNT 92), in which you may remember much multi-tracking disguised her squeaky voice’s limitations (nobody denies she looks cute in her videos, which are what sell her records) … UK pressings of 2 Live Crew ‘Yakety Yak’ (Epic 654798 6) are exactly as reviewed on import, except the 7” Radio Mix is replaced by ‘Mega-Mixx 2’, an Incredible Bongo Band based excellent 0-113½bpm scratching mix of famous break beats … US imports I had no time to review fully this week (wanting to get rid of the backlog first) include the bass bubbled sinuous hip house T La Rock ‘Housin’ With The T’s’ (Fresh); ‘Funky President’ sampling New Edition-style excitingly churning swingbeat Robert Brookins ‘Don’t Tease Me’ (MCA Records); Rheji Burrell created girl sung hip house meets swingbeat-ish (best if slowed down on vari-speed decks!) Roqui ‘Lover’ (Nugroove); Howie Tee produced jogging conversational rap Special Ed ‘I Got It Made’ (Profile); Parliament quoting funkily bumping rap MC Hammer ‘Turn This Mutha Out’ (Capitol); remixed bubbly leaping (but not another ‘Turn Up The Bass’) Tyree ‘Hard Core Hip House’ (DJ International Records); het up New York house Private House ‘Don’t Turn Away’ (Easy Street); sampled driven drily drummed soulful house Rickster presents KLE ‘We Got The Music’ (Underworld); Smack Music Productions created mournfully muttered and catchily saxed Hendrix ‘Me Wanna See Ya Dance’ (Easy Street); Samantha Fox answering jerky fast rap Steady B ‘Nasty Girls’ (Jive); wriggly shrill smacking Apollonia ‘Mismatch’ (Warner Bros); poor value (‘Weekend’ flipped) dull instrumental The Todd Terry Project ‘The Circus’ (Fresh) … UK newies likewise include the surprisingly garage-ish strings backed bumpily striding The Biddu Orchestra ‘Humanity’ (Trax); ‘Magic Juan’ Atkins mixed bumpily thudding girls chanted though mainly instrumental Bang ‘You’re The One’ (RCA); Les Adams remade (again retaining just the vocal) throbbingly shuffling Burrell ‘Put Your Trust In The Music’ (10 Records); Paul Hardcastle created, Kevin Henry sung and self harmonised tuggingly meandering First Light ‘Loving You’ (Sgt Pepper’s); delicately tapping and jittering sweet girl wailed pleasant dated street soul Zushii ‘There Ain’t Enough Love’ (First Base) … Froggy and Flip funk Rainham’s Berwick Manor for the next few Saturdays … Paul DJ Gotel presents Simon Dunmore, Bob Jones and Gary Dennis spinning “real soul” at JB’s Soulmine every Sunday afternoon (noon-5pm) for over-20s in Ealing’s Haven Stables (good restaurant included) … Chris Brown likewise is Out To Lunch spinning soul, jazz and underground sounds every Sunday (noon-3pm) at Bagshot’s The Hero … Chris Dinnis and Bob Smith have their now monthly real soul Humdinger next Tuesday (25) at Exeter’s Boxes … Ian Levine has actually stopped DJing at Heaven because, he says, “Once the Hi-NRG chart had gone, I thought what’s the point?” … Naisha ‘One Step At A Time’ has been belatedly picked up here by PWL Records, perhaps not so surprisingly considering the Hi-NRG element that I always considered was present in this Clivilles & Cole created recent import hit … Raul featuring J. Bonnell ‘Guitarra’ has at last been picked up here, by Rhyme ‘n’ Reason Records … Koxo Band ‘Paradhouse Remix’ was one of the Balearic sounds discovered by Nicky Holloway on a visit to Ibiza last May, and big for him ever since … Nottingham’s def dude Graeme Park has been globetrotting between jocking jobs in New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Milan – with stopovers back home to fit in a few of his regular gigs! … New York’s Big Beat label owning Craig Kallman spent eight months jocking in London, primarily at The Wag – which must explain his consistent sensibility for the right on sounds! … Kraze, of ‘The Party’, were earlier Moon-Fou, of the much sampled ‘Shut Up!’ … Mysty Day has replaced Starlena Young as the new partner of Curtis Jones in the vocal duo Déjà … London, far from getting two blasts of ‘The Hitman And Her’ now that the sadly missed Night Network is no more, doesn’t get any at all – London Weekend Television amazingly, and stupidly, closing down around 3.30am on Saturday and Sunday mornings! Hiss, boo! … WOOO! YEAH!

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HOT VINYL

THE 45 KING ‘The Red The Black The Green’ (US Tuff City TUF RV-01)
Instantly snapped up by all his fans, DJ Mark’s LaKim Shabazz rapped typical funky JB-type break beat backed 105bpm chugger is, as exclusively announced, on red vinyl – but without the black and green label he had also hoped for – coupled by the break beat looping attractive Crown Heights Affair scatted catchy 116⅗bpm ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’, percussively strolling 101⅔bpm ‘Simply Dope, Part 1’, jiggly saxed 104bpm ‘Simply Dope, Part 2’, and tapping drummed 95⅔bpm ‘First Choice’.

DOUBLE TROUBLE & THE REBEL M.C. ‘Just Keep Rockin’’ (Desire WANTX 9)
Credibly following Longsy D’s House Sound, this terrific leaper combines ‘The Liquidator’ with “woo/yeah” repetition and skanking “riddim” vocals in the skacid 0-123⅗bpm Sk’ouse Mix, and samples Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop’ bass in the enthusiastic 0-123⅕-123⅗-124bpm Hip House Mix (which indeed is exactly that, with no ska influence). Double Trouble? Double sided dynamite!

THE PRESS GANG ‘Money (Club Mix)’ (TMT 12TTT-1003, via Priority/BMG)
Beverley Brown cooed and brightly emphatic guys chanted friskily tumbling and leaping 121½bpm excellent catchy skipper (more frantic bubbling stuttery 122¾-0bpm Dub Mix), hard to categorise as it’s refreshingly original – although Beverley is something like a street soul Yazz!

ARNOLD JARVIS ‘Take Some Time Out’ (RePublic Records LICT 024)
1987’s mournfully nagged garage classic has been much remixed for UK 12 inch release (not until May 2 but hot already on promo), Tommy Musto & Yvonne Turner creating the jittery lurching 118½bpm Breakin’ Bones and 118½-0bpm Dubbin Bones Mixes, while the label’s own Shy Boys, Dave Lee & Mark Ryder, made the perhaps stronger more sparsely striding 118bpm Rugged Riddim and 0-117⅘bpm Real Dub Mixes. Any similarity of the bassline to ‘Definition Of A Track’ from the ‘Back To Basics’ EP could be more than coincidental! Continue reading “April 22, 1989: The 45 King, Double Trouble & The Rebel M.C., The Press Gang, Arnold Jarvis, Bad Boy Orchestra”

BEATS & PIECES

JACQUELINE KHAN is setting up the totally independent Radical Records to rival her hubby Morgan Khan’s own Westside operation — distributed by Spartan, the label’s first releases will be the recent ‘Rap Trax Volume One’ album (here retitled ‘This Is War‘) and the Virgo Four newie … Linda Rogers is leaving Phonogram to run, as label manager, a London office for Brian Carter’s Germany based BCM Records — her old employers, meanwhile, would appear to be phasing out the Club logo and setting up a new dance label … Nigel ‘Nick’ Halkes is leaving Secret Promotions to take over Paul Kindred’s old position as club promotions manager at CityBeat … UK pressings of last week’s lead review, The Neville Brothers ‘Sister Rosa’ (Breakout USAT 656), still have Public Enemy’s here 0-97½-97⅔bpm 12″ Remix, 97⅔bpm Dub Version and 0-97⅔bpm 7″ Edit, but replace the original LP Version with Aaron Neville’s typically melismatic (0-)25-24⅓-0bpm reading of Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ (which appropriately of course had a disguised civil rights message, too) … The Beatmasters with Merlin ‘Who’s In The House’ turns out to be in a less resonant, more cleanly leaping mix on commercial pressings (still 124-0bpm), actual remixes having yet to be made — likewise, Freshski Dames ‘Kickin’ It Live’ is in a less shrill mix (still 0-104bpm) on its commercial pressings, flipped now though by the girls’ frenetic jittery ‘Think (About It)’ tempoed (0-)113½bpm ‘Stay Bad’ (Mango Street 1215 407) … Blue Magic ‘Romeo And Juliet (Vocal Remix)’ appears to be out here (QBR 654769 6), but UK pressings have not been promoted … Midnight Star’s most recent, eponymously titled, album — reviewed on import months ago — has unexpectedly just come out here (MCA Records MCG 6041) … LaKim Shabazz’s album has been picked up here by Sure Delight, with the first single scheduled as its ‘Pure Righteousness‘ title track (perhaps misguidedly in view of overwhelming DJ support for ‘Adding On‘) … ‘Wrath Of Kane‘ will finally be out here by Big Daddy Kane (who, despite huge hip hop popularity on import, has yet to amass significant UK sales), coupled with not only the older ‘Raw’ but also his brand new ‘Rap Summary‘ — the track for which people have been buying the ‘Lean On Me’ soundtrack album! … 10 Records have picked up Taravhonty … RCA will soon be reissuing classics from the Prelude catalogue, remixed by Backroom Productions (the team behind Jomanda) … Simon Walsh’s club plugging Music Enterprises Ltd has moved to The Courtyard, 42 Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9EY (01 -741 5515) … MCPS, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, is building a computerised national discography detailing every recorded track ever released, and needs for a full time job someone with a specialist interest in dance music (including reggae) to help compile the exhaustive data — contact Godfrey Rust (01-769 4400) … UK releases I had neither time nor room to review in full include the pop-aimed datedly volume pumping jerky Humanoid ‘Slam‘ (Westside); Magic Juan produced Reese & Santonio remaking but now pop-pitched Lisa M ‘Rock To The Beat‘ (Jive); washing machine style scurrying instrumental Bizarre Inc ‘Technological‘ (Blue Chip “R&B”); volume pumping style vocodered shrill twittery leaping Mass Reaction ‘Can You Feel The Beat’ (Immaculate); starkly ticking sweet street soul Nemesis featuring Rosaline Joyce ‘Heartbreaker‘ (Intrigue); bouncily tugging jiggly jogging swingbeat-ish Al Jarreau ‘All Or Nothing At All‘ (WEA); surprisingly house-style twittering and samples studded vigorous Debbie Gibson ‘Electric Youth‘ (Atlantic); Prince mixed jerkily lurching but sweetly whispered Wendy & Lisa ‘Lolly Lolly‘ (Virgin) … US imports ditto include the interesting emptily tapping then synthetically orchestrated instrumental L.B. Bad ‘New Age House‘ (United Sounds of America); falsetto guy wailed classily subdued throbbing and jangling Paris Brightledge ‘Learn To Love‘ (DJ International Records); scratching (and scratchy sounding!) fierce rap Uptown ‘Dope On Plastic‘ (Tommy Boy); The Jaz rapped and group souled jerky rolling strange O’Jays ‘Have You Had Your Love Today‘ (EMI) … Fareham bedroom DJ Dan Almond (0329-280376) is desperate for a 12 inch of Brother D ‘How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise’, good price paid … Leroy Hutson and Bobby Thurston are live at Brixton’s Fridge this Thursday (13), when Uxbridge’s Regals reopens with new Thirties decor … M-D-Emm’s scratching Mark Ryder joins resident jock Paul Marks at Southend-on-Sea’s Rain discotheque on Fridays, when John Matthews packs Richmond-on-Thames’ hot and heaving Park Avenue … Rob Huntley hip hops Solution Sundays at Broadstairs’ free admission Charles Dickens (evening pub hours) … Chris Paul and Chris Forbes are building up Blue Mondays with pure house and garage (positively NO Balearic!) at London’s Camden Palace … Eon Irving points out that the ‘Funky Drummer’ backing of Sweet Tee ‘As The Beat Goes On‘ combines perfectly with Alyson Williams ‘Sleep Talk‘ … Bobby Brown’s on stage dancing, to judge from TV’s ‘Big World Café’ clip, seems to have interestingly African-like exciting intensity … TV being on as I write, I’ve just been struck by the surprising similarity of lugubrious talking style between Julian Clary of the Joan Collins Fan Club, and the less camp but equally dog loving Sir Clement Freud! … Candy J, whose raunchy ‘Desirable Revenge‘ was recently reviewed, turns out not to be quite the woman she appears, evidently being a notorious Chicago transexual … James Brown seemed much on some journalists’ minds in the week ending April the First! … WOOO! YEAH!

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BRUCE FOREST is the New York DJ who came to fame via a legendary long residency at the Club Better Days, but is better known here as one of America’s best remixers. He recorded his favourite “rimshot” effect sample in an unorthodox way that may inspire others: he found an alley full of (sound deadening) snow, cleared a patch of concrete and threw a golfball at it. Whack!

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HOT VINYL

SOUL II SOUL ‘Club Classics Vol. One’ (10 Records DIX 82)
Cheekily titled, this excellent and obviously destined to be massive album is crisply produced by Jazzie B and Nellie Hooper, Jazzie’s own rapping being rather like a London/Jamaican accented Gil Scott Heron, although of course it’s Caron Wheeler who sweetly sings the slinky smash 93⅙bpm ‘Keep On Movin’‘ and wails the 0-101bpm ‘Back To Life (Acapella)’ preamble to the then continuing, Jazzie expounded 0-101bpm ‘Jazzie’s Groove’, Rose Windross who hauntingly warbles the act’s debut jiggly jogging 0-101⅓bpm ‘Fairplay‘, and Do’reen who quavers the less successful weavingly jolting 84-0bpm ‘Feel Free‘ and new half-stepping jiggly garage-ish 112bpm ‘Happiness (Dub)‘, leaving Jazzie to the Zulu chanted afro-house 117⅘-0bpm ‘Holdin’ On (Bambelela)‘, rolling simple 91⅚bpm ‘Feelin Free (Live Rap)‘, and lazily chatted 105-104⅚-105bpm ‘Dance‘, of which latter the flute tootled gently pattering 104⅚-105-104⅚bpm ‘African Dance’ is an instrumental — and the set’s standout?

THE REAL ROXANNE ‘Roxanne’s On A Roll’ (US Select FMS62334)
Based on the rolling organ and brass (and “all right” rather than “yeah — wooo!”) from Lyn Collins’ ‘Think (About It)’, plus a scratched in “The R” from Eric B & Rakim, Omar Santana’s remix of this infectious rap jiggler stays close to producers Jam Master Jay and the LA Posse’s original in the A-side’s 114⅓-114-114⅓-114bpm Extended Version, 114½bpm Instrumental and LP Version (Radio Edit), but branches out in the flip’s acidically twittered 115bpm Deep House Mix and 115-0bpm Hip Dub Mix, and chunkily broken down 115-0bpm Deep Dub Mix.

JOMANDA ‘Make My Body Rock’ (RCA PT 42750)
Originally credited to singer/co-writer Cheri Williams when part of New York Underground Records’ ‘Back To Basics’ EP before being hot for months as by Jomanda in its remixed form on Big Beat import, this girls wailed here 122⅔-0bpm friskily vigorous galloper is now in yet another brand new, much improved, percussively pattering Club Mix Sweet (with a sparse bongos breakdown near the end), its Sweet 7″ Mix, plus the import’s instrumental The Stomp Version and more fluidly driving (0-)122⅔-0bpm Supremely Clubbed mix. Continue reading “April 15, 1989: Soul II Soul, The Real Roxanne, Jomanda, New Edition, Raze presents Doug Lazy”

BEATS & PIECES

PRESTATYN 5 was generally considered a much better weekender than the previous one last November, when the bottom had just fallen out of “acieed” leaving a void that this time was filled with quite a lot of “swingbeat”, as a useful bridge between rap and soul — even so, if any one record stood out it was, to my mind, A Guy Called Gerald ‘Voodoo Ray’ … Soul II Soul made an impressive addition to Easter Sunday afternoon’s line-up, along with Adeva (who lustily rolled on her back with legs apart in the air!) and De La Soul … Ten City’s romper-suited Byron Stingily was possibly the most soulful singer ever at a Prestatyn, his partner Byron Burke doing an incredible shimmying dance … Chaka Khan is tipped as a live attraction at Prestatyn 6 (November 3/4/5, advance booking details on 01-364 1212), presuming that her remixed and reissued oldies will have brought her back to the fore by then! … North Wales, as anyone who stayed on after the weekender will confirm, looked lovely last week with blossom, flowers, budding leaves and warm sunshine as if early May — I added to my already great knowledge of the area by exploring the rather Lake District-like hills and villages (such as Rowen) of the western Conwy valley, and famously picturesque Anglesey side of the Menai Strait … Cutmaster Swift was celebrating his world win along with DJs Pogo, Jay and Biznizz by making an annual trip to Prestatyn — and then on my return I found them all buying imports off Jon Jules at Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre! … 1988’s Technics World DJ Mixing champion, Cash Money has left the UK after amazingly beating up one of his tour promoter’s employees, for which he was arrested, fined, and given two years’ probation should he ever return … Denmark’s very first “end of weeker” (rather than weekender) is Thurs-Saturday April 20/21/22 at Copenhagen’s Coma Club: starring Will Downing, Todd Terry, Raze, Coldcut, T La Rock, Odyssey plus DJs Gail ‘Sky’ King, Johnny Walker, Norman Jay, Bob Jones, Gilles Peterson, Bob Masters, Jazzy M, the local Delgardo and Kenneth Baker — details from Bob Jones (0702-710293) or Jazzy M (01-384 2320) … Martin Collins’ new “pop soul” shows on Capital Radio start next Saturday (15) with a 3-5pm slot between Peter Young and Pete Tong, while he’s also presenting Sunday through Thursday 10pm- 1 am (expect other changes at the station, too) … Robbie Vincent, declaring a vehement lack of intention to see the film ‘Scandal’, let slip the stunning revelation that it was he, as a cub reporter for London’s Evening Standard, who broke the news to Christine Keeler that Stephen Ward was dead … Jeff Young returns to Swansea Martha’s Vineyard next Monday (10) … I take it that Theo Loyla’s letter last week refers to “the silent majority” of small town DJs who consistently made such big hits out of all the records he promoted during the last years of his career as a disco plugger? (Theo lives in a glasshouse near Herne Bay) … WOOO! YEAH!

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PRESTATYN JOCKS in their “Satanic Verses” finale regalia! Back-row (I to r): Gilles Peterson, Johnny Walker, Martin Collins, Chris Forbes, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Sean French, Eddie Gordon, Chris Brown. Front row (kneeling): Ian Reading, Froggy, Chris Hill, Jeff Young, Nicky Holloway, Kev Hill

DE LA SOUL arrived at Prestatyn only just in the nick of time, hours late, having battled through the holiday traffic from Manchester airport by black cab!

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HOT VINYL

THE NEVILLE BROTHERS ‘Sister Rosa (12″ Remix)’ (US A&M SP-12306)
The veteran New Orleans soulsters are rapping and chanting their thanks to pioneering civil rights campaigners Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King in this perhaps incongruous to purists but terrific hip hop-ishly jiggling ultra funky 0-97⅔-97⅚bpm remix by none other than the Public Enemy crew of Eric Sadler and Hank & Keith Shocklee, sampling Sly & The Family Stone’s ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)’ and Dr King’s “free at last”, far removed from the loosely undulating original 0-89⅔-90⅓-90⅔-91bpm LP Version (piano jangled 97⅔-97⅚bpm Dub Version and 0-97⅔bpm 7″ Edit of 12″ Remix, too). Crucial!

TARAVHONTY ‘I Can’t Hide’ (US Big Beat BB-005)
David Morales mixed outstandingly neat and classy, mournful guy moaned, group chanted and piano jangled throbbing cool lazily striding pshta pshta driven 119⅕bpm garage roller, in five mixes (0-119⅕-0bpm The Aftermath), sure to be big. This label’s output is so consistent!

CIRCUIT featuring KOFFI ‘Shelter’ (Collision Records 12CIR 1, via The Cartel)
Wailing good Ten City-ish bassily tumbling and bumbling lushly orchestrated 121 bpm home-grown house hustler, initially promoed as a dodgy white label “scam”, with two more rawly broken down garage-ish B-side versions. Continue reading “April 8, 1989: The Neville Brothers, Taravhonty, Circuit featuring Koffi, Little Steven, Urban Jazz LP”

BEATS & PIECES

CHRIS PAUL has created his own London Jazz Remix of Vicky Martin’s ‘Not Gonna Do It’, giving her acappella a new backing, which MCA Records turned down having already prepared their own release but which radio DJs Pete Tong, Jeff Young and Chris Forbes have been hammering so much instead that now MCA are getting orders for it — and Chris has actually sold it back to its original US label, Movin’ Records, as Vicky herself loves it! … BMG’s disco man Eddie Gordon attempted to pull a scam with the new Five Star ‘Heartbeat‘ (Tent PB 42693), having white label promos pressed in the US as being by Vector and then describing the lightly juddering jiggly 108bpm trotter in a mailout as “L.A. R&B in the shape of Karyn White/Sheena Easton etc” — the only trouble was, the promos took so long arriving that the group had already been on TV several times plugging the song! … kc Flightt ‘Planet E‘ is due for rush release here now to meet massive orders — such a rush job in fact that the original import pressing has been circulated (the UK pressing will be RCA PT 49404) … Jody Watley ‘Real Love’ has been promoed here as a twinpack (MCA Records JW 1) with all the import’s mixes plus two new radio edits, which I wouldn’t have thought entirely necessary! … Simon Harris and Bruce Forest discovered that they both share a passion for cartoons, collecting especially Warner Bros classics — hopefully that clears up last week’s puzzle, another clarification being that Tony Prince at the International DJ Convention announced Derrick May as “Derek B”, and then seemed to think he was Kevin Saunderson! … Philadelphia’s hottest producer of recent years, Nick Martinelli was due to be gaoled by March 13 for three years and fined for $25,000 for selling cocaine, the offence apparently occurring in 1981 … Bobby Brown’s current UK version of ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ appears to be the Timmy Regisford & Eddie Gordon remix, hard to tell from a creditless white label promo … Jomanda’s commercial pressing here will have a new Sweet Mix as A-side, flipped by the import’s Supremely Clubbed version (with a harder Latin remix to follow) … Ten City apparently “demanded” to remix The Funky Worm’s April 17 released Brass Construction meet Norman Whitfield type ‘U + Me = Love’, their mix being the B-side, while FON Force returned the favour with their remix of ‘Devotion’ … Toni Scott’s “edit” and “instrumental” turn out on commercial copies to be respectively the T.U.X. Mix and R.T.Z Mix … Capitol are reissuing Maze ‘Joy And Pain’ to try and head off the two current remakes, coupled with ‘Twilight’ — wouldn’t now be a good opportunity finally to include also Les Adams’ excellent but unreleased ‘Maze Megamix‘?… Lisa Horan, no longer at Syncopate, is now Derek B’s personal assistant and running his reactivated Tuff Audio label … Friday (31) Sugar Bear scandalizes Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Walker’s at the Dance Society, while Colin Faver, Norman Jay, Simon Dunmore, Marco and Flem soul High Society at Ealing College’s Mandela Rooms … Tim Westwood is in the house Saturday (1) at Gravesend’s The Slammer … Mike ‘Hitman’ Wilson guests with DJ Kid Bachelor at Sunday’s first weekly Musika! night in London Shaftesbury Avenue’s Shaftesburys … Arthur Baker did a useful house remix of, if you can believe it, the Gipsy Kings’ ‘Bamboleo’, but it never came out … US imports that I haven’t had time to review fully (presupposing all the ones I did write fit this week!) include the jittery leaping “electro-house” Unknown DJ ‘Basstronic‘ (Techno Kut), Teddy Riley produced inevitably swingbeat jiggly soulful swaying Déjà ‘Made To Be Together‘ (Virgin), NWA associated (but clean!) rumbling enthusiastic go go-ish “live” rap Eazy-E ‘We Want Eazy (Remix)‘ (Ruthless), over jerkily lurching jittery Guy ‘I Like‘ (Uptown), Lenny Dee & Frankie Bones created variously tempoed electronic instrumental nine track ‘New Grooves‘ EP (nugroove), ditto disappointingly dated acidic Frankie “Bones” presents ‘Bonesbreaks Volume 3‘ (Underworld), samples woven simple starkly cantering “techno” 24-7-365 ‘Sample That!‘ (KMS), house samples backed jauntily leaping (and mildly filthy, heterosexually!) The Buggers ‘I Can’t Wait For Love‘ (Animal), samples studded jerkily bounding (with similar “pussy/dick” references!) Clubb ‘So Hot‘ (Bassment), War ‘Low Rider’ based rhythmically ambiguous 71⅔/143⅓bpm bouncily jerking The 7A3 ‘Drums Of Steel‘ (Geffen) … I can’t claim actually to have met Christine Keeler but often spoke to her when answering the telephone while staying in late 1963 at the Chelsea house of an old school friend, who, young and impressionable, was her boyfriend at the time and driving her to and from court every day for the Lucky Gordon assault trial, during which she was convicted of perjury — in fact, I knew many of the peripheral figures whose names figured in the newspapers back then, my first experience of “pot” being in such company, and can vouch for the accurate flavour of the film ‘Scandal’ … Ten City, Kym Mazelle, Cookie Crew, Adeva, Longsy D, Chanelle, De La Soul, Monie Love, Jomanda, MC Duke, Smith & Mighty, Jimi Polo and Heather Austyn were the stars due to appear at Prestatyn over the Easter weekender — pix ‘n info next week ! … WOOO! YEAH!

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Stanton DJ Award winners at the Royal Albert Hall during the World DJ Mixing Championship finals included:

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MARK JAMES, better known as DJ MARK THE 45 KING, started out as a “record feeder” for another DJ, which is how he got to know so many rare old seven inch funk singles’ break beats (Marva Whitney’s ‘Wind Up‘, for instance, has particularly numerical significance, hint hint!). Having recently produced Doug E Fresh and remixed the Wee Papa Girl Rappers’ Wee Rule’, his next import 12 inch featuring La Kim will be ‘The Red, The Black, The Green‘, on red vinyl with a half black, half green label. Oh yes, older than previously misinformed, he is in fact 27!

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HOT VINYL

TEN CITY ‘Devotion’ (Atlantic A8916T)
Reissued classic Marshall Jefferson produced ethereally wailed stratospheric Sylvester-ish soaring string sawed churner, always a club smash and destined now to cross over at last, here in 123bpm Club Mix and Instrumental, plus a brand new FON Force created totally different percussion bumped 0-123⅔-0bpm The Voice Of Paradise Mix.

A GUY CALLED GERALD ‘Voodoo Ray (Remix)’ (Rham! RX8804)
Selling better largely because the flip includes the still much in demand exotic seeming “hey ya, uh ha” girl chanted bubbling twittery 119½-0bpm Original Mix, the new less urgent more percussive 118-0bpm Ricky Rouge remix and lurching 119⅓-0bpm Radio Mix are however also on an all-new import five tracker (US Warlock WAR-038), where both are somehow 119⅕-0bpm, and confusingly our Radio Mix is called the Original Mix while the remix becomes Gerald’s Rham On Acid Remix, the flip having three very different 119bpm Frankie Knuckles remixes, largely rebuilt in more typically US style as the smoothly pulsing Paradise Ballroom, more jittery Penthouse, and tighter Voodoo Raydio Mixes, with a calmer loping rhythm and bursts of nagging jangly piano.

DARRYL PAYNE ‘Past, Present & Future’ (Graphic Records LIPS 4)
A various artists compilation LP of the New Yorker’s productions, many previously unreleased, with the 122-122¼-122-121½bpm excellent breezily bounding fluidly soulful MARC SADANE ‘Why Can’t You (Believe In Me)’, 105⅓-0bpm Leroy Burgess arranged weaving jolting soulful 1985 recorded (by the now sadly late) DINO TERRELL ‘You Can Do It (It’s So Easy)‘, 121-119½-0bpm huskily worried galloping 1983 recorded DARRYL PAYNE featuring WILL DOWNING ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Over‘, 121bpm bouncily leaping simple soulfully nagged BILLY STRICK ‘Can You Love Me‘, 116-115⅘bpm currently 12-inched naggingly cantering BRIAN KEITH ‘Touch Me (Love Me Tonite)‘, 0-115⅕bpm thuddering jittered rolling 1983 recorded NV ‘It’s Alright‘, (0-)119½-120-120½-121-121½-121⅔- 0bpm unsteadily surging recently remade jerky Bernard (Peech Boys) Fowler sung SINNAMON ‘I Need You Now‘, 121bpm lightly skittering Hi-NRG Martha & The Vandellas reviving KREAMCICLE featuring BARBARA HARRIS ‘Dancing In The Street‘. Continue reading “April 1, 1989: Ten City, A Guy Called Gerald, Darryl Payne, De La Soul, James Brown”