Month: February 1990

BEATS & PIECES

LISA STANSFIELD, in full live concert for the very first time anywhere, is confirmed as the star attraction at Livewire Promotions’ four day (April 13-16) Easter weekender at Prestatyn, where (with more names to be confirmed) other attractions will include an appearance by David Peaston, the Soul II Soul DJ crew including Jazzie B, Jazzie Q and Aitch B, two guest KISS-fm jocks, and the addition of Simon Dunmore to the legendary regular DJ team in order to strengthen the soul front, which will be re-emphasised with probably a room of its own (bookings/enquiries on 01-364 1212) . . . March 30-April 1, however, boasts two earlier weekenders, Upnorth Promotions’ sixth musically orientated ‘Blackpool’ event being actually at Southport this time with deep soul star attractions David Sea, Garland Green and Jesse James plus probable rap and jazz acts along with DJs like Tim Westwood, Colin Curtis, Richard Searling, Bob Masters, Simon Dunmore, Bob Jones, Norman Jay, Hutchy, Sylvester, Billy Davison, Ian Clark and many more (bookings/enquiries on 091-389 0317), while KAOS Weekends’ latest rave at Great Yarmouth features DJs Pete Tong, Nicky Holloway, Graeme Park, Mike Pickering, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Jazzy M, Andy Weatherall, Johnny Walker, Fat Tony, Fabio, Phil Perry, Alfredo and Steve Bicknell (credit card bookings on 01-364 1666, enquiries on 01-392 2922) . . . Arthur Baker And The Backbeat Disciples’ Silly Games’, in its Bonesbreak and Hacienda Club Mixes (reviewed last week), turns out on commercial pressings to be only the B-side coupling for the John Warren sung pop radio-aimed ‘Last Thing On My Mind‘ . . . Kath Canoville is currently updating the club and pirate DJ mailing lists at Nation Records, 19 All Saints Road, London W11 1HE (01-792 8167), with several “World Dance Fusion” releases in the pipeline . . . Edinburgh’s Ian Robertson and Alan Gibson hope to follow in the footsteps of Bill Grainger (now busy managing Big Fun) by setting up a new promotional mailing list (product sources unspecified at the moment) just for DJs in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Dance Department, PO Box 700, NWDO, Edinburgh EH4 4UL (031-551 2477/3025 or Fax 031-555 1010) . . . Northern Ireland’s Charlie Dickson does a rundown of Record Mirror’s Club Chart during his Saturday 3.30-7pm show on Radio WABC 101.7fm (“the only station in Ireland playing the chart that matters!”), right after which he jocks live at Portstewart’s The Anchor Club . . . Tongue ‘N’ Cheek appear with DJ David RB and MC A.W.I. from the Trax Production Posse (TPP) next Wednesday (28) at Soho’s Jacqueline’s in Wardour Street . . . “Up here in Manchester you have the choice of either Hard House or Hip Hop, fair enough but there is more to life!” — so says Greg Fenton, who with Justin Robertson and guest DJs hosts the Euro/Balearic Sunday night members only Spice at Manchester Piccadilly’s The Cavern . . . Torquay’s DJ Jay has started a specialist “dance music” evening on Sundays at Teignmouth’s newly refitted Bugsy B’s . . . Earth, Wind & Fire have teamed up with The Boys and — yup — gone swingbeat for the upcoming ‘Heritage‘ (103½bpm) . . . Falkirk’s Brian (DJ Baz) Sneddon (looking for gigs on Larbert 557437) rightly reckons that Fourth & Broadway should remix in 1990 house style, or at the very least just re-release, the still influential Wally Badarou ‘Chief Inspector‘ . . . Alan Coulthard’s latest remix for the Music Factory subscription service is an Olimax & DJ Shapps rivalling new version of Indeep’s ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’, speeded up to 120bpm although the vocals retain their original pitch . . . IT’S SUCH A GOOD VIBRATION!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by James Hamilton and Norman Cook

MADONNA ‘Keep It Together’ (Norman Cook)

MANTRONIX ‘This Should Move Ya’ (Capitol EST 2117)
Featuring his new (sometimes foul mouthed) rapper Bryce Luvah, Curtis Mantronik’s latest eagerly awaited album has the JB beats jiggled sinuous ‘(I’m) Just Adjustin’ My Mic’ (99¾bpm), chatting also JB funked ‘This Should Move Ya‘ (108½bpm), Sixties piano prodded smutty ‘Stone Cold Roach‘ (105bpm), jittery new jack swing ‘I Like The Way (You Do It!)‘ (109¾bpm), Ian Dury’s now rap adapted ‘Sex-N-Drugs And Rock-N-Roll‘ (109¾bpm), P’funkily rolling ‘I Get Lifted‘ (97¾bpm), sombrely scratching ‘Get Stupid Part IV (Get On Up ’90)‘ (98¾bpm), Todd Terry-ish churning hip house ‘Don’t You Want More‘ (118bpm), Isleys scream punctuated chugging ‘Tonight Is Right‘ (118¾bpm), and Wondress wailed smash ‘Got To Have Your Love‘ (105¾bpm).

FOSTER McELROY ‘Around The World In Eighty Beats’ (Norman Cook) Continue reading “February 24, 1990: Mantronix, Sweet Exorcist, Fine Young Cannibals, Vandal, Quartz featuring Steps”

BEATS & PIECES

Ever been had? ‘So What’, the Italo house hit previously credited as by (E’-AlorrA), supposedly on an Italian Dischi Dovero label, in an outrageously cunning and successful scam masterminded by Cooltempo for Chrysalis distributed Dover Records turns out to be an instrumental version of the new single by none other than Gilbert O’Sullivan (I suppose the matrix number GOSSX should have been a hint)! … Princess Ivori ‘Wanted’, now sizzling on scarce single-sided UK promo, was in fact imported on Popular way back around a year ago, but “came and went” at the time, according to helpful Terry Davis at Balham’s Record Corner … Olimax & DJ Shapps’ brilliant ‘Saturday Love’ mix, hard to find on white label since the autumn, has finally had a wider release titled as ‘Feelin’ Love’ (still 122½bpm) on T.D. Records, Inc (TD 108) … Kariya’s ‘Let Me Love You For Tonight’ is of course where the vocal quotes are from in Olimpia ‘You Want My Love’, reviewed last week … Rich Nice ‘The Rhythm, The Feeling’, my lead review last week, is 109¼bpm – missed out by an oversight after all that! … Silver Bullet ‘Bring Forth The Guillotine’ (Tam Tam Records TTT 013) has been reissued in its old Ben Chapman remixes (120bpm), but with a brand new Norman Cook remix soon to follow … Rumour Records have signed up Masters Of The Universe and will be rapidly reissuing the current ‘Space Talk’, coupled with ‘Check It Out’ now … The House Crew ‘All We Wanna Do Is Dance’ (reviewed last week and fully distributed from next week by Pacific) has been adopted as the anthem of the Freedom To Party campaign – which points out that Government moves to crack down on so-called “acid house” and warehouse parties (largely on account of the media hyped supposedly associated drug problem), if allowed to pass into law unopposed, could well knock on to prevent the playing of any type of music outside licence controlled premises and hours (and that includes at an innocent birthday party in your front room) … 94 of the UK’s top club jocks, in acknowledgement of his indirect influence on their careers, have between them gathered over 5,000 signatures so far for a petition to bring back Robbie Vincent’s soul show on Radio 1 … Capital Radio’s greatest asset, Peter Young has left to join the likes of Gilles Peterson and Jez Nelson at London’s new JAZZ-fm, on air March 4, doing a weekday 3-6pm jazz tinged soul/R&B show! … Diamond Time are extending their excellent continuously mixed monthly DiscEyes video compilations to three hours with specially edited movie trailer clips added to the end at no extra cost (subscription details, for professional use only, from Graham Gold on 01-483 4149) … Marie Birch, who wants those who might not otherwise recognise her to know she’s a fully recovered svelte brunette now following 14 months of serious illness, is back in the race running her new Impact Record Productions Ltd and previous PA’s Unlimited, building new mailing lists of club and radio DJs, specialist shops, and (those interested in booking personal appearances) entertainment managers at 363-365 Harrow Road, London W9 3NA (01-861 3953) … Beats International’s vocalist on ‘Dub Be Good To Me’, Lindy Layton not only used to be in TV’s “Grange Hill” but also is the girl from that Heinz spaghetti commercial, the one in which she’s just slurping her kid sister’s supper when her boyfriend is shown in by Mum … Mark Pogley and The Bean start a weekly upfront rave night this Friday (16) at Derby’s Zippy’s Lodge … Bob Masters anchors the new Freedom Fridays at Ladbroke Grove’s Subterrania, joined by two guests from a rolling rota of Jay Strongman, Bob Jones, Jeff Young, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay and Simon Dunmore to spin an eclectic range of upfront cuts … Saturdays at Brixton’s Fridge currently star the Coldcut boys, Jonathan More & Matt Black, along with Ian B, Vicki Edwards and Jay Strongman – also quite a line-up! … Baby Ford will be headlining live with DJs Mike Pickering, ‘Evil’ Eddie Richards and Andrew Weatherall in four Saturdays’ time, March 10, at the monthly Decadence night in Kentish Town’s Town And Country Club, to be filmed by Thames TV (for screening in September, when it’s sure to seem up to date!) … Guru Josh, rather sooner, this Wednesday (14) is with Gary Oldis at Sunderland’s Chambers and on Sunday (18) visits Tony Cochrane’s latest regularly rammed Sweatbox rave alldayer at Dundee’s Destihls … Pete Haigh and Bob Jeffries are “Legal + Massive” at Glasgow’s Sub Club this Saturday (17) … Mike Knowler brings the rave sound of Liverpool’s legendary The State to Bootle’s Quadrant Park on Thursdays … Ket Shah reports from Tenerife that anyone taking winter hols there will find he, the Stewart Brothers, Steve and Alfie, and JB guarantee upfront music from around the world at the bars currently “doin’ the business”, Roxy’s, Bobby’s, Paradise Lost and Tramps … Syntonic Research (distributed at the time by Atlantic) was the best of several US labels which back in the early Seventies released series of albums with the whole of each side devoted to just one naturally recorded stereo effect (like dawn in a wood, dusk in a swamp, wind in high trees, gentle rain in a pine forest, blazing logs in a grate, thunder in the city), nearly all of which I collected should any budding ambient producers be interested! … ‘Sonic Seasonings’, a similar vintage double album on CBS by synthesiser pioneering Walter Carlos, however, contains the ultimate thunderstorm, midway through the side called ‘Spring’, great for clearing gigs that have gone on too long as it’s guaranteed to make all who hear it feel shivery and uncomfortable! … IT’S SUCH A GOOD VIBRATION!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by James Hamilton and Norman Cook

MILLI VANILLI ‘All Or Nothing (US Megamix)’ (101½-100½bpm) (Cooltempo COOLX 199)
It’s back to jiggly half-steppin’ swingbeat (and sampled inserts from their and others’ oldies) for this consequently very typical jumpily syncopated jitterer, so much so that one can mentally picture their shinily shod twitchy feet in video close-up already, flipped by its more restrained US Remix (101½bpm) plus the moodily muttered and crooned slow ‘Dreams To Remember’ (106/53bpm).

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST ‘I Left My Wallet In El Segundo’ (Norman Cook)

BIG BOSS GROOVE ‘Sn—appiness’ (Norman Cook) Continue reading “February 17, 1990: Milli Vanilli, Innocence, M.C. Wildski, Gil Scott-Heron, Kicking Back with Taxman”

BEATS & PIECES

BEATS PER MINUTE are not easy to calculate accurately without spending time on them, which is why Record Mirror’s DJ readers have over the last 11 years grown to depend upon the consistent reliability of those featured in this column, to preserve the continuity of which from now on only the reviews by JH will incorporate the BPM, records reviewed by our guest reviewers (whose own individual calculations using different methods have proved rather inconsistent) being fully BPM-ed in The Club Chart if and when they hit it — so keep checking that, as ever! . . . Black Box ‘I Don’t Know Anybody Else’, reviewed last week on import, is rushed out here (de/Construction Records PT 43480) with its Melody Mix retitled as Sample Free Mix and House Club as Free Sample Mix (both still 121bpm) . . . Digital Underground ‘The Humpty Dance’ (103½bpm) is also out here (BCM Records BCM 364 X) . . . London’s biggest selling pre-release last week, the now Pink Floyd ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ melody overdubbed Innocence (featuring Gee Morris) ‘Natural Thing‘ (102¾bpm) made only a brief two week Club Chart appearance in its original mix on Collision last autumn . . . Princess lvori’s hot ‘Wanted‘, promoed here just in its original Jurgen Korduletsch mix, also exists in a rare Mantronix remix that only Tim Westwood seems to have obtained, so far — meanwhile, the original mix, plus the similarly promoed Out Of The Ordinary ‘Play It Again (The Los Ninos Remix)’, and seven other tracks of varying previous availability by Royal Delite, Cry Sisco, Logg, The Alliance, Technofusion, Catch 22, and Audio One have been compiled on a Supreme Records album tagged “the very best in upfront dance”, ‘Club It 90, Volume One‘ (CLUBLP 1) . . . Culture Beat ‘Der Erdbeermund’ here for some reason has its completely instrumental import B-side as UK A-side, relegating Jo Van Nelsen’s hauntingly atmospheric German muttering to the flip — however, he’s heard on Ben Liebrand’s brand new Spanish guitar picked and Bobby Byrd punctuated more rhythmically shuffling Magic Intro Mix (Epic 655633 8) and its slow intro lacking Magic Remix (117¾bpm), which latter UK B-side is again the A-side in Germany . . . Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K ‘Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over)’ has also been selling well in various David Morales remixes on two separate import pressings, an Italian one (New Music NMX 250) having his less urgent episodic Def Mix (123¾v bpm) plus the thumping, pumping Dance Action, Muted, Acappella and Instrumental Mixes (124bpm), while a better value US one (SBK V-19704) has his Def Mix and a Far East Mix (123¾bpm), the Album Version and 7-inch Edit (124bpm), plus his Techno Mix of ‘Pump Up The Jam’ (124¾bpm) . . . Eddie Gordon and Sue Jeoffroy (sic) will be looking after club promotion for the Atlantic, Ruthless, and Atco labels at the new East West division of WEA, while Fred Dove will continue servicing Warner Bros, Cold Chillin’ and Paisley Park product at the old parent company . . . DJs Pete Tong, Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold, a heavyweight quartet of ‘Balearic’ founding fathers, declare now they’re going Back To Basics every Thursday at the Borderline, off London’s Charing Cross Road by Foyles . . . John Palmer has started upfront Sundays at Leicester’s Harveys . . . Breakers just below The Club Chart last week included Lonnie Gordon ‘Happenin’ All Over Again’, MC’s Logik ‘Peace & Unity (Remix)’, The House Crew ‘All We Wanna Do Is Dance’, Ben Mays ‘X-Rated’, 49ers ‘Touch Me (Hard-Core Remix)’, Princess Ivori ‘Wanted’, Louie Vega ‘Te Quiero’, Addis Posse ‘Let The Warriors Dance Retrip’, Fine Young Cannibals ‘I’m Not Satisfied’, Soft House Company ‘What You Need…’/’…A Little Piano’, Gwen Dickey ‘Wishing On A Star’, J.T Company ‘Don’t Deal With Us’ . . . Michael Jackson has bought a house in Santa Barbara, California, right next door to one just built and moved into by some friends of mine’s father — who, not unnaturally, is now worried about not only Wacko Jacko’s fans but also his menagerie! . . . IT’S SUCH A GOOD VIBRATION!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by James Hamilton, Simon Harris and Norman Cook

TODD 1’S BREAK BEATS ‘Volume 1’ (Norman Cook)

VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘Jam Breaks’ (Norman Cook)

DR MOUTHQUAKE ‘Love On Love’ (Simon Harris)

ICE T ‘You Played Yourself’ (Simon Harris)

PISCES ‘Take Me Higher’ (Simon Harris) Continue reading “February 10, 1990: Rich Nice, Olimpia, Lisa Lee, L.A. Mix, Titiyo”

BEATS & PIECES

NEW YORK City’s ‘Dixie Drifter’ soul DJ, Frankie Crocker is currently guesting with Tim Westwood on London’s Capital FM broadcasting between 9pm-1am all this week until Friday in a live simulcast heard at the same time in New York (only there, of course, it’s 4-8pm, his usual slot) on WBLS — although he’s likely to be playing Soul II Soul-type British black sounds to intrigue his audience back home, it will be a chance for those here who have yet to experience American black radio to hear one of its leading and most legendary practitioners . . . Tim Raidl and ‘Evil’ Eddie Richards have revived the Soul On Sound cassette tape aural magazine idea by launching the limited 1,000 copy mail order only Pure (House), the C90 format featuring each month an exclusively recorded UK mixing DJ on one side, flipped by interviews with not only that DJ but also a well known DJ/producer from abroad, a selected record store’s Top 10 sales countdown, plus new music by unsigned talent: costing £6 (from 68 Sunningdale, Round Green, Luton, Bedfordshire, subscription discount details on 0908-647632), issue one has Paul ‘Trouble Those Decks’ Anderson as guest mixer, an interview with Todd Terry, a Vinyl Zone chart plus tracks by Irresistible Force, while future issues will include Eddie Richards, Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Kid Batchelor as mixers plus Frankie ‘Bones’, Louie Vega, Ralphi Rosario, Kevin Saunderson as interviewees . . . Mel Appleby’s tragic death aged 23 from cancer last week has caused Supreme Records to withdraw Alan Coulthard’s previously mentioned ltalo House Remix of Mel & Kim’s ‘Showing Out’ and hits medleying ‘The Mel & Kim 1990 Mega-Mix’, originally scheduled for release next Monday . . . ‘Control Yourself Cousin‘, the white labelled hot megamix by Homeboy (who turns out to be ‘EastEnder’ Rob Keen), is at last due fully next week on CT Records (the newly abbreviated name of Cheque This Records, where Chris Checkley and Louise Chantrell are building a DJ mailing list on 01-229 7329), with a cleaned up more vocal remix to follow possibly on a major label . . . Suffolk DJ Mark Summers’ recent homemade ‘Melt Your Body‘ only ever had a limited UK release but has resurfaced as a US import, on Hillbilly House Records, in three mixes now . . . London based swingbeaters Way To Go, led by Baby Rico, have signed direct to Sire in the States and are currently recording an album featuring guests George Benson, Betty Boo, and hopefully Grover Washington Jr — way to go, indeed! . . . 808 State’s upcoming four-track ‘The Extended Pleasures Of Dance’ EP has been preceded on promo by just its jerkily churning ‘Cobra Bora (Call The Cops Mix)‘ (119¾bpm) and rambling slow jittery ‘Ancodia (Taters Deep Nit Funky Beat Mix)‘ (106¼bpm) . . . Chester based mobile DJ Del Farmer heads (with wife Michele as PR officer, on 0244-320421) a brand new breakaway Chester, Cheshire & North Wales DJ Association open to mobile, club and radio jocks, potential members being welcomed to the lunchtime meetings on the first Sunday of every month (so one’s just coming up) at the Bull And Stirrup pub in Chester’s Watergate Street — the following, March 4, meeting will be a disco jumble sale, all non-member DJs being invited to bring and buy, at the larger Southview Community Centre . . . Outer Limits start a weekly Juice hip hop night presented by Sindecut this Thursday (1) at Bletchley’s Rayzels . . . Thursday also sees Ray Lock start a new house night at Hoofers, in London Road on Kingston Hill, with guest DJ Robert Fung followed over the next two weeks by Carl Cox and Trevor Fung — Ray alone houses Purley’s Temptations Friday and Sutton Civic Centre’s Fu-Fu’s Saturday, both switched-on wine bars . . . Shut Up And Dance star at Brixton Fridge’s 2pm-midnight Eureka II alldayer this Sunday (4) . . . Clubnet have sent their mailing list DJs a pair of ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ slipmats to help plug Jamie J Morgan . . . Tyneside’s Nigel Atkinson (091-5657774) is desperate for a 12-inch of Deniece Williams ‘Heaven In Your Eyes‘ (CBS) from 1984 . . . Belfast’s informative ‘Bird Man’, Mark One (who sells dance trax at The Gramophone Shop opposite City Hall and spins them Fri/Saturday at Robinsons Bar), reckons the birds twittering on Sueno Latino’s new ‘Luxuria‘ this time sound more like oystercatchers, the large black and white waders to be found at the seaside (not to be confused with seagulls!) . . . IT’S SUCH A GOOD VIBRATION!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by James Hamilton, Graeme Park and Judge Jules

BLACK BOX ‘I Don’t Know Anybody Else’ (121bpm) (Italian Groove Groove Melody GGM 8909)
The hottest Italian team on vinyl follow the UK’s biggest selling single of 1989 with another wailing and jangling solid though perhaps less instant punchy chugger, featuring what seems like an original vocal in bassier Melody Mix and sharper House Club versions.

M.B.G. ‘This Is Paradise’ (Graeme Park)

TASHAN ‘Blackman’ (Club Mix) (Graeme Park) Continue reading “February 3, 1990: Black Box, Mondeé Oliver, Lisa Stansfield, Princess Ivori, Seduction”