Month: October 1990

BEATS & PIECES

PUBLIC ENEMY, as hinted last week, can now be confirmed as the new star live attraction at the November 2/3/4 Prestatyn weekender, where other final additions to the already detailed bill are Al B. Sure!, Samuelle, Innocence and possibly Blue Pearl, with Tim Westwood rejoining the DJ line-up to introduce P.E. (who appear on Saturday afternoon so they can get to their London Arena gig later that night) — last call for late bookings on 081-364 1212 . . . 2 Tuffs ‘Hold On’ and ‘Ghetto Heaven’ grooves combining ‘Slow Down‘, reviewed w/e August 18 when originally pressed on Intrigue for export only, is due here commercially now on eastwest (YZ542T) . . . Ceybil (a nasally wailing lady pronounced “Say-bill”) has her whispering guy and piping organ chords prodded jauntily jumping ‘Love So Special’ currently on US Atlantic import but it’s been promoed here as a single sider in just its B-side Tony Humphries mixed Original Underground Club Mix (121½bpm) (Atlantic A7818T) . . . Pal Joey has remixed his own (as it is confirmed) ‘Runaway‘, with added instrumentation over the Roy Ayers Ubiquity ‘Runnin’ Away’ riff, for upcoming UK release on Champion . . . D-Shake’s ‘Techno Trance’, not G.T.O.’s ‘Pure’ (right label, wrong tune!), is of course what ‘Industrial Bass’ by Project “86” sounds quite like . . . Danny Rampling’s soulfully skipping gruff Steve Eusebe moaned Sound Of Shoom ‘I Hate Hate (Southwark St. Mix)‘ (109¾bpm), as oldies fan Jay Strongman surprisingly didn’t point out last week, is of course a remake of Razzy’s mid-Seventies message song (a much played favourite then of Greg Edwards on Capital Radio) . . . Djum Djum’s somewhat European sounding ‘Difference’ proves to be a London recording created by the group with Leftfield and Mat Clark . . . Fluke’s ‘PhiIly’ on commercial 12-inch turns out indeed to be in Jamorphous and Jamoeba Mixes, with a squeaky strings stabbed fractionally slower new Jameteur Mix too (all still around 117½bpm) . . . N-Joi’s ‘Anthem’ (125bpm) on commercial 12-inch is now coupled only by ‘Manic’ and ‘Techno Gangsters’, despite being promoed in its original EP form with ‘Jah Heaven’ too . . . Pressure Zone are releasing their own total creation ‘That Moon‘, as by Paul Rutherford & Pressure Zone featuring Tammy Payne, on their own label Beat Farm Recordings from their own The Beat Farm studio, soon . . . Inner City’s additional mixes from their US ‘That Man (He’s All Mine)’ 12 inch are now out here as a separate Remix pressing, other remixes with no room for review being of Fantasy UFO, Mica Paris, Pet Shop Boys, and The Sindecut (again) . . . ‘Thunder‘ ( 119½-119¼bpm), a violent bass thundered galloper with silky strings playing what sounds like ‘The Good Life’ amongst the many episodic quotes as it rampages along, is the only really exciting dance track on not only Renegade SoundWave’s limited edition ‘R.S.W In Dub’ sampler EP but also their whole double LP of the same name, and will be remixed for commercial 12-inch anyway . . . Status Quo’s rockin’ & rollin’ ‘Anniversary Waltz’ is obviously great for Jive Bunny playing party jocks, who might find useful the fact that Part One medleys together ‘Let’s Dance’ (173)/’Red River Rock’ (173½)/’No Particular Place To Go’ (130)/’The Wanderer’ (128¾)/’I Hear You Knocking’ (128½)/’Lucille’ (138)/’Great Balls Of Fire’ (169-175½bpm), and Part Two ‘Rock ‘n Roll Music’ (174½-173½)/’Lover Please’ (174½)/’That’ll Be The Day’ (131½)/’Singing The Blues’ (131½)/’When Will I Be Loved’ (132¼)/’Let’s Work Together’ (127½)/’You Keep A Knockin” (173½-175) /’Long Tall Sally’ (176bpm), approximately! . . . “BPM” in giant red letters dominated the set of BBC2-tv’s first ‘Def II: Dance Energy’ (Mondays, circa 6.25-6.50pm, with a chart update Wednesdays 6.50-7pm), which did well to open with a live rap by the ever positive, never negative, KRS-One — a pity though that the studio sound and atmosphere weren’t punchier, but the filmed US rap reports made up for much . . . Jonathan Ross began as a researcher for Channel 4’s faster moving old UK version of ‘Soul Train’, with which comparisons must inevitably be made, so one wonders whether anyone from ‘Dance Energy’ will go on to similar heights?! . . . Brixton’s The Fridge and Capital FM combine for 95.8 At The Fridge next Monday (29) with DJs Pete Tong, Mick Brown, Dave Dorrell, and Ben & Andy (the Boilerhouse boys) . . .

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by Graeme Park and James Hamilton

OHM Heady Volts Sensation EP (Shake/Wire Me Up/Catch A Wave/Lol Mix/Challenger)
TIM HUTTON ‘Third Star’
SIMON SED ‘Wigged’/‘Criminal’
TOMOWAKI ‘Past, Present, Future’
2 TUFF ‘Slow Down’/‘Tribute’/‘Elevate Your Mind’
CEYBIL ‘Love So Special’
THE FAMILY STAND ‘Sweet Liberation’ (Jazzie B mixes/original/Bonus Beats)
HAKEEM X ‘Hip Hop Reborn’
BLOOD BROTHERS ‘Transfusion’
LESS STRESS featuring KATHARINE WOOD/YOUNGER YOUTH ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’
DEEE-LITE ‘Power Of Love (Sampla-Delic Remix)’/‘Deee-Lite Theme (Global Village Mix)’/‘Build The Bridge (Cross Cultural Mix)’
OFFSHORE ‘Can’t Take The Power’
ELECTRIBE 101 ‘Inside Out’/‘Electribal Memories’
INCOGNITO ‘Can You Feel Me’
LOUISE BAILEY ‘Do It Now (Bruce Forrest remix)’
TEENA MARIE ‘Since Day One (Jazzie B remix)’

THE EMOTIONS ‘Flowers’ (CBS 656360 6)
Taken from CBS’s upcoming ‘Dance Masters Vol 1‘ double LP, the sweetly soaring squeaky girls’ Earth Wind & Fire created 1976 classic has been remixed here by Gaz Anderson & Tony Thorpe with a perhaps inevitable though effective funky drummer jiggling gently through their Wizdom 12″ Mix (109½bpm), or chugging more chunkily through their Sun Mix (110bpm). (My stopwatch clocks in both as being steady, but puzzlingly an electronic BPM counter I’m currently roadtesting suggests they sometimes fluctuate fractionally downwards.) To judge from the buzz that’s already built up, this should be a smash!

BLACK BOX ‘Fantasy’ (97 bpm) (de/Construction Records PT 43896)
The hottest track from their album back in the spring now finally out here as a single this week, the waves and whispering introed then bouncily jiggling Herb Alpert ‘Rise’ tempoed (clomping the last beat of every bar) Earth Wind & Fire revival is powerfully wailed through a richly eventful arrangement with some especially attractive piano, flipped by its guy rapped different ‘Get Down‘ treatment (98¾bpm) and good wordy hip hop Rapcapella (98½bpm).

LIFE ON EARTH ‘Can’t Give You Up’ (120bpm) (RePublic Records LICT031, via Rough Trade)
Heavily plugged on Kiss 100 fm for some time already, so likely to be big around London at any rate, Andrew Livingstone & Pat Leacock’s very pleasant coolly ticking jazz-funk/house revamp of Mystic Merlin’s ‘Just Can’t Give You Up’ 1980 classic is in Full Club and more jerkily cantering Skankin’ Mixes, coupled by a Winston Marvaya and girls sung jiggly slow weaving remake of Roy Ayers’ ‘Sunshine’ (92bpm) in Jungle Bass and hi-hat hissed juddery Dread Mixes. Continue reading “October 27, 1990: The Emotions, Black Box, Life On Earth, Kylie Minogue, Massivo/Jackie Rawe”

BEATS & PIECES

EN VOGUE apparently can no longer leave their US tour supporting MC Hammer, despite prior arrangement to fulfil their commitments here next month, which means that all their UK concerts have been cancelled, including two sold out Hammersmith Odeon shows and their appearance at the PresJam 8 weekender — where, however, some of the big stars mentioned last week as “strong possibilities” will indeed appear live to fill the breach, so all is not lost! . . . RePublic Records have promoed back to back the early rap classics T-Ski Valley ‘!Catch The Beat!‘ and Fatback featuring King Tim III ‘Personality Jock‘, both due commercially on a ‘Back To The Old School‘ double album along with Younger Generation ‘We Rap More Mellow‘ (at last!), amongst others . . . 4 For Money’s “naggingly familiar” catchy piano riff in ‘A Moment In Time‘ sounds of course like a speeded up adaptation of the piano from the Rolling Stones’ ‘We Love You‘, a song of support (complete with prison sound effects) for Mick Jagger while he was briefly gaoled in 1967, never one of their major hits — except right now its influence seems to be turning up quite regularly! . . . Ce Ce Rogers’ ‘All Join Hands‘, reviewed as an import, has slipped out here on the quiet (Atlantic A7888T) . . . Unique 3 (featuring Karin)’s weird wailing and bleeping ‘Rhythm Takes Control‘ (out next week) is 125¾bpm, Steve Harvey’s mournful calmly striding ‘I’m The One (Extended Version)‘ (out in a fortnight) is 109bpm, while Ruby Turner’s lovely slinkily jiggling ‘It’s A Cryin’ Shame (UK Remix)‘ is 106¾bpm . . . Janette Shaw is building a DJ mailing list for Optimism Records and MTR Records, on 081-442 4248 . . . Graham Gold, in his Diamond Time video compiling rather than Kiss 100 fm breakfast DJing role, is surprised that so far there are only 40 subscribers to his monthly Club Clips service, offering the 20 best available current “hard toon” dance videos with brief gaps between them (rather than in the excellent smoothly segued continuous style of the firm’s more pop slanted DiscEyes programmes, with which existing subscribers are presumably well satisfied, perhaps explaining their resistance to the non-continuous compilation style?), the latest Club Clips edition from a couple of weeks back having for instance videos of the most recent hits by Gang Starr, LL Cool J, Lalah Hathaway, Caron Wheeler, Bass-O-Matic, Mica Paris, Titiyo, Snap, Monie Love, Curtis Mayfield & Ice T, Bell Biv DeVoe, Basic Black, The Chimes, Londonbeat, Paula Abdul, the adventures of Stevie V, Adamski, Orbital, The Grid, and MC Tunes versus 808 State, not a bad and still very current selection — full subscription details, for bona fide disco operators only, from Diamond Time Ltd, 16/26 Rosemont Road, London NW3 6NE (telephone 071-433 3355, fax 071-794 8383) . . . Reachin’ Records are looking for someone — preferably either another record company or a promotions/PR company — to share their office space in Acton, contact Thomas Foley on 081-749 8619 . . . Motown authority Karen Spreadbury, as she’s known in the world of PR, as usual has used the pen-name Sharon Davis for her latest book about black music, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, a biography of her friend Marvin Gaye, due to be published on November 15 in nice time for Christmas (Mainstream Publishing, £11.99 hardback) . . . Stevie B, Javed Mirza and Butch (grrr!) take over Kingston on Thames Options for a Tuesday XFADE heavy duty dance night starting this week . . . Andy, Femi and guests have replaced the late lamented Sub Club with fortnightly (this week, October 18) Azucar Thursdays at Westbourne Park’s Woody’s in Woodfield Road . . . Friday (19) finds a One World rave with DJs David O’Grady, Paul McCourt, Keith Connolly and Alan Ferris in the Mandela Hall at Queen’s University Belfast . . . David Dyer (1 York Street, Canton, Cardiff CF5 1NB) has been appointed DJ at Cardiff’s University Hall, where three discos a week are held for up to 2,500 students — but last term over 15,000 records amassed by the students since 1966 were stolen, and David optimistically hopes that maybe if record companies would add him to their mailing lists he could begin to build back up to this amount again . . . Loaded, a new label, are looking for upfront DJs who play hardcore house for their exclusive mailing list. Work details and some recent chart returns showing the music you play should be sent to: Loaded, The Studio. 27 Ship Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1AD . . . Decca has serviced DJs with a seven inch of Carreras/Domingo/Pavarotti’s operatic reading of ‘O Sole Mio’ because reputedly some bright spark played it over a house instrumental at a rave — and it worked! . . . BOOMIN’!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by Jay Strongman and James Hamilton

KOOL SKOOL ‘You Can’t Buy My Love’ (102½bpm) (US Capitol V-15604)
Not a misprinted Beatles oldie, this is a Jesse Johnson & Keith Lewis created deadly infectious heavily juddering and pattering choppy new jack swing jiggler, conversationally rapped between sweet title chanting girls with some jazzily picked Benson-ish guitar halfway, powerful stuff that could go far, in raw James Brown funk climaxed 12-inch Version, Instrumental, Radio Edit, and slower more starkly snapping 7-inch Edit (101bpm) mixes, plus the jittery smacking ‘Make Up Your Mind (LP Version)‘ (114¾bpm).

DEEPSTATE II ‘Everybody Get Down’/Tribal Chant Mix
DEFINITION OF SOUND ‘Now Is Tomorrow’/‘Moira Jane’s Café’
PAPA SAN ‘Dancehall Good To We’
MAIN SOURCE ‘Looking At The Front Door’
SOUND OF SHOOM ‘I Hate Hate’
DOUG LAZY ‘H.O.U.S.E.’
PUNCHY ANDERSON ‘I Need The Green’
SHINEHEAD ‘The Real Rock’
TURBO ‘Freedom’
TOO SHORT ‘The Ghetto’

MAUREEN ‘It’s My Life (Boilerhouse Mix)’ (103¾bpm) (Urban URBX 62)
Maureen Walsh reverts to just her first name for this Ben Wolff & Andy Dean (the Boilerhouse boys) mixed superb Soul II Soul-ish jittery tripping soulful swayer, attractively arranged with sinuously bumping acoustic-type bass, swirling strings, tinkling piano and jazzy sax gradually building up an infectious swingbeat jiggle, flipped by their Boilerhouse 7″ Edit and rivals Rockhouse’s much rawer Meltdown Mix.

JANET JACKSON ‘Love Will Never Do (Without You)’ (A&M AMY 700)
Yet another single from the ‘Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814’ album, timed to coincide with her UK gigs next week, this Jam & Lewis created bright jittery lurcher is in Shep Pettibone’s snappily surging new jack swing-ish Shep’s “Work It Out” Mix and starkly jolting The “Work It Out” Dub (102¾bpm), plus CJ Mackintosh’s lush acappella harmonies started then “too bad” prodded jauntily rolling UK Funky Mix (103bpm). Continue reading “October 20, 1990: Kool Skool, Maureen, Janet Jackson, Djum Djum, Cathy Dennis”

BEATS & PIECES

PRESJAM 8, the eighth Prestatyn weekender, fast approaching on November 2/3/4, will feature not only full live concerts by En Vogue and Light Of The World, as previously announced, but also PAs by the likes of Loose Ends, Diana Brown & Barrie K. Sharpe, Bass-O-Matic, Master Ace, Unique 3, The Sindecut, Carlton, Martay-N-DBM plus the strong possibility of Monie Love, Jungle Brothers, LL Cool J, Innocence, the Chimes and even Public Enemy (confirmation of these and more to follow), while Robbie Vincent will be making a welcome return to the regular DJ team — £60 tickets from LiveWire Promotions on 081-364 1212, but hurry as only a few are left . . . BBC2-tv next Monday (October 15) in the ‘Def II’ slot (repeated the following Sunday) starts a series of ten 40 minute ‘Dance Energy’ shows, all pretty up to date as recorded the previous Thursday and featuring three live acts, various video promos, charts, Euro reports and guest DJ presenters — meanwhile, Channel 4’s rival ‘Dance Daze’ series, recently recorded at Brixton’s Academy, is not due to start until November 9 . . . The Video Pool’s latest October ’90 edition, No. 76, includes for the first time (approximate) Beats Per Minute information to help those DJs who might want to sequence the videos smoothly within their musical programme (whether they attempt running mixes with actual records is up to them) — full details of this monthly video clip compilation service, available to bona fide disco operators only, from Roz Bea at 170a Holland Park Avenue, London W1 1 4UH (071-602 5935) . . . Simon Walsh still has a few places to fill on various DJ mailing lists (like upfront, commercial, Hi-NRG) at Music Enterprises, who have just celebrated their fifth anniversary with a move to Elysium Gate, 126-128 New Kings Road, London SW6 4LZ (telephone 071-371 5005, fax 071-371 0160) . . . WEA is now known as Warner Music International — how long before it’s WMI, or “Wammie” for short?! . . . Record Mirror Club Chart topper Monie Love has been signed by Spike Lee to appear in his next film, ‘Jungle Fever’, and also looks like becoming a cast member of a new US TV sitcom series — here, her ‘Down To Earth’ album has been preceded by a 45rpm 12-inch promo (Cooltempo CTLPP 14) featuring four volume boosted tracks from it, the original chugging ‘It’s A Shame (My Sister)‘ (108bpm), George Clinton-ish lurching P’funky ‘Don’t Funk Wid The Mo‘ (108¾bpm), lunar countdown and old Roy Ayers “hey uhh what you say come on” chant started frantic hip house ‘Down To Earth‘ (123¼bpm), and Anita Ward oldie adapting Ultra Naté duetted ‘Ring My Bell‘ (121¾bpm) . . . Paul Mulholland presents a Saturday 7-8pm dance music show on Glasgow’s first community station, East End Radio 103.5fm . . . 23-year-old Californian Samuelle was lead singer with Club Nouveau on their ‘Lean On Me’ hit, his own previously reviewed ‘So You Like What You See’ (much plugged by Kiss 100 fm in London) being out here now . . . Adamski’s ‘Killer’ singer, a guy called Seal has signed solo to ZTT . . . M.I.C. ‘Oobe 1’/’Oobe 2’, previously reviewed on Slippy Gimbo Records, has been picked up by the new Planet Pacific label for wider release next month . . . Gwen Guthrie’s ‘Miss My Love’ is due for UK release on October 29, when Deee-Lite’s ‘Power Of Love’ is out . . . Neneh Cherry’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ has been slickly remixed by Blacksmith in a jazzy keyboard and strings backed Brixton Bass Mix (Circa Records YRTX 53), with nice Gato Barbieri-ish sax, usefully flipped by its Brixton Bass Instrumental Mix plus their very different alternative stark old fashioned funk jittered Upso Mix (all 103½bpm, precisely) . . . Titiyo’s ‘Flowers’, now it’s out commercially, is also in some fully labelled Remixes (Arista 613 213), with Frankie Foncette’s excellent sparsely sinuous Uptown Mix (105bpm), Magnus Frykberg & StoneBridge’s ‘Theme from Shaft’-ish cymbal tapped Overload and Mike Stevens & Aadil’s funky drummered Hip-Hopappella Mixes (104¾bpm) . . . Orbital are at The Fridge in Brixton this Thursday (October 11) . . . DJ Harry J’s live guests are the James Taylor Quartet this Friday (12) in The Strongroom at Windsor’s The Old Trout (Barry Avenue), where a fortnight later (Friday 26) Big H is joined by Jeff Young for the Harry’s House night . . . Jerry Dammers is special opening night guest this Saturday (13) at the first fortnightly Downbeat in Coventry’s Tic Toc club, with resident DJs Lof and Fresh E scratching and sampling slow beats, grooves, rap and ragga . . . Bedford based Forbidden Fruit Inc. is donating to local medical-type charities 30 per cent of all admission profits from its new Thursday night at Bedford’s Sweetings II nightclub, alternate weeks featuring either (like this week) the old and new soul, mellow grooves, jazz and ragga Blak Is Blak or (next week) the more house, rap, upfront soul Urban Jungle, with DJs including Bejan ‘Nutty B’ Huggins, John ‘Jon Boy’ Eagles, Neil ‘The Raider’, Mikie V, Richard ‘Rochie’ Rochester, DJ Louis, South River Crew, DJ Lethargic, Loft Groover, Colin Dale and guests (further details from Rochie on 0860 793540 or 0234 262773, who would welcome offers of PAs too) — meanwhile, both these nights’ musical styles are combined for The Word on Saturdays at Castaways, slightly closer to Rushden than Bedford on the A6, near the appropriately named Souldrop (a genuine village!) . . . BOOMIN’!

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HOT VINYL

YOUNG DISCIPLES ‘Get Yourself Together’ (99¾bpm) (Talkin Loud TLK3, via Phonogram)
London jazz-funk DJs Femi & Marco’s classily subtle recording act debuted with the Outlaw Posse rapped slinkily rare grooving ‘Step Right On’ (93bpm), only available commercially as a track on the Gilles Peterson helmed new label’s ‘Talkin Loud’ compilation LP despite being promoed with vocal and instrumental Dubs too as a 12 inch (Talkin Loud TLKDJ2), while now on commercial 12 inch and selling massively in London at least (following deserved Kiss 100 fm plugs) is this excellent likewise rare grooving jigglier jogger sweetly wailed by their soulful new member Carleen Anderson, with similarly jiggling but MC Mell’o’ rapped ‘Young Disciples (Theme)‘ and ‘Mo’ Beats’ B-side variations both giving some gentle flute enough room to breathe.

J.B. MC ‘Reality’ (102¾bpm) (Rhyme ‘n’ Reason Records 12 RNR 9)
Produced by the intriguingly named Three Thieves And A Liar, this surprisingly attractive gently jiggling Soul II Soul-ish melodic swayer is lispingly chatted between soulful girl group choruses, with an Instrumental Vocal Mix flip, probably catchy enough to end up quite big.

CATCH ‘Free (C’mon)’ (124bpm) (ffrr FXDJ 147)
Another presumably Northern dancer designed for raves but naggingly commercial enough to cross over, this spasmodically ‘Popcorn’-like bleeping sparse jaunty simple old style electro instrumental (with occasional Roger Daltrey-ish “I’m free — yay, yay, yeah-heh” and “a-c’mon, c’mon, c’mon” punctuations) has been promoed just in To The Point and slow starting Fullest Mixes, getting enthusiastic response. Continue reading “October 13, 1990: Young Disciples, J.B. MC, Catch, Loose Ends, Pebbles”

BEATS & PIECES

THE BEATLES’ ‘Yesterday’ followed by John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ are hotly rumoured to be due as the next big bootleg remixes in funky drummer stylee — inevitably, someone had to do it . . . D.N.A. (totally unconnected with the foregoing, so don’t read between the lines), despite now realising they would have ended up making much more money had they left ‘Tom’s Diner’ as a bootleg, have also remixed ‘Rusted Pipe’ from Suzanne Vega’s most recent album — except A&M in the States appear reluctant to allow its release as they don’t want her to become too established in people’s minds as a disco artiste! — plus The The’s ‘Armageddon Days‘, Tongue ‘N’ Cheek’s remake of Patrice Rushen’s ‘Forget Me Nots‘, and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s remake (with Mike Love of the Beach Boys on lead vocal) of the Rolling Stones’ We Love You’, while their own follow-up to ‘La Serenissima’ will be a remake of David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’ with a house beat (but no “wooh yeah”!) . . . ‘Everybody’ turns out here to be credited on commercial pressings to The Criminal Element Orchestra featuring Wendell Williams, in just two mixes now (both 121¾bpm), the A-side’s Rap being a bowdlerized version of the import’s (Everybody) Rap Your Body minus its possibly controversial “Michael Jackson yelps” (if you get my meaning), flipped by a similar brand new Doesn’t Rap instrumental which was neither previously promoed nor on import . . . Peter Harris, head of GTi/Kickin Records, had niggling superstitious misgivings about the catalogue number of The Scientist’s ‘The Exorcist’ and so changed it from GTI 013T to KICK 1T on the printed label, but the unlucky “13” remained as the matrix number stamped in the vinyl — which may or may not have jinxed the first commercial pressing to be faulty and need scrapping, the at last loaded distributor’s van to catch fire, and finally the then contracted national courier’s lorry containing most of the successfully pressed copies (amongst other valuables) to be hi-jacked from outside King’s Cross station last Sunday night, with the consequence that as of last week the majority of shops still had not received the much in demand single (which, one trusts without hitch, is being repressed yet again)! . . . Raw Bass Records (who have licensed Ashford & Simpson’s in demand ‘Love Or Physical‘ Capitol LP track from last year for singles release here) are planning a series of talent showcasing separate soul, techno, and rap compilation albums each containing eight new tunes by various otherwise unsigned UK artists, who will get royalties and the chance of attracting major label attention — send cassettes for consideration to Henry Yori, 99 Budleigh Crescent, Welling, Kent DA16 1DP . . . Music Factory Mastermixes, the monthly subscription megamix service for DJs only, having been founded in July 1986 by the folks who went on to create Jive Bunny, is currently celebrating its 50th issue with a triple LP pack containing eight megamixes (including the hits of Madonna, Technotronic, WestBam and various recent release medleys), a remix of Dennis Edwards’ ‘Don’t Look Any Further’ plus Part 21 of the regular ‘DJ Toolkit’ of useful samples and drop-ins, instead of the usual just two LPs — subscribers also receive a newsletter, a copy of ‘Jocks’, occasional promos (including all Music Factory Dance releases) and discounts on certain disco equipment, the UK subscription rate ranging from £15 per month to £165 a year with one-off trial copies of this or previous month’s issues being available (apply first for a membership agreement form to Music Factory Mastermixes, Hawthorne House, 5/7 Fitzwilliam Street, Parkgate, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S62 6EP, telephone 0709 710022, fax 0709 523141) . . . Alex Kerr-Wilson, manager of Tom Astor’s famous Orinoco studios (as immortalised in Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow’), has for some time also been running an agency now formally known as Orinoco Mix which handles (on 071-232 0008) a specialist team of studio experienced remixers comprised so far of DJs Steve Proctor, Noel Watson, Carl Cox, Tommy D and engineer Ian Tregonin, all with impressive individual track records . . . Dancin’ Danny D — currently so massive in the States following the US pop success of D Mob that ironically he got mobbed just while out shopping for clothes there! — has produced two tracks for a “dance album” by movie star Kim Basinger, while here he has signed Juliet Roberts to a Slam Jam Productions/Eternal deal that kicks off with a reportedly excellent revival of Nat ‘King’ Cole’s ‘Again’ . . . Xpansions’ ‘Elevation’ has in fact been picked up by Arista (613 683), rather than de/Construction, but remains with an Optimism Records label . . . Nightmares On Wax’s previously reviewed promo (out fully in a fortnight) is indeed called ‘Aftermath’, flipped by ‘I’m For Real’ . . . Angel C’s calmly rapped though powerfully pushing ‘Impossible Dream’ (C.T. Records CTT 14), reviewed rather early six weeks ago as a promo, is only now just out commercially following club and Kiss 100 fm support by the likes of Jay Strongman and Danny Rampling . . . Tami Carrington, formerly at Motown and BMG, is a recent recruit to independent club pluggers Power Promotions (071-482 0728), where in particular — reflecting her own personal interest — she is building a specialist rap DJ mailing list . . . Backstreet Promotions are updating their mailing list for DJs in the London area, on 081-459 5545 . . . Hi Tek 3 featuring Ya Kid K’s ‘Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)’ is merely a newly subtitled UK reissue of a single that happened to be included on the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ soundtrack album, while the official follow-up to the Partners In Kryme ‘Turtle Power’ chart-topper will be a percussively smacking Italo house-type Music Factory remix/remake of Orchestra On A Half Shell’s ‘Turtle Rhapsody’, out in early November at the same time as the film . . . Soft Cell’s old material is getting the updated remix treatment . . . Paul ‘Trouble Those Decks’ Anderson has been remixing Blaze’s ‘Get Up’ . . . The Grid’s ‘A Beat Called Love’ has had its superior 7″ Mix promoed on an exaggeratedly hi-fi eastwest Transcription Broadcast Service 12 inch test pressing, which looks very impressive but the detailed technical data included could just be satirical gobbledygook! . . . George Benson’s latest album, ‘Big Boss Band’, is a big band jazz set largely accompanied by the Count Basie Band (now led by saxophonist Frank Foster), first planned with the Count while he was still alive . . . DJ Lof, having last Thursday started the weekly Crosstown Traffic upstairs at Coventry’s Park Lane, this and the first Thursday of every month incorporates a Dress Up Before You Mess Up club night especially for fashion and art students to parade their creations — and on this week’s launch night (October 4) BBC-tv’s ‘The Clothes Show’ will be filming, among other attractions (details on Coventry 403984 after 6pm) . . . Swanley’s Hickorys has gone rootsy with Kym Daniels’ classy soul music Saturdays . . . Spalding DJ Johnny Corcoran has just started writing a monthly Disco page in Lincolnshire’s ‘South Holland Times’ . . . Italy’s big dance craze this summer was the sega (pronounced “ceegar”), apparently not unlike the lambada, so how long before cash-in records reach us? . . . BOOMIN’!

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HOT VINYL
Reviewed by James Hamilton and Streets Ahead

THE DYNAMIC GUV’NORS ‘I Can’t Live Without You’/‘I Know My Task’/‘These Guys Are Doper Than Dope’
PRESSURE DROP ‘Back To Back’
SINDECUT ‘Tell Me Why’/LP version/‘Wisdom’
NINJAMAN and FLOURGON ‘Zig It Up (The Main Attraction Remix)’
HI TEK featuring YA KID K ‘Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)’
TODAY ‘I Got The Feeling’
STEVE HARVEY ‘I’m The One’
QUEEN MOTHER RAGE ‘Slipping Into Darkness’
STYLE ‘The Assassinator (Paralysing Mix/Killer Mix)’
RUBY TURNER ‘It’s A Cryin’ Shame (UK Remix)’

OMAR ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ (72bpm) (Kongo Dance DPST 7, via 081-453 0638)
Selling fast as causing a huge stir on radio (and probably hearth rugs!), if not yet dance floors, this lovely sensuous Al Jarreau-ish jogger is lifted from the jazzy Herne Bay soulster’s Jazz FM plugged hit album (further proof that the new incremental stations have the power to bring subtle mid- and down-tempo black music back to popular prominence), flipped by its Radio Mix and the sparse jiggly half-steppin’ ‘Don’t Mean A Thing‘ (95¾bpm).

ITAL ROCKERS ‘Ital’s Anthem (Trebledown-Bassup Mix)’ (125bpm) (Bass-ic BASS 3T, via Rough Trade)
Leeds based busily productive Bass-ic Records’ third release in almost as many weeks looks like their most successful to date, an amazing reggae/bleep fusion with “featuring strictly rockers” and “ryddim” ragga samples punctuating the piping and booming electro oscillations, flipped by the more traditional ‘washing machine’-type low frequency squidged ‘Science (First Bass Mix)‘ (122bpm). Possibly, massive.

4 FOR MONEY ‘A Moment In Time’ (Tam Tam Records TTT 030)
Much plugged on Kiss 100 fm and climbing fast now it’s finally out here, this catchy Italo house chugger (actually from Italy) has repetitive gruff vocal punctuations and a naggingly familiar piano riff in its Raw (119½bpm) and thumpingly started janglier Original (120bpm) Mixes, or a longer totally different percussively shuffling and pulsing piano-less Rising High Dub (123¾bpm). Continue reading “October 6, 1990: Omar, Ital Rockers, 4 For Money, Brenda Russell, Ten City”