Author: Mike A

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

Coldcut – featuring a top 10 position without Radio 1 support – have a much harder loping 117⅓-0bpm Upset Remix of ‘Doctorin’ The House’ (Ahead Of Our Time CCUT 2R), less gimmicky with added clavinet by Lord Byron III and two cymbal-shushed Acid Shut Up dubs… Derek B’s 117½-117¾bpm Dr Z In Full Effect Mix of ‘Spy In The House Of Love’ (Fontana WASXR 2) doesn’t have much to do with Was (Not Was), but is coupled with the already hot 0-118bpm Streets Ahead mix and Jeff Young’s old 0-117¾-0bpm Jeffrey B Young & Dangerous Mix… CCR Crew ‘Stretchin’ The Pieces’ – the Froggy and KC produced blending of Average White Band ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ and Stretch ‘Why Did You Do It’ – is belatedly in a satirically started 0-100¼-0-100¼bpm Now That’s Played Out Remix (Circle City Records CCYX 1), with a dialogue overdubbed 0-101⅙-0bpm Not So Played Out Remix Part 2 and sax tootled 100¼-0bpm Go Go Stretchin flip… Cousin Rachel ‘You Give Me So Much’ is in yet another 102⅔-0bpm No Way Out Mix (Supreme SUPETX 121), jigglier in Climie Fisher style with overdubbed soundtrack snips and hardly any vocal now… Billy Ocean ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ is in a percussively interrupted 116½bpm AA Remix (Jive BOSR 1), strictly for creative marketing rather than musical purposes… Tongue N Cheek have a remix due, rumoured to be by Coldcut… The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu’s confusingly labelled ‘JAMS Have A Party’ (KLF JAMS 26T) is due to be remixed for full commercial release, a Scottish-accented typically maniacal 0-120¾-0bpm revamp of Sly & The Family Stone’s ‘Dance To The Music’… Stereo MC’s and Cesare’s label turns out to be called G Records, their single having been picked up by Fourth & Broadway for the US, where ‘Move It’ will be A-side… Wee Papa Girl Rappers ‘Faith’, as well as an instrumental, on commercial pressings includes the slow rolling 88⅓bpm ‘Bustin’ Loose’… Hurby ‘Luv Bug’ Azor’s various artists-performed rap LP is finally out here, Hurby’s Machine ‘The House That Rap Built’ (ffrr FFRLP 2)… Steve Crosby of Stoneleigh’s Diamond Duel record shop sent me a cassette of the c.124bpm naggingly acid house ’15 Minutes’, apparently from some as yet obscure source in New Jersey but due to be test marketed here on white label, and well worth finding… Bomb The Bass are now confirmed for Prestatyn (their first ever live gig), plus Roxanne Shanté, Biz Markie, MC Shan and Big Daddy Kane from the Cold Chillin’ label (as hinted last week!), Nitro Deluxe, Derek B, possibly Kid ’N Play, Steven Danté, Tony Stone, as well as all the others mentioned last week – which adds up to one hell of a line-up!… Tony Prince is now president of the Dance Aid Trust, which in its first year raised £65,774, from which £38,000 has already been paid to five different charities and further sums are being allocated now… Ralph Tee would appear to be leaving Arista to work (perhaps to the surprise of some) for Ian Levine’s Hi-NRG label, Nightmare… Stock Aitken Waterman and Rick Astley, having picked up all the awards they were due to win, rather noticeably were the first to walk out early from the Music Week Awards 1987 ceremony (at which, as last year, Tony Blackburn made an hilarious master of ceremonies) – perhaps they had more hits to work on?… I’ll be celebrating my 25th anniversary as a DJ during the DMC Convention, quite a thought!… Cutmaster Swift and Owen D’s photo captions were somehow switched last week, as many eagle-eyed readers quickly spotted… Des Mitchell is hanging on here for several weeks before returning to Tenerife, mixing at London West End’s Laceys Thurs/Sat and Southend-on-Sea’s Courtlands in Thorpe Bay Fridays… Chicago’s DJ International Records have opened a European office at Morgan Khan’s Ealing-based Westside Records… DM/StreetSounds are finally due to release on March 21 an eight album, 72 track ‘The Solar Box Set’, which I helped to compile, to mark the Solar label’s 10th anniversary… Casey Kasem’s ‘American Top 10’ is actually seen on TV here, even if it is in the middle of the night, four days before it’s shown in the US!… Warrior Records’ new ‘Acid Beats 1’ LP, cut into the actual vinyl by the matrix number, bears the message “In memory of Fat Larry who’s about to make a journey to the Centre City in the sky!”… Keith Sweat’s next release is rumoured to have a scratch ‘n’ sniff sleeve… PUMP THAT BASS!

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CHAD JACKSON is gunning for nobody now that his year as World Champion is nearly up, his successor being the winner of the Technics World DJ Mixing Championships at London’s Royal Albert Hall next Tuesday, March 8. This will be the star-studded culmination of the Disco Mix Club’s three day DJ Convention, March 6/7/8, starting on Sunday with a welcoming party at the Hippodrome before the seminar discussion sessions on Monday at the Astoria. These will be interspersed by the Shure UK Rapping Competition, and by a preliminary sound of the World mixers (to ensure that just the six best are at the Albert Hall!). Full details from DMC on 06286-67276.

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HOT VINYL

KID ‘N PLAY ‘Do This My Way’ (Cooltempo COOLX 164)
Hurby ‘Luv Bug’ Azor-produced Sweet Tee-tempoed 115bpm rap jitterer using Maceo And The Macks’ ‘Cross The Track’ in its three US mixes on the B-side, but here it’s already been remixed by Norman Cook and Dancing Danny D for the radically slowed down 108bpm A-side, with added boo-bedoo’s from Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, some “Idi Amin” at the start, and more.

BIG DADDY KANE ‘Raw’ (Cold Chillin’ W7953T)
First UK fruit of Warner Bros’ US vice-president Benny Medina’s new label signing is this sizzling import hit, a Marley Marl-produced 109⅘-109⅔bpm nervy rap jitterer cutting in Bobby Byrd, James Brown, the JBs, and the same ‘Grunt’ screech as Public Enemy (dubapella too).

SIMON HARRIS ‘Bass (How Low Can You Go) (Bomb The House Mix)’ (ffrr FFRX 4)
One of London’s leading hip hop producers throws in a bit of Public Enemy title line, James Brown “ain’t it funky now”, Soul Sonic Force ‘Planet Rock’, and too much more to mention in a monotonous 113¾bpm juddering jitterer with chugging offbeat syncopation, which shows up better on the 114¼bpm instrumental flip (bluesily burbling 97⅚-0bpm ‘The Playback‘ too), the A-side running out of inspiration halfway – although Simon says that’s to make it easier to mix! Continue reading “March 5, 1988: Kid ‘N Play, Big Daddy Kane, Simon Harris, S-Express, Spoonie Gee”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NORMAN COOK’s excellent funkily cohesive 106-108½-106-107-105-107-109-105⅔bpm James Brown ‘She’s The One (Funky Drummer Remix)‘ (Urban URBA 13) cleverly incorporates the drum riff from ‘Funky Drummer’ with drop-ins from Bobby Byrd and other JB-type stuff (Norman, incidentally, not Wildski, was the Brighton Pink Coconut DJ)… Kid ‘N Play’s sizzling import would surely sell here on its own merits to begin with, but has already been promoed by Cooltempo in a much altered slower 108bpm remix by Norman C & DJ D, with added Lou Reed ‘Walk On The Wild Side’-type boo-bedoo’s, and more!… Bomb The Bass ‘Beat Dis’ is now also in a 0-114-113¾-0bpm Gangster Boogie Inc Remix (Mister-Ron DOOD R121), less bassy in fact with altered ingredients… Derek B’s “Lady Penelope”-introed Doctor X In Full Effect remix of Was (Not Was) quotes “bring the noise”, “and the beat goes on”, plus other drop-ins but now won’t include “bass – how low can you go” after all, so as not to upset Simon Harris’s newie on a related label – which hasn’t stopped Supreme Records promoing an 118½bpm UK house track by Project Club called ‘How Low Can You Go’, quoted from the same Public Enemy source!… Adrenalin M.O.D.’s replacement as Warrior Records’ B-side to Jack Factory ‘Jackin’ James’ will be remixed from the ‘Acid Beats 1’ LP (reviewed this ish), X-10-CIV’s ‘Cut It Up (X-10-DED Mix Mk 2)’ – this new group (pronounced “Extensive” – clever, huh?) being Harrow boys Andy Smith, Colin Grainge and Frank McFarlane… LiveWire’s Easter weekender at Prestatyn so far lines up Joyce Sims (with full American band), Terry Billy, Wee Papa Girl Rappers, Simon Harris, CCR Crew, Nat Augustin, Marvin Springer, Chris Paul, Screamin’ Rachel, probably a current chart-topper, and US Warner Bros vice president Benny Medina’s new secret signings (more details to come)… London’s ‘Hip Hop Reggae’ creating Longsy D and Cutmaster MC have been signed in the US by Cold Chillin’ Records, joining Roxanne Shanté, Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie – about whom further exciting news will soon come… Grandmaster Flash ‘Gold’ (reviewed last week on import) and Big Daddy Kane ‘Raw’ are both due here next week, through WEA (now put three and three together!)… ‘Dance Mania Volume 2’ (Needle Records DAMA2), full of current club hits, is actually selling for the included very rare groove from the early Seventies, the girls-souled 97-100⅓bpm The Voices Of East Harlem ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’… Norman Connors’ first album in six years will be on Capitol next month, while Womack & Womack have signed to Fourth & Broadway… Will Downing’s UK release will be his eagerly anticipated version of late great jazz giant John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ – Will’s due here in March with Stanley Turrentine on sax!… Threeway Records, having reissued an old album by him, have now signed Randy Brown worldwide… Keith Sweat apparently was in GQ… Tony Terry, whose follow-up will be ‘Young Love’ in a house remix, had never even heard the Charlie Dee dub of his own ‘Lovey Dovey’ until it was played for him at Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre!… Steve Walsh has a regular spot on London Weekend Television’s Friday evening ‘Six O’Clock Show’, as a roving reporter… Scratch Professor and Chad Jackson (the latter now, even more recently, sporting a vicious “Mohican” hairstyle!) were both on TV’s Night Network prior to the mixing finals, but hardly had time to scratch anything… Phonogram’s club plugging Linda Rogers’ toy boy is streets ahead of the others!… Jasper, Jazzy M, Trevor SF, Linden C, Maxi Jazz, Peter Dominic, Yomi and Steve Harris all bust up a ‘No Sell Out’ night this Wednesday (Feb 24) at Streatham Zigi’s… Linden C’s Thursdays at London’s Limelight star the likes of Derek B and Trevor Madhatter… Robbie Vincent souls Shrewsbury’s Park Lane this Saturday (27), when Derek B and Radio London’s hippity hoppity Dave Pearce join Chris Kaye at Tonbridge’s Angel Centre, and Chelsea’s The Venue at Stamford Bridge has Seventies grooves with Chris Brown and Steve of the Wag… Jamie Trundle is joined by label plugger Nigel Wilton for a Fourth & Broadway promotion night this Sunday (28) at Denver Sluice’s Jenyns Arms near Kings Lynn… Frank (Disco Knight) Allan, in Northern Ireland at Airport 2000 in Templepatrick’s Airport Inn, is seeking entrants for his ‘Miss Airport 2000 1988’ contest – call the club (08494-33390) or himself at Belfast’s Radio Top Shop (0232-232499)… Brian Moore in conjunction with James Campbell & Son (Travel) has arranged special three night travel packages from Northern Ireland for the March 6-8 DJ Convention in London – call Ruth on 0265-4321… Breakout once again during the DJ Convention have an invitation-only private party for DJs, at Gullivers on the Tuesday lunchtime… Bob Masters, setting up a massive pirate radio station in Ashford, Kent (the country’s biggest, he claims), has another Easter soul three-dayer – Sat/Sun/Mon – with Nicky Holloway, Gilles Peterson, Chris Bangs, Leo Ryan and himself at Bournemouth’s Neptune Bar on Boscombe Pier – £15 advance tickets only, from Starship Enterprises on 01-439 2628… Nicky Holloway is promoting his Thursday Amnesia night at Mayfair’s Legends by distributing little pirate pistols which, when fired, spring open and drop a banner saying “Bang!”… PUMP THAT BASS!

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STREETS AHEAD, whose hard remix of Was (Not Was) has filled more floors than Jeff Young’s James Bond mix, is in fact the nicely-spoken Shem McCauley from downtown Shepherd’s Bush in West London, currently reading English at the University of Sussex! If you think that’s blown his street cred, check this. Helped at the start by Tim Westwood, he DJed behind Hardrock and Faze One before right now backing the She Rockers (just produced by Griff from the Public Enemy crew), his remixes prior to ‘Spy In The House Of Love’ including Throwdown ‘Bust The Champ’, Kinkina ‘Jungle Fever’ and Shakatak ‘Manic Cuts’. Def enuf?

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships at last reached their thrilling climax at London’s packed Hippodrome last week — on the eve of the Chinese New Year, the celebration of which delayed things interminably. The audience was really hyped up, a massive and vociferous contingent from Manchester proving a match in volume level for the London posse.

Nevertheless, as I had anticipated, Battersea’s Cutmaster Swift ended up as the winner, UK Champ 1988, after a blazingly started set that — like all the competitors’ (is seven minutes in fact too long?) — went off the boil two-thirds through but was brilliant at its best, his unusual scratching tricks being accompanied by great grimaces and syncopated movements.

Manchester’s Owen D did come second, a decision accepted with commendably good grace by his fans, having wasted too much “time” (as in ‘Al-Naafiysh’!) cavorting with his helpers, who pointed out every trick he pulled, before eventually doing some fast cuts (and ending as usual in a helpers-supported “swallow dive”), but in truth he was fairly routine behind all the hoopla.

Paddington’s diminutive 14-year-old Scratch Professor came third in typically cool and collected style, with a well varied musical programme including many different scratch, transformer and cut-back tricks, as well as a cute running synch of ‘Old MacDonald’ through Public Enemy!

Leeds’ well built Hutchy was greeted by the Manchester mob’s banner which read, “Props, Umbrellas and BMX Bikes ain’t gonna help Sucker DJs here tonight!” but carried on regardless, changing from brolly-scratching John Steed to shoulder-holster Axel Foley during the course of a deceptively simple seeming house set with facile scratches and good long running synchs. He actually picked up his baby BMX bike, and then substituted it as a surprise with a full size bicycle, using the front wheel to scratch! Dulwich’s DJ Haze, the first on stage, did some good “pump me up” fast cuts and transformer scratches but his synchs were messy and his timing was off, probably through nerves. Birmingham’s Tenerife-based Des Mitchell, in his third consecutive final, had a strange slow running start but ended up synching ‘Agadoo’ through Serious Intention, and cut up a seven inch of ‘Tea For Two Cha Cha’. Plaistow’s DJ Pogo, one of the favourites, had a disaster and stopped after just one minute to fiddle with his stylus and pick-up (the setting of which was his responsibility). This threw his timing right off, but he ended up with some face-savingly brilliant fast cuts. And that was it. CJ Mackintosh’s reign has ended, now it’s Cutmaster Swift versus the rest of the World, at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, March 8. Be there!

[Note: as the following week’s column will explain, the photo captions were accidentally switched for Owen D and Cutmaster Swift]

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HOT VINYL

BAM-BAM ‘Give It To Me’ (Serious OUS 10)
Drumkit driven simple jack track with buzzing “acid” synth tones and sexy female groans, filling floors since last October on import, here in 122bpm Instrumental and Street, 122¼bpm Garage and Radio Mixes. A brand new remix is due on white label, already!

SWEET CHARLES ‘Yes It’s You’ (Urban URBX 15)
Curtis Mayfield copying squeakily whinnied distinctively jogging sweet (0-)96-97⅙bpm lurcher (a big “rare groove” around London, covered by Diana Brown & The Brothers, now selling like crazy ahead of full March 9 release) produced by James Brown, as was the flip’s currently much sampled funkily testifying 0-112-113½-113¼bpm LYN COLLINS ‘Think (About It)‘ and her enthusiastically bounding JB-duetted 115-117-117½-118-118½-0(false stop)-117bpm ‘Rock Me Again & Again & Again & Again & Again & Again‘.

BLUE ZONE ‘Big Thing (Extended)’ (Arista/Rockin’ Horse Records RHT 115)
Lisa Stansfield-sung surprisingly soulful and credible self-produced 101⅓-0bpm jiggly jogger with a tuggingly syncopated tricky tempo, thoroughly recommended, originally B-side to the old Motown-style 127⅔bpm ‘Thinking About His Baby‘. Continue reading “February 27, 1988: Bam-Bam, Sweet Charles, Blue Zone, Squeezebrain & The Machine, Lightnin Lee & Poppy P”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

NORMAN COOK and Dancing Danny D seem to have changed their remixing monicker from the Troublesome Twosome to Double Trouble, without evidently realising that the latter name is already used by rival remixing team Damon Rochefort, Mike Morrison and Leigh Guest… Norman Cook, now the Housemartins have disbanded, has remixed not only James Brown and a Nitro Deluxe seven inch on his own but also Eric B & Rakim and Kid ‘N Play with Dancing Danny D, plus he’s producing rapper Wildski – who actually started out as a DJ in Brighton at the Pink Coconut. His notorious ‘The Finest Ingredients’ bootleg mixer from last year in reality being a genuine bootleg, put out by someone else with no benefit to him, of a demo he’d created two years earlier just to show what he could do!… Decca turning down The Beatles was more of a major goof, but Magnet likewise turned down Adrenalin MOD’s ‘Bouncy House’ when offered it by group member Daren Mahomed, who works in their own press office – now it’s being remixed by MCA Records, for whom, of course, group member Maurice Bird is postboy!… Simon Harris’s ‘Bass (How Low Can You Go)’ is huge on advance promo but isn’t out commercially until March 7 – “based” on phrases from Public Enemy and many more, it’s a monotonous 0-113¾bpm juddering jitterer (that runs out of steam, to be truthful) with chugging offbeat syncopation in its 114¼bpm instrumental, and a burbling 97⅚-0bpm ‘The Playback’ flip… Jeff Young’s soundtrack quoting ‘James Bond’ remix of Was (Not Was) is being replaced by a new Derek B remix (using “bass, how low can you go”) to avoid the likelihood of legal problems… Jazzy Jeff’s upcoming newie uses Matt Black + The Coldcut Crew’s ‘That Greedy Beat’!… Tim Simenon, the young Wag Club DJ behind Bomb The Bass, has also created something called ‘Merlin’… Bath DJs Simon Power and Derek Pearce are the latest to whip up some homegrown UK house, the frantic ‘Get On The Floor’ being considered by labels… Jack ‘N’ Chill have been remixing Black Britain ‘Heroin’… Edwin Starr’s withdrawn Stock Aitken Waterman-created ‘Whatever Makes Our Love Grow’ is finally out again in a tidier 119½bpm Grown-up Mix (10 Records TENR 199), but is still more Hi-NRG “disco” than soul… Kylie Minogue’s percussively pattering 115¾bpm Bicentennial Mix of ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ (PWL Records PWLT 8R) is merely different rather than an improvement… Company B, one of the earlier Miami girl acts, could still break through here with the new 120bpm jittery then calmer 1988 Remix of ‘Fascinated’ (BlueBird BRT 48)… Serious Records are holding back Bam Bam ‘Give It To Me’ until February 29 (their pressing’s four mixes are 122bpm and 122¼bpm)… Circa picked up Sheik Fawaz for early March release… Earth Wind & Fire ‘Thinking Of You’, reviewed on import last week, is now out here (CBS EWF T2)… J.V.C.F.O.R.C.E.’s ‘Strong Island’ is of course about Long Island in hip hop speak – not London Island! – while their B-side is the drum-tapped 101⅙bpm ‘Nu Skool’… US producer Teddy Riley’s own group called Guy has just signed to MCA Records… Grandmaster Flash, according to the credits on ‘Gold’, records all his scratches with a Gemini Flashformer (patent pending) DJ transforming device… Rob Nelson had never seen, let alone used, Technics vari-speed decks prior to competing… Disco Mix Club master of ceremonies John Saunderson as usual chucked some Michael Jackson T-shirts out into the audience in Birmingham, but one immediately came flying back rather forcibly to be caught by mixing judge, Radio WM 95.6FM’s Sunday 7-9pm soul jock, Freakie Dee, who thought about it for a moment then threw it straight back!… Wednesday nights on Channel 4 now features at 11.30pm a new three hour music slot hosted by ex-Record Mirror contributors Charlie Gillett and Vivien Goldman, presenting everything from Marvin Gaye filmed in Ostend to – well, you check it and see!… Pete Waterman was inspired to write Mel & Kim’s ‘That’s The Way It Is’ while listening to Capital Radio’s magazine programme of the same name!… Mel Appleby has not been at all fit, suffering for months from slipped and crushed discs in her spine, with dangerous complications from which she is still slowly recovering, having a second operation still to come… Pete Hammond, rather than Phil Harding, seems responsible for all the remixes from the PWL studio this week… Disco Aid has become the Dance Aid Trust, its annual general meeting (open to the public) being this Wednesday (17) at 7pm in London’s Samantha’s discotheque, off Regent Street in New Burlington Street… rm’s sister publication for DJs, Jocks, was voted Best Industry Magazine 1987 at the recent Thames Valley DJ Association show night… Ruthless Rap Assassins with Kiss and AMC play Manchester’s Hacienda this Wednesday (17)… Fingers Inc, Marshall Jefferson, Xavier Gold, Ralphi ‘The Razz’ Rosario and Ce Ce Rogers are this Thursday (18) at Delirium! in London’s Leicester Square Empire Ballroom – everyone there getting three free Uptime organic food pep pills to keep ‘em jacking! – while this Chicago house package next week on Tuesday (23) is at Birtley’s Liberty’s (cleverly an anagram of the place name), near Newcastle-upon-Tyne… Martin Collins, Alex Lowes, Danny Smith and Steve Jason converge again on Gt Yarmouth’s Scruples this Saturday (20) for another soulful sellout (book advance tickets on 0493-669222 after 6pm, if you too are travelling)… Paul Oakenfold and DJ Nancy seriously throwdown in full effect at The Future on Thursdays, in the Sanctuary at Charing Cross Heaven… Houspanic could be the next music trend – a blend of House and Hispanic (ie: the Miami sound)… Derek B’s ‘Goodgroove’ seven inch comes wrapped in a poster sleeve – what’s this, TV star Derek Boland as a sex symbol?… Pressure Records’ head honcho Adrian Sykes’ hair when last seen was in a pompadour like Little Richard – Good Golly Miss Molly!… PUMP THAT BASS!

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships’ grand final is at London’s Hippodrome tonight (Tuesday, February 16), the last two competitors to qualify being found in the semi-final at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard (where oddly the audience atmosphere was even deader than in Birmingham). First, the winning rappers were South London’s Einstein and Wolverhampton’s sassy miss Jazzy P, while the only outstanding mixer was indeed the widely tipped DJ Pogo, whose unique scratching style made him a clear winner. Voted a qualifying second was Des Mitchell from Birmingham (via Tenerife), although at Ealing he seemed pedestrian and off form. Disappointed losers were Portsmouth’s Warren Aylward (who shaved during a mix!), Brighton’s Carl Cox (adventurous long running synchs), Doctor K (emotionless fast cuts), and Southend’s Mark Ryder (who couldn’t cut it after headphone problems). As well as Pogo and Des, the battle is between Cutmaster Swift, Owen D, Scratch Professor, Hutchy, and DJ Haze. The fight should be intense! Results next week!

 

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HOT VINYL

RICK ASTLEY ‘Together Forever (Lover’s Leap Remix)’ (RCA RICK 400) Pete Hammond adds electronic tones and rattling 114½bpm percussion to kick off his remix of this, the most obviously typical dance track from Rick’s album, always surely destined to be a single?

ERIC B & RAKIM ‘I Know You Got Soul (A Double Trouble Remix featuring Norman C & DJ D)’ (Cooltempo COOLX 146)
Norman Cook and Dancing Danny D’s impatiently awaited jiggly infectious 104-103⅔-103⅓-104- 103⅓-0bpm remix has had to edit out all of Michael’s vocals (apart from a sneaky transformer scratch at the end!) but still manages to combine the Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’, Bobby Byrd, Maceo, Dennis Edwards and more in a surefire smash (flipped by Eric’s 103⅔bpm original, source of the “pump up the volume” line), stomping all over the concurrent rival release of ‘Move The Crowd‘ (Fourth & Broadway 12BRW 88).

Fatally slow seeming in comparison, this ominous slinky jitterer has been very cleverly and subtly remixed by both the Democratic 3 featuring DJ Slack (the label’s Julian Palmer!) and Bristol’s Wild Bunch crew, both sliding into riffs inserted from Seventies oldies, plus (all are 91½bpm apart from the 91⅓bpm Wild Bunch mix) the old Album Version and an Extended Beat. Well, what do YOU think of that disc, Marina?

SUZIE AND THE CUBANS ‘I Feel It (Makumba Mix)’ (US Popular Records POP 6)
The ‘Set It Off’ cymbal schlurp meets ‘Jingo’ at 120bpm (Double Dub too) with jangling house piano, butch “makumba” chants and Suzie’s repeated title line, a commercially effective combination – however, the much longer more episodically house-ish chugging 119-118⅓-0bpm Construction Medley flip is far harder, stuttering “my name is Bond, James Bond” and slipping Into ‘The Brutal House’ amongst many other added ingredients. Sweaty! Continue reading “February 20, 1988: Rick Astley, Eric B & Rakim, Suzie and the Cubans, Keith Sweat, Mel & Kim”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

MCA Records finally decided on Pressure Records as the name for their new black music label – doubtless opening the way for slogans about “pressure cookin’”? – and will definitely be releasing Adrenalin MOD ‘Bouncy House’… 10 Records picked up T-Cut F ‘House Reaction’ from Birmingham’s Kool Kat label, while Sure Delight are finally releasing Spoonie Gee ‘I’m All Shook Up’… Norman Cook of the Housemartins has apparently remixed James Brown ‘She’s The One’ for imminent creative marketing… Champion Records have, typically well in advance (and to typically instant mailing list DJ chart response, which could typically fall off just as fast!) promoed a 110¾-111bpm ‘Set It Off (Bunker 88 Mix)’ by Bunker Kru/Harlequin 4’s, totally revamped from the Harleqiun Fours’ (included 110¾-110⅔bpm) original with added ‘Jingo’-ish bass, scratches, vocals, and a lumbering Germanic electro feel rather than the “pshta-pshta” cymbal beat (0-110¾-111bpm Yojam Mix too), due commercially in about three weeks… Big One have created a buzz with white labels of the Housedoctors ‘Housedoctors (Gotta Get Down)’, a tinkling skittery jittery nervy 0-125-0bpm flier also coincidentally with a “pshta-pshta” cymbal beat, due probably next week… Fourth & Broadway are hoping for great things from Scratchmo ‘Play That Thing’, a weird lumbering brassy lurcher with trumpet and Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong-type scatting (101⅔bpm on acetate)… Jolley/Harris/Jolley’s 95½bpm remix of Barry White ‘For Your Love (I’ll Do Most Anything)’ (Breakout USAF 618) is lushly jiggling with Mike Stevens’ sax emphasised on the 95⅓bpm Sax Dub… Taylor Dayne’s electro drive is replaced (with actually even more pop-ish results) on the 118½-0bpm ‘Tell It To My Heart (House Of Hearts Mix)’ (Arista 609616R), with a piano jangled house dub… Phil Harding’s now datedly routine “jack, jack, jack” remix treatment is applied to the 122bpm Madhouse Mix of the house-styled ‘I’m Beggin’ You’ which topped America’s dance charts but was largely ignored here and is now the UK B-side to Supertramp’s pop-aimed ‘Free As A Bird’ (A&M AMY 430)… Cousin Rachel ‘You Give Me So Much’ (Supreme Records SUPET 121) is now reputedly in a “new 12 inch vocal mix” but still sounds as if it’s sung by a bunch of washer women on their day out!… Motown, following a directionless year of lacklustre sales, have in the States fired most of their “pop” promotion staff, beefed up their “black” department and brought in one-time Stax vice president Al Bell to help them return to their roots, making specifically black music hits that they can then try and cross over to pop (the US market being artificially segregated into musical types by radio)… Serious Records and Needle Records are expanding their DJ mailing list at Unit 30, Sheraton Business Centre, Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex UB6 7JB (send first a stamped addressed envelope for the application form)… Lindsay Wesker, long departed from A&M, has joined disco plugger Bryan O’Conner to form a new club promotion company, Plateau Promotions on 01-724 7125/402 6632… Jeff Weston, once so closely identified with it that he was even known as “Jeff Shack”, has sold his interest in the Record Shack label (to the owners of Spartan)… Joyce Sims’ first ever UK concert is confirmed as the star attraction (along with a lot else) at LiveWire’s April 2/3/4 Prestatyn 3 weekender (Visa/Access bookings on 01-364 1212, no day passes)… Tony Terry will be in London this weekend, making appearances on Saturday (February 13) at such as Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre record shop at 3pm, and at Soho’s Gullivers in Ganton Street during the night… Marie Thompson and Tigger have stopped jocking at Stringfellows and started their own Metropolis moveable venue one nighters club (the first one was last week at the Camden Palace), plus a members’ magazine called Catalyst which offers all sorts of hairdressing/travel-type discounts to its readers – sounds ambitious!… Krush, M|A|R|R|S and T-Coy too are all due at Middlesbrough’s Madison this Wednesday (9), preceded earlier that evening by Mr Mix-It spinning house at the nearby free admission Norma Jean’s… Chris Paul (no longer at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard because he’s so busy doing remixes for Fred Dove at WEA!) opens this Thursday (11) Kingston-upon-Thames’s brand new Options (in a three screen café/cinema/bar/restaurant complex) – he’ll be there Thurs/Sats, with Lorri Newman Thurs/Fridays, plus Boilerhouse and Special Branch nights likely on other days… Brian G with DJs Pete and Andy has a ‘Valentine’s Box’ on Friday (12) in the house/funk/rare groove Sweatbox in York’s GG Barnum’s… Eon Irving & Trevor SF funk a ‘St Valentine’s Rave’ on Saturday (13) from midnight to Sunday mid-morning in Soho’s Rupert Street Metro Cinema, both screens showing videos and films… Gary Tee’s ‘Cool ‘n Casual’ Monday dance party at Dunstable’s Cinderellas Rockerfellas has become a 70/70 nite – 70p admission, 70p drinks, and lots of late Seventies classics… DJ Kenny and Stewart Cochrane have started a serious funk/hip hop/house/rare groove/fashion night called Amnesia (popular name, that!) on Thursdays at Stirling’s Maxwells… Sefton The Terminator followed the rap competition with a demonstration of his human beat box blowing at Warrington’s mixing semi-final… “It’s time!” from Hashim’s ‘Al-Naafiysh’ became the big cliché at the Nottingham mixing heat, my hints about the over-use of “this is a journey into sound/pump that bass” seeming to have sunk in by then!… Nottingham contestants included not only Cut Master Swift and Scratch Professor but also Master Scratch and Cut-It-Up-Sy, the best name of all however not getting through from the preliminaries, DJ Weeta-Mix!… John Saunderson, the scintillating (and I mean that sincerely) master of ceremonies at all the Technics Mixing Championships and organiser of the entire roadshow, was in a real Eddie Kidd situation at Bristol’s Papillon, where he was barred from his own show until he’d changed out of his designer jeans!… Bristol’s winner last year, I forgot to mention, ‘Dirty Den’ Murray didn’t even make it out of the preliminaries into the heats this time, which shows how the standard had improved there (the question is, will that remark get me boos or cheers next year?!)… Edinburgh’s Steve Walsh lookalike DJ, Donald Hughes had his ‘Jock Mix 1’/’Trio’ Scottish country dance mix played on Radio Forth by Tom Wilson following my mention of it… Roxanne Shanté’s newie using the Lyn Collins ‘Think’ riff is apparently from a film and cannot be released until March at the earliest, but may now not be a single at all as Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock have already copied it so closely!… Heavy D And The Boyz’ new US release is their album’s ‘Don’t You Know’ rap ballad, flipped by a remix of ‘Moneyearnin’ Mount Vernon’… Les Adams’ purchase of a 16-track Fostex recorder and AMS digital reverb unit, both at £5,000, now values his home studio at £71,000… PUMP THAT BASS!

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships have now entered the semi-final stage and, as anticipated, the result is real excitement! And despair. Just because a DJ won his regional heat is now no longer a guarantee that he’ll be appearing at the national final in London – first they’ve got to battle through yet again to win one of the two places available at each of the three semi-finals. Crestfallen doesn’t describe the disappointment of the losers, having got so close but not close enough. At Warrington’s shambolically crowded Mr Smith’s (divided up into hexagonal sort of sheep pens seemingly designed to impede any logical progression from one area to another!), following a rap competition from which Huddersfield’s MC Fresh J and Manchester’s Miss D Lite go through to the London final, the scratching was won, as widely anticipated, by Manchester’s Owen D, very much the local homeboy hero, fast cutting, transformer scratching and generally cavorting (he ended up in a “swallow dive” – see photo) to such loud crowd response that much of what he did was drowned.

Second was London’s DJ Haze, much improved from his Stockton heat, doing assured and accurate cuts. Not qualifying therefore were fire-eating Birkenhead’s Mike Clarke (DJ Trix), who still can’t hold his beats together, Glasgow’s George Little, previously a two times finalist who had headphone problems after which nothing went right, Northern Ireland’s Rob Nelson (Robbie B), who had used Technics vari-speed decks but even did a backspin using a seven inch, and Manchester’s Chris Harris, the only one to use “this is a journey into sound”.

At Birmingham’s vast and atmosphere-lacking Dome (with a tubular steel standrel dome framework over the dancefloor), the amusing rap winners were Easy KD and MC Brooklyn, both from Luton. The mixing result was satisfyingly the right one, with London’s Cut Master Swift coming first.

Going through to the final also after coming equal second, was Leeds’ thoroughly entertaining Hutchy, changing his persona from John Steed of the Avengers to Eddie Murphy as he progressed through a slick house tempo music, full of surprises and London’s 14-year old Scratch Professor who again showed remarkable composure while he calmly worked through a well-chosen sequence.

Disappointed losers were the local Phil Docherty, slick enough to be a future challenger, his house-mixing chum Darren Ellis, Cardiff pace-lacking Terry Croft and Reading’s disastrously messy Dodger X. The last semi-final is this Wednesday (10) at Ealing Broadway’s Boulevard.

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HOT VINYL

J.V.C.F.O.R.C.E ‘Strong Island’ (US B Boy Records 88-20/100)
Sizzling hot 95⅚bpm deadpan rap jogger using a fuzz guitar riff from the Temptations’ ‘Psychedelic Shack’ era, actually about London Island in hip hop speak.

DEREK B ‘Goodgroove’ (Music Of Life NOTE 12)
Jauntily jiggling homegrown 0-97bpm rap ‘n scratch using a remake of the Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’ rhythm (in four mixes), good but played so much in advance that the initially amusing Smiley Culture-like lyric is already a bore for many.

EARTH WIND & FIRE ‘Thinking Of You’ (US Columbia 44 07 566)
Staccato (0-)119¼bpm lurcher turned by remixer Bruce Forest into much more smoothly bounding (and street credible) B-side “house” mixes, the 119¼-0bpm House Mix and 0-119¼-0bpm House Mix with Vocals. Continue reading “February 13, 1988: J.V.C.F.O.R.C.E, Derek B, Earth Wind & Fire, Teena Marie, Taja Sevelle”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

BOMB THE BASS are in fact from London, being DJ Tim Simenon from the Wag and studio engineer Pascal Gabriel, a remix of ‘Beat Dis’ already being due … Adrenalin MOD’s ‘Bouncy House’ for the time being is still released on Warrior Records, although now MCA Records (whose employee Maurice Bird is part of the group) are trying to tie up the rights, instead of the previously mentioned Uptown Records — in point of fact, my review really stirred things up! … Derek B’s now white-labelled jauntily jiggling 0-97bpm ‘Goodgroove’ this time trendily uses the Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’ rhythm, and is due commercially in two weeks … Matt Black, having fun playing with his new C-Lab Creator computer sequencer from Germany, is working with Jonathan More on a couple of acid house tunes while, out early March, their megamix of JB beats will launch a James Brown remix series on Urban, and — worth other mixers noting — their ‘Theft Appella‘ seven inch B-side to the new Coldcut ‘Doctorin’ The House’ just contains all the samples they used, on their own without music! … Essex DJ Mark Ryder (photographed two issues ago) is scratching on the upcoming ‘Get Busy‘ by MDEmm … Barry White ‘For Your Love (I’ll Do Most Anything)’ is due in a beefed up Harris & Jolley remix already, with added Mike Stevens sax … Detroit Transmat label owner Derek May’s 124bpm The Mayhem Rhythm Mix of Two Men A Drumstick And A Toothpick (London LONXR 141) is speedily snickety, while there are back-to-back 109⅓bpm Women & Children First Remix and Remixed Vocal Versions of Gladys Knight And The Pips ‘Love Overboard’ (MCA Records MCAX 1223) … Meli’sa Morgan ‘Good Love’ is due as a US remix, while Sherrick’s next single will be his reading of the Originals’ ‘Baby I’m For Real’ … Quincy Jones is apparently remaking New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’! … Larry James, drumming leader of Fat Larry’s Band, has died aged 38 in his hometown, Philadelphia … Joyce Sims is mooted as the live star at the Easter Prestatyn weekender … Morgan Khan plans not only a London-held three day UK Fresh 88 hip hop concert but also a similarly live all-star house music event in Birmingham, in June – in addition, Morgan, obviously thinking anything Germany’s Brian Carter can do he can do better, is planning a 15 LP boxed set of house music past and present, ‘The Westside House Music Box Set’ … Serious Records’ sister label Needle Records has two hot (if somewhat duplicating) compilation LPs due, ‘Mad On House‘ MADD 1) with current jacks by Bam-Bam, Adonis, Jack Factory, Fallout, Mr Lee, House Master Baldwin, and ‘Dance Mania 2‘ (DAMA 2) with Bam-Bam, Adonis, Beatmasters/Cookie Crew, 2 Bad 2 Mention, MSQ II, Spoonie Gee, Cash Money, Jellybean ‘Jingo’ … Mark Kamins’ Arabic records used on ‘Mohamed’s House’ (see review) include in particular a late Sixties ‘Greatest Hits’ album by the now dead Egyptian female singer Sabba … Colin Hudd returns to Gravesend, opening Steps (formerly the Soul Bowl) this Saturday (6), and is looking on 0474-328745 for a female DJ, to train if necessary … Soho’s Gullivers in Ganton Street, attracting a classy soul crowd, restart their old Wednesday party night under the new name ‘Wednesday Live’ next week … Nicky Holloway has already launched an Amnesia night for people with a sense of humour on Thursdays at Mayfair’s Legends … Nigel Wilton, Richard James and Rick Robinson funk ‘Planet Rok’ Thursdays at Deptford’s Champs … Rob Day (with 25 years’ worth of underground funk) and Bob Jones (with jazz and soul likewise), plus guest scratching by CJ Mackintosh, are every Friday at Flim-Flam in its new home, London Bridge’s Royal Oak in Tooley Street (no longer the Special Branch) … Glen Gunner funk/house/raps The Camden Slammer every Saturday at Camden Town’s Electric Ballroom … LWR’s Sunday breakfast man, Lewis Dene reckons Terry Billy’s similarity to Joyce Sims could be because of her Mantronik connection, as female vocalist on 1986’s Hanson & Davis ‘I’ll Take You On‘ … Sabrina’s video for ‘Boys’ is a real eye-popper — a big girl, she keeps bouncing out of her bikini top! … PUMP THAT BASS!

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships’ heats came to an end last week, with only the three regional semi-finals to go before the grand final on February 16. At Nottingham’s prettily colour co-ordinated Ritzy (where for some strange reason the audience attendance was the lowest of any heat, crowds hanging from the rafters everywhere else), the mixing standard was very high, London’s Cut Master Swift coming first in brilliantly original but jerkily inconsistent style, his flashes of genius outweighing the messy patches. His mixes are often featured on Capital Radio by Tim Westwood, but live he pulls such stunts as using both hands in rapid turn to scratch the same record, and pushing the mixer switches with his nose!

Equal second with exactly the same marks (so both qualify for the semi-finals) were Phil Docherty from Birmingham’s Stocks, who proved by going on first that this is not necessarily a jinxed position to draw in the evening’s running order, and London’s amazingly calm and collected 14-year-old Scratch Professor (see caption). In Northern Ireland, at Portrush’s Traks (packed by enthusiastic dancers), the standard was not so high, with no scratching, but Rob Nelson from Bangor’s JJ’s came a semi-finals qualifying first mixing perfectly synchronised beats, while equal second were Billy Greer from Bangor’s Matinee and Ken Burrell from Belfast’s Soul City, with Strabane’s Ian Robb third.

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Scratch Professor, 14 years old but looking younger, came equal second at the Nottingham mixing heat purely on his ability, not because of his age. Mixing for four years now, after being inspired by seeing a DJ at an open air party in a park, the young Prof from Paddington has already won a scratching competition on BBC Radio London, just over a year ago, and can only get even better as the years go by.

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PAUL DAKEYNE (left), one of the Disco Mix Club’s star mega- and re-mixers, has joined Nic Wakefield behind the decks every Monday at Uxbridge Regals.

 

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HOT VINYL

KID’N PLAY ‘Do This My Way’ (US Select FMS 62307)
Hurby ‘Luv Bug’ Azor cheekily sets this 114¾bpm rap jitterer to Maceo And The Macks’ speeded-up ‘Cross The Track’ backing, complete with that nagging “wheee-eee” tone (instrumental flip), naturally massive!

TONY TERRY ‘Lovey Dovey (Long Version)’ (US Epic 49 07568)
Taking off like a rocket, his album’s catchy ‘Casanova’-ish go-go tempoed swaying jiggly jogger is now in a terrifically jaunty weaving 95⅔bpm remix and tightly percussive Charlie Dee Dub (edit too), a real nagger.

ROYAL HOUSE ‘Party People’ (Champion CHAMP 12-66)
The “party people” phrase from Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force’s ‘Planet Rock’ digitally repeated through elements from Marshall Jefferson’s ‘Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)’ to make a 122bpm jittery jack track full of crossover potential (sample filled bounding 123½bpm ‘Key The Pulse‘ flip, both in two mixes). Continue reading “February 6, 1988: Kid ‘N Play, Tony Terry, Royal House, LL Cool J, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

MCA Records may have signed Eric B & Rakim but Cooltempo look like stealing their thunder with an outrageous remix by the Troublesome Twosome of ‘I Know You Got Soul’, which (around 104bpm on advance acetate) unbelievably uses huge chunks of the Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’ and sneakier snips from such as Dennis Edwards (I hear that Motown have been in touch already!) – this should also eclipse Fourth & Broadway’s rival release of the 91½bpm ‘Move The Crowd’ as, subtle and clever as the remixes by the Democratic 3 featuring DJ Slack and Bristol crew the Wild Bunch may be, the song itself could seem too slow and sedate in comparison to compete (presupposing Cooltempo can actually get theirs out, legally!)… Atlantic are rush releasing Terry Billy ‘Don’t Lock Me Out’ in a fortnight, Serious are releasing Bam-Bam ‘Give It To Me’ in four weeks, CityBeat picked up Vanessa Franklin & Midnight Energy ‘My Mind’… Bomb The Bass ‘Beat Dis’ has been delayed here, presumably to build up (very real) demand, and apparently will be on its original Mister-Ron label distributed by Rhythm King… Adrenalin MOD ‘Bouncy House’ when commercially released will be on Uptown Records, rather than Warrior… Two Men A Drum Machine And A Trumpet ‘I’m Tired Of Being Pushed Around’ is due in a radical Mayhem Rhythm Mix, remixed by Derek May of Detroit’s Transmat label… Jack ‘N’ Chill’s brightly derivative archetypal jack track ‘The Jack That House Built’, already reissued, is now in four mixes (10 Records TENX 174), the spacier 0-125⅓bpm Space Base Mix, trumpet tootled (and sometimes backwards running) 125½bpm Demolition Mix, piano plonked 0-124⅓-0bpm Clubbed and 125⅓bpm Dubbed… Brother Beyond’s guitar plunked cheerfully cantering “Mel & Rick”-ish 119½bpm ‘Can You Keep A Secret? (Extended)’ (Parlophone 12R6174), not the promoed mix, is now flipped by Phil Harding’s far harder less bouncy and more mechanically authentic 119¾bpm House Mix – incidentally, his current “go-go” rhythm programme was possibly first used on his mix of the pop-aimed jaunty slow jiggling 89⅓-0bpm Paul Rein ‘Stop’ (Champion CHAMP 12-56), due out now although originally promoed some months back in the wake of the rhythmically similar ‘Casanova’… Phil Harding also mixed the classily loping soulful 120bpm Oliver Cheatham ‘Go For It’, due on Champion in a fortnight… Full Force are currently producing James Brown… Milton Keynes DJ and label owner Eddie Richards is building a mailing list for Baad! Records c/o 18-21 Middle Street, London EC1, but applicants must first quote the last two words to be found on the “THIS” side of the label’s four-track EP (reviewed last week)… Thames Valley Disc Jockey Association’s annual equipment exhibition, Disco-Ex 1988 (noon-5pm), and 10th anniversary party (8pm-midnight) are this Sunday (31) at Kempton Park Race Course (ticket info on 0734-771450… Northern Soul veteran DJ turned Hi-NRG producer, Kev Roberts has opened the 24-32 track digital Blue Chip Recording Studios in Stafford’s attractively sited Gaol Mews (0785-57097)… Phil Meredith packs Charnock Richard’s Park Hall playing house/funk/rap/rare groove Friday/Saturday nights, and is after PAs on 0257-452090 – near neighbour Rick Astley recently visited the club as a paying customer, when they’d unsuccessfully been trying to book him for months!… Dick Fontaine’s TV film, ‘Bombin’’, about graffiti artists Brim and Goldie with music by David Toop, is on Channel 4 this Thursday (28) at 11.30pm… Paul Jones (ex-Manfred Mann) stood up for and cited Alexander O’Neal as a superb example of a modern singer of songs full of humanity, in the closing shot of a lively edition of ITV’s mid-morning ‘The Time – The Place’ discussion programme, which last Tuesday was all about the pros and cons of the music business over the last 30 years (with various vintages of stars taking part)… KISS-fm jock Gordon Mac is fast becoming a TV celebrity, what with all his appearances as a representative of pirate radio!… Radio Merseywaves cover a far wider area by broadcasting on Medium Wave than any London station, and are currently turning Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway’s ‘Back Together Again’ into a big local revival – but their claim to have made Sinitta’s ‘So Macho’ into a national chart hit may reduce their credibility in some quarters!… Robbie Dee, between jocking at Southend-on-Sea’s Rain from Tuesday to Saturday and Walthamstow’s Charlie Chan’s Sundays, has also been managing to present the weeknight 2-5am show on Essex Radio!… Mike Hollis starts a Saturday 7-10pm soul show on Radio Luxembourg from February 6… Jeff Young left a hole that still no other programme has filled when he left BBC Radio London, his old Saturday morning show being the only one that in playing all the week’s hot new black tracks became a shopping list (at an ideal time for weekend shoppers), thus making it essential listening – unlike the irritating trend among other, newer, soul shows elsewhere to plug stuff that nobody can buy yet even if they want to… Nicky Holloway’s first Special Branch “doo” of the year is next Saturday, February 6, at Kew’s Watermans Arts Centre with guests Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs, £6 tickets in advance only (and, advisable, free membership if you send two passport-sized photos) from Starship Enterprises, Premier House, 77 Oxford Street, London W1R 1RB – they have another 3 Day Doo at Rockley Sands on March 18/19/20 for £46, and the third annual soul holiday in Ibiza during May (details on 01-439 2628)… Alex Lowes and Up North Promotions are following the success of their Berwick weekender with a Blackpool Soul Weekend on April 22/23/24 for £40, with such live acts as Randy Brown and the California Executives (details on 091-3890317)… I went from the Bristol mixing heat to look at the sea in Clevedon, where amazingly (this was on January 19!) there were flowers in bloom, and dandelions and daisies… Baz Fe Jazz and Russ Dewbury present the second Soho Goes To Brighton Weekender this Thursday-Saturday (28/29/30) at Brighton’s Concorde in Madeira Drive, with jazz dancers IDJ, the live Tommy Chase Band and more… Rhythm Zone at Northolt’s C&L Country Club is now fortnightly, this Friday (29) Simon Dunmore’s guests being Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs… Paul Lewis’s retirement party will have many DJ guests at Swindon Brunel Room’s Ampitheatre, which over the last six years he’s kept solidly upfront and funky this Saturday (30) he hands over permanently to his understudy Glyn Prince and gives up jocking for good (sorry I can’t get there, Paul, it’s my mother’s birthday)… Simon Goffe’s short lived Fever night also ends this Saturday (30) at London’s Astoria, with Jeff Young guesting and a full blown American football Superbowl party complete with cheerleaders… Pete Tong, Nicky Holloway, Eddie Gordon, Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs trendily “do it with flares” (trousers, that is) at The Slammer in Northfleet’s Red Lion this Saturday (30), when Heavy D & The Boyz hit the Sweat Box in Harlow’s HighWire, while Bob Masters, Tony Fernandez, Danny Smith and Steve Jason soul Gt Yarmouth’s Scruples (at last, some other DJs with gigs!)… Tony Griffin has moved from Bristol’s Parkside Club to Birmingham’s solidly funky Bobby Brown’s… Geoff Carr, Bill Swift and Barney play only Black Dance at Birtley’s brand new Libertys near Chester-Le-Street… DJ Appy last week was frantically cutting, not frantically laid out (although the latter was a lot funnier!)… Glady Knight And The Pips’ ‘All Our Love’ LP also has the trickily starting but uplifting jiggly 110½bpm ‘Complete Recovery’, smoothly undulating 100½bpm ‘Love Is Fire (Love Is Ice)’, calmly lurching 0-88bpm ‘Thief In Paradise’, and lots of pleasant slowies, to complete the review… Roxanne Shanté’s upcoming new Marley Marl-produced material uses a break from the James Brown-produced Lyn Collins’ ‘Think’ – now, there’s a novelty!… PUMP THAT BASS!

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships heats are almost over, and as usual the number of entrants at the later heats has risen as DJs finally decide to have a go. In Bristol last week at the Papillon (a multi-levelled stripped pine club with catwalks and balconies), and in Leeds at Mr Craigs (similarly multi-levelled in black and chrome with gantries), well over 20 preliminary entrants had to be weeded down in afternoon contests at each to end up with eight competitors for the evening’s heats.

The overall standard in Bristol was certainly higher than at the two London heats, but nobody actually stood out from their fellows until luckily the last man proved himself instantly to be the one clear winner, def Dodger X from Reading’s Caribbean Club. The semi-finals qualifying runner-up was house-mixing Darren Ellis from Birmingham, a hobbyist “bedroom mixer” (one of several to do well this year in an increasing trend) who shared the same record feeder as third-place fellow Brummie, Mike ‘T’ from the Pagoda Park (who will be entering again this Thursday, 28, at Portrush Traks in Northern Ireland, the last heat).

In Leeds the standard was by far the highest to be encountered anywhere so far, and it was a really tough fight, only one mark separating the eventual winner and runner-up. Again it was the last man on who had the winning advantage, Hutchy from Leeds’ The News, who actually won the same North Midlands heat last year and in the UK finals did a routine in white tie and tails. This time he came on like a city slicker with bowler hat and furled umbrella, using the latter to scratch his first record … which stuck to the Blue Tac on the umbrella and lifted off the turntable! This could even have been intentionally satirical, because Hutchy is such an entertainer that not only did he then mix and scratch up a storm, he (as pictured) ended by doing a brilliant transformer scratch using a baby bicycle, moving the wheel on the record with his hand on the pedal! His close runner-up was the fast ‘n’ funky Mike Clarke from Birkenhead’s Atmosphere, excellent except he didn’t always hold beats together.

Third was the loud and untidy (but he didn’t use headphones) Angus Kemp from Maidenhead’s Studio Valbonne, while I personally rated Brian Hope, the Kilmarnock “bedroom mixer” who’d come third in Scotland and this time used much brighter records to prove that he could have a real future as an actual remixer of records (even if the acappella of Colonel Abrams ‘Trapped’ did clash keys with Rick Astley!). Remember, the new regional semi-finals are going to see all the first and second placed winners competing again to see which two will be going forward from each into the six places at the UK final, so they should be really fierce! The semi-finals are next Tuesday (Feb 2) at Warrington’s Mr Smith’s, Thursday (4) at Birmingham’s The Dome, and the following Wednesday (10) at Ealing’s Broadway Boulevard. Be there!

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HOT VINYL

ALEXANDER O’NEAL featuring CHERRELLE ‘Never Knew Love Like This (Extended Version)’ (Tabu 651382 6)
Remixed new version of the gently rolling (0-)102½-0bpm attractive singalong jogger, their new ‘Saturday Love’ although maybe not quite so catchy, impatiently awaited off Alexander’s album as its most obvious single (Instrumental flip, and jerkily wriggling giggly Reprise too).

BETTY WRIGHT ‘Miami Groove’ (LP ‘Mother Wit’ US Ms. B MB-3301)
Excellent samba flavoured 108¼bpm slinky jiggler with a lovely atmosphere and strong sophisticated lyrics that tell a story, a likely hit if ever a single and already selling this nicely diverse soul set (to which I will return when I have more time!).

GEORGIO ‘Lover’s Lane (New After Hours Vocal Mix)’ (Motown ZT 41612)
Locomotively chugging ‘Jingo’-ish 0-117½-0bpm house-type rhythms power this superior remix of the Prince styled singer’s otherwise US-aimed funk track, with a vocoder stuttered smacking funk 118-0bpm Club Mix, piano plonked dubwise 0-118-0bpm After Hours Mix, and even more stuttery funk 0-118¼-0bpm Georgio’s Love Dance Mix. Continue reading “January 30, 1988: Alexander O’Neal/Cherrelle, Betty Wright, Georgio, Dianne Reeves, The House Sound Of Chicago Vol III – Acid Tracks”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

The original The Beat Is The Law mix of Krush is proving to be more of a floor-filler than their exciting but possibly over-busy Burn Down The House remix… Chad Jackson hopes to be recording his solo vocal debut within the next few weeks, possibly in New York… Barbie Dunne is totally overhauling the DJ mailing list at Dance Music/Street Sounds/Westside Records on 01-840 4800… Gary Gordon’s club promotion company is called now just Music Enterprises, expanding its mailing list at PO Box 1216, London W4 3XA… Linda Rogers wants it clarified that she has in fact replaced Johnny Walker as disco plugger for Club and Phonogram product, on 01-491 4600, Johnny now being at London on 01-846 8515… Jeff Young has left a legacy at his old company home in the shape of his James Bond movie dialogue-filled (0-)119bpm My Name Is Young, Jeffrey B Young – Licensed To ‘Ill Mix of last year’s Was (Not Was) ‘Spy In The House Of Love’, already promoed and due for commercial relaunch next week, coupled with DJ StreetsAhead’s far fiercer virtually unrecognisable chunkily dubwise 117¾bpm Give The Drummer Some mix, these being coupled together (Fontana WASX 22) or also with the old 0-117¾-0bpm Jeffrey B Young & Dangerous Mix (WASX 2)… Jeff Young, in his role as Radio 1 DJ, will be seen on TV during the BPI Awards show giving a potted 90 second history of the development of dance music… Dancing Danny D seems to be staying at Cooltempo, despite many offers from other companies – he and Norman Cook of The Housemartins, calling themselves The Troublesome Twosome, have remixed Eric B & Rakim ‘I Know You Got Soul’… Les Adams is remixing Wally Jump Jr & The Criminal Element ‘Private Party’, even though a US remix has already been on import… Sherrick ‘Let’s Be Lovers Tonight’ has been turned into a largely remade much beefier loping 111bpm Solid Mix, only on mailing list promo (for real!), by Chris Paul – whose next remix for WEA will be of the Detroit Spinners’ ‘Working My Way Back To You’… Eddie Levert will be the father figure, literally, at the Hammersmith Odeon on February 4/5/6, when the O’Jays and Levert appear together… Luther Vandross’s brand new ballad, ‘There’s Only You’, is available so far only on the otherwise fairly rocky ‘Made In Heaven’ soundtrack import LP on US Elektra… Rayners Lane’s Record & Disco Centre is managing to sell the 120 track ‘The History Of The House Sound Of Chicago’ boxed set at only £30, actually below the dealer price… Champion snapped up Royal House ‘Party People’ for the UK… Coldcut’s (0-)117½-0bpm ‘Doctorin’ The House’ (Ahead Of Our Time CCUT 2P) in its remix has a cleaner less resonantly bassy though considerably beefed up rhythm drive and wailing sometimes wordless female vocals by Yazz, plus a similarly cleaner Speng mix of the original version… 2 Bad 2 Mention’s 0-117½bpm Double Trouble mix of ‘Do It’ (Intouch TWELVE 005 R), remixed by Simon Goffe with Double Trouble, is stripped down to a loping 0-117½bpm bare rhythm groove without most of the amusing gimmicks, while other remixes include the more percussive 117½bpm Rick Astley ‘My Arms Keep Missing You (Bruno’s Mix)’ (RCA PT 41684 R), denser 0-104-0bpm John Paul Barrett ‘Never Givin’ Up On You’ (Westside Records WSRX 2), and much chunkier bassline-lurched Jellybean ‘Jingo (House Mix 2)’ (Chrysalis JELR 2-2, as flip to the previously mentioned 120½bpm Space Bass Mix album version)… Mantronix ‘Sing A Song’ is already out here (10 Records TENX 206)… Paul Savory, until recently Ian Levine’s lieutenant at Nightmare, has split away to form Quazar Records… Clapham’s Hip Hop Alliance (01-737 3237) has started the Tuff Groove label for homegrown rappers and DJs who feel their material is tuff enuff, and the Young Gifted And Broke Music Foundation to provide technological equipment for young musicians… Tim Westwood – so cool he sleeps on a tubular steel framework five feet off the floor, surrounded by graffiti! – now presents hip hop on Friday nights between midnight-1am, as well as his Saturday slot, on Capital Radio… BBC Radio Manchester’s ‘Best Of ’87 Mix’ this time was created by Duncan Smith, building flawlessly but very slowly through a subjective but doubtless local selection of “modern soul”, from sophisticated smoochers and joggers to end eventually at ‘The Real Thing’, with only a little hip hop and no house… Mike Askew (Wirral) reports that the New Year’s Eve party on Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio followed Les Adams’ and my pre-announced Capital Radio running order, but played one at a time without actually mixing, and with commercial breaks!… North-West London listeners to Capital and Radio London are suddenly being plagued by interference from presumably some amateur new local pirate radio station… Essex is getting a professionally presented weekend pirate soul station, Stomp FM on 105.4fm in full digital stereo… Rusty Egan has returned as a club host with the Tuesday Chic night at Hammersmith’s Le Palais, featuring Colin Faver, Tim Westwood and himself as DJs, the cavernous dancehall’s balconies being closed off to concentrate the crowd more on the floor from now on (he’s hoping for Joyce Sims to look in this week)… Tony Jenkins has one of his legendary Up West nights at London’s Hippodrome this Wednesday (Jan 20), with guest jocks and star PAs, £5 admission… Simon Dunmore, Bob Jones, Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs present ‘A New Kind Of Soul’ (and jazz!) at London St James’s Biggles winebar in Masons Yard this Saturday (23), when Spoonie Gee is at Harlow’s HighWire (where Kev Hill’s Saturday Sweat Box night now has no dress restrictions whatsoever)… Desa, Kenni James, Pez Tellett and Rob ‘Yo Man’ Manley hold the year’s first Defhouse gig at Birkenhead’s Atmosphere on Monday (25)… Severn Sound’s ‘Happy Hippo’, Jerry Hipkiss souls Fri/Saturdays at Chetenham’s Gas (in the lower level)… Carl Cox, runner-up mixer at Norbury, cuts up club classics every Sunday in Streatham Zigis… Steve Walsh, sitting next to me as a mixing judge in Uxbridge, suddenly got so excited that he slammed his first down on the table and showered me with a broken glass – but he didn’t seem to notice!… PUMP THAT BASS!

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships heats continue, last week in London and Southampton. As usual, for some inexplicable reason, the overall standard of the London entrants was lower than anywhere else visited so far this year, and once again the judges were subjected to repeated use of “this is a journey into sound”. Pump that bass, y’know what I’m sayin’?! The heat winner at Norbury’s Sussex Tavern (a music pub rather than a club, so sweatily intimate on the night), Les Adams’ resident venue, was very convincingly the fast cutting DJ Pogo from Jus Badd (see separate photo and review), with messily enthusiastic Carl Cox a semi-final qualifying second and the slick but soul-less Chad Jackson-copying Doctor K third. More about him later. Deserving a place too was Perry Daniels, whose excellent mixing was obscured by the striptease antics of his phallus-brandishing sexy female “helper”, who looked great but didn’t help him at all, in the end. Incidentally, in the afternoon’s preliminaries, Lee Alex ander had scratched using a live python draped around his neck, grabbing its head by mistake instead of the tail! The following night at Uxbridge’s Regals, a converted cinema with appalling sound everywhere except on the dancefloor (which isn’t where the mixing was!), the standard was so low that the previous night’s third placed Chad Jackson clone, Doctor K came first. More deserving I thought was Mark Ryder (see his photo caption elsewhere), who qualified for a semi-final, while frantically laid out DJ Appy was third. Southampton’s heat last Wednesday was the compactly laid out rectangle-emphasising New York New York, where the winner (pictured above) was Warren Aylward, who exhibited Mark Ryder-type confidence in leaving two records running in synch while he helped himself to a drink from the judges’ table. The deserving semi-final qualifying runner-up was slick Terry Crofts from Cardiff Ritzy’s, with Surrey mobile jock Mike Blackadder third. One important point needs to be made — when will audiences learn that it isn’t the tunes the contestants play, it’s the way they mix ’em that matters? Too often there are cheers just because ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ comes screeching through, no matter how badly (or well) it’s been mixed.

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DJ Pogo, seen here winning the Norbury heat of the Technics Mixing Championships, supplies the radical beat-bouncing scratches behind MC Mellow on JUS BADD ‘Proud‘ (Tuff Groove TUFF 001, via 01-737 3237), a dry 97¾bpm message rap flipped by the more Cookie Crew-ish 0-94⅓-0bpm ‘Free Style‘, featuring Sparky and Monie Love as well as Mellow over a murkier backing. Of those seen so far, Pogo and Manchester’s Owen D are tipped as the scratchers to watch in the Mixing Championship finals.

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MARK RYDER from Essex came a deserving second at the Uxbridge heat of the Technics Mixing Championships, thanks largely to the supreme confidence he showed in cutting from deck to deck after synching up two different records, just flicking a switch (without checking on headphones that the synch was still running) to drop in phrases, the position of which he obviously knew by heart. The fact that one of the phrases was “We’re all going on a summer holiday” from ‘Holiday Rap’ mattered not at all!

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MAURICE BIRD, known as ‘The Wildcat’ when scratching the Fraud Squad’s ‘Overweight Beats’ (the Heavy D & The Boyz scam detailed last week), turns out to be MCA Records’ post boy! Plus, together with Magnet Records employee Darren Mohammud and college boy Ritchie Fermié, he’s behind one of the hottest homegrown house tracks, ADRENALIN M.O.D. ‘Bouncy House (Bouncy Mix)’ (Warrior Records WR12 002), a madly jaunty jiggly (0-)119⅓bpm bounder with washing machine noises, spurting breaks, “turn it up” chants, slippery scratches and mucho fun, tucked away as flip to JACK FACTORY ‘Jackin’ James (Club Mix)’, a JB (and others) sampling good beefy 0-119¾-0bpm chugger with naggingly familiar piano (instrumental too).

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HOT VINYL

NITRO DELUXE ‘Let’s Get Brutal (Mega Mix)’ (Cooltempo COOLD 142)
Promoed some time ago but never actually released then, this bass burbled jerkily rolling 116¾-116⅔-116½-116⅓-116⅔bpm much altered remix has added muttering and effects but not much of that ultra-catchy piercing “wheee-ee” hookline (the ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ of house?), flipped by the original 114⅔-115-114¾-115bpm US Mix of this alternately titled variation on ‘The Brutal House’ — which, as every club-goer (if maybe not radio listener, yet) must surely realise, was last year’s biggest actual house hit, bar none. Now maybe at last it’ll follow all the other lesser hits on the reissue trail up the charts.

TAYLOR DAYNE ‘Tell It To My Heart’ (Arista 609 616)
Hunter Hayes’ vocal partner on such as ‘This Time’, Taylor is yet another white girl scoring a huge US pop smash with a datedly electro-backed Shannon-style sound, this extremely catchy if shrill 118⅔bpm surging jiggler being very much a pop song but with a far harder vocal Dub Mix that’s getting more DJ attention here. She, and the similar likes of Exposé and other electro backed US girls have quite an Asian following, incidentally.

RISSE featuring Charisse Cobb ‘House Train’ (Jack Trax 12JTRAX 7)
Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley created pumping (but not really chugging!) jittery simple nagging house canterer in a (0-)119½bpm New York Mix, 119¾bpm LA Radio Mix, 118¾bpm London Mix, and (0-)119⅓-0bpm Chicago Mix, likely to do well. Continue reading “January 23, 1988: Nitro Deluxe, Taylor Dayne, Risse, The Temptations, James Brown”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

James Brown, ready for the payback after being bootlegged so much, has given permission for Matt Black + Jonathan More of the Coldcut Crew to remix a variety of his oldies for Polydor!… Coldcut has also just done a simpler and less busy remix of ‘Doctor In The House’, with a vocal version featuring Yaz as flip… Adrian Sykes has given up independent club promotion to head MCA Records’ new black music operation, signing up Eric B & Rakim in the process… Cooltempo for some reason (like radio suitability?) have placed more A-side emphasis on Sweet Tee’s US B-side, ‘It’s Like That Y’All’, which so far has only had token dancefloor support here in comparison with the monstrous ‘I Got Da Feelin’’ AA-side… Public Enemy’s US-only Noise Version of ‘Bring The Noise’ has added squeaky screech noises which are completely missing from the UK-issued No Noise Version… Charlie Singleton’s review last week got split into two parts, ‘Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained’ indeed being the 117½bpm sharply jittering funk snapper by a sometime member of Cameo… Pete Tong clarifies that he isn’t allowed to play London-released records on his Capital Radio show without getting prior clearance, and only plays material destined for the label (if indeed he does eventually get the rights) while it’s still on import… Greg Edwards really let off steam about the UK radio business when he guested with John Leech last Wednesday on Essex Radio, attacking Britain’s daytime programming policies – and declaring himself to be once again open to job offers!.. I hear independently from my German contacts that Chris Hill has become really big news on Radio Hamburg, with one of the top rated shows on this, the second largest private radio station in the country (strange that he never got a gig on air over here)… Brian Carter’s previously mentioned massive 120 track, 12 LP boxed set ‘The History Of The House Sound Of Chicago’ is now finally out at about £42 (German BCM Records BC 70-2060-49, distributed here by Greyhound), possibly most fascinating for the included early examples and influences but also containing an exhaustive selection of big hits – and “rare misses”… ‘Rok Da House’ is claimed to be possibly Britain’s first house track, originally recorded at the Beatmasters’ Soho studio in August 1986, the Cookie Crew being invited to guest on it when it was only available on highly prized (and priced!) acetate before eventually DJ Mark Moore brought it to Rhythm King’s attention…. LA Mix’s next direction could be towards Santana… January’s Disco Mix Club mixes include ‘L Of A Mix’, an edited version of Les Adams’ and my opening sequence from the Capital Radio New Year’s Eve show (of which tapes are most definitely NOT available, sorry!)… Prelude’s man about London, Paul Oakenfold, went to China for Christmas on the spur of the moment… I’m not sure, but wasn’t that Leicestershire DJ Tony Allen competing (unsuccessfully, but with lots of lip!) on the Christmas edition of TV’s ‘Blankety Blank’?… Imagination member Ashley Ingram wrote Miki Howard’s US soul smash, ‘Baby Be Mine’… Derek B’s ‘Get Down’ is due to be answered in anti-sexist style by Sarah Jane… Heavy D & The Boyz hit London’s Astoria Saturday (Jan 16) and Stockton’s The Mall Wednesday (20)… Lien Kerry hosts The Friday Club with reggae, funk and house at Leeds’ Warehouse… Newbury’s new Themes nightspot has Street-Tough Sundays with Sheikh Jnr spinning soul/house/rap/jazz/funk… Disco Gary and Paul French run an Under-18s disco every Tuesday at Gillingham’s The Avenue, no chewing gum allowed!… Steve Aspey has started a Wednesday jazz night at Oxford’s Knights, in Cowley’s Temple Club, free before 11pm… Chris Britton has added funky Fridays at Haringey’s new Arena to his busy workload, but is still after one more (Tues/Wednesday) London area residency on 0442-41700… Barkingside’s Crew disco beside the lake at Fairlop Waters features Robbie Collins Wed/Fri and Terry James Thurs/Sat who’re looking forward to windsurfing, waterskiing and sailing on what may be by now frozen solid. They joke their favourite rare groove is ‘Summer Nights’, the John Travolta & Olivia Newton John one!… Mark Judges (Guildford) points out that Rick Astley ‘My Arms Keep Missing You’ syncopates perfectly over the end of Human League ‘Don’t You Want Me’… America’s pop market, to judge from the arrangements of many of the current US hits by squawking females, seems only just to have caught up with the four years old Shannon-type sound… I don’t notice import prices coming down, despite the weakened dollar… YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN’?

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Steve Walsh (no, this isn’t him!) has a lookalike, Donald ‘Shuggy Bear’ Hughes, one of the resident DJs at Edinburgh’s Zenatec. Not only large and ginger-haired, Shuggy’s an excellent mixer too, one of his current showpieces being a continuously running synch between Mad Jocks featuring Jockmaster BA ‘Jock Mix 1’ and a Scottish reel called ‘Trio’ from Andrew Rankine And His Band’s ‘Scottish Dance Party’ LP (Emerald/Gem). A pity he hasn’t entered the Technics Mixing Championships himself.

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The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships got off to a wet start. Just as the first heat of the series was about to begin at Edinburgh’s Zenatec, a pipe burst in the water cooling system of a laser, directly above the decks! Once things got going, the Scottish contestants proved to be much more consistently good than last year, although for now the third year running the winner was Glasgow’s ebullient George Little, with a combination of skill and showmanship. Perhaps technically even better as scratchers although less dynamic in their hip hop programming were the runners-up, Stirling’s Adrian Rennie (who didn’t use headphones) and Kilmarnock’s Brian Hope, both of whom qualified to enter other area’s heats if they wish. Well equipped though quite small, Zenatec shares Edinburgh’s old meat market with the associated far larger Fat Sam’s US-Style pizza/pasta/burger/steak eaterie, a successful concept that could well be moving south soon. Stockton-on-Tees’ massive The Mall, recently opened in an old cinema and a rival (though not its boring light show) to such as the Hippodrome and Flicks, housed the next night’s North Eastern heats, where many familiar faces competed, and in fact last year’s Bournemouth winner came first, fast-cutting Brummie Des Mitchell, who once again had flown in from his Tenerife Bobby’s residency. Qualifying for an area semi-final was London’s DJ Haze, while allowed to enter another heat if he wishes was Slough’s messier than usual Avtar Singh. On both these opening nights, the mixers’ over-used cliches were, inevitably, “pump up the volume” and “this is a journey into sound” — the judges may soon start awarding these negative marks, be warned! However, at the North Western heats in Manchester’s Hacienda, the over-worked riff was ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ in a heavily hip hop, rather than house, environment, where the winning home boy was the hotly tipped Owen D. As at most other heats under the competition’s new rules, the runner-up Chris Harris qualified for an area semi-final too, and Jeff Daniels was invited to enter another heat if he wishes, the aim being to ensure that the very best mixers have a good chance to get through to the national finals. In the past, the contestants at some heats have been far more uniformly strong than at others, but only one winner could get through — meaning that some finalists were in fact less skilled than DJs who hadn’t won in other more hotly contested heats. This now should make the final result really crucial!

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DJ Haze, from London’s Flim Flams in New Cross, qualified for the semi-finals by coming second in the Stockton-on-Tees heat of the Technics Mixing Championships – and if his “record-feeder” in the centre looks familiar, that’s because it’s current UK champ (and M|A|R|R|S member) CJ Mackintosh’s older brother, Laurence! CJ, incidentally, says he’s “too busy” with recording commitments to defend his UK title, while current World champ Chad Jackson has bowed out of the contest this year, too.

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DJ Tim Garbutt from Harrogate wasn’t among the winning mixers at Stockton, but he did very creditably considering it was his first live gig ever. He’s a “bedroom mixer”, a hobbyist attracted to the art of mixing by seeing people doing it on television, and by reading about it in rm. Considering even the pros’ hands can shake when doing an exhibition mix in front of a large crowd, he had real guts.

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Virgin Records’ popular club plugger Clare Shave has disappointing news for all her admirers, she’s just got engaged. But who’s her fiancé? You’ll have heard of him, but you’ll have to wait a while and find out in hindsight!

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HOT VINYL

THE BEATMASTERS featuring THE COOKIE CREW ‘Rok Da House (Demolition Mix)’ (Rhythm King LEFT S11T)
The girls’ reissued jack track hit is now really fresh and much fiercer in this more London-orientated flying 125-0bpm remix, with scratching by Dazzle Fresh and an updated rhythm track, plus a terrific janglingly exciting Al’ Nite Al’ Rite Instrumental flip. Everybody, get on up and dance!

THE FRAUD SQUAD ‘Overweight Beats’ (In Effect Records ELI-1)
Although this single-sided jiggly 0-104-106⅔-104bpm scratch-up by Maurice ‘The Wildcat’ Bird of Heavy D & The Boyz’ beats (plus some ‘Bring The Noise’) is made to look like an import bootleg, its obviously English inner sleeve and matrix number soon established it to be a scam masterminded by MCA’s UK product manager, Eli Hourd. Don’t be fooled!

BARRY WHITE ‘For Your Love (I’ll Do Most Anything)’ (Breakout USAT 618)
One of those chocolate voiced muttering “lurve” raps in his classic romantic 94⅔bpm old style, much easier for soul jocks to use than his ‘Sho You Right‘, flipped even more dreamily by the 0-49⅓bpm ‘Love Is In Your Eyes‘ and his jerky 0-86bpm treatment of ‘As Time Goes By’ (you must remember this!) Continue reading “January 16, 1988: Beatmasters/Cookie Crew, Fraud Squad, Barry White, Royal House, Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships”

ODDS ‘N’ BODS

The 1988 Technics UK DJ Mixing Championships regional heats kicked off on Monday at Edinburgh’s Zonatec and Tuesday at Stockton’s The Mall, other dates to come being this Wednesday (Jan 6) at Manchester’s Hacienda, then Mon (11) Norbury’s The Sussex, Tues (12) Uxbridge Regals, Wed (13) Southampton New York New York, Mon (18) Bristol Papillon, Wed (20) Leeds Mr Craigs, Tues (26) Nottingham Ritzy, Thur (28) Portrush Traks. I’ll be joining the judges at all but the deadline clashing Wed/Thursday dates, the regional semi-finals – which’ll include a rap competition – being in February, Tuesday (2) at Warrington Mr Smith’s, Thur (4) Birmingham The Dome, Wed (10) Ealing Broadway Boulevard, with the UK finals Tues (16) at London’s Hippodrome… I may look large and unlikely, but do come up and say hello!… Radio 1’s Friday night dance music DJ Jeff Young has indeed moved his day job from Phonogram to A&M, while Johnny Walker has shifted within the Phonogram group of labels, now doing club promotion for London and Urban, with further A&R responsibilities for ffrr (the new dance logo)… Dancin’ Danny D meanwhile also could be moving west, if he makes his mind up… Horizon Radio has gone legit broadcasting from Marbella to the Spanish coastline on 96.2FM, starting in March – programme controller Chris Stewart is looking for seriously committed DJs’ demo tapes at 1-2 Bromley Place, London W1P 5HB… Wizzards Of Rock ‘Good Thang/Stone To The Bone’ is already out here on Champion (CHAMP 12-60), Rhythm King having picked up Bomb The Bass ‘Beat Dis’ for Jan 18 release in a similar manoeuvre, merely slapping white labels on the original US pressings… ffrr’s upcoming ‘Acid Tracks’ compilation LP has been promoted in advance by white label singles with Frankie Knuckles’ terrific strangulatedly gospel-ish soulful semi-instrumental 120⅓bpm ‘Only The Strong Survive’ (the Jerry Butler/Billy Paul oldie) flipped by Romance’s moaning 120½bpm ‘All Dis Music’ (LPSMP 1), and Jamie Principle’s previously mentioned slow remake of ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ (FFRDJ 1), now a loping mutterer that sounds almost too slow, in 118-0bpm Club Mix, 118-118¾bpm House Of Trix, 118¾-118-118⅔-0bpm X-Rated, and 0-118-118⅓-0bpm Dub remixes by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley… Urban’s four-tracker by James Brown, due commercially Jan 18, has the previously unavailable 0-114-115¼-114½-117½bpm ‘She’s The One’, and much scratched 102⅔-104½-102⅔-105-103⅔-103⅓bpm ‘Funky President’, 0-95⅔-96-95⅓-95-96⅔-98-98⅔ (“hit it”)-100⅔ (“ain’t it funky”)-101⅓-99-100⅔-101⅔bpm ‘Funky Drummer’, loop edited 98⅔-0bpm ‘Funky Drummer (Bonus Beats)’ – yup, I just love bpm-ing rare grooves!… Derby’s Submission label owning def dude, Graeme Park, has promoed a superior house double-sider by Groove, with two 116½bpm mixes of ‘Dancing And Music’ plus 119¾bpm Electro Jack and 119⅔ Jazzy mixes of ‘Submit (To The Beat)’, out late January… T-Coy ‘I Like To Listen’ is in a calmer 118-0bpm MP Remix and gently percussive 117¼bpm Nude House Mix on white label (deConstruction NSMR 6242), Pet Shop Boys ‘Always On My Mind’ is in a poundingly unsubtle Hi-NRG 124⅔bpm Remix helped by Phil Harding (Parlophone 12RX 6171), while the Beatmasters & Cookie Crew ‘Rok Da House’ has been reissued to meet northern demand in its hurriedly chanted (0-)123½-0bpm original mix (Rhythm King LEFT R11T), flipped by Ivan Ivan’s much tighter but less engaging new 122½bpm US Remix and piano jangled 123½-0bpm Dub (to be followed next week by a more London-orientated Demolition Mix)… Krush have a ‘Remix Mark 2’ due too… TV commercials for the Brook Street Bureau and The Observer, amongst others, have soundtracks by the Beatmasters… US chart success, with consequent UK TV exposure by Jonathan King and Casey Kasem, has caused the reissue of Pretty Poison ‘Catch Me (I’m Falling)’ (10 Records TENT 187), bright Shannon-esque girl group pop that’s featured in the ‘Hiding Out’ film… Seeborn & Puma’s backing track is the Headhunters’ ‘If You’ve Got It You’ll Get It’… JC Reid (Brighton Club Savannah) find the JAMs ‘Downtown’ and Middle Of The Road ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ synch together perfectly!… ‘Downtown’ in its video version is presumably the seven inch mix, with a Scottish accented gospel lyric which greatly lessens its impact as a house record – I have Neil Fincham (Edinburgh Styx) to thank for the info that the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu are basically Glasgow’s Bill Drummond, and Neil plus others to thank for sending me copies of ‘Whitney Joins The JAMs’, which in the inevitable way of these things I actually found for myself immediately after saying I didn’t have it!… DJ Pierre (that’s D Jean-Pierre rather than Disc Jockey Pierre) apparently is the common link between Fantasy Club ‘Mystery Girl’, Pierre’s Fantasy Club ‘Fantasy Girl’, and Phuture ‘Acid Trax’… Gullivers moved to its new club premises in Soho’s Ganton Street a couple of days late in the end, which meant that the Mayfair site stayed open a week longer – although the “final” night remained as announced, Fatman Graham Canter making a brief emotional appearance, before I played 50 minutes of all the great clichés… Steve Jerome – who usually recorded as just Jerome – sadly died of a heart attack before Christmas, aged only 35… PWL produced singles for some reason suddenly all seem to be pressed in blue vinyl… Les Adams’ most frequent cry while tape editing in his tiny studio is “Where’s the chinagraph?” – it’s always on the keyboards!… 1988 is a brand new year, so let a man come in and do the funky popcorn, YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN’?

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PUBLIC ENEMY ‘Bring The Noise’ was actually added in its original version to a very few copies of ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ a month ago, but is now in two different new 109bpm remixes, the Noise Version (US Def Jam 44 07545) being more fully fleshed and exciting than the UK-issued No Noise Version (Def Jam 651335 6), the latter backed more simply by the strutting arrangement of the No Noise Instrumental that’s common to both. We also get their guitar yowled languidly rolling 96bpm ‘Sophisticated‘, the import retaining its original coupling which has just been released separately here, THE BLACK FLAMES ‘Are You My Woman?‘ (Def Jam 651334 6), a lurching 101⅓bpm good modern adaptation of the old Temptations-type vocal group style, flipped less appealingly though by someone else’s ramblingly dated song from the ‘Less Than Zero’ film.

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HOT VINYL

SWEET TEE ‘I Got Da Feelin’’ (Cooltempo COLX 160)
Hurby Luv Bug-produced brilliant 110⅘bpm female rap hinged on James Brown’s ‘Cold Sweat’, with Betty Wright’s ‘Clean Up Woman’ influencing the flip’s 100½-0bpm ‘It’s Like That Y’All’.

JERMAINE STEWART ‘Say It Again (Extended Remix)’ (10 Records TENR 188)
Phil Harding’s excellent jiggly 0-95⅓bpm go-go hip hop mix starts in two-year-old-sounding Mantronix/Full Force style before the soulfully plaintive song eventually sways attractively through it with really grabbing effect, a potential smash (except the existing seven inch mix is dreadful).

SPOONIE GEE ‘I’m All Shook Up’ (US Tuff City TUF 128023)
Teddy Riley-produced dynamite jiggly James Brown-based 100⅓bpm rap quoting briefly at times from Elvis Presley’s ‘All Shook Up’, with a misleadingly titled though ‘Set It Off’-ish instrumental 108bpm ‘Godfather House Mix’ flip. Continue reading “January 9, 1988: Public Enemy, Sweet Tee, Jermaine Stewart, Spoonie Gee, Big Daddy Kane”

THE HAMMY AWARDS

I say, chaps! It’s that jolly old time of the year when we open the golden envelope to see who did really well in 1987. Whizzo, what? All statistics are derived from the year-end dance charts, which means that certain record company employees should start worrying now…

BLACK DANCE ARTISTES OF THE YEAR: Eric B & Rakim

RUNNERS UP: Sybil, Alexander O’Neal, Joyce Sims, Lillo Thomas, Jellybean, Cameo, Wally Jump Jr & The Criminal Element, Sherrick, Curtis Hairston, Rick Astley

BLACK DANCE HIT OF 1987: M|A|R|R|S ‘Pump Up The Volume’ (4AD), number one in the year-end chart if both mixes are combined

RUNNER UP: Nitro DeLuxe ‘This Brutal House’/’Let’s Get Brutal’ (Cooltempo), number two likewise if all mixes are combined

RECORD AT NUMBER ONE FOR LONGEST: Sybil ‘Let Yourself Go’ (Champion), six weeks Continue reading “December 26, 1987: The Hammy Awards, Capital Houseparty, year-end charts”