Top Tens

[Guest Giles Walker]

Here's a top ten "records between rave and jungle, when things were all a bit weird"

I started secondary school right around the time rave music seemed to die (end of summer 92) and people either gave up on it and listened to something else, or listened to happy hardcore. This obviously was not reflective of what was happening in England, although the Castlemorton rave that happened that summer is arguably the high water mark for rave culture.

Anyway, i wasn't really keen for just giving up on that music and i listened to it in some form or other up until around 1994, by which time terms like 'drum and bass' and 'tech step' were being banded around and the party seemed to be over.

Here's my favourite chaotic, messy records from that period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is3IXVRPLgU

Nick Nicely from this band was a punk in the 70s and produced some cool synth pop in the early 80s, before disappearing into squats for a decade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBgpJ_C-ZVg

This is a song that was on a Fantazia tape that i used to get the bus driver to play as we went to school in 92, it is full of incredibly cheesy elements that i seemed to enjoy as a pre teen. Two different kinds of cheesy piano breakdowns? Check. Dumb 'Mentasm' synth sections? Check. Hoover sounds? Check.

This sounds quite tame nowadays, but it was a stone classic back then.

Another record that seemed to be on a few rave tapes back in the summer of 92.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238Zy_VFvFk

This came out in 1993, but was on mixes throughout the summer of 92, the polyrhythms going on in that drum production were right up my street.

[Guest Giles Walker]

This really did sound futuristic to me as a kid, even though it sounds super dated nowadays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-6RgfhSe1g

This was probably one of the last records i liked that had the recognisable elements i had come to associate with rave music, but it also bridged quite nicely into what was coming next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lT3nAJgsXY

This was on a Dj Ratty tape that my cousin gave me in 1993, the bizarre synth thing he's got going on starting at 1.10 and especially at 2.04 kinda blew my tiny child mind. It also was a definite line in the sand where i realised that nobody i knew was into this sort of music any longer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSsVAzNXqRo

It is a total tossup between this and 'License' or 'This sound is for the underground' by them, but this was the one i liked the most at the time i think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t62WnaxBKyI

This is one of the last records i can remember giving me that "what the fuck am i listening to?!" feeling, the drum production has gone past 'intricate' into the realms of worryingly ocd. After this the music was still very good, but it was definitely more tasteful and i kinda lost interest and got more into sweary rap music. Also jungle/drum and bass now had the approval of people who had previously abandoned rave music, which also kind of killed the buzz a bit.

[Guest Giles Walker]

Top ten cut and paste records:

When i was younger i had a fascination with the culture of sampling and where it had come from so started collecting the early examples of sampling from before the use of samplers was widespread. Here are some that i think are important to the history of hip hop and dance music.

John & Ernest - Soul President No.1

From 1973, this is a novelty record that has a fictional interview with the president (and others) with the guests voices being replaced by bits of soul and funk records that vaguely make sense. It's kind of dumb but i figured i should mention at least one of these records, since the whole cut and paste culture was not entirely reserved for the early hip hop scene.

Remix By Mach - On And On

A disco cut and paste record from 1980 made from Munich Machine - Get On The Funk Train, Lipps Inc. - Funky Town, Playback - Space Invaders and Donna Summer - Bad Girls. One of the few cut and paste records i still play out regularly. Legend has it that this was a favourite of Chicago dj Jesse Saunders and that after his copy was stolen he made a record that sounded like it with drum machines and synths. His version, also called "On And On" is believed by some to be the first house record. Others say that he was loaned the record by a fellow dj, who just wanted it back and that the Jesse Saunders version of "On And On" is not the first house record at all. Who knows...

Bozo Meko - Fusion Beats 2

A record (supposedly) made by Afrika Islam and credited to Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay and Afrika Islam in 1981. It features James Brown - Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved, Dyke & The Blazers - Let A Woman Be A Woman And A Man Be A Man and The Mohawks - The Champ (A KPM Library record produced by Alan Hawkshaw, who also made the Countdown Theme for Channel 4)

Double Dee And Steinski - Lesson Three

This record is an absolute B Boy classic, and most B Boys actually have an unfair advantage if it is played at a competition, since most have a small routine worked out to it. This record came out of a competition run by Tommy Boy records in late 83/early 84 to remix their then big record (Globe and Whizkid - Play That Beat Mr Dj) Douglas Difranco and Steve Stein submitted a remix full of sampled quotes and tonnes of other weird pop and obscure records and won the competition by a mile. They were commissioned to do two more remixes which were then titled The Lessons 1 to 3. They were never properly released, but bootlegged quite widely. I spilled an entire pint of beer on my original Tommy Boy copy whilst djing at the 2001 Scottish B Boy champs. The series was continued by DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist (Who both did a Lesson 4), Cut Chemist also made two different Lesson 6 versions, UK DJ Bombjack Produced a Lesson 7 and Dj Format Produced an English Lesson.

Big Apple Productions Volume 3 - Genius At Work

Volume one was a mixture of electropop and mainstream pop records from the time, volume two was more electro and freestyle focussed, but volume three was produced in a Hip Hop style. Said to be produced by The Latin Rascals in 1987, it is a quickfire mix of classic funk, soul and disco breaks mixed together in an old school hip hop style.

[Guest Giles Walker]

Coldcut - Say Kids What Time Is It?

This was the first record by Coldcut, from 1987 and based mainly around Chuck Brown - Bustin Loose, Kurtis Blow - Party At The Go-Go and Banbarra - Shack Up (Pt2) with samples from Rupert Bear and the Jungle Book thrown into the mix for good measure. After '87 the floodgates were pretty much opened for loads of these sorts of sample records to be made. MARRS - Pump Up The Volume, Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis and many other UK records were in the charts over here and the way dance music was made was pretty much changed forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGWZ1sCOd4o

Hiroshi & Kudo ft DJ Milo - Return Of The Original Artform

This 1988 record from Japan is a great example of how the style had reached around the world at the time. These guys were part of the Major Force record label that released a tonne of great Cut & Paste records in the late 80s and early 90s. For a long time this record did not leave my bag. The London label Mo Wax released a compilation of their best bits in the late 90s and there were a limited edition series of remixes of this record by Cut Chemist, Dj Format and Dj Harvey.

Think Tank - A Knife And A Fork

This is a record by the New York electro pop band Information Society from 1990 based around a James Brown - Give It Up And Turn It Loose sample and a child repeating the line from the Dillinger track "Cocaine" It was popular on the early rave scene from what i can gather, the b side is great too.

DJ Craze's routine from the 1998 DMC US finals

Turntablism is a lot better in concept than it is in reality, but one or two people have been able to do it pretty well over the years. The way Craze chops the Art Of Noise record into something completely different in this clip is pretty amazing, likewise the way he converts the hip hop instrumental into a Jungle beat at the end is also impressive. I have always thought it honoured the initial ideas of early cut and paste culture, so i figured i might as well chuck it into the list.

DJ Format - English Lesson

Dj Format's 1999 effort, is definitely aimed squarely at the B Boy market, as was most Cut & Paste between the early 90s and the mid 00s. You find that nowadays most B Boys want to hear the dj cutting up original funk breaks and think that playing these sorts of records is lazy.

I purposefully left out the early to late 90s since rave happened around the early 90s and big beat happened in the mid 90s, lasting until around 98 before gasping it's last breath. You could argue that a lot of those records were also examples of cut and paste, certainly a lot of the djs from these scenes played some of the classic older records. I was playing Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson 2 in Estaminet once and a furious guy came up convinced that i was copying Fatboy Slim's essential mix. I am not entirely sure why he was so furious, maybe he thought i was duping the crowd into dancing. Anyway, who cares, it was his fury not mine.

Bye!

I might do a top ten british funk records from the late 70s/early 80s next i reckon.

[ca_gere]

My Top 10 is gonna be French Reggae. Not a genre that will be familiar to most I'm assuming and not one that will even interest many but it's truly one that has had a huge effect on my life. I spent a few years living in France and before going over I had only really listened to a few trojan records and knew very little about reggae other than I kinda liked the rhythm. I'd say about 60-70% of gigs put on in France are Reggae/ska or this hybrid style they call 'Musique festive'. Especially in the south of France where there is a huge african and Caribbean influence.

It's crazy how big reggae is in France. Almost every young person you meet there is into it and almost every party you go to that's what will be playing. As a result I started to discover all these French bands that have made their way into my collection. I'd say I listen to French Reggae at least twice a week and it feels like it's my own wee musical taste that noone else I know really shares (except folk i know in france of course).

Anyway, the reason I like it so much is that whilst Jamaican reggae is the standard, there's something about the mixture of fiercely politicized lyrics (the french are nothing if not passionate about social problems), a respect for the 'roots' of the genre but with added flourishes from all over (there's a big north african influence in a lot of stuff for example which makes it sound like Rai or Gnawa at times) and an over-arching traditional 'Chanson Francaise' influence on everything (which is what makes a lot of the melodies sound really identifiably French) - I dunno, it's just a total beast of its own and really unique and more people should know about it. so there. If you don't already like reggae there's probably nothing here for you.

1. Rasta Bigoud. Straight up great Reggae

2. Raspigaous. Politically charged, from Marseille so has a lot of African sounds throughout.

3. Danakil. Similar to Rasta Bigoud but very much more modern. This is what I'd say 80% of young reggae bands try to sound like. Their lyrics are really, dunno what the word is... aspirational maybe? The kind of stuff people will sing back at the band really devotedly.

4. Tryo This Band is pretty much the poster band for the reggae movement in France. I think their mix of traditional folk and reggae is great. They have legendary live performances which are on the youtubes and well worth a watch.

5. K2R Riddim They've been around for ages, their instrumental dub tracks are my favorites.

[ca_gere]

6. Dub Incorporation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjVZbciZ354

another hugely popular festival band. The 2nd guy's gruff voice takes a bit to get used to but fuck do they put on a good show. A solid representation of the mix of styles there is in the genre. (see his arabic singing around 5.35 and the jump into a knees up after)

7. Bale Bace Crew

Don't know much about this band other than this track. It was a real anthem for a while - it's just a 5 minute attack on Sarkozy, which I like.

8. Broussai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AukxtlfjuTM

This is just a lovely track IMO. Similar to Danakil, the guy has a really nice voice. 'Avec des mots' is a wonderful album

9. Billy Ze Kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tre19TNUwIo

Not strictly just reggae but i'm including this band because they represent what I see as a difference between music styles in the UK and France in the early 90s. Whilst in the UK the drug-influenced rave and jungle movements were going on this is the kind of band France was producing that the equivalent to our crusties latched onto. I don't profess to knowing much about that era (perhaps Giles's top tens will educate me) but I reckon comparable French music of the time was more on the reggae/rasta end of the hippy spectrum. Maybe because ecstasy didn't get as popular there? Psychedlic, silly, everything about taking mushrooms and doing cannabises.

10. Gnawa Diffusion

Possibly my favorite in the list. I guess you could call this 'world music' - huge mix of styles with arabic, french, english lyrics. It's just beautiful music… mayng.

[Teabags]

That French reggae is awesome.

I'm gonna see if I can think of ten "Christian" bands that I listen to.

[Chris]

Here's a top ten Folk/Trad from both sides of the Atlantic with a view to avoiding too much of the tartan and shortbread stuff:

Lau - I fucking love this band. Constantly evolving with each album and now about as far removed from trad as it's possible to get while still remaining a trad 3 piece.

Karine Polwart - Simply a superb songwriter.

Kelly Joe Phelps - Another chameleon who is different with every album. Started out playing in jazz bands then turned onto blues slide guitar, band leader, fingerpicking songwriter and now he's just done a gospel album.

Tim O'Brien - Bluegrass legend. Another brilliant songwriter

Lori Watson - Superb fiddler from the borders. I struggled to find a video which did her justice to be honest

[Chris]

Julie Fowlis - Just a beautiful voice. It doesn't matter that I can't understand a word that she's singing.

Session A9 - Fantastic live band. Stellar fiddles.

Dick Gaughan - I love how angry he sounds about everything and then he can come out with some real soul like Snows They Melt The Soonest. This is an angry one.

Rachel Sermani - Beautiful young songwriter. Part of this new folk scene that seems to be around just now. Made her name supporting Mumfords a few years ago but don't let that put you off.

Sarah Jarosz - I love this song. Brilliant American singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIEC9DSc3aw

[The Milner]

I decided to do a top 10 of music i would listen to with my old man when i was younger, my dad has been a huge influence on my musical taste and even to this day i love going home and sitting listening and talking about music with him. I used to love when my folk had parties as my dad is like me, he stays up late all the time, and his friends and my mum would always be off to bed early and although i was suppose to be in bed i would go through and sit down with him whilst he finished off a bottle of whiskey and worked his way through his big box of old cassettes. I decided to put it in a kind of order that he would put it on during the night.

He would usually start with stuff like this, 60/70's harmony bands,

I think this is probably one of his favourite songs of all time,

The Streamers were always a big fav,

This is a classic rock and roll song, i love this tune,

It would be about now id moan that he wasnt playing anything i really knew, so he would bring this classic out, i've always loved this song, we tried to cover it once with Stayover, but it was far too hard for us,

[The Milner]

He always used to put on some Shadows, and i never understood why he listened to a band with no vocals, i enjoy this far more now a days than i did back then,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY-rPDwzM9M

When i was a bit older i would start trying to force him to listen to my music, as the stuff i was listening too was "new" and he had never heard anything like it before, so id put on a Greenday song and he would come back with something like this,

The night would always, always, involve these guys, one of me and my dad's fav bands, i've seen these guys live more than any big band, they put on as good a live show as anyone in the world, so i've chosen two of their songs, this one that is not one of the hits as such, but its my all time fav, i also chose live versions for these guys as i love the sound live,

At this point it would usually be about 2am, he would be steaming, the music would be so loud we couldnt speak inbetween songs (their neighbours are actually deaf which has proved handy throughout the years) and this would inevitably be put on, as loud as the stereo would allow, look at the wall of Marshal amps on stage!!

By about now, my mum would be storming through to the living room absolutely livid that she had been woken up yet again by him and his loud music and he would completely blank her, probably too drunk to realise what was going on and we would more or less end the night with some ACDC, i chose this one as we do it with my cover band and its probably one of the most fun covers ive learned just because its a great 5/6 minute rock out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZZch5uDNks

[Guest E.C]

LOL Public access TV, 1984.

I'll stop now. Sorry. BACK TO OTHER LISTS! I might even do fastcore.

this video is one of my favourite videos of anything ever. it's absolutely top class.

[Guest Giles Walker]

I am not an expert on techno, but I know a bit about it and the socio-economic climate of the time. In the early 80s, due to the huge motor industry plants based there, Detroit was quite an affluent area. I am guessing that it is because of this that their music and fashion tastes were quite cosmopolitan, even at high school level. The high school party scene favoured quite an eclectic mix of synthy disco, italo disco, european industrial and synth-pop and lots of other weird and wonderful music. This will have been due to the radio stations in Detroit playing a lot of this music, the main proponent of this being the Electrifying Mojo. Records like Carol Williams – Can’t Get Away, Mr Flagio – Take A Chance, Kano – I’m Ready, Nitzer Ebb – Join In The Chant, Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams, The B52’s - Mesopotamia and Liasons Dangereuses – Peut Etre Pas were staples in radio and dj sets back then.

When the kids started making music, it was based on the stuff they were hearing on the radio, but reflected their location and background a lot of the time. A lot of the records I have chosen are produced by the holy trinity of Juan Atkins, Derrick May or Kevin Saunderson. The term ‘Techno’ was coined by these guys when they had to think of a name for a compilation, to distinguish a difference between what was happening in Detroit and the House scene that was emerging in Chicago at the time.

If you’re going to look further into this music, you should check out Carl Craig, Blake Baxter and Eddie Flashin Fowlkes, who I have left out of this list simply because I think that the three guys I have chosen were making the best music at that time.

1. A Number Of Names – Sharevari (1981)

This record was named after the high school parties called Charivari, where everybody would get dressed up in their fancy upmarket trendy clothes and dance to european electronic music. The lyrics talk of fancy clothes, bread/cheese/fine white wine, cars and they have even put on faux european accents. This was the arguably the first Detroit techno record to be pressed to vinyl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TccgyZVkonw

2. Cybotron – Alleys Of The Mind (1981)

This record was apparently recorded before ‘Sharivari’ but was pressed to vinyl afterwards. Arguably closer to the sound that we would regard as techno nowadays than ‘Sharivari’ which, you could say sounds closer to Italo Disco. Created by the production team of schoolboy Juan Atkins and Vietnam veteran Richard Davis, with a sci-fi vibe that makes it sound more futuristic.

3. Cybotron – Clear (1983)

This was meant to be a ‘Planet Rock’-esque record (Afrika Bambaataa’s tribute to Kraftwerk, that launched the ‘Electro’ sound) but ends up sounding both colder and funkier than it.

4. Model 500 – No UFO’s (Vocal) (1985)

Debut solo single from Juan Atkins, the vibe is still quite heavily routed in the euro electro pop sound at this point. Other singles by them to check out are the absolutely stunning ‘Night Drive (Thru Babylon)’ and ‘Cosmic Car’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiCEGXGm-z0

5. Rhythim Is Rhythim – Strings Of Life (1987)

Whilst ‘Clear’ had got quite a lot of milage through the Electro/Hip Hop scene, a lot of the Detroit records had largely gone under the radar. That trend ended after the 'Techno' compilation and this record, that ended up remaining in most djs record boxes for years afterwards and being a big tune on the early uk rave scene thanks to a reissue in 89. Apparently potential remixers had a hard time with this as Derrick May played it live in one take, so there are no multitracks. I first heard this on Kiss FM in around 1990 when my dad was picking up a car in London and it stuck in my head for years before I found out what it was called. Also released that year, and equally important are ‘Nude Photo’ and ‘The Dance’

[Guest Giles Walker]

6. Reese and Santonio – Rock To The Beat (1988)

Produced by Kevin Saunderson and Santonio Echols, this record was released on Pete Tong’s FFRR label. I have chosen it over ‘The Sound’ from the year before, simply because I think it continues the ‘High Tek Soul’ vibe of ‘Strings Of Life’ from the year before. ‘The Sound (Smooth Mix)’ and ‘Bounce Your Body To The Box’ are also songs to check out by this duo.

7. Rhythim Is Rhythim – It Is What It Is (1988)

I think I first heard this on a guest mix for the Pet Shop Boys’ Radio One show by the Manchester house act 808 State. Manages to sound both artificial and incredibly soulful, which is a common trait of this era of Detroit Techno.

8. Inner City – Big Fun (1988)

By this point Techno is charting over here in the UK and some of the producers are being flown over to do live PA’s and DJ gigs. I read that they were equally amused and disgusted by the drug culture of our clubs, which seemed to blow up between 1988 and 1989. This record is by Kevin Saunderson, with Paris Grey on vocals could be seen as a commercial peak for Detroit Techno. ‘Pennies From Heaven’ and ‘Good Life’ are worth checking out too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ymBHgsPb-Q

9. R-Tyme – Illusion (1989)

Produced by Derrick May and played quite a bit on the early rave scene over here. It is also worth checking out 'R-Theme' as well, it might actually be a bit better than this song on reflection.

10. Model 500 – Pick Up The Flow (1993)

The same year that 2 Unlimited sang “techno techno techno techno!” on Top Of The Pops, Juan Atkins released this spacey, futuristic electro techno classic. I feel a bit wary saying that music that is nearly twenty years old still sounds futuristic now, but I feel this kind of still does. 'The Chase' from 1989 is also another classic from him.

Obviously there are literally thousands of techno records out, and endless subgenres nowadays, which I am largely ignorant of. But I think this is a good taster of the early days, even if I have focussed on the more obvious songs of the genre. It made it a lot easier to compile and keep a thread running through it, whilst still sticking to the top ten format.

[Paranoid Android]

Fantastic post. Strings of Life and Big Fun are two big favourites of mine. Some stuff I'm not familiar with that I'll need to check out, particularly the earlier tracks you posted.

Getting into techno has been the biggest change in my musical taste of the last couple of years, there's just so much that it seems like it will be years before I no longer feel like a newbie to the genre.