#began cekic

[c-40]

A-T-3 309 Love Is The Message

Two versions of MFSB's Love Is The Message that were pressed to record in 1983

Love Is The Message is originally released in on the album of the same name in 1973 its 6m35, a single version is released with vocals by The Three Degrees. Some time after that Walter Gibbons makes an extended edit of the break, I've tried to find out for sure but to no avail because I get the impression this comes out before Tom Moulton's remix for the 1977 compilation Philadelphia Classics four-years after the original release, that's the 11m27s version (it's not by Larry Levan!) The Tom Moulton remix doesn't get released as a stand alone 12" single until 1979. In 1980 Shep Pettibone airs his Love Is The Message Mastermix and a year after that in 1981 TJ Swann records Get Fly a disco rap over a rerecord of Love Is The Message. Its 1982 Fred Zarr and Began Cekic release two rerecorded versions of Love Is The Message on his One Way label, one as Brooklyn Express mixed by Tee Scott and another under the Hi Tension name remixed by M+M (this had Tee Scott's Somewhere Beyond on the b-side), the M+M/Hi Tension version is rereleased in 1983 as Scratch Is The Message, guess what they've done!

1983 is the year we're interested in

Salsoul Orchestra - Ooh I Love It (Love Break)

This is the most interesting of the 1983 versions. It's mixed by Shep Pettibone who did his legendary Mastermix version in 1980. It's by the Salsoul Orchestra and not MFSB. The orchestras were on different labels but share many of the same players. It mixes MFSB's Love Is The Message with the Salsoul Orchestra's Chicago Bus Stop (Ooh I Love It) from their self-titled debut 1975 album. On paper this is a cover of Montana's Chicago Bus Stop rather than Gamble & Huff who wrote Love Is The Message but to the ears it's both in equal parts. Montana was the vibes player for MFSB, he also arranges and produces a track on the album Love Is The Message but leaves to form the Salsoul Orchestra in 1974. In 1982 the same year the Salsoul Orchestra disbands Vincent Montana Jr's new Montana Sextet releases Heavy Vibes which is already marrying the similarities of Love Is The Message with Chicago Bus Stop. Shep Pettibone's Ooh I Love It (Love Break) truly is a mastermix of the lot, this mix began it's own branch that would see Madonna and Shep Pettibone going to court over a sample in the pairs single Vogue.

The 12" has the classic Shep Pettibone mix on it, an instrumental workout more like Heavy Vibes but with a full orchestra called the Love Break Groove and the Love Break Version which has a male vocal chanting "lets take a love break" on it, it's this version that's on the 1994 Salsoul Orchestra Anthology

The talented vocalists on the classic version are Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson, and Evette Benton

High Voltage -  Love Is The Message (Scratch The Message)

Hi Voltage's 1982 re-record mixed by M+M with added scratches. You may have noticed scratches, raps, references to "breaks" were very hip in 1983. Anyway there are a few tricks on here that turn up on Mr.K's re-edit a few years later although I couldn't tell you if Shep Pettibone or Walter Gibbons had done things like loop Earl Young's drum fill. I wonder is DJs ever played this and pretended to scratch?

[tragicbooks]

Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate?

After being elected to the Danish parliament, Özlem Cekic—a Muslim immigrant to Denmark—began receiving hate mail. To counter it, she did the unexpected: she met her harrassers face to face.

(Image credit: Ryan Lash/TED)

[plusorminuscongress]

NPR News: Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate?

Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate? After being elected to the Danish parliament, Özlem Cekic—a Muslim immigrant to Denmark—began receiving hate mail. To counter it, she did the unexpected: she met her harrassers face to face. Read more on NPR

[williamchasterson]

NPR News: Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate?

NPR News: Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate?

Özlem Cekic: How Can Kindness Disarm Hate? After being elected to the Danish parliament, Özlem Cekic—a Muslim immigrant to Denmark—began receiving hate mail. To counter it, she did the unexpected: she met her harrassers face to face.

Read more on NPR

[citizenlayne]

After being elected to the Danish parliament, Özlem Cekic—a Muslim immigrant to Denmark—began receiving hate mail. To counter it, she did the unexpected: she met her harrassers face to face. https://n.pr/2RTIfFt

[asylum-ireland-blog]

Backlash as Danish minister says fasting Ramadan Muslims are safety hazard

New Post has been published on http://asylumireland.ml/backlash-as-danish-minister-says-fasting-ramadan-muslims-are-safety-hazard/

Backlash as Danish minister says fasting Ramadan Muslims are safety hazard

Claims by Denmark’s immigration minister that Muslims fasting for Ramadan pose a safety hazard in some jobs do not represent government policy, a spokeswoman has said.

Integration minister Inger Stoejberg is facing growing criticism over a blog post published on Monday.

It urged people observing a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting to take leave from work “to avoid negative consequences for the rest of Danish society”.

Karen Ellemann, chief whip of the Liberal Party, said on Tuesday that Mr Stoejberg’s remarks were not a formal proposal to change the law.

She added that her fellow party member “had the right to start this debate”.

Others within the party distanced themselves from the minister’s comments.

Senior Liberal Party member Jacob Jensen wrote on Facebook that “maybe we politicians should focus on finding solutions to the real problems first”.

He said: “I don’t agree with Inger Stoejberg,” adding that politicians should not interfere with employers’ internal affairs.

Other members of Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s government have criticised his immigration minister (Ronald Zak/AP)In her blog for tabloid BT, on Monday, Ms Stoejberg questioned how “commanding observance to a 1,400-year-old pillar of Islam” was compatible with modern labour markets.

She cited bus drivers as an example of workers whose performance could be negatively affected by foregoing food and drink.

Last week, millions of Muslims around the world began observing Ramadan, a holy month of intense prayer, fasting during daylight hours and nightly feasts.

Some 250,000 Muslims are estimated to live in Denmark, a country with a population of 5.7 million.

Ms Stoejberg’s remarks were met by a barrage of people saying she was wrong and lacked any basis for her claims.

Ozlem Cekic, a former politician with Denmark’s left-wing Socialist People’s Party, said her comments were “a sad way to start the Ramadan” and “contribute at digging deeper and deeper trenches” within the society.

Law student Tarik Ziad Hussein said Ms Stoejberg “assumes a lot” but has little knowledge of Islam and “reduces Muslims to being children who can’t think for themselves”.

Arriva, Denmark’s largest bus operator, has many Muslims employees among its 3,500-person workforce and said on Tuesday no problems have arisen during Ramadan.

The country’s largest trade union, the United Federation of Danish Workers, called Ms Stoejberg’s remarks “far out,” adding it had “never heard of a single case where the fasting has been a problem”.

Ms Stoejberg, a government member since June 2015, has spearheaded the tightening of asylum and immigration rules in recent years.

Denmark adopted a law in 2016 requiring newly arrived asylum-seekers to hand over valuables such jewellery and gold to help pay for their stays in the country.

Known for provocative stunts, she caused a stir last year by publishing a screen grab of the background image on her tablet — a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage among Muslims around the world in 2006.

Previously, Ms Stoejberg urged people to report pizza shop owners suspected of employing immigrants who entered the Scandinavian country illegally.

– Press Association

  , https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/backlash-as-danish-minister-says-fasting-ramadan-muslims-are-safety-hazard-844453.html

[desertwizards]

[c-40]

A-T-4 010 Madonna Madonna

Holiday peaks at number 6 on the UK singles chart on the 14th January 1984 (40-years this Sunday) and she appears on Top Of The Pops for the first time on January 26th 1984, the rest is herstory

Madonna had done a few dates in the UK in 1983, Mark Kamins' remix of Quango Quango's Love Tempo comes out of this. Mark Kamins was the resident DJ at Danceteria and is credited with 'discovering' Madonna. The eponymous first album is given to Reggie Lucas to produce after being turned down by Kashif. Lucas' recording career had begun as a member of Philadelphia's MFSB and playing fusion with the greats of the genre. Lucas then goes into production by the time Madonna comes along he has produced albums for Mtume, Phyllis Hyman, Stephanie Mills, and many others. With all the stories you hear about Madonna she has (had) a good ear and knows what she wants, in this case it was sparse arrangements little more than how the original demos sounded and this led to tensions between her and Reggie Lucas. After having developed seven songs with Madonna for the album Reggie Lucas walked away from the project and Madonna brought in her then boyfriend John "Jellybean" Benitez to remix the album. It was a good move, Benitez was resident DJ at the Fun House and he was producing and remixing some of the freshest electro from Kasso, Rockers Revenge, Warp 9, Jonzun Crew, and Hot Streak. Holiday was essentially performed by Hot Streak (an offshoot of the band Pure Energy) with Madonna taking up vocals, I wonder what was recorded first Holiday or Hot Streak's Body Work? Fred Zarr had worked with Benitez on Rockers Revenge and a Began Cekic project, it's Zarr who plays the keyboard riffs, after Holiday is a hit Benitez and Zarr start getting bigger and bigger jobs. I'll have to have a look because I think post-Madonna Jellybean's best work could be behind him, he becomes a celebrity remixer and he does a lot of remixes of so-so tracks. Gwen Guthrie and Norma Jean Wright are backing singers on Madonna's first album, it's tragic innit both are much better singers than Madonna

Holiday. If you watch her performance of Holiday on Top Of The Pops (or the video for Lucky Star which has a very similar performance) I never knew that's Madonna's brother dancing on the left. He wrote a book about their relationship. If one of my siblings became mega famous I'd do the same. I'm sure I read Holiday was inspired by Change's A Lover's Holiday, it does have similarities such as the lyrics Holiday and Celebrate and it's certainly a record they all would have been aware of

Reggie Lucas wrote Borderline for Madonna's first album. You can hear Lucas's work with Phyllis Hyman and Stephanie Mills in this track. Borderline was her first top 10 in the US. In the UK Borderline gets rereleased in 1986 to keep Madonnamania going, it gets to number 2, the rerelease has the same versions on it as the 1984 version

Borderline (US Remix) by John "Jellybean" Benitez

Burning Up was written by Madonna and one of the three tracks on her original demo cassette it was released as her second single a double A side with Physical Attraction (below) which did well on the US Dance Chart but failed to get into the Hot 100. On Madonna's debut album Burning Up gets replaced with a shorter version with more guitar from the second press of the album

Burning Up

Physical Attraction is another Reggie Lucas track

I can't leave out Lucky Star

Lucky Star is also written by Madonna, to me it's a straight up disco track like something that might come out on Prelude or West End in 1983/84.

[c-40]

A-T-2 303 BC Records/One Way Productions

BC Records and its sub label One Way Records owned by Began Cekic, they put out mostly covers and medleys often with the help of Fred Zarr and Tee Scott. Their best known release is probably Sixty-Nine/Change Position 88 by Brooklyn Express which was originally released in 1981

Began Cekic's DJ friendly party tracks were nothing if not formulaic, all studio assemblages, all re-records of hits by other artists, all beefed up thanks to Tee Scott's mixing, editing, and overdubbing skills

I've posted a Brooklyn Express record already, their killer cover of Girl You Need A Change Of Mind (A-T-2 112) This is a standalone track on the the b side but also begins Back In Time the almost 14 minute medley on the a side of the 12" single. You can hear the Eddie Kendricks cove at the beginning of the edit below before the band expertly move onto a cover of the Fatback Band's Bus Stop and finish with the break from Cymande's Bra. From Bus Stop onward this medley is sometimes called Back In Time Pt.2 and it's edited into a 7 minute stand alone track on their 1982 debut album. A little confusing, I know

Brooklyn Express - Back In Time

Tee Scott is prolific in 1982 and at some point stops working on the Brooklyn Express project and you can tell. Before that though the same team release Let's Get Horny under the name Hi-Voltage, which breaks into Dan Hartman's Relight My Fire. Then there are the straighter cover versions like Peter Brown's Easy Life covered by Leo Carrier's disco project New Paradise

New Paradise - Easy Life

Dõlette McDonald covers Atmosphere's Xtra Special and it becomes a hit in the US. Tee Scott isn't mentioned as mixing this one

Dõlette McDonald - (Xtra) Special 

Brooklyn Express percussionist (and much more) Bashiri Johnson co-writes a rare original track with Began Cekic. It's remixed by Jellybean and is fine bit of early hip hop/electro. Began Cekic always the magpie The Champ organ line is played throughout. Cekic's music is transitioning to synths in 1982, you can hear this beginning with Brooklyn Express's Witness The Change etc medley Burning Hot

Began Began - Stay In Touch (Instrumental)

Began Cekic released a lot more in 1982, including Shine Your Light by The Graingers the instrumental of which is pretty nice, the above are my favourites though