#old school electronic music

[secretmeaningofthings]

YouTube: https://youtu.be/tflovGKrQ6E Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/voxsinistra/old-school-electronic-music Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/VoxSinistra/old-school-electronic-music-11302021/ BPM AM - Come To Me (Vocal Version) Philadelphia-Five - BongaWalk (Mix II) Nitzer Ebb - Let Your Body Learn (Instrumental Version) Die Form - Sadia (remix) Technoid - Technoid PLB System - Just Like This (Dance Mix) House Boys - Touch My Lips Actual Guy - Acid Emotion (European Acid Mix) Psyche - Angel Lies Sleeping Cybotron - Cosmic Cars (Instrumental) Axodry - Loosing You Blancmange - Don't Tell Me (Dance Mix) Elegant Machinery - Hard To Handle The Lords of the New Beat - Back in the Jungle Index - Give Me A Sign Robotiko Rejekto - Injection (Extraterrestrial Edit) Science Lab - Flesh & Blood The Final Cut - I Told You Not To Stop Nail - Cassiopeia

[possible-streetwear]

[yellowmanula]

I've been commissioned to write 20,000 characters on RAVE for a widely distributed mainstream magazine, basically an introduction for newcomers. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. The truth is, I’d love to just rant about all the issues that everyone keeps diagnosing but nothing ever changes:

The shift of culture into a strictly business model

The absence of artistic managers in clubs

Competition over collaboration (or collaboration limited to tight-knit interest groups)

Increasing commercialization

The looming shadow of yet another economic crash, closing the cycle

Clubs dumping the responsibility for attendance solely on the collectives throwing the parties (a lazy and crude post-COVID tactic)

A total lack of respect for music in favor of catering to a mediocre audience (by mediocre, I mean those without any musical awareness), so long as the drinks keep flowing

Escalating hedonism and TikTok-ification

The loss of the old-school approach (aspiring DJs used to put in years of work to learn the craft; now it’s all about “average but loyal”)

An obsession with pointless popularity contests and awards

Sectarianism over quality and freshness

Honestly, I had to take a step back because all these factors have really shaken my belief in the value of engaging with the broader rave scene. I’m using this break to reconnect with the original ideals, refresh my knowledge, and seek alternatives.

I think I’ll focus on encouraging readers to maintain high standards, choose their events mindfully, avoid chasing trends, and be guided by their authentic reactions to music—the kind that, for me, used to create incredible experiences at parties, where smoke and strobe lights offered an escape from the toxic world outside.

It’s no surprise that my friends are losing interest in going out when the toxicity they’re trying to escape is staring them down in four walls marked with the empty and overused slogan of PLUR.

[coco-crimson]

The Invincible Spirit - Push!

[randomvarious]

Snap! - "The Power" 1990 Eurodance / Eurohouse / House / Hip Hop / Hip-House

OK, folks, strap in, because we're about to dive *deep* into a *very* convoluted history behind this legendary Eurodance-hip-house classic that most people, I'm willing to bet, are actually completely unaware of. German dance group Snap!'s momentous debut single, "The Power," may have set the world aflame in 1990, but the version that you're probably most familiar with isn't actually the initial iteration of this spacious jam 😯.

The first ever version of "The Power" was released in 1989 in Europe, on Logic Records, the Frankfurt-based label that was founded and owned by Snap!'s own two producers, Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. And the biggest difference between this rendition and the one that you've likely come to know and hopefully love over the past three-plus decades is that every single lyric on the original was actually sampled, including the rapping.

Those lines happen to come courtesy of an a cappella version of rapper Chill Rob G's song, "Let the Words Flow," which appeared on the B-side of his 1989 12-inch, The Court Is Now In Session. And the bits of addled sax that were used in "The Power" were also lifted from the full version of that song too, which appears on that same 12-inch, as well as Chill Rob G's overlooked, classic-in-hindsight 1989 LP, Ride the Rhythm. But Snap! never asked permission from either Rob himself or his label, Wild Pitch Records, to use any of his music.

But Wild Pitch doesn't actually seem to have really minded the unauthorized use of their songs. Owner Stu Fine even wanted to release "The Power" Stateside, and seeing how successfully it had managed to perform in both Germany and the UK, Chill Rob G thought it'd be beneficial to his own career too. So, on March 5, 1990, Wild Pitch released "The Power," which seems to have been the same exact version as the previous one, but rather than being credited to Snap!, the artist was listed as Power Jam featuring Chill Rob G instead; and somewhat inexplicably, although hip hop legend Mark the 45 King had produced every song on Ride the Rhythm, the production credit for this release of "The Power" was given to him too 🤷‍♂️.

But a much bigger label than Wild Pitch, Arista Records, also wanted in on some of this action as well. And for legal reasons that I'm not really able to fully comprehend, they were barred from releasing the same exact song on their own label in the US, so they decided to just have it re-recorded instead. And this is where the version of "The Power" that you're most familiar with comes from. The sampled Chill Rob G verses were replaced with the intimidatingly deep, clogged-sinus bellows of frontman-rapper Turbo B, and other brand new additional vocal wrinkles, like the "he will break my heart, he will break my heart of hearts" portions, which were inspired by Chaka Khan's 1978 song, "Some Love," were supplied by singer Penny Ford. But not all of Chill Rob G's lines were erased from this new version either; the famous refrain of "it's gettin' kinda hectic" managed to stay, even though it would be mouthed by Turbo B in the music video.

However, the funniest part of all of this is that Turbo B, who wasn't even in Snap! when they first released "The Power" in 1989, still warns everyone in one of his verses that they better not try to steal *his* words—which is exactly what Snap! did to Chill Rob G—or there will be some serious hell to pay! 😂

Copy-written lyrics, so they can't be stolen If they are, "Snap!", don't need the police To try to save them, your voice will cease So peace, stay off my back Or I will attack, and you don't want that

So, while Wild Pitch and Chill Rob G tried to capitalize on "The Power" with their own US release of it, just a few weeks later, Arista would drop their own re-recorded version of it in the States too, and then that one would fully succeed as the most popular version in the world.

Now, something else that you may have never realized about this song is that, although in the music video Penny Ford appears to be the one who's singing the song's most iconic line, "I've got the power," those are not actually her vocals. From jump, that line was sampled, and it belongs to an a cappella version of Jocelyn Brown's terrific mid-80s post-disco tune, "Love's Gonna Get You," which Snap! also wasn't first authorized to use either. And to go just a little bit off-topic here with another fun fact: another super popular early 90s dance classic, Bizarre Inc's "I'm Gonna Get You," also uses lines from that same song too; "Why waste your time? You know you're gonna be mine" and "I'm gonna get you, baby, I'm gonna get you, yes I am!" originate from that very same track. But rather than sampling the song, Bizarre Inc just had those lines re-sung by soul vocalist Angie Brown instead.

Anyway, to add more to this already pretty tangled web here, Chill Rob G also shot his own video for "The Power" too, which, again, was just the same song that Snap! had originally released in 1989 and then Wild Pitch had released as their own. So, absurdly, you get to see Rob rap the *same exact* small verse two times in a row, because those are some of the only lines that Snap! actually sampled from his own "Let the Words Flow" 😅. And that video also uses a different woman to mouth Jocelyn Brown's "I've got the power" line too!

And in addition to that, all future re-pressings of Rob's Ride the Rhythm *also* included "The Power" as well, starting in 1990. But *that* version was also *different* from every other version that had been released prior too! And *this* version replaced the Jocelyn Brown sample with vocals by someone named Kim Davis, who sounded *nothing* like Brown. And other than some additional lyrics from Davis, the song was almost the same as Snap!'s original version, but not quite, so an additional production credit was given to someone named Nephie Centeno too.

Now, to go back to literally any of the versions of this song that have been released, they are all anchored by another classic sample that Snap! also didn't receive permission to use at first: Mantronix's brilliant piece of 1988 hip hop-breaks, "King of the Beats," which gives "The Power" all of its great and constantly ring-jing-jinging bells. But Mantronix actually sampled those bells from something else, a 1975 song by smooth jazz keyboardist Bob James called "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," which is an instrumental cover of a song from 1973 of the same name that was originally released by Paul Simon. And those bells from that Bob James song can be heard in a whole bunch of other tunes too, including Run-D.M.C.'s "Peter Piper," the end of Missy Elliott's "Work It," a fantastic early 2000s Bad Boy Records remix of pop group Dream's "This Is Me," Boys Noize's "Rock the Bells," and so many other songs.

And for someone like me who can really never get enough of those Bob James bells, I really appreciate the person who edited and lengthened this video for "The Power" here, in order to have it match the long, eight-plus-minute extended re-recorded 12" version that stars Turbo B and Penny Ford.

So now you know pretty much everything that there is to know about this late 80s-early 90s dance classic. And when it comes to a lot of these Eurodancy jock jams that I've been posting a lot more of recently, I happen to love them in a bit of an ironic and rose-tinted, nostalgic kind of way; but "The Power" is one that I know, for a fact, I would still love, even if it was just some obscure song that I'd just discovered recently instead. It's much chiller than a lot of the other more maximalist and intense commercial dance fare that was out at around that same time, and I think it's a genuinely brilliant tune. So, hopefully this thorough post has helped you develop a deeper appreciation for it too 😊.

More fun videos here.

[mist-spectra]

The next Humanfobia EP will be out next thursday in exclusive via Vertigo Cult label. Label for witch house and related music. send submissions at: vertigocultrecords@gmail.com // check out his pages: https://vertigocult.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/vertigocult https://www.instagram.com/vertigo_cult/ https://vertigocult.tumblr.com/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558668681685

[shisasan]

FRONTAL - Wir sind wir

[omegaremix]

Infinity Records, 2022.

Here’s some wonderful news from Infinity Records: they just received a a copy of Les Rallize Denudes’ Cable Hogue Soundtrack. Everyone knows the lore of this once-obscure mind-blowing Japanese psych / garage band. The majority of their discography is loaded with unofficial bootlegs and very few official releases which I can only count on one hand. How often is it that I come across their records? Never. I did, however, come across their post on social media about it seven days after the fact. A drive out to Massapequa was in the cards, and seeing that LP up for sale meant it would be a fun game of ‘winner-winner-sushi-dinner or too-bad-so-sad’. So did I win? You’ll see sooner than later.

Every one of the island’s record stores closed during the pandemic. Fortunately, they all survived and are still going. It was only Infinity that was in dire straits. They were in danger of losing their store as they were behind on rent. Their landlord wasn’t too forgiving (that’s never a character trait of theirs), so they set up a GoFundMe to keep it going. They only managed to raise $7,272.00 out of $12,000.00 they wanted. No one knows how they did when they came up short. All that matters is that they’re still here.

I walk in and that bell rings. I see at least 15 different people shopping in Infinity’s bins; the busiest I’ve ever seen it. It’s still their old rundown, disorganized, shabby self. It’s just as ‘lost’ like Brooklyn’s Academy but only larger and they could be related in ugliness and unkempt. You can find plenty of empty bins, piles of records, and unmarked stacks of boxes packed with loads of what-the-fuck-is-it. Deteriorating paper and the smell of old cardboard, dust, and decades-old wood permeate the store with a smell that I can’t pinpoint what year it originates from. It’s the scent that attracts older, loose-skinned men in stained clothing. But I do like coming here as they’re one of the least-expensive places selling music. 99¢ classical records, their $2.76 LP bins, $4.00 CDs, and reasonable prices on used vinyl; making it a great location that offers a lot of bang for the buck. Plus, everywhere you turn, there’s always vintage turntables, receivers, and stereo equipment stacked on top of each other to be found.

Cassettes are still plentiful in this day and age and are considered the cheapest and most cumbersome format to buy. They had two racks of tapes on each side of the store. About 500-600 shells on the wall with the usual pre-handled residue and smudges on its shells. So how many did I pick out? Zero. No hip-hop but what I saw was plenty of Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties pop, jazz, movie soundtracks, classical compilations, greatest hits, and and best-of’s I had no interest in taking.

Some of their best bins were the new used arrivals. Give them a few stars for carrying some rare jazz, folk, psych-, and private pressings I’ve never seen before. Want mid-Oughts indie and hipster LP’s like The Hives, MGMT, and and LCD Soundsystem for no more than $20.00 a pressing? They have plenty of that, too. Knowing me, I wouldn’t throw down that amount of money to own a title unless if it was absolutely necessary. It usually isn’t when there’s a physically unmeasurable sliver of hope that you’ll find it somewhere else for less - which has happened before.

I’d head on over to see the jazz / fusion stock. Of all genres I look for, it’s the most consistent, thrifty, and easiest to stock up on. Starting off, I picked Spyro Gyra’s Morning Dance thanks to John Tropea and a few appearances of Suzzane Ciani. Ask me how many times this year I picked up a Deodato album? Infinity had two of them: First Cuckoo and Very Together with Tropea (again) and Steve Gadd. David Sanborn’s Taking Off also have Steve Gadd but traded in John Tropea for Steve Khan. On a whole separate note, Hubert Laws’ Family featured an all-star line-up of his sister Debra, Bobby Lyle, Earl Klugh, and Chick Corea. I nailed my first Gary Bartz LP and got my hands on Richie Cole’s Keeper Of The Flame featuring Vic Juris and Terry Silverlight. I also copped (The Best Of) Jon Lucien, a familiar format released on Columbia where they give a greatest hits compilation to their best artists.

I know from previous visits that the bargain bin of poppy’s basement collection, Jello party, and The Best Of Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits had nothing for me. What I didn’t do last time was surge through their 12” singles section. Now’s the time to redeem myself. It was a joker’s wild of selections mixed with my Atari childhood, golden era hip-hop, old-school hip-hop, and even peak-hipster era. There was a Black Dice 12” featuring tracks from Load Blown never issued on vinyl (a sampler, maybe?), and both Lovebug Starski and a Sugarhill Gang 12” still keep the classic old-school hip-hop quotient going.

Towards the right side of the store were their used CD bins. Like a badly-played game of keno, it was all great stuff for the majority that wasn’t appealing to me. There had to be 30 to 40 columns of stock and I only found three to my liking. The Raveonettes’ In And Out Of Control and Metallica’s Garage Inc. that was part of the Selden-era (community college). I was surprised to find a Sacred Bones in the mix: Zola Jesus’ Versions. How many more -Bones releases must I have? The answer: never enough!

4PM approached and the customer count dropped dramatically. There wasn’t the crowd of three who hawkeyed the five-wide new vinyl arrivals section as before. It was all mine as I was concerned. Again, I didn’t care to spend full price on a new vinyl LP, but there were plenty of lower-priced ones I could be looking for. The diamond of the day was finding a copy of Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch, theirfirst-ever release of theirs. Only two 12” pressings were made and I happened to get a bootleg copy, but the $15.00 asking price was reasonably fair. That LP alone would be the most expensive purchase of the entire day.

**********

Oh, yeah…about that Les Rallize Denudes record. I kept an eye out for it but never popped up in my sights. For the avoidance of all doubt, I showed their post to one of their own who worked there and asked if they saw it. So far, no luck. They did ask me if I looked at the vinyl records on the wall, which I said “no, not yet”. They took a quick glance but they didn’t recognize it and suggested that I comb through the new arrivals section again. I did a second look-through but I still didn’t see it. I assumed someone else got to it before I did, you vicious bastard whoever you are.

I never ever seen a Les Rallize Denudes release in the wild. Those are incredibly scarce outside of Japan. They’re one of those bands of lore which myth became a verified legend because of the internet. I bet that once people discovered them that they started grabbing whatever they could find of theirs. Demand has exceeded supply in their case; more than enough that there couldn’t possibly be anyone else besides myself on this ignoramus island I live on who knows them. Apparently there was. I could imagine that Les Rallize Denudes record didn’t even last a day in the store. Only right before closing was when I was informed by them that someone else did grab it, according to their other co-workers on the phone.

I had only a few minutes to thumb through the small 7” / 45’s bins and came across lots of blank-sleeved singles. No hardcore, no punk, nothing. By then it’s already 5PM. I didn’t have enough time to go through the other larger 7” bins and didn’t even think to thumb through their $2.76 records. I declare myself done and cash out. I didn’t know anyone working there on a first-name basis, nor the kinder older gentleman who tallied up all the things I purchased, but at least he was nice to me and not an arrogant pretentious spiteful scumbag which is considered garden variety on the island. This year’s visit cost me $105.00 and change, which was give or take $2.00 away from my last visit’s purchase. It could’ve been more if I captured that Les Rallize Denude LP. Imagine how proud I might’ve felt if I did. I hand him my card, ran everything through, and I was all good to go.

Then I remembered one more thing: Infinity always has a small candy dish filled with Hershey’s miniatures, Jolly Ranchers, M&M’s, Dum-Dums, and other colorful jollies. No store on the island has one. I look down at the dish to take a piece and there were no more chocolates but plenty of Dum-Dums for the taking. One of their regulars ate all the chocolates before I got to them but I at least got myself a free Infinity badge. Look who’s going to be a little hungry on the way home?

Black Dice: Load Blown 12”sampler

Buzzcocks: Spiral Scratch 12″ EP

Deodato: Very Together LP

Jon Lucien: The Best Of… LP

David Sanborn: Taking Off LP

Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance LP

Hubert Laws: Family LP

Gary Bartz: Love Affair LP

Richie Cole: Keeper Of The Flame LP

George Benson: Blue Benson LP

Deodato: First Cuckoo LP

Lovebug Starski: “House Rocker” 12″

Robert Palmer: “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” 12″

Lou Reed: “No Money Down” 12″

Sugarhill Gang: “Sugarhill Groove” b/w “8th Wonder” 12″

Father MC: “Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright” 12″

Billy Ocean: “Carribean Queen” 12″

Raveonettes, The: In And Out Of Control CD

Metallica: Garage Inc. CD

Zola Jesus: Versions CD

[tsukumo-nya]

My synthwave cover of the Lupin III theme song is now on YouTube & SoundCloud!!!

Also, on YouTube I made an AMV to go along with the song! ✌

Please check it out!✨

🎵 YouTube

🎧 SoundCloud

[angelspitmusic]

#BANDCAMPFRIDAY FREE DOWNLOAD CARBON BEAUTY (turns 12!) Hideous and Perfect Remix album. 10 remixes, 3 NEW Angelspit tracks

[possible-streetwear]

[cuartoretorno]

dj tiesto - trance energy x -2000

[randomvarious]

Technotronic - "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)" 1990 Eurodance / Hip-House / Eurohouse / New Beat

When Belgian project Technotronic first stormed onto the global dance scene in 1989 with their all-time classic debut single, "Pump Up the Jam," it legitimately became the single-biggest song in the entire world. And the sudden star of the group happened to be a beautiful Congolese model named Felly, who naturally shined in the music video, performed the song on TV multiple times, and was exclusively featured in the art for both the single and its corresponding album too.

But as the world would soon find out, all of this actually turned out to be an enormous ruse. Felly was *not* the singer-rapper of Technotronic that everyone was tricked into believing she was. She actually had nothing to do with the making of the group's music at all and apparently didn't even speak English either! And whenever she performed "Pump Up the Jam," all she did was just lip-sync the words! 😲

So, who was Technotronic's lead vocalist then? Another Congolese-born person: a mere teenager named Ya Kid K, who seemed to possess this uncanny ability to both rap and sing effortlessly in this assertively cool, deep, distinct, velvety-smooth, and magnetically thick New York-sounding accent. She wasn't the most technically skilled rapper out there by any means, but as someone who served as a sort of cross between fitness tape instructor and narrator of catchy contemporary tracks that had been inspired by 1960s dance craze tunes, Ya Kid K was unparalleled. No one else in the world seemed to have a voice that was quite like hers and her mic presence was spectacular.

So then why did they initially try to hide her? Well, Ya Kid K didn't want to sign a contract with ARS Records, the label that was intent on releasing "Pump Up the Jam" and shooting a video for it, and she was already signed to Technotronic leader and producer Jo Bogaert's own record company anyway. In fact, the initial pressing of "Pump Up the Jam," before it ever even broke big, was released on his Sound 89 label, and Ya Kid K was actually credited. But Bogaert wanted to make the record much bigger, and ARS was apparently capable of helping him do that.

But when Ya Kid K refused to sign that contract, what she didn't seem to be aware of is that ARS was then going to recruit someone else to pump up the jam. And when she found out that her own record was in the shops, with some other woman featured on the cover, she was not happy about it, to say the least.

Now, you also have to keep in mind that Technotronic exploded right at the time when lip-syncing was seen as this totally scandalous act of purely unconscionable inauthenticity. It *ended* Milli Vanilli's career and Italo-dance project Black Box caught a whole lot of flak for it too. So when people finally managed to actually catch on to Technotronic's game, Ya Kid K rightfully and immediately became the face of the group, and then Felly was cast out to the sidelines. And in 1990, Ya Kid K would front Technotronic as the opening act on Madonna's own Blonde Ambition tour.

So, this super fun video here for the group's second single, "Get Up (Before the Night Is Over)," is the one that really marked Ya Kid K's official introduction to the world as the person who truthfully possessed Technotronic's captivatingly golden voice. And she comfortably rocked a wholly different look than Felly's too, by decking herself out in a rotating wardrobe of baggy hip hop clothes, while also covering her short, cornrowed hair with an alternating pair of backwards snapbacks. Felly's presence as the group's original frontwoman had clearly been a boon to Technotronic, and she also still appeared in this particular video by mouthing Ya Kid K's multitracked "before the night is over line" too, but this full package that finally matched Ya Kid K's voice to her own genuinely infectious tomboy swagger was simply unbeatable.

And rather than Technotronic flailing to stay relevant after they'd inevitably found themselves caught up in such an embarrassing fiasco, "Get Up (Before the Night Is Over)" ended up succeeding as an excellent follow-up to their previous era-defining smash, landing itself in the top ten across the entire globe, including #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the US Dance Play chart as well.

The group's magic would virtually run out by the dawn of the mid-90s, but at least Ya Kid K got a couple years to really bask in a moment that she had been so clearly deserving of all along. It was unfortunate that "Pump Up the Jam" had left her out of the spotlight, but we also don't know if that record would have succeeded as well as it did without Felly either. However, with such a momentous hit then under their belts, Technotronic no longer had to sell that faux image that had helped them become famous in the first place; the people had clearly fallen in love with their tunes, and they were now free to be themselves.

More fun videos here.