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shineiidawn · 2 months ago

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Pre-digital, sampling has been fundamental in the production of dance music in its many forms. There are some pieces of music that have formed the foundation of literally thousands of other songs. There are Jamaican riddims, Soul and Funk breaks and Disco acapellas that are reused endlessly. These pieces of music create a direct connection between the newer piece of music to the origins of its genre. The New York producer and DJ Todd Terry has frequently reused beats and riffs on both his own tracks and his remixes of others. Shine II Dawn from his Unreleased Project E.P from 1992 is pretty much a dub of his seminal 'Melody' remix of PM Dawn's A Watcher's Point of View (Don't Cha Think) from 1991. He also released Shadow's Dawn on The Unreleased Project 2, which uses a different arrangement of the same elements while throwing in some manually (?) gated Uranium from Kraftwerk 'aaaahs' (as heard on Blue Monday) to keep things interesting. To my knowledge the he managed to squeeze 4 tracks out of Watchers Point of View for The Unreleased Project 12"s released between '92 and '93, besides using the drum pattern on several more tracks. I like to think that his no nonsense approach to production and studio time meant that they were put together during the same session. They are:

Shine II Dawn - The Unreleased Project Put Your Hands Together - The Unreleased Project Part 2 Shadow's Dawn - The Unreleased Project Part 2 On and On Again - The Unreleased Project Part 4 PM Dawn became friends with Todd Terry while working at the mailing offices of New York's hugely influential record label Warlock, which launched Todd's career. PM Dawn were signed briefly to the label before moving to Gee Street Records, Warlock's partners in the UK. Gee Street were there at the cusp of the Acid House explosion and would famously go on to release one of the definitive tracks of the UK scene, Todd's game changer of a remix for The Jungle Brother's - I'll House You. in 1988, I'll House You is basically the Brothers rapping over an earlier Todd Terry track Royal House's Can You Party?, albeit rearranged a little.

PM Dawn's Watcher's Point of View single came off the back of their massive hit Set Adrift On Memory Bliss. Leaning heavily on a sample from Spandau Ballet's True, the song was looked down on by most "real" Hip Hop fans despite it's otherwise more credible samples from The Soul Searchers and Bob James. With their "Beautiful, sweeping melodies paired with lyrics of regret, remorse, heartache and profound loss" you can make up your own minds why they never fit comfortably into the Hip Hop scene. Their story, and in particular that of their front man Prince Be, is both fascinating and tragic. I'd be lying if I said I'd given them much thought at the time of Set Adrift… and wrote them off as a something of a novelty act, a kind of uncool De La. I'm only half joking when I say that I blame the Spandau Ballet sample for turning me off. True was considered naff and inextricably connected to a not too distant past that recalled shiny disco trousers, white socks and loafers, slow dances at the end of the night (or "erection sections" as some of us called them) and a fight in the taxi rank afterwards. And shit music. Really shit music. True was new but sounded old, Soul without the soul. Additionally, to anyone with a mild interest in Hip Hop, The Soul Searchers drum break used on the PM Dawn track was also overused by that point, as was Bob James' Take Me To The Mardi Gras.

In 1991 I was listening to albums like Fear of a Black Planet and The Low End Theory. Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad melded layer upon layer of samples together, creating dense and abrasive slabs of noise while A Tribe Called Quest were rhyming over dusty Jazz and gritty Funk samples and breaks. This music was sonically a long way from anything I'd heard before, and despite both borrowing heavily from the past, this sounded like the future. It's a tired old story, but many of my generation who were into Hip Hop were swept up in the Acid House scene and it wasn't too much of a leap from the more experimental Hip Hop to breakbeat led rave that developed a little later. You could argue that the Hardcore sound was a representation of both of the Public Enemy and Tribe approaches, plus a big dollop of sound system culture and a pop sensibility. Just not Spandau Ballet-type Pop.

Set Adrift On Memory Bliss was a huge hit, reaching number one and three in the US and UK charts respectively, and was the first black rap single to reach number one on the pop charts, much to the "real" rappers disgust. Despite critical acclaim and commercial success, (although not necessarily at the same time) the duo slowly slid into obscurity and split. Prince Be died of kidney disease caused by complications of diabetes at the age of 46.

The PM Dawn Melody Mix is one of Todd "The God" Terry's many big remixes of the early 90s. I can clearly remember Pete Tong introducing the track on his Essential Selection with the words: "Todd Terry. Back on form." The acapella introduces the track part of which is the source of a tiny vocal snippet that runs through the whole thing. The acapella is accompanied by heavy and ominous pads that drop out suddenly before an extremely crispy drum pattern begins. A bouncy synth melody fades in under it all before everything is thrown into the mix with rave stabs and an undulating bass line and everything keeps moving until the breakdowns. Then, different elements are dropped out before bringing everything back to a crescendo with the trademark Todd snares. Simple but powerful and dynamic, this track used to ruin dance floors.

A track from 1991 I always associate with Todd's PM Dawn remix is TC 1991 - Berry. TC 1991 were one of the many aliases of Italian House chaps FPI Project, who have an insane amount of releases under their collective belt, under numerous aliases. FPI stands for Fratty Presti Intrallazzi, the surnames of the original members of the collective but the group used the TC name (and others) to enable them to release more underground music without the association of the commercially huge hits they'd produced as the FPI Project.

TC originally stood for Tina Chris a mix of Cristina (Malvestiti) who was a vocalist on FPI's first singles, but this was later changed to Total Control. TC was used on a series of big hitters, with TC 1991's Berry and TC 1992 - Funky Guitar in particular having a huge impact on UK dancefloors, landing at a perfect time when guitars and a rock music element was turning up in some tracks, along with a Rock 'n' Roll aesthetic becoming popular in clubland fashion. Somehow, leather trousers in a sweaty club seemed like a good idea.

With Italian made records not selling well in their native country, the group sent copies to the UK and then had them re-imported as if they were foreign productions. The rear cover of the original release features the phrase "Hey papa, guarda… un pollo!" Hey daddy look… a chicken! which is taken from a Knorr chicken stock cube TV advert. I've failed to understand the reference. Hopefully, I'll find a middle aged Italian that could explain it to me.

TC 1992 was licensed to R & S, ZYX and Union City Recordings in the UK, getting the trademark Justin Robertson/Lionrock remix treatment with triumphant trumpets galore but the FPI Funky Mix still sounds fantastic, replete with its dubby drum workout.

"Hey papa, guarda… un pollo!"

Back to Berry. Introduced dramatically with the crash of a gong, Berry wastes no time in getting going with some galloping beats before a snare break not unlike Watcher's unleashes the elastic, bass line led riff. The riff is basically Bizarre Incs Technological, while that itself isn't too far away from the classic Mr Fingers Can You Feel It. They all use a Roland 909 and Juno-60, I've been reliably informed by the internet. This clever chap breaks down how Can You Feel It was made.

Like the Melody Mix of Watchers Point Of View, Berry builds everything up to a peak, drops everything out, then brings everything crashing back in again. Both owe something to the early style of Hip Hop DJing in that respect, the technology and music of the time only really enabling DJs to cut in beats and breaks rather than achieving long blends. The beauty of this type of mixing is it creates a powerful and dynamic effect. Todd Terry, who famously reinvented House music for a bit of a laugh, was DJing and producing Hip Hop and Freestyle way before the Can You Party era and brought those influences to how he made House tracks. From the man himself: "Do a really hot minute-and-a half/two minutes and just loop it three times." Just like that.

"Do a really hot minute-and-a half/two minutes and just loop it three times."

Todd has always been upfront about reusing beats while also showing no contrition for playing DJ sets that predominantly feature his own music. And why should he? I don't doubt the NY hustler in him has something to do with this approach, along with releasing and rereleasing tracks using multiple aliases on many different labels. In the context of Watchers Point of View, he's still getting mileage out of the track 30+ years later, just recently releasing a remastered version of Put Your Hands Together. I wonder what Prince Be would make of it. On the subject of reusing beats and pieces, PM Dawn had sampled Todd Terry's moody (and underrated) I Love The Way You Shake under his Frontline monicker on their Hip Houser Shake, with Prince Be imploring everyone to "thank Todd Terry" in the final bars. That refrain later turned up on Irish outfit Sound Crowd's Touched By The Hand of Todd. I won't link to that because the first track on The Public Image EP that it appears on: The Acid Garage, is arguably more of a celebration of Todd Terry as it has the same kind of driving bass line, signature choppy percussion and tearing snare breaks as many of his tracks.

"Everyone thank Todd Terry"

Very similar to the use of riddims in Jamaican dancehall, the examples of reuse are endless. The infectious keys from Jazz Anthem, released in 1991 were reused three years later on Bounce To The Beat. In 1994, Grant Nelson and Si Firmin's G.O.D alias released the first of their 'Limited' run of 12"s. These took huge liberties by chopping up and repackaging classic House tracks to great effect. One of these tracks was Todd Terry's Bounce To the Beat. G.O.D's version begins with tribal drum intro before launching into a barely altered original. Taking it full circle, Todd Terry later released Sound Design – Back From The Dead EP which featured Bounce To The Beat (Remix). This is exactly the same as the G.O.D version, minus their intro. (Insert laughing emoji here.)

Other notable tracks Todd Terry reused in that early 90s period are his remixes for Bizarre Inc. and Cajmere. Rave Mix of Bizarre Inc - I'm Gonna Get You and his TNT Dub of Cajmere Featuring Dajae – Brighter Days. Hilariously, they're pretty much the same track, and both take massive liberties with Cool Jack's Come With Me, taking the chutzpah to extraordinary levels. He did do the Cajmere remixes for nothing, however, and his Tee's Dope Mix is a standalone classic.

Cool Jack was another Italian Euro House vehicle. Made up of brothers Brothers Paolo and Gianni Visnadi, they not only produced utterly glorious cheese by the likes of Alex Party and Living Joy but more underground recordings like the mental Racing Tracks under the Visnadi moniker and Try The Feeling, also as Cool Jack. Both Cool Jack tracks use the vocals of the interestingly surnamed US singer Tom Hooker. Where things get very interesting…

Tom Hooker was a songwriter and vocalist for Den Harrow (a bastardization of "Denaro", money in Italian) recordings, along with other vocalists including dreamer Silvio Pozzoli and others. Den Harrow was an Italian music project (another one) started by Roberto Turatti and Miki Chieregato. Amongst many other music projects, they produced this absolute banger of an Italo-Disco track from the improbably named Jock Hattle (real name Alberto Carpani). Den Harrow was energetically and flamboyantly fronted by Stefano Zandri, while others did the rest, including the songwriting and actual singing. Stefano and the producers Turatti and Chieregato finally admitted in 2012 that he hadn't sung on any of the Den Harrow songs. It's a story more common than you might imagine. Things have been very messy between Hooker and Zandri since, both fighting about the right to perform the songs of Den Harrow. If you're interested, there's a great documentary about it here: Dons of Disco.

It's all gone a bit Milli Vanilli, which is as good a place as any to end it. More next time…

#house music #90s music #hip hop #italo dance #vinyl records #todd terry #italo disco #milli vanilli #den harrow

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