Sacred cows from the dance canon that are now irrelevant

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the same place they are in this country.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:32 (twenty years ago) link

i.e. nowhere.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:33 (twenty years ago) link

sometimes i think jungle ruined me for all other ~~dance~~ music.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:33 (twenty years ago) link

US house/garage based hits DO seem to have passed us by tho. where's the Kim Syms, Rosie Gaines or Ultra Nates today?

hmmm. the last track i heard that had that good 'ol kym sims vibe was the "maurice's livegig mix" of "bills, bills, bills". i think when r+b gets this storming there's not really any call for that stuff anymore.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:37 (twenty years ago) link

also whither Robyn S? i think diva/soulful house is as unfashionable as FSOL, drum n' bass etc. - but they all had a good innings

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:39 (twenty years ago) link

to be honest when i said saunderson sounds dated,i've only really heard big fun,good life and a few others,but it was those two in particular that i meant...
smokebelch two got played at a rave a while ago and went down really well...

― robin (robin), Monday, 8 December 2003 16:56 (twenty years ago) link

well Saunderson was last seen by me dragging out 'Good Life' for that Latiny remix a couple of years back - not a patch on the original and a pretty wasteful effort

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:11 (twenty years ago) link

Smokebelch II always sucked. Weakest piano melody ever, and the beats are pretty limp too.

Whereas Saunderson continues to be the most underrated Detroit geezer of all.

― bugged out, Monday, 8 December 2003 17:13 (twenty years ago) link

(And probably the one who had the most lasting influence too--UR being the only competition--cos he did the Reese bassline)

― bugged out, Monday, 8 December 2003 17:15 (twenty years ago) link

b-b-b-but derrick may invented IDM and juan atkins invented microhouse! and don't forget that juan atkins did "clear"!

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:19 (twenty years ago) link

i like Smokebelch II - it's all about the pizz. strings

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:20 (twenty years ago) link

I suppose one of the thinks I like about "beat dis" (apart from the sort of clockwork funkiness of it) is the way the samples are never quite in time w/the beat box, so you get this kind of pushing/pulling feel. In that respect, I suppose it is "irrelevant", I mean now you'd just timestretch everything so all the beats line up. Another thing I like about it is the kind of idiot joy of the thing, the way one sample after another lines up, like listen to this! now listen to this!! now listen to THIS!!! etc. It makes me feel happy!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:25 (twenty years ago) link

I really don't think it's fair to blame Derrick May for IDM. Despite what tico tico said about pianos and synth washes, most of his stuff is actually pretty stripped down and rhythmic. (Would be more accurate to blame Carl Craig, if we must blamne someone--he did invent ambient techno after all.) Can't really see the Juan-microhouse connection either, to be honest; I see him more as a bridge from the past than to the future.

― bugged out, Monday, 8 December 2003 17:45 (twenty years ago) link

Pashmina otm, well articulated dude

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

> Over a hundred posts and everyone still loves each other!

Personally speaking, I'd like to give a good kicking to some of the philistines who've stuck their heads over the parapet in this thread...

― Palomino (Palomino), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:18 (twenty years ago) link

Musical Mobb - Pulse X

― Shahid, Monday, 8 December 2003 19:19 (twenty years ago) link

haha have you listened to the bulk of ukg twelves still coming out these days?

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:28 (twenty years ago) link

at least 50% are still variations on "pulse x".

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:29 (twenty years ago) link

Under Mi Sleng Teng would sound pretty terrible to a young person I think.

― Shahid, Monday, 8 December 2003 19:37 (twenty years ago) link

i was actually gonna say "under mi sleng teng" as much as it pains me.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:38 (twenty years ago) link

whatever. songs about weed = more popular than ever!!

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:52 (twenty years ago) link

a straight-down-the-line edit of "Atlantis" is on pirate radio in Holloway right now

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:55 (twenty years ago) link

nu-dnb you mean, hand?

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 19:58 (twenty years ago) link

"Under Mi Sleng Teng" seems like the direct template for a good percentage of music today!?!? I can't imagine it still not moving kids in Jamaican dancehalls.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 8 December 2003 20:07 (twenty years ago) link

i think we're all getting mixed up with "irrelevant" vs. "sounds old" vs. "sounds crap", myself included.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 December 2003 20:10 (twenty years ago) link

I'm personally waiting for samples from aqueous/ambient jungle to start to filter into nu-grime's pallette of exotic sounds. There was a great uplifting MC garage track from '01 by Zoom & DBX (I think) which was almost entirely based on an old Adam F tune ("Aromatherapy" I think)! And Target is ripe to sample something like "The Bell Tune" or "Music" or "The Western".

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 03:15 (twenty years ago) link

as long as they dont use that bloody jungle/bird call sound that is like, on every bukem tune. ARTCORE!!!!!1

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 11:58 (twenty years ago) link

just slowing down the 'artcore' tracks would probably suffice. i'd rather hear those sounds in hip-pop more than anything else. classic rave sounds also work pretty well when used by American r n' b/hip hop producers.

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 12:02 (twenty years ago) link

I nearly spent 16 quid on a compilation last night for Poomp Oop The Jaam. It's a sad life being online but not being able to play mp3s...

What?

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 12:09 (twenty years ago) link

haha reasons why hardcore is back in a big way #4634: i was listening to a short versh of charlton lido's "trife dance primer" in the kitchen last night, doing dishes, and my landlady comes in and says "you have turn that off, i can't stand that noise" but my hands were soapy so she goes over to the radio and starts fiddling with the tuning knob... and nothing changed!! i kept shtum and watched her start to freak out... her CD player... it was possessed!! AAAGGGGH the goggles do nothing! at the last possible second i was like "it's a CD" and she just left it on and left the room, she couldn't believe anyone would CHOOSE to listen to this stuff. but i guess johnny l, 2 bad mice, etc really is close enough to stuff you hear on the pirate stations now to fool her... minus the piano breakdowns of course, which are like my favorite part :(

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 15:44 (twenty years ago) link

omg move

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

...well, um, I'm working on the 1988 comp, and most of the stuff mentioned here is going on that comp. For me, I have to admit it's a bit of a nostalgic rush for me. I have no idea who it will go over for those who never heard it.

Although, i think to some degree, that 303 will never lose an audience somewhere in the world.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:20 (twenty years ago) link

("We call it Ac-IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!")

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:21 (twenty years ago) link

if she'd switched it to Moby i'd have been REALLY upset, steve

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:21 (twenty years ago) link

oooh why i oughta

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:25 (twenty years ago) link

i swear my landlady is the ultimate scared cow

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 19:04 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

Chemical Brothers circa Exit Planet Dust. Thrilling for about 10 seconds then you realise the trick and it's drab and debilitating for the rest of the album.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, for the record, everyone outside a few HATED Lil' Louis at the time. This isn't meant as a dis on Lil' Loius by any means.. the fact that most people were befuddled when confronted with the full version of "French Kiss" on a 1989 dancefloor was quite subversive... but Lil' Louis became more of a sacred cow well after "French Kiss" was released, especially thanks to that Warp Classic collection.

― donut ferry (donut), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Coldcut, S'Express, Bomb The Bass, lots of acid house, "hip house", and the last breaths of the SAW machine were ruling 1989 dance music, though..

I do agree with Tim Simenon and Mark Moore's inclusion, as much as I think Tim's work post BTB was a bit underrated and overlooked (i.e. Depeche Mode production)

― donut ferry (donut), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Fret not, Mr. DF -- Dan, Tim Finney and I are also all agreed on Tim/Depeche being one hell of a combination. (I would also direct interested parties to Simenon's production of the last full Gavin Friday solo album as such, Shag Tobacco, which is pretty damn stellar.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Tim also produced the last Tackhead single "Videohead", which was a total departure for the band, but probably their only good post-80s work ever, FWIW.

The line of questioning for this thread (granted, it's two years old) is a bit suspect though.. Sacred cows aren't born sacred calves.. or at least weren't in the late 80s. There wasn't this type of eager journalism scrambling to proclaim the "next big artist" as much as "the next big scene". Time, and falling apart before being discovered en masse, are the two elements that make a "sacred cow", usually.. see: Pixies, Slint.. in the college rock context.

― donut ferry (donut), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, "sacred cows" are cows in the end. They don't live forever. Except Kraftwerk, who are sacred cyborg-cattle.

― donut ferry (donut), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:49 (eighteen years ago) link

We'll have to kill them too. We are pitiless.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Why don't we just change the title of this thread to "BEST DANCE SONGS EVER"?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I do agree about "French Kiss" though. That song SUCKS!!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Everyone who is dissing "French Kiss" is mental. Best trance song ever.

That song used to kill on dancefloors here (even the full version), so my sense of its public perception is extremely different from yours, DF.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:54 (eighteen years ago) link

I think the song just translated badly in most mainstream American dance clubs... New Jack Swing was taking off here, in parallel to the rising popularity of Bobby Brown and Bel Biv Devoe.. and you also had MC Hammer, and a lot of Clivelle & Cole and Jam & Lewis produced stuff... so having a track like "French Kiss" getting marketed with the same money and getting played must have been a shock to U.S. club-goers at the time. (and again, for subversity's sake, thumbs up!)

― donut ferry (donut), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:05 (eighteen years ago) link

but Lil' Louis became more of a sacred cow well after "French Kiss" was released, especially thanks to that Warp Classic collection.
-- donut ferry (do...), August 15th, 2005 3:28 PM. (donut)

lil louis isn't on the warp compilation! your point is well taken, though ...

one artist who currently does enjoy a massive (and perhaps for the wrong reason) reputation in large part thanks to the warp 10+1 collection: MR FINGERS.

if most people knew that most of his output sounds closer to men at work or simple minds than to "can u feel it" or "washing machine", would he be this popular?

also, would people have a different perspective on the evolution of dance music if "what about this love?" were considered as canonical as "washing machine"?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link

actually, the real question is, given the current cultural + artistic relevance of r&b-slanted deep house, and the increasing irrelevance and essential staleness of acid house (thx, IDM dorks for the 1000th lame "cornish acid" revival album), why does "what about this love?" get the shaft?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:19 (eighteen years ago) link

(aagh, I confused Lil Louis with A Guy Called Gerald, re: Warp comp.. sorry.)

― donut ferry (donut), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:20 (eighteen years ago) link

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