96: VARIOUS – “STREET SOUNDS: UK-ELECTRO” LP
Haven’t delivered any Oi! yet, so here’s an LP with a Union Jack on the cover.
There’s one strand of MuSIcK-biZ chicanery I enjoy: using a stream of aliases to pretend you’re tapped into a scene bigger than you, your mate and his dog. From the Wise brothers bullshitting Guy Debord about their situationist streetfighter army, to William Bennett’s Happy Valley Africa (where teens in Zimbabwe and Uganda apparently grew up caning Great White Death), to those Illegal Rave compilations that were all the same bloke behind the Strictly Hardcore label…if you haven't got a genuine scene going, make one up.
So, here’s a couple of electro-funk DJs and Morgan Khan conjuring up the UK’s burgeoning ‘80s electro scene from nothing – a magical act if there ever was one. Yeah yeah, West Street Mob, whatever – have you heard Zer-O? We invented 'em earlier. I get the impression some critics view this volume as the joker in the Street Sounds Electro pack: even the individuals responsible describe it as ‘patchy’ and recall knocking it out in a rush, to broadside the Yank electro invasion. The latter’s probably true…but ‘patchy’? Put it this way: when Corpsey plonked the shilling into my pint, I knew this one was making the list...even if I had to cut the John Holt tune adrift.
Both versions of Real Time by Zer-O sound like ghosts serenading me over a Drumulator. Is Broken Glass’ Style Of The Street the first UK rap track? You lot know more about that than I do. Some nice phased scratching on that one – sounds like they’re coming down a drain pipe. The moody Forevereaction tracks aren’t a million miles from the electro-dub stuff Richard H Kirk was releasing around the same timeline. And Syncbeat’s Music sounds like someone fed a sampler a superdove and it vomited out a thousand sunny summer afternoons. That looping chant, the synth swoops and bassline, all feel so fucking joyous I could listen to this one all day. Ignore all other mixes: the version and flow on this album were best.
See? I’m describing the songs as if they’re by separate acts: still trapped in the spell. I don’t honestly see the point of comparing this to Al-Naafiysh or any of the Model 500/Cybotron stuff, and dunno if I'd recommend this to anyone after serious B-Boy history: it feels more like some fluke experiment where alchemists transmuted raw electric current into a one-off mutant electro/SAW pop/proto-acid mash-up. Much more fun than 1,000 Volts Of Holt.
Haven’t delivered any Oi! yet, so here’s an LP with a Union Jack on the cover.
There’s one strand of MuSIcK-biZ chicanery I enjoy: using a stream of aliases to pretend you’re tapped into a scene bigger than you, your mate and his dog. From the Wise brothers bullshitting Guy Debord about their situationist streetfighter army, to William Bennett’s Happy Valley Africa (where teens in Zimbabwe and Uganda apparently grew up caning Great White Death), to those Illegal Rave compilations that were all the same bloke behind the Strictly Hardcore label…if you haven't got a genuine scene going, make one up.
So, here’s a couple of electro-funk DJs and Morgan Khan conjuring up the UK’s burgeoning ‘80s electro scene from nothing – a magical act if there ever was one. Yeah yeah, West Street Mob, whatever – have you heard Zer-O? We invented 'em earlier. I get the impression some critics view this volume as the joker in the Street Sounds Electro pack: even the individuals responsible describe it as ‘patchy’ and recall knocking it out in a rush, to broadside the Yank electro invasion. The latter’s probably true…but ‘patchy’? Put it this way: when Corpsey plonked the shilling into my pint, I knew this one was making the list...even if I had to cut the John Holt tune adrift.
Both versions of Real Time by Zer-O sound like ghosts serenading me over a Drumulator. Is Broken Glass’ Style Of The Street the first UK rap track? You lot know more about that than I do. Some nice phased scratching on that one – sounds like they’re coming down a drain pipe. The moody Forevereaction tracks aren’t a million miles from the electro-dub stuff Richard H Kirk was releasing around the same timeline. And Syncbeat’s Music sounds like someone fed a sampler a superdove and it vomited out a thousand sunny summer afternoons. That looping chant, the synth swoops and bassline, all feel so fucking joyous I could listen to this one all day. Ignore all other mixes: the version and flow on this album were best.
See? I’m describing the songs as if they’re by separate acts: still trapped in the spell. I don’t honestly see the point of comparing this to Al-Naafiysh or any of the Model 500/Cybotron stuff, and dunno if I'd recommend this to anyone after serious B-Boy history: it feels more like some fluke experiment where alchemists transmuted raw electric current into a one-off mutant electro/SAW pop/proto-acid mash-up. Much more fun than 1,000 Volts Of Holt.
