Yaz (We've got)

Yazoo were a short-lived but highly successful British electro-pop duo consisting of Depeche Mode / Erasure mastermind Vince Clarke and singer Alison Moyet. In the US they were simply known as "Yaz" and had a couple of hits in the early 80s. "Situation" was released in 1981 and also appeared on their debut album "Upstairs at Eric's".

If I were to make a top 10 list of my favorite hip hop tunes, Newcleus' "Jam on it" would be at number one, and Man Parrish's "Boogie Down Bronx" would take third position. Quite interestingly, both songs were directly based on "Situation".

Once you compare the tunes, this becomes quite obvious. In Newcleus' case it is the prominent bassline – probably THE most famous bassline in all of hip hop – that is influenced by "Situation". "Boogie Down Bronx" borrows even more heavily from it.

Here's the breakdown part in the middle of "Situation":


And here's the beginning of "Jam on it".:


And finally, here's the beginning of "Boogie Down Bronx":


Actually, that's not the whole story. Check out "Situation" again and listen to the heavy, thunderous tom-tom rolls:


Is it a coincidence that another Man Parrish tune, "Hip Hop Be Bop" also has a lot of prominent tom-tom rolls? I don't think so ...
Listen to "Hip Hop Be Bop":


Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to a little percussive detail in the background of "Situation" - a sound that always seemed to me like water drops:


And once again, there's a hip hop tune (or rather a breaks record, but a very influential one) that uses a similar sound – I am talking about the Jive Rhythm Trax 122bpm:


The whole "Upstairs at Eric's" album is great, and you should definitely try to hunt it down. My favorite Yazoo song "Don't go" is also on that debut album. And I guess you won't be suprised when I present to you a hip hop tune that is influenced by it. When I say hip hop, it is in a very broad sense: I am talking about Planet Patrol's "Don't tell me". Planet Patrol was Arthur Baker's electro soul / r&b outfit. They sound like a soulful version of Afrika Bambaataa which comes as no surprise since Arthur Baker re-used a lot of his Bambaataa material when producing Planet Patrol. One detail I am interested in is the arpeggiated melody that's playing in the background of Yazoo's "Don't go" - here's an isolated excerpt:


And here's the beginning of Planet Patrol's "Don't tell me":



I always find it interesting to reconstruct the musical paths that led to the creation of hip hop and electro. In the early 80s, hip hop hadn't crystallized into a rigid form yet and influences were drawn from all kinds of music. There was no canon, and it was a period of openness that encouraged experiment and eclecticism. At its best, the resulting music was a cross-cultural rollercoaster ride where funk rhythms collided with pop or avantgarde music. Needless to say that today's state of hip hop is a step backwards in both musical and cultural terms: Flamboyant artist like Man Parrish would be considered gay and their music would stand no chance whatsoever.

The past that does not want to pass away

I have to be honest: When I started this blog a few months ago, I thought I'd write about Electro music from the safe distance of the historicist who confidently disposes of his material, mapping out a clearly defined terrain. Somehow things didn't pan out that way, and more and more I am finding myself surprised by current events. It seems like the material itself is resisting the historian's totalizing grasp, insisting that it does not want to simply pass away (and that it actually never has). I like that.

Today saw the release of Freestyle's new EP "Invade the Party". Freestyle and their producer Pretty Tony were responsible for putting Miami on the map of electro music in the 80s, releasing genre-defining masterworks like "Don't stop the Rock" or "The Party's just begun". In addition to introducing the latin tinge of their native Miami into electro, they were most famous for their extensive and virtuoso use of the vocoder.




Freestyle are no longer working with Pretty Tony; instead they have teamed up with producer Debonaire who himself has left a mark on the world as a pioneer of Miami Bass music and who has also been in the business for a good twenty years now. The results of the cooperation are sounding very familiar – which is a great relief (if you have heard Pretty Tony's latest works, you'll know what I mean). "Invade the party" could have been Freestyle ca. 1986 ... well, only it is not as good as their classic material and the hooks are not on par with Freestyle's early hits.





But this would be an unfair comparison, and "Invade the party" is a good song after all. Debonaire is a true master of his craft, channeling enough Pretty Tony moments to satisfy old timers and invoke lots of early 80s flashbacks. There are the wonderful 808 tom-tom rolls from "Don't stop the Rock" (I'm a sucker for those), the congas, the floating bass sound and of course the sweet sweet vocoder. He injects just enough of his own trademark style to make it sound modern, resulting in a very balanced and rich production featuring lush – but never distracting – amounts of bass, some edits and the crystal clear sound of modern Miami. Again, he is channelling enough Debonaire moments to satisfy old timers – just listen to the carefully tuned 808 cowbells reminiscent of his classic Tricky D joint "Take it to the Max".




"Invade the party" is successfully fusing the melodic, funky and warm retro side of Freestyle with Debonaire's own, more technoid, dark and reduced sound. And it is an ironic twist that it might just be this modern aspect of the sound that is negating the tune's pop / crossover potential. In that respect, the virtual B-side comes as a great surprise.




"All these girls" featuring a guest appearance by the Egyptian Lover is a reinterpretation of Newcleus' "Computer Age" into a very modern and very catchy pop rap / r&b tune. You could argue that if "Invade the Party" mimicks a style, "All these girls" must be even more derivative cause it emulates a particular song – but you would be so wrong. The genius of Newcleus works as a catalyst that brings out the best potential in any of the elements, and suddenly everything falls into place. Is this the harbinger of a new style that can hold its own against the minimal electro productions that have dominated the r&b and pop world for the past years? Well, at the very least it is catchy as hell. And I'd argue it's the Egyptian Lover's best tune to date.

GET the new Freestyle EP directly from Debonaire's site.





Oh yeah, catch the Manu-Dibango-via-Michael-Jackson reference? They must have said to themselves, "If Rihanna can do it, we can too (and better)". Indeed: Mamase Mamasa Mamamakossa!

Cosmic Rockers - The Movement

This is my second song ... and the first one that i wrote myself, also in late 2006.

Here's a quick breakdown:

As you can hear, I was still experimenting with the sound: Beat-wise I went for an 808 kit. The result came out a bit too sterile and trebly, so I put a lot of effort into building a nice warm, funky, organic and old school sounding groove for the bass as a counterpoint. Newcleus were an inspiration both to the groove and to the sound of the bass.

I was listening to a lot of kraut music then, and I was really impressed by Klaus Schulze's and Manuel Göttsching's approach to songwriting and their discarding the hierarchical structure of the pop/rock song. Don't let yourself be fooled, though: There still IS order in their tunes, just an order that isn't enforced by any transcendental principles. No ahistorical conditions of possibility, just internal conditions of existence. Emerging layers of ambient sound which are repetitive yet subtly changing, floating, meandering ... drifting in a Dérive kind of way.

Scape One was somewhat responsible for the idea of two melodies moving simultaneously in a fifth interval (first half of the song). Oh yeah, and the beat in the "breakdown" part was inspired by the "breakdown" beat of Planet Rock. In case you've never heard of that, stay tuned - one of the next posts is going to be THE definitive and comprehensive Planet Rock 101.

Title:
Ever heard of "DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT - THE MOVEMENT"?
I wouldn't think so ... it's an inside joke, really.

Influences:
- Newcleus: Why?
- Scape One: Retropolitan (Dusseldorf)
- Manuel Göttsching: E2E4
- Afrika Bambaataa: Planet Rock
- Kraftwerk: Tour de France
- Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment