Posted by Budgie at August 30, 2005 02:34 PM

Back to normal, well as normal as it ever was....

Ok, back to business. My August distractions are over (namely the Edinburgh Festival) and The Pipe will be back to being regularly updated a couple of times a week starting next week.

Next week sees The Pipe hitting 50 posts. In the year and a half it has been going it's clocked up just over 250 tracks! But I'm pretty much discounting the earlier stuff and more or less want to focus on the tunes that have been posted since the relaunch back in April.

For the 50th post I want to put up some of the tracks that you've liked or maybe you have missed alongside some of my favourites. So go HERE and check out the list of the 80+ tracks and let me know which ones you'd like to hear again...

Anyway, onto this posts track...

Track : BOX SAGA - "STEPPIN"

It's great rooting through old records. I stumbled across this again last week. It's from the first in the React series of compilations "Dope On Plastic" from way back in 1994.

I only pulled the album out again to have a peep at the garish purple vinyl it was pressed up on, but then I clocked the Box Saga track... No sooner had the needle hit the record, I was off nodding my head and grinning like a fool.

The "Dope On Plastic" series was pretty much influenced by the Trip Hop sound of the time and they did a good job in collating and compiling some of the scenes more leftfield offerings and occassionaly they'd chuck in a few wonky non Trip Hop tracks for good measure. "Steppin" is definitely one of the latter....

Too be honest, I'm sitting here listening to it again, for the umpteenth time, and really struggling on how to classify it. It's nowhere near a Trip Hop track even though it does have a medium paced old skool hip hop style beat. It also features a corker of an undulating electro bassline which is pretty much the whole focus of the tune - with a higher end, almost "Washing Machine", version of it doubling it up mid track. Lob in some funk breaks, hand claps, echoey drop outs and your onto a winning, head nodding piece of mighty fine music that I'm stuggling to pigeon hole!

Never mind. just download and make you're own minds up...

Track : FINGERS INC. - "WASHING MACHINE"

And seeing as I name checked "Washing Machine" above, then you're more than welcome to wrap your lugs around this seminal 1984 Chicago House track.

Not bad considering that Larry Heard (Fingers Inc.) knocked this tune up, alongside his other bona fide classics, "Can You Feel It?" and "Mystery Of Love" in just one day using a Roland Juno 6 synth and a TR-707! The echoes of those 3 tracks will be forever heard through the history of dance music.

Genius.

Go Visit : Larry Heard

Go Buy : Various Artists - Dope On Plastic from Amazon Marketplace
Go Buy : Various Artists - Trax 20th Anniversary Collection
Go Buy : Various Artists - ACID : Can You Jack?

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie