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

...When The Morning Comes.

I apologise for only restoking The Pipe once a week just now. August is pretty much a month where my head is buzzing with the Edinburgh Festival. Normal service will be resumed in a couple of weeks once it is all over and I've stopped going back and forth to it...

Back to business though...

I was tinkering about on my decks last night and I got to thinking about some of the records that are never far from my fingers. Records that I always love to play and records I love mixing together. Before, on The Pipe, I have mentioned my love for, and bunged up, the Global Communications classic that is "The Way", now find below a couple of tracks that have been pretty much living on my turntables for the best part of a year and I'm still not bored of them...

Track : SADE - "EARTH SONG (WONDERLAND MIX)"

Ok, don't go running away. Yes, it's Sade. Yes, that Sade. No come back. It's good. Honest. It's really really good.

I don't know much about this as it's only a one sided white label 12" that came out last year and I can't seem to find any other info about it on the web. It has taken me ages to find out that the track, even though called "Earth Song" on the 12", is actually her "Slave Song" tune from her 2000 album "Lovers Rock". As for who was behind it? I haven't the foggiest.

This remix, possibly a bootleg, embraces the excellent dubs and echoes from the original and beefs it up with a deep 4/4 house beat. Sade's sultry vocals remain intact and give this deep, dubby, house track an extra late night feel to it.

The tune stopped me in my tracks when I heard it for the first time blasting out of the Vinyl Junkies soundsytem in Soho. It was one of those "I've got to have that" moments, even though I had just spent a fortune in the place... Glad I did though.

Track : RISE ASHEN - "SECOND WIND (RISE ASHEN'S CLUB DUB)"

This has been doing the rounds for a a few years now. I think it came out of Canada in 2002 and was then re-released around about this time last year when it started creeping into some DJ's more Broken Beat orientated sets.

So yes, a great broken style track. Great beat, slinky bassline, a dash of sax and a host of effects and echoes added for hypnotic effect. Not to mention a nice sexy vocal too....

"Still beating on the drum, when the morning comes, can't stop your body, won't stop, won't stop..."

It also just sounds damn good next to the above Sade track. Both tracks compliment each other well and to me are just 2 great woozy late night House tracks that are never far from the front of my record pile.

Enjoy.

Go Visit : Sade

Go Buy : Sade - Lovers Rock
Go Buy : Rise Ashen - Second Wind EP

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

Ta,
Budgie

Push it reeeeeal good...

Well the past few posts have seen The Doors getting a going over and Talking Heads getting covered and expanded. Now it's the turn of Salt 'N' Pepa...

Track : SHEENO - "PUSH IT"

Familiarity is a great thing. Even in a small dose. It can put a smile on your face and make you feel all content inside.

This is what happened to me a few weeks back.

Jimmy The Flid works beside a guy called Sheeno and one night he was DJ'ing downstairs in a local bar. The Flid, some friends and I ended up there at the end of a night out and I was a happy camper as Sheeno loves his House music and I was keen to hear him play.

I had heard one of his mixes before, "The Continuing Adventures Of Jack - part one", when The Flid put a link to it on The Pipe's Discussion Board (the thread can be found here). It was a fine, fluid mix that incorporated tracks and remixes by folk like Blake Baxter, Kenny Hawkes, DJ Sneak, Tiga and many many more.

Anyway back to the Bar... Sheeno is playing some good tunes and on top of him giving me a grin as wide as a harbour when he drops the DJ Sneak, Teddy Pendergrass sampling, filter disco epic that is "You Can't Hide From Your Bud", he drops this house track with sprinklings of Salt 'N' Pepa's 1987 break through hit, "Push It".

I turn to The Flid and exclaim the track to be the business. The "Push It" samples have taken me back to when it came out. For me, it soundtracked a School Trip to Italy where it was played constantly in the local Arcade and you could never hear Outrun's "Magical Sound Shower" eminating from the machine as it was always being drowned out by the afformentioned wonky, cowbell filled, hip hop tune.

The Flid then tells me that it is actually one of Sheeno's productions...

I told The Flid to ask Sheeno if he had a copy of it on MP3 and if he did, I'd bung it up on The Pipe. A couple of weeks later and I had it. And now you can too.

So yes, familiarity, there isn't much of "Push It" used in the track, just the cowbells, the "aaaah push it" chant and a good breakdown when the bass and "oooh baby baby" vocals kick in. But it's enough to not mistake it, prick your ears up and make you smile.

The house backing has a nice stuttery bassline, some nice echoey chimes bunged in for good measure and with the addition of the samples it all works a treat.

My only critisism is that it may be a bit too long and repetative if you're just listening to the MP3, but in the middle of a mix it fair works a treat.

Sheeno is soon to be moving to Bournemouth, so if you're from that part of the country and you see he is playing somewhere, be sure to check him out.

Feel free to leave a comment about this track in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie

All I want is to breathe...

On the last post, and a good few times in the forum, I have mentioned the remix group Yam Who? My love of their work is bordering on obsession. Not since the great Jazzanava remix hey day have I spent far too much money trying to pick up anything with their name on it.

This post isn't about Yam Who? though, but don't worry, they will be covered here in due course...

Track : FUZZ AGAINST JUNK - "BORN UNDER PUNCHES"

Before they became the mysterious pirate remix team of Yam Who?, they were signed to the excellent Nuphonic record label (which I think is now sadly defunct) as Fuzz Against Junk.

It was on a Nuphonic compilation album that I first came across them. The first tune I heard by them was a dubby, retro, wah wah and cello filled disco number called "Country Clonk". It never really stood out for me at the time as I was being sidetracked by the other tunes on the CD by legendary house acts like Blaze, Kerri Chandler and Joe Claussell. Now though, I love "Country Clonk".

It was when Fuzz Against Junk appeared on the second Nuphonic round up that I really stood up and took notice. It was the highlight of the compilation. A 9 minute cover version of the Talking Heads tune "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On).

The original appeared on the Talking Heads album, "Remain In Light". Released in 1980, it was the last of the 3 Brian Eno collaborations the band and he did together and it is a classic. The band on that album showcased just how tight a groove and funk they could turn out whilst still being able to add extra elements like African music and electronics into the mix. To give you some sort of idea on the sound, the biggest tune from that album was "Once In A Lifetime"...

The opener was "Born Under Punches". A jaggy, funky and downright odd song full of David Byrne's trademark strange lyrics. He's talking about being "a tumbler", "a goverment man" and begging you to "look at these hands". God knows what it's about but it lodged itself in my brain once the band come in on backing vocals and harmonies.

"goes on and the heat goes on.....all I want is to breathe, wont you breathe with me?..."

Fuzz Against Junk must have been under the same spell, as their cover version more or less focuses just on those backing vocals. It should be mentioned that the singing is spot on. You could easily be fooled into thinking it was Talking Heads. This is also backed up with what Fuzz Against Junk have accomplished with the actual track itself. A superbly polished update of the tune adding plenty more live percussion and honking sax. Actually, you could easily be fooled into thinking it was some long lost 12" version of it...

I normally prefer my cover versions to attempt to do something different with a song, but I love this version for it's ability on being more or less a carbon copy and giving me the opportunity too lose myself in the groove and those hypnotic vocal refrains for just that bit longer than the original can.

It's a knack those boys have carried over into their Yam Who? and Blackbeard guises...

As for what happened to Fuzz Against Junk, a couple more tracks appeared on some Nuphonic comps. "Latino" was a straight down the line Latin jazz track and the excellent, but short, "The Art Of Being Inbetween" could easily be passed off as Arthur Russell - again the vocals being spot on... There was talk of an album, but it never materialised. Oh, and this Fuzz Against Junk is not to be confused with the noisy, experimental, kraut rock band of the same name...

Go Visit : Nuphonic

Go Buy : Various Artists - Nuphonic Vol.2
Go Buy : Talking Heads - Remain In Light

Feel free to leave a comment about this track in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie