Like the name of the label suggests, ColdCut were ahead of their time. In Summer of 1987 when I moved back to England to start grade-11 highschool at ACS Hillingdon, on the very day my plane touched down at Heathrow airport, the first thing I did was go down to Our Price record store in Uxbridge, Buckinghamshire, and looked for hiphop records. Going through all the singles in the 12-inch section, I came across ColdCut’s Beats + Pieces …. there was something magical about this record when I touched it, even though I had no clue who ColdCut were and what they sounded like. I took the risk to invest and bought the record among others. Once I played the Beats + Pieces at home, I was BLOWN AWAY. Just what I was looking for. Something cutting-edge with samples and loops pieced and scratched together on top of a tight main beat/loop sampled from Led_Zeppelin’s track Kashmir. Ever since that day, I’ve been a religious follower and fan of ColdCut.
Coldcut – “Beats + Pieces” (Mo’ Bass Remix)…
Artist: Coldcut
Title: Beats + Pieces
Year: 1987
Label: Ahead Of Our Time
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
ColdCut – “Beats + Pieces” (Mo’ Bass Remix) (mp3)
Coldcut vs. Eric B. Rakim — Not Paid Enough…
In 1987, Eric B. & Rakim were on a standstill and not going anywhere in the charts until ColdCut remixed their track Paid In Full which was absolutely incredible, filled with chopped samples that were pieced/scratched together ColdCut style. The most famous vocal used in that remix was from Ofra Haza’s Yemenite Im Nin Alu track (the original LP version from her Fifty Gates Of Wisdom album, released in 1984), which then catapulted Ofra Haza back to the top-10 music charts followed by her smash-hit remix of Im Nin Alu in Summer 1988.
All in all, it was the doing and the genius of ColdCut to come up with such beautiful and timeless remix of Paid In Full …. bringing Eric B. Rakim to the top of the music charts and also making Ofra Haza one of the most internationally famous/successful singers in the world (she even did most of the vocal soundtracks for Steven Spielberg’s The Prince Of Egypt animated movie). At the end of the day, ColdCut never received as much credit as they deserved. In 1989, ColdCut released an album with an instrumental version Not Paid Enough.
I tip my hat for ColdCut.
They deserve a standing ovation.
Coldcut – “Not Paid Enough”…
Artist: Coldcut
Title: Not Paid Enough
Year: 1987
Label: Tommy Boy
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
ColdCut – “Not Paid Nough” (mp3)
Eric B. & Rakim – “Paid In Full”…
Artist: Eric B. & Rakim
Title: Paid In Full
Year: 1987
Label: 4th & Broadway
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
Eric B. & Rakim – “Paid In Full” (mp3)
While the norm for most tracks go anywhere between 3:30 to 6:00 minutes in length, I prefer 15:00 minutes or longer, like the four seasons. Give me 4 long tracks to fill the hour, and I’ll be one very happy Iraqi. I love tracks that take me on long journeys through various movements. One of my all-time favorite synth-pop groups is PROPAGANDA from germany … who sound like twisted ABBA + Industrial + TechnoPop + Darkness. My favorite Proganda track is P:Machinery. I’ve taken two 12-inch vinyl versions of that track and conjoined them together as one … the way I want to listen to P:Machinery by:
Propaganda
Although he produced only a handful of tracks of renown and disappeared into obscurity almost as quickly as he had emerged from it, Manny ( Man ) Parrish is nonetheless one of the most important and influential figures in American electronic dance music. Helping to lay the foundation of electro, hip-hop, freestyle, and techno, as well as the dozens of subgenres to splinter off from those, Parrish introduced the aesthetic of European electronic pop to the American club scene by combining the plugged-in disco-funk of Giorgio Moroder and the man-machine music of Kraftwerk with the beefed-up rhythms and cut’n'mix approach of nascent hip-hop. As a result, tracks like “Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” and “Boogie Down Bronx” were period-defining works that provided the basic genetic material for everyone from Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to Autechre and Andrea Parker — and they remain undisputed classics of early hip-hop and electro to this day.
Man Parrish
What made Trevor Horn’s productions stand out was his unique and genius production techniques and the heavy use of state-of-the-art pro-audio gear, which made him become the torch-bearer for the kind of technology-led pop music which was hip and incredibly disciplined. Trevor Horn’s 12-inch remixes were uniquely long (anywhere from 8 to 13 minutes in duration) and told stories which took the listeners through long instrumental journeys at the begenning of tracks until the climax is reached (around the 5/6 or 7 minute mark). After the climax, the original or alternate full vocal version of the track takes over from that point on to the end, lasting additional 3.5 to 5 minutes in length.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Trevor Horn is the guy who produced and performed “
The Buggles
[...] should also be noted that it was ColdCut’s smash-hit remix of Paid In Full (in late 1987) which brought really catapulted Eric B. & Rakim’s to the top of the [...]
Colcut Lauched Yazz & the Plastic Poplulation and Lisa Stansfield
I remember that I was at Our Price record store in the Fall of 1987. While I was going the records at the 12-inch section, Paid In Full (ColdCut remix) went on the store’s stereo. The second I heard Ofra Haza’s “Im Nin Alu” vocal samples, I dropped everything and just stood there under the speaker ….. just staring at it …. and listening to the rest of the track. I WAS HOOKED. Then I ran to the back and asked “who the [F] this track was and I NEED IT NOW!”