Title: Electro-6 (Side A) & (Side B) Mixed by: DJ Maurice Assisted by DJ Noel Year: 1985 Label: StreetSounds Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
Electro back then was electric funk and hiphop music, mainly for break-dancing, bee-bopping, and body-popping. In my opinion, the word ‘Electro’ today has been hijacked in the form of 4/4 dance music and not anywhere near its true roots.
I am providing you with four Electro albums for download. I recorded them directly from vinyl into Protools (Electro-6, 7 & 9 in particular), digitally restored as much as possible, and widened the stereo field, among other quick fixes. Go ahead an compare my mastered versions to the same ones you find elsewhere — mine sound the best.
Streetsounds History…
Streetsounds was part of the UK Streetwave stable of labels created by Morgan Khan. A Hong Kong-born Indian who grew up in London, Khan had worked in the UK record industry since the mid 1970′s, working for such names as PRT Distribution (a division of Pye Records) and R&B Records, for whom at the time Imagination were the up and coming stars of the day.
Khan founded the independent Streetwave record label during 1981 to specialise in releasing Electro and Hi-NRG releases. Within a year of creation, Streetwave began the Streetsounds series of albums; compilations created from some of the hottest 12″ imports of the day. These releases made available a selection of the most contemporary dance floor hits within the financial reach of those wanting to hear the freshest sounds. In the early 80′s a 12″ single was priced around £2 and you would pay over £4 for an import 12″. The Streetsounds series offered usually 8 to 12 full-length 12″ mixes for under a fiver. Understandably, the Streetsounds series was met with considerable enthusiasm and, some might say, mighty relief.
This series would run for over 6 years and contain over 50 albums. By far the most coveted of the Streetsounds releases were the Electro series. These albums introduced the UK to the developing hip-hop scene from America – a stroke of genius that brought electro and early hip hop from the underground to the UK high street and, one could argue, helped in the creation of the UK’s hip hop scene.
The Electro series ran for a total of 27 albums (and one box set) from 1982 to 1988. The albums were initially labeled “Streetsounds Electro” with the title morphing into “Streetsounds Hip Hop” after release 12 in 1986.
All of the albums were competently mixed by a series of the best remixers of the day – predominately from the UK. A large proportion of the mixes on the early releases were completed by a London-based hip-hop sound system from the early 80s. Headed by “Herbie The Mastermind” (aka Herbie Laidley) the team also featured Kiss FM radio DJ’s Dave VJ and Max LX who were also members of UK electro outfit Hard Rock Soul Movement, responsible for the massive “Double Def Fresh” release.
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:
Digitizing them into Protools; Spending two long months cleaning them up; Getting rid of every single scratch/pop/click; Restoring deteriorated sounds through various RE-SYNTHESIS processes and techniques; Splicing the tracks to separate clips; Re-arranging and layering clips to my taste; Throwing in my own synth-stabs, chops and other minor subtleties; Adding & automating series of chained top-notch effects throughout the mix, utilizing parameters some of you could not even pronounce ... thus resulting with more dynamic and reverberated DEPTH to the mix; Fattening the bottom-end; Widening overall stereo perception; and Mixing, engineering and mastering my version of P:Machinery the way I think it's supposed to be heard.
To my taste, P:Machinery sounds better than 'sick' ... more like master piece of shit which blasts sonically across the stereo-field ... not one element standing still but constantly moving all over the place.
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 Boogie Down Bronx (dub version) PLAY TRACK
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 Relax (12 inch Sex Mix) PLAY TRACK
Trevor Horn is the guy who produced and performed “Video Killed The Radio Star” world-wide smash-hit track. I did some major digging and discovered some fascinating, forgotten facts and hidden gem tracks from The Buggles. In 1980, the Buggles’ duo Geoffrey Downes (keyboards) and Trevor Horn (vocals) — who were coming off an international success with their new-wave album The Age of Plastic – to help out on a new YES album. Downes suddenly left Buggles when Trevor learned that YES’ keyboardist Rick Wakeman was leaving the band, and therefore snatched him as well as lead-vocalist Jon Anderson to work on the next Buggles album Adventures In Modern Recording. The Buggle’s second album was completed in 1981 but was never released or charted. The album was a gem masterpiece.
The Buggles I Am A Camera (12 inch version) PLAY TRACK
We’re joining our friends at Reddit, Tumblr, Wikipedia, Boing Boing, and Google today in raising awareness of SOPA/PIPA legislation in the US Congress. These bills aim to change the very structure of the internet by allowing corporations and the US government to block access to domain names, and they circumvent the DMCA provisions that have […]
Every Hype Machine Zeitgeist tabulates the best music of the year, as decided by music bloggers. This time, we thought it would be interesting to open the voting up to everybody and find out what albums everyone loved in 2011. We built an album picker stocked with all albums released in 2011 according to Discogs, […]
The Hype Machine Music Blog Zeitgeist 2011 is ALIVE! We will be revealing 10 of the year’s Top 50 artists and albums every day, with fresh mixes of the Top 50 tracks. Stick around till Monday to find out who made it to the Top 10. Here’s how this Zeitgeist was created: Top 50 Artists: […]
Anthony, founder of the Hype Machine here. Just wanted to say thanks for being with us this year. It’s our sixth year of running the site, the biggest yet. The list of things that have happened is long, but among them: • Reached 1 million registered users (that’s you!) • Made the site play on iPhone, Android & Windows phones […]
We are looking for awesome people to join our team in Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY to help us build the future of music culture on the web. Right now, we are looking for two: Versatile Front-end Developer You must have: Strong JS (+assorted frameworks)/CSS skills An eye for design and attention to the details of […]
We’re always making new stuff, but we frequently forget to tell you about it. Sorry :/ Here’s what we’ve been working on in addition to our site redesign: Zeitgeist: We’ve meticulously restored all four years of our Zeitgeists (2007-2010). Browse, remind yourself of some great music you may have forgotten, and sign up to be […]
We’ve been having a lot of fun with the site for the past few weeks, with a header paying tribute to Nine Inch Nails, and our earlier Halloween colors, but we’ve also been making some design changes, which you can now see! The update now live on the site streamlines the site player experience, makes […]
We make the site to keep everyone finding something new, and today we are testing a new revision to the Latest front page. Starting now, the front page (also accessible as “Latest“) will only show the most recently posted tracks that have never been blogged about before. This means that they are as fresh […]
We have something new for you today from the Hype Machine Labs. We call it Fast Forward. Fast Forward is a speedy, immersive way to explore new music being discussed by the world-class blogs we index at The Hype Machine. I mean it: it is really fast. We’ve been thinking about this idea since SXSW 2009, […]
SBTRKT is one of the most exciting artists to come out of London’s effervescent “bass music” scene over the past year. Following the release of his wicked debut album (which premiered right here on The Hype Machine), SBTRKT brings his LDN vibes to NYC this week. Along with our friends at TREEHOUSE, we’re stoked to co-host a special SBTRKT after-show par […]
Denroy Morgan is a Jamaican expat, moving to Brooklyn as a teenager. He is famous for his roots reggae sound but in the early eighties had a string of well known disco hits on Beckett records. He has apparently fathered over 30 children, 10 of which are either rotating in his backing band or gigging on the New York reggae scene. BeatElectric admires the viri […]
Here are a couple of cool cuts from 1984. 1984 was an interesting year for music. The boogie greatness of 1982 was fizzling out, electro was king, and house was just getting started. These tracks highlight where genres converged and coalesced into some strange hybrids.This first track by Zero Hour shows a lot of electro influence and can easily pass as a the […]
We've covered Maurizio Sangineto's productions before on this site. Firefly was a dance music group composed of fellow Italians and released four LPs during their career. This track was a big tune at the Garage. The uplifting vocals get me every time. I also really like the brave use of some dynamic range in this 12" mix. It is rare to hear ja […]
Carol Shinnette put records out on Oakland's 'Optune' label. Don't ever call the 415 number printed on the front of her 7" sleeves, as the gentleman on the other end of the line will threaten to kill you. This B.E have learned the hard way. Although the record is claiming our hometown, it turns out it was actually produced in Lake Ch […]
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Tom Flynn Remix: Jakwob Remix: J. Crackinov Follow Me you Twi†Z!! √ Follow Schitz you Twi†Z!! √ Hear† Us on HYPE!! √ Like Us Facebook √ Share this on Facebook Tweet This! Share this on Tumblr Digg this! Share this on Reddit Share this on Technorati Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Email […]
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@SchitzPopinov √ Hear† Us on HYPE!! √ Facebook √ Share this on Facebook Tweet This! Share this on Tumblr Digg this! Share this on Reddit Share this on Technorati Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Email this via Gmail Add this to Google Bookmarks Share this on LinkedIn Share this on Virb […]
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Mp3's on this site are for sampling and promotional purposes only and will only. Most of the mp3 tracks on this blog/site are remixes, extended and limited versions which are deleted, no longer available for purchase and would not be heard otherwise. However, please support these artists. If you are one of these artists and would like your music removed from this site, please notify me, and I will endeavor to remove them as soon as possible.
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