Title: Electro-1 (Side A) Mixed by: Herbie (Mastermind) Laidley Year: 1983 Label: StreetSounds Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
A1:The Packman – “I’m The Packman” (6:35) Produced by Bobby Robinson
A2:Newcleus – “Jam On Revenge” (The Wikki-Wikki Song) (7:49) Produced by Joe Webb
A3:West Street Mob – “Break Dancin’ – Electric Boogie” (5:02) Produced by Joey Robinson Jr. & Lealand Robinson
A4:C-Bank- “Get Wet” (7:52) Produced by John Robie
StreetSounds Electro-1 (Side B)…
Title: Electro-1 (Side B) Mixed by: Herbie (Mastermind) Laidley Year: 1983 Label: StreetSounds Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
This is one super sick track that defined the true meaning of techno-electro hiphop. Drum machine tight beats, rolling mechanical techno bassline, synth zip-zaps, reverse-then-slap-forward claps, synth pads, vocal erotic samples, synthetic scratching samples, really sweet processed orchestra stabs/hits, and serious rhymes. 808 Beats stands on its own plateau. Although The Unknown DJ raps about his 808 drum machine, but the drum machine sounds in this track aren’t from a Roland TR-808 at all …. not even close; but my best guess would be that they come from Oberheim DX or DMX.
The Unknown DJ – “808 Beats”…
Artist: The Unkown DJ Title: 808 Beats Year: 1984 Label: Techno Hop 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
To sum up Hype Hotel 2012: a kickass party with live music, free Taco Bell tacos, free Tito’s Handmade Vodka, free Miller Lite, and just 35,000 of our closest friends. It’s taken us a whole month to recover, so you know it had to be good. Were you there? Find yourself in this video: Playing: […]
If you’ve ever clicked on one of the rockets in our sidebar, you already know that Fast Forward is the easiest way to sample a whole lot of new music quickly (if you haven’t, try it now). We’ve partnered with Stereogum, Gorilla Vs. Bear, I Guess I’m Floating, Consequence of Sound, and Awesome Tapes From […]
I can finally tell you (because I’ve stopped having dreams about it) about the huge 5-day-long party we threw at SXSW 2012. That’s right: not an evening or a day show at a random bar, but tons of excellent music spanning 5 full days, right in the center of Austin, at our own venue. The […]
Now that we are a bit more rested after SXSW, I can tell you about what we’ve been up to there. We were involved in two big things: the Hype Hotel, presented by Feed the Beat during SXSW Music (more on this later), and the “Don’t Mess with the Internet” party during SXSW Interactive. We […]
We are throwing our biggest party to date! Hype Hotel, presented by Taco Bell’s Feed The Beat, is five straight days of music, drinks, and Taco Bell tacos, March 13-17 in Austin, TX. Lineups are curated by the terrific My Old Kentucky Blog, Song By Toad, Aquarium Drunkard, Gorilla vs. Bear, Yours Truly, No Modest […]
Our multi-day blog party is shaping up well and we need your help. We are looking for volunteer staff to help with production, registration, barbacking, and helping guests during March 13 – 17. You get all-access to the event, music, connections to bands, startups and the music industry (if that’s your thing). You must be […]
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 […]
Two posts in one today, to make up for a week long absence of illegally distributed music via our ragged looking blogspot page, both with circa 1983 London theme, one from me and another from Tom Thump, perhaps the first rare groove DJ I ever heard after first moving to San Francisco a long time ago. I made contact with him whilst searching for a mixtape of […]
I think I first started taking an interest in Chicago house after hearing Jamie Principle's Waiting On My Angel on a weird rare groove mixtape in the late nineties, I don't think I had paid house in general much attention until then, I was too busy falling into the deep funk 45 black hole, or latin, or bossa nova, whatever the vogue was. I went […]
Time to keep chipping away at the Patrick Adams discography with this 1977 gem. This track features his classic Arp 2600 patch and some dubbed out production. For the sound quality nerds, this is recorded from an original 1977 copy not one of the similar looking recent represses. There is a bit of tape noise particularly during the breakdown probably due to […]
My brain was heavily serotonin deficient from desert parties and what not but I finally mustered the energy to share some tracks. First off is an Italo boogie track from 1983 by High Resolution! As usual the vocals leave more to be desired but the bass line is fresh! This was composed by Paolo del Prete and Marco Fatali and was released on SPQR.High Resoluti […]
Gah!! Boys Noize killing it. Personally looking for something new new from Alex Rihda in the upcoming, and not too distant future. G. Poplopavich Follow Me you Twi†Z!! √ Follow Schitz you Twi†Z!! √ Hear† Us on HYPE!! √ Like … Continue reading → […]
New Fear of Tigers track with free download. 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 … Continue reading → […]
This schitz goes hard. Baauer on Facebook Baauer-Harlem Shake by Mad Decent Baauer-Yaow! by Mad Decent ___________________________________ Get @ Nick Bike Twitz! √ Follow Schitz you Twi†Z!! √ Hear† Us on HYPE!! √ Like Us on Facebook √ Share this … Continue reading → […]
The latest instalment from SMD is pretty great. It dips into a lot of different electronic vibes and moods and is a nice change up from their previous records which featured more ‘hit-styled’ jams. Well worth a listen. SMD on … Continue reading → […]
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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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