The first time I heard LL Cool J was when I was at the movies. There he was …right before my eyes …making his first film debut in Krush Groove and literally performing to the audience for the first time his debut track I Can’t Live Without My Radio. It blew me away! By the time the release of his first album Radio made it to Starsounds record store in Toronto, Canada, I was one of the first to get a copy. The LP version of You’ll Rock is not as wicked as this remix posted here, but nonetheless it’s still good. I considered LL Cool J to be one of my first serious, solid and harder/core rappers in the music scene of 1985, as he was the first rapper/artist to be signed with Def Jam Recordings (hence, the story of Krush Groove movie was somewhat like the real story of how Def Jam got started).
LL Cool J – “You’ll Rock” (Remix)…
Artist: LL Cool J Title: You’ll Rock (Remix) Year: 1985 Label: Def Jam Recordings
I have decided to record digitally my entire StreetSoundsElectro compilation series.
I will record every single StreetSounds vinyl of mine into Protools, with as much digital restorations as possible and widened stereo-field. I do believe that I make the best vinyl-rips than most music collectors and bloggers out there. My 30+ years experience in pro-audio says so!
As I’ve stated in my previous StreetSounds article over a year ago, Electro since the early 80′s was electric funk and hip-hop 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.
THEREFORE, STAY TUNED FOR DAILY POSTING OF EACH ELECTRO MIX.
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.
My digital recording process & audio quality of vinyl records are top-notch …
click each image above to enlarge
Old video: recording session ripping vinyls Electro-6, 7, and 9…
Summer 1987, I had moved back to England to start grade-11 highschool. I went to Tower Records London which was a huge multi-level building by itself at the heart of Piccadilly Circus, London. Down in the huge basement was nothing else but 12-inch records of all genres — a heavenly section for disc-jockeys and music collectors. And that was where I’d finally found a copy of this limited edition release by The 2 Live Crew. I had been looking for this record since January 1987. As a matter of fact, I’d been looking for any 12-inch release of We Want Some Pussy since 1986. Sometime in early 1987, I heard a remix of We Want Some Pussy at the legendary Twilight Zone nightclub (located in the attic/roof above a coffee shop) on Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario; and since then I was unsuccessful in finding the 12-inch record …… until ….. of course … when I moved back to England more than six months later where I found the last remaining copy of the limited edition. I took the bus home to Rutland Court, Knightbrigde, opened the door to the flat, rushed to the stereo and put the needle to the record …. anxiously wanting to hear the track’s (Liberty City Long Hard) remix. And it sure did blow me away ………… so much better than the original or Classic Dance versions. Harder drum beats from Roland TR-909(also more 909 wikipedia info here) drum-machine, killer bassline with nice dance/club melody, sampled rock-guitar stab-hits in various pitches/notes and other sweet elements floating on top.
The 2 Live Crew – “We Want Some Pussy” (Liberty City Long Hard Mix)…
Artist: The 2 Live Crew Title: We Want Some Pussy (Liberty City Long Hard Mix) Year: 1987 Label: Luke Skywalker Records Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
The 2 Live Crew – “We Want Some Pussy” (The Original Classic)…
Artist: The 2 Live Crew Title: We Want Some Pussy (The Original Classic) Year: 1987 Label: Luke Skywalker Records Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
I’m a very huge fan of Captain Rock’s preschool hiphop. I have all of the very few 12-inch records he’d released between early and mid 80′s. What I love about this track is the hard-hitting, reverb-gated kick and snare from a drum-machine. The synth bassline is very thick and stabby, punching it’s low-frequency melody on top of the kick/snare, thus adding extra beef in-between and around the beats. There is also a cosmic and high-pitched syncopated synth element which serves as the main upper-layered second melody – super nice icing on the cake, driving the track along with the bassline underneath. The human-beatboxing is incredibly breathy, groovy and not over the top; there are no Fat-Boy-esque “hee-haw, haw-hah” beatbox vocals. It’s somewhat a futuristic-sounding hiphop. Really good production. No messing around, no bullshit.
I’ve managed to gather little information about him from another site:
His real name is Ronnie Green. Captain Rock was an underground fixture in the early 80′s. Captain Rock was produced by Aleem (Taharqa & Tunde-ra Aleem) on NIA. He appeared at the [Street Sounds] UK Fresh Fest 86 where he allegedly striped down to his thong on stage. Several of his tracks include “Captain Rock to the Future Shock”, “House of Rock”, and “Cosmic Glide”. Before being Captian Rock he was Dr Jecyll and Mr Hyde’s live dj from their period in the Harlem World Crew. He was known as DJ Ronnie Green. The only record he wrote the lyrics for was “Cosmic Blast.” The Cosmic Crew didn’t exist longer than the time it took to make the record “Cosmic Blast”. They were The Aleems, Dr Jeckyll + Mr Hyde, Scratch Al-D and Marley Marl. He was a referee for NCAA Division 3 basketball in the late 80′s and early 90′s. He’s also run a youth program in New York City, for underprivileged kids. He still keeps in touch with several artists including Mr Hyde, Aleem Brothers and Marley Marl.
Captain Rock – “Cosmic Blast”…
Artist: Captain Rock Title: Cosmic Blast Year: 1984 Label: NIA Records Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
I am so glad that I bought this 12-inch record back in 1985. It was purely accidental. I had no idea that I was buying a gem, but the cover, colors and the names of the label and artist were enough to convince me to make the purchase. Such a killer track. Both versions of this track are completely different and distinct from each other, as if not remixes at all. At that time, I was really into electro hiphop and finding a lot of 12-inch singles of that genre (in England of all places) was really hard, whereas most tracks were easy enough to find on compilation albums & cassettes like the Electro series released through UK’s renowned Streetsounds label. For the record, Davy’s “DMX” last name is derived from a very popular drum machine at that time — the Oberheim DMX (see picture caption somewhere below).
Davy DMX – “The DMX Will Rock” (Rap Mix)…
Artist: Davy DMX Title: The DMX Will Rock (Rap Mix) Year: 1985 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 […]
Hot fire burnin up yall G. Poplopavich 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 […]
The Notorious BIG Vs. Kavinsky – Nightcalling Big Poppa (Vico Ono Version) from Talk Hard on Vimeo. 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 […]
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 this via Gmail Add this […]
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 this via Gmail Add this […]
John Crackinov
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And all the best to you too, Elliot, for your lovely feedback you've emailed me :)
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And thank you, Yaron, for your lovely feedback.
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Disclaimer
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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