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July 6, 2017 10:37 AM Subscribe
‘We launched UK house with just £500 – and a few cans of hairspray’ How we made Theme from S-Express
So good that Black Box stole the bass line for "Ride On Time"!
"Theme From S-Express", along with the referenced-in-article "Beat Dis", was in indelible influence on my own electronic musical efforts. There were other beat-&-soundbite-collage records out around the same time, such as "Pump Up The Volume", but this one stuck with me for the way the samples, in their own strange way, created a song structure - this isn't just "some DJ throwing samples over a drum machine", there's real thought and wit put into the different segments of the track.
posted by tantrumthecat at 8:29 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Theme From S-Express", along with the referenced-in-article "Beat Dis", was in indelible influence on my own electronic musical efforts. There were other beat-&-soundbite-collage records out around the same time, such as "Pump Up The Volume", but this one stuck with me for the way the samples, in their own strange way, created a song structure - this isn't just "some DJ throwing samples over a drum machine", there's real thought and wit put into the different segments of the track.
posted by tantrumthecat at 8:29 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I was actually surprised when I found it was all samples as it seemed a lot more integrated that yeah, 'Pump Up The Volume'
I can still remember the first time I heard 'Beat Dis' - referenced in the article - on the radio. I kinda went a bit nuts. It's a cliche to say you'd never heard anything like it before but I really hadn't
Keep This Frequency Clear!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:49 AM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I can still remember the first time I heard 'Beat Dis' - referenced in the article - on the radio. I kinda went a bit nuts. It's a cliche to say you'd never heard anything like it before but I really hadn't
Keep This Frequency Clear!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:49 AM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I am now wearing bicycle shorts, door knockers and raving around my living room, thanks.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:41 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:41 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
We changed the world with our sample-heavy, floor-filling experimental track is a great story, but wasn't Pump Up The Volume out the year before?
posted by Devonian at 4:51 AM on July 8, 2017
posted by Devonian at 4:51 AM on July 8, 2017
We changed the world with our sample-heavy, floor-filling experimental track is a great story, but wasn't Pump Up The Volume out the year before?
Yes, but to be kinda hair-splitty about it, "Pump Up The Volume" was more hip-hop in its execution, and (at least ostensibly) in inspiration. "Theme From S-Express" pretty much screams THIS IS HOUSE.
posted by tantrumthecat at 9:38 PM on July 8, 2017
Yes, but to be kinda hair-splitty about it, "Pump Up The Volume" was more hip-hop in its execution, and (at least ostensibly) in inspiration. "Theme From S-Express" pretty much screams THIS IS HOUSE.
posted by tantrumthecat at 9:38 PM on July 8, 2017
Well if you're gonna let actual facts get in the way, 'Jack Your Body' was number one in the UK in '86 - 2 years before S-Express. That's the one that really kicked house into the mainstream.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:06 AM on July 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:06 AM on July 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well if you're gonna let actual facts get in the way, 'Jack Your Body' was number one in the UK in '86 - 2 years before S-Express. That's the one that really kicked house into the mainstream.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:06 AM on July 9 [+] [!]
*writes but then ultimately deletes a pedantic and ultimately counterproductive rant about the symbiotic/parasitic relationship between UK and American house music *
posted by tantrumthecat at 10:43 AM on July 9, 2017
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:06 AM on July 9 [+] [!]
*writes but then ultimately deletes a pedantic and ultimately counterproductive rant about the symbiotic/parasitic relationship between UK and American house music *
posted by tantrumthecat at 10:43 AM on July 9, 2017
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posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:57 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]