20 tracks that changed my life (part 2)

This is the second part to an article I started last week on tracks that changed my life. I wrote a load of blurb at the start of that one so I wont bang on here, ill just dive right in. Remember, these tracks are in no particular order (least of all chronological).

Black Water (Octave One)

Back in 2001 I was going to Bugged Out! in Liverpool from time to time. I had always known that Justin Robertson was a good DJ from his sheer variety (northern soul, house, techno and whatever the fuck lionrock was). He was resident at Bugged Out, and the first time I heard Blackwater played it was by him. I wouldn’t say I was a techno connoisseur, but this track led me onto many things I would have missed otherwise. Funk D Void, Phil Kieran, etc. are maybe not a similar style to the somewhat percussive detroit sound of Blackwater, but it was a pass way to them none the less. This track is fantastic, could fit into a set of any genre (and was played by all and sundry, not just techno DJ’s) and is widely revered as a classic. The mix I love has the Ann Saunderson vocal. A really great piece of music with one of the finest basslines I have ever heard.

Share The Fall (Grooveriders Jeep Style Remix) (Roni Size)

A great track on its own, Share the Fall really benefited from the Grooverider jeep style remix when it came to working for a dancefloor. Why the original album version crossed the border between trip-hop and drum and bass, Riders version is a workout for any club. The beats are toughened up, the vocal used to build energy, searing tech synth stabs roll throughout, and the overall hypnotic feel makes it one of the standout tracks of all time for me. Another track I played out many times, that worked even though it might have been slower than many of the darker pieces around it. Optical was the studio engineer for Grooverider, I am led to believe, so there is every chance that he could have been the man behind this. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Better Days (Jimi Polo)

This was the first track I heard when entering my first proper dance night at the ripe old age of 14, and for that reason it gets included. Its a big room piano cheese monster, not something I really love now but at the time I had never heard anything as euphoric or uplifting in my life. I think the version I would have heard must be the Sasha remix (and I think that is the one in the video also). Its still a great track if you like that kind of thing, and I am sure still gets played to death all over everywhere. Strangely I never bought this on vinyl, I only have it on a retro compilation. Maybe I will hunt it down if only for nostalgic reasons.

Breakdance (electric boogie) (West Street Mob)

I suppose really I should reference back to Apache by Incredible Bongo Band – as that’s all this track is, its just a cut up with added electronic voice samples (Breakdaaaance!) – but I heard this first so there is no point trying to look all authentic and original. I still play this, in fact, I played it a few weeks ago when DJing out and people never get tired of it. I started to play it when me and my friend Roscoe did a little upstairs party at the Zanzibar in Liverpool in about 2002, and I think I will always take it out with me (even if it is a really obvious track). I don’t really need say anymore, I could pretty much guarantee that anyone reading this will have heard it. May have been responsible for my start it looking back at the history of dance music.

Love has Come Around (Donald Byrd)

I must admit, when I heard this track again in context over the last few years, I had no idea it was a Jazz Funk classic from the early 80’s. In fact, I had heard this many times going out, or maybe it had been sampled so much I just thought I had. Its a great track that I have played out in all the places I have played, and have included it on one of my Cosmic Boogie mixes. You could easily start or end a night with a track of this magnitude. I don’t know anything else by Donald Byrd, which I guess is just lazy really considering how highly I rate this. I should make the time to find out.

Teardrop (Massive Attack)

Teardrop reminds me of a low point in my early life – a time when for one reason or another, not many things were going right. Early relationship trouble, not knowing what to do with myself (I was about 18 at the time), and generally, not enjoying life. I bought the Mezzanine album the day it came out, having been a big fan of earlier Massive Attack stuff. I played teardrop all the time, some might say its a depressing tune, but I think that all depends on the context. The overriding feeling it always gave me was “everything is going to be ok”. No matter what had gone wrong I could put this track on and things could brighten up – if not literally, at least in the way I looked at them. It also had characteristics of the sound i was into at the time (dark drum and bass), with haunting beats and hypnotising vocals from Elizabeth Fraser (of the Cocteau Twins). I don’t play this now as much as I probably should, but it had a huge effect at that particular point in my life.

Alien Girl (Ed Rush & Optical)

Boom. Dark, nasty, rave drum and bass. Perfect for the big room, a masterful tech stepper that owes more to heavy metal than it does funk or soul. Darker music at the time was far more uplifting to me than any of the funkier shades of Marcus Intalex et al, and this is just about the epitome of it. I still love hearing this track, it killed every dancefloor around, still does (played in the right context of course) and I am very happy that I was there to witness this and many other tracks of its ilk as they happened. After this period, drum and bass started to reinvent itself because it had lost all the feeling, but still now, I reckon there is more feeling in this than many tracks that came out later. An anthem for the cause, and only one of a number of brilliant tracks produced by these two.

Electric Relaxation (A Tribe Called Quest)

In younger years, I always thought that I didn’t have much time for hip-hop or rap, I thought Public Enemy were OK, and NWA, but probably more because my mates did rather than ever actually really connecting in any way. One friend though who was really into both started to pass me more things he thought I would “get”, and that was pretty much solely A Tribe Called Quest. I could have picked any number of tracks, but Electric Relaxation is the best (for me at least), with a fantastic groove, production, and lyrics. Not too “different” like Outkast or (sometimes) De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest are still the best hip hop act of recent times for me (with my limited knowledge, of course).

Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)

Another track that fuelled my early vinyl fetish. Everyone who collects vinyl must of at some point gone through the grandparents vinyl and tried to find things that they liked. At the same time i was listening to early Elvis stuff, I was also finding out that I liked Tom Jones – or at least one track. I don’t know why I picked this out of the pile of records, I would have been no older than 10 or 11, and for some reason I played this over and over again, until I eventually bought the album second hand from a charity shop (or was bought it – I cant remember). I don’t really know if I can articulate what it is I like about it – its nothing special I don’t suppose, not a “stand out” piece of music, or anything ground breaking…I just like it. I always have and I always will. Please note that why I don’t really give a shit about American Politics (as the youtube video shows), I do think that at certain points Hilary Clinton looks like the spawn of beelzebub himself. So I thought id leave this video up rather than a picture of a record spinning.

Nightmare (Kid Unknown)

If “Better Days” was the first hugely uplifting tune that I experienced in a club, this was probably the most satisfying. Uplifting because of its raw energy, rather than its hands in the air euphoria, this breakbeat house monster was a favourite of a few of us clubbing at the time. Dark, driving and very northern old-skool, produced by Nipper (although discogs disuptes that fact), this track was clearly a precursor to the darker breakbeat drum and bass I would get into many years later (for example – Alien Girl mentioned above). I like a lot of Warp stuff and although this may not be the most ground breaking by any stretch, it would always be my selection from the label.

Thanks for reading through. What I would really like to do is make this the start of a series of 10 or 20 tracks that changed other DJ’s lives. It would be really interesting to see what people come up with. Ill fire some requests out to people I know, and if successful I will turn this into a series of articles.

Possibly related posts:

• 20 tracks that changed my life (part 1)
• Discovering Disco
• Greg Wilson discusses Re-Editing