Compiled & Edited By Greg Wilson For Tirk Records 2018
1. T-COY – “CARIÑO” (8:02)
Mike Pickering was someone I first met in 1983 when, along with Rob Gretton, New Order’s manager and Factory/Haçienda director, he approached me about taking a weekly Friday at the club, its first regular bespoke dance night. Mike was then the booker for the Haçienda, but he’d take over DJing duties in ’84, evolving that same Friday session into the hallowed Nude night, a key ingredient of the rave explosion – his eventual partnership with Graeme Park now the stuff of legend.
Apart from working at The Haçienda Mike was also a member of Quando Quango, whose Factory single ‘Love Tempo’ had reached the top 3 of the US Dance chart in 1983. Simon Topping, who played percussion with Quando Quango, and A Certain Ratio before that, would later join Mike in a new project, T-Coy (an acronym of ‘take care of yourself’), with keyboardist Richie Close recruited to complete the trio.
Their first release was 1987’s Latin-flavoured ‘Cariño’, a blend of Tito Puente and Adonis, as Topping put it, fusing live and electronic to deliver one of the UK’s first authentic House releases. It made its debut on Stu Allan’s essential Piccadilly Radio show, played from cassette, before being pressed to white label 12”. Remarkably, Factory frontman Tony Wilson, on the cusp of a dance revolution his club would be at the very apex of, was shying away from putting out dance releases, so T-Coy signed instead to the newly-formed Deconstruction label, Mike also taking a position within the company – his previous A&R work for Factory having unearthed the Happy Mondays. During the coming years Deconstruction would establish itself as one of Britain’s leading dance labels, its artists including Black Box, K-Klass, Bassheads and Felix, plus Pickering’s hugely popular band, M People. By contrast, Factory would encounter cashflow problems due to the delay in delivery of new material from New Order and the Happy Mondays, going belly up as a result in 1992.
Very much a cult-classic, ‘Cariño’ would also feature on the seminal 1988 British House compilation ‘North – The Sound Of The House Underground’, which, in an echo of the ‘UK Electro’ project I was involved in four years earlier, saw the bulk of material produced by the same people, in this case Pickering, Topping and Close. The album would also include Manchester anthem ‘Voodoo Ray’ by A Guy Called Gerald, which, of course, appeared on the second volume of Credit To The Edit.
In 2010, Mike, nowadays a Sony executive, approached me to edit ‘Cariño’ for a remixes package issued on the re-activated Deconstruction label, and it’s a variant of this edit that now provides a fitting opener on the CD.
- Written by Pickering / Topping / Close
- Produced by T-Coy
- Published by Copyright Control
- Deconstruction Records 1987
- Licensed courtesy of Deconstruction Records Ltd
2. CHAZ JANKEL – “GLAD TO KNOW YOU” (4.21)
This is my edit of Todd Terje’s edit of ‘Glad To Know You’, which was released in 2008, 27 years on from Chas Jankel’s original. I was into the track, but was never taken by the song – I appreciate that it’s much-loved by many, but it just never did it for me, so I decided to put together an instrumental version from Terje’s edit. An evergreen favourite whenever I play it out, this is the first time it’s been made available – to date it’s been purely for personal use only.
Jankel was the keyboardist / guitarist with Ian Dury’s Blockheads, best-known for their 1978 UK #1 ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’. He worked close-up with Dury, fashioning his distinctive sound, which drew in Funk, Punk and Jazz influences a plenty to provide the perfect juxtaposition for Dury’s cockney musings.
Jankel released an obscure one-off single for GM Records in 1974, a few years prior to hooking-up with Dury. However, his solo career proper was launched via his self-titled 1980 A&M debut album, which included the single ‘Ai No Corrida’, covered the following year by the legendary Quincy Jones, which would go top 30 US and top 20 UK, with vocals by Charles May (aka Dune) and Patti Austin.
Jankel’s second album, released in the UK in 1981 as ‘Chasanova’, and in the US as ‘Questionnaire’, included the tracks ‘Glad To Know You’, written with Dury, and ‘3,000,000 Synths’, written with engineer and studio-collaborator Philip Bagenal, which were packaged with ‘Ai No Corrida’ on a 12” by A&M in the US, going on to top Billboard’s Dance chart in early 1982.
Changing his name to Chaz from 1983, hence the discrepancy here, despite achieving popularity in the US clubs, Jankel was starved of success in the UK, remarkably failing to chart with all releases, both albums and singles, and deemed too poppy for the black music dominated dance underground.
In 2007, Tirk’s Chaz Jankel retrospective ‘My Occupation’, served to draw attention to his legacy. During the intervening years selectors of a more Balearic persuasion provided a new context for artists like Jankel and tracks including ‘Glad To Know You’, along with the rare Jazz-Dub anagrammed variant ‘To Woo Lady Kong’, which Tirk released on single to accompany their album.
- Written by Jankel / Dury
- Produced by Chaz Jankel
- Re-Edit by Todd Terje
- Published by Warner Chappell Music & Heatwave Music
- Tirk Records 2008 (originally A&M 1981)
- Licensed courtesy of Tirk Recordings
3. ESCORT – “COCAINE BLUES” (7.19)
Escort make their second Credit To The Edit appearance, following the inclusion of ‘Starlight’ (2006), which I versioned for volume 2. The Brooklyn-based Disco collective came into my orbit once again when I remixed their 2010 single ‘Cocaine Blues’, featured here.
It was a track I had a great deal of fun working on, its roots lying in 2 favourite records of my teenage years – Dillinger’s JA classic ‘Cokane In My Brain’ (aka ‘Cocaine In My Brain’)’ and Philadelphia International Funk bomb ‘Do It Anyway You Wanna’ by People’s Choice.
When I first started out in the clubs, back in December 1975, ‘Do It Anyway You Wanna’ was still one of the biggest tunes around, having reached the top 40 of UK chart a few months earlier. I can’t help but think of Terry Lennaine, the Radio Merseyside Soul Show presenter, in connection with this single, as he used it for one of his best-known jingles, ‘it’s a Terry Lennaine Soul climber’, sung along with the bassline.
In 1976 I was rummaging around a Birkenhead record shop when I heard that unmistakable People’s Choice bassline, but driving this killer Reggae tune about someone called ‘Jim’ who keeps making a mistake when asked to ‘spell New York’ (which he spells correctly in the literal sense) by ‘John’, who tells us he has ‘cocaine runnin’ around’ his brain. Packed full of wonderfully surreal lyrical content, of which I’d never heard the likes, I went up to the counter and asked for a copy of whatever was playing, which happened to be by Jamaican toaster Dillinger (aka Lester Bullock). There were a couple of subsequent versions issued, but it was the Black Swan pressing that stopped me in my tracks that day.
A further, more obscure vocal reference, can also be detected within the Escort single – Hamilton Bohannon’s ‘Disco Stomp’, once again a big club hit from 1975, from where they adapt the line ‘chick in the car but the car won’t go, Chicago’.
I centred my mix around the ‘I don’t wanna stop’ vocal part, which, for me, symbolises the trap of moreish abuse that many cocaine users fall into.
- Written & Produced by Escort
- Mixed by Greg Wilson
- Published by Blue Mountain Music Ltd (ASCAP)
- Escort Records 2010
- Licensed courtesy of No Static Recordings
4. LUXXURY FEATURING THE REYNOLDS – “HOLD ON” (6.04)
In 2013 I received an email from the extravagantly named Baron Von Luxxury, who’s based in Los Angeles. He told me he was launching a series of ‘dubby edits’, 3 of which he’d linked me to, including a somewhat spaced-out version of ‘Hotel California’.
I’d presumed it was some obscure European variant I hadn’t heard before, the vocoder vocal completely throwing me, and it was only later that I realized that Luxxury had worked from the original stems, completely reinventing the LA Soft-Rock classic that had taken The Eagles to the top of the US chart in 1977.
In a club context, at 82bpm this was slow, even for a DJ like myself who’s comfortable playing tracks below 100bpm, so it was all about finding the right moment for it. I had to wait a little while, but it finally arrived that December, when I used it to commence my 8-hour session at Kantine am Berghain in Berlin.
With the Berghain recording serving to ignite interest, Luxxury had a viral hit on his hands when he unofficially issued ‘Hotel California’ the following January. Then it all blew up in his face, with Warner Music, who hold the song’s copyright, threatening legal action and forcing take-downs across all of his platforms.
Despite the setback, interest in Luxxury’s reworks built, with downtempo delights like ‘Riders On The Storm’ by The Doors and his instrumental slant on the Bee Gees ‘Night Fever’, both big for me, as was his later take on ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin – Rock and Pop undoubtedly his speciality.
In 2015 I approached him to remix my ‘Summer Came My Way’ single, featuring vocalists Carmel & Katherine Reynolds, and this would be the first release on my then new Super Weird Substance label. I’d subsequently work on remixes for 2 tracks he released in 2016, ‘Take It Slow’ (with Derek Kaye) and ‘Hold On’ (with Peza), the latter of which is included here. The Reynolds were also recruited to add their vocal finesse to great effect.
- Written by Blake Robin & Billy Caruso
- Produced by Luxxury
- Mixed by Greg Wilson & Peza
- Published by Expensive Sounding Music, BMI
- Deep & Disco Recordings 2016
- Licensed courtesy of Nolita Records.
5. CHAKACHAS – “JUNGLE FEVER” (6.18)
This is a track that goes all the way back to the Proto-Disco era of the early ‘70s, a million-selling US hit that scored big in the discotheques both there, and across the Atlantic in Europe.
Chakachas were a Belgian group of Latin-flavoured musicians, starting out in the late 1950s as The Chakachas, and achieving moderate European success, issuing a number of recordings throughout the ‘60s. However, ‘Jungle Fever’ was the pinnacle of their career, its funky downtempo groove and seductive vibe irresistible, resulting in a top 10 US hit. The record also made it to the top 30 in the UK, but it stalled when the BBC took exception to the song’s sexual moans, groans and heavy breathing, banning it from the airwaves and thus stunting its progress.
A favourite from the early days of David Mancuso’s seminal Loft parties in New York, acknowledged as key to the evolution of the Disco era, which began in 1970, the year that the ‘Jungle Fever’ album appeared in Belgium (the track was released on single internationally the following year). The record entered popular consciousness once more just under 3 decades on when it was featured in the soundtrack of the Disco era movie ‘Boogie Nights’ (1997). It’s since found its way onto Grand Theft Auto San Andreas in 2004, on the playlist for Master Sounds 98.3. My extended edit was pressed up as ‘Belgian Jungle’ in 2010 for the Ruff Edits series.
- Written by B. Ador
- Produced by Roland Kluger
- Arranged by Willy Albimoor
- Published by Copyright Control
- Polydor Records 1970
- Licensed courtesy of Fonior Records
6. FAB 5 FREDDY & BESIDE “CHANGE THE BEAT” (4.52)
Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Braithwaite) is a cultural connector of the highest order, his fingerprints are all over the emergence of the Hip Hop movement in the early ‘80s, exposing the outpouring of invention and expression emitting from the uptown Bronx to the movers and shakers of the downtown arts scene in Manhattan. His name first came to my attention via the lyrics of Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ (1980), a track which delved into Hip Hop’s then undiscovered corners where, as she informs us, ‘Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly’.
Jean Karakos (jokingly nicknamed Grandmaster Cash by the Hip Hop fraternity), who’d started Celluloid Records in France, moved to New York in 1980 with the intention of making his own tracks, bringing in Material bassist Bill Laswell as in-house producer. The eclectic cutting-edge dance label would enjoy a prolific run, operating until 1989.
He met Braithwaite via a mutual friend, French-Algerian journalist Bernard Zekri, who provided his introduction to the burgeoning Bronx Hip Hop community. This would lead to a series of recordings at Brooklyn’s OAO Studio in 1982, including the session for ‘Change The Beat’. Zekri planned to take Celluloid’s newly acquired Hip Hop roster to France in order to highlight the music there, and with this in mind he wrote a French language rap for Braithwaite to record.
Braithwaite rapped in both English and French, but he struggled with the French pronunciation. Zekri’s then wife, Ann Marie Boyle, who could speak French and had been helping coach Braithwaite, laid down a version herself, which would be issued on the flip of the 12” instead of the planned instrumental, under the artist name of Beside (early pressings would also credit her as Beeside and Fab 5 Betty), bestowed on her by pioneer turntablist Grandmixer D.ST, who was part of the Celluloid crew. Beside would go on to record further tracks for the label, including vocals for the 1983 Electro-Funk favourite ‘The Wildstyle’ by Time Zone, releasing an album as B-Side in 1985.
Material’s manager Roger Trilling chipped-in with an impromptu faux-Japanese rap, based on actor Toshiro Mifune, best-known for his 16-film collaboration with the great director Akira Kurosawa. Trilling also provided ‘Ahhhhhh, this stuff is really fresh’, which would become arguably the most scratched words in Hip Hop history, ‘fresh’ famously used the following year by Grandmixer D.ST on Herbie Hancock’s Grammy award-winning ‘Rockit’, which Bill Laswell had a big hand in, and subsequently utilised by numerous artists ranging from Eric B. & Rakim to Justin Bieber. The phrase parodied Bruce Lundvall, an executive of Elektra Records, who’d make this expression on hearing something he liked. Trilling recorded the throwaway contribution through a vocoder, giving his voice a robotic edge, ‘Change The Beat’, as a result, amongst the most sampled records of all-time.
Whilst ‘ChangeThe Beat’ was the name on the US release, the tracks were issued in France under the title of ‘Une Sale Histoire’ (French for ‘A Dirty Story’) with the Beside version promoted to the A side. My edit combines the separate sides.
- Written by Bernard Zekri / Material
- Produced by Material
- Published by Copyright Control
- Celluloid Records 1982
- Licensed courtesy of Celluloid Records
7. PSYCHEMAGIK FEATURING NAVID IZADI “MINK & SHOES” (6.59)
I first met Dan McLewin and Tom Coveney from Psychemagik when we were on the same line-up at Fabric in London at the start of 2011. They’d just pressed up their much-loved edit of ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac, and they’d subsequently credit Tom Middleton and myself with helping the record blow up big style on the following summer’s UK festival circuit. Their transformation of Paula Cole’s ‘Feelin’ Good’ was also popular for me that year, and we cemented our association when they asked me to remix their ‘Valley Of Paradise’ single in 2011.
It was clear to me that Psychemagik had their own special touch and were undoubtedly up and coming as they say, so I recommended them to my agents, The Pool, who they’d work with for a period. They subsequently lived up to expectations accessing a global underground into which they found an appreciative following.
Originally surfacing on a Smirnoff Vodka advert, before its release on vinyl and digital, ‘Mink & Shoes’ features vocalist Navid Izadi over a solid mid-tempo acid groove. Working between vocal and dub versions, I put together my own edit to play out, mainly instrumental but including the chorus vocal, all topped off with some additional ambience via a scattering of samples I introduced.
- Written by Psychemagik & Navid Izadi
- Produced by Psychemagik
- Published by Copyright Control
- Psychemagik Records 2015
- Licensed courtesy of Psychemagik Records
8. BASSHEADS “IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?” (7.39)
One of the all-time Rave classics, ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ first appeared as a white label in 1991, quickly exploding on the dance scene. It was particularly interesting for me to witness its runaway success given that I knew Desa and Nick Murphy, who lived on the Wirral, where they formed Bassheads (as a nod to the Birkenhead club night, The Bassment, which Desa hosted). Desa was a few years younger than me, but managed to get into some of the local clubs I DJ’d at in the late-‘70s, before he started out as a club DJ himself. I’d recorded at Nick’s home studio a few years before Bassheads formed, my use of the Revox B77 reel to reel inspiring Desa to buy his own for recording sessions (he’d subsequently sell this machine to me about a decade ago).
‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ had all stemmed from Yorkshire Hardcore hero Shaun Imrei, whose early ‘90s projects included Elevation and Terrorize. Desa & Nick, who’d been busy building a buzz around Bassheads via their Defhouse EPs, would work into Imrei’s demo. Adding to the guitar taken from The Osmonds’ ‘Crazy Horses’ there would be further samples from Talking Heads’ ‘Once In A Lifetime’, Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Get Up and Dance’, Ruffneck’s ‘The Power – The Rhythm’ and, from their 1979 album ‘The Wall’, Pink Floyd’s ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’, from where, of course, this dynamic dancefloor detonation took its title. Having blown-up big time on white label, it was signed to Deconstruction, the official version released in November 1991 spawning a top 5 UK hit.
I put my edit together 2009, initially as the opener for an appearance at the Big Chill Festival, bringing back the Floyd ambience and adding the acoustic guitar section before things fully kick-in, whilst also extending the piano breakdown, helping create extra tension before the rap drops. It’s become a track I’ve played numerous times since, and it’s always guaranteed to bring the roof down. I wasn’t DJing when it first came out, so it’s great to be able to introduce it in a new context, both to those who fondly remember its original release, as well as those who are getting a first-time blast of this infectious dance monster.
- Written by Deery, Murphy, Imrei, Various
- Produced by Bassheads / Shaun Imrei
- Mixed by Desa & Ralphy
- Published by Copyright Control
- Deconstruction Records 1991
- Licensed courtesy of Warner Music
9. SHEILA & B. DEVOTION – “SPACER” (5.01)
Sheila was a French pop singer of the ‘60s and ‘70s who metamorphosed into a Disco diva, backed by B. Devotion (3 male singers / dancers, the B for Black), and released one of the true monstrosities of the Disco era, a cover of Gene Kelly’s Hollywood Musical standard ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ in 1977, which became a major hit throughout Europe. Her other UK hit, ‘You Light My Fire’ was also to be avoided like the plague – this was the type of music that eventually pulled Disco into the gutter.
Against this backdrop ‘Spacer’ came as a huge surprise – all of a sudden this Euro-Disco chancer was being backed by the hottest rhythm section on the planet. It sounded like Chic because it was Chic – Rodgers & Edwards were the writers and producers.
It went on to be a multi-million seller and a mainstream club favourite. I was still resident at the Golden Guinea in New Brighton, so it’s a track I played there. I was never into the verses, but we were stuck with them back then, there was no alternative. That said, the chorus has a great vibe, which more than made up for the bits I wasn’t so keen on – the backing, of course, is sensational.
With all the attention Nile Rodgers has received during recent years, due to his prolific Chic touring schedule, his highly readable autobiography, and his Daft Punk association, it popped into my head as a possible re-edit, so I knocked together a more DJ friendly ruff, taking out the verses completely.
A main feature is the extended intro, my intention, a simple one, to build on the vibe of that wonderful piano and shaker prelude by looping it to a drawn-out 32 bars rather than its original 8, making it all the more magical when Tony Thompson’s beats, Edwards’ bass, and Rodgers’ addictive guitar riff roll in as they do to introduce that solid groove.
The catalyst for me getting this edit together was an invitation to appear on a panel at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) in November 2013 to discuss Disco alongside Nile Rodgers himself (and if that wasn’t enough, the other panellist was Giorgio Moroder!). The ‘Spacer’ edit was shared online to coincide with ADE, but has never been previously available in any format.
- Written & Produced by Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards
- Published by Chic Organization Ltd
- Carrere Records 1979
- Licensed courtesy of Warner Music
10. SPACE – “MAGIC FLY” (6.08)
From our previous track ‘Spacer’ to Space, we stay in France, Marseilles this time, where ‘Magic Fly’ was recorded 2 years earlier in 1977. One of the pioneering electronic dance records, it would just miss the top spot of the UK chart.
The 4-piece group was formed by Didier Marouani (aka Ecama), who would write their material, arranging the tracks with fellow member Roland Romanelli, whilst working with producer Jean-Philippe Illesco. Dressing as spacemen, looking like a prototype Daft Punk, 3 of Space played synthesiser keyboards, the 4th behind a set of drums.
‘Magic Fly’ would also find favour in the Chinese speaking world when it was used as the main theme of the original 1978 Hong Kong version of Jackie Chan’s breakthrough movie, ‘Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow’. Marouani would take Space to the USSR in 1983 for a series of performances including a free concert in Red Square, and his connections with Russia and the former Soviet Union have continued since.
Although Space’s original version didn’t show on the US Disco chart, a cover of ‘Magic Fly’ by the Canadian group Kebekelektrik, featuring Gino Soccio, who’d go on to build his own Disco legacy, was a top 10 club hit stateside in ’77. Space would enjoy top 5 Disco success with ‘Carry On, Turn Me On’ / ‘Tango In Space’, both tracks taken from the ‘Magic Fly’ album.
Nang records (sister of the Tirk label), also looks after the back catalogue for Space, so when we were getting the tracklisting together for this album, the possibility of doing something with ‘Magic Fly’ occurred. The upshot was that Nang were able to provide the original stems, so I brought in Peza (aka Wolverhampton’s very own Lee Perry), who I’ve worked with on various remixes, and whose love of ‘70s / ‘80s Synth Pop made him the perfect collaborator for this new version.
- Written by Ecama (Didier Marouani)
- Produced by Jean-Philippe Illesco
- Arranged by Didier Marouani & Roland Romanelli
- Mixed by Greg Wilson & Peza
- Published by Bastien Music
- Nang Records 2009 (originally released 1977)
- Licensed courtesy of Nang Records
11. RED RACK’EM – “WONKY BASSLINE DISCO BANGER” (6.08)
I met DJ / producer Danny Berman (aka Red Rack’em) in Nottingham in 2005. He was putting together edits at the time, but had aspirations of releasing his own original material, which he fulfilled in 2008 with his Hot Coins project, resulting in an album deal with Tirk. His Hot Coins remix of the evangelical ‘Stand On The Word’ by The Joubert Singers in 2009 was absolutely huge for me, as well as being championed by Gilles Peterson.
In 2010 he’d put out his first Red Rack’em album, ‘The Early Years’ on his own Bergerac label, with an assortment of 12” releases following during the next half-decade. Then, in 2016, he issued ‘Wonky Bassline Disco Banger’, with the track’s quirkiness, topped-off with the introduction of its distinctive off-kilter bass, really capturing the imagination – it would be aptly described as ‘charmingly bonkers’.
Picked up by Classic, the label first set up by DJs Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon back in the ‘90s, and nowadays under the Defected umbrella, ‘Wonky Bassline Disco Banger’ has continued to wreak its aural havoc on dancefloors around the globe.
The source for my edit was the Luke Solomon & Terry Grant Live Disco Revision, a slightly less crazed version that was issued digitally in 2017 as part of the various artists ‘Love Is The Message’ EP pack, courtesy of Glitterbox, Defected’s Ibiza Disco extravaganza. My edit stemmed from wanting to repeat the bass section, which just appeared the once in this version, slightly shuffling things up in the process.
- Written & Produced by Danny Berman
- Live Disco Revision by Luke Soloman & Terry Grant
- Published by Copyright Control
- Glitterbox Recordings 2017 (originally released 2016)
- Licensed courtesy of Classic Music
12. ELECTRONIC – “GETTING AWAY WITH IT” (10.09)
When the idea of a third Credit To The Edit compilation came up, ‘Getting Away With It’, which I’d immediately identified as my preferred closing track, was top of my shopping list – so it goes without saying just how pleased I am that we’ve been able to license this, one of the highlights of the Factory Records’ catalogue during its latter years.
The Electronic project brought together a pair of ‘80s Manchester music icons, Bernard Sumner, the vocalist with New Order, and Johnny Marr, the guitarist with The Smiths. ‘Getting Away With It’ was their first single, released in late ’89, and featured Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, who co-wrote the lyrics from the presumed perspective of Marr’s former songwriting partner, Morrissey, suggesting that he’s been getting away with his persona of being miserable for years.
It’s such a wonderful feel good tune, and by that I don’t mean a hands in the air type anthem, but rather something that subtly probes beneath the surface of the emotions, and really warms the spirit with its euphoric melancholy. It’s a hidden classic of the Madchester era – something that you don’t hear anything like as often as you’d expect to, or at least as I’d expect to, despite it achieving chart success on both sides of the Atlantic (#12 UK, #38 US, #7 US Dance).
My edit combines the different sides of the 12” I’d first fell in love with. I knew I wanted a long intro, getting it all to unfold slowly, fluidly, so that the track creeps up on you unawares. The idea being to mix it out of the previous track so it grooves along for a couple of minutes, keeping things on a level, before the strings enter and the whole vibe lifts and swells. I also wanted to create a reprise two thirds through, so it seems like the track is just about to conclude when the piano and bass, in their understated glory, strike up, before the drums re-enter and we’re off again for a further 3 and a half minutes. There was a specific type of energy I wanted it to generate via my arrangement, the intention was always to make it an end of night / closing tune, so it’s almost like rewinding and playing again, or a ‘one more tune’ within a tune.
That was back in 2011, and ‘Getting Away With It’ consequently became a signature edit for me that’s been much requested over the last 7 years. That it’s now getting an official release is the cherry on the cake, its only previous availability via a limited vinyl pressing on KAT in 2012, as ‘I Love You More Than You Love Me’.
- Written & Produced by Bernard Sumner
- Mixed by Pete Schwier
- Published by Copyright Control
- Factory Records 1989
- Licensed courtesy of Warner Music
DIGI01. CAPTAIN RAPP – “BAD TIMES (I CAN’T STAND IT)” (8:33)
Captain Rapp (aka Larry Earl Glenn) is a West Coast pioneer, his 1981 duo with Disco Daddy, ‘The Gigolo Rapp’ (Rappers Rapp Disco Co.), acknowledged as LA’s first authentic rap recording.
‘Bad Times (I Can’t Stand It)’, its title referencing Chic’s 1979 hit ‘Good Times’, which apart from being a Disco classic was also an anthem for the emerging Hip Hop movement, followed the example of the previous year’s seminal Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five hit ‘The Message’, dealing with issues and pressures from both the street and the wider world – this was reality rap that spoke about the times in which it was made, whilst Rich Cason’s upbeat Electro groove and Kimberley Ball’s hooky vocal perfectly offset the bleakness of the lyrical content.
I picked up a copy in October 1983 and it was soon the biggest track on my nights at Legend and Wigan Pier. It was also featured during my Friday night tenure at The Haçienda during the latter part of that year. The backing track, a derivative of Rich Cason & The Galactic Orchestra’s ‘Year 2001 Boogie’, also issued by Saturn, was completed with the help of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the now legendary songwriters/producers, then riding the wave of a major breakthrough via the S.O.S. Band, who only just missed the top spot on the R&B chart with ‘Just Be Good To Me’, another huge track for me when it came in on import during the previous summer.
Swiftly following the initial Saturn release, Becket Records in New York licensed ‘Bad Times’ and it was the Becket pressing that was listed when it entered the US Dance chart at the end of November ’83, remaining on the list until the following March with a peak position of #23.
In 2009 my edit of ‘Bad Times’ appeared on limited vinyl as ‘Ruff Rapp’. It was part of the Ruff Edits series. A few years later the edit was uploaded to SoundCloud, and in 2012 I received an email from Captain Rapp himself, Larry Glenn, who gave me the thumbs up for what I’d done. We subsequently chatted on the phone and he told me about some projects he was in discussion about. One later materialised a few years on via Ronnie Hudson’s album 2014 ‘Westcoastin’’ album, which featured a number of Hip Hop luminaries, including Snoop Dogg, Wyclef Jean and Too Short, and saw Larry ‘Captain Rapp’ Glenn pick up an executive producer credit alongside fellow LA pioneer Lee ‘DJ Flash’ Johnson. To add to the old school flavour, the track was released on the re-activated Rappers Rapp Disco Co. label.
- Saturn Records 1983
- Written by Larry Earl Glenn
- Produced by Cletus Anderson
- Arranged & Performed by Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis & Rich Cason.
- Mixed by Barry Rudolph
- Publishers Copyright Control
- Licensed courtesy of Fonoir
DIGI02. CRYSTAL GRASS – “CRYSTAL WORLD” (7:22)
First appearing on the 1974 album ‘Dedicated To Philadelphia’, this enigmatic French Disco Funk nugget really blew my mind when I first heard it, following its UK single release in 1975, and continues to be a big personal favourite from that mid-‘70s period. There were many great records around at the time, but this had a different edge about it – right from the get go, with that addictive driving bassline, there was something pretty trippy taking place within these Gallic grooves.
It reached the top 5 on the US Disco chart, and when I started out DJing in the clubs later that year, in December 1975, it was still a popular underground club track that I’d have had in my record box – it features in the ‘First Impressions’ selection that I compiled to illustrate the records I was playing when I made my club debut.
I suppose it was always primed for an edit from me, just to extend it out a bit. This ended up being pressed on vinyl back to back with an edit of another essential early European club cut, ‘Jungle Fever’ by Chakachas, which is also a Credit To The Edit 3 inclusion. The coupling was pressed on GW Ruff Edits #4 in 2010 as ‘French Crystal’ / ‘Belgian Jungle’.
It’s European origin certainly comes into it, but the unusual, somewhat uncanny atmosphere of ‘Crystal World’ is what will always set it apart as a unique recording (the closest to this vibe during the same era, to my ears, was Strutt’s ‘Time Moves On’, a US release from ‘76, with its distinctively eerie undertones – a track that I also edited, this time for Cosmic Boogie in 2009).
S-Express would sample the horns from ‘Crystal World’ on their single ‘Theme From S-Express’, a key British release of the Acid-House era, which topped both the UK chart and the US Dance chart in 1988.
- Philips Records 1974
- Written by Nicholas Snorsky
- Produced by Lee Hallyday
- Arranged by Raymond Dennis
- Published by Suzie / Junk Music
- Licensed courtesy of Fonoir
© Greg Wilson, 2018
