July 2009 Mixtape: Early Nineties Nightmares

Did everyone have a nice weekend? After that Beasties post I wanted to take a few days off, but everything will be back to normal starting this week. As for that Beasties post, what did everyone think? Did you download the torrent? Did you like it? Any problems? Pros, cons, opinions, ideas, anything? Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought. There might be another compilation coming soon that would be a torrent specific download. But for now, on to today's post, the second installment of my monthly mixtape.

Someone very special to me had a birthday recently, and they received a 1gb iPod Shuffle as one of their (plentiful) gifts. This special person has enlisted me to help find the songs they want for their pod which isn’t all that difficult, but they asked for a lot of songs that I hadn’t listened to in a VERY long time, at least fifteen years. In listing these songs, one showcase for music of this sort came up several times, that being Open House Party with John Garabedian. This person and I listened to Open House Party a lot during the early nineties and often taped it to get our favorite new songs that we either couldn’t find or afford. We also listened to it because we didn’t have a lot of friends to hang out with on Saturday nights. Yes, we were lame, but we celebrated our lameness listening to music we loved and we have no shame in that. I do wish I’d have gotten laid a little earlier, but my youth was still alright.

So, while finding the songs this special person wanted I started thinking about songs I loved from the early nineties, several of which crossed over with this person’s list. While a lot of these songs are kind of embaressing to look back on, I must say that several of them are long-time favorites and others are thoroughly pleasing to have re-discovered. The whole experience was so pleasing that I decided to base my July mixtape around some of these cuts.

I should warn you that there is some heavy cheese in this one. At the time I was listening to these tracks I was twelve or thirteen and thought I was cutting edge. This was long before I discovered my loves of noise, jazz, experimental stuff, electronic music, truly weird crap, metal, deeper hip-hop and mutant dance music, among other things. So, in retrospect there is some good stuff here that thrives despite my aging, although that’s not saying a lot of it isn’t cheesy as hell, but if you’ve got a heart for exploration you should give this one a chance. And hey, play along with the name of the blog and tell me if you know any of these cuts, because a lot of people I know have never heard of any of this stuff. On top of that, if you’ve got reccomendations share them in the comments!

One more thing, my special person wanted me to note that they are a she. She was afraid someone might get the wrong idea, although she's the one who said she never wants ANYONE to know anything about her via this blog. Whatever. Alright, on with the music and some info on the tracks!

The Unheard Music July 2009 Mixtape: Early Nineties Nightmares

01 Deee-Lite – Good Beat (Extend The Beat Mix)
I LOVED Deee-Lite back in the day. I own all three of their albums and consider them all quite good. In particular, their first album, World Clique, was a knockout but the singles all had even better remixes. Even the basic radio mixes had an extra sheen on them. Good Beat gained a great glow when they remixed it for radio and video, and this remix is the long version of that mix. I can’t get confirmation on this, but I’m pretty sure this remix was credited to Sampladelic which Deee-Lite’s production label.

02 Hi Tek 3 – Spin That Wheel (feat. Ya Kid K)
Hi Tek 3 was a side-project of Technotronic, so if Ya Kid K’s voice sounds familiar (Pump Up The Jam!!!! Yes? Uh…) now you know why. They had at least one full-length album named The Easy Way. Spin That Wheel appeared on the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack in the US in slightly edited form, and a remix appeared on Technotronic’s Trip On This remix album. I can’t believe I had to reference the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

03 Color Me Badd – Slow Motion (Freeze Frame Mix)
My special person HATES this song and thinks it’s ridiculous that I liked it back in the day. The groove it alright, but the lyrics are pretty awful. Hell, there is a line in here where the lead singer proclaims that “they call me motion lover”. This is a cheese-fest if there ever was one. This track is notable though for being a Howie Tee production and giving a sample credit to Blood Sweat and Tears Spinning Wheel. A little of the melody from Spinning Wheel could be referenced, but it really never jumped out to me until I saw the sample clearance. Regardless, decent track but watch out for the cheese. After all, these are the guys that did I Wanna Sex You Up!

04 Urban Dance Squad – Deeper Shade Of Soul
Does anyone else remember this track? This was the jam for five minutes in the early nineties! Cool video with a bunch of skater dudes and a track that sounds like Rage Against The Machine if they were more concerned with waves and a good buzz than politics. These guys recorded a few more records and did eventually go in the direction Rage was going, at least with their sound, but I prefer this funky mellow vibe any day of the week.

05 Black Box – I Don’t Know Anybody Else (Hurley’s House Mix)
I discovered Black Box after hearing Martha Wash singing for C+C Music Factory. They had a few really good tracks like Everybody Everybody and Strike It Up, but this track, in particular this version, is the shit! Steve “Silk” Hurley did a lot great house records and remixes that I was never able to put his name with until years later, ingraining in my mind how great his productions were. Don’t sleep on Steve Hurley!

06 3rd Bass – Portrait Of The Artist As A Hood (Remix)
3rd Bass were Def Jam’s answer to the Beastie Boys after they parted ways. 3rd Bass were more street and far more concerned with mic skills than partying, but as much as I love their stuff (Derelicts Of Dialect is a classic!) that doesn’t make them better than the Beasties. That said, this track gets all kinds of credit as being one of the first remixes to completely flip the beat and add a new vocal track or verse. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I do remember this remix being special because the extra verse wasn’t provided by an outside MC. This gets placed along-side the remix of A Tribe Called Quest’s Scenario which featured a new beat and completely re-recorded rhymes, several of which were re-written. That Scenario remix usually gets credited as the first to do ths new beat thing, but 3rd Bass’ Portrait was definitely the first.

07 Jeremy Jordan – Right Kind Of Love
I remember hating this song when I was younger because it was a girly jam. You couldn’t dance, jam or rock out to it, you had to slow dance or something. Nothing wrong with getting next to the opposite sex, I just wanted to do that with with a better groove. Time has relaxed me though and I recognize this as a good slow groover that might get you next to a sexy little something. Oh yeah, my roommate wants to note that this track was played in the original 90210. Me, I never watched 90210, it was too GIRLY! I’M A MAN, MAN! Aww, who am I kidding, I say this but I watched Sex and The City regularly.

08 LL Cool J – Jingling Baby (Remixed But Still Jingling)
Now this is the shit! I never heard this on the radio or television, I found out about it when a friend brought over their copy of LL’s Mama Said Knock You Out. That whole cd is great, but this track takes the cake! So much better than the original version! All credit must be given to Marley Marl who secured production duties for the Mama Said album by giving Jingling Baby this much needed rework. Put this shit on and go driving round town with your windows down! A lot of people say the old school is just that, old, but tracks as good as this never, and I mean NEVER, go out of style.

09 Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam – Let The Beat Hit ‘Em (The Brand New Super Pumped-Up C&C Vocal Club Mix)
Ridiculous title, eh? This remix is a C&C production, if the name didn’t give it away, but they did the original version too. This track really introduced me to heavy sampling and using samples out of context. I never found out about Double Dee & Steinski until the late nineties, but I put this alongside the Lessons and lots of those other sample-based classics. Let me know what you think of this one.

10 The Shamen – Move Any Mountain (Beat Edit)
I used to bother my friends and family by making them listen to this track over and over again, much to their distaste. It’s aged alright but there is no question what era it came out in. This is the same version that appears on the album, but for whatever reason the single releases always noted this as the Beat Edit. Beat is short for Beatmasters, although I never found the full version of this track apart from a Beatmasters Dub. I did find a track labeled the Beatmasters 12” version, but it doesn’t sound anything like this one.

11 Prince – Gett Off (Houstyle)
Another Steve “Silk” Hurley remix! I love the extended remix of the album version, but this version is killer! Just check it out now!

12 Pebbles – Giving You The Benefit (Extended Club Mix)
I wish there was a shorter version of this mix, as the album and single mixes just don’t sound nearly as good. I’ve heard this way too many times for it to be as much fun as it used to be, but it’s still good. My friend Scott, who I haven’t seen for years, made fun of me for putting this on a mixtape. His girlfriend started listening to it all the time and he gave me tons of shit for it. On that note, Scott (full name Scott Ernest Henderson), drop me a line if you’re out there. It’s been too long man! I wanna know how you’re doing!

13 Trilogy – Good Time
Another C&C produced track featuring Q-Unique of Arsonists fame and using a sample of the end of the Fat Albert theme song. Remember when all songs featured samples of the Fat Albert theme? Yeah, me neither.

14 A Tribe Called Quest – Scenario (feat. Leaders Of The New School)
Classic! Nothing else to say other than classic!