I thought it was time to add some more Electro's to the blog and rather topically we arrive at Electro Volume 10. Topically in that it contains one of the best electro b-boy classics to ever grace the series which is currently flavour of the month courtesy of Cadbury's marketing department.
Electro 10 is actually quite a good volume to own as it contains The Most Expensive And Rare Electro 12" Ever Probably™, namely Star Raid.
The volume starts off exceedingly well with Tricky Tee and oozes mastery with Mantronik on the drum machine - check out those snares and clap on the intro.
The Queen Of Rox is in fine feisty mood on Bite This and has a nice go at all sorts of artists as she reclaims her throne over a very nice Marley Marl production. The Dynamic Duo bring on a sense of history with their King Arthur-alike Knights Of The Turntables. I love the little JB samples mid-way through the track.
Run DMC start off the beeside with their not-really-recorded-live, live-sounding Together Forever - listen to that 808 kick, uuuugh! Craig G provides this album's only 'meh' track, although with the competition as high as it is here then judged on it's own is still a worthy contender. Takes you back though with the 'Robots in disguise' sample. My man Optimus Prime.
DJ Born Supreme Allah changes the mood to a scratch session. Like the use of scratch-panning.
This brings the album up to a close with the last track Don't Stop The Rock which as I've already mentioned is a doozy. Currently on tv now and previously completely ripped off by The Freestylers, this is a seriously fine example of what Electro was.
A1 Tricky Tee - Johnny The Fox
A2 Roxanne Shanté - Bite This
A3 Dynamic Duo featuring Shaquan - Knights Of The Turntables
A4 19th Fleet - Star Raid
B1 Run-DMC - Together Forever
B2 MC Craig G - Transformer
B3 DJ Born Supreme Allah - Two, Three, Break
B4 Freestyle - Don't Stop The Rock
And so onto Electro 11 and you can now, in retrospect, see a change in the music. Concentrating less on space-age themes and twirly synths and more on real-world issues, albeit not exactly serious ones (Success Is The Word, Butt Naked).
Kicking off with a well-sampled intro in
Roxanne Shanté's Def Fresh Crew which features an early appearance from the Diabolical
Biz Markie. A crashing, thundering and very much
Monster Beat from the
Awesome Foursome follows and
Captain Rock states his anger of smelly butts ("wash your ass" or at the very least give it a wipe).
Get Busy is a track I love with a very nice drum machine beat. And Electro 11 is the first time we were told of a guy named KRS One in the studio group
12:41 which also featured Scott La Rock and B-Boy Records labelmate LEVI167. The other great thing about this record is that Mantronik was also involved - well it was on Sleeping Bag!
What about the
B-Boys'
Girls?? In my prepubescent years this was err, an awakening, ahem.
Now, the
2 Live Crew was either one of those groups you loved or hated later on in their career but in the early years they weren't as extreme. I would listen to the Scratch Version again and again just not believing Mr Mixxx' tricks.
It's a case of 'always the bridegroom never the bride' for
Hashim's
Primrose Path as Al-Naafiysh (The Soul) is always the tune that gets put on the latest breakdance compilation rather than this one. I like it though as it has a nice quirkiness to it.
What were
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde all about anyway? Fun, that's what! Who would sing about being in their birthday clothes these days? Coldplay? Girls Aloud?
A1 Roxanne Shanté - Def Fresh Crew
A2 Awesome Foursome - Monster Beat
A3 Captain Rock - You Stink
A4 Disco Four - Get Busy
A5 12:41 - Success Is The Word
B1 The B-Boys - Girls - Part 2
B2 Stetsasonic - Just Say Stet
B3 2 Live Crew - What I Like
B4 Hashim - Primrose Path
B5 Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde - Butt Naked
Electro 10Electro 11And some good news you may have heard a whisper about is that
Morgan Khan is getting back in the game again.
'
Tim' left some comments in the '
Demise Of Streetsounds' post about the return of Streetsounds.
"
Streetsounds is about to relaunch in the UK on CD and Limited Vinyl in 2009 more than 25 years later.The new series will focus on and be entitled "Electro Breaks - Volume 1" Check out the new website http://www.streetsoundsmusic.co.uk "
If you check the bottom of the page of the website you'll see the first
Streetsounds Electro Chart. And who's number 1? Well thanks to Cadbury's, who else could it be. The rest of the top 5 are actually really good as well, still keeping the real electro elements.
Future releases include an official
UK Fresh 86 release? Can you believe that?
Check out the forum as well which is pretty empty at the moment and needs your help to fill up. Get over there people! I'm there already, saps! Look out for me under REPO136.
n.b. Just realised I never posted volumes 8 & 9.
Here they are:
Volume 8
Volume 9
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