— Lola Borg
It's amazing to think what a left field smash Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body" was. It didn't have the benefit of record label promotion, the BBC wouldn't play it and the video looks uncannily like something pieced together by a not-especially-talented YouTuber. Smash Hits didn't bother reviewing it either, although it's impossible to say if that was because they didn't think it merited an appraisal or if they weren't even sent a copy to begin with. Yet, it went all the way to number one. Hurley was back in his native Chicago when he got the news and assumed it had gone to the top of the dance charts. He probably didn't celebrate the way The Beatles did when they found out that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was topping the charts in the US, no.
As if to compensate, Lola Borg is here this fortnight to give her approval to the follow up to the follow up of "Jack Your Body". She doesn't go right out and say it but it seems he hasn't just put out another house anthem full of samples but now has a proper song along as well. You might think that he had another smash on his hands with "She's So Far Away" but it ended up being an even bigger flop than previous single "Let the Music Take Control", which at least came close to a top 40 entry. Hey, wha' happened?
Looking back at the early days of the house music scene, British reporters and industry types have admitted that they didn't know what to do with it. These weren't pop stars, they were faceless DJ's. They didn't cavort on stage with sexy guitars, they stood behind a mixing desk, one hand scratching away at a record, the other pressing half a headphone set to their ears. Of course they didn't sing or any of that nonsense! Compounding the problem was that there weren't many figures in print, radio or TV championing it, though it wouldn't be long before Bruno Brooks and John Peel began going all in with the house. As Miranda Sawyer told David Hepworth and Mark Ellen on their Word in Your Ear podcast, Smash Hits had difficulty fitting the square peg of house music DJs into the round hole of pop. (Well, she didn't say those words exactly but I'll help myself to some licence)
But members of the British media shouldn't be so hard on themselves since the house acts of the time were equally clueless. Though Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and vocalist Darryl Pandy were smart enough to make the trip across the Atlantic to appear on Top of the Pops to promote their hit single "Love Can't Turn Around", others didn't bother. British groups who enjoy Stateside success despite more modest sales back home, from The Zombies to Bush, tend to promptly head off to the US to tour the country to death — and plenty of them even more there — but American acts aren't usually so keen to transplant themselves to the Old World. Hurley admits that other priorities got in the way and that his management advised him to stay home.
Amongst a media that hadn't the faintest idea how to handle this new explosion and performers who didn't know anything about the world of pop, "Jack Your Body" became an unexpected number one and, just as importantly, would launch house music in the minds of the British public. The fact that it now sounds simple and primitive shouldn't take anything away from its importance. But for Hurley it was meant to be a lark and wasn't representative of his sound. The single had been credited to Hurley himself but most of the rest of his work was done under the name of J.M. Silk. He was back doing his day job, which didn't involve making the kids in Britain go nuts over a futuristic new sound.
The amazing thing about "She's So Far Away" is how it feels as much a part of the past as anything else. House music had its roots in the underground clubs ever since the decline of disco and the synthesized horns, song structure and strong but characterless baritone of singer Keith Nunnally are very much throwbacks. As Borg says, there are those "squibbly" bits but they're far subtler and not about to catch the ears of the impressionable. On the surface, it might seem more commercial but so too is it much more in line with dance music. Fittingly, the "squibbly" bits are the best part; otherwise, it's effectively an afterthought record that Bobby O could have knocked out half a decade earlier.
As ever within the sub-genres of the rock era, the British quickly took to house music and it would be their own acts who would lead the way, particularly when it came to chart presence. But you have to think they learned from earlier missteps. Bomb the Bass followed up their breakthrough hit "Beat Dis" with much more of a pop-based house number but Tim Simenon hedged his bets by putting it out as a double A-side with something much more in line with its predecessor. Mark Moore recruited three young women to perform some "vox", "sampled vox" (whatever that is) and percussion but also to give S'Express the image of a proper group and not a typical house act with a DJ scratching away at a turntable. The Beatmasters, Coldcut and D-Mob all began bringing in guest vocalists. Even some of the Americans began to follow suit: by 1988, Detroit techno house outfit Inner City scored a big UK hit with "Big Fun" and they spared nothing to make themselves known in the country that had taken to them. When their next single "Good Life" was released, they were being featured in Smash Hits and vocalist Paris Grey could be seen mugging for the camera in a video shot in London. The influential DJ and producer Frankie Knuckles would soon spend considerable time in Britain and Marshall Jefferson ended up settling there. House would gradually become known as techno and now it's basically EDM and, if we still don't know what to do with it, then there's certainly no getting rid of it.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Deacon Blue: "Loaded"
"Another miserable Scottish group (of which there are many)", is how Borg describes her initial impressions of ver Blue. Fair enough, they were always a group that had to grow on people and "Loaded" would quickly grow on a certain Hits critic. If only other music hacks would be so generous. Not one of the highlights of their superb debut album Raintown, it is nevertheless a solid number albeit one that doesn't suggest greater things in store. The magnificent "Dignity" aside, their early singles failed to give an adequate representation of what they were all about. It wouldn't be for another fifteen months that they would release something that would make plenty of punters suddenly take notice — even if a good many critics would remain unimpressed.
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