Cookie Crew: "Love Will Bring Us Back Together" / Bomb the Bass: "The Air You Breathe"

2 October 1991

"I like it."

— Rob Manzoli, quietly

Is it 1988 already???

The rise of house music in the late eighties proved to be a boon to rave culture and for teens/young adults who liked to go clubbing. What frequently gets ignored, however, is that many of the acts that came about during this period appealed to kids as well. Kids who weren't dropping acid in abandoned warehouse but who were getting into music via Top of the Pops, Radio One and Saturday morning telly and Smash Hits.

Following the chart topping success of "Pump Up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S in the latter part of 1987, there was a sudden rush of house music in the pop charts. While these organizations had hardcore club DJ's behind them, several had pop backgrounds as well. M|A|R|R|S had been descended from indie soul act Colourbox, while the members of Freur would eventually evolve into influential nineties group Underworld. Those who hadn't been part of the UK's indie scene were young and had an eye on the charts while the other was focused on the clubs.

Tim Simenon's Bomb the Bass project was one the first beneficiaries of Britain's house music revolution. Made up entirely of samples, debut single "Beat Dis" was simply astonishing. Boring old rock types would start to moan about how this kind of thing wasn't real music (something which fans of classical, jazz and Tin Pan Alley used to say about rock 'n' roll itself) but the rest of us new better. DJ's could be annoying at weddings and roller staking rinks but when they cut their own records they'd perform the tasks of musician, producer, engineer, pop star and fan all at once. They wore so many hats that no one else was even needed. Simenon had time for appearing in the pop press though he wasn't as willing to shill himself the way S'Express' Mark Moore had been. Still, he seemed a pop fan and not just a mix desk snob with a strict love of obscure 12" singles from clubland.

The Beatmasters, on the other hand, never quite seemed cut out for the pop game, which maybe explains their desire to have the likes of Cookie Crew, P.P. Arnold, Merlin and Betty Boo fronting their records. They even produced Yazz's number two hit in the autumn of '88 "Stand Up for Your Love Rights" as if knowing that their group name wasn't even needed for the singer who had just topped the charts that summer with "The Only Way Is Up". Where people like Simenon and DJ/production duo Coldcut seemed to require certain kinds of vocalists to suit their material, the trio of Paul Carter, Manda Glanfield and Richard Wamsley were adept at switching themselves up in order to service whoever they were working with.

Their first commercial attempt was one of their finest. Cookie Crew members MC Remedee and Susie Q rapped on "Rok da House" with a delightful mix of charm and ferocity, the sort of girls I could imagine myself being in terrifying awe of at school. Those sweet smiles of their's hid a "don't you dare mess with me, mate" attitude that lurked just bellow the surface. Subsequent singles recorded free of The Beatmasters — including party anthem in waiting "Got to Keep On" — kept the momentum going. While up for a laugh, they had more depth than Derek B or the Wee Papa Girl Rappers and didn't seem to take themselves as seriously as fellow Beatmaster collaborator Merlin. 

~~~~~

"I like it."

— Rob Manzoli, whispering

Where's the fun in '91?

(Actually, there plenty of fun pop back then but it was generally being made by dummies like Right Said Fred, this fortnight's guest reviewers. They'll be coming up soon with a Single of the Fortnight of their own (hint: it isn't "I'm Too Sexy"; fingers crossed that it's something as daft as "Wonderman"; hint: it isn't) so I'm leaving aside my distaste for them for a few weeks).

The house and hip house acts of the late-eighties had begun to disappear with the arrival of the nineties but some were trying to hang on. Staying relevant is the toughest task to master in all of pop, especially in an environment of "back to basics" rockist nonsense and a sudden dearth of independent, dance-orientated labels to foster advances in techno music. Possibly reacting to the Top 40 performances of Enigma that year as well as the rise of trip-hop, Bomb the Bass took a much more mellow approach for second album Unknown Territory. The Gulf War harmed the chances of first single "Love So True" (the name Bomb the Bass was considered objectionable, even though the activities of the IRA hadn't managed to make the name problematic three years' earlier) but follow-up "Winter in July" gave Simenon a fourth Top 10 hit. Sadly, singer Loretta Heywood (who seemed to wear the same dress in all their videos) was all over the place, giving a tiresome sameness to their singles output. "The Air You Breathe" was almost exactly the same as "Winter in July", which hadn't been all that different from "Love So True".

Cookie Crew come out of this a good deal better than Bomb the Bass. They didn't deserve Single of the Fortnight either (in my book it's either Mariah Carey or Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine who should've taken it: now that would've been a nice odd couple pairing for co-SOTF) but "Love Will Bring Us Back Together" is a fine attempt at keeping their output current. The obvious connection is with De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers, Monie Love and Dream Warriors.

Remember what I said above about "back to basics" nonsense? Well, the upside of this was samples of killer soul and funk records on current hip hop singles. Roy Ayers' iconic seventies' jazz-funk sound forms the basis of "Love Will Bring Us Back Together" to the extent that he often get's an artist's credit. Though happy to pilfer, they aren't as brazen as many of their hip hop contemporaries, resulting in this being a bit of a let down. More could have been accomplished. 

The Crew's popularity had fallen off since 1989. According to Wikipedia, their record label FFRR looked to have them be more of a pop-rap outfit while they were intent on going more in the direction of pure hip hop. There's the feeling here that they've found a happy medium but compromise renders it more toothless than it ought to have been. Good fun but empty and quickly forgotten — and, indeed, little regarded enough (even by some of Right Said Fred, who don't seem any fonder of it than non-SOTF by Carter, PM Dawn and Kim Appleby) not to get itself a chart position of any kind. The future had once been bright but the present had suddenly become dark. Makes sense since 1991 was an awful year, though I would say so since that was when I turned fourteen.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Mariah Carey: "Emotions"

Mariah in not-a-slushy-love-song shock! While she was busy reeling off number ones back home in the States, her records didn't manage to take hold of the British charts in anywhere close to the same way. This meant, however, that those of us who weren't fans or were neutral towards her wouldn't have been overexposed to her unique brand of birdsong. For some reason, I liked "Love Takes Time" back in the day and didn't mind this one and that was the extent of my Mariah Carey fandom. But now it's clear that "Emotions" is her at her very best. The tune is pretty damn glorious, the high notes were still a novelty by this point and I liked her more when she still had frizzy hair. Let's have this soundtrack out next Christmas instead, okay? Okay???

Prefab Sprout: "Hey Manhattan!" / Bomb the Bass: "Don't Make Me Wait"

29 June 1988

This entry is the start of an occasional series in which pop groups review the singles and fail to agree on a favourite. The results of this are mixed but Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles of The Communards prove up to the task by choosing the two best records available. This would also prove to be one of they final print appearances together. Somerville would release a pretty good solo album a year later and Coles would go on to becoming a renowned man of the cloth.

~~~~~

"People may say they're namby-pamby but I love them!"

— Richard Coles

They may deny it now but 1988 in Britain was all about loving America. People were flocking to Disneyworld and spurning France and Spain as holiday destinations. American football was growing in popularity and looked to be the next big thing. Pop stars and famous actors who would visit the UK were treated like royalty and even someone as innocuous as Sylvester Stallone's mother fawned upon on the popular talk show Wogan. American-themed restaurants were all over the country too. And if all this wasn't enough, I was subjected to the question "are you Amer-eee-can?" (emphasis on the third syllable just as they liked in Essex) wherever I went.

Rock and roll being American, it's easy to see why so many British pop stars fell for the US. Many of them live there, including some who've moaned about the UK being too American. The Rolling Stones embodied the idea of being English yet wanting to be a Yank but luckily they had Mick Jagger to send it up even as they were drowning in Americana. Others haven't had lead singers as clever. Being pro-American is one thing but losing one's Britishness is another.

America has always been at the heart of Prefab Sprout's work. Paddy McAloon's heroes are Burt Bachrach, Brian Wilson and Phil Spector so this would naturally have led him to look across the Atlantic. At first, references to the US were subtle. Their debut album Swoon includes a song about chess legend Bobby Fisher ("Cue Fanfare"), as well as opening with a puzzling number about their neighbour to the south ("Don't Sing": "don't blame Mexico"). "I Never Play Basketball Now" deals with a popular sport that the British hadn't really taken to. Their follow up album Steve McQueen had been named after the great American actor and it opened with a number "dedicated" to country crooner Faron Young (a SOTF back in 1985).

But it was on their third album From Langley Park to Memphis that America became the focal point. "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" would prove to be their biggest hit and it dealt with an aging rocker still clinging to fame due to his one novelty hit. Its subject may or may not be American (I suspect he's British which makes the whole tale even sadder) but it is loaded with references to the US. "Cars and Girls" was an undeserved flop that took the mickey out of Bruce Springsteen. And with "Hey Manhattan" (aka "Hello Manhattan" as Smash Hits erroneously has it) you've got a wide-eyed youngster who has just arrived in New York and has big plans for success — or so he thinks.

What makes this trilogy wonderful — you know, aside from them all being brilliant songs — is how distinctly British their take on America is. The British singer from the fifties with that one solitary hit probably never went to the US — or he flopped spectacularly if he did. Springsteen did much more than make records about "Cars and Girls" but that was the reputation he got lumped with, especially on the other side of the pond. NYC was this destination where dreams either came true or went to die and this is what's celebrated here. The hopeless hopeful who arrives in the States is initially "star struck, Uncle Sam" before admitting that his struggles and failure is down to "bad luck". The promise of making something of himself is dulled by the feeling that he's already being chewed and is about to be spat out by the Big Apple.

"Hey Manhattan!" gave Prefab Sprout their third Single of the Fortnight but once again it failed to connect with enough people to get it into the Top 40. It's difficult to say whether their less-than idealistic take on the American Dream kept the punters away since they'd had plenty of flops that didn't hit a similar nerve. If anything, it only reinforced the narrative that they were "too clever by half" (whatever that means) and that they were only able to capture fellow musicians and pop critics. There was already a small but loyal cult of Sprout out there and it's one that remains to this day but they couldn't quite catch on the way we all thought they deserved. Oh well, it's their loss.

~~~~~

"Ah, this is more like it. A great dance record. Fab."

— Jimmy Somerville

The singer from The Communards is none too impressed with "Hey Manhattan!" and opts instead for the second single from Bomb the Bass. A project helmed by young DJ Tim Simenon, it first came to attention in the early part of 1988 with "Beat Dis", a sampled-filled acid house single which reached number 2 on the charts. Coming in between "Pump Up the Volume" by M|A|A|R|S and "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express, it should have joined them as chart toppers but it failed to dislodge Kylie Minogue's massive "I Should Be So Lucky" from the top spot.

Being DJs, Simenon, Mark Moore, The Beatmasters and Coldcut struggled to make pop music a top priority. They had raves to appear at and they were all in demand to produce and/or remix other people's records. They didn't dream of pop stardom and didn't chase it. While Smash Hits and Top of the Pops had difficulty presenting them as performers and pinups, they in turn weren't as accessible and didn't seem aware of how to play the pop game. As a result, follow ups were slow. Not to mention the fact that for the talk of sampling being "theft", piecing together these jigsaw puzzle records proved to be tiring, thankless work. In any case, churning out the product was better left for the likes of Stock Aitken Waterman.

This review of "Don't Make Me Wait" is from the 28 June edition of Smash Hits. The single, however, wouldn't appear on the charts until just shy of two months later, debut at 20 in the last week of August. Did ver Hits get their copy too early? Did Bomb the Bass' record label Rhythm King decide to hold it back? Or were they trying to build up hype? It's impossible to say but it's more than a little odd that a "group" that was taking its time releasing records would have their hotly anticipated second single delayed.

There's another curiosity surrounding this release and that's the status of the other song. The single would eventually be released as "Megablast"/"Don't Make Me Wait" and was a double A-side. Somerville doesn't mention this other track, nor is its title printed on the singles review page. To be fair, I don't blame his nibbs from The Communards. "Don't Make Me Wait" is absolutely superb and it didn't need another tune on the flip to prop it up. A case could even be made that "Megablast" itself was more than good enough on its own and they wasted two potential Top Ten hits by throwing them onto the same record.

Being potentially viewed as "Beat Dis, Part 2" may have made those concerned cool towards "Megablast" so I suppose the more pop friendly "Don't Make Me Wait" had the upside of being something different and unexpected. That said, the former also had a radically different version with British rapper Merlin (who introduces it by asking "who's in the house?" which will crop up when he guested with The Beatmasters the following year) which could also have had single potential of its own. Nevertheless, the single version of "Megablast" is extraordinary and could have been the single of the year had it got the notice it deserved. It is an absolutely thrilling record with all the samples placed with care

Though I do prefer "Megablast" there's no arguing with "Don't Make Me Wait" either and the two could very well be the finest double A-side cut by anyone since The Beatles. With Lorraine McIntosh (not to be confused with the singer from Deacon Blue) on vocals, it has the appearance of a pop song but this can't disguise the devastating sounds within. Simenon would go off the rails slightly with the follow up — a cover of Aretha Franklin's "Say a Little Prayer" — but this once he found a balance between sample-heavy house and dance-pop. Somerville wants nothing more than to dance to it but it's also a great pop song that can be appreciated by those of us who have no interest in doing so. Though they were slow to take to the pop world, the house DJ's of the time proved more than capable of bringing the clubs and the raves into our homes.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

The Special AKA featuring Ndonda Khuze & Jonas Gwengwe: "Free Nelson Mandela"

A well-intentioned remake to mark Nelson Mandela's seventieth birthday but one that doesn't come close to the original "Nelson Mandela" from four years' earlier. There are some good ideas present and Jerry Dammers was right to bring in some African vocalists for this re-recording but it doesn't work. He may have been better off handing everything over to a crack group of singers and musicians from Africa to see what they could make of it. There's also a too-obvious attempt at keeping things current with some house music that just doesn't fit. The excitement of the original is nowhere to be found here but hopefully it still played well at the Mandela Tribute concert that summer.