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This is a great compilation of rare tracks that have been sampled by the great and not so great (Moby, Fatboy Slim, Robbie Williams, LL Cool J, Gang Starr, Massive Attack - who get 2 (1) entries!), from old-skool disco (Musique, Carol Williams, Creative Source), reggae (the Prodigy-sampled Max Romeo's Chase the Devil), blaxploitation-style jazz and funk (Lonnie Liston Smith, Young Holt Unlimited, Herbie Hancock, Marlena Shaw) , to cheesy 50's songs (Patti Page)!
Loads of snippets these songs have turned up on dance, pop, and hip-hop tracks...yes even the infamous (and litigious!) Funky Drummer by James Brown is here!
Really the shocking thing is how much better most of these songs are than the modern sampled versions, and how much they use these songs as a 'crutch' and rely on their relative obscurity of mainly black artist originals...I mean Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim IS Sliced tomatoes by the Just brothers, with an annoying shouty vocal and modern drums. Nothing original there, but the track the sample's taken from is great funky ska-inflected surfer style groove. And Moby's lifted whole vocal segments from Troubled so hard by Vera Hall for his 'Natural Blues'. What's the originality in stealing whole chunks from a emotional spiritual/gospel tune with no backing music?!?
Other standout tracks are Marlena Shaw's 'Woman of the Ghetto' (sampled for Blueboy's 'Remember Me' which cruelly took all of the black-power politics OUT and used the ding-ding-ga-ding vocal!), Ain't there something money can't buy by Young holt unlimited, sampled by Gang Starr's Love sick, but an equally or better track...and much more political than the hip-hop track.
Take Yo' Praise by Camille Yarbrough, again ripped off by Fatboy Slim for the vocal to 'Praise You', the only redeeming feature being that he's brought to our attention a great track that otherwise may be overlooked...Soup for One by Chic which became the ultra-cheesy Lady by Modjo, and Expansions by Lonnie Liston Smith, for which the bass groove was taken for the equally sample-political 'Talkin' all that Jazz' by Stetsasonic...
The one thing that does amaze is the tiny loops that go to make up whole songs, and for this I think there is some originality, rather than Fatboy's and Moby's lifting of whole vocal riffs: that filter-disco-groove that made Stardust's Music Sounds Better with You so cool is actually a tiny snippet from Fate by Chaka Khan, and similarly an amazing usse of a miniscule sample is Spiller's Groovejet which uses a tiny intro bit and congas from the disco-soul of Love is you by Carol Williams. This kind of reconstruction I can see some worth and skill in, like Black Box totally recreating another track from Loleatta Hollaway's Love Sensation; actually an amazing technical (if dubious) task.
I'd highly recommend this double CD set: the sum of the whole of this compilation equals much more than all of the more famous tracks put together.
These tracks and artists deserve much more recognition than a 2-second riff...it's ideal for sample trainspotters, but it's not an academic exercise as the original tunes are so great that ANYBODY should have this.
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Chris Yianni
Some gems to uncover
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2017wills
BRILLIENT want the next one !
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2013