What does it sound like?:
So what’s the first classic artist album after the summer of love and acid house? Leftfield – not until 1995, dubnobasswithmyheadman – 1994, The Prodigy Experience – 1991 – surely that’s it. I’d like to advance another candidate: Coldcut’s debut What’s That Noise? from 1989. I bought it when it came out on vinyl, but recently I got hold of a CD copy and,listening to it on a Friday afternoon on the M6 ,it absolutely gripped me.
It’s got a number of storming singles – People Hold On and My Telephone (which together launched Lisa Stansfield), Doctorin The House (they’d already made vocalist Yazz a huge star with The Only Way Is Up) and Stop This Crazy Thing with reggae singer Junior Reid. But every track is insanely listenable to: from the pop upfrontness of My Telephone to the samples and beats frenzy that is Beats N Pieces, which harks back to eighties sampledelia such as MARRS and Steinski and Mass Media.
What I ‘got’ this time about this album was how much it brought together all the elements that were making dance music so exciting at the time. People Hold On is classic piano house, Doctorin The House pure acid, and Stop This Crazy Thing adds funk. There’s indie dance represented via Mark E Smith on I’m In Deep and hip-hop and breaks via Queen Latifah. Listening to it, like London Calling, you can hear all the influences from one decade being soaked up and represented in a way that points forward to the one just about to start. The beats are always crisp and compelling, the bass lines lay down great grooves – and on top there’s a world of samples that shows which records artists such as DJ Yoda listened for one to to pick up that style.
Why has this been so neglected? I think it was ahead of its time sure. In an era when new developments in dance music were represented via quick and cheapo cash in compilations perhaps genuine artist albums were a rarity. Secondly, I think the huge reputation of their Erik B and Rakim Paid In Full remix, and the 70s Minutes of Madness dj mix made audiences file them them with the remixers and the dj rather than the orginal artist. When the ‘ proper artists’ did come along from dance they offered work within a particular genre – big beat for the Chemicals, techno for Underworld, rave and hip-hop for The Prodigy, jungle for Goldie and so on. What’s That Noise? is a testament to the catholic spirit of early house and rave – an artist equivalent to my cherished Balearic Beats Vol 1 which finds room in a single CD for Sueno Latino, The Woodentops, The Residents, Nitzer Ebb and – gulp – a jazzy remix of a Mandy Smith track alongside more conventional balearic tracks. It’s not even currently in print or on Spotify – perhaps due to the aforesaid sample frenzy – but reasonably priced used copies I can see are around and I’d urge you to seek one out. The singles are on streaming and Youtube.
They didn’t follow it up with another album as focused and accessible – despite producing great music throughout the 90s, founding Ninja Tunes and tons of other stuff. If you’ve never heard it I’d heartily recommend it.
What does it all *mean*?
A testament to the subversive and endless possibilities of electronic music at the end of the eighties.The definitions, styles and genres would come along soon and make the whole thing a bit more conventional and a whole lot more commercial.
Goes well with…
Sunshine and cold lager
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Beats, funkiness and music to move your body and put a smile on your face.
Great album, and a funky bonus 12″ as well with half a dozen extras. I could do with a CD copy myself!
Fabulous album. Has Lisa Stansfield sung any better?
A bit too long, perhaps, and the number of “guests” make it feel more like a compilation. Also, Marc Beyer’s artwork is naff, don’t you think?
Some people I know prefer Let Us Play nearly ten years later but, in contradiction to its title, I find that album a bit too earnest.
@tiggerlion several points there. I think they practically invented the ‘faceless producer genii plus a galaxy of star vocalists’ approach to the album. A cliche now but fresh then surely?
The album was vinyl length – 25 minutes a side, with Beats and Pieces and a whole load of bonus beats stuff on the ‘free 12″‘.
I blame the artists above, Underworld, Chemicals etc for starting from the premise that 79 minutes is a good length for an album and then cutting their albums to suit. All of the early Underworld albums suffer from chronic over-lengthism IMHO as listening experiences, rather than tracks heard at 3 in the morning off my box in a sweaty club.
I actually bought the CD in 1989. I’ll listen to the vinyl edit on the iPod tonight.
I can’t think of anyone who did the Galaxy of stars thing before them. I think it was the advent of CD that led to overlong albums. Rock and Pop artists were just as guilty as Dance acts for failing to edit themselves.
Having said that, Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest In The Infants could be twice as long and I’d still love them to bits.
Really great piece, this, thanks very much, and I agree it’s a decent album that has aged well. I disagree it was ahead of its time. In my view Coldcut are unrivalled as DJs, curators and makers of sound collages — as Beat And Pieces (left off the album!) goes to show — but they’ve never really done it for me as producers. If anything this album was behind the curve, and if it is / was neglected then it’s because it was an anachronistic release stuffed full of chart hits that had worn out their welcome a year previously. It sounded hopelessly lightweight compared to US house and techno, which had got darker and deeper, and it did little to forecast the UK styles of progressive house and breakbeat rave. Basically it’s problem was that didn’t sound like the music of the nightclub, it sounded like the music of the charts, and it severely dented Coldcut’s reputation as pioneers.
And Underworld? Overlong? Heresy!
Sleeve illustration by the great Mark Beyer who’s surreal Amy and Jordan strip used to appear in the NME.