Somewhere in a shoebox at the bottom of cupboard I have a school-age tape of Dance Before the Police Come with – I think – a Blade album on the reverse. It didn't really leave much impression at the time, half of it being that British brand of post-Terror Squad aggro speed rap that already seemed out of date by '93. The other half, the inchoate breakbeat/hardcore stuff just didn't register, I didn't really have any context for it.
Playing the vinyl after a recent charity shop trawl, this track was a minor revelation. The Amen break, the disembodied vocal, the sense of psychological fragility; the singer's defiance undercut by the distracted tone, as if he's not even sure it's his own voice he hears singing. Looking back it connects dots between Burial, Gavin Bryars and the dread-drenched fevers of jungle records to come. It's a real omission from Soul Jazz's Rumble in the Jungle. Its sheer spookiness is only amplified by the video – burning crosses, wang chun exercises, and amphetamine dashes down institutional corridors.
5 comments:
Really, really love this tune. Looks like the vocal's from this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCfKc7uvRic
Ha, so the mentally disturbed tramp I was hearing in my head turns out to Terence Trent D'Arby! Was wondering where the vocal originated, don't know why I didn't think to google the lyric.
And ps, got a great comparison by email: 23 Skidoo's asylum funk atmosfear, eg this cover - http://bit.ly/cCTc7
great stuff
weirdly part of it's sampled from an unreleased prince track, the sample with the screaming etc, the 4 note sample, called 'there's others here with us' which brings a whole level of depth to the track.
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