Chart entered : 20th February 1988
Chart peak : 2
Number of hits : 10
And so the age of the producer begins. M./A/R/R/S were a collaboration between musicians from two indie groups and Paul Hardcastle is an accomplished keyboard player. It would be unfair to describe Tim Simenon ( the man behind the nom de plume ) as a non-musician but he is predominantly a producer. Although the final axe was long in arriving, this is where the slow death of Top of the Pops began, the advent of the "men in baseball caps jigging around" as The Guardian put it.
Tim was born in Brixton in 1967. He 's never given much away about his background but his day job when he made this was waiting in a Japanese restaurant and there's a definite Oriental look to his features. He was also doing a part-time course in sound engineering at college in Holloway and DJ-ing at Soho's Wag Club .
Tim came up with the rhythm track for "Beat Dis " himself on a synth but otherwise the track consists entirely of samples from reputedly over seventy sources put together with the aid of producer Pascal Gabriel. It's perhaps most easily recognised by the Thunderbirds sample at the beginning of the record.
I realise this track is nearly thirty years old but I am little closer to understanding its appeal beyond the confines of a nightclub. I appreciate a good bass line as much as anyone but I then want a song on top of it, not the musical equivalent of a wordsearch. There probably is some fun to be had in identifying all the components but I'd much rather hear them in their original context.
No comments:
Post a Comment