Remember the time...

The first concert I ever could have gone to was Michael Jackson's Dangerous tour in Dubai. We bought our tickets 3 months in advance, I packed my suitcase 3 weeks prior to the show, and then 3 days before possibly the biggest night of my ten-year-old life, we got news that the gig had been cancelled. Michael had just been slapped with his first child molestation case. 

I felt like I had been cheated, we had all been cheated, Michael too. Despite years of being used and abused, Michael Jackson still gave us tremendous music - it was his outlet and we connected with him. 

8898 is a blog about music, energy, dance, celebration and these are the MJ albums that came out around that decade that we will always cherish:

In 1987, we got BAD. Songs like The Way You Make Me Feel, Liberian Girl, Man In The Mirror, Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal filled my house as I would play them on stop and repeat, trying to write out the music on my Casio. 

Then in 1991 the DANGEROUS album greeted the world. Do you remember Michael Jordan in the Jam music video? Or Maculey Culkin in Black or White? Iman in Remember the Time and Naomi Campbell in In The Closet? I recently watched Heal the World in an MJ tribute and it did make me choke up a bit.

In 1995, a compilation of Michael's greatest hits and more came out - HIStory. It was a brilliant blast-from-the-past and look-into-the-future gift to the music world and his fans.

It's pretty surreal to write about Michael Jackson right now seeing the dates "August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009" following his name...In my mind it'll always be "August 29,1958 - forever" as his legend and his music will always live on.

R.I.P. EON

Legendary ‘rave’ producer Eon, a.k.a. Ian Loveday, passed away Wednesday, June 17, from complications with pneumonia. He was one of the first producers to gain popularity amongst the late-80s/early-90s rave scene with hits like “Spice” and “Fear the Mind Killer”, the sound being a link between early techno and modern breakbeat.

As Eon, his tracks made their way to early 90s pirate radio stations in London, and then out on vinyl through small labels like BAAD and Vinyl Solution. He would release his most well-known tracks on the seminal album, ‘Void Dweller’ in 1992 at the height of the spread of modern dance music in the US. ‘Void Dweller’, with the hit ‘Spice’ owing its recognizable hook to a sample from David Lynch’s movie “Dune”, was one of the first major label releases, on Columbia, for producers in the burgeoning rave scene.

His work saw release on numerous labels over the years, including Hooj Toons and XL Recordings. In ‘93 he teamed up with fellow British acid pioneer Peter ‘Baby’ Ford, producing many classic tracks including ‘Dead Eye’ which would eventually be released as a single on Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8 label. Loveday would go on to release under his Minimal Man moniker up until just before his death.

Eon performed live at Fabric and on Radio One over the years, and worked with producers like Mark Moore (S’Express) and Marcus J Knight. Most recently, he had been busy in the studio with long time collaborator Baby Ford on some new projects.

[Source: Todd Roberts]

Oh La La Bebe

Does the name Jordy Lemoine ring a bell?

At first, I didn't remember it...but I definitely remembered his song "Dur Dur D'etre Bebe" (It's Tough To Be A Baby).

Fact: Jordy is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest chart topper.


I just checked out his current Myspace page...And it's not only tough being a baby it seems...

No Government

Nicolette is a strange bird.
And I mean that in the most complimentary way.
Bjork is a strange bird. So is Nina Simone.

Born is Glasgow of Nigerian parents, she put out one of the defining albums of 1992 Now is Early on the brilliant English label Shut Up and Dance.

I was heavily and almost exclusively into hip hop at the time so I did not at all pay attention to it when it was originally released...I in fact had never even heard of Nicolette until Massive Attack's fantastic Sly...she did the vocals on it and her voice had SUCH a phenomenally ethereal quality to it that I felt compelled to investigate her a little further...which led me back to Now is Early...

Many artists strive hard to earn the term defies categorization but there could not be a more accurate qualification for that specific album : the juxtaposition of some of the HARDEST beats possible...I mean PJ/Smiley -- who made up Shut Up and Dance and produced the album -- programmed some of the absolute TUF-FEST drums and basslines you will ever hear in any genre...even to this day...

Nicolette's languid and almost child-like vocals dare i say...should not work in the musical context the Shut Up and Dance guys created but oh do they...they work fantastically well in fact...the tension within every track is seriously intense...I usually break out into a sweat as i listen to this album...

it's not drum & bass..its not jungle...its not hardcore...it's not jazz...it's just...rhythm...

The Dove Song in particular is one of the most frenetic and beautiful tracks on the record...from the first second your ears are utterly pummeled by a relentless cascade of drums...then the massive sub-bass comes in...and then the vocals and it's all over...a lethally funky tune...a bare knuckle brawl of a tune...

Sadly I have never found the appropriate time drop any of songs on that album in any DJ set -- they're mostly just too hard -- nor have I heard any of her songs played out on properly loud club system...perhaps that's for the better actually...I don't think most people today could handle this record. But it's one of my big faves.

Not the Golden Arches...The Golden Arcs

I like Eddie Murphy. I might be in the minority today. but I do.
I think when he's on. Really firing. I can't think of any other person alive who is funnier.
And there was never a funnier Eddie Murphy moment than in Coming To America.
There were a lot of movies that came out in 1988...many of them really fantastically good and some even so singular as to become part of the American cultural lore: Rain Man, Roger Rabbit, Big, Die Hard and The Naked Gun just to name a few...
But Coming to America was the absolute apotheosis.
Its that rare kind of movie that gets better and better every time you watch it.
Its the kind of movie that -- no matter when or where I am -- if I catch it on TV...I will stop whatever it is I'm doing and watch it until the end (and I'm notorious for rarely ever watching a movie twice)
I've seen this movie close to 100 times over the last 20 years and know every word. Literally.
I can from memory recite entire scenes while portraying the different characters.
Yeah Trading Places, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop were comprehensively brilliant movies but Eddie Murphy's performance(s) in Coming to America was a tour-de-force...just colossal...
And that unbelievable ensemble cast?
The expert way director John Landis handled the stereotypical portrayal of Africans?
The millimeter perfect depiction of life in Queens?
Forget it...
Coming to America is easily...and I mean with the greatest of ease in my top ten all-time.
Sexual Chocolate!

Oh, holy sequin

So, after purchasing my first pair of sequined leggings (thank you to TopShop for opening an NYC flagship!), I decided to research from whence sequins originated. It's actually an interesting story. 

The word sequin originates from the Arabic "sikka" meaning coin, and then traveled up through Europe, where the Republic of Venice called their mint "La Zecca" and ultimately to France, where the French altered the word to sequin. According to the all-knowing Wiki, "coins were known as sequins for centuries throughout the Mediterranean," and in those cultures began the custom of stitching the coins to women's clothing as a way to display and store a family's wealth. My leggings are so money they don't even know it. 

That Subliminal Low-Fi

Before you continue reading, or do anything for that matter, if you have DJ Spooky's Song's of a Dead Dreamer, please, put on "The Terran Invasion Of Alpha Centauri Year 2794" and bump that shit. Yes, it does have a long and abstract intro, but if you have a decent pair of speakers with good low end response, you will be in a good place.

Anyways...going back in time 30 years, if Lee Scratch Perry were to have picked up his RE-201 Space Echo, but, instead of meeting with incredible Jamaican musicians and running all their instruments through the delay's tape goodness, imagine if he met with Prince Jammy and an eclectic record collection. The result would be damn similar to Song's of a Dead Dreamer (...maybe if they were to have also substituted their trees for some LCD on a few tracks).

Unlike most sample based records from the 90s, this album explores more broken down/fucked-up aspects of the sampling world...like slowing down the play back of a commercial airplane flying overhead and mixing that with a low-fi funk beat, all glued together with some heavy omnipresent vinyl pops. The record also takes elements from the techno world. Like in"Anansi Abstrakt"...Spooky takes a small snippet of a reverberated, multi-panned medolica (I thing that's the instrument) and milks the sample over three tempo changes for about eleven minutes. However, the most bewildering aspect of this record is how Spooky managed to mesh some of the most dark, disturbed and out of touch sounds with some of the most ball-clenching beats ever sampled (check out Grapheme), without losing focus or energy.