Archive for the ‘M/A/R/R/S’ Category

Colourbox

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Listen: Baby I Love You So / Colourbox
Baby I Love You So / Colourbox

Not having been a follower of 4AD, I’d hardly paid attention to Colourbox until catching ‘Baby I Love You So’ coming from a co-worker’s office at Elektra back in ’86. To be precise, I was just walking by, and thought sure I’d found a fellow Augustus Pablo fan playing a new remix. From the hallway it was hard to tell the difference.

Instead, what I found was Colourbox. Despite the synth heavy version, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best white dub tracks I’ve yet to hear. And what a surprise too seeing it scale to #4 on the UK Top 40. And so the 7″ found a permanent place in the collection. Without rhyme or reason, I proceeded through life continuing to pay little attention to both band and label.

Years later I put two and two together to find they, with A. R. Kane, had an even better single the very next year. This time under the moniker of M/A/R/R/S with their sole release ‘Pump Up The Volume’, so strong it couldn’t be kept from #1, even charting at #13 in America.

STEINSKI & MASS MEDIA

Monday, November 17th, 2008

We’ll Be Right Back / Steinski & Mass Media

We’ll Be Right Back / Steinski & Mass Media

Listen: We’ll Be Right Back / Steinski & Mass Media SteinskiWellBeRightBack.mp3

There’s a nice interview with Steve Stein in the December 2008 issue of RECORD COLLECTOR. It reminded me of the two Steinski singles Fourth & Broadway released, and so I went to play them, not having heard either for ages. They are a vivid soundbite of all that cut up stuff happening in both hip hop and dance but sound a bit dated now. ‘Pump Up The Volume’ was the unexpected mainstream smash from the bunch. Despite reaching Number 1 in Billboard, it lost a stack, as none of the samples had been cleared. Island were way more careful when releasing Bomb The Bass ‘Beat Dis’. Both singles were great, but those in the know claim without Steinski & Mass Media’s ‘We’ll Be Right Back’ from the year prior, they might not have existed. So just maybe this started it all.