Sorry for the lack of updates for the past week or so. I was in the States visiting family. While I always plan on updating my blog when I’m away, that rarely happens. Usually because I get distracted with seeing my friends and family. While that was certainly the case this time around as well, the RAMPANT RISE OF VIOLENT WHITE NATIONALISM was also a bit of a distraction. Sorry.
How about some big beat techno?
Sparky Lightbourne – Let Me Out Of My Box
Chester Rockwell – Monsters Of Rock
Surreal Madrid – Girls Of The Nite (Elite Force Remix)
FLF – Let The Good Times Roll
Sniper – Suburban Hooligan
Crossfire –Here We Go
All of the above tracks were taken from a 1999 compilation called Big Beat Royale Revisited. I posted another track from this album a few weeks back, so I thought I’d share the rest (that are currently out-of-print) here tonight. If you want a look at the full tracklisting, check it here.
I usually break my posts up by song, writing about each individually. Couldn’t do that with these, there just isn’t much to say about most of these tunes. That’s not to suggest that they’re bad, I actually like most of them, but big beat isn’t exactly deep. All of these songs follow the classic big beat formula; dope beat, random vocal samples, repeat. Shallow and stupid for sure, but it still gets me going.
I’m surprised that big beat never made a comeback. Are we due for late-90s nostalgia yet? Maybe it still has a chance.
Of all these songs, my favorites are the first two; “Let Me Out Of My Box” and “Monsters Of Rock.” I really dig the groovy bassline on “Let Me Out Of My Box,” it straddles the line between acid house and techno in a way I really dig. The guitar lick is rad too, and the vocal sample comes in at just the right time. If you told me it was a lost Propellerheads track I’d believe you.
“Monsters Of Rock” is just a big song with a big sound that my big ass can really get behind. A fucking pounding beat that will just annihilate you, and the track wastes no time getting down to business with an extended explosion of crunching guitars and frantic record scratches. And then, out of nowhere, comes a sample of “Double Dutch Bus,” the exact same sample that Missy Elliot used three years later for her smash hit “Gossip Folk.” I mean, it’s literally the exact same sample. They both use the same part of the same song. I have to wonder if someone in Missy’s camp heard this track somehow.
Like I said, all these tracks are rad, but those two are just fucking spectacular. Get your groove on. And then go smash a fascist.