Ahead of her time

by Chris Bertram on July 18, 2008

Check out the “1960s dance track”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7512072.stm (scroll down, after the Dr Who theme).

{ 8 comments }

1

Righteous Bubba 07.18.08 at 1:33 pm

Thanks very much.

Check out Raymond Scott, in particular the “Bandito the Bongo Artist” sample.

2

Matthew Kuzma 07.18.08 at 2:44 pm

The reason it sounds like a modern dance track isn’t so much because it was ahead of its time as because modern dance tracks ubiquitously sample a single song from 1969, Amen Brother.

Discussion with samples courtesy of youtube

3

chris y 07.18.08 at 3:23 pm

The odd thing is that I saw Nicol Williamson’s Hamlet twice, and I have no memory of the sound effects at all. I suppose that demonstrates how well they were integrated into the production. Certainly while Williamson was on stage it was impossible to notice anything else.

4

ed 07.18.08 at 5:08 pm

Those volumes go to 11. Nice. They might as well, right? Or was that your point?

5

Stuart 07.18.08 at 6:08 pm

#2, so the reason it is so similar is because she used the Doctor’s time machine to go forward several years in time to pick up a record that hadn’t yet been made to take back and use as a base sample for her work?

6

dave heasman 07.18.08 at 7:31 pm

It sounds a lot more modern than that 1969 beat. “Heavy” groups had beats like that, then, too – Humble Pie f’rinstance. Her beat is that really ghastly drum ‘n’ bass sound.

7

Anon 07.19.08 at 3:05 am

Rubbish transcends time and place

8

Alex 07.23.08 at 11:02 pm

Matthew Kuzma: while it’s true that the amen break is heavily sampled, the music referenced by Delia Derbyshire and the music it bears a similarity to are both devoid of the amen break and similar samples.

The style of music you’re hearing was dubbed “IDM” in the early 1990s, which stood for “intelligent dance music”. It was a stupid term but it defined a generation of artists such as Aphex Twin, Orbital, Boards of Canada and basically anything else you might listen to on Warp records.

The Amen Break featured more heavily in techno, hip-hop and drum’n’bass music and still does, however it is a specific sample (as you quite rightly point out, from the song “Amen Brother”) as opposed to the careful and far more original beat Ms Derbyshire has arranged on that track. I honestly don’t hear the resemblance to Amen there.

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