Egyptian Lover – “Freak-A-Holic” (12 Inch Long Versionl)..
Artist: The Egyptian Lover
Title: Freak-A-Holic (12 Inch Long Version)
Year: 1986
Label: Egyptian Empire Records
Egyptian Lover – “Freak-A-Holic” (12 Inch Long Version) (mp3)
Artist: The Egyptian Lover
Title: Freak-A-Holic (12 Inch Long Version)
Year: 1986
Label: Egyptian Empire Records
Egyptian Lover – “Freak-A-Holic” (12 Inch Long Version) (mp3)
I must be one of the few lucky ones to own this amazing track on a 12-inch record. I believe only few thousand copies were pressed back in 1984.
Where was I when I’d bought the record? Ah yes! It was sometime in late October 1985, after school, at Starsounds record store on Young Street in Toronto. Starsounds was a great record store that sold only 12-inch records of every genre, especially to DJ’s. At that time, I was looking for synth/techno/pop tracks when Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer was hot. Flipping through Starsounds’ bin of old/unsold records, my fingers came to a stop at this one particular vinyl with gloriously colored luminous-orange sleeve: Section 25.
I held the record up in a tilted-angle closer to my eyes just to read its center label. It was hard to read, because the words and fonts were ultra moderno that were printed with light, shiny luminous colors. Yeah… a record looking great in graphic-design but lacking in function (such as reading its textual content).
Even though I had no idea who Section 25 was, my gut said: This the record you’re looking for, buddy! Just the words 45 A Factory Record and Restructure From Fact 90 on the center label were enough to convince me the record was INDEED an electronic one that was meant for me. Still in my formal shirt/tie/jacket school uniform, I bought the record with my only $20-Canadian. Going home in the subway (the TTC), I was staring at the record and second-guessing what it might sound like. Once I got home, I ran to my room and dropped the needle to the record. The usual at the start of any record: few seconds of crackles, scratches and pops…
…And then there was music!
The track on Side-B starts with reverse tom-tom drums followed by reversed-&-gated 808 claps in 1/16th-note progression. Then –BAM– the beat drops like a cyber-atomic bomb: → Heavy industrial baseline → Synth bleeps/zaps all over the stereo-field → Lush synthesizer and Mellotron pads → Cyberpunk female lead vocals → Whispery male backup vocals. Electronic techno industrial pop bliss → → Hands down, an absolute electronic industrial masterpiece!
Artist: Section 25
Title: Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix)
Year: 1984
Label: A Factory Record
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
Section 25 – “Looking From A Hilltop” (Megamix) (mp3)
This is one super sick track that defined the true meaning of techno-electro hiphop. Drum machine tight beats, rolling mechanical techno bassline, synth zip-zaps, reverse-then-slap-forward claps, synth pads, vocal erotic samples, synthetic scratching samples, really sweet processed orchestra stabs/hits, and serious rhymes. 808 Beats stands on its own plateau. Although The Unknown DJ raps about his 808 drum machine, but the drum machine sounds in this track aren’t from a Roland TR-808 at all …. not even close; but my best guess would be that they come from Oberheim DX or DMX.
Artist: The Unkown DJ
Title: 808 Beats
Year: 1984
Label: Techno Hop
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.
The Unknown DJ – “808 Beats” (mp3)
When I first started buying record albums and 12-inch singles in 1977, I was collecting all kinds of pop music such as Gary Numan, Blondie, Boney M, Bee Gees, Grace Jones, Grandmaster Flash, etc., throughout the following decade.
There were only few handful of electronic musicians and music groups who’ve pioneered electronic music decades prior to the 1980s, such as Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Jean Jacques Perrey, ELP, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and others.
However, the 1980s decade began with a backlash against disco music, and a movement away from the orchestral arrangements that had characterized much of the electronic music of the 1970s. Music in the 80s was characterized by unheard of electronic sounds accomplished through the use of synthesizers and keyboards, along with drum machines. This made a dramatic change in music. 80s pop music experienced a revolution driven more by technology and consumerism than any resounding political message. It was that new electronic sound from synthesizers, samplers and drum machines, enhanced with unprecedented leap forward towards advanced and new production techniques of the time, where both analog and new digital domains fused together as one.
Fairlight III CMi sampler, music workstation.
Roland MC-202, the ultimate analog bass machine ... blows away TR-303!
Linn 9000 digital sampling drum machine and 64-midi channel sequencer.
By 1982, I was already tired of the old disco sound but hip to the new “rap” genre (which were heavily produced by drum machines and synths) and in love with all kinds of electronic-pop and electric-funk styles. However I was still hungry for something more but wasn’t quite sure what it was. Something was in the air … or ON THE AIR for sure.
After Malcolm McLaren’s release of Buffalo Gals in late-1982, I knew something bigger was coming along. 1983 saw the big shift in electronic dance music taking place. In Europe (especially Germany, England and Italy), electronic dance music was essentially electric-disco — 4/4 drum beats + 1/8th note basslines — such as New Order’s Blue Monday.
However, in New York, electric-disco became known as “high energy” with a twist: a new sub-genre was emerging as “electro” which was a blend of hiphop beats with electronic dance arrangements.
I was enrolled in a boarding-school back then in England and was still listening to New Order and Grandmaster Flash on the Walkman. There was this fuckin’ Jamaican kid in my dormitory — David Yakabu. One day, David ran up to me and said, “Hey mon! Chek dis Mon Pah-rish wikkidest sound!” I put on the heaphones, he pressed play, and my socks were blown off my feet.
I was listening to Man Parrish for the first time ……… “Hip Hop Be Bop” and “Heatstroke.”
HOLY CRAP – THIS SHIT IS FIERCE !! — was my impression.
I followed and bought every release by Man Parrish.
MAN PARRISH REVIEW by – Sean Cooper, All Music Guide
This ground breaking 1983 Dance-Urban Synthesizer album is considered by many, to be a DANCE CLASSIC and a MUST HAVE in any serious collection. Man Parrish is said to have coined the phrase “Hip Hop” from this classic, electronic dance record.
Although he produced only a handful of tracks of renown and disappeared into obscurity almost as quickly as he had emerged from it, Manny ( Man ) Parrish is nonetheless one of the most important and influential figures in American electronic dance music. Helping to lay the foundation of electro, hip-hop, freestyle, and techno, as well as the dozens of subgenres to splinter off from those, Parrish introduced the aesthetic of European electronic pop to the American club scene by combining the plugged-in disco-funk of Giorgio Moroder and the man-machine music of Kraftwerk with the beefed-up rhythms and cut’n'mix approach of nascent hip-hop. As a result, tracks like “Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” and “Boogie Down Bronx” were period-defining works that provided the basic genetic material for everyone from Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to Autechre and Andrea Parker — and they remain undisputed classics of early hip-hop and electro to this day. A native New Yorker, Parrish was a member of the extended family of glam-chasers and freakazoids that converged nightly on Andy Warhol’s Studio 54 club. His nickname, Man, first appeared in Warhol’s Interview magazine, and his early live shows at Bronx hip-hop clubs were spectacles of lights, glitter, and pyrotechnics that drew as much from the Warhol mystique as from the Cold Crush Brothers.
Influenced by the electronic experiments of his good friend and co – writer Klaus Nomi and Brian Eno as well as by Kraftwerk, Parrish together with “Cool” Raul Rodriguez recorded their best-known work in a tiny studio sometimes shared with Afrika Baambaata, whose own sessions with Arthur Baker and John Robie produced a number of classics equal to Parrish’s own, including “Wildstyle, ” “Looking for the Perfect Beat, ” and the infamous “Planet Rock.” What distinguished “Hip-Hop Be Bop, ” however, was its lack of vocals and the extremely wide spectrum of popularity it gained in the club scene, from ghetto breakdance halls to uptown clubs like Danceteria and the Funhouse. After he discovered a pirated copy of his music being played by a local DJ at theinfamous “Anvil” club ( NYC ), Parrish found his way to the offices of the Importe label (a subsidiary of popular dance imprint Sugarscoop and Disconet DJ mixing service), which whom he inked his first deal. He released his self-titled LP shortly after, and the album went on to sell over 3 million copies worldwide. He was signed to Electra Records and managed by David Bowie’s notorious manager Tony De Fries and the infamous Main Man Ltd management team. Tony De Fries had managed careers of David Bowie, New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, Mick Ronson and Dana Gillespie to name a few.
Following a period of burn-out that followed, Parrish recorded and remixed tracks for Michael Jackson, Boy George, Gloria Gaynor, and Hi-NRG group Man2Man, among others, and served as manager for the Village People and Crystal Water to name a few. While Parrish’s subsequent material has achieved nowhere near the success or creative pitch of his earlier work, he continues to record from his brooklyn studio and is a frequent DJ at New York’s eclectic night spots and SM clubs. His Sunday Underground Party “Sperm” at the “Cock Bar” on New Yorks lower east side, is notorious, to say the least ! He is main DJ and co founder for a circut party called “Hustlerball” which has parties in many cities worldwide. He also has several adult websites and online businesses which keep him busy as a webmaster, and “jack of all trades”. His second LP, DreamTime, appeared on Strictly Rhythm in 1997.
- Sean Cooper, All Music Guide
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