Musical 'F*** my Hat, I didn't know that!'

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Paul Birch, my local councillor was (is?) the boss of the Revolver Records whose offices were splashed with paint by those playful Stone Roses scamps in 1990.

 

[Better Midlands]

A light touch? It's crammed full of all those flashy tricks that French producers became famous for - the pumping side-chain compression, the breakdown bit where it goes all bassy and then a slow filter sweep brings the treble back in, the treated vocals (autotune or possibly vocoder?).

I guess I meant it doesn't have all the bells & whistles that a lot of late 90's club music used, if you listen to this Spacedust bootleg remix that appeared a month after the original Stardust you might get what I mean - it's full of snare rolls/heavier beats/half bar loops that filter sweep etc.

[buzby]

I guess I meant it doesn't have all the bells & whistles that a lot of late 90's club music used, if you listen to this Spacedust bootleg remix that appeared a month after the original Stardust you might get what I mean - it's full of snare rolls/heavier beats/half bar loops that filter sweep etc.

That's because Glasson & Glancy were bandwagon-jumping hacks, and they did it again to Bangalter with Gym Tonic.

[MiddleRabbit]

Paul Birch, my local councillor was (is?) the boss of the Revolver Records whose offices were splashed with paint by those playful Stone Roses scamps in 1990.

 

Ask him if he's done much canvassing recently.

[popcorn]

That's because Glasson & Glancy were bandwagon-jumping hacks, and they did it again to Bangalter with Gym Tonic.

Where can I read about all this stuff? I don't get what this Music Feels Good With You remix is, or what happened with Gym Tonic.

[Better Midlands]

That's because Glasson & Glancy were bandwagon-jumping hacks, and they did it again to Bangalter with Gym Tonic.

I'm sure a distributor told me they did 20k+ copies of Spacedust - Music Sounds at the time a decent selling UK house track was pushing 5k.

[Better Midlands]

Where can I read about all this stuff? I don't get what this Music Feels Good With You remix is, or what happened with Gym Tonic.

"We were erroneously credited as the writers on the CD"

Yeah right.

[popcorn]

That's really interesting, thanks a lot for that.

Definitely a hugely suspect story - they named themselves Spacedust after a sweet? uh huhhhhh

But what a badly written article that is though. Sentence subjects get confused all over the place. For example, it describes Chris recording an album and says:

He borrowed, without permission, some samples from the Jane Fonda album for a track called Gym Tonic and asked Daft Punk's keyboard player, Thomas Bangalter, who had written the song, to remix it.

Had written what song? Gym Tonic? How did Bangalter get involved?

[buzby]

That's really interesting, thanks a lot for that.

Definitely a hugely suspect story - they named themselves Spacedust after a sweet? uh huhhhhh

We covered the situation with Soacedust ripping off Bangalter & Sinclar's Gym Tonic in this thread back in October 2018. It also mentions  the third Bangalter bootleg collaboration that Glancy was involved with ripping off, Call Me (which was covered in the Winwood 'Valerie' thread around the same time).

But what a badly written article that is though. Sentence subjects get confused all over the place. For example, it describes Chris recording an album and says:

Had written what song? Gym Tonic? How did Bangalter get involved?

Bangalter recorded the original track for Christophe 'Bob Sinclar' Le Friant's debut album (he has 100% of the publishing rights on the BMI database) on the condition that his name wouldn't be used and that it wasn't released as a single. Here's a translation of  the story from this article on the samples.fr website:

Back in 1998, on a flight to the Winter Music Conference, Christophe le Friant (Bob Sinclar) met Thomas Bangalter. They hit it off immediately even though they have two very different personalities (Thomas being more introvert and Sinclar being very extrovert). Sinclar with his natural charisma proposes to Thomas to work on a piece together. Sinclar talks to Thomas about his album and the idea seduces Thomas enough for him to accept the proposition. Back in Paris, Sinclar sends a piece of "Bad Mouthin" from Motown Sounds while showing him samples so that he can work on it.

Thomas works on the piece all night and samples and puts over the vocals from Jane Fonda's "Arms". Thomas had this vocal back in his stock for quite awhile. He even thought about using it in one of his own production for the label Roulé. And thus, "Gym Tonic" was born.

To protect his creation, and for form, Thomas whips up a paper that he makes Sinclar sign. Thomas does not even have the rights on the samples from Jane Fonda and Motown Sound... the deal between both of them is this: Thomas gives the piece to Sinclar for his upcoming album under condition that his name does not appear anywhere and, Thomas cannot emphasize this more, that the piece must not be a single. And yet...

A couple months go by, the first feed backs for Sinclar's album arrive. It is a hit within the industry! Only one small problem, it's "Gym Tonic" that makes a hit and not the album.

Taken aback by the success and numerous solicitations, Alain Hô (From Sinclar's label Yellow) explains that Warners (who distributes Yellow's CD's) notices the power of the hit in their music catalogue.

Sinclar feels bad. Not a single but an EP? Why not? He tries - but in vain- to reach Thomas in LA. Same thing with Pedro Winter (Daft Punk's manager at the time): no answer.

Following the pressure from record company, Sinclair cracks under the pressure and release about a 100 EP's destined for "promo only". They will still found themselves on the store shelves and with a big cherry on top, Bangalter's name is features in the credits of "Gym Tonic".

The two new friends start to settle things with lawyers and of course the press eats it up. The clash between both producers is there.

Warner will finally release a "Gym Tonic" on sale, by the producer of Space Dust (sic). the rumour is that Yellow is at the origin of everything that has come to pass. To note that, Bangalter had other samples nabbed from him in the beginning of the early 2000's... Which has been used in another house music hit known by all. Another occasion for another article!

The bit at the end is referring to Warners hearing about Glancy & Glasson's bootleg ripoff (which also incorporates elements of their Stardust ripoff too) and pickingit up to release instead. Sinclar did eventually get the Fonda samples cleared and included the track on his debut album Paradise without Bangalter's permission, and Bangalter hasn't spoken to him since. The other track it alludes to having samples stolen ffom Bangalter is Call Me.

[popcorn]

Thanks Buzby! I forgot the Gym Tonic discussion from that other thread.

[popcorn]

One thing that intrigues me about Music Sounds Better is that there's some sort of disco string element that comes in halfway through, but it's only kind of half-there. It's quite lovely, it's like a sort of vanishing dream of a string element, just little smudges and smears of it.

It sounds like part of a sample but it's not in the main track they sampled (I think), and no other samples are credited. they could have added it through a synth but it doesn't sound like it, and there's quite a detailed interview where one of the guys says exactly what they did for the track and it doesn't sound like they added much to it beyond the vocals, bassline, and 909 drums.

[buzby]

One thing that intrigues me about Music Sounds Better is that there's some sort of disco string element that comes in halfway through, but it's only kind of half-there. It's quite lovely, it's like a sort of vanishing dream of a string element, just little smudges and smears of it.

It sounds like part of a sample but it's not in the main track they sampled (I think), and no other samples are credited. they could have added it through a synth but it doesn't sound like it, and there's quite a detailed interview where one of the guys says exactly what they did for the track and it doesn't sound like they added much to it beyond the vocals, bassline, and 909 drums.

I've heard people suggest that the string stabs you are talking about are actually pitched and treated samples of the guitar notes from the main Chaka Khan sample, which I think might be right.

[the]

I've heard people suggest that the string stabs you are talking about are actually pitched and treated samples of the guitar notes from the main Chaka Khan sample, which I think might be right.

I just did a bit of stereo phase cancellation to hear it better (with you), and they're definitely Philly-esque strings, I'd say it's very likely they're liberated from some disco record. If you pitch the guitar up it doesn't really come anywhere near the sound, the texture is very different and it doesn't hit those stringy frequencies.

[Jockice]

The singer with early 90s Irish comedy band Sultans Of Ping FC is now this.  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/niall-oflaherty
As someone who totally fucked up a politics PhD this has plunged me into depression.

And here's Fatima Mansions' drummer. https://www.essex.ac.uk/people/allum73209/nick-allum

[Jockice]

Paul Birch, my local councillor was (is?) the boss of the Revolver Records whose offices were splashed with paint by those playful Stone Roses scamps in 1990.

 

Which one is he on that second photo?

[buzby]

I just did a bit of stereo phase cancellation to hear it better (with you), and they're definitely Philly-esque strings, I'd say it's very likely they're liberated from some disco record. If you pitch the guitar up it doesn't really come anywhere near the sound, the texture is very different and it doesn't hit those stringy frequencies.

Yeah, I could see that too. It's such a common string phrase from the Philly/early disco era it would be pretty hard to identify the source. Have you seen that video of some bloke recreating the song in Ableton? It's quite funny as they get to 20-odd minutes in after adding all the other elements when his mate points out that the beat is off because he's truncated the main loop a tad too much.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Which one is he on that second photo?

I've just checked and apparently he's the one on the left. The young lady next to him was his then girlfriend, now his wife and fellow Labour councillor, Olivia Birch.

[Better Midlands]

they're definitely Philly-esque strings, I'd say it's very likely they're liberated from some disco record.

That's what I've always thought, maybe they played from a keyboard and sampled. Everything sounds very SP1200.

[the]

That's what I've always thought, maybe they played from a keyboard and sampled. Everything sounds very SP1200.

Just sounds like four sampled stabs to me. Also they were using bitcrushers in their effects around then (along with their beloved flanging).

[buzby]

That's what I've always thought, maybe they played from a keyboard and sampled. Everything sounds very SP1200.

The main loop was sampled on Braxe's SP1200:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_GsiAf2qj8
it was sampled from the record played on 45 and pictched up to increase the sampling time, so it gets the SP1200 'crunch' when played back at normal speed. Drums from a 909 (as the sample memory on the SP1200 was full), bassline from a Korg Trident and a bit of Rhodes. The sections were then sampled into an Ensoniq ASR-10 and triggered manually from the keys to sequence the track. Benjamin Diamond's vocals were put through an Alesis 3630 compressor and the final mix out was put through another 3630.

[popcorn]

I just did a bit of stereo phase cancellation to hear it better

Is there an easy way to do that? Like a VST you can get or something? Whenever I've tried doing it to listen to little bits of music isolated I just find fiddly Audible tutorials. I'm sure there used to be a Winamp plug-in that did it.

[the]

Is there an easy way to do that? Like a VST you can get or something? Whenever I've tried doing it to listen to little bits of music isolated I just find fiddly Audible tutorials. I'm sure there used to be a Winamp plug-in that did it.

I'm sure there are many ways to do it, I just used the Utility device in Ableton which seems to be a quick and adjustable way. Turn the stereo width up to 200%, then if necessary phase invert one channel or isolate the left or the right, depending on where the sound you're interested in seems to be clearer.

[Better Midlands]

I'm sure there are many ways to do it, I just used the Utility device in Ableton which seems to be a quick and adjustable way. Turn the stereo width up to 200%, then if necessary phase invert one channel or isolate the left or the right, depending on where the sound you're interested in seems to be clearer.

Have you tried using Spleeter yet the?

[the]

Have you tried using Spleeter yet the?

Considering I've never heard of it until now, no. :)

For production I have methods for isolating stuff and picking apart sounds, these are usually when I'm dealing in samples though. Not really arsed about pulling apart whole tracks (remixes tend to use up ideas you could use for your own stuff, and I'm not that keen on stuff that just leads to more derivatives of established songs).

[Head Gardener]

The Breeders' Pod album is 30

[Prison Biscuits]

^ Ha, always wondered what the hell that was on the cover.

Was just reading the wikipedia on Mark Oliver Everett (inspired by the ha ha responses in the 'where do eels come from' thread) and this bit, I knew the first part about his dad and sister, but the second paragraph, fuck

Everett's father, Hugh, died of heart failure when Everett was 19. Mark was the one to find him. His sister, Elizabeth, died by suicide in 1996, and in 1998 his mother, Nancy Everett née Gore, died of lung cancer. Following these tragedies, Everett and the Eels released Electro-Shock Blues in 1998.

His cousin, Jennifer Lewis née Gore, was a flight attendant on the plane that struck The Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The plane struck the side of the Pentagon where his father had worked, and Everett remarks in his autobiography that he wonders whether the plane hit his father's old office.

[pigamus]

Robert Palmer was briefly in a supergroup with half of Duran Duran. I always assumed Some Like It Hot was just your common or garden Robert Palmer single, but apparently not. What on earth was the point of that?

[Better Midlands]

What on earth was the point of that?

Cocaine.

[Artie Fufkin]

Ian Broudie from Lighting Seeds and Holly Johnson were in Big In Japan together. I did not know that.

[buzby]

Ian Broudie from Lighting Seeds and Holly Johnson were in Big In Japan together. I did not know that.

Alongside Bill Drummond and Budgie. Clive Langer was also a member before Holly joined, and Holly's role on bass was eventually taken over by David Balfe.