Before the internet music explosion most sample ID’s were a bit of a secret. People could be bumping some fresh shit and not know what was original, what came from a disco record from 1978 and what had slipped past the major label copyright lawyers. Nowadays you can ID anything that went through the SP1200 or akai S series samplers.
Despite putting out two releases on Reinforced and making occasional appearances at old skool nights DJ Younghead is a rather low profile artist. His first EP for the R, The Way I See Things is a nice representation of where hardcore was going in 1992. The overall sound is very close to the more sophisticated Journey From The Light styles of label bosses 4 Hero. For such an early release on Reinforced it was one of the first records on the label to really push away from the more uniform hardcore sound that they had stuck to previously.
The title cut off the Way I See Things borrows from Virtual by Black Dog, their first release from 1989. This EP along with Age of Slack and the more elusive Techno Playtime became expensive UK techno artifacts and were light years beyond the rest of UK techno from the late 80s. Up until Bytes and Spanners Black Dog were pretty much untouchable before members Ed Handley and Andy Turner left to continue with Plaid.
The track Virtual stands pretty much at the top as far as electronic music in the UK is concerned. Like the pioneering sounds on Reinforced, Britain has always been better at inventing its own sounds rather than just the mainstream tactic of copying straight up US house. In spite of being a pricey record to get hold of Jungle people seemed to love borrowing from Virtual. Both Jo and the mighty DJ Crystl have some done some pretty classy things with this legendary track. The best way to get hold of Virtual is to get the original press off of Discogs which will set you back a few pennies. Though it has been reissued by the bland Soma Records the job they did on remastering it makes it pretty much unlistenable.
Bad Bad Man follows the title cut on the Way I See Things. Like most quality hardcore tracks if there wasn’t some techno or reggae to sample then rap was next. Bad Bad Man samples the words of MC Hood, previously known as Kid Hood. His only appearance on wax was the opening verse on A Tribe Called Quest‘s Scenario Remix. After bowling into the studio with a 40 in his hand like a true bad man Hood busted his verse in one take and a promising future in the its golden age of rap beckoned. Like other bad men life is not lived at a snails pace and three days after this heavy debut being recorded Hood was murdered. Though his verse is highly praised in the rap world there is little else known about the young man. I have a copy of The Source with a little obituary which I haven’t got to hand at the moment. Either ways for an artist whose recording history lasts less than a minute Hood is well represented on two classy records. His verse is first up on the Scenario Remix after being introduced by Busta Rhymes as being in “Spiritual Essence”.
Much praise for the DJ Younghead, Black Dog and especially Hood for this edition of Sample Clearance.
Tags: a.tribe.called.quest, black.dog, kid.hood, reinforced, samples, younghead
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