DiscoEx Archive: Bass Music Installment 1

January 31, 2006

This is more like 3 songs with a whole bunch of extra electro shake thrown in the bag for good measure (ahem). Kicking off pirate treasure week on Disco Ex Machina, it's 12 minutes of mid-80's electro/rap:
Get your linoleum, jimmy hats and a towel: download threesie #5 right here.

Alex Murphy - How Far Can You Go? Buy Vinyl	I promised we'd start with west coast electro, but is this really from Beverly Hills? Who cares. The point is that when I was a kid, there were two main inspirations for my love of electro. This was one of them, but I bet you've never heard the rap before, just like you're not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.
Uncle Jamm's Army - Yes, Yes, Yes Buy Vinyl	And this was the other: in my suburban hometown of San Jose, CA we had a hawaiian-themed roller rink whose weekend DJ seemed to play nothing but the finest in electro and freestyle. They had these gigantic sinister tiki masks on the walls from which emanated rays of colored lights, pulsing to the sounds of vocoders, sex raps and 808 drum machines. It must have made an impression on me because everytime I hear Uncle Jamm's Army I feel like I should be rexxing or shooting the dog or whatever. Truth is, I was lucky to do the hokey pokey on skates without eating shit. Uncle Jamm's Army includes the Egyptian Lover, Chris "the Glove "Taylor (see "Breakin" soundtrack) and yes, that's probably Ice T doing background vocals on this track.
Jamie Jupitor - Computer Power Buy Vinyl	The Egyptian Lover's other alter-ego is Jamie Jupitor. He seems to have reserved this guise for more fully arranged electro music; it's more sonically dense than the floor-filling Uncle Jamm material, though perhaps this reflects that it's a later work by a few years (1988). The record I got it from is actually a compilation of "Miami Bass Classics" from the Wicked Mix series, which just shows that Miami's reputation as the place for electro bass earned them the naming rights to the whole genre, regardless of origination.
Skanless Electricfunk Megamix Phase 2 Get oldskool CD's from Amazon	The end treat is a megamix of miami/westcoast electro, a razor-blade edit fest that includes at least these tracks and many more: Trinere "All Night", "Afrika Bambaataa "Looking for the Perfect Beat", Freestyle "Don't Stop the Rock", Wreckn' Cru featuring Dr. Dre "Juice", Connie "Rock Me" and Pretty Tony's "Jam the Box". Damn.