missingthumbs

much sun sickness and hot head of hosepipe dreams, so I look back at the songs that used to box me good, tunes that changed my tastes or direction, records that taught me new ways to swear about my mother or learn handy marijuana facts.

cypress hill - insane in the brain

When I first heard this it blew my tiny mind. Wow! He just said the 'fuck' word in a whiny nasal voice! What a hero! I immediately stopped playing super mario and instead set up a surreptitious tape collection of sweary music. (b-real has possibly the most generous artist mp3 collection on the internet and its: here)






kaliphz - hang 'em high

British people rap too? Really? And it's not about tea and biscuits? Holy smokes! The first uk hip hop tune I bought... very dark horrorcore production and confrontational anti - racism lyrics. After their critically acclaimed debut album '7 deadly sins' was a commercial kick in the balls, they went on to box their reputations to a pulp with some shite song featuring lardy jailbird 'prince' naseem hamed.

At this point I'm going to skip my many years of wu-tang clan obsessiveness, they deserve their own special, but in the meantime have this... wu-tang clan live on xm radio with full band backing. By far the best show I've heard from them. It certainly beats the absolute shower of shambolic half heartedness I saw at Brixton Academy in 1997. Worst gig I've ever been to.


Task Force - One step ahead

I was all bitched out by the time this dropped. The magnificent 'New mic order' lp turned me off most of american hip hop for a good few years. What Task Force were doing felt pure at a time when the rappers of the states were first tasting synthetic success. It's also worth noting that they went on to release 'Music of the great outdoors' which is the best UK hip hop record in the world... ever!!! Sadly no longer available on Vinyl, but I urge you to pick it from Bleep. It can be found: here.



Aphex Twin - Bucephalus Bouncing Ball

This song makes sounds I never knew existed. Off my box in the back of a small car with a big sound system and this tore me to pieces. From the classic 'come to daddy' e.p, it started my love affair with warp and lots of bleepy music that makes me want to pull funny faces.


Otis Redding - A change is gonna come


A bit of a left turn here.. this means alot to me for purely sentimental reasons, but is also apt as a signpost for when my tastes diversified to the point of no return..


Themselves - grass skirt and fruit hat / another part of the clowns brain


At which point I 'rediscovered' hip hop in the late 90's with anticon.
The tiny indie record shop of my hometown was blaring out the oddest of noise.. it was doseone's 'slowdeath' a two track cd of low fi noise and poetry readings.The next week they had ordered in the first of anticons' records to reach the uk. These two songs switched my view on what hip hop could be. Themselves' (formerly Them, but changed their name to avoid possible legal action with Van Morrison) self titled debut is a stone cold classic.

Right.

That's it. I'm off to bed.

peas and peace to you.