Today’s disc is the 12-inch single Dive by Propellerheads. It was released in 1996 by one of the leading big beat record labels of the time, Wall of Sound. Big beat was the next stage for slower breakbeat music (after the Bristol trip hop phase mentioned back on Day 22) and Propellerheads were one of our favourite artists for this. The two guys in the band were pretty low profile (as far as I know) – I didn’t even know their names till looking them up just now (Will White and Alex Gifford). Here’s Dive (must be played loud):
By the mid 1990s house music felt like it had been around forever and for me, despite the odd good track or mix, the appeal was wearing a little thin (partly from just having heard so much of it, hour after hour, day after day, month after month). It was a bit of dilemma – because of our residency at Leeds club Vague we got paid more as guest DJs to serve up non-stop house music (the harder end of that being expected more and more) but we often really preferred playing other things. As mentioned on Day 22 we did also have a fairly regular job in the small room (back bar) of a place called the Cockpit in Leeds (I think the DJ booth was probably the serving point for food during the day, it all smelt like chips). It was the total opposite of our job at Vague (think feather boas, coke, high heels) because the Cockpit was more an indie club (baggy jeans, spliffs, trainers) and the back bar we played in worked well with drum & bass, big beats, rock, hip hop, all sorts. Our favourite drum & bass track for this job was also mentioned in an earlier post (L Double’s Asylum project and Da Base II Dark).
Propellerheads music was perfect for this space and we played Dive and Take California and possibly their collaboration with David Arnold On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as well (both above – I still have those 12-inch singles). Their next single History Repeating featured Shirley Bassey and was another great track but I don’t remember playing that as I think that’s around when DJ work came to an end for us for lots of different reasons. Mark and I have still got the CD of their 1998 album Decksanddrumsandrockandroll in our family collection and we play it in the car when the driver needs to stay awake (it’s very stirring music).
The CD does have a picture of White and Gifford (but it’s quite hidden inside the cover):
Thinking about this era of DJing reminds me of all the other great big beat/break beat music Daisy and I played back then. There was 1997’s ETA Casual Sub and 1995’s Why Hawaii by Alëem. The whole album by Alëem (1997’s Sound Season on the French label Pro-Zak Trax) is excellent and highly recommended. Here is Why Hawaii:
Back tomorrow with some homegrown stuff.
For the first intro post to this series go here.
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