Man Recordings Inspiration Series #11: A Hippie, A Homeboy And A Funki Dredd
December 15th, 2008
The best years in European rave music were ca 1988-1991, when producers from Belgium, UK, Holland and Germany were fusing the raw power of early Chicago house music with breakbeats, rapping and analog synth lines and the legacy of European industrial music. This was the time when you could go to a party and you would hear house music, electronic body music, rap and hits from the pop charts all mixed up – I remember dancing to a set of Sven Väth in 1989 Frankfurt, in which he dropped Nitzer Ebb, Mel+Kim (!), S.O.S Band, 16 Bit and Twin Hype in one night. It was the “Ursuppe” as we call it in German (= the primal soup), the very source of what we all listen to today. Only shortly after, the music fanned out into the purified genres that would define the soundtrack to 90s European club land, be it techno, Uk hardcore (later called drum n´bass) or trance music. One of the prime tracks of the era though is A Hippie, A Homeboy And A Funki Dredd´s “Total Confusion”, which mixes up the best of three worlds.
Ahhh, those trance-synths! The Chuck D vocal fill in! That breakbeat! Nevermind though that high speed rapping – it sounds well tacky today, but in 1991 this was hot shit.
December 16th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
ah yes those heady not-so-fucked-up-with-genres days. I saw these guys perform this track at “Jelly” at the Fridge in Brixton, a south london version of “Rage” which was tearing it up in the west end.