Hooter (Carl Craig Remix)

There were a few tunes that I forgot to mention in my previous posts, so I'll be posting them from time to time.

This video was actually on the same tape, that back in early 1997 introduced me to a lot of my favorite alternative artists as well as electronic ones, like FSOL and The Orb. This was my first introduction to techno - different from what I used to know by then (euro-dance and happy hardcore). I guess, this was the tune that opened the doors for me into this genre, and a few years later - led me to my first underground techno parties in Jerusalem.

Back then I couldn't imagine that this clip was actually 8 minutes long. It didn't feel like that.

Welcome to "Tales from the Crates"

Hello everyone!

I am Markey Funk and this is my new blog dedicated to the long forgotten music that I used to listen to as a child (and a bit after that). Behind every song there is a story of people and music, hidden in the records grooves. Behind every favorite song there is a listener's personal story and memories. When I brought up the title "Tales from the Crates", I wanted to explore the stories behind the music that I'm collecting. Now, I'd like to use this title to tell my personal stories, that I recall, while looking through my cassette boxes.

After running a 3-month daily song project in my Facebook profile, I realized how much music can one person listen to while growing up and how much can a person tell about almost every tune that he remembers. Of course, Facebook timeline format is not perfect for such storytelling project, so I've decided to create a blog that will collect all these musical memories. It will not be updated daily (3 months is fine, but we all have lives), but instead I'll be posting a song every Saturday.

But before we go on further, you're welcome to scroll backwards, read and listen to all the music that I've been posting during last 3 months.

Enjoy! :)

So Long

In winter I bought a tape of LTJ Bukem's "Logical Progression". In the middle of the mix there was this amazing tune. Each time I heard it, I was thinking about the day, when a plane will take us from Minsk. I was trying to imagine what I will see from my window seat... the noon sky, maybe the sea, maybe only the sea of clouds...

On July 18, 1999 it all became a reality: me on a plain going from one world to another, from one life to another... with no return ticket. I didn't realize yet, that this day will be the separation line between my life in Minsk and my life in Jerusalem. In 5 years, all this will be just memories. There will be music to bring those memories back, but there will be nothing to connect them to my new life here.

This wasn't the end of everything - this was only the end of the beginning.

Erica America

June 1999. I was counting days backwards to our flight, going downtown almost every evening and listening to this ultimate summertime album.

I remember this moment vividly:
Warm summer evening, me running by Palace of the Republic, turning behind the corner and here it is - city's new huge central square, filled with sunset light, this song playing in my headphones, and excitement filling every cell of my body. As if the whole world was smiling at me: the sun, the river, squares and parks, trees, buildings, buses, trams and cars - this whole city, giving me it's farewell cheers.

This is the Minsk that I'll always remember.

150 Milliardov Shagov

Late May 1999: After Kirill and me went to "Radio Styl" with our music as Observer, I was involved with 10GLAZ. While the project was still in working, I went to a hip hop festival organized by local alternative nightclub. There Kindut first presented one of the tunes we recorded together.

Around the same time the new Tequilajazzz album dropped out. I couldn't wait to buy it - this time on an original CD. Unlike anything else, this album was in sync with my confused feelings about these last months that I had in Minsk. I've learned to enjoy every little second of my life to the fullest, but I knew that soon I'm leaving into the new uncertain future, and all these things that I was enjoying so much will stay behind.

GROOVE DAY - PART 1

Of course, thanks to "Radio Styl", I was discovering not only hip hop, but it came alongside acid jazz, breakbeat, jungle... one night there was even a Reinforced Records special, from which I first learned about the early pre-"Timeless" sound... but let's be consistent.

Thanks to the promoters and DJ's that often came to the radio, I could not only discover separate tunes, but hear part of mixtapes by famous DJ's. One night they played various parts of the Cut Chemist/Shortkut "Future Primitive Session", which, of course, hooked me even more on scratching and DJ'ing. The other they played some parts from DJ Vadim/Primecuts mixtape, with some great and rare funk breaks.

But it was discovering segments from this amazing mixtape that a) turned me finally on Cut Chemist and drove me closer to discovering Jurassic 5, whom I will hear a couple of years later; b) showed me that you can spin any music with a beat in a DJ-set - not necessarily new; c) put my focus on what funk really is.

I guess, this was the first moment, when I thought - this is my groove, this is what I want to play as a DJ, these are the real roots of hip hop - this is where I want to dig. And all this "breakout" started with hearing these sounds:

GROOVE DAY - PART 2

One of the first real soul-funk tunes I heard on "Radio Styl" was introduced as a release from Acid Jazz Records. I wish I knew the truth back then and wouldn't mess with this genre too much, while looking for this song.

This was 100 times better than any Jamiroquai song I knew.

 

GROOVE DAY - PART 3

I heard this tune on the same night I heard the previous one and it just exploded in my mind. I just didn't know where to look for the stuff like this, but this was the essence of groove for me - wild like punk-rock, uncompromising like hardcore, tight like jungle and soulful at the same time.

I didn't know yet, that it was a cover, but after the years, with all my love to Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, their version doesn't get any closer to this one.

GROOVE DAY - PART 4

This tune was the perfect evening tune of May 1999. Unrelated to the spoken content, it reflects the atmosphere of warm spring evenings in Minsk.

GROOVE DAY - PART 5

I'm closing this day with this tune. I've discovered it on a pirate compilation called "Porno Jazz", that included mostly modern lounge artists, like Dimitri from Paris, Kid Loco and selected tunes from "Suck It and See" compilation (like the previous one, for example). This way I also learned, what else can I sample and what can I make out of these samples... ahem... yes.

For the 16-year old virgin hooked on music this thing was even cooler than watching all the Emmanuelle movies and late night Playboy channel segments combined. No need to explain more on that, I think. :)

HIP HOP DAY - PART 1

Admit, you've been waiting for it! :)

Yes, through Portishead, DJ Shadow, DJ Cam, Beastie Boys and Ninja Tune I came to hip hop. Big time - not just rap, but all the aspects of the culture. This was the rise of internet, though we were still mostly reaching it at the internet cafes. Through what DJ guests on "Radio Styl" were explaining, I was learning more and more about the whole culture and then was spending hours at the cafe, searching for more information on the topic. Soon I've found myself hanging out with rappers downtown and even managed to meet some of the key figures on the Belorussian hip hop scene and even working with one of them. But let's take it from the start.

Early spring of 1999. Almost every evening I was tuning to "Radio Styl" to hear more and more new stuff that I've never heard. In the array of Ninja Tune artists I suddenly heard this song. And that was it - this was my essence of rap. The rhymes, the flow, the beat (which was also produced by DJ Shadow!), the vibe - it all was so different from the mid-to-late 90's stuff I saw on TV and sounded so true, so essential.

I think, if I wouldn't discover this EP, I'd never really get into hip hop the way I did. This was and still remains my "Can I Kick It", "California Love" and "Bring tha Ruckus" - all in one. Everything else was after this tune.

HIP HOP DAY - PART 2

There was a long line of inspiration in sampling for me. Ninja Tune stuff inspired me to dig through my dad's jazz records - even the most avant garde ones. DJ Cam and Shadow inspired me to look for the drum breaks on the same records (which was desperating). DJ Vadim's first album inspired me to look for strange spoken word samples. But this particular album was the last push to look for samples on every record in sight. Lucky for me, we were doing rips of my whole dad's record collection into MP3 format, so I managed to listen to a lot of records on the way.

Like with many others, I've learned about this fourth cornerstone of alternative hip hop long before I had a chance to hear his music. It took more than a year since I read about him in "MG", until I've finally heard his stuff on the radio. But the real discovery was when I finally managed to get his legendary album on CD. And this particular tune - calm, deep, dark and melancholic - it was in perfect sync with my mood that same spring.

HIP HOP DAY - PART 3

It wasn't the PE, it wasn't the Run-DMC, it wasn't the Grandmaster Flash or Herbie's "Rockit", it wasn't Wu-Tang and it wasn't Dr. Dre, it wasn't Tribe and it wasn't Gang Starr, no Pharcyde, no Cypress Hill and no Biggie Smalls... And even as much as I loved Beastie Boys, it wasn't yet them, because, despite my love of "Hello Nasty", it didn't have the impact that "Ill Communication" had on me, but all this was later on...

It was THIS tune that got me into classic hip hop. And the glasses I have for last 3 years were my dream since that time. This tune put me in the baggies and military jackets for another 3 years. This tune guided my eye through the city walls in search for graffiti art, it also put a notebook and a pen in my hands to start drawing my own first sketches. This tune brought me to Sugar Hill Records, early Def Jam, "Buffalo Gals", "Rockit", "Planet Rock", "The Message" and "South Bronx". It brought me to beat juggling, it brought me to funk, it brought me to deep funk. This tune brought me to meet Kindut - legendary MC and rap journalist - and start my first collective hip-hop-acid-jazz project, called "10GLAZ" ("10EYES").

It was all thanks to this single tune.

HIP HOP DAY - PART 4

Actually, I wouldn't have met Kindut without meeting the graffiti artist Shin - one of the most original and artistic in Minsk at that time. Shin was a tall and quiet student with a very deep knowledge in hip hop history. He brought me this tape. And this was my final guide into soulful conscious rap. It also was my real introduction into Black music. I guess, after this album and this particular tune, my way into funk and soul was inevitable.

HIP HOP DAY - PART 5

And so, I was infected by the hip hop virus. But unlike the same rappers that I used to hang out with, I wasn't listening to any of the hardcore, gangsta or boom bap classics. Instead, I was listening to the b-boy style stuff - funky, jazzy, soulful and positive. Not always with MC's, but always groovy.

Gus Gus

We'll step backwards for a moment to another album that reminds me of winter of 1999. And my favorite song from it:

_____________________________________________________________

P. S. Yet another favorite song:

NINJA TUNE DAY - PART 1

And so, 1999 had come, bringing with it a huge stream of new sounds. Many of them I've first discovered in "MG", then heard on "Radio Styl", then copied from my new friends, that I've met on different occasions.

One of the most exciting such discoveries was the legendary UK label Ninja Tune. Many of these tunes made up the sound of the coming spring, starting with this one:

NINJA TUNE DAY - PART 2

I already had Herbaliser's "Blow Your Headphones", when I heard this on the radio. But I could never imagine something as calm, minimalistic and abstract. This is how I've learned about the third cornerstone of instrumental hip hop - DJ Vadim. I could listen to such stuff for days, but didn't know where to find it... yet...

NINJA TUNE DAY - PART 3

A friend of mine brought me the fresh FunKungFusion compilation on two cassettes. It included a lot of Ninja's Golden Era tunes that became my personal classics: Mr Scruff, Kid Koala & Money Mark, Dynamic Syncopation, DJ Food's remix for The Herbaliser, The Irresistible Force, Neotropic, Journeyman's "Spy", twisted drum'n'bass by Override and Wild Palms, Clifford Gilberto, Amon Tobin, Luke Vibert, Funki Porcini, J Swinscoe ... you know the names.

But this particular tune was like: "Fffffuck, I wanna do what they're doing here!" In the movie "Scratch" many DJ's recall Hancock's "Rockit" as their first inspiration in scratching. This tune was my "Rockit". From the moment I heard it, I wanted to be involved with Hip Hop as much as I could. I was trying to scratch my children's records on my dad's record player. This is how I discovered the need of slipmat and a mixer. Later on my B-Boy friend brought me a video-tape of 1998 German ITF championship, where DJ Hype (later - Marc Hype) took the first place and Shortkut and Babu gave a closing showcase. I felt euphoric and miserable, because I couldn't afford any equipment by then. It will take another 2 years until I'll have my first DJ-mixer, but this was just the beginning.

NINJA TUNE DAY - PART 4

This was a perfect rainy day tune. Simple, quiet and beautiful, it perfectly reflected the mood of early spring days in Minsk.

It just me there on one of those rainy days - sitting by the window of my room... or riding on the bus through downtown...