The Weir Musical History

It was my brother that first got me interested in music, it must have been about 1990
and I would have been about 8 years old. It was all vinyl back then, and I suppose
cassette tapes. I don’t remember whether CDs were about at the time but they
certainly weren’t in my house. Before this my musical taste had basically consisted of
kiddie pop and Michael Jackson and my musical exploration was defined by the
recording of the Top 40 off Radio One on a Sunday afternoon.
My brother seemed to just suddenly start buying records and his collection seemed
to be growing in inches every week. These 12” slabs of black plastic were incredibly
exciting for me as a young precocious child. Sure, my dad had quite a record
collection too but it had stagnated pretty much for the last decade or two; it certainly
wasn’t growing with the fervour my brothers record collection was now and it certainly
didn’t have the enchanting early 90s sleeves or the definitive rubber stamp that
makes something profoundly interesting: a strict instruction never to touch it
punishable by death…
Of course I did touch it, not for a few years admittedly, but eventually I trusted my
finger dexterity enough to risk placing the stylus on the records without scratching
them and replacing the records back in their sleeves in the correct order so he’d
never know. Before that though, I settled on the scraps from the table, the occasional
times when I could persuade my brother to dub a record on to cassette tape so I
could listen on my walkman.
It was the early 90s and the Madchester scene and its offshoot baggy dance was in
full swing. My brother was handing me cassettes of the Stone Roses, Happy
Mondays, James and 808 State. This incredibly fresh, dancey, indie rock music was
something I had never heard before. The Charlatans Some Friendly album was one
of my favourites at the time; I loved the huge, swirling psychedelic sound of the
pounding organs and the throbbing dance beats that backed such melodic sing-a-
long songs.
I think the dance side of the scene appealed to me most, Primal Screams 1991
album Screamadelica with its dubby bass lines and acid house beats also appealed
to me. I guess it was these early forays into all this new music, where the idea of the
sound of the song being equally if not more important than the actual songs melody
that moulded my future listening and production habits. It was a massive contrast to
the radio pop I had been subjected to throughout my childhood, the disposable pop
plastic of the latest catchy tune.
I loved how this whole new world was opening up to me, that there were connections
within the music; the album credits on Screamadelica pointing at the Orb and Sabres
of Paradise. I began to realise that there was more to dance music than the cheesy
europop in the charts.
I was soaking up as much indie rock and indie dance as I could at the time, I started
actually going to gigs, managing to encompass both sides of my current musical
spectrum in seeing Orbital perform live and catching one of the Stone Roses’ last live
gigs in late 1995.
Still no one in my family had a CD player, we were pretty slow as a family to pick up
new technology and my dad still listened to his records and my brother by now had
about 6 foot of records and was in no hurry to transfer his music collection. I looked
at my pretty beat up looking cassette collection and the 2 or 3 Michael Jackson
records I owned and finally decided it was time that I got myself my first CD player.
Actually, it was a second hand Commodore CD32, the first ever CD based games
console, though I think I barely played a single game on it. I think it was pretty much
obsolete by the time I got it, probably around 1996, but it could still play music…
So, the Chemical Brothers were remixing tracks by the Charlatans, and then
released Exit Planet Dust, Leftfield’s Leftism was another album I was getting in to
along with the Prodigy and other intelligent dance acts such as Orbital, Underworld
and the Future Sound of London. I was starting to move away from under my
brother’s musical influence. I still loved a lot of the music he was listening to but I was
also seeking out my own new music, following the links between different bands and
artists.
It was around this time I was given a CD by a friend that quite possibly changed my
musical life. It was DJ Shadow’s seminal album Endtroducing. Here was an album
that combined the lush, intricate soundscapes I appreciated within dance music but
had more of a listenability I associated more with the rock bands I had grown up on.
The dark, broody, slower tempo beats, obscure vocal samples, soulful melodies and
downright seriousness of the album.
I started to look at the Mo’wax catalogue, DJ Krush and his Strictly Turntablized
album and the Headz compilation albums. I also found Portishead’s Dummy,
followed by their eponymous self titled album.
Trip Hop was the new phrase used to describe my ‘new favourite music’ a term I
found strange considering the obvious reference to Hip Hop it intoned.
Until then, my only real experience of rap music had been as a preteen listening to
early N.W.A and probably what I now look back and guess must have been the 2 Live
Crew. Someone would come across a tape, probably pinched from an older brother’s
bedroom and we’d huddle around a walkman listening out for the sexual references
and profanity. As far as I was aware, that was all rap music was about.
I was listening to a lot of Trip Hop acts, the Bristol sound of Portishead, Massive
Attack and Tricky and the wider spectrum of artists including The Aloof, Sneaker
Pimps, Bjork and Morcheeba. I was also drawn to the more American Hip Hop
influenced sound of DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Cut Chemist.
It made me start to look at rap music slightly differently; I guess I was already
branching into the genre to some extent through acts such as Solesides and
Blackalicious. At this point I still differentiated between the beats and the lyrics. I
listened to Hip Hop for the instrumentals not the raps. Through the production of
albums such as The Wu Tang Clan’s Enter the 36th Chamber, Notorious BIGs’ Ready
To Die and Dan the Automator on the Dr Octagon album I slowly started to
appreciate the vocal aspects and over the next few years I would begin to immerse
myself deeper into mid to late 90s Hip Hop.
That really was a golden age of Hip Hop for me. Some people refer to the late 1980s
as Hip Hop’s golden age; some even refer to a second golden age in the early 90s.
Well, I guess I missed out on both of those but for me, the production quality of some
of those mid to late 90s albums, many, I would imagine, influenced by the depth of
sound DJ Shadow had crafted on Endtroducing, was unbelievable.
Q-Tip from Tribe Called Quest; his heavy production on Mobb Deep’s Infamous
album and DJ Premier’s stuff on Jeru’s Sun Rises in the East. I got more in to the Wu
and their affiliates, the beats on the Gravediggaz albums; a dream team of Prince
Paul and the RZA and found Pete Rock with Mecca and The Soul Brother and the
later Soul Survivor LP.
I started listening to a lot from the Rawkus Records stable, Company Flow, Black
Star, The High and Mighty and artists such as The Roots, Common and MF Doom.
It was the UK’s own Lewis Parker with his 1998 album Masquerades and Silhouettes,
those crunchy beats and atmospheric, movie score like backdrops, that made me
realise what UK Hip Hop could be, and more to the point that it was something I
could make a real go of.
I had been making music myself for a couple of years by now. Nothing terribly
serious, I had started out with my Amiga 500 and a copy of Notator I think. When I
moved on to using a PC and got hold of more professional programs like Steinberg’s
Cubase, I started to take things a little more seriously.
My Dad was a keen musician and to this day still plays in a semi-professional band, a
guitarist and organ player, it was he who introduced me to the concept of Midi
recording and composition. I had also tried and failed to take up a few instruments
during my teens, playing very basic bass guitar and singing badly in a few garage
bands during secondary school but nothing had really stuck.
With already quite a broad musical history and the drive to discover the secrets
behind the great production I was hearing within Hip Hop, I guess my musical
spectrum just exploded. I could take inspiration from many different artists and
genres. The history of Hip Hop production built on the art of sampling led me to try to
discover new music, perhaps not full blown crate digging for rare gems; I looked
more for the inspiration I could take from a multitude of musical genres and its artists
as opposed to a rarity within a genre.
I listened to the obligatory old funk and soul records, but also found great inspiration
in the depth and texture of movie scores. Soundtrack composers from the vintage
greats such as Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota and Lalo Schifrin to the modern
composers like Craig Armstrong and David Arnold.
I still had my indie rock roots and kept up with artists such as Ian Brown from the
Stone Roses and the more electronic sound he was developing along with other
electronic indie acts such as Bjork, Zero 7, Radiohead and UNKLE, a development
from the old Mo’wax label.
Also in recent years there’s been further great bits of Hip Hop production such as
Dilla with Slum Village and alongside Madlib on Champion Sound, Atmosphere’s
God Loves Ugly and the development of the more abstract Anticon label, Dan the
Automator with his incredible Deltron 3030 project and DJ Hi-Tek’s soulful sound of
Hi-Teknology and as Reflection Eternal. All of these albums have not only been a
major influence on me but also a joy to listen to.
DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing follow up, The Private Press and Aim’s Cold Water Music
as well as the emergence of RJD2 with Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke
showed there was still room for innovation and progression in the world of
instrumental Hip Hop too.
DJ Dangermouse has steadily progressed as one of my favourite producers around
at the moment from his more underground work with MF Doom on Dangerdoom to
the commercial successes with the Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley.
And this pretty much brings us up to date. It’s been a long and enjoyable journey that
certainly hasn’t ended yet but I think it’s rounded me as both a listener and producer.
It has allowed me to appreciate anything across many genres especially if it has a big
sound; from the Wagnerian operas to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, a bit of balls;
such as the classic rock and roll of the Rolling Stones and the Stooges or at least
some true originality.
And by the way, you still can’t beat a bit of MJ.