Shazamers' Blog

Although it’s been a few years since the excellent ‘Harder Than You Think’ was released by Public Enemy, this massive tune is making a comeback thanks to being featured in a hard hitting trailer for the Paralympics that’s been on heavy rotation on the UK’s Channel Four.

WATCH: Channel Four’s trailer for the Paralympics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw&feature=plcp

The director of the trailer – Tom Tagholm – said that he wanted to add some edge, grit and attitude to the trailer, which was one of the biggest projects he worked on last year.

“We narrowed it down to about four or five concepts that we thought could be really strong, but then someone came up with this line – ‘Meet The Superhumans’. We really loved the attitude and the scale and the confidence of it,” he says.

The trailer – which combines live sport, athletes’ training sessions and also some flashback sections to incidents in their past lives – embraces the physical attributes of the athletes and their disabilities. “We wanted to absolutely embrace all of that – their stance, the ways they’ve adapted to their sport, the ways that they use their bodies. It’s very much ‘Here we are!’ y’know? There’s no tiptoeing around anything.”

‘Harder Than You Think’ was the first single to be released from Public Enemy’s 20^th anniversary album How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? that came out in 2007.

The album’s title was a paradox, as main man Chuck D explains: “You don’t sell soul to a soulless people who sold their soul. You have to give it to them. And that’s how it boils down with me. I think the last 15, 20 years the music and the record business experienced a great deal of one-sided individualism and greed. In order to return it to some of its roots, artists and entertainers and songwriters have to reach down into themselves in order to reach down into the souls of folk.”

‘Harder Than You Think’ was also featured as the soundtrack to the Eric Koston section in the Fully Flared skate vid: WATCH http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m5YM3wZ-Q

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Public Enemy

Today’s Vaults is a choice cut from the eponymous debut album by alternative rock group, Foo Fighters ‘Alone + Easy Target’. When the album was released, there was band, as such – the project was the brainchild and baby of just one man – Dave Grohl.

After Nirvana ended so abruptly, Grohl suffered a bout of depression, and couldn’t decide whether or not he could face returning to music. He decided to make a collection of songs where he would play every musical part, and release them under a pseudonym so no-one would know it was him. Grohl was initially insecure about his voice – though you might not think that from the thundering rock-screams he manages on stage these days – so he made sure all the vocals on the album were either quadrupled or had effects added to them.

Though Grohl wasn’t sure about the quality of the music, the collection of songs – that went on to form Foo Fighters debut eponymous album – were received positively by critics and by 2011, the album had sold 1.468 million units in North America, and certified Platinum in Canada and Gold in the UK.

There were four singles released from the album but it was far more than just four singles and some filler. Tracks like ‘Exhausted’ and ‘Alone + Easy Target’ are still among some of the best Foo Fighters material to date (though there’s a mammoth back catalogue to search through before you can come to that conclusion). Grohl had written both tracks when he was still with Nirvana, and had played a demo of ‘Alone + Easy Target’ to Kurt Cobain back in December 1991. “Kurt was staying in a hotel in Seattle at the time, as by then he’d moved to LA,” Grohl said later to MOJO. “I’d told him I was recording and he said, ‘Oh, I wanna hear it, bring it by…’ He was sitting in the bath-tub with a Walkman on, listening to the song, and when the tape ended he took the headphones off and kissed me and said, ‘Oh, finally, now I don’t have to be the only songwriter in the band!’ I said, No, no, no, I think we’re doing just fine with your songs.”

As it happened, ‘Alone + Easy Target’ was just never meant to be a Nirvana track. But it’s perfectly Foo Fighters. Though they’re a mega popular rock band these days, you’re just as likely to come across Dave Grohl’s name in the gossip columns as Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love accuses him of any number of things (currently, it’s of trying to hit on her daughter Frances Bean – which everyone – including Frances – deny to be true).

What happened to the days when it was all about the music, eh? Just forget about all that stuff, put your headphones up and remember rock like it was 1995.

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Foo Fighters

There are some characters in rock who seem omnipresent. One of these folk is John Anthony Gillis (you’ll know him as the man Jack White, from the band The White Stripes). Today’s vault track comes courtesy of the Stripes, from their fourth album Elephant – and it is the track “There’s No Home For You Here”.

Though sales of Elephant were driven by the popularity of its lead single (the super stompy “Seven Nation Army”), the album featured 14 tracks of stripped back, bluesy rock goodness, and it had particular strength in tracks like “There’s No Home For You Here”. The fourth single to be released from Elephant, it was the essence of everything good about the album, all rolled into one track. “Elephant marks the crossroads where that idealism collides with the swagger and snort of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols” wrote Rolling Stone, and how right they were.

Jack White formed The White Stripes in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan with then-wife Meg White (fact fans will love the pop trivia of how Jack got his surname – he married Meg, and then took her surname). The band’s reputation and following grew with their first three albums: their debut, eponymous long player (released in 1999); De Stijl (released in 2000); and the band finally hit proper rock stardom in 2001 when they released White Blood Cells. The album earned the band a ton of fans and a few accolades too (Stylus magazine rated White Blood Cells at number 14 in the top albums of 200-2005, and Pitchfork placed the album at number eight in their top 100 albums form 2000-2004), mostly through the wonderful lego-block stop-frame animation for the “Fell in Love with a Girl” video, directed by Michel Gondry.

WATCH: The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” Here

Even through The White Stripes officially split last year, Jack White has serious trouble staying out of the music headlines. For one thing, he’s adamant that the Stripes won’t get back together – even telling NME: “I couldn’t see any reason to ever do that. I’m not the kind of person that would retire from baseball and come out of retirement the next year. I mean, if we went to all the trouble of telling people we’re done, we meant it you know?”

But it’s not like he has any lack of other projects on the go. Since being in the Stripes, Jack has also played in The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, as well as collaborating on solo projects with artists from Alicia Keyes to Danger Mouse. Recently, Jack celebrated the third anniversary of his record label Third Man Records by throwing a huge party in Nashville Tennessee – and gifting everyone there with a special 3 RPM record, as reported by Rolling Stone.

He’ll have plenty more to celebrate soon, with his debut solo album Blunderbuss coming out on Third Man/Columbia on 24 April 2012. North American tour dates have also been recently announced.

Helia Shazam In The Vaults

The early 2000s were a particularly fruitful time for the wonderful brand of downtempo, jazz-tinged ‘chill out’ that emerged from the ashes of the gritty trip-hop produced in the mid to late 1990s. Acts like DJ Shadow, Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky paved the way for things to slow down – slow right down – and to start incorporating a more bright and breezy lilt.

So July 2002 was the right time for the Swedish production duo that called themselves Koop to bring out their sophomore album, Waltz For Koop, which was an eclectic mix of bossa and jazz rhythms put together with modern electronic influences. The album embodied the very essence of cocktail parties at dusk, and featured guest artists Terry Callier, Cecilia Stalin, Earl Zinger, and Yukimi Nagano, who has recently popped up as the lead singer of Swedish electro-pop act, Little Dragon (so-called after Yukimi’s own nickname for her fiery temper).

A wonderful review by Matt Keller described the vocals on the album better than any other review at the time: “The voice of Yukimi Nagano suggests the exuberant insouciance of picnics, rides in convertibles on warm, full-moon nights, and an afternoon spent dancing barefoot with friends with a glass of sangria in your hand. Like Astrud Gilberto, the great talent of her voice is the emotion it evokes – it’s less about technical perfection and more about its acute ability to set a mood.”

Though the album features a number of gems, one of the very best is the title track ‘Waltz for Koop’, which is a shimmering, slow-paced jazz number featuring Cecilia Stalin on vocals, plus generous helpings of double bass, jazz flute and soaring strings – timeless and utterly divine.

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Koop

1994 was a stellar year for music. Weezer’s blue album, Green Day’s ‘Dookie’, Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’, Blur’s ‘Parklife’, Alice in Chains’ ‘Jar of Flies’, Soundgarden’s ‘Superunknown’, Beastie Boys’ ‘Ill Communication’, Elliot Smith’s ‘Roman Candle’, Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged In New York’, The Prodigy’s ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’, Tom Petty’s ‘Wildflowers’, Portishead’s ‘Dummy’, Suede’s ‘Dog Man Star’, REM’s ‘Monster’, Massive Attack’s ‘Protection’, Marilyn Manson’s debut ‘Portrait Of An American Family’, TLC’s ‘Crazysexycool’ and Beck’s ‘Mellow Gold’.

Need more proof of how important 1994 was to music? It was also the year that Bernard Butler left Suede, Pearl Jam filed their long-running complaint against Ticketmaster, and Kurt Cobain killed himself…

Back to the album releases though, and 1994 was the year that Stone Temple Pilots released their sophomore album, ‘Purple’. The record hit the top spot in the American and Australian album charts, number two in Canada and number ten in the UK. ‘Vasoline’ was the second single to be released from the album, in June 1994, and it went on to reach number one of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for two weeks.

Though Stone Temple Pilots enjoyed chart success with their album ‘Purple’ (which had sold three million copies within four months of release), the band struggled with negative reviews from the press (who dubbed them grunge imitators). But their high ride was set for trouble when – in 1995 – singer Scott Weiland was arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine. After the arrest the band split up, and although they reformed and released further albums, many questioned whether they had past their prime.

Regardless of whether you think that or not, the singles from ‘Purple’ are a great example of how huge and rolling alternative American rock can be. So forget all the bad stuff, and enjoy!

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Stone Temple Pilots

The northern city of Sheffield is fertile ground as far as bands are English bands are concerned. Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Cabaret Voltaire, Joe Cocker, Def Leppard… the list goes on, and on. In the early 1990s in particular, against the backdrop of harsh economic deprivation, the steel city produced some of the best music that the Britpop invasion had to offer.

One of the bands that rode this wave was rock quartet, Blameless. Formed of Jared Daley, guitarist Matt Pirt, bassist Jason Leggatt and drummer Jon Dodd, the group promised great things through their biggest single, Town Clowns. It was included in the Rough Trade Singles Club, and caught the attention of labels who were soon vying for the band’s attentions. They eventually signed with China Records, and were duly shipped to Boston to record their debut album. The LP, ‘The Signs Are All There’, failed to chart, and although the band had a little minor success with a follow up single, attempts to re-release their debut album failed. The band broke up in the mid 1990s, another casualty of the Britpop movement, who were destroyed by the hype almost before they had the chance to get started.

Though the band may have only left a limited body of work, their single Town Clowns remains one of the seminal anthems of the Britpop era. Long live Britpop!

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Blameless

Any band that’s named after a Japanese Manga series about an alien race who arrive on Earth to invade the planet have got to be worth listening to. Right? Especially if the band is Scottish, and play lo-fi indie rock.

In 1995, the wonderfully named Urusei Yatsura released a neon pink seven inch single of their track ‘Plastic Ashtray’ on Che Recordings, It’s thrashy indie brilliance from start to finish. The single was taken from arguably the band’s best album, ‘We Are Urusei Yatsura’ (released on Che in 1996) – which also featured cute and kitsch songs like ‘Kewpies Like Watermelon’ and ‘Hello Tiger’. Though the band released another album after that called ‘Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura’, in fact, the reverse was true. The album received mixed reviews, and the band disappeared quietly, without trace, leaving a legacy of fantastic 7″ plastic in the record collections of Britpop nerds across the UK.

Forget that its 16 years later – watch the video below and relive the glory of the mid 90s!

Words: Helia Phoenix

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Urusei Yatsura

Bristol producer/DJ Roni Size first learned the basics of music production at his local youth club. A wayward teenager, he was expelled from school at 16 and started attending parties in his native Bristol that were run by the Wild Bunch (an earlier incarnation of Massive Attack). A big reggae fan, Roni (born Ryan Owen Granville Williams) started making music in the late 80s. Then, in collaboration with fellow drum and bass artists Krust, Suv and DJ Die, Roni founded Full Cycle records – widely regarded as one of the major foundation labels for the jungle sound in the early 1990s.

Roni’s early productions – like ‘Box Of Tricks’ and ‘It’s Jazzy’ – hinted at the groundbreaking work he was set to release later in his career. But no-one was prepared for just how good his debut album with group Reprazent was going to be. Reprazent were a collective, made up of musicians, DJs and producers and vocalists (including Roni, Die, Siv, Krust, Onallee and Dynamite MC, though the current lineup has changed). At the time, drum and bass was hyping itself up to be the most cutting edge dance music on the British scene, and the genre-defining album ‘New Forms‘ smashed all other contenders into touch. Released in 1997, the album combined jungle with instrumental fusion and roughneck rhymes. Ravers listened to the album incessantly – in the car on the way to a night somewhere, the singles were played while you were on the dancefloor, and it was the first thing on the stereo at the afterparty. It was an album that changed the world of drum and bass forever and launched Roni Size to DJ superstardom, though many say Size and Reprazent’s future work failed to live up to New Forms.

Whatever your opinions about that, there’s no doubt that the Mercury-Prize winning album is fantastic, and the epic lead single ‘Brown Paper Bag’ became a classic of its time. The in and out vocals are distinctive, the drop is huge, it’s a banging track without sacrificing melody or musicality. “Step to the rhythm made out of brown paper,” says Onallee. And who are we to argue?

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Roni Size & Reprazent

If you’ve ever been dancing in a field at around 6 in the morning, just as the sun starts coming up, then you’ll know how good minimal Detroit techno with an insanely funky synth line and screeching 80s sax over the top can sound. It can sound very good indeed. You have French DJ and all round nice guy Laurent Garnier to thank for that, for it was his tune ‘The Man With The Red Face’ that you were listening to.

Laurent Garnier was a pioneer of the dance scene in Paris in the late 1980s, and continued to raise musical hell throughout the 90s and 2000s, making crowds across the globe shake their booty to his flavoursome mixture of techno, disco, jazz, house, African grooves and jungle and dubstep. In 2011 he was nominated for best DJ of all time, and is currently concentrating on live performances with his musical collective, LBS (Live Booth Sessions or Loud Bass and Samples, whichever you prefer). As well as being a red-hot DJ, Garnier is also an accomplished instrumentalist and LBS – which was launched in 2010 – allows him to really get his groove on in the live environment. It’s a trio, comprising of Garnier (DJing and playing keyboards), Benjamin Rippert (keyboards) and San X (machines), playing experimental live sets lasting five hours, and flitting between techno, jazz and breaks; it is a true electronic beat feast.

But back to the matter at hand – one of the tunes that launched Garnier into the superstar DJ he is today. ‘The Man With The Red Face’ is a pure Detroit techno monster with added soul and jazz flair. Written in the late 90s and released in 2000, today there are so many remixes, versions and edits of this that if you played them back to back, they’d go from the Earth to the moon five times over. But the original still holds a certain something – why else would people bother to continually release versions with such miniscule changes? It’s one of the key dance tracks of the past two decades that effortlessly crosses genre: played in sets by techno, house, breaks, and even garage DJs. Listen and enjoy!

Helia Shazam In The Vaults Laurent Garnier

 Grand Puba saw critical and commercial success with Brand Nubian- one of the most innovative, political and controversial hip hop crews of the ‘90s. The band split in 1995 and Puba went onto release his debut solo album ‘2000’ in the same year. Commercially it was to be the most successful venture from an artist who never really got the fame he deserved: this despite the fact he collaborated with stars like Missy Elliot and was also sampled by Tupac.

Puba laid down his trademark flow as early as 1992 in the song ‘Reel to Reel’. The style was picked up by Cypress Hill, reworking the slow hip-hop MC signature of the 80s into a more jagged, sample-rich, digression-filled style that would have many emulators but few as slick and effortless as Puba himself. ‘I Like It’ is the stand-out track on the album that hits the buttons as a floor-filler and a stand-out masterpiece of old-school chilled-out mid-Nineties rap.

The lo-fi music video brings back memories of a time where a few television screens and a basement house party could cut the mustard on MTV. In it Puba talks about the pitfalls of fame, warns a man leaving the party with a lady about the dangers of gold-diggers then lectures us about his lyrical prowess: ‘I’menergetic, poetic, athletic, with good credit; so move like I’m Simon and I said it.’ It still stands up as a great rhyme almost two decades after it was first thrown down.

Words: Josh Bullock

Stephen Titmus Shazam In The Vaults Grand Puba