N'Sel Fik

My recent interest in things Moroccan/ North African and my longstanding love of Factory Records come together today in a post to end the week. In 1987 Factory released a record by Fadela, a 7" and 12" single (Fac 197) a song called N'Sel Fik- a fusion of synthpop and rai. It's always felt like a bit of an outlier in the Factory back catalogue (a label with enough outliers to be going on with, one which would happily release a single on a whim if one of the key movers at the label liked it enough). 

N'Sel Fik 

The version I have here is a shorter one than the Factory release, four minutes as opposed to seven one (and there was also a three minute promo version for radio stations). In 1987 Factory also put out True Faith and Touched By The Hand Of God by New Order, the NO compilation Substance, 24 Hour Party People by Happy Mondays, and a slew of singles by Miaow, ACR, The Railway Children, Kalima, Biting Tongues and Durutti Column. N'Sel Fik sounds nothing like any of these.

Fadela were a married couple, Chaba Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui. The song was one of the first rai recordings to be widely released in Europe. Factory licensed it from Parisian label Attitude who originally put it out in 1986. I've long wondered how and why it came about and with a little bit of internet sleuthing found out the following...

Mike Pickering, Hacienda DJ, Factory A&R and recording artist (Quando Quango) heard it being played in the Harem club in New York, a club run by Mark Kamins (an NY legend who helped shape the city's club culture and sound in the 70s and 80s and who played an instrumental role in launching Madonna's career). Kamins had a lot of Eastern/ Turkish/ North African influences going on at harem. He'd have Turkish musicians playing live while he spun early house records. M/A/R/R/S came down one night with a white label of Pump Up The Volume and Mark mixed the vocal of an Egyptian singer into it- M/A/R/R/S went back to London and sampled the voice for the final cut of their single.Harem became hip and Kamins shut it down a year later after New Order played there. 

If you want a much more detailed post about the story of Fadela and N'Sel Fik this blog, Hawgblawg, can fill you in. It's written by a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas who has published a book on the Palestinian Revolt of the 1930s.

Mike Pickering was so taken with N'Sel Fik he took a copy back to Manchester and told Tony Factory should license and release it with a Pickering remix. It's not an easy or especially cheap record to track down now- I have it on the Palatine box set but have never found a copy of the single on either 7" or 12". The hunt is all part of the fun though. 

Drop That Ghettoblaster

Something a bit more in your face and full on, full frontal even, than yesterday's ghostly Rootmasters song. This 1986 release by Karen Finley was sampled by S'Express (where this post's title was borrowed from and also the phrase 'suck me off', which somehow Mark Moore managed to disguise slightly by smudging the first vowel sound and then sneaking onto Radio 1 and Top of Of The Pops). Over a rapid fire drum machine and then some long keyboard chords Karen opens fire (Karen was a performance artist and poet and is currently a professor at New York University). She starts out with 'you don't own me bastard, you fucking asshole' and then crams in pretty much every insult, sexual reference and swear word she can think of, also taking time to include your Granny and Belgian waffles. It's a tour de force performance and was produced and co-written by Mark Kamins (who most famously worked with Madonna in the 80s).

It is still pretty jaw-dropping to hear and should probably only be played loudly/audibly if you are very confident in those who are around you. Most definitely Not Safe For Work.

Tales Of Taboo

Here, so you can place those vocal samples in context, and also because this is one of the greatest records of the 1980s (and of any decade in fact) are S'Express having a lot of fun on Top Of The Pops.