Moments

This song came my way again at the weekend, on Sunday night as I was getting my head around work the day after I think, a very welcome postcard from 1989 courtesy of J.T. And The Big Family. It led to a train of music in my head, one song leading to another, all links in a late 80s/ early 90s musical chain.

J.T. And The Big Family's Moments In Soul was created and mixed at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, one of many records passing through that studio in the 1980s, the state of the art desk and facilities paid for by 10cc's hit singles and desire to have a good studio to record in close to home and not have to go to London to make records. J.T. And The Big Family were Italian and created Moments In Soul largely from samples- the two you'll pick up on straight away are the synth stabs from The Art Of Noise's ambient classic Moments In Love and the summer  of '89/ '90 shuffle of Soul II Soul's Keep On Movin', plus the very familiar, 'ah yeah' vocal sample, and vocals by an uncredited Susy del Gesso. 

Moments In Soul 

Here's the two main source samples, Art Of Noise and their 1986 masterpiece, a song that in 12" form is one the 1980s best moments.

Moments In Love

Keep On Movin' was a March 1989 single for Soul II Soul, the second single from Club Classics Vol. One, with Caron Wheeler's vocal and Nellee Hooper and Jazzie B's production. One of those songs from a year when great singles seemed to be released on a weekly basis. 

Keep On Movin'

Moments In Soul was a top ten hit and a summer of '89 classic, a slowed down chugger giving dancers a few minutes of respite from the higher bpm tracks. The provenance of all those samples and their sources takes in a list of artists including Biz Markie, Toots And The Maytals, The O'Jays, Bobby Byrd, Foxy Brown and Grand Central Station (whose The Jam provided Soul II Soul with their drum break). 

Moments In Soul fits perfectly with many other dance records from the period not least this one, another chart smash. Tom's Diner was a 1990 hit for DNA and Suzanne Vega, with a Soul II Soul drum break, this time from Back To Life, with an a capella vocal from 1981 laid over the top. It was done originally without Suzanne's knowledge or permission, Tom and Neal from DNA chopping the vocal up into little bits, sampling it and then re- assembling it with drums, bass, some string stabs and piano. 

Tom's Diner

In 1991 Electronic, Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr's band that was something of a bid to break out of the shadows of their two bigger bands, released Feel Every Beat, a single from their debut, self- titled album. DNA remixed it for the CD single- there are lots of guitars courtesy of Mr Marr, some big piano house chords, another shuffling DNA drum beat and Bernard's rather sweetly sung vocals, 'we don't need to argue/ we just need each other'. Bernard also raps (and gets away with I think), a vaguely coded response to the criminalisation of rave culture and free parties.   

Feel Every Beat (DNA Mix)

Strawberry Afro

Strawberry Studios, Waterloo Road, Stockport, opened in 1968 and closed in the early 1990s, owned and fitted out with top of the range spec by 100cc's Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. In between a multitude of bands made significant records there- for the purposes of this post we'll go with Joy Division and Martin Hannett recording Unknown Pleasures and Love Will Tear Us Apart, early New Order before they decided to go on without Hannett producing, The Smiths and Hand In Glove plus the 'Manchester' version of This Charming Man, some early Stone Roses recordings, The High's Somewhere Soon album, Indian Rope and some of Some Friendly by The Charlatans, Durutti Column's 1984 Without Mercy, my friend Darren's band Rig, and the legendary 1980 sessions where A Certain Ratio and Grace Jones almost recorded a version of Talking Heads' House In Motion. Parts of ACR's 1990 album acr:mcr was recorded and mixed at Strawberry. I could go on. It's no longer a recording studio but the sign has been put back up, a momento of an ordinary red brick building in unfashionable Stockport that changed the way things were done. 

A Certain Ratio are gearing up for a new album out at the end of March this year called 1982. In November last year they released a second single ahead of it, the Tony Allen sampling Afro Dizzy with a dazzling vocal from new singer Ellen Beth Abdi. Afro Dizzy doesn't sound like a group who have become remotely dulled by being in existence since 1979. If anything they sound more alive, more energised and better than ever