Is There Anybody Out There?

For sheer joy and exuberance in the pleasure of making uptempo music with new technology that allows non- musicians to experience the same creativity as musicians Bassheads 1991 single Is There Anybody Out There? is hard to beat. Built around a bunch of samples , the song started life with Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, The Osmonds and Afrika Bambaataa at its centre- not surprisingly some of these had to be interpolated or replayed following legal shenanigans before it was officially released on Deconstruction. 

The rap is a particular joy-

'What's this for a ceremony, hanging around?
We got to get down, rock it off on this shaky ground
Come on and spit it out your hearty-party moon everywhere
Let's see you people laugh at people punching out in the air

Get down to the hiphop be-bop-a-lula
You get a sound that is all coming to ya
I wanna get ya, I wanna teach ya
I'm gonna get this beat to hit ya!'

Is There Anybody Out There? (Extended)

In November 1991 the duo, brothers Nick and Desa Murphy from Neston on the Wirral, rounded up some mates and performed the song on Top Of The Pops when it went top ten- in another edition of Top Of The Pops that was rave heaven Bassheads appeared alongside Bizarre Inc. and Love Decade (and the previous week the video was played on an episode with Rozalla and the mighty Altern- 8.

Bassheads 'Is There Anybody Out There?'

Looking back at last month's random selections from my record collection I noticed that on the first of June I featured Birkenhead's Half Man Half Biscuit, so to celebrate the first of July here's another Birkenhead bunch- Bassheads. This is a first of the month Bagging Area tradition that may not last too long. Other than The Coral and OMD I'm struggling a bit I think.

Bassheads were Nick Murphy and others, and released several club oriented singles for Deconstruction between 1991 and 1993, including Back To The Old School, Who Can Make Me Feel Good? and this one, the stupidly good Is There Anybody Out There? It's a record that if you attempt to, ahem, deconstruct it, it falls apart. Echoes of Pink Floyd, an Afrika Bambaataa sample, part of Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime, that drum beat, one of those very 1991 rap bits in the middle, crunchy guitar part and huge synth breakdown. See? Doesn't add up to much on paper or screen. But listen to it and I can smell dry ice and Vicks, and see strobes, coloured lights and hands in the air.

Bassheads - Is There Anybody Out The.mp3