Saturday, August 02, 2008

Request to all thy little acid people...



Shut Up & Dance feat. Ragga Twins - Lamborghini

When my brother and me were wee boys our favourite car (you have to have a favourite everything when you're kids) was the Lamborghini Countach. Look at it - it's a beautiful thing. I can't even drive, but I love it and I want one. Whenever we played the 'Sports Cars' Top Trumps, the one card we always wanted to win and keep hold of was the Lamborghini Countach. (Top speed: 305 km/h - hand it over, fool). Despite our fierce TT rivalry, I didn't really care if I lost, so long as I held the Countach in my grubby little paws at some point.





That little nostalgic interlude leads me nicely into some more nostalgic daydreaming (it's seamless here, innit?) in the form of 'Lamborghini', an absolute corker from Shut Up & Dance, released back in 1989. I can remember raving to this at the legendary Maximes parties at Bowleaze Cove in Weymouth, some of which I organised in my role as the Entertainments Officer of Weymouth College, despite not actually being old enough to go there! They were incredible parties, and I could bore you all silly with my stories (another time though, I'll try and stick to the point). We got North & South to DJ at a couple of them (North was Nigel Casey, who went on to become part of House of 909; South was Bournemouth's Justin Harris, of Freaks fame) and they played a blinder. I'm not sure if it was them who dropped 'Lamborghini' - if I could remember something like that, I probably wasn't there - but it got played a few times and caused absolute meltdown on the dancefloor. SUAD had a very hip-hop mentality to making dance music, laying samples from popular songs (in this case, 'Sweet Dreams' by Eurythmics) over tough electro breaks. They don't really get enough props - they were innovators and scene leaders, making some of the finest music to come out of that early period. 'Lamborghini' is probably their best, fusing electro, bleeps and rave with an iconic live vocal from the Ragga Twins. If 'Lamborghini' were in 'Old School Rave' Top Trumps it would win in most categories, hands down.


Shut Up & Dance website, featuring an online store
Shut Up & Dance MySpace
Lamborghini Countach at Wikipedia

Joe.