Pande-reviews: 1990 (AST / Yunie / Mental Cube)
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:46 am
In 1990 Dougans & Cobain definitely got together in the Earthbeat Studio in London. They weren't a team yet, so they tried to work on many projects and see where they'll click. Their first efforts were... well, confusing... for them... so they released under dozen of aliases in the next two years - searching for the perfect sound.
Art Science Technology - AST [single] (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3100
A1 - A.S.T.
A2 - Esus Flow
B1 - Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix)
The very first official single signed by the legendary duo Dougans/Cobain (they were still young and silly so they signed as B.Dog and Cobain). Also, first mention of the imaginary engineer - Yage.
This is a very strange single... The AST track is actually a cover of The Stranglers song called Something Better Change, one of the first Stranglers single released in 1977. So we have the new wave punk track with some breaks and heavy sampling. The result is a very nice danceable track.
the A.S.T. track
the original by the Stranglers
The A.S.T. track, at 0:21, the one-two-three-four sample is taken from The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
The A.S.T. track samples the drum break from Banbarra - Shack Up, a 1975 rare 7" funk song. The break can be heard clearly at 2:55
PS - rumors have it, this same break was cut/up to extremes to end up on Egypt (on the ISDN album) 4 years later...
In contrast to the first track, we have Esus Flow, a track that uses the same opening samples as Stakker Humanoid and develops into a very strong acid trip. The remix version has even more samples and ambiance - and now we see how far back the recycling of beats goes for these guys.
The opening of Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) samples the opening of Kraftwerk - KlingKlang (from Kraftwerk 2, 1972)
- The same sample will appear much much later on Environments (Gong) on the first of the Archived series in 2007. (although the original Environments was meant to be released in 1994)
The very begging of the Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) samples Vangelis - Tales of The Future (at 0:28) (album: Blade Runner, 1982) - You can even hear a bit from the vocals buried in the back.
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 2:31) samples the opening of Planet Gong - Psychological Overture (album: Live Floating Anarchy, 1977)
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 3:29) samples the opening of Planet Gong - New Age Transformation Try / No More Sages (album: Live Floating Anarchy 1977) - it can be heard here, on the full album link (at 11:17)
- Words by Gilli Smyth: "Come mystic sister. Come with me now. Everything is changing. The age of the goddess is coming. We shall go in the sky and see the stars. The old games are finished. There will be no more violence that walks down dark streets to smile at the screams"
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 4:31) samples the opening saxophone of Gabriel Yared - Betty Et Zorg - (Virgin France S.A., 1986) (this one featured on the Kiss 5 mix in 1993, but now we found out they used it much earlier)
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Yunie - I Can See for Miles [single] (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3103
A - I Can See For Miles
B - I Can See For Miles (Astral Mix)
Their second effort is also somewhat strange. The duo is credited as "B. Dougans and G. Cockbain", Cockbain being the original surname of Cobain before he changed it to Cobain for good.
The track is trip-hop / acid jazz effort, with some smooth pop vocals (uncredited). It's not a bad track, it just doesn't sound like them, but as we said, in this period they tried out every single genre that had any connections with electronic music. The mixed B side has very little vocals and its kinda more pleasant...
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Mental Cube - Chile of The Bass Generation EP (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3104
A1 - Chile of The Bass Generation
B1 - Q
B2 - Dope Module
...And the third try is a charm. The Mental Cube project was the first one that lived to see more than one release.
Dougans/Cobain found the chemistry and the pickpocketing begun. The tracks are heavily sampled funk breaks mashed up with some original new techno/house beats.
Chile of The Bass Generation, the opening drum break is taken from Fuzzy Haskins - The Fuzz & Da Boog, a 1976 funk track.
The flute samples that start around 0:53 and sneak in & out in the entire track, are from the legendary blaxploitation soundtrack composer Johnny Pate, and the track is called You're Starting Too Fast (from 1970) - this is the same track that will inspire Liam of The Prodigy in 1994 to recycle and rework the whole track and give a brain-birth to Voodoo People, the biggest big-beat anthem of the '90s generations
Chile of The Bass Generation:
Fuzzy Haskins - The Fuzz & Da Boog:
Johnny Pate - You're Starting Too Fast:
The second track is the most famous one by Mental Cube, it got re-releases as a single in 1991, ended up on dozens of techno compilations, and even got a remixes release in 2011 (we'll talk about these when the chronology of my list gets to them)
- I wonder if they named the track after Q - the omnipotent being in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Mental Cube - Q:
The last track, an exclusive one to this EP, is another funky/techno sample melded track. The track title, Dope Module, later became another alias of Dougans/Cobain, so its kinda confusing (in 2008, four tracks on the By Any Other Name compilation were credited to the Dope Module alias).
Anyhow, I can't find the Dope Module track on YouTube, but the opening sample is taken from the master himself: Quincy Jones - They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, from a blaxploitation soundtrack he did in 1970. It's a genius move!
What's frightening here is that they were only 22/23 years old and already they had all this vast knowledge of quality music in their heads and all heading in the right direction. It took me until 29 to get to this level of library music knowledge - but hey, they had 15 years of music less for listening and they grew up in UK, and I'm certainly not going to compare my level of music knowledge with Dougans/Cobain - hats down gentlemen!
Quincy Jones - They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
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Honorary mention:
Mental Cube - Live at The Empire Ballroom, London UK (19.12.1990)
bootleg / unreleased
Ross quote:
GURU JOSH LIVE - Supported by guest DJs Mental Cube and Humanoid at the Empire Ballrooms London 19/12/90.
A flyer appeared on an old version of the official site. Nothing else is known about this show.
Art Science Technology - AST [single] (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3100
A1 - A.S.T.
A2 - Esus Flow
B1 - Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix)
The very first official single signed by the legendary duo Dougans/Cobain (they were still young and silly so they signed as B.Dog and Cobain). Also, first mention of the imaginary engineer - Yage.
This is a very strange single... The AST track is actually a cover of The Stranglers song called Something Better Change, one of the first Stranglers single released in 1977. So we have the new wave punk track with some breaks and heavy sampling. The result is a very nice danceable track.
the A.S.T. track
the original by the Stranglers
The A.S.T. track, at 0:21, the one-two-three-four sample is taken from The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
The A.S.T. track samples the drum break from Banbarra - Shack Up, a 1975 rare 7" funk song. The break can be heard clearly at 2:55
PS - rumors have it, this same break was cut/up to extremes to end up on Egypt (on the ISDN album) 4 years later...
In contrast to the first track, we have Esus Flow, a track that uses the same opening samples as Stakker Humanoid and develops into a very strong acid trip. The remix version has even more samples and ambiance - and now we see how far back the recycling of beats goes for these guys.
The opening of Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) samples the opening of Kraftwerk - KlingKlang (from Kraftwerk 2, 1972)
- The same sample will appear much much later on Environments (Gong) on the first of the Archived series in 2007. (although the original Environments was meant to be released in 1994)
The very begging of the Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) samples Vangelis - Tales of The Future (at 0:28) (album: Blade Runner, 1982) - You can even hear a bit from the vocals buried in the back.
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 2:31) samples the opening of Planet Gong - Psychological Overture (album: Live Floating Anarchy, 1977)
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 3:29) samples the opening of Planet Gong - New Age Transformation Try / No More Sages (album: Live Floating Anarchy 1977) - it can be heard here, on the full album link (at 11:17)
- Words by Gilli Smyth: "Come mystic sister. Come with me now. Everything is changing. The age of the goddess is coming. We shall go in the sky and see the stars. The old games are finished. There will be no more violence that walks down dark streets to smile at the screams"
Esus Flow (Vast Galaxy Remix) (at 4:31) samples the opening saxophone of Gabriel Yared - Betty Et Zorg - (Virgin France S.A., 1986) (this one featured on the Kiss 5 mix in 1993, but now we found out they used it much earlier)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yunie - I Can See for Miles [single] (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3103
A - I Can See For Miles
B - I Can See For Miles (Astral Mix)
Their second effort is also somewhat strange. The duo is credited as "B. Dougans and G. Cockbain", Cockbain being the original surname of Cobain before he changed it to Cobain for good.
The track is trip-hop / acid jazz effort, with some smooth pop vocals (uncredited). It's not a bad track, it just doesn't sound like them, but as we said, in this period they tried out every single genre that had any connections with electronic music. The mixed B side has very little vocals and its kinda more pleasant...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mental Cube - Chile of The Bass Generation EP (1990) Debut – DEBTX 3104
A1 - Chile of The Bass Generation
B1 - Q
B2 - Dope Module
...And the third try is a charm. The Mental Cube project was the first one that lived to see more than one release.
Dougans/Cobain found the chemistry and the pickpocketing begun. The tracks are heavily sampled funk breaks mashed up with some original new techno/house beats.
Chile of The Bass Generation, the opening drum break is taken from Fuzzy Haskins - The Fuzz & Da Boog, a 1976 funk track.
The flute samples that start around 0:53 and sneak in & out in the entire track, are from the legendary blaxploitation soundtrack composer Johnny Pate, and the track is called You're Starting Too Fast (from 1970) - this is the same track that will inspire Liam of The Prodigy in 1994 to recycle and rework the whole track and give a brain-birth to Voodoo People, the biggest big-beat anthem of the '90s generations
Chile of The Bass Generation:
Fuzzy Haskins - The Fuzz & Da Boog:
Johnny Pate - You're Starting Too Fast:
The second track is the most famous one by Mental Cube, it got re-releases as a single in 1991, ended up on dozens of techno compilations, and even got a remixes release in 2011 (we'll talk about these when the chronology of my list gets to them)
- I wonder if they named the track after Q - the omnipotent being in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Mental Cube - Q:
The last track, an exclusive one to this EP, is another funky/techno sample melded track. The track title, Dope Module, later became another alias of Dougans/Cobain, so its kinda confusing (in 2008, four tracks on the By Any Other Name compilation were credited to the Dope Module alias).
Anyhow, I can't find the Dope Module track on YouTube, but the opening sample is taken from the master himself: Quincy Jones - They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, from a blaxploitation soundtrack he did in 1970. It's a genius move!
What's frightening here is that they were only 22/23 years old and already they had all this vast knowledge of quality music in their heads and all heading in the right direction. It took me until 29 to get to this level of library music knowledge - but hey, they had 15 years of music less for listening and they grew up in UK, and I'm certainly not going to compare my level of music knowledge with Dougans/Cobain - hats down gentlemen!
Quincy Jones - They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honorary mention:
Mental Cube - Live at The Empire Ballroom, London UK (19.12.1990)
bootleg / unreleased
Ross quote:
GURU JOSH LIVE - Supported by guest DJs Mental Cube and Humanoid at the Empire Ballrooms London 19/12/90.
A flyer appeared on an old version of the official site. Nothing else is known about this show.