I put this beat together in 2007, with a few MCs in mind who I thought could rap over the track. In the end no one got back to me, but what-evs I say, it stands on its own in my mind. But if you're a budding M.I.A., Missy Elliot or Rakim, well download this track and get back to me with a remix!

Sources:

- The main groove comes from from "Summer in the City" by Quincy Jones, from the 1973 album You've Got it Bad Girl (organ player: Eddie Louis). This riff has been sampled quite a few times by other artists, notably the Pharcyde on their track "Passin' Me By" from 1992's Bizarre Ride II, and Nightmares On Wax's track "Night's Introlude" from 1995's Smokers Delight. I actually played this riff on my own Hammond organ in my home studio, with a Leslie speaker that I purchased through Craigslist. The riff came to me as I heard the sound of my organ transformed once plugged through the Leslie -- it was as though interacting with the technology raised a sonic memory for me. I figured out the riff on the keys, not really sure where I was remembering it from. I used to work at a hair salon in Montreal called Coupe Bizzarre. I answered the phone and took appointments. I was also in charge of choosing what CDs to play on our in house system (a practice that is now illegal, but this is another copyright story….). Smokers' Delight by "Nightmares on Wax" was one of my favorites, and track 1 ("Nights Introlude ") of this 1995 album uses the Jones sample extensively. I had never heard the original Quincy Jones track before acquiring the CD re-issue of You've Got it Bad Girl this past June (2009).

- The "wind" sound comes from an Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesizer that I found at the Écocentre de La Petite-Patrie 1100 rue des Carrières, Montreal, which is a place that I also find tons of records, including others used on this album. Residents of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie are required to bring scraps from demolitions to this location, along with all household hazardous goods. This includes batteries, CRT televisions, vinyl records and lots of other goodies, including the occasional piece of vintage audio gear, such as the ESQ-1, and the odd Electronic Organ (Hammond, Yamaha, etc…sometimes with early Roland drum machines attached!).

- The first vocal sample, I have to admit, comes from a record that I have misplaced. I've looked, I swear. The singer is named Demis Roussos. The song was a minor international hit for him -- "Goodbye my love, goodbye." Roussos was once a member of a band called "Aphrodite's child" in the 60's. "Goodbye my love, goodbye" seems to have been released by Roussos on a solo album in the early 70s, but I can't find reliable information. Those reading though the notes provided with each track on this album will recognize this is a common problem for me, but I'm working on my record keeping practices, and promise to update this site as I find the records I have lost in my collection.

- The drums were played by myself in my basement, sampled, cleaned-up, layered, looped and delayed. I started playing the drums 2+ years ago because I was starting to get tired of searching for perfect drum breaks within my record collection. Perhaps this also has something to do with its increasingly unmanageable size in terms of record quantity….

- The kind of squiggly synthesizer motif was something I played on the ESQ, recording the riff in MIDI on my computer, editing and quantizing the elements, and then sending it back to the ESQ as a loop. The ESQ doesn't have many pre-set sounds that I like, but this is definitely one of them.

- The "Come to Me" sample, like Roussos, also came from a disco record I purchased at the Écocentre de La Petite-Patrie. But I can't find this record either. In trying to remember, I thought the sample was Diana Ross - but I was wrong (I had this feeling all along). Having some 2000 records in my collection, many that I have not even listened to yet, not to mention the 45s! --I had to search for the lyrics on Google - and then I found / remembered that it was France Joli's disco track "Come to Me" that I had sampled while working on the track 2 years ago. In "googling" her, I found out that she is from Montreal! The song was released in 1979 - her official website - http://francejoli.com. Born in 1963 - she was 16 when the single went to #1 on the Billboard disco charts. It's an excellent song, super catchy, and definitely worth listening to in its entirety. I passed the sample through a "cosmonaut voice" filter, which is what makes it sound "walkie-talkie-like".

- The arpeggiated synth sound comes also from a preset sound on the Ensoniq ESQ. I played the riff live, edited and quantized the MIDI notes, and then played it back to the synth, running the audio output though two Moogerfooger pedals - an analog delay combined with a ring modulator. I may also have used a Moogerfooger Freqbox as well, but I can't remember now.

01 Hear The Wind

owenchapman