It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

When I decided to feature today's track I realised that the Age of Chance had been ahead of their time on more than one occasion in their short career and never seemed to get the recognition for the innovators that they really were, it may have been to do with the ridiculous cycling get up or the rapping in a Leeds accent but I don't think that the band were taken as seriously as they should have been.  Would the Bomb Squad ( Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder) have remixed a band that wasn't taking their chosen form of music seriously, I don't think so.

Let's look at the evidence, the band although originally grouped in with the C86 movement were the first band to record a track comprising solely of samples. In early 1986 they made a promo of  their cover of Prince's Kiss, which was sent to John Peel who played it on a number of occassions. The track unfortunately never saw the light of day in the commercial world due to the Virgin lawyers being a bit worried about the fact that the Boss or his purpleness, Prince among others may get a bit litigious over the release.

The band were also the first non rap act to incorporate a dj as part of their sound and also have him go out on tour with them.

As mentioned above they were also the first and probably only British indie band to ever be remixed by Public Enemy's production Team (Take It).

However I think that a veil should be drawn over the sartorial preferences of the band even though after seeing them on the Whistle Test I went out and bought a ludicrously expensive and unfeasible tight cycling top as I thought that this was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. I was young, stupid and had far too much disposable income at the time.

The tune posted also shows the band's ability to be ahead of the pack. Timeless is a remix of the  track Time's Up  from the band's second full long player Mecca. When you listen to it now it is hard to believe that it was recorded in 1989 as it was still a couple of years before Progressive House took hold in the UK and it could also be seen as a very early example of Trance.

I have uploaded the bootleg version which appeared three years later, the only difference being that the acid line from Brandon Cooke's Sharp As A Knife ( a track featured here a while ago) has been added to the mix. You may also be able to make out the Pink Floyd samples from The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Age Of Chance - Time's Up (Timeless bootleg mix)