It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Like yesterday's track, today's post sees me looking back to Aberdeen through rose tinted spectacles or vague memories half remembered through an MDMA fog.

The Pelican Club was a very different beast from the Mudd club, not much in the way of indie played in the basement of the hotel Metro, the emphasis was strictly on the ability of the music to make young, mainly white and in those early days, studenty types move in a what was mostly, very self conscious, for want of a better word dancing. As mentioned before the music policy was a mixture of funk, soul, hip-hop, early house and on occassion Go-Go. I definitely remember dancing to today's tune there.

I have posted on Go-Go and Trouble Funk before and won't bore you with the details. The only thing I will add is that the guy who first introduced me to Trouble Funk had just came back from spending the summer in the States and when I thought about it the other day was actually a bit of an arse. He had returned with this mid-Atlantic accent and all these American mannerisms which when I look back were a bit much for a boy from that well known 'hood just up the Moray Firth from Inverness. Suffice to say "if he were chocolate he would have ate himself". I do however owe him a debt of gratitude for lending me Say What (Live In London) and also Eric B & Rakim's first album.


Trouble Funk - Drop The Bomb (Live In London)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

We move away from the degradation and grime of the north of England in the 70's to the urban decay of Washington DC in the mid 1980s for this week's boogie.

Go-Go was the popular form of dance music in the USA's capital city where it originated in the late 70s. It was a mixture of genres incorporating mid 60's motown and early 70's uptempo funk in the mix. Another distinguishing feature was the reliance on real instrumentation as opposed to the increasing use of electronic generated sounds of the time.

Although there were a quite a few exponents of this genre of dance music, the main ambassadors by far were Trouble Funk. I don't know much about the band apart from they were as funky as fuck. I was introduced to them through a mate at college, who had spent time in the states the previous year he also put me on to the delights of Schooly D and 2 Live Crew.

Trouble Funk - Let's Get Small
Trouble Funk - Say What

Both tracks come from the excellent compilation Droppin' Bombs which can be purchased here. Or you could get the awesome Say What - Live In London for a reasonable price here.