CLASSIC ALBUMS: The Cult - Pure Cult

I’m sitting here, listening to a very good album by The Cult - Pure Cult: The Singles 1984-1995. It’s a cracking album, pretty much the best material released by the band, with the exception of some of their best album tracks, such as “The Hollow Man”. All the top singles are here, from the earliest classics such as “Resurrection Joe”, “She Sells Sanctuary”, “Rain” and “Revolution”, through “Lil’ Devil”, “Wild Flower” and “Love Removal Machine”, to later material such as “Star”, “In the Clouds” and “Coming Down (Drug Tongue)”.

The early material by the band was indie rock, with punkish origins, but from the mid-’80s onwards, the band reinvented themselves as a raunchy rock band in the mold of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. This gives almost a feeling of listening to two completely different bands as we work our way through this album, something I find curiously refreshing.

Overall, this is an excellent retrospective of the bands singles releases. Great foot-stomping, raunchy, full-blooded R&B based blues rock. A highly recommended album!

CLASSIC TRACKS: "Dancing in Outer Space" by Atmosfear

The first few posts to this new blog were fairly long personal recollections of my early career as a DJ. Last time out, I posted my first full review of an album. And this time, in my ongoing efforts to add some variety to the blog, I'm trying something else. Here's the first in what I hope will be a series of many ongoing random posts highlighting favourite "songs of the moment".

These random CLASSIC TRACKS posts are not full album reviews, just a couple of paragraphs on any random, individual song that I happen to be listening to at any given time. It can be anything, old or new, but mostly will be older songs of various genres - alternative, rock, soul, funk, disco, reggae, ska - indeed ANY song that I happen to like or which holds a special significance for me.

I'll be reserving album reviews for the various CLASSIC ALBUMS posts, but this one is about a single track from an album. On the CD player at the moment is a cracking compilation album, Dancing in Outer Space, by the classic jazz funk band Atmosfear, a retropective of the band’s best work, published by Elite Records back in the year 2000, a repackaging of a CD compilation that first appeared in 1995. Right now I'm listening to the first track, the title track of the album, and (deservedly) their most famous song ever, the glorious summer of 1979 dancefloor classic (on both sides of the Atlantic) Dancing in Outer Space (all 9 minutes 34 seconds of it) by the great jazz-funk group Atmosfear. This one is the same version as the original 1979 vinyl 12 inch single release, which I used to play at the clubs all those years ago.

This song, for me, epitomizes the best in hardcore jazz funk - an incredible ground-rumbling bass line, ethereal outer-space-ish keyboards, fat, hard drums and super-smooth funky guitars (and lets not forget the sizzlin' saxophone). The ultimate in club dance music from that era, if you're any kind of fan of jazz or funk music, this one just has to set you bopping.

When I think of "dance" music, sure, I like some modern EDM, but as an old fogie I think primarily of the jazz/funk/soul/disco phenomenon of the 1970s and 80s, not all this modern hip-hop, rap and R&B (R&B? Muddy Waters and B.B. King are R&B, not the modern rubbish that has hijacked the name), although I did quite like to step out to a select few of the more modern rave/house/trance classics. Maybe I'm just showing my age, but, in my opinion, the 70s and 80s gave us REAL dance music. And Dancing in Outer Space is one of the true giants among classic 70s jazz funk dancefloor smash hits.

There are a number of YouTube links to the original 12 inch monster hit version of Dancing in Outer Space. Here's one of them.

I’m now up to track 5 on this album. I’m very impressed, so far. Not a bad track yet. Who knows, maybe Dancing in Outer Space won’t be the only classic on it. But I'll leave a review of the entire album for a CLASSIC ALBUMS post at a future date.