Duck Rock

Over the weekend I listened to a few old LPs and was inspired to do some vinyl rips. This week will be devoted to those crusty old LPs. Today is a bit of old school experimentation courtesy of a Brit nutjob svengali...

Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock was released in 1983. I loved it from the get go. The cover featured a pimped out boombox, and the art on the foldout insert was by Keith Haring. It is a collection of world music, taken from places like Cuba and South Africa, culture jammed with the music and beats of the then rising NYC hip hop scene all glossed over with European electronic flavor. It's important to note that the genesis of the Art Of Noise is here - album producer Trevor Horn and sessioneers Anne Dudley and Gary Langan saw the potential of technology in music - you can hear some of those soon to be trademark AON sounds on this record. They are largely responsible for the music on the album, and they get quite a few song writing credits. Thomas Dolby also played keys on this. Malcolm's weedy little voice can be a bit distracting at times, but there are some good tunes - Buffalo Gals cops the serious hiphop action, Double Dutch is a tribute to jumproping teams and Soweto brings the township jive. I'm skipping the hits in favor of some side B action...

Legba is pure tribal ambience - gentle percussion, swoony keyboards. Love it.

Song For Chango is part old skool hip hop radio show, part Afro jam - nice and atmospheric. Living in the UK at the time, this skit was the closest I ever got to listening to an old school hiphop station in NYC...

World's Famous - here is where you hear that Art of Noise flavor - it's those short orchestral stabs and the big chunky beats. Criminally, too short.