Deep Blue - The Helicopter Tune

When this record first came out it sounded like nothing else that had come before it. Quite simply, it was ground breaking. It became and instant classic on the scene. It got rinsed on the pirate stations and in the clubs, and has since gone on to even greater notoriety. It's hard to describe the drum sounds in this track, but they're unlike any other Drum & Bass tune I've heard. And any producer of any style of music should pick up a copy just to have a listen out of sheer production and studio geekery, if not musical appreciation.
I still remember how places used to erupt as soon as everyone heard the trade mark helicopter intro coming in. This is probably the sort of thing that might get featured on future TV programmes in 30 or 40 years time - tunes that changed the world or something like that. Absolute classic. A revolutionary piece of music.

Well... Apart from the obvious Helicopter RMX, which is a classic in its own right for reason's I won't go into now (mainly because it's too obvious), there's the rather over looked Y Side with a track entitled Thursday.

Why was it called Thursday? Well... Because at a certain time of week, back in the late nineties, a night was running down at the Mars Bar, off Tottenham Court Road. Set up by Fabio and Bukem, two hardcore future music gurus of the Drum & Bass genre, they were rinsing out their latest record label signings to an audience that wanted nothing more than to dance all night long to new cutting edge beats... It was there, in the darkness of that cosy underground night club, that many a high tech creation from future and past Drum & Bass pioneers were played, all who were unwittingly setting the pace and mode for the future of break beat music... There they could break away from the Raga and Dance Hall influences of Tribal Dance and One Nation, and escape into more uncharted, techno influenced, and funk fueled numbers... This Thursday soiree set the pace for Swerve (now running at The End), Fabio's legendary Liquid Funk night...

And it was this track, Thursday, that became the anthem for that night: Speed...

Weirdly beat driven, rather than break beat in nature, Thursday somewhat preempted the dub step movement that would arrive in 2004 (a bold statement, I know, but just listen to it and you can't help but hear the similarities). With a heavy, heavy bass line and frilly drum rolls that are smattered with congo like effected drums, this track just rolled out whenever Fabio played it down at Speed!

While this is not as complex or satisfying as some of Moving Shadow's other releases, it is in my books easily worth a listen! Sean O'Keeffe's simple and yet great drum programming really set off a new tech-step revolution in drum and bass that was written and inspired by the night that made it famous... And nothing came close it at the time. The reason why that sample rings through its time line: Get Away!!!

Killer!!!

Well... Apart from the obvious Helicopter RMX, which is a classic in its own right for reason's I won't go into now (mainly because it's too obvious), there's the rather over looked Y Side with a track entitled Thursday.

Why was it called Thursday? Well... Because at a certain time of week, back in the late nineties, a night was running down at the Mars Bar, off Tottenham Court Road. Set up by Fabio and Bukem, two hardcore future music gurus of the Drum & Bass genre, they were rinsing out their latest record label signings to an audience that wanted nothing more than to dance all night long to new cutting edge beats... It was there, in the darkness of that cosy underground night club, that many a high tech creation from future and past Drum & Bass pioneers were played, all who were unwittingly setting the pace and mode for the future of break beat music... There they could break away from the Raga and Dance Hall influences of Tribal Dance and One Nation, and escape into more uncharted, techno influenced, and funk fueled numbers... This Thursday soiree set the pace for Swerve (now running at The End), Fabio's legendary Liquid Funk night...

And it was this track, Thursday, that became the anthem for that night: Speed...

Weirdly beat driven, rather than break beat in nature, Thursday somewhat preempted the dub step movement that would arrive in 2004 (a bold statement, I know, but just listen to it and you can't help but hear the similarities). With a heavy, heavy bass line and frilly drum rolls that are smattered with congo like effected drums, this track just rolled out whenever Fabio played it down at Speed!

While this is not as complex or satisfying as some of Moving Shadow's other releases, it is in my books easily worth a listen! Sean O'Keeffe's simple and yet great drum programming really set off a new tech-step revolution in drum and bass that was written and inspired by the night that made it famous... And nothing came close it at the time. The reason why that sample rings through its time line: Get Away!!!

Killer!!!

If you went out this weekend, and somebody dropped this tune, even today, the place would go mad. And that isn't just nostalgia... This tune still sounds totally fresh.

A breathtaking production.