The Bucketheads project started as a reaction against commercial Eurodance. One night, Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez was driving from Manhattan to Brooklyn with Johnny "D" De Mairo. As they were listening to some 'terrible records' on the radio, "Dope" had this idea to melt together old disco classics. Back home, he selected a couple of LP's and produced the famous 'Dungeon Tapes EP' in three days.
The first 12" taken out of Kenny Dope's mixing sessions was 'I Wanna Know', with 'The Bomb' as the B-Side. The A-Side, a rework of "Motivation" originally performed by Atmosfear, received a relative success in New York while 'The Bomb' started to be played in Europe.
Against all expectations, 'The Bomb' exploded in the kingdom of Eurodance, shooting up the charts in several countries.
Based on samples of 'Streetplayer' performed by Chicago (2), 'The Bomb' is a metaphoric title. The original 15 minutes long 'Henry Street' mix set the stakes. Presented by the voice of Reverend C.L. Franklin (re-sampled from "Preacherman" by Green Velvet), the sermon leads into a long, repetitive and hypnotic tribal progression (the wick), leading to the core of 'The Bomb'.
The subtitle of the track, 'These Sounds Fall Into My Mind', is modeled upon the actual lyrics of 'Streetplayer': "Street sounds swirling through my mind".
After a settlement for samples clearance which costs 30 000$ to Kenny "Dope", Armand Van Helden re-edited the track to 8:00. A feedback effect in North America later gave "The Bomb" the noble title of 'classic'. A full album, "All In The Mind" and follow-up single "Got Myself Together" ended the project.
Nonetheless, the success of 'The Bomb' was such that it seriously damaged the popularity of Eurodance. Eventually, many artists took the idea back where Kenny "Dope" left it: Etienne De Crécy, Daft Punk and the whole French scene was undoubtedly influenced by it.
In 2008/09, new versions of 'The Bomb' were released by Luke Francis and Sunrider (2).