Strafe – Set It Off

Back in the day, we called it electro funk , which branched into acid jazz but the backbone of this track is from jazz funk true fusion,a real masterpiece and was so underground it's a classic !

Is it Electro? Is it Boogie? Is it Funk? Is it House? Don't you just hate genre categories sometimes? Fu*k genres, it's a mixture of all four. A very groundbreaking release if ever there was one.

No one ever talks about how Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock - It Takes Two basically stole the beat from this classic, timeless Electro Funk record. Sampled by many, but the OG is still king.

Admittedly not that easily categorisable as a style as it featured two or three elements.

Regardless. Strafe's and Harlequin Four's versions are proper club classics and like both for slightly different occasions. Played throughout the eighties by DJs from all dance and electronic genres from hip hop to disco to house music warehouse pioneers.

I have a red label version with the EDP and Sterling stamp...same font as yellow labels but has small inner hole. Does not look anything like the bootleg. What's up with that?

Sounds like the knight rider tv program theme music l

... The Harlequin Four's version was the one getting played in the UK, which was good enough to be an instant hit in it's own right, despite being released on Champion records as an edited version & without the full dub treatment/instrumental from the late Walter Gibbons. I was surprised a few years later to hear the Strafe version (to be correct, the original version) in a friends set, a friend who had been to and from the USA & knew the scene over there well. That was pretty much the last time I played the UK release of the Harlequin Four's version, in spite of taking a further few years to find a copy of Strafe. Listening now, both US OG versions are equally brilliant, offering a different take & the most notable difference being the 4/4 pattern & snarling robo- disco hats of the H4's, something Gibbons no doubt couldn't resist. Harlequin Four's version here: https://www.discogs.com/Harleqiun-Fours-Set-It-Off/master/78895

Mesmirisingly great record. In England strangely it was the one that came out as by the Harlequin 4s in early 1986 that was the big version that you heard everywhere and was also remixed around the Acid House time in 1988.

You can call it Breakbeat, Electro or just 'influential' - the fact is that "Set It Off" was a trend-setter dance music; believe it or not, its funky-sophisticated Breakbeat line was made with the same Roland TR-808 that Ben 'Cozmo D' Cenac from Newcleus used to produce the all-time Electro classics "Jam On It", "Jam On Revenge", "Computer Age" and "Automan".
Cozmo D and Strafe and were big friends back then, and not long after "Jam On It" became a hit, Strafe decided to borrow Cozmo D's Roland TR-808 to make his own electronic production - "Set It Off" itself).
"Set It Off" was included later on several compilations such as "The Perfect Beats Volume 2" and "Disco Box Vol. 6 - Work It Out", standing the test of time; its lyrics were later copied by other artists on their club hits - specially the beginning which has the well-known quote "Yo want this party started right? Yo want this party startin' quickly... right?" whose first part was adapted years later on the House hit 'Kraze - The Party'.
The mixing part belongs to the multi-skilled DJ Walter Gibbons, an early Disco DJ who was resident at the Galaxy 21 Club on the seventies) and it is considered one of his best works ever.

This song was one of the best examples of New York Underground Music circa 1984. A small label from Brooklyn finds itself with a unique electro-funk cut that has every DJ in New York playing it in heavy rotation. This was in an era where The Paradise Garage & The Fun House clubs in Manhattan were running two different scenes. First being Larry Levan spinning to a more mature and sophisticated gay crowd and Jellybean who was spinning to the kids of The Bronx, Brooklyn & Queens (Later known as Bridge & Tunnel and included New Jersey). This song found huge success within both camps and with heavy radio support, it became the classic it is right up until today. Walter Gibbons provided the mix and was welcomed back to the scene after a long hiatus. This would be his last before his passing. The dub mix was long and had weird dub effects which made it an excellent mixing tool.