Stilgherrian » john thompson-mills

Perfect Lists, imperfectly linked

Stilgherrian — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:52:41 +0000

Hey Club Escape fans! I’ve just linked the playlists for Perfect List 1990 and 1991 to as many of the music videos as I could find tonight. Enjoy!

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Club Escape’s “Perfect List” 1991

Stilgherrian — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:59:22 +0000

OK, I lied. I have managed to find a hard copy of the Club Escape Perfect List from 1991.

As before, this is a list of the “best” dance tracks released in 1991, as chosen by the crew at Club Escape, the Adelaide-based dance music program on Triple J.

I wasn’t involved in Club Escape that year. I’d already gone on to The Core magazine — and indeed this list is taken from The Core issue 12, from 15 January 1992. So the people to blame for this list are producer John Thompson-Mills (”JB”) and presenter Paul Kitching.

[Update 6 September 2007: I've linked to as many of these songs as I can find on YouTube. Some of them may not be the exact mix played on air, but you get that. Enjoy. And if you find any others, please let me know.]

Top 10:

1. De La Soul: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)

2. Quadraphonia: Quadraphonia

3. The KLF: Last Train to Transcentral

4. Enigma: Sadeness

5. Rozalla: Faith (In the Power of Love)

6. T99: Anastasia

7. Crystal Waters: Gypsy Woman

8. PM Dawn: Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

9. LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out

10. Sabrina Johnston: Peace (In the Valley)

Part 1, 28 December 1991:

Creative Thieves: Nasty Rhythm
Brothers In Rhythm: Such a Good Feeling
Clubhouse: Deep In My Heart
Double Dee: Don’t You Feel
De La Soul: A Rollerskating Jam Named Saturday
Heavy D and The Boyz: Now That We’ve Found Love
Spectrum: Brazil
Human Resource: Dominator
Joey Beltram: My Sound
Gary Clail and the On-U Sound System: Human Nature
Massive Attack: Unfinished Sympathy
Sonya Roche: Love Itch
Slam Slam: Move
Black Box: Strike It Up
DJ H & Steffy: Think About
Clubland: Pump That Sound
Frankie Knuckles: The Whistle Song
Sue Chaloner: I Wanna Thank You
Naughty By Nature: OPP
Gang Starr: Love Sick (You can “>see some wanker mime to it, at least.)
A Tribe Called Quest: Can I Kick It?
DJ Professor & Zapalla: We Gotta Do It
Utah Saints: What Can You Do 4 Me?
NDX: Higher Than Heaven
Hookline & Singer: Night Time

Part 2, 4 January 1992:

Living House: To Talk
Velvet: Hold Me
Ginny: Keep Warm
Public Enemy: By the Time I Get to Arizona
Young Disciples: Get Yourself Together
Lisa M: Love’s Heartbreak
Digital Boy: Gimme A Fat Beat
GTO: The Bullfrog
Brand New Heavies: Never Stop
Driza Bone: Real Love
Bomb the Bass: Air You Breathe
Eve Gallagher: Love Come Down
The Badman: Magic Style
LA Style: James Brown Is Dead
Final Exposure: Vortex
Massive Attack: Safe From Harm
Shabba Ranks & Maxi Priest: Housecall
Bomb the Bass: Love So True
Audio Deluxe: Sixty Seconds
The KFL: Amerika: What Time Is Love?
Midi Rain: Eyes
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince: Summertime
Queen Latifah: Fly Girl
Afrika Bambaataa: Just Get Up and Dance
Jennie: Bring Back the Bus Stop
Rozalla: Everbody’s Free

Part 3, 11 January 1992:

Fits of Gloom: Differences
Rozalla: Born To Love Ya
Alison Limerick: Where Love Lives
3 x Dope: Mr Sandman
Digital Underground: Packet Man (YouTube has a live version)
Djum Djum: The Difference (remix)
Moby: Go
Space Trax: Atomic Playboy
Natasha: AM/FM (first track in this set)
Enigma: Principles of Lust
Incognito: Always There
Alison Limerick: Come Back for Real Love (remix)
Nomad: (I Wanna Give You) Devotion
Ce Ce Peniston: Devotion
… and the Top 10

Apparently there was time to include some other tracks in the programs which weren’t in the Top 75, but still considered good — but The Core doesn’t say what they were.

What strikes me about this list compared with the previous year’s are:

My god, it really was the year of Italo-house, eh? I mean, three Rozalla tracks? Sheesh! Maybe it’s just that JB was in luuuurve…
Where’s the English electronica gone?
Why are there so few tracks that I actually like?
Nice to see Moby launching his career.

There was also a…

Club Escape Listeners’ Top 10:

1. Rozalla: Everybody’s Free

2. Human Resource: Dominator

3. Moby: Go

4. LA Style: James Brown Is Dead

5. T99: Anastasia

6. Naughty By Nature: OPP

7. Final Exposure: Vortex

8. Stereo MCs: Elevate My Mind

9. Bassomatic: Funky Love

10. Marley Marl: The Symphony

You know, I reckon the listeners chose better — or maybe that’s just me?

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Club Escape’s “Perfect List” 1990

Stilgherrian — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:56:31 +0000

Before The Core magazine, there was Club Escape, a dance music radio program on Triple J which went to air on Saturday nights in Adelaide during 1990 and 1991.

I had the very great pleasure of presenting this program during its first year, along with promoter Scott Thompson — who also ran the coolest nightclub in the history of the universe, Metro on Rundle Street.

Club Escape was created by John Thompson-Mills (”JB”) who, through anally-retentive production, made Scott and me sound like stars.

I know I only wrote about The Core the other day. But on Facebook today someone’s brother saw that I was a “friend” and asked him to ask me if I had the Perfect List from 1991.

I don’t.

Well, I might have the audio somewhere, ~~but not the list of tunes~~. Actually, I do have it, see this post.

However I do have the Perfect List from 1990 — our choice for the best 50 best dance music tracks released that year. And here it is.

How many of these tracks do you remember? And which ones would you prefer to forget?

Top 10:

1. BBG: Snappiness

2. Orchestra JB: Free Spirit (Slow Burn mix)

3. The KLF: What Time is Love

4. Blue Pearl: Naked in the Rain (Blue Pearl Dub mix)

5. Ambience: The Adored

6. De La Soul: Tread Water (Italian Tour special remix)

7. A Tribe Called Quest: Bonita Applebum (Hootie mix)

8. Blackbox: Fantasy

9. LFO: LFO

10. 808 State: Cubik (Kings Country Perspective mix)

Part 1, 29 December 1990:

We broadcast the full list of 50 tracks over two weeks, in no particular order apart from the Top 10 at the end.

Major Problems: The Rush (Freak Out Mix)
A Homeboy, A Hippie & A Funkidred: Total Confusion (Confusion mix)
Barrie K Sharpe & Diana Brown: The Masterplan (remix)
Family Stand: Ghetto Heaven
Jungle Brothers: Doin’ Our Own Dang (Do It To the JBs mix)
Adamski: Killer
Bassomatic: Fascinating Rhythm (Lisa Loud mix)
She Rockers: Jam It Jam
Silver Bullet: 20 Seconds To Comply
Moodswings featuring Chrissie Hynde: Spiritual High
The Grid: Flotation (YouTubei has a bootleg live version)
Space Opera: Space 3001 (Part One mix)
GTO: Pure (remix)
Queen Latifah & De La Soul: Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children
Monie Love: Down to Earth
Deee-lite: Groove is in The Heart
Together: Hardcore Uproar (Boomtown remix)
Earth People: Reach Up to Mars (Martian mix)
BBG: Some Kind of Heaven (Heavenly mix)
Soul II Soul: A Dreams a Dream
Snap: The Power
Westbam: The Roof is On Fire
The Orb: A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain that Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (YouTube has a bootleg live version)
Guru Josh: Infinity

Part 2, 5 January 1991

Ce Ce Rogers: All Join Hands
Touch of Soul: We Got the Love
CPO: Homicide
Above the Law: Untouchable
Magic Concept: Unstoppable
49ers: Touch Me
Blackbox: Everybody Everybody (Le Freak mix)
2 in a Room: Do What You Want
Tony Scott: Gangster Boogie
Tribal House: Motherland
Blue Pearl: Little Brother (Little Sister mix)
Capella: Get Out of My Case (Philly Style remix)
Technotronic: Get Up (Dave Morales remix)
The Adventures of Stevie V: Dirty Cash (Dime & Dollar mix)
MC Wildski: Warrior
… and the Top 10

Wow, what a list! Looking back, I can see that we were consciously trying to cover all the genres, rather than choosing our personal favourites. I’d have had a lot more English electronica and Detroit techno, for instance. Scott would have picked more hands-in-the-air stuff — I reckon he had surprisingly girly music tastes for a straight man.

And this is such an Adelaide list! So, so different from anything playing in Sydney of Melbourne at the time.