Tony Senghore appreciation

I heard the Audio Bullys remix and found the vocal kind of annoying and the track too technical and grooveless, nicely produced but no real feeling or idea to me. I sort of liked "Is The System Working" but only as a fairly functional smashy house thing. Then there was that Ladytron remix which was just the same.

Then what was that big one? Whaddup? I just thought it was like house influenced by electroclash but removing all the attitude and campness in favour of a really obvious style.

Is there stuff I'm missing out on?

Herbalize Me (Horehaus)
Corona - Dual Action (Sunset)
Fy Fan (Outergaze)
Stars (Tony Senghore Italodisko Remix) - Morjac featuring Raz Conway (Credence)
Le Bit - Wackdada (Eloge House Music)
We’ve Done it/Flp it (Mouthful)

And of course last year's This Is It and the Mint Royale remix.

Jacques lu Cont remix of Goldfrapp was excellent, as was his Paper Faces Mix of Grey Day. What else?

I will check out some of that stuff, it's clear that Senghore is really prolific anyway so I could easily be getting the crap stuff.

The Audio Bullys one was also up there - I'm actually bugged that anyone could consider it 'grooveless'. It's a semi-metallic, but very disco groove for real. I didn't quite connect to 'Whaddup', but I wish I bought the Italodisko mix and been able tofind his other releases..

La Cienda Honduras & Håkan Lidbo "Everybody Dance (Håkan's Original Mix)" [2001]:
La Cienda Honduras = Tony Senghore + Martin Venetjoki. So, this is a collaboration with a collaboration featuring another Swedish dance producer, Hâkan Lidbo. And yeah, it's a "cover" of the Chic song of the same name.. moreso than Sascha Funke's "cover" of Bros' "When Will I Be Famous?", mind you. Actually, this cover sounds like a fucked up dance mix of a SWEDISH POP GROUP's cover of the Chic original, if that makes sense.

Tony Senghore "This Is It" [2000]:
One of the earliest singles from the original Horehaus label.. "This Is It/Feisty". This showcases the more lucid, noisy side of Senghore.

Tony Senghore Feat. 7K "Herbalize Me" [2002?]:
First off, WARNING! Don't d/l if you can't deal with insane, indiscernable screaming guest ragga-men! There, now for all you sane people still reading, this is a good example of Senghore staying great even relatively recently, though 7K definitely helps :) ..(although I can't tell if this is a reissue of an older single or not, but I doubt it.)

Wackdaddies "Would You" [2001]:
Wackdaddies = Tony Senghore + Peter Woolford. This is from their first full release Fear Of A Wack Planet from 2001. I'm not sure "Would You" is really the title, as discogs.com lists this track as some other title off the vinyl (from whence this came), and the CD has both "Would You" and this other track title listed. My vinyl copy lists "Would You" here, so either the Under The Counter label fucked up on the sleeves, or the discogs.com member fucked up transcribing the track listing. In any case, this is a slight poppy departure on an otherwise great outlet for Senghore as far as pumpin' clicky sampling basics. The best peer album to this is The Soft Pink Truth's Do You Party?. I'm not sure Drew knows who Tony Senghore or Wackdaddies are or not. But I see a lot of similarities here, and I mean that in a good way, as both albums are extremely fun and party-worthy (excluding -- or including -- the very possibility that "Party" in Do You Party? is a reference to a far less innocent colloquialism.)

Tony Senghore "Whaddup" [2003]:
This is the track that apparently most everyone in the UK & Ireland first heard when they first heard of the name Tony Senghore. The lyrics are ridiculous indeed (although they're not surprising, given the lyrics on Wackdaddies' "Pay Up" from 2001 from the Pay Up EP, though the lyrics there were far funnier.) The lyrics effects are still great. Otherwise, this is quite a musical departure, in that it retains nothing that is uniquely "Senghore" form the preceding years. "Whaddup", after another listen, is still quite redeemable IMHO. At least, it's better than, say, Black Strobe's "Nazi Trance Fuck Off" (IMHO, once again.) But this definitely does have that Electric Six sensibility of "I AM THE GIORGIO MORODER!/WITH A HUGE FUCKING DICK (YEAH, I SHOWED HER!)" This song could easily fit on a mix CD with the likes of Thugfucker, Heavy Rock, and Electric Six's "Danger! High Voltage!", "Synthesizer", and perhaps stuff from the latest album. But despite the good qualities of this song, it's true that I used to buy ANYTHING with Senghore's name on it without previewing until I bought "Whaddup". Then I stopped. Then apparently Senghore stopped. *shrug*

I uploaded WAV files instead of Mp3s. :( :(

I'll try again, tonight.

I swear I actually almost believed dance was dead in the 4 or 5 months when stuff like "Whaddup" was being pushed as the big record of the summer. It's not even a "Drop The Pressure", hell, it's not even a "Frequency" and barely a "Burning Down"!

La Cienda Honduras & Håkan Lidbo "Everybody Dance (Håkan's Original Mix)" [2001] … MP3

Tony Senghore "This Is It" [2000] … MP3:

Tony Senghore Feat. 7K "Herbalize Me" [2002?] … MP3:

Wackdaddies "Would You" [2001] … MP3:

Tony Senghore "Whaddup" [2003] … MP3:

I'm not going to exert too much energy defending "Whaddup", as I don't think it's "all that" myself..

And forgive the following if you were just being sarcastic...

but this "huge" vs. "tinny" thing.. I mean, how many tracks meant to sound "huge" were ever played on a tinny PA in a large dance club? Similarly how many tracks meant to sound more "tinny" were given a bass boost on an excellent PA in a small dance club? It seems, in that context, and in the context of hearing these songs previewed elsewhere, that you're letting the sound system distort your first or subsequent impressions of these dance tracks.. which is unavoidable, save actually buying the damn stuff... of course, you want to preview this before you want to buy it, etc.

"Voodoo Ray" would be "small and tinny" by your standards today I'm guessing, though I think it's just as excellent and relevant as it was in 1988.

So I'm confused about the "huge" vs. "tinny" thing overall, and why it matters when it comes to whether a track is worthwhile or not.

That said, my versions of "Nazi Trance Fuck Off" and "Whaddup" both sound equally bassy to me.. so *shrug*

Cheap is maybe a better word. And cheap is good sometimes but "Whaddup" is not really my idea of that.

I dunno it's just different tracks for different people of course, but to me "Nazi Trance Fuck Off" sounds precise and deadly and really immaculate all at once.