Handbag House: The Poll

i know maybe 1/3rd of these, of those k klass

will listen to more before voting tho

strike song is so awesome!!

U SURE MAKE ME FEEL LIKE LOVIN U

MY LOVER'S GOT NO MONEY
HE'S GOT HIS DUNGAREES

Was "Freed From Desire" the first and last handbag house track about converting to Islam?

I'm leaning towards "Let Me Show You Love", but on any given day I could pick "Keep Warm" or "U Sure Do" or "There's Nothing I Won't Do" or "Dreamer" or "Freed From Desire" or...

I'm uploading "Keep Warm" now. Deej you must check it.

The dance remix of Dolly Parton's "Peace Train" (cover of Cat Stevens) I've been obsessing over fits in here sonically, but it's a) too recent and b) too gay.

ahhh thats one of the ones i DO know already ... tho to be fair i may have gotten the recommend in some other house thread on ilx from you already (xp to the jinny track)

so far these have all been on youtube btw

I only know Livin' Joy and Junior Vasquez on this list.

narrowed it painfully down to these 5:
K-Klass - Let Me Show You Love
Jinny - Keep Warm
Gala - Freed From Desire (MR JACK MIX)
Grace – Not Over Yet
Livin’ Joy – Dreamer

Gala woman really sounds like Crystal Waters to me

K-Klass - Let Me Show You Love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTWeLUB5OI

Jinny - Keep Warm - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlTWeqLY1ew

JX - There's Nothing I Won't Do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZOfQo-ytmo

Berri - Sunshine After The Rain - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtFP7aL2X-Q

Strike - U Sure Do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdAWfemCmDw

Gala - Freed From Desire - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZiwQQ5bjs

Alex Party - Don't Give Me Your Life - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rr9I-xo75o

Grace – Not Over Yet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBUT0cxtHlg

Pizzaman – Trippin’ on Sunshine - :(

Motiv-8 – Rockin’ For Myself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9FJiHJb4bs

Livin’ Joy – Dreamer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30nX3a6IF4

Sister Bliss – Life’s a Bitch - :(

Nush – U Girls - :( but "U Girls part 2" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya5oz6mQg8s

Junior Vazquez – Get Your Hands off my Man! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YukI7n8xlLQ

Farley & Heller – Ultra Flava - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caF3i6-Wc58

JX - Son of a Gun - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsSzPy6WT8

Alex Party – Wrap Me Up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0wGZ2H369E

Billie Ray Martin – Your Loving Arms - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IskJfrHo1oA

speaking of new shit - tim f did you hear that new surkin track spencer chow is all about??? echoes of this stuff maybe

the first and last handbag house track about converting to Islam?

*highly inappropriate Bucketheads joke*

I know all of these intimately. The vote goes to Grace.

lol uh 4 big modestly nsfw 'warnings' re the "video" for junior vazquez song

re that 'U Girls pt 2' youtube clip - that's the original 'U Girls' track, the part 2 is just a ref to the video clip itself

pics on that one are kinda nsfw also

voted Jinny cos it's an underdog. incidentally also the oldest track on the list - predating 'handbag' tag (not sure when that really came about - probably goes back to the Stooges like everything else)

Yeah I think it's technically italo-house? But it's totally handbag to its svelte little handle.

"speaking of new shit - tim f did you hear that new surkin track spencer chow is all about??? echoes of this stuff maybe"

haven't been able to find it yet. Am on the look-out.

I was torn between There's Nothing I Won't Do and Dreamer and eventually plumped for JX because I'm assuming everyone will vote for the other one.

for ppl looking for that surkin track: http://hypem.com/search/surkin/1/

Voted Jinny, though I always lumped it in with the Eurodance mob rather than the handbag house crowd.

that was one angry mob

Torn somewhere between Grace and Gala. "Not Over Yet" is my default answer but this choice is rock.

i voted for "there's nothing i won't do". fond memories of skating at the roller rink to this tune. shit is inspirational.

listening again, i love how restrained the trance-like synths are. i assume there is a longer version with an epic breakdown? can i nominate urban cookie collective "feels like heaven" for part 2 plz

(That Surkin track is excellent btw)

The correct choice can ONLY be...

keep, keep, keep, warm, keep-keep warm, KEEP WARM!

The Surkin track is the first one on his player at http://www.myspace.com/surkin

oh wow i think that Surkin track is sampling Bump's 'I'm Rushin' (or whatever that also sampled)

This one of the best polls EVER. I'm sure there are many tracks that could be added, but this would be my addition:

Double Dee - "Found Love"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM5ZayzgHSw
(song kicks in about 1:00)

Okay I listened to that Surkin track. It's good! I like the Technotronic synth-riff, but it's the vocals that make it appropriate for this thread. I also like the cut-up vocals on "Radio Fireworks".

It'd be funny but also very understandable if post-Justice electro was about to go through the "rave" era that electro-house went through in 2005 ("Washing Up", "Geht Nocht" etc.). I do wish a veneer of sonic harshness wasn't a prerequisite. Like, if the influence of "Robot Rock" was balanced out with some of Cosmos's "Take Me With You".

I always rep for Kym Sims 'Too Blind To See It', as old as 'Keep Warm', slower and 'housier' (in that US style) than anything here but light and poppy enough to warrant the handbag term.

Is interesting to see which American tracks did cross into handbag territory and the differences in style. I never associate it with campness as much as I do cute girls (because I never went to gay clubs duh) but obv. some of the tracks in this poll are obviously targetting Gay market more than others (Vasquez and Sister Bliss esp.) but the ease with which all of these tunes, like the range of fans they attracted, fit with each other remains pleasing.

xpost:
I feel like there are lots of tracks around like that and I was thinking about your "bling" comment the other day and was wondering if you'd heard "Cross the Dancefloor" by Treasure Fingers which is one of my top 2 or 3 house tracks from last year:

http://www.myspace.com/treasurefingers (third track in the player, also has his Fergie and Ocelot remixes which are stupendous)

Every type of crowd seemed to enjoy it.

and xpost
Steve, how great is the *rap* in "Too Blind to See It"????

Kym Sims' "I Must Be Free" fits closer more than "Too Blind" (and fwiw, I've always preferred the sly "Take My Advice" to "Too Blind").

like that Treasure Fingers track. i would have dance with all this US DP wannabeez :)

Tim, many of these new tracks sound less harsh and more sheen-y in full form (as opposed to the compressed versions in the myspace players). You might also like Russ Chimes or Miami Horror.

xpost, haha. They're really all over. Russ Chimes is in Southwark, Miami Horror in Melbourne, etc etc.

I voted for "Dreamer." But I infinitely prefer the more enervated "Don't Stop Movin'" which preserves the suggestion that even if you don't stop movin', you still might remain in place (presumably around that handbag).

Next is "Not Over Yet" ("Hand in Hand" was nice too); then "Keep Warm," "Son of a Gun" (was "Touch & Go" the most fecund song for early 1990s dance?), and "Freed From Desire."

Something like Jeanie Tracy's "Do You Believe in the Wonder" orbits around handbag proper (?) too, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v07B8Sy-2yQ

probably goes back to the Stooges like everything else

NOW you're getting it!

thought u were gonna take the 'prefer the second single' thing TOO far there and say you prefer 'Let A Boy Cry' to 'Freed From Desire'!

some of these i really hated at the time - namely Berri, Strike, Alex Party (liked 'Read My Lips/Saturday Night Party' tho), Livin' Joy and to a lesser extent Junior V and JX The Dog. had turned around on all of these in the end except Berri and i still kinda hate 'Don't Give Me Your Life' (it's just TOO nagging and i don't get anything from the vocal).

This thread is missing the piano-y bits from Cubic 22 - "Night in Motion"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Ez8sRJNnk

The Gala track is so classic.

(TBH if this sound is going to come back from anywhere its more likely to be from bassline than from nu-French dance but if it does I'm happy whatever).

but the ease with which all of these tunes, like the range of fans they attracted, fit with each other remains pleasing

OTM. I did go to gay clubs A LOT during this time duh and some of these were spun to the point of nausea. And check out the scrumptious array of bois in most of these vids.

As for the Junior vid, yes please.

I love the awfulness of Gala's voice on the version of "Freed From Desire" I have. It's like they pulled her from half-finishing a marathon, made her down five shots of tequila and told her to go nuts.

Freed From Desire (Mr Jack Club Mix) - need a half the length edit tho really

Is The Tamperer handbag? I've never fully understood the term.

(could never see the wood for the trees I'm thinking)

yeah i'd say so. it's a feeling not a genre ;)

youtube
Search Results for “shooting stars vic reeves dancing to gala”
No videos found for 'shooting stars vic reeves dancing to gala'

;_;

ooooh, what about Jomanda???

N-Trance?

it's pretty much shorthand for 'house (derived) songs which got in the top 40 or some equivalent of commercial success'

It's interesting because some of these are very Euro (the "What is Love" melody), some are very Garage (an in New Jersey garage), and some are more from the UK post-rave.

"as in"

yeah that's why you can only really apply the 'handbag' term by looking at the song's popularity (ie accessibility).

i think also you can tell which of these songs were written with the specific intention of trying to make a big hit (Strike, K-Klass, Alex Party...the more anthemic ones) and the ones where the focus was more on just wanting to make an impact in clubs and if it goes beyond that then that's a bonus (Sanchez, Farley & Heller, Sister Bliss).

If you go in any one direction too much though it stops sounding like handbag I think.

Like, N-Trance's "Set You Free" could be a handbag classic except that its breakbeat explosions make it sound like a (belated) golden age of hardcore rave classic instead. Even Bizarre Inc.'s "I'm Gonna Get You" feels slightly outside this interzone owing to its breakbeat rhythm.

Conversely, Robin S's "Show Me Love" - just a bit too slow and (US) housey for this thread, but brilliant. Whereas Corona and The Real McCoy feel too obviously Euro and Jaydee's "Plastic Dreams" feels too UK prog house clubbing classy. I should probably have included Felix's "Don't You Want Me" though.

The Tamperer are separate due to the time that they emerged more than anything else I think.

If I'd included "Set You Free" it would have gone right down to the wire with K-Klass for me.

God, "Keep Warm" is so incredible.

Good points Tim. I'm wondering where that euro synth melody comes from - Vivaldi/Debussy or Salsa???

but then Madison Avenue was like Handbag 2.0 xxxp

It's the relatively fast 4X4 plus piano riffs plus rave sounds plus song-based female vocals that define the heart of this genre for me. It's a very pure sound, like the producers involved had progressively purged any element that might be offputting to a non-pill-popping, non-clubbing general public (breakbeats, instrumentals etc.) while (paradoxically) the combination of the elements they retained conveyed perfectly to that same public would it would be like to go out clubbing and pop pills.

x-post yes definitely Madison Avenue were Handbag Mark II - with the original genre's relationship to rave replaced with a similar relationship to French House and filter-disco.

Although the contemporaneous trance-pop also made a bid for this crown ("Toca's Miracle" etc.)

No surprises that the producer behind Madison Avenue now makes Oz haircut house (a la TV Rock rather than Justice) under the moniker Vandalism. His biggest crime being a particularly gruesome jaded female singer reworking of Steve Bug's remix of Freaks' "The Creeps" called "Creeps (Get On The Dancefloor)".

what about stuff like captain hollywood 'more and more' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfmsu97D4aA
??? how would you qualify this ... minor key/gothic kinda thing

i think like Tim says that's got too many Euro hallmarks, somehow it sounds further from this than Haddaway despite the similarities between the two otherwise. maybe this is just because 'What Is Love' was the more successful single here (and probably all over Europe, and indeed the US where I'm surprised it's relatively well known).

I've gone for Berri cos no-one else appears to have done so. It's kind of a three-way tie between that, 'U Sure Do' and 'Not Over Yet' really, though.

It's well known because of the movie Night at the Roxbury. I'm thinking the synth line I'm thinking of comes from latin freestyle.

sorry, xpost

Mousse T - "Horny"? (maybe closer to Tamperer era)

I always liked the o-so-typical breakdown to just one thin synth line and then the (moog) melody comes in, it's done on nearly all of those. See also DJ Jean & Peran "I Give My Life", Kellee "My Love", Deep Zone "It's Gonna Be All Right" (THE ultimate stereotypical handbag anthem ever I think), Grooveyard "Mary Go Wild", Klubbheads "Klubbhopping", Kadoc "The Nighttrain", etc.

And of course: The Original "I Luv U Baby", The Course "Ready Or Not"

'u sure do'

i think origins of 'handbag' maybe coming from garage loyalists c. 93-4? a derogatory thing?

'dreamer' might be the best but it kind of feels too... ravey to be tru handbag?

I'd also add:
Aftershock - Slave To The Vibe
Loveland - Let The Music Lift You Up
O.T. Quartet - Hold That Sucker Down
Hed Boys - Girls And Boys
Pizzaman - Trippin' On Sunshine
T-empo - Saturday Night Sunday Morning
Klatsch - God Save The Queer
99th Floor Elevator - Hooked
Chrissy Ward - Right And Exact
Hi-Lux - I've Never Felt This Way
Diva - The Sun Always Shines On TV
Lippy Lou - Liberation
Jam & Spoobn - Right In The Night / Find Me
20 Fingers - Short Dick Man
Sunglasses Ron - Feel Da Beat
Candy Girls - Wham Bam

Mike, "Trippin' On Sunshine" is one of the options if you'd like to vote for it.

Oh heck, my eyes, my eyes...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

omg i just watched 5 seconds of each of those videos. painful. i'm happy to say i remember only 2 of them.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

woah

i thought dreamer would win. would've voted for u sure do or keep warm though (cd have caused a tie, oh well). only one i have on 12 is junior vasquez tho, which i still really like... actually i may have gone for it, reckon it's a bit underrated.

WTF? Gothtards

wtf is this thread about.

I just noticed the Junior track, I don't know if it fits with the rest (although I LOVE it).