Congrats!! It's the Jess & Crabbe Thread

Love it when they drop Depeche Mode's "Master & Servant", or their version thereof, or whatever.

!

And where is this mix deal thing?

Ned sadly it is this so I don't like yr chances of finding it.
I could burn it for you, but keep in mind that it's like 95% ruff as guts french house and 5% depeche mode.

I love the liner notes:

"Featuring: Ballistic Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Mongoloids, Ronnie Richards, Dr. Dred & Spliff Shady, Bob Sinclar, D.M., DJ Deeon, M.A.W. ft. Denise + Puppah Nas T, Mango Drive, Daft Punk, Gemini and...J&C MotherF***er!"

I could burn it for you, but keep in mind that it's like 95% ruff as guts french house and 5% depeche mode.

And this is a bad thing? :-D (Depeche is a hook, but I just want something that *sounds* great no matter what it is! Hey, I thought you knew me by now. ;-) )

No I do reckon you'd like it! Just not for DM-related reasons mostly.

They have a great knack for dropping something deliciously gothy amidst all their churning jamaican french house bizniz - on another radio set they unleash Adamski's "Killer" and it sounds even more amazing than usual.

hey is this it?
http://housetraxxlistings.blogspot.com/2008/03/jess-and-crabbe-demolition-tapes-1.html

Yes! That site looks ace.

awesome i'm going to listen to it right now

how did i miss this?

should i upload demolition tapes 1-4 now?

uhhh yes please?

ok, what's the best site for hosting? YSI?

also thanks for starting the thread, tim! i only sent you those discs ... what, three years ago?

Yeah I know! I really liked them at the time too! But listening to them again made me want to start a thread about these guys.

re: "tribute series vol 3" ... apparently of their all-time favorite tracks was KMA's "cape fear". can you hear it?

What, one of the tribute tracks sample it?? Would have to listen again when I get home.

i can definitely imagine them loving "Cape Fear".

i don't think they sample it but i think you can hear a strong "cape fear" influence in the thick bass farts and syncopated beats on circa 2000 tracks like "work for nothing" and "spliff party 2000"

demolition tape 1A: jess & crabbe rok da house 2002 style

000:00 - Intro
002:17 - Jess and Crabbe - Warlords (Fiatlux)
006:57 - Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster (J and C Regulator Mix) (Virgin)
000:10 - Da Mongoloïds : Spark Da Meth (Strictly Rhythm)
014:42 - Jess and Crabbe - The Hell And Back (Fiatlux)
019:30 - Dr. Dred and Spliff Shady - Spliff Party 1200 (Red Rock Test)
024:04 - Ronnie Richards : Missing You (Jaxx Wild Dub) (Atlantic JAxx)
026:38 - Jess and Crabbe - Bad Trooperz (Fiatlux)
031:39 - Jess and Crabbe - Monkey Soca (Fiatlux)
035:11 - Gemini - Stand Up (Relief)
039:05 - unknown Master & Servant remix
042:50 - Jess and Crabbe - Council (Fiatlux)

someone please help us identify that master & servant edit!

sorry about the bad sound quality ... it's straight to mp3 from cassette. ah well, it doesn't sound as bad as the realaudio to mp3 rips i have of those old warpradio mixes by broadcast.

demolition tape 1B: jess & crabbe rok da house 2002 style

000:00 - Basic Channel (???)
002:05 - Jess and Crabbe - Can't Tekkit (Fiatlux)
006:20 - Ballistic Brothers - Prophecy Reveal (Night Time is the Right Time Mix) (Afro-Art)
010:25 - Basement Jaxx (???)
015:05 - Dr. Dred and Spliff Shady - Dirty Silver (Let's Get Dirty) (Red Rock Test)
018:46 - Masters at Work - Work (MAW)
022:00 - Bob Sinclar - Bisous Sucree (Yellow)
024:00 - Basement Jaxx - Camberskank (Atlantic Jaxx)
028:30 - UH HUH, I LIKE IT, UH HUH, I LIKE IT
031:47 - Jess and Crabbe - Ruff Inna Jungle (Fiatlux)
036:00 - Jess and Crabbe - Johnny Clash (Fiatlux)
040:55 - Jess and Crabbe - Big Booya (Yard Rock Mix) (Fiatlux)

that first "basement jaxx" is on the tip of my tongue but i can't place it. i think it's a "jaxx dub" of something else, or maybe one of their white label re-edits.

UH HUH, I LIKE IT sounds like buffalo bunch or something like that.

It'd be nice if UK Funky could pick up this vibe a little more, similar percussion wise but missing the ragga chat and this particular brand of zaniness. Fidget is actually a little bit closer in flavor, but I'm not sure mixing the two is really the way forward.

Thanks for the mixes Moonship!

yeah, this is the fidget of the early 2000s. in that it's house that's built on sampling and is simultaneously aware of "ghetto" dance music (i hate putting it that way), jungle, electroclash, hip-hop and reggae. fidget is similar but replace the signifiers.

ghetto house becomes b-more
jungle becomes late 80s rave revivalism
electroclash becomes DFA-type stuff
hip-hop becomes ringtone rap
reggae becomes ... ?

siah i think that "ragga chat" and "zaniness" is a crucial part of the jess & crabbe's aesthetic and i think it'd be somewhat boring without (and whatever strand of house links these guys and basement jaxx and armand van helden and speed garage and i don't know what else else, deelat?)

then again i have a high tolerance for "zaniness" (see the fact that i not only listen to fidget house but that i also still listen to big beat)

SAY OOH, LA LA

seriously though, you can have my FSUK mixes and wall of sound comps when you pry them from my cold, dead hands

demolition tape 2A: booty track ass pimp (dj jess)

000:00 - ice-t
000:24 - dj luke, i think?
003:36 - dj funk - pump up da jam (?)
005:25 - dj luke - raise the roof (??)
007:20 - ???
010:32 -dj funk - work it (a remix?)
012:00 - ???
014:00 - paris mitchell ft waxmaster - ghetto shout out
016:00 - dj funk - work it (the original?)
017:50 - dj godfather, i think? anyway, it's hilarious. what is that drexciya-ish sample, erotek? posatronix?
020:29 - ring my bell remix ... isn't this starski & clutch?
021:28 - ??? (this track bangs!)
022:39 - jess & crabbe - the hell and back (dj funk remix)
025:35 - dj rush - motherfuckin bass
028:57 - ???

i give up there, because i don't know anything else ... except the dj assault track (SUCK MY MF DICK)

you know, i used to think i know a lot about ghetto house because i have a couple hundred tracks, but jeez. do people who listen to baltimore club have problems like this? talk about endlessly self-referential music!

demolition tape 2b: boss inna de jungle (dj crabbe)

so i'm not even going to try to ID any of these but worthwhile to point out that crabbe - who's now in a no-wave band, while jess, with the help of someone named alexis le-tan, just compiled a disc of cosmic / kosmische library music for permanent vacation - was a drum and bass DJ with a french group called "rangerz crew" before becoming a house producer. fascinating mix of street-level late-90s jump-up and tech-step that you don't hear the like of very often.

(sorry that filenames aren't consistent ... i'm re-ripping these right now because i guess i deleted the old mp3s and i'm still deciding how to have itunes handle them)

I've been digging out my old Chemical Brothers CDs, Dig Your Own Hole is the shit.

So yeah, no need to apologize about big beat.

I was still listening to breaks up until 2006 or so, got a high tolerance for music which is incredibly unfashionable.

B-more has been getting a lot more interesting for me too recently, particularly stuff like Rod Lee.

http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=141671

Isn't alan saying above that funky house is similar to Jess & Crabbe but missing the ragga chat and zaniness, and more of that would be good?

Although there are quite a few dancehall sampling funky house records floating around.

Alan I've gotta get on to you re yr last e-mail BTW.

Yeah, thats kind of what I was getting at.

Although I don't really trust this impulse, I think I would take any added "zaniness" in Funky as an excuse to try pushing it on the kids who think Daft Punk invented dance music. Maybe its better that it stays in LDN and they can all listen to their Justic clones.

No hurry Tim.

the kids who think Daft Punk invented dance music

LOL, there's gotta be at least a few of these in LDN

Yeah, but they're not the ones I'm worried about.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-30/music/la-39-s-new-robotics-la-riots-guns-n-bombs-caxsio-and-others-are-revolutionizing-the-city-39-s-dance-clubs/

yeah, but that's just not true. people have been writing things like that in LA and SD rags on a once-every-six-months basis for the last six or seven years. that's just some lame scenester networking with his friends.

i hate to sound all pipecock / mike turner here, but clubs in LA will be filled no matter who's playing, jeff mills or tommie sunshine. i've seen both there and the crowds were more or less identical. people in LA are in constant need of something to do that's complimentary to a) doing blow and b) dressing like a douche.

whoops, that should be taylor, not turner.

It cracked me up when author said that Steve Aoki is a leading national DJ in this "nu-electro" craze.

Although not as much as the claim that black men from LA invented electro.

Not knocking Egyptian Lover or the World Class Wrecking Kru, but seriously, c'mon.

To be fair though, I have seen LA Riots and they're not half bad. It is what it is.

did they steal their name from riot in belgium? cause that's a bad sign.

there was one other guy at the record store tonight in the dance music section. yes, he had on fluorescent blue sunglasses and a fluroescent blue and royal blue block-striped hoodie. and skinny black jeans, and white vans, even!

he bought a copy of tom stephan's "asseteria," "ed rec vol 3," and some two-disc progressive house thing with mount rushmore on the cover (?!?).

THE REVOLUTION IS HERE.

What really got me was the "LA is leading the way! By following a french sound that's almost ten years old!" tone to the whole thing. Yes I'm aware that the city of Angels will always have a place for dance music catering to shallow cokeheads, but the last time it made inroads into Middle America was what hair metal?

Keep in mind I saw LA Riots in Wisconsin.

eh LA conquered the late 90s too with funk & ska influenced pop rock in the sublime / RHCP vein

CALIFORNICATION, Y'ALL

i would like this thread to have more jess & crabbe talk on it but i welcome the opportunity to talk about pop & rock currents with gentlemens such as yourselves

I'm still hoping that Basement Jaxx are inspired by funky house to return to the space b/w "Missing You (Jaxx Dub)" and "Flylife (Brixton Mix)".

exciting

http://www.strictlysocial.com/journal/2009/02/19/jess-crabbe-demolition-tape-5/
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Demolition-Tape-5-/release/1796622

not as exciting

http://www.strictlysocial.com/journal/2009/03/28/dj-crabbe-demolition-tape-6/

Very glad these guys exist again. OTOH Mixtape 6 looks very er redundant. Maybe Jess is the key ingredient.

New tape is out now!
http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/93973087/file.html
DEMOLITION TAPE #7

and it's pretty good

Could someone re-upload tapes 1-4?? the links are dead :(
thanks!

This is sounding hot on first run-through:

Jess & Crabbe present Bazzerk - African Digital Dance
http://www.parisdjs.com/index.php/post/Jess-Crabbe-present-Bazzerk-African-Digital-Dance

as much as i love jess & crabbe 4ever i am pretty burned out on "global bass" ... having lived through baile funk, kwaito, etc it's hard to believe this will have any staying power, let alone produce another "township funk"

I feel the same but it's not so much revolutionary as just a really good comp.

Jess & Crabbe Live at the Rex Club 04/25/01

BANGING.

ysi?

jess & crabbe - so hot right now

still bummed i can't find high quality mp3s of this stuff, but i bought some of the fiat lux vinyl when it came out and it always seemed to be pressed really quiet and shitty, big disappointment. they need to just throw that shit up on itunes like everybody else is.

as far as this bazzerk goes - this stuff isn't actually african isn't it? it all sounds south american to me and all the track titles and vocals seem to be in portugese or spanish?

like to my ears it just sounds like a really ravey version of baile funk or reggaeton, or a very straight-ahead tribal guarachero

dj santiago - melodia 2011 is massive

thanks for repping this tim i am giving it another shot and it is better than i thought on first listen

"In Yoor Eer" really is just the best.

Yes.

essential

http://www.mixcloud.com/tag/demolition-tape/

damn

ohhhh thx! thx a lot!!