Beat Up the Volume: 1987 sample-core showdown POLL

Beat This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQoFYCMsIB8

Pump Up the Volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPhUr-T6UM

How embarassing.

Give it time.

"Pump Up the Volume" was the one I heard on the radio at the time, so that.

Yeah one of these is much much more well known here in the US.

Yeah, gotta give it to M/A/R/R/S, because it was amazing how ubiquitous that track became, from such a small, underground label too. It was all over mainstream everything, and on tv too.

Did this bankroll years and years of future 4AD output or what?

"Pump Up the Volume".

"Beat Dis" is too busy, too self-conscious, too sample-happy, probly owes too much to "PUtV". Simenon went on to make much, much better stuff. Whereas "Pump Up the Volume" sits right at the peak of its creators' career arcs and still sounds note perfect today.

how come i can't vote for coldcut's paid in full remix???? since, um, the marrs thing sampled it and all. and cuz it's way better than the marrs or the bomb the bass thing. (i like the marrs thing, don't get me wrong. colourbox are my homies.)

PUMP UP THE VOLUME

DANCE
DANCE

NV: I'm still trying to confirm exact dates for release on both of the singles - I actually heard "Beat Dis" first, I think, but not sure which order they came out.

scott: for the purposes of this I decided to go with the two that actually touched the very top of the charts (#1 for MARRS, #2 for Bomb the Bass) - I understand the Coldcut remix hit #15 in the UK but it's not quite the peak the other two hit.

For what it's worth I love both songs and think they still both hold up rather well, but I ended up choosing Bomb the Bass simply for nostalgic reasons. Don't get me wrong: I absolutely adored both "Just Give 'Em Whiskey" and "Hot Doggie" from Colourbox, and yes, "Pump Up the Volume" absolutely topped both. But in my heart "Beat Dis" still edges a touch, even if my head wants to give the nod to MARRS.

I suspect now I will be the only one to vote this way.

That just makes you crazyspecial!

I saw Bomb the Bass on the cover of XLR8R last year and was all like "Who's this new guy?" That said, "Pump up the Volume"

Beat Dis made the charts in February '88, though no doubt had been doing the rounds for a few months before. Pump up the Volume was #1 in September '87.

Can't really seperate Paid in Full or Theme From S'Express from this pair.

I suspect now I will be the only one to vote this way.

You are incorrect! I <3 Bomb The Bass.

scott: for the purposes of this I decided to go with the two that actually touched the very top of the charts (#1 for MARRS, #2 for Bomb the Bass) - I understand the Coldcut remix hit #15 in the UK but it's not quite the peak the other two hit.

fwiw, the Coldcut remix of "Paid In Full" is much more known in the US than "Beat Dis", which I've never heard other than of my own volition, though the former isn't nearly as ubiquitous as "Pump Up the Volume"

Scott: The Eric B. & Rakim track that MARRS sampled is "I Know You Got Soul". It would have been a mean feat for them to have sampled the "Paid In Full" Coldcut mix, considering that "Pump Up the Volume" was released first.

"Beat Dis" didn't take very long to leap from white label to singles chart - it was something of an overnight sensation, and as such it also disappeared fairly swiftly from common currency. Whereas "Pump Up The Volume" was around for ages before charting, but in its original mix without all the sample overlays. As I recall, the more widely remembered sample-heavy version wasn't released until the original version had charted. Personally, I still prefer the uncluttered feel of the original.

I initially though about adding both Coldcut and S'Express to the list - so really, far be it from me to prevent people from adding write-in votes here.

PUTV

started tracking down all the different tracks it samples recently - Last Poets 'Mean Machine' and Bar-Kays 'Holy Ghost' so great

more coldcut recycling...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8XKYLmTZ8Q

"Scott: The Eric B. & Rakim track that MARRS sampled is "I Know You Got Soul". It would have been a mean feat for them to have sampled the "Paid In Full" Coldcut mix, considering that "Pump Up the Volume" was released first."

both songs were played for months in clubs before they ever came out though. the coldcut remix was huge in clubs long before the marrs song was released. and i thought the marrs remix sampled the coldcut remix. plus, didn't the marrs song also sample the other coldcut song say kids, what time is it? man, i am old and my memory ain't so hot.

plus, and i could be wrong about this, the american single version of pump up the volume was actually just an edit of the remix, wasn't it?

In the UK, the original "Pump Up The Volume" was being played in clubs before the Coldcut remix of "Paid In Full", but the remix of "Pump Up The Volume" went on to use the same Ofra Haza sample ("Im Nin' Alu") as the Coldcut remix.

it's probably just selective memory on my part. i like the coldcut thing more so i assume marrs ripped it off. which is weird, cuz aside from the paid in full remix i'm a much bigger colourbox fan than i am a coldcut fan. so, why wouldn't i side with them? plus, eric b and rakim hated the coldcut remix. there is that. and rakim is my god. so why don't i side with him? well, it really is great. that's why, really. it's still great. it will always be great. and i never need to hear the marrs thing again. i guess that's why. in any case, i'll never forgive snap for what they did to chill rob g.

"In the UK, the original "Pump Up The Volume" was being played in clubs before the Coldcut remix of "Paid In Full""

see, i think this is the opposite in the states! but then in the end it didn't matter cuz the marrs single came out here and was a big hit.

i bought the marrs 45 and the push it 45 on the same day. still prefer push it.

I'd argue that the "Pump Up The Volume" remix was basically Dave Dorrell stomping all over Colourbox/AR Kane by smothering it with that month's most overused samples. Granted, Coldcut were a good deal more vicious with "Paid In Full", but to a more satisfying and durable artistic effect!

okay, i just listened to the marrs remix on youtube and i think what it is is this: i assumed back then that the female vocal part on there is a sped up ofra haza from paid in full. except it really isn't. there is a sampled beat that is on both songs (and which i can't place), but, yeah, that's normal enough. and as far as the rakim sample, yeah, again, any deejay could have used that first. who knows now.

I'll say Beat Dis because nothing takes me back to 87 quite like a plummy voiced guy saying "d-d-d-dance music" but I prefer S-Express to both.

Thinking about the timing, they must both have jumped on the first PE album within weeks of its release. I love that sense of haste - Here's something exciting! Quick, let's sample it!

plus, eric b and rakim hated the coldcut remix. there is that. and rakim is my god. so why don't i side with him?

I thought Eric B hated it and Rakim liked it. Not that this makes much sense as Eric B didn't have a damn thing to do with the record, but that was the WORD ON THE STREET* at the time.

Voted Beat Dis tbh, but often think Beat Dat is even better.

*suburban Australia

In retropect, the use of samples on seems much more inventive and free-form on "Pump Up The Volume" than on "Beat Dis", to my ears.

Sean = unsurprisingly mental. MARRS = win.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

A blowout, sure, but at least I'm not sitting here in the crazy corner all by meself!

Just you and three crazy friends. :-D

If liking Beat Dis way more over MARSS makes me crazy, then I'll carry my fate with pride Ned :)

I like it here in the crazy corner. There's lots of space to move around.