Dancers Music: June 2004 Archives
Okay, I don't want this to sound epic, but while creating 10 albums between 1982 and 2000, Tracy Thorne (12/06/62) and Ben Watt (09/26/62) of Everything But The Girl (EBTG) thoroughly confused their fans. They accomplished what many musicians could only dream: selling hundreds of thousands of albums, but somehow doing it in a way that challenged their listeners to journey with them through decades of inconsistency.
Initially releasing a smattering of albums consisting of what many consider to be "folksy-acoustic" but what I think to be "acid-jazz / light-jazz / female lead / adult contemporary," EBTG transitioned ungracefully at the end of their career toward female lead drum n' bass electronic with heavy house and ambient influences. It was in 1994 when the English duo released Amplified Heart and they garnered their first listen by many soon-to-be-fans, including myself. However, it wasn't until 1996 and their release of Walking Wounded that EBTG would thoroughly confound their following . . . and the WORLD. Influenced heavily by Massive Attack, Thorne was quoted as saying, "Even we got a bit bored with what we were doing [previous to Walking Wounded]. We felt, for the time being, we'd gone as far as we possibly could doing what we were doing. With this new material, it is like hearing a new group."
Indeed, Tracy, it is. Walking Wounded: totally a gateway album. Watt, on the brink of death due to a rare intestine disease, programmed beats and organized much of the science-music production of the album. Thorne added her classic vocals to the electronic mix in a less-ben-gibbard/more-mia-doi-todd fashion and Walking Wounded was in the can. However, it didn't sell compared to the previous outings of easy listening that the couple had bequeathed to the public.
Yet, the faux inaccessibility thought harrowing and scandalous by many proved breathtakingly necessary by at-the-time novice electronic music listeners like me. To this day I listen to this album several times per week. I have secret friends whom I identify with in relation to this album, this band.
Ben Watt is still alive. He only has three feet of intestine left. Everything But The Girl produced one follow-up to Walking Wounded called Tempremental, after which the group decided - amicably - to work on other projects. Watt co-founded the West London night club, Lazy Dog, where he was rumored to DJ on a regular rotation. He now runs a record label called Buzzin' Fly Records, which seems to focus on saxophone-based electronica. The group, graciously, has left their amazingly vintage website online.
When I started listening to EBTG, I had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Somehow listening to this band in my headphones in hospital rooms and reading Ben Watt's book about his fight with disease helped me think of music in a new way. Indeed, it helped me get more into experimentation in music. EBTG brought a mildly-progressive approach to electronic vocalist music that deserves recognition of being The Greatest Band of All Time.
I think it is obvious that it it unnecessary to write a lot about this band. The pictures speak for themselves in this occassion. These dudes totally rocked it VICTORIAN FUTURISTIC SPACEDUDE style. What more is there to say?? Seriously, these guys were on some whole other thing. They took part of their inspiration from the whole Parliament/Funkadelic spaceship thing, but no one could even come close to the one and only Jonzun Crew.
They were pioneers in the electro funk hip hop world that would be the biggest thing around in 84, 85, 86. They gave the breakers something to keep getting wild too while their culture was being totally over exposed. They had the hottest style of all time. Three brothers originally from the home of all things truly surreal, Florida, moved to Boston and formed The Jonzun Crew in 1981. Two years later they had the first ever album released on the hip hop label that would put out some of the greatest records ever and a giant in the industry, Tommy Boy. The historic LP, Lost in Space, featured three of the greatest electro jams of all time ("We Are The Jonzun Crew," "Space Is The Place," and "Pack Jam"). Long songs allowing for a dark groove to develop featuring minimal wicked robot voices talking mostly about space. Let's just be honest: it may seem goofy and silly in 2004, as it has been copied by dance music for 20 plus years now, but it still feels amazingly cool to listen to The Jonzun Crew.
Michael Johnson (nee Jonzun) continued on in the music industry after The Jonzun Crew stopped putting out hot records. He was behind the careers of New Edition(he wrote and produced their amazing hit single "Candy Girl"), New Kids On The Block, and more. An expert on The Jonzun Crew (with the last name Johnson as well) was telling me that he produced a group (whose name he could not recall) that was like electro with Temptation style vocals. The idea of that freaks me out. Michael Johnson and The Jonzun Crew influenced the direction of music (popular and underground) for years and of course anybody who wears those hot threads are certainly The Greatest Band Of All Time.
