Monday's Long Song

 

It was summer 1988 when Les Negresses Vertes released their first album Mlah and became the soundtrack for this season. With elements of punk, waltz, polka, flamenco and rai, plus political lyrics, they are at the forefront of a movement that, with Manu Chao's Mano Negra, conveyed a new image of France internationally at the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s. They sounded fresh and earthed and the whole album is still a forgotten gem. In 1993 they released a 10 Remixes, an album where artists like Massive Attack, Gang Starr and William Orbit reworked their songs and showed how much potential their songs had. 

Les Negresses Vertes - Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Remix)

Inflammable Material - First Records That Impressed Me Much # 10

Fine Malt Lyrics by House Of Pain was released in 1992 and it was a milestone in Rap-music. In this time there were several bands on the scene doing the same things like for an example Body Count of in a different way Gang Starr or A Tribe Called Quest. New was that now three white guys appeared doing the stuff black people thought it was their very own thing. House Of Pain stepped into the arena shouting their rhymes to them. Of course, it was only an attitude but from then on white rappers were part of the scene. I got aware of this record by their hit-single Jump Around with their sample of a song by Junior Walker. It is still a great song but there were more tracks on the album than this single which are meanwhile also classic songs. Maybe the main thing that impressed me was that they combined heavy guitar riffs, Irish attitude (not only to show a gangster style) with samples by soul and blues artists. Not that I listen too often to it but when I put this record on my turntable I can listen to it from start to the end. And the fascination didn't get lost during the years.

House Of Pain - Jump Around
House Of Pain - Put Your Head Out
House Of Pain - Top O' The Morning To Ya
House Of Pain - Shamrocks and Shenenigans
House Of Pain - Danny Boy, Danny Boy
House Of Pain - Come And Get Some Of This