One week at number one on 30th January 1988
Casual dismissers of eighties music usually refer to the over-produced “sameyness” of the era. I’ve always been a little bit gobsmacked by that assertion – yes, the MOR and AOR aspects of the decade’s middle period occasionally suffered from a weird, suffocating and dispassionate smoothness, and there was a tendency to either overlook or airbrush guitar sounds in the mainstream, but that was never “it”. Innovation was everywhere.
“Rok Da House”, for example, is something which was didn't completely take off on its first release for its crossing of two genre streams. In 1987, House Music and Hip-Hop were two different beasts, seldom seen in the same habitats – in some cities they may have attracted similar audiences, but people usually did not rap over a House beat, anymore than they would a Hi-NRG rhythm. House was party music, Hip-Hop was its own, usually more intense area.
“Rok Da House” is widely considered to be the first example of a disc which mixed the two and got away with it. Cookie Crew were a long-standing Hip-Hop duo from South London who grew in prominence after they won a 1985 rap championship at the Wag Club. Two John Peel sessions followed and these are well worth a listen, because despite being quite raw and innocent, they also show how well-developed the pair already were. Despite his support and enthusiasm, though, record label interest appeared non-existent until Rhythm King stepped forward in 1987.
Beatmasters, on the other hand, were the total opposite of “late night radio”, with two out of the three members having day jobs composing jingles and soundtracks for television adverts. Despite their roles churning out ditties to sell bathroom products to, they were also regular London club-goers who were excited by the scene’s ongoing developments, and keen to get on board. Rhythm King records gave them the job of working with Cookie Crew, and despite the obvious illogic of giving a credible but marginal UK Hip-Hop duo the task of recording with a trio whose interests were geared around House music, “Rok Da House” was born that year.
Interest was marginal at first, with the single bobbing up into the lower reaches of the Indie Top 10 but not quite crossing over. Following its initial release, the decision was taken to give it a fresh remix and relaunch it again into the cold winter snap of 1988, where it shot into the National Top 10 without much hesitation, following the success of other House records during the same period. It had finally found its moment.
While M|A|R|R|S sometimes felt like an uneven collaboration with one artist doing most of the heavy lifting on its most played side, “Rok Da House” is an obvious partnership of equals. If you removed The Beatmasters contributions from this and allowed the Crew to do their usual rhythmic verbal assault over their cutting and mixing technique, the end result would probably have been another cult track for the duo following “Females”. Equally, without the fierce, loud rapping over the backing track here, The Beatmasters work would have been just another club-friendly House instrumental which might have lucked out with a low Top 40 position.
Combined, the two are dynamite. Cookie Crew sell the track awesomely, never ashamed or afraid to acknowledge the track’s instrumental peaks by using those moments to bark and shout the fiercest; listening to this again, it’s astonishing how raw and instinctive but utterly perfectly timed some of their moves seem, shooting off in a quickfire fashion, frequently raising the volume halfway through sentences to emphasise the track’s drive and momentum. There was still a misapprehension in the late eighties among “real musicians” that rap was a dead-end fad (or as Ozzy Osbourne put it “Just talking over a record? It’s a doddle, innit!”) and while there were many short-lived novelty chancers both in the USA and UK, Cookie Crew make it really obvious how they won a competition two years prior to this. Their fluidity makes it sound too easy (try copying them and you’ll realise it’s not). It’s not just the speed of their flow that’s impressive, it’s the charisma and the instinctive use of emphasis, as well as their unapologetic brattiness. It’s the sound of the two loudest women in the room expressing a rush of ecstasy, but doing so with consummate technique.
The Beatmasters, meanwhile, have provided them with a House track that’s a little bit more restless and scattergun in its focus than most of the crossover records we’ve heard so far. It starts off ordinarily enough with that piano motif, but they then riddle the song with endless extra keyboard runs, what sounds like a prowling bassline sped up five times over, and (one of my favourite bits, and probably yours too) that chaotic, giddy psychedelic keyboard break which emerges just when you suspect they might have run out of ideas (eventually, it does more or less finish the song). If you were being cynical, you could argue that they were professional musicians putting their experience at writing catchy ad jingles over a genre which was booming in commercial and dancefloor popularity - there are a couple of slightly buried elements in the mix which do sound a tiny bit like “brassy synthetic library music” - but then again, why not?
From the off, I don’t think “Rok Da House” was trying to be anything other than the loudest, hookiest House music track in the shops. In that sense, it marked a fork in the road following the success of “Jack Your Body” and “Pump Up The Volume”, which were both cool, sophisticated customers. Where they glided on to the dancefloor, hovering almost effortlessly a few centimetres above it, “Rok Da House” recalls the Farley Jackmaster Funk approach of screaming and stomping on to it unnervingly, reminding us that it wasn’t always about being tastefully subdued. Sometimes you could just scream “HOUSE” at the top of your lungs in celebration too, and people understood immediately what you meant.
It didn’t feel surprising that this managed to reach the number five spot nationally, but the subsequent brevity of both artists careers was a shock. Cookie Crew’s mainstream presence ceased by the end of 1989, with record company disputes about their direction bringing their studio time to a complete and definite close by 1992 (they haven’t recorded any new material since and have expressed no desire to). Beatmasters managed a few more sizeable top ten hits under their own name, but by the end of the decade they too were struggling to find success as the main credited artists, and turned their attention to the studio backrooms and remixing and production work.
Both, however, had explosive and unsubtle attitudes which combined to a potent effect on this 45. “Dated,” you argue. Bollocks, I say. I play this one even now, and it still sounds like a firework has been lit inside my house.
New Entries Elsewhere In The Charts
4. Pop Will Eat Itself - There Is No Love Between Us Anymore (Chapter 22)
Peak position: 3
"There Is No Love Between Us Anymore" is largely an instrumental track propelled along with scratch noises, interjecting samples and the occasional anguished cry of the title from Clint Mansell. That should have made it an utterly inappropriate single and something best left to the closing moments of the "Box Frenzy" LP, but in fact it showed that there was slightly more to the Brummie boys than leery, beery rapping and loud guitars.
There's a neat patchwork quilt of ideas going on here, and a distinct dark mood, which showed that a creative and modern songwriting approach was apparent in their ranks - a point that probably needed to be made after two cover versions had been released in a row. The promo video is also a curiosity, consisting of a pair of exhausted parents strolling and struggling through life in a dazed, zombified black and white world, like some kind of bleak advertisement for a “Child Free And Proud” campaign group (it ends up being more chilling than The Specials “Too Much Too Young”).
Despite the slightly uncommercial elements of this, the single acted as their first ever official UK Top 75 chart entry, climbing to number 66. Far bigger success would follow.
7. The Woodentops - You Make Me Feel (Rough Trade)
Peak position: 2
At this point in their careers The Woodentops had already achieved a fair run on Rough Trade and appeared to be slipping towards the regrettable end-point of their careers; “You Make Me Feel” is actually a wonderful, joyous and rustic sounding record which might have been a hit in the middle of the eighties, but felt slightly old-fashioned and exposed by 1988’s standards. While its intimate woodiness puts it on a par with the Lilac Time’s emergence, it’s safe to say that nobody found much time for that group either (unjustifiably so). The party people had no place in barns unless an illegal rave was occurring in a disused one.
Despite this, the group would soon find themselves unexpectedly relevant in Ibiza, with the track "Why" attracting Balearic DJ spins, ultimately leading to the band taking a much more dance-orientated direction. By accident rather than design, they were therefore early lights in the indie-dance movement - but you won't get a clear sense of that from this song.
15. Renegade Soundwave - Cocaine Sex (Rhythm King)
Peak position: 6
Renegade Soundwave drop a sleazy single into the proceedings, although due to the clear drug references this didn’t receive many airings away from the club dancefloors.
An explosive single which was treasured by knowing DJs across the globe, though, whose raw, stripped back rhythms and deep basslines pack a larger punch than you’d expect. Sometimes you can achieve a lot with very little.
Peak position: 6
Renegade Soundwave drop a sleazy single into the proceedings, although due to the clear drug references this didn’t receive many airings away from the club dancefloors.
An explosive single which was treasured by knowing DJs across the globe, though, whose raw, stripped back rhythms and deep basslines pack a larger punch than you’d expect. Sometimes you can achieve a lot with very little.
16. The Groovy Little Numbers - You Make My Head Explode (53rd & 3rd)
Peak position: 16
17. Mighty Mighty - Maisonette (Chapter 22)
Peak position: 10
Mighty Mighty’s last hurrah, and essentially more of the same bouyant indiepop sound, but fleshed out with strings and a slightly more subdued, casual beat. “Maisonette” is jolly, bouncy and considerably less handmade sounding than their earlier 45s, almost seeming like a bid for stardom (or at least professionalism) – but there’s a faint whiff of inessentiality about the proceedings too. For all its spritely nature and well-meaning melodies, there’s never a sense that this is a key record you would have raced towards on new release day in HMV. It’s neither raw enough to be thrilling nor pop enough to demand your attention; and thus, the group disappear between the cracks, and we sadly won’t be discussing them again.
27. Screaming Trees - Asylum (Native)
Peak position: 27
No, not those Screaming Trees (the grunge act) but the industrial/synthpop lot from Sheffield who preceded them; many a plaid-clad youth would make the mistake of buying their work from second-hand stores in the nineties then wondering what they’d returned home with.
At their best, the group could produce some moody and persuasive work, but “Asylum” lacks direction and surefootedness, feeling as if it can’t decide whether it wants to be a dancefloor anthem or an evil metallic monster swinging for you with its crab claws.
Number One In The National Charts
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