CHRIS BANGS

Fuck Acid House This Is Acid Jazz

ACID JAZZ CD AJXCD 204

CHRIS BANGS

£7.99 Free Delivery

Released 14/07/2008

Performer R&B Dance

Additional Info

• Recording: STEREO
• Format: Single Case

Tracklisting

CD

1. Astral Space
2. Be Someone
3. Give It All U Got (Feat. Mick Talbot)
4. Righteous
5. Retro Active
6. Take Four
7. Let The Good Times Roll (Feat. Galliano)
8. Mellow Blow
9. Prayer Mat
10. Batu Casa
11. Roaring Fast (Feat. Caz)
12. Break 4 Jazz
13. Renaissance
14. Let The Good Times Roll Disco Mix (Bonus Track)

This year 2008 marks the 20th Anniversary of the birth of Acid Jazz records with the 7' single release of Galliano's ' Frederick Lies Still '. To celebrate this anniversary they are releasing a new CD compilation of Chris Bangs' work for the label with the tracks selected, edited and remastered by Bangs himself. ACID JAZZ CD AJXCD 204

Bangs was widely credited with the birth of Acid Jazz. Ask Gilles Peterson ... He said

"I was with Chris Bangs at one of Nicky Holloway’s nights. One room, five DJs, 1,000 people. Paul Oakenfold was before us.Oakenfold left everyone in rapture, we put on this old 7-inch by Mickey & the Soul Generation which was a rare groove record with a mad rock guitar intro and no beat. I started vary speeding it so it sounded all warped. Chris got on the microphone and said, ‘Fuck acid house, this is acid jazz’. That’s how acid jazz started, just a joke.

‘Within a few months of acid house happening, we were putting on parties of our own called Cock Happy. We were doing the acid house thing but to a different soundtrack. All the people who were the key people in acid house, the first prophets of that scene and that lifestyle, they were all regulars at my clubs."

Tracks come from Bangs' ubiquitous jazz funk alter ego The Quiet Boys, including the Galliano collaboration " Let The Good Times Roll" a Hacienda fave from back in the day and found here with a mix not included on the original 12".

Also included are 3 tracks from the totally wired compilation series. Bangs would collaborate on one off tracks for this series , often some of his simplest groove inspired work

In 1993 Chris Bangs had been working in studios as diverse as the 108 channel Neve Flying Faders mixing desk at London's Hit Factory and some tracks were laid down in a cheap 8 track studio next to a graveyard in South London. Spending long working days travelling to and from Studios all over London,  Bangs decided it was time to set up his own studio for recording and mixing the Quiet Boys Acid Jazz records album " Bosh" Jazid CD 121.

The idea was to spend more time making music but it took 4 months for the bare concrete walls of the studio to get flooring and electrics installed, building a live room for recording and hours spent reading books and manuals and trying to figure out how to work tape machines and how to record a Fender Rhodes piano or Gibson guitar. Bangs never had any studio training but he was able to work with a fine mix engineer Fraser Henry who managed to pull the whole random mess together somehow just using mutes and pushing levels , Bangs had no automation in the studio at that time, bit of a loss to not have the SSL's to play around with any more !

First thing was to get Bangs rough structures laid down as proper songs on 16 track tape. Former Inversions keyboardist Stephen Jeffries was the man for the job. Bangs had just worked with him on the Quiet Boys track " Astral Space " especially recorded for the Totally Wired compilation series on Acid Jazz Records. Keys were recorded on Rhodes , Roland Mks-50 Synth, Piano and a vintage Sequential Circuits Pro One.

Percussionist Paul Gunter came in next and laid down some superb conga tracks. The live room and soundproofing had not yet been installed and the sound of skins being hit really hard, as Paul likes to do, came bouncing back off the stone walls , got recoded on bangs' 1 microphone in mono sounded really old and crusty !! Great. Bangs also got to record timbales, rainmakers, bata drums and all without a clue what he was doing.

Further musical contributions came from guitarist Nigel Price , trumpet man Dave Priseman and Sax and Flute from Gary Spacey - Foote plus vocalist Greg Franks also features on 2 songs and the extra track " Live and Love " which is only found on the Japanese release or on the Hed Kandi Nu Cool compilation series.

More about " Bosh " here

Thin Air Productions - releases

Chris Bangs' production company and jazz cd label acts as a breeding ground for unsigned UK soul and jazz talent and has had extensive success with product being released in the United States , Japan and across most of Europe too . Here's a list of our releases .

Thin Air 12" single
Quiet Boys feat Camelle Hinds - Everybody Loves the Sunshine TAPR 101

Thin Air Albums
TAPR 102        Yada Yada - Piktures  ( DJ vinyl edition - deleted )
TAPR 103        Yada Yada - Piktures
TAPR 104        Sambada - Tropical
TAPR 105        Out of Thin Air ( DJ vinyl edition )
TAPR 106        Out of Thin Air - Various Artists
TAPR 107        Back 2 the Beat - Various Artists
TAPR 108        SoundscapeUK - Smooth with a Groove
TAPR 109        Quiet Boys - Dazzle ( ultra edition reissue )
ULTR 1001       Anthea - Words and Beats ( now issued on Hed Kandi )
MELO 54321      Yada Yada - Fingalikkin' Good

By 1995 Chris Bangs and Mick Talbot had worked together with Galliano, The Quiet Boys and Workshy had established a pretty good musical connection and started to work together at Chris's studio on tracks that were eventually to become "Subculture" by Yada Yada. A first release came of the track "The Journey Within" on the Wall Of Sound compilation"Give Em Enough Dope" and when the album was released on UK label 2 Kool met with immediate success and the album also got released in USA, Japan, Germany and Italy.

The 9 original tunes were a fusion of styles and sounds taking Mick's influences from back in the day and mixing it up with the trip hop vibe of Chris' The 13th Sign album project on Delancey Street Records.

Mick and Chris both felt the project had worked well gaining excellent international reviews and compilation licenses and radio plays in the UK and USA. This led to the subsequent albums 'Piktures' and 'Fingerlikkin Good' and the creation of 2 identities in USA both as Yada Yada and the reformatted versions of  Soundscape UK who secured a no.2 radio hit in USA with 'Morning Song' which was especially recorded for that project.

Sophisticated UK pop act Workshy had several tracks produced by Chris Bangs firstly for their mini album of 7 classic soul covers - AWB's "If I Ever Lose This Heaven" ( Our Fave!), Arethas - "I Say A Little Prayer" and Lamont Dozier's soul classic "Why Cant We Be Lovers" > Gerard Prescenser played Trumpet and Flugel Horn and kept the brass section firmly on their toes. Mick Talbot played Keys, Fender Rhodes, Hammond ,Piano & Synth and led the band of The Pump on Drums, Camelle Hinds on Basses and Nigel Price on Guitars.

Chris produced Workshy again with two tracks "Under The Infuence" and "On The Inside" on their next album Under The Influence

Chris Bangs had 2 tracks featured on the debut release on Gilles Peterson's Talking Loud label the aptly titled compilation " Talking Loud ". Bangs used the pseudonym Wild and Peaceful for his tunes Bassic and Hipology featuring Alastair Gavin on piano and Martin Winnings on sax. Also on the album was a rough first mix of Galliano's " Little Ghetto Boy " and tracks from Incognito , Young Disciples, Ace of Clubs ( Jerry from superb Jazz Dancers IDJ ).

This album started the invasion of Acid Jazz into the mainstream record industry with acts like James Taylor Quartet, Brand New Heavies, A Man Called Adam, Jamiroquai and Young Disciples all getting signed to major record labels.

Columbia Records Artist Vanessa Quinones better known as Espiritu cut an album called "Always" in 1994. Chris Bangs met with Vanessa and after a productive meeting she invited Chris to contribute producing 3 songs on her album Take My Hand ( which he co-wrote ), Sex, Sin and Sun ( that track should have been in a TV ad )  and Carnaval.

Always was a really nice album with Nellee Hooper producing the superb Manifesto and No Creo Mas. Bangsy's tracks were a bit more 'Jazz Brasil' in style with guest appearances from Mick Talbot on piano and Moog Prodigy, Nigel Price on guitars, Gary Spacey - Foote on flute and Stephen Jefferies on Fender Rhodes.

The album never got put out by Columbia but did well in Japan , well worth checking out!!

The Summer 2001 Top 5 Club hit " Warm Weather ", a Mark Doyle remix of the original version on Chris Bangs' album " Taking Care Of Business " spawned a video filmed in Formentera and Ibiza in August of that year.

Vocalist Rita Campbell features heavily , swimming in the pool at the Villa Complex Chris Bangs and the crew were staying at, on the late sunset ferry back to Ibiza Town and on the beach in front of and inside the wonderful but slightly off the beaten track Blue Bar on Formentera.

Check the video clip.