Coldcut – What’s That Noise? (1989) – LITTLE LOST CLASSICS

As with M/A/R/R/S, Bomb The Bass and some others, it is difficult to measure the importance of Coldcut for contemporary electronic (dance) music. Matt Black and Jonathan Moore, the names behind the project, started out as radio DJs – which gave them an absurd musical background – and then delved into the fields of remixes and production, always linked to the possibilities that technology provides in these areas. .

They gained real notoriety in 1987, when they remixed “Paid in full”, by Erik B. & Rakim and subsequently gave the world “Hey kids what time is it?”, officially inaugurating – as far as I know – sampladelismo, the art of create music using chunks of other people’s songs, a path later followed by countless artists (think of Paul’s boutiquedos Beasties e Since I left youdo Avalanchesfor example) until other artists – those sampled, in this case – felt injured and the house collapsed.

In 1989 they released their first full album, What’s that noise?, with the same footprint they had shown two years earlier. Mixing countless samples, knowledge and refined techniques such as producing musicians, house, hip hop, breaks, etc. and counting on an enviable list of guests (from Junior Reid, from Black Uhuru to Mark E. Smith, from Fall) surprised everyone once again, throwing open the gates of so-called ‘DJ music’ (rockers cry hahaha).

Well, as the duo saw their creativity shorn by record companies and wanted total freedom to ‘build’ their music, after the release of What’s that noise? founded their own label, the great Ninja Tune, thus inaugurating another chapter in the contemporary history of good sounds. But that chapter will be for another day, perhaps on a PCP radio episode, because today the thing is to turn up the volume and listen to Coldcut’s debut.

Safe trip!