Public Enemy- Greatest band ever!
- Thread starter Woebot
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nomos
Administrator
do you want to stand by that phrasing?
nomos
Administrator
just having a go
it seems that terminator x has transmogrified into a piece of GNU software http://terminatorx.org/ "that allows you to 'scratch' on digitally sampled audio data the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records." i'll bet that never gets old!
i speak with my hands too, btw.
it seems that terminator x has transmogrified into a piece of GNU software http://terminatorx.org/ "that allows you to 'scratch' on digitally sampled audio data the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records." i'll bet that never gets old!
i speak with my hands too, btw.
john eden
male pale and stale
OUT TO ALL SIGN LANGUAGE MUTE KRU!!!
Yes, NME had them on the cover around '88/'89/Nation Of Millions era with the headline "Best Band In The World", iirc. I thought that was what Matt was referencing in his thread title? I vaguely remember the NME feature as a list of Rock attributes that PE had to convince the white suburban youth (e.g. noise? [check]; politics? [check]; great live gigs? [check]; guitars? [check] etc. though I don't remember it clearly) - and it seemed to work.
But for all that Nation of Millions is up there with the best of the best, were they really a great band? That and Terrordome were great, but it went rapidly downhill from there. I don't recall them getting into Matt's top 100 either!
And PE had a huge influence on indie/rock as well as rave etc. around that time - Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones, EMF and all those people had samples, breakbeats etc as a direct consequence. They were a big influence on My Bloody Valentine's quantum leap on Isn't Anything (even sampling a PE drum loop sample on the limited 7" single). Chuck D guested on a Sonic Youth LP (a wasted opportunity as it happened). Sisters Of Mercy toured with them in the US in the 90's , wierdly.
Not to mention a hundred samples of "Yo, I like that for the people up top - check this out" off Nation Of Millions in rave and jungle tunes. I think they might have been a kind of subliminal but crucial element in the change from acieed/house to breakbeat-rave-ardcore-jungle. The sirens, noise, sped-up Funky Drummer loops - just add a tinny Italo piano riff and synth bass for instant rave hits!
yeah i dont doubt for a second that PE were important to rave/hardcore/jungle etc, thats not hard to map out. and i know PE used to be on the cover of the NME etc (i remember seeing chuck d and ice cube on one cover together when i was at school) which is why it is quite odd they dont feature in many greatest bands ever lists in mojo and those mags. i suppose its just a transitory thing. at the time, they somehow seemed avant garde and excitng enough to warrant inclusion and championing but over time the novelty (?) or newness has diminished their appeal. PE dont exactly sound 'timeless' like classic rock after all...
Noah Baby Food
Well-known member
Yeah, I'm having that. PE were an influence on that turn-of-the-90s UK hip hop 'wall of noise' sorta thing, Gunshot, Hardnoise etc...this stuff did get played at raves. Cash Crew "Amo" was played quite a lot in them days...so I'd say PE deffo influenced hardcore in terms of sound....
...and remember "Total Confusion" by A Homeboy, A Hippie and A Funky Dred? tuuuuuuune!
It probably boils down to the initial impact vs. the fact they only ended up making two records anybody really cared about. I know the Pixies only made three full-lengths that were any good (but they can get by because magazines love the story of them inspiring 'Smells like Teen Spirit' far more than any about Public Enemy's influence on jungle) but compared to the discogs of most other revered rock bands of the past, two albums isn't a lot.
werent underground resistance sort of pitched as being like a PE of techno?
i dont buy this 'only two good albums' thing. first album was and still is top flight late 80s hip hop and is really overlooked because of what followed. second album was a 1000 times more expansive and came with a new polemic and militancy, 3rd album was a bit bloated but still packed with brilliance, 4th was slightly less interesting musically due to the end of the bomb squad but they still had a lot of things to say. it was only with muse sick n our message that it all went deeply wrong. ironically, that was the album where they really tried to pander more to their rock fans.
i dont buy this 'only two good albums' thing. first album was and still is top flight late 80s hip hop and is really overlooked because of what followed. second album was a 1000 times more expansive and came with a new polemic and militancy, 3rd album was a bit bloated but still packed with brilliance, 4th was slightly less interesting musically due to the end of the bomb squad but they still had a lot of things to say. it was only with muse sick n our message that it all went deeply wrong. ironically, that was the album where they really tried to pander more to their rock fans.
You've got the wrong end of the stick gumdrops; I like those albums too. It's just Nation and Planet are the only ones that I'd say are generally considered classics. I can't really see Mojo, to use Woebot's example, running a piece on Apocalypse 91 or whatever.
I've only really heard It Takes A Nation Of Millions. A friend of mine and myself put together the first of issue of a fanzine while listening to it. Excellent motivation music for that sort of thing.
Agree about the influence on hardcore. Listening to PE really reminds me of the early 90's. The whole album obviously was mined heavily for samples by Hardcore/Jungle producers.
Agree about the influence on hardcore. Listening to PE really reminds me of the early 90's. The whole album obviously was mined heavily for samples by Hardcore/Jungle producers.
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