Man Parrish

Hehe, spot on about the Cha-os riff!
I pulled the album out for a quick run thru, i forgot how much i liked "Techno Trax" too.

Good times !

Quote from Cozmo D;21057

I would just like to add that the only trax in the poll that I am familiar with are "Hip Hop Be Bop", which was HUGE and unavoidable, and "Boogie Down Bronx", which I had never even heard of until I first went to England in 2005.

wow really? that's so weird!

It was a hard choice for me between the two - I think it depends on the mood I'm in. But I voted Hip Hop Be Bop Don't Stop. It's beautiful

I heard a mix by Man Parrish on an internet radio station about 8 years ago - live on a web cam. I hope I can find it somewhere. I just can't remember what the station was called.... It was a cool mix!

Boogie Donw Bronx for me

Quote

I would just like to add that the only trax in the poll that I am familiar with are "Hip Hop Be Bop", which was HUGE and unavoidable, and "Boogie Down Bronx", which I had never even heard of until I first went to England in 2005

Quote from evolvah;21067

Really!? mind you when I spoke to Mike Allen he said we had a better idea of what was going on over here than they did in the USA, which always used to surprise him back in the day

Yeah, that is definitely something I picked up on when I was on oldschoolhiphop.com. There are so many tracks that we know and love over here that passed NY by . Even though the music was by New York artists on New York labels.

Bizarre. I put it down to the very conservative playlists of the mainstream radio jocks of the day (Mr Magic and Red Alert). whereas as over here we had the likes of Mike Allen who would play anything!

Yeah but Boogie Down Bronx has been discussed a lot on OSHH and everyone on there knows it and rates it as a staple classic, a NY anthem, from what is said on OSHH Boogie Down was on heavy rotation back in the day?

Quote from evolvah;21067

Really!? mind you when I spoke to Mike Allen he said we had a better idea of what was going on over here than they did in the USA, which always used to surprise him back in the day

Quote from Tele;21080

wow really? that's so weird!

I don't think they ever played in NY and I wasn't checking for Man Parrish. Though "Hip Hop Be Bop" was a dope track it felt to me like an outsider was trying to exploit the culture which turned me off to him.

Quote from bhose;21110

Yeah but Boogie Down Bronx has been discussed a lot on OSHH and everyone on there knows it and rates it as a staple classic, a NY anthem, from what is said on OSHH Boogie Down was on heavy rotation back in the day?

Anybody who says that it was a NY anthem is lying because I would have heard it. Unless they were playing it on the Pop stations which is a possibility I guess. It definitely wasn't on heavy rotation on Kiss, KTU or BLS. I don't doubt that it was a hit elsewhere in the states but I was touring at the time and it completely escaped me. But again, it was Man Parrish so it could have been Pop and missed the black stations altogether.

BTW, neither "Computer Age" or "Egypt Egypt" got played in NY.

OH, and I voted for "Hip Hop Be Bop" because I think that "Boogie Down Bronx" is a bite of "Jam On It"!

Quote from Cozmo D;21133

OH, and I voted for "Hip Hop Be Bop" because I think that "Boogie Down Bronx" is a bite of "Jam On It"!

or rather, both are bites of "situation".

p.s. voted for boogie down bronx ... one of my all time favorite tunes. that haunting bass intro and then when the vocals set in "cool johnski from the freeze force crew ..." still gives me the shivers.

Quote from lj;21147

or rather, both are bites of "situation".

Shhhhhh....

Quote from doctorcrack;21062

great artist!
there was a man parrish interview on EE v.1 back in 2000 or so.....i remember i have copied the text to ms word and i printed that interview. and still have it

When you get a chance PM me that interveiw I wasent around for version 1 of EE.
PS. unless you got to type it out , sounds like you deleted the file.

I heard Boogie Down first before I ever knew what electro was but still had to vote Hip-Hop, Be Bop. Also like Six Simple Synthesizers. The only one on the list I wouldn’t pick is Hey There, Home Boys. I like the beat but the lyrics kind of ruin it for me...

Man Made! Man Made! Man Made! Man Made! ...who in the right mind don't know that track It rocks!! \,,/ \,,/

Quote from skeme;21237

I heard Boogie Down first before I ever knew what electro was but still had to vote Hip-Hop, Be Bop. Also like Six Simple Synthesizers. The only one on the list I wouldn’t pick is Hey There, Home Boys. I like the beat but the lyrics kind of ruin it for me...

The sing-song chorus fux it for me but apart from that a strong track.

with no doubts "Boogie Down Bronx" for the Hip Hop / Electro closely followed by Man Made and Heatstroke for the Disco genre...but i must say the whole album(s) are great!

Boogie Down Bronx is on my 10 best electro songs ever. Like someone else wrote its timeless. The rap the sound,evrything. Donno how the created that sound.I havet on 12". One of my favorits vinyl.

Quote from skeme;22556

When you get a chance PM me that interveiw I wasent around for version 1 of EE.
PS. unless you got to type it out , sounds like you deleted the file.

from EE.v1

Autor: Darren Keast Year: 2000

What's fascinating about the current electro revival is that to a lot of kids it sounds new, yet it actually predates every other style of electronic music they've been listening to.

Sure. 1982-83... somewhere in there, that's where everything--as far as I recollect--started. It came out of rap, stuff like Sugar Hill, "Rapper's Delight." Kraftwerk was the beginning of it as far as I'm concerned. People were listening to electronic stuff, but nothing really had a groove or a beat before Kraftwerk started. When Autobahn came out, it was totally mind-blowing. I remember sitting in a taxi-cab smoking a joint with the window open, I passed it to the driver, and when we got in front of my apartment--and I'm talking like 70-something--Kraftwerk came on. He turned the meter off and we just sat there and said, "Whoa, what's that?"

The way the history books have it, hip-hop wasn't using drum machines until "Planet Rock" came along, they were the first to use the 808, and from there everything changed.

Basically there were two teams of guys doing this music: Arthur Baker and John Robie, and myself and Raul Rodriguez. We were kind of side-by-side teams--often in the same studio--punching out a bunch of records. In fact, it got a little bit competitive--their record "Looking for a Perfect Beat" was kind of a dis on us, because if you notice, there's all these dog barks (similar to the ones on "Hip Hop Bee Bop"). They were saying, "They're looking for a perfect beat (meaning us), but you're not gonna find it because we have it!"

Oh, so was "Boogie Down Bronx" an answer back, because the MC says, "You got the perfect beat I heard you say."

It wasn't directly an answer track, but John (the MC) was aware of what was going on. There was a little bit of rivalry because Arthur and John Robie were studio musicians and I was a performer musician. I was out there with dry ice machines, the stage filled with smoke, glitter costumes, and make-up! It was glam hip-hop, which was non-existent. Everything else was break dancing and backward baseball caps. I would come out on stage in a flowing hood and a bunch of freaks on either side of me. Stuffed up the back of the cape was a dry ice machine and smoke would come pouring out of the face part. Then this scarecrow monster would run over and take the hood and six either kids or midgets would walk into the crowd with lanterns. It'd be at some black hip-hop club in the Bronx (laughes). I would get 2000 dollars for a 20 minute show and I would spend 2200 dollars putting the show together. So I got more attention as a performer than they did.

It sounds like you were doing rave stuff before it was anything. I mean, there was disco, but the 808 with all the glitter, that was something else.

Well, I hung around with the Andy Warhol crowd. We grew up in the glitter, freakazoid 70's free love and drugs and that kind of stuff. So my manifestation of it in the 80's was just an extension of what I already knew. It was performance and theatre art and music combined into one.

Musically, there wasn't much to look back on for influence in those days.

Yeah, it was pretty new. It was weird because I had a Lindrum machine, which had a real drum sound, but I kind of experimented with the 808 and people were really excited about it. To me, it was nothing big: you press some buttons, the lights flash, and you get some patterns. But it became the de facto standard for techno, acid, and trance--that and later the 909.

"Planet Rock" had vocals--so was "Hip Hop Bee Bop" one of the first hip-hop-ish, electronic-ish tracks to go without vocals?

Absolutely. I was doing ambient experimental music before--I was into Brian Eno. There was a place called the Mud Club where he'd hold court and we'd go and listen to him speak in awe. So music had to be art. That's how I approached it--I was more interested in doing art music than pop music. When "Hip Hop" came out, people wanted me to perform it, but I hated it, it wasn't a real song. There was no structure to it. It wasn't real music, it was a piece of audio art. How could people be interested in that?

Man Parrish Electro Top 5

1. PLANET ROCK
SOUL SONIC FORCE
TOMMY BOY
I was in the studio when they were recording it. We all recorded in the same studio [Vanguard in NYC] Soul Sonic was first - then I'd record - then after my session was Freeze Force with "I.O.U." I remember hearing Planet Rock and thinking that "this song is gonna be MAJOR "... It was...!!

2. I.O.U
FREEZE FORCE
TOMMY BOY
I was on of the first people in NYC to have an Emulator 1 Sampler. Since it was always in the studio, everyone used it. I remember sitting outside the control room listening to the playback of the track and hearing the "vocal sample solo" on that track. We did vocal solo's, but the playing on that was great, for that type of track...

3. PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK
PLANET PATROL
TOMMY BOY (AGAIN)
One of the first good Planet Rock rip-off tracks. They were smart and knew people would rip off Planet Rock, so they did it themselves. The vocals were styled off old Motown male group vocals, and they were GREAT!

4. SALSA SMURF
SPECIAL REQUEST
TOMMY BOY (WHO ELSE)
The group's name "Special Request" was requested by Carlos DeJesus, who was the program director of WKTU in NYC (1983). He heard my track "Man Made" (2nd cut on my first Parrish album), and he loved it. He made a special request from one of the stations mix DJ's (Jose "Animal" Diaz ) to make a Latin electro record that would capture the dark feel of "Man Made." I LOVE the record, not for the technical quality, but it was one of the few first electro records that had a dark trippy overtone. In those days, it was something completely new. People thought it was weird...I loved it !

5. ANYTHING FROM KRAFTWERK
CAPITOL / EMI RECORDS
What can I say? Kraftwerk was the inspiration for dozens of "Hip Hop" artist back then (now it's called electro or freestyle). I just happened to be one of the first to combine Kraftwerk stylings with sounds and words we experienced on the New York Street Scene. Other than Kraftwork, there were few other sources of that amazing "new" sound, so we made our own!!

another Interview from EE v.1

Autor: Electro Endlos Magazine, Year: 2000, Additional info: Submitted by Andy Bijnaar

When did you began to make music and by which styles you've been influenced ?

I started making music in 1976. I was influenced by electronic groups like Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, and especially Kraftwerk. I used to listen to experimental music like John Cage, Stockhausen, and an obscure 60's LSD ( acid ) group called "Tonto's Expanding Head Band", basically 2 guys that too Acid, and made music with the original Moog Synthesizer It was great to listen to when you were high, so I started making my own "drug" music to listen to. I later dropped the heavy drug use, but kept the music going.

How did you get the chance to publish your music ?

1983 was the first time my music was published publically in the form of a record. "Heatstroke" and "Hip hop be bop" were the first general release records. I had a few earlier (acetate) records pressed myself, and one would end up in a Juke Box at the now famous rock and roll bar in early NYC "Maxis Kansis City". It was a disco version of the sex pistols "anarchy in the UK" and had opera/rock singer Klaus Nomi singing the sex pistol lyrics in opera form to a disco beat ! It was wild ! I unfortunately no longer have a copy of that. Otherwise I would have put it on my website in MP3 format.

Which instruments did you use for example in the song Man Made ?

Man Made (Hip Hop, and most of the first album) was first recorded in my home studio, and then transfered to 24 track studio for completion. I used a Pro 1 and Prophet 5 and 2 Oberheim expander modules, with a 8 step analog (CV) sequencer. Drums were Roland 808 and sequencer patterns were written as rim shot patters in the drum machine, and analog (voltage) triggered to the step sequencer. These were the days BEFORE midi, so I became an expert at stopping and starting the drum machine on the beat while recording LIVE to 24 track tape. If you made a mistake, you would go back and start again!

I also had 2 huge moog synthesizer (analog) cabinets, an Arp 2600 (modified with 2 voice polyphonic!) Korg synthesizer (MS1?) Korg String "Lambda" and an EMS Vocorder that I bought in a music store in NYC that used to belong to Electric Light Orchestra (and used on "Mr. Blue Sky") And an Emulator 1 (first sampler ever available) Since then I have about 20 or so keyboards, ranging from my old Arp 2600 and some cool vintage synths I have collected, to my Access Virus and my Novation Supernova running on a G4 Macintosh with Cubase, Logic, Rebirth and the now defunct Vision software. I also have EVERY digital VST plug-in known to man...hehe !! All direct to disk (mac) digital, etc... I do miss those analog days !

How was the feeling and the feedback by the people these days?

It was AMAZING !! It was a totally new sound. People went crazy ! Before then only Kraftwerk was the only "electro" band, and to have someone else make unique sounds, AND put a New York "sound" to it, was a MAJOR thing in club music.

Can you give us a full release list from your titles on Importe/12 and Sugarscoop ?

Too many to remember (over 45 under different names) check my website http://www.manparrish.com for many listings.

Do you play in the disco "Roxy"?

In those days the Roxy was a roller skating hall. It was mostly Gay, and only had dancing Friday night, and Saturday night. The place where everyone went to for Freestyle / Electro was "The Fun House" where John "Jelly Bean" Benetiz and his "girlfriend" Madonna used to hang out. I performed there, and well as the famous Studio 54, where Madonna was MY opening act, and one performance, I came down from the ceiling in a black "Darth Vader" Cape to start my show. I also played at the "nu-wave" club 'Danceteria and other NYC places as well.

All the artist these days, where they one big family ?

I think the feeling was that we were all together in doing this. Most of the freestyle / electro was produced by a few people. I did MANY records under other names, and so did the 3 or 4 other producers. The "groups" were studio singers, many singing on different records, under different names. When a record became famous, we would have to find new people to go and send the records live in clubs for promotion. I think there was competition with the producers. We produced records for very little money in those days. Ususally $500.00 to $1000.00 in many cases, and were never paid from the record labels. That is why I am all for the MP3 format, and direct delivery of music from the artist, direct over the internet. At least that way, the artist or producer can get paid directly.

Where did you play your songs these days?

I am a DJ now. I spin at large parties, clubs and circuit parties worldwide. I currently have an underground party in NYC called "Sperm" at a bar called "The Cock" (red rooster outside...get it?) I play every Sunday night usuallly after midnight. I DJ trance, tekno, electro / freestyle, 80's rock and roll and whatever mood the club is in at the moment. I LOVE IT !!

Do you produce unreleased Titles these days?

I'm just starting to get back into producing music again. I took a two year break on making music. Before that I have worked with everyone from Gloria Gaynor, Boy George, Crystal Waters, Michael Jackson, and managed the Village People for a few years, and produced their live show, as well as many others. Please see my website for complete info. (http://www.manparrish.com)

How did you think about these days today ?

I LOVE those days !! It was MUCH harder making music back then. Everything was analog, NO midi, No sync, just played by hand, or manually triggered to tape. Later on I had used the Synclavier and Fairlight, but the early days were all done by hand! I sometimes try to turn off all my "new" digital gear, and use the old analog stuff...then I get fustrated when it looses sync and I just wind up sampling the old stuff and syncing it with midi. I DON'T miss the stop and start of manual sync to tape !! That was a nightmare !!