"School of the World" / "Single Minded People" Released: November 1990
"Waking Up" Released: March 1991
"O Si Nene" Released: 1991
"Wicked Mathematics" Released: 1992
Now Is Early is the debut studio album by Scottish singer Nicolette, produced by English electronic duo Shut Up and Dance and released in April 1992 by the duo's label of the same name. It follows a string of popular underground singles in the early 1990s that applied the singer's jazz-styled vocals to Shut Up and Dance's early experiments in breakbeat hardcore, with songs from these singles featuring on the record. Stylistically, the record profiles Shut Up and Dance's spacious, breakbeat-driven sound, contrasted with Nicolette's smooth scat-style singing. For the album, the singer wrote torch songs in a stream of consciousness style and explored universal themes.
An unusually melodic, intimate release for the hard-edged Shut Up and Dance label, Now Is Early drew attention from music critics for its unique sound, but was deemed too unusual for mainstream appeal. Regarded as an early example of a vocal rave album, it has since been regarded by some critics as a "lost" classic and forerunner to jungle music. It was re-released in 1997 by Studio !K7, containing other material from the period as bonus tracks.
Background and production
Born in Scotland, Nicolette was raised on a variety of musical styles by her parents.[1][2] As an adult, she spent two years in Paris, France, giving her what she described as a "fresh perspective on ballads and mood music", before a move to Wales saw her join her first band, Calliope.[3][4][5] Later moving to London, she searched for a record deal and discovered a newspaper advert from electronic duo Shut Up and Dance, consisting of members PJ and Smiley, who were looking for a singer. She auditioned and improvised her jazz-styled vocals over the duo's dance instrumentals; they then signed her to their eponymous label Shut Up and Dance, launched in 1989.[2] Nicolette reflected that she was initially unsure what the duo "were about," but enjoyed their productions without being able to "pinpoint exactly what it was," explaining: "I was looking for some hard-edged production to balance my sound and in the end the two things – their beats and my melodies – have worked closely together. But not too close."[1]
Her debut single, a double A-side of "School of the World" and "Single Minded People", was released in November 1990,[2][3] becoming one of the label's first two singles.[6] Writer Joe Muggs describes both songs as pivotal for showing breakbeat hardcore being "born out of house, hip hop and techno", but noted that Nicolette's "velvet" jazz harmonies provided an unlikely contrast.[2] Nicolette said that she added her vocals to the backing tracks after months of indecision as to what would fit, and that after the single's release, the duo kept sending her tracks which she wrote lyrics for "in a very casual way".[2] Released in March 1991, her second single "Waking Up" defined the singer's sound most clearly, according to Kodwo Eshun, due to its distinctive "syntactic swerve, instant hooks and sparse backdrop".[3] According to Peter Shapiro, "Single Minded People" and "Waking Up" became "rave standards" and were among the earliest tracks to contain hardcore's "trademark speeded-up breaks."[7]
Having built up underground momentum with her "left-field club cuts", including with the further single "Wicked Mathematics" (1992),[1] Nicolette said that the idea to release an album came naturally to PJ and Smiley and herself. She later explained: "I just thought of myself as a musician doing my own thing, that happened to be within those circumstances. I knew that I wasn't just going to keep [releasing singles] because that's not what being a musician is about as far as I'm concerned. Making an album was the most logical thing."[2]Now Is Early includes songs from all four of Nicolette's previous singles,[3] encapsulating her progression one disc,[2] and was written by Nicolette with Shut Up and Dance, while the latter handled production and arrangement.[8] According to Eshun, the album's low budget and independent label status afforded Nicolette "room to experiment".[3]
Now Is Early places Nicolette's unique, soulful voice atop Shut Up & Dance's hardcore production.[9] According to Nicolette at the time of release, the album incorporates "every type of music I've ever listened to," including the music her father raised her on, such as classical music, gospel, African music and Broadway musicals. She nonetheless said that she saw herself as "a dance act, among many things."[1] The production is breakbeat-driven;[10] some songs feature broken beats, such as "Dove Song", while others feature minimal beats, including "No Government".[11] By contrast, Nicolette's voice is smooth and gentle, with a scat style compared by music critics to Bessie Smith and "Billie Holiday on acid".[1][11] Nicolette said of her sound: "Calling it jazz is too obvious. Something about the way I phrase and repeat lyrics, maybe. But I was a hip hop fan before I got into rave which is what I listen to now. I like both musics for their energy and their emotion. I relate to the beats PJ and Smiley use. We work real patterns."[3]
According to critic Martin Pearson, the record owes as much to the singer's jazz vocals as it does to the hardcore production, adding that it "veers between dancefloor destruction and sparkling acappella ambience."[1] According to Eshun, the sharp contrast between the elements in Nicolette's sound were unique for the resultant "distinct lack of dancefloor fusion", with music clattering ahead of the languid vocals.[3] "I like to use a lot of space in my music", Nicolette explained. "It makes people listen and I can tell a story through a mood which leaves you open to hear what you want to hear. I prefer songs which set up an atmosphere rather than songs which tell you about your emotions, like, you've got to be free or peaceful or whatever."[3] Muggs adds that although the singer's tracks were typically tough for the Shut Up and Dance catalogue, her contrasting voice illustrated "how deep the smooth soul-jazz streams in soundsystem culture ran, and how these streams were not antithetical to the rougher, darker sounds around them, but part of the same cultural machine".[2]
The album consists of self-penned torch songs,[1][10][12] described by writer Simon Reynolds as "bittersweet" in style.[10] Nicolette's lyrics incorporate a stream-of-consciousness approach,[11] while some of the record's songs engage in political commentary.[13] She rejected autobiographical interpretations of the material, instead considering the album to be what Eshun described as "an exploration of universal situations".[3] Muggs writes that although the album's music had no precedent, Nicolette's "deep jazz undertow", mischief and lyrical philosophy are "absolutely infused" into the British breakbeat rave sound it exemplifies.[2] "Single Minded People" features samples from George Kranz's song "Din Daa Daa",[7] while according to Eshun, the contemporary single "Wicked Mathematics" featured Nicolette's most dramatic "heightened use of space" up to that point, adding: "It seems to breathe between the friction of music and vocals."[3]
Now Is Early was released in the United Kingdom on 27 April 1992 by Shut Up and Dance Records,[3] and was commercially unsuccessful.[14] Some critics thought the record was unusually intimate or melodic for the hard-edged label.[1][3] Shut Up and Dance also released Now Is Early in Germany in conjunction with Rough Trade Records,[15] while PJ and Smiley sent ambient techno producer Carl Craig copies of the album and their own record, Dance Before the Police Come! (1991).[16] According to Muggs, Now Is Early was potentially the first "vocalist album" in rave music, beyond the precedent of Rebel MC and his reliance on guest vocalists for Rebel Music (1990).[2] The release coincided with a Shut Up and Dance showcase where Nicolette performed with an all-female band, working through jazzy acoustic material to rave music.[3]
On release, Now Is Early received some attention in the British music press. In an article for Select, Martin Pearson wrote that although the singer would be suited for dreamy, acoustic guitar-based folk music, her decision to pair with Shut Up and Dance's minimalist, "headbone-kicking beats" resulted in an unusually successful combination, and described the album as possessing a "determinedly different sound."[1] An unspecified writer for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle was more reserved, feeling the jazzy, Porgy and Bess-esque singing and energetic music made for a disappointing combination.[17] Nicolette said upon critics singling out her distinctive style: "No matter how different people think I sound, it wouldn't have occurred to me unless they told me so. To me, everyone sounds unique."[1] In their year-end lists of 1992's best albums, Spex ranked Now Is Early third,[citation needed] while OOR ranked it 11th.[18]
Besides lending her vocals to various collaborations, including on Massive Attack's Protection (1994), Nicolette rarely recorded in the ensuing four years after the release of Now Is Early, only resuming her discography in 1996 after singing to Talkin' Loud.[13] In 1997, Berlin-based !K7 Records released a digitally remastered version of Now Is Early with the bonus tracks "School of the World" and "Udi Egwu", both of which appeared on Nicolette's early single releases.[19] That same year, Nicolette contributed DJ-Kicks: Nicolette to Studio !K7's DJ-Kicks mix album series.[13] According to Muggs, the reissue of Now Is Early was in acknowledgment of the album's status as a "Bohemian gem [...] both timeless and utterly of its time".[2] In a positive retrospective review, John Bush of AllMusic described Now Is Early as charting "an intriguing course between her soulful, house-influenced vocal work and the more hardcore production sound."[9]
Legacy
"[Nicolette] cites the drum 'n' bass movement as one of the most exciting underground musical developments this country has seen in years, a sentiment backed by her first album, the aptly-titled Now Is Early which mashed her angelic voice over hectic beats at a time when the word jungle didn't even exist."
Now Is Early has gone on to be considered an early example of jungle music, released before the genre had been given a name,[11][20] and some critics have described it as an unjustly overlooked work.[12][21] Reynolds credits the album for predicting the jazz-tinged directions explored by jungle music in 1995–96, finding this exemplary of Shut Up & Dance's large legacy and citing it among several releases on the label which "anticipated crucial stands of the jungalistic sound system," alongside Rum & Black's "Bogey Man" (1991) and the singles of The Ragga Twins.[10] Eshun described Now Is Early as "a forgotten classic" and included "Waking Up Remix" on the compilation album Routes from the Jungle (1995), which features hardcore techno and jungle music "from the roots to the future".[16][22]
Vibe wrote that Now Is Early "proved too odd for mainstream appeal" on its release in 1992, but added that "given the eventual success of similarly idiosyncratic vocalists like Björk", the album was perhaps "simply ahead of its time."[14] According to Muggs, Now Is Early joined Carlton's The Call Is Strong (1991) in establishing a blueprint for albums by singer-songwriters that harnessed "the creativity of the rave", resulting in an individual identity in rave's "very British, very grass-roots format."[2] In an article for Fact, he praised both albums for their "individualist urban rave blues".[23] In The Rough Guide to Rock, Al Spicer called Now Is Early Nicolette's "lost treasure of an album" and "a collection of torch songs to tear your heart out,"[12] while John Bush of AllMusic reflected that the album showed Nicolette "to be an uncommonly mature talent who wrote her own songs and featured a warm, crystalline voice."[13] Michael Lawson of The Guardian describes Now Is Early as a "majestic, jazz-infused" album that exemplifies PJ and Smiley's continued creation of "innovative music" after their work with the Ragga Twins.[24]
In 1995, OOR ranked the album at number 59 in their list of "The 100 Best Albums of 1991–1995",[citation needed] while in 1999, Spex ranked the album at number 57 in their list of "The 100 Albums of the Century".[25] In 2000, German magazine Zundfunk ranked the album at number 18 in their list of "The Best Albums of the 90s".[citation needed] In 2006, Exclaim! listed the album on their list of "100 Records That Rocked 100 Issues of Exclaim!". The magazine called it exuberant, "quintessentially British" album, highlighting Nicolette's flowing, entrancing voice, and concluding that the album is "[a] must have for drum & bass fans."[11] In 2013, Groove ranked the album at number 40 in their list of "The 100 Best Electronic Albums".[citation needed] In 2006, author Christophe Brault named it the fifteenth best album of 1992.[26] Kirsty Yates of Brighton-based duo Insides listened to Now Is Early during the recording of their album Euphoria (1993).[27]
Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the 1990s.
Clifford Joseph Price MBE, better known as Goldie, is an English music producer and DJ.
Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.
Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop music, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s.
Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s.
Hardcore is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick, the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass, the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes, the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.
4hero are an electronic music group from Dollis Hill, London, comprising producers Mark "Marc Mac" Clair & Denis "Dego" McFarlane. While the band is often cited as 4 Hero or 4-Hero, the name is stylised as 4hero on their albums and website. 4hero are known for being pioneers of breakbeat hardcore, jungle/drum and bass, broken beat and nu jazz music.
Techstep is a dark subgenre of drum and bass that was created in the mid-1990s.
Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and North England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form, it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.
Darkcore is a music subgenre of breakbeat hardcore in the UK rave scene, that emerged from late 1992. It is recognised as being one of the direct precursors of the genre now known as drum and bass.
Shut Up and Dance are an English duo that fused hip hop, house and hardcore. They are acknowledged as one of the pioneers of breakbeat hardcore and jungle music.
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient times, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.
Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.
Rave 92 is a DJ mixed compilation album compiled by Mark Arthurworrey and released on Cookie Jar Records, containing popular rave singles that had become popular in the United Kingdom in 1992. The compilation, the fifth and final rave compilation compiled by Arthurworrey and released on the label, aims to collect some of the year's biggest rave hits, although, as has been pointed out, Rave 92 also intends to "bridge across the gap between chart rave and the more obscure hardcore tracks." Released in November 1992, Rave 92 was well-received and a commercial success, reaching number 3 on the UK Compilation Chart. Several latter-day electronic producers, including Phaeleh, have cited hearing Rave 92 for the first time as the point they became interested in electronic music.
Happy 2b Hardcore is a DJ mix album by Canadian DJ Anabolic Frolic. It was released in 1997 on American breakbeat label Moonshine Music and is the first series in Frolic's Happy 2b Hardcore series of DJ mix albums, documenting the emergence of happy hardcore music in the United Kingdom and Europe. The series itself is a spin-off of Moonshine's Speed Limit 140 BPM+ series of fast-tempo dance music compilations. The album was conceived to introduce American audiences to happy hardcore, and contains sixteen of the genre's anthems which carry many of happy hardcore's defining characteristics, such as fast tempo, frantic breakbeats, major key tonality, off-kilter, quirky keyboard effects and "semi-melodies."
Reggae Owes Me Money is the debut album by British duo The Ragga Twins, produced by hardcore duo Shut Up and Dance and released on the latter's record label of the same name. After establishing themselves as dancehall artists from the Unity soundsystem in the 1980s, the Ragga Twins switched direction in the early 1990s, combining into a duo after signing to Shut Up & Dance's label. The production duo stirred the Ragga Twins' change in direction, fusing their previous reggae and dancehall style into the Shut Up & Dance rave dance style.
The Call Is Strong is the only album by Bristolian soul singer Carlton, released by FFRR Records in January 1991. Produced by Smith & Mighty, the album explores a relaxed style of soul and dance music flavoured by reggae, hip hop and house, featuring prominent electronic beats and sine bass, while Carlton sings love songs in falsetto. Recording sessions in London were fractious due to creative disagreements between Smith & Mighty and the label.
Belgian hardcore techno is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been described as an "apocalyptic, almost Wagnerian, bombastic techno", due to its use of dramatic orchestral stabs and menacing synth tones that set it apart from earlier forms of electronic dance music. It flourished in Belgium and influenced the sound of early hardcore from Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK and North America during the early-1990s, as a part of the rave movement during that period.
↑ Now Is Early (liner). Nicolette. Shut Up and Dance/Rough Trade Records. 1992.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
↑ Reynolds, Simon (1995). "Album reviews". Melody Maker. Lost classics like Lennie D Ice's "We Are E", which cheekily turned an African chant into an anthem for the Luv'd Up Nation. And like the sultry smooch-core of "Waking Up" by Nicolette (now of Massive, then of the Shut Up and Dance stable), and of Manix's unbearably tender "You Held My Hand"
↑ Brault, Christophe (1 January 2006). Le guide des albums de 1964 à 2004: Une discographie sélective pop, rock, électro, rap, tec... MSAI. ISBN2952557306.
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