"Stakker Humanoid" | ||||
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Single by Humanoid | ||||
from the album Global | ||||
B-side | '"Stakker Humanoid (The Omen Mix)"' | |||
Released | 1988, 1992, 2001, 2007 | |||
Recorded | Dance Studios, Ealing London | |||
Genre | Acid house | |||
Label | Westside Records Rephlex | |||
Songwriter(s) | Brian Dougans | |||
Producer(s) | Brian Dougans John Laker | |||
Humanoid singles chronology | ||||
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"Stakker Humanoid" is a 1988 track by Humanoid (Brian Dougans, John Laker) released in 1988 on the London-based label Westside Records. It is described by The Guardian as "the first truly credible UK acid techno record to break into the mainstream." [1]
The project behind the track started out with Stakker, a collaborative project by the video artists Mark McLean and Colin Scott. They needed music to support their video and contacted Brian Dougans. They sent a demo video tape containing graphics and some music to Morgan Khan who (although he didn't appreciate the video) invited Brian Dougans to record two demos at his Dance Studios in Ealing London. The sample "Humanoid", taken from the video game Berzerk , provided the name of the track.
The track was originally called "Humanoid" to be put out by Stakker through Morgan Khan's label Westside Records, though Morgan released it as "Stakker Humanoid" by 'Humanoid' to avoid copyright[ clarification needed ] issues. As Dougans has acknowledged in interviews, John Laker helped co-produce and engineer the song but did not write it, since the session was based on Dougans' initial tapes and explorations for what would become the soundtrack basis to Stakker's influential Eurotechno film.
Because of a difference in direction between Brian Dougans and Colin Scott / Mark McLean, before the record was in the shops -- in terms of Stakker's aspirations as a video-first project versus an outfit with a strong audio and music component as part of its ongoing core team -- Stakker and Brian Dougans split, ending their partnership, which had lasted just over a year. However, McLean and Dougans would continue working together on several Future Sound of London projects. [2] [3] [4]
The track was a hit not just at influential clubs like Shoom in London, but was championed by mainstream stalwarts like radio DJ Bruno Brookes and producer Pete Waterman. It went on to reach number 17 on the UK charts in November 1988, leading to Dougans' appearance on Top of the Pops on 1 December 1988. [1] In 2011, Noel Gallagher said of the track:
"What a fucking tune 'Stakker Humanoid' is! I didn't realise it was them (Future Sound of London) until we were about halfway through recording. Someone mentioned that track halfway through recording [his collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous] and I was like, 'You're fucking joking … shut up … get the fuck out of here!' I had to stop and give them a hug. I used to love that tune!" [1]
The soundtrack for the 1989 release Eurotechno (originally written by Dougans) was remixed and overdubbed with new sections added by Colin Scott and Simon Monday in the digital studio that Scott and McLean had set up in the Goldcrest building in Great Pultney Street in Soho. This soundtrack is on the Eurotechno video and on the CD later released by Rephlex Records.
More remixes appeared on the 2007 album Your Body Sub-Atomic by Humanoid.
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1988 | "Stakker Humanoid" | UK Singles Chart | #17 |
1988 | "Stakker Humanoid" | UK Dance Chart | #1 |
1992 | "Stakker Humanoid '92" | UK Singles Chart | #40 |
2001 | "Stakker Humanoid 2001" | UK Singles Chart | #65 |
The Future Sound of London is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. They have been described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act, covering techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
The Hitman and Her is a British television dance music programme hosted by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan. The programme was produced for Granada Television and ran from September 1988 until December 1992 on ITV's Night Network.
Accelerator is the debut studio album by British electronic group the Future Sound of London. It was released in April 1992 by the record label Jumpin' & Pumpin'. It includes the hit single "Papua New Guinea".
"Papua New Guinea" is a 1991 song by the electronic music group Future Sound of London. It was the group's debut single and later appeared on their full-length album Accelerator. The single reached #22 on the UK singles chart.
Brian Robert Dougans is a Scottish musician and composer who is a member of the British electronic duo the Future Sound of London (FSOL).
Garry John Cobain is an English electronic musician and composer who forms one half of the Future Sound of London.
"Q" is a single released in 1990/1991 by Mental Cube. It is a widely respected dance classic among DJs and has a distinctive bleeping, electronica feel reminiscent of work by Orbital.
Graham Vernon Massey is a British record producer, musician, and remixer.
Global is the debut album by Humanoid. Unlike FSOL's ambient, breakbeat and trip hop styles, it is composed largely of US style vocal house, including Ben Ofoedu, most famous for his work with duo Phats & Small in the 1990s. Also contained is the breakthrough acid house single, "Stakker Humanoid", and industrial track "Sunshine & Brick", featuring FSOL's Gaz Cobain on vocals.
Eurotechno refers to the musical soundtrack by English group Stakker for their 1989 experimental short film of the same name. The original film was an avant-garde experiment and features rapidly shifting colourful computer graphics, reflecting the influence of rave culture. Although the visuals of the film were primarily the work of Stakker members Marek Pytel, Mark McClean and Colin Scott, the musical soundtrack was largely the work of Brian Dougans, later of The Future Sound of London. The 25-minute soundtrack was recorded using a Roland TB-303, and reflects the fast-shifting momentum of the film by incorporating fragmented elements of acid house, Chicago house and Detroit techno that shift after their brief appearances, thus contributing to an intricately layered style.
Sessions 84–88 is a compilation album released in 2003 alongside Eurotechno on the Rephlex label. Brian Dougans, under the alias Humanoid; it is mostly experimental in nature and similar to the Stakker Humanoid release from Dougans also; Sessions also includes a remix of that track.
"Slam" was the second single released by Brian Dougans under his moniker "Humanoid", in 1989, and featured on the Global album. The track itself was the only other acid house single of the era, after Stakker Humanoid, with the following singles released from the album being more vocal led. The track itself features female and male vocals, the former sung and the latter in the form of an MC, distancing itself from the previous single. The single was released over three formats – CD, 7" and 12" – although the track list remained similar on each. The album version appeared as the Club Mix, while the Hip House mix featured more vocals, and Bass Invaders is largely a more instrumental version of the track.
So This Is Love by Mental Cube is a soulful house track produced by FSOL. Recorded in 1991, it was also featured on the Earthbeat compilation album of the following year.
You Took My Love by Candese is a 1991 house track produced by FSOL. Candese sings very spiritedly over a funky acid house beat.
Pulse 2 EP is an EP released by The Future Sound of London partly under the alias' Indo Tribe, Smart Systems and FSOL. The FSOL tracks "Stolen Documents" and "In 8" would later be put on the Accelerator album with "In 8" becoming "1 in 8".
Environments II is the second release in The Future Sound of London's Environments series. It was released on 29 August 2008, and a CD version of the album was released on 5 January 2009.
"Warrior's Dance" is the 20th single released by the British electronic band the Prodigy on 11 May 2009, and it is the second commercial single from the album Invaders Must Die after "Omen" and the free promotional single "Invaders Must Die".
Darshan (The Road to Graceland) is the second of three collaborative productions of David Sylvian and Robert Fripp. It is a remix album; the first two tracks are remixes of the original song "Darshan" from their first album The First Day. The original version, written by David Sylvian, Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn and David Bottrill, is reissued here as final track. The first track is a remix by the Grid, and the second track—called "Darshana"—is a “reconstruction” by The Future Sound of London. It was released on 6 December 1993 as EP and CD Single on Virgin Records (SYLCD1 and VJCP 20013 in Japan).
Environments 3 is the third in The Future Sound of London's "Environments" series of albums, released on 7 June 2010. Unlike previous FSOLDigital releases, the album was not made available as a download several months before the CD release. Because of this, the record was heard several weeks in advance due to early shipping from the website Juno. The record sleeve announced a fourth album in the series.
This is the discography page for ambient electronic group the Future Sound of London. All works released as the Future Sound of London unless otherwise noted.