Is there anybody out there?
Just nod if you can hear me?
Guess I'll just have to suck it up and keep going.
Today I'd like to let you in on a little secret: recently, I've purchased a compact disc. That's right, a "cd". Remember those? They come in square plastic boxes and if you put them into the "cd loader" of your "stereo system", music comes out.
As a teenager, I spent pretty much all of my hard-earned dough on cd's. I remember buying the first one of what turned into a 300+ collection: it was a compilation disc out of this GB department store called 'Rap All Over', back in '95. Dunno why I picked a that cd as I wasn't really into rap music - probably because it had a Shaquille O'Neal song on it ('Biological Didn't Bother') and as a burgeoning, NBA-deprived basketball fan I was instantly magnetized by anything that had to do with American b-ball stars.
(Other acts on the 'Rap All Over' disc included Easy-E, Skee-Lo, KRS-One, Onyx, Too $hort and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - back in '95, West-Coast rap was in full swing.)
If only the MP3 format had come earlier... I'd have spent my hard-earned cash on more interesting stuff that doesn't take as much space as cd's do. Now, each time I have to move, I gotta drag two giant boxes of cd's with me. (Though the cd stacks do make for nice wall decoration.)
Anyway, suffice it to say that I embraced the MP3's from the get-go.
The Glimmers I got to know as a 21-year old student, still greener behind the ears than Cee-Lo. My buddy Jailhouse Joe invited me to this media party at the Culture Club (a trendy nightclub in Ghent), a celebration of the fifth anniversary of this men's magazine called Ché.
There was an open bar, we took pictures of us with various girls who had graced the covers of the magazines and made the dancefloor our stompin' ground on beautiful beats, provided by The Glimmers. Back then, it was the best night of my life and it still holds a very steady place in my top ten of unforgettable nights out.
It's a difficult task to describe the style of The Glimmers (a duo consisting of Ghent dj's called Mo & Benoelie, both products of the legendary Eskimo Records scene which bloomed in the early nineties and which spawned such events as I Love Techno).
I'd call it 'acid disco' - it's got elements of dancepunk, electro and house, but the music has a rock song vibe, supported by a funky disco beat. I love to go nuts on the dancefloor and I used to be a junglehead, going apes**t on drum 'n' bass, but no other dancefloor genre gets me to bust moves like acid disco does.
As The Glimmers, even after 25 years of dj'ing, are still very underground, there's hardly a way of finding their stuff on the 'net. But they do still make cd's - their music's got an old-school vibe to it and it's only fitting that you have to go to a record store and buy Glimmer beats on a compact disc.
Apparently, 'Whomp That Sucker' is their third outing after a disc which they only distributed at the gigs they did, plus a 'DJ Kicks' compilation. The title and the cover concept is taken from The Sparks' eponymous '81 release.
The title track is vintage Glimmers, but the other tracks also make for grrrreat dancefloor fodder. It's one of those records you spin just before you go out clubbing. I could dance to this all night long - and sometimes I do, when the Kitsch Club in Knokke ask Mo & Benoelie over.
Last time though, sometime in October or November, the club was half empty. However, that gave me the chance to chat to the guys. And they're really nice fellas. They could make easy money spinning and making crowdpleasers, but they stick to their own style and that earned them a lot of respect in the worldwide club scene.
On the other hand: it's sad to see how little respect Belgians have for homegrown talent. We take our heroes for granted - be it in sports, art, science, music or any other field. Guys like The Glimmers play for sold-out venues when they go to Miami or Ibiza; out here they end up playing a Swedish House Mafia track to get at least a little bit of movement on the dancefloor. Meh.
So next time you happen to wander past the Music Mania record store in Ghent, or any record store in Antwerp or Brussels not called 'Free Record Shop', pop in and ask for The Glimmers. You'll be greeted with a broad smile and a pat on the shoulder.
Next thing you know, sitting down in your car or your living room, a broad smile will appear on your own face after having inserted the 'Whomp That Sucker' disc into your stereo system and having pressed 'PLAY'.
"It's time to dance, it's time to dance! Dance sucka!"
BEFORE I FORGET
As I write this, my dear friend Bakerman is on his way to Thailand. He'll roam there for a couple of months, fishing for sea needles from a canoe, spending time talking to stones, and when he's had enough of that, he'll travel on to Australia. I'd be surprised if he'll come back without plans to stay down under - if he comes back at all. Anyhoo; I made a blog for him called Bakerman's Talk, but it'd surprise me as well if he actually gets to posting anything on the damn thing. Be as it may: I wish him good health and lots of fun.
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