25 Years Since....August 1999

Wow 25 years since the last year of the 20th century, these were the tunes I was enjoying then:

Dope Smugglaz - Double Double Dutch

The original Malcolm McLaren record was what we used to skip to in PE at school. I had no idea what it was at the time, but when this remake came out in 1999 the memories came back.

Nowadays this takes me back to student life, a time of optimism about the future with no idea how dreadful music would be in 25 years time.

Groove Armada - At The River

I could have sworn this was earlier in 1999 than August but then I guess we had quite a gap between first hearing a record and it being released as a single in those days. 

It's the ultimate chill out record really, a lot of us dance music fans liked a bit of chill out music but here we had one that really held its own.

Basement Jaxx - Rendez-Vu

This was the opening tune on the Pete Tong show on Radio 1 from Ibiza in the summer of 1999 that I taped off the radio and listened to a lot thereafter.

This is possibly the best record Basement Jaxx have made, and they've made lots of good tunes.

TLC - Unpretty

I first heard this record in the most unlikely of places, the Pete Tong show on Radio 1 on a Friday night. He would predominantly play dance music, but played the occasional non-dance record too.

The way that songwriter/producer Dallas Austin has mixed R&B with a rock element here is absolute genius. 

Binary Finary - 1999

This was a remix of "1998" and is yet another record that reminds me of Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1. It was also one I taped off the radio to work out to, I can still picture myself doing sit ups to it now even though I've not done that for 25 years.