MARRS Pump Up the Volume – Before and After
Centering on MARRS “Pump Up the Volume”, a series of songs cascaded up and down through sampling to create musical dominoes falling, one begetting the next and then the next. It actually happens more than you might expect. As we’ve said before, no matter what type of EDM music you enjoy, it has roots in previous styles of music and it came from somewhere!
Today we’re going to look at the sampling in and of a song that helped bring House and Electronic Dance Music into the wider public eye! It was a song in the late 1980s that received substantial radio and MTV play as well as being an instant club classic! It contained a sample of an amazing Funk song that is one of my all-time personal favorites. The song was then in turn sampled by a host of other EDM songs over the last two and a half decades, as well as being remade and remixed!
Sampling has become a key element in the production of Rave and EDM music. Being sampled in the right songs can make your sound instantly recognizable. First time I heard the root Funk song used in “Pump Up the Volume”, I immediately jumped to the 1987 electronic song because the beat sample was so familiar and the song so heavily canned!
We touched on something similar to this with the vast popularity of the Amen Break in the previous episode, Hallelujah for the Amen Break. I personally collect Funk and Disco records that were sampled in later EDM songs I love. Therefore this song is very interesting me!
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Funk and Disco were the main genres you would hear if you went to a club anywhere! They totally dominated dance music! Disco can have either a syncopated beat or backbeat, or a straight “4 on the floor” beat pattern, but Funk was almost exclusively syncopated rhythms, with some catchy, innovative breakbeats pushing the music forward on the dancefloor. As Hip Hop began to be more popular on particularly American dancefloors, the genre heavily relied on inspiration and even sampling of both Funk and Jazz music.
Before MARRS “Pump Up the Volume”
One of the most successful Funk bands was the Bar Kays, whose music was heavily sampled by both Hip Hop and later by Electronic Dance Music artists alike. They possessed a strong rhythm section that churned out infectious grooves for freaks on the dancefloor! The Bar Kays were formed in 1964 as a studio session band and switched to a touring band in 1967. They were heavily influenced by Jazz, but became pioneers of Funk, becoming particularly popular in the 1970s.
The song we’re using here is their tune, “Holy Ghost”, which was released in 1978 as a “Special 12 Inch Disco Mix” as a single. It was released this way to take full advantage of the massive popularity of Disco at the time, which was thriving in its peak! In its totality, it’s an amazing Funk masterpiece, but for sampling purposes, it is primarily the beat that is used in Hip Hop and Electronic Dance Music over the years. The sampled portion starts at 3:02 in. Feel free to scan to there to just hear the beat, or listen to the whole song, which is what I’d suggest! It’s pretty great. Here, take a listen:
You can purchase the song as a 12-inch single on Discogs using this link:
https://www.discogs.com/release/409162-The-Bar-Kays-Holy-Ghost-Monster
Hopefully you enjoyed “Holy Ghost” and in particular got a good feel for the beat pattern that was so popular to sample! It’s a very recognizable beat! It was sampled in 38 songs. I don’t think there’s any song that is more instantly attached to the pattern than the song “Pump Up the Volume” by MARRS!!
Their song, “Pump Up the Volume,” was groundbreaking territory. It is not because it was something that hadn’t been done before, although it certainly was early on in music history for Electronic Dance Music, but because it opened up this style of dance music to America as a whole! “Pump Up the Volume” was incredibly popular in clubs and received huge amounts of play on the radio, while the video was a regular mainstay on MTV, back when “Music Television” actually lived up to their name and played predominantly music videos. It paved the way for the future popularity of Electronic Dance Music and House in a big way!
The Middle Songs
MARRS (stylized M|A|R|R|S) were a 1987 recording collective formed in London, England, by the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox, which only released one commercial disc, “Pump Up the Volume”. While they only had the one release, that release was a doozy! It’s a fantastic piece of dance music that uses a straight “4 on the floor” beat as its main score, but it drops into syncopated breakbeat drum patterns in several places. That is where it uses the “Holy Ghost” beat pattern sample, right before it says, “Put the needle on the record when the drum beat goes like this!”
It really is a bit of a sample fest with a high number of samples being used. Samples from 14 songs in all are used to make it. I’m a huge fan of the song and still remember the first time I heard it! I remember dancing to it many, many times. I still play the song when I DJ at old school parties! The song is the center of our musical journey. Here, take a listen:
The vinyl 12-inch single can be purchased through Discogs using this link:
https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/530673
“Pump Up the Volume” had its own unparalleled impact on dance music both due to its popularity and success. Plus, there’s the fact that its just a damn fine piece of dance music! We’ll look at the musical dominoes that fell from “Pump Up the Volume” in a minute. First, it is worth looking at one more song that uses the breakbeat from “Holy Ghost”.
Contrary to what the name suggests, Bassbin Twins, is actually the brain child of just one man, Pete Houser, an American music producer. He is well known and widely respected in the Underground for producing some of the best Breaks releases out there. He used the “Holy Ghost” beat sample in a 1997 release, “Out Of Hand (Fonk Vibe)”. The beat sample is used throughout the song as the main rhythm element, although it is slightly altered to be a little more “street tough”, while still maintaining a healthy dose of Funk. Here, take a listen:
You can purchase this 12-inch single using this link to Discogs:
https://www.discogs.com/release/28319-The-Bassbin-Twins-Out-Of-Hand
The sampled beat from “Holy Ghost” is a great pattern and has been used in dozens of Hip Hop songs as well as the electronic songs listed above. What we really want to look at in this episode is how “Pump Up the Volume” came about and then led to future songs. As I stated before, it used samples from 14 songs, but the impact from it was huge! The couple years immediately after it was released in 1987 saw a flurry of uses of samples from it. It continued in popularity as a root song. It has been sampled by 58 songs, covered in 10 songs, and remixed 3 times! That’s a lot! The vocal sample of MARRS “Pump up the volume”” was used extensively as well as other elements.
After MARRS “Pump Up the Volume”
The point here in this article is to see the musical dominoes effect of how one song can lead to the next and then that new song leads to more songs. For the first song we will show that sampled “Pump Up the Volume”, we’re going to look at a record I played heavily back in the 90s Rave days. It was also heavily played by members of San Francisco’s Wicked crew. The first time I heard it was in a set in the mid-90s at a Wicked party spun by DJ Garth! I had to peep what it was and had purchased the record within a couple weeks.
The song samples multiple elements and reflected the sound of the Underground dance culture that was particularly popular on the US West Coast and in the United Kingdom! The band is called Experimentation and their song is “Pumping Up Marrs”. It is very DJ friendly cause of its long, beat and high hat driven intro that makes mixing a treat! Plus, when the bass drops on a big sound system, it rattles the walls…a real bruiser! Here, take a listen:
The 12-inch single for this song can be purchased with this link on Discogs – its a bit pricey:
https://www.discogs.com/release/1438721-Experimentation-Studio-Madness-EP
‘Pumping Up Marrs” on the Studio Madness EP is an incredible us of the original MARRS samples. However, there are other songs that made great use of the samples from “Pump Up the Volume”. In 2006, a band from Germany call The Cooky Factory ltd did another song using samples called “Pimp Up The Volume”. It has a very modern House feel with a chunky, synthetic bassline that really chugs it forward! “Pimp Up The Volume” is fully playable in a House set today at any club, rave, or festival. It uses multiple elements that are highly stylized by them. You can still tell they’re from the original MARRS song though! Here, take a listen:
You can purchase the 12-inch single using this link on ZDiscogs:
https://www.discogs.com/release/887037-The-Cooky-Factory-Ltd-Vol-8
Remixed
As I had mentioned before, MARRS “Pump Up the Volume” was completely remixed, remade, or covered a total of 13 times. As they say, “Imitation is the highest for of flattery!”. Let’s take a final look at one of the great covers of the classic. I think this one is the best one that has been done! It is from 2010. It’s actually a battle scratch DJ remix of the song mixed with Malcolm McClaren’s “Buffalo Girls”. It’s a great scratch DJ performance that garnered a lot of attention. Here, take a look and listen:
Conclusion
Obviously, sampling has had a ubiquitous effect on Electronic Dance Music! It’s everywhere! So, next time you’re on the dancefloor and you get a wave of deja vu or have that sense of familiarity with a song thinking you’ve heard it before, don’t discount it. Perhaps you HAVE heard it before, just in a different song. We’ve shown how songs and samples play upon each other in our musical scene. It shows how intricately related the music is. Remember, it is a common phenomenon in EDM. It is entirely possible you’ve heard the sounds from a song elsewhere! Sampling is very common!
WE hope you have enjoyed this episode on Edge of EDM and learned something interesting! Go out and share your knowledge! Be sure to explore the site and read any articles you haven’t viewed yet! Certainly be sure to subscribe to get updates on future episodes, articles, interviews, and DJ mixes!
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Love the new blog! Keep dropping knowledge and beats!
Thanks, buddy! Glad to hear you’re enjoying them!