Stone – Girl I Like the Way You Move (1982)
For our first episode we are going to explore a trippy disco sample storm that is in Stone Girl I Like the Way You Move released in 1982 on West End Records.
On the night of July 12th, 1979, it was said that Disco died… In a baseball stadium in Chicago, in an event promoted by a local radio DJ and used as a promotional event by the baseball league, the MLB, thousands of Disco records were blown up! The DJ had been fired in 1978 when his station moved from playing Rock to Disco and hired at a different station. The night was touted as “Disco Demolition Night”! It was a counter-reaction to the huge popularity of Disco music that had swept the US and Europe in the mid to late 70s. For months the DJ had promoted the event by telling people to show up at the stadium that night with their Disco records and they’d blow them up, which is exactly what happened! 50,000 Disco-haters were admitted into the stadium with another 20,000 left outside, who later stampeded the gates, broke them down and joined the mayhem inside the stadium.
After the Disco records were blown up, a massive crater was left in the field, and that’s when things went to shit. Thousands of fans rushed the field, starting a huge bonfire, destroying the dugouts, and pulling down lights and poles. Riot police were called in to quell the ensuing riot and arrests were made. It was said that the disastrous event triggered a nationwide backlash of anger towards Disco music and its fan following, and Disco started to lose its public popularity. It may have lost its mainstream popularity, but it DID NOT DIE…it simply went underground. And, let’s be honest, the underground is where you find the best music!
Disco In the Underground
In the underground dance music scene, Disco still flourished. Its straight “4 on the floor”, repetitive beat pattern, the same beat pattern we now enjoy in House, Trance, Happy Hardcore, etc., had caught the imagination and dancefloor appeal of a large group of music lovers that were not ready to say goodbye to its groovin sensibilities! Much of the underground Disco scene became focused in gay clubs and parties, particularly alive in cities like New York and San Francisco. Its popularity in clubs continued into the mid-80s, and after that, its impact never left us. Its infectious groove and heavy beat stayed around and found a natural home in the Electronic Dance Music scene. It is heavily sampled in Disco House, French House, Funky Breaks, and Jazzy Drum-N-Bass, and, as we’ll see, even in Progressive House and Techno.
The American Dictionary of Music defines Disco as, “Disco evolved out of the underground dance music culture, peopled largely by homosexuals and Blacks, that developed in New York’s private clubs and lofts. The term Disco, which came into currency in 1974, derives from the word “discotheque”, used from the 1960s to describe a nightclub where people danced to recorded music. Non-stop music was played by disc jockeys, who remixed dance recordings by boosting the bass and sequenced them into programmed, all-night marathons.” Sound familiar?! The parallels to the Rave scene are unmistakable!
Generally when one thinks of the sound of Disco, the idea of wah-wah guitars and sweeping strings is the natural place the mind goes. However, that’s not always the case! Championed by Disco DJs like the famous Larry Levan and by Francois Kevorkian, a trippier, more psychedelic sound was making its way into songs and onto dancefloors by the early 1980s. Occasionally referred to as “Heroin Disco” it was awash in dubbed out strings, synthetic sounds made by the new synthesizers, and a heavy calypso backbeat. Labels like West End, Prelude, Salsoul, Next Plateau, Phase II, & Casablanca, to name just a few, were churning out Disco masterpieces, all with a heavy, straight, 4/4 beat!
The Song
In 1982, Stone released its groundbreaking and influential, “Girl I Like the Way You Move”, on West End Records hot on the heels of its release the year before of Stone “Time”, also on West End Records, which is an amazing record as well. The record had a popular vocal A-side, but the real stand out that has stood the test of, well, Time, was the Dub Mix on the B-side. The song is a form of “proto-House” and I have actually played it in House sets and people really get down to it with no idea it is from 1982! The song was produced by Auvil Gilchrist with remix and additional production on the b-side Dub by Nick Martinelli & David Todd. It has a straight, driving beat with clean percussion, but what really makes it unique is its instrumentation and heavy effects. The sound used for the main music in the song became a dream for EDM producers in the 1990s, especially because the sound was soloed without any beat at the beginning of the song!
Take a listen and we’ll post the songs that sampled it afterwards!
The vinyl of this record can be purchased at Discogs.com using the link below and is surprisingly affordable for how old it is!
https://www.discogs.com/release/1673993-Stone-Girl-I-Like-The-Way-That-You-Move
Pick up a digital copy with this link to Amazon Music:
The Songs That Sampled It
The sampled sound from the beginning of “Girl I Like the Way You Move” was sampled in a total of 12 songs. Here’s a few for you to see how it was used:
It was sampled by Blapps Posse in 1991 in their remix of “Bus It”. “Bus It” is an early Breakbeat record reminiscent of Hip House with sampled Hip Hop vocal stabs and a tough “street” vibe! “Bus It” had several versions released both before and after the 1991 remix, but this is the one that uses the sample:
The vinyl of this record can be purchased at Discogs.com using the link below:
https://www.discogs.com/release/106782-Blapps-Posse-Dont-Hold-Back-91-Bus-It-Its-Time-To-Get-Bzy-
Pick up digital copy of this and other music on Amazon Music:
Our next sampled record is my personal favorite use of the sample and was a remix by the incomparable Andrew Weatherall under his moniker, Sabres of Paradise. Andrew Weatherall originally came to fame as a key DJ is the UK’s Acid House movement in the late 80s. He became widely known for his amazing remixes with remix duties on Happy Mondays, New Order, Bjork, the Orb, and Future Sound of London! He also released original music under his name, Sabres of Paradise, and Two Lone Swordsmen. This particular remix of his using the “Girl I Like the Way You Move” is one of my favorites and was released in 1992! It’s actually the first place I heard the Stone sample! I was obsessed with the record when it came out and I played it constantly. Then at a party when I played it, California DJ Mark E. Quark asked if I knew where the sample came from. I didn’t and when he told me I started looking for it. I was lucky to find it by chance a short time later. This was before internet sites like Discogs were around, so finding a rare record was a matter of digging crates and pure luck. I purchased an entire collection of Disco and Funk from an old DJ that had lived through those days as an active club DJ. There were 3000 records from the late 1970s through the late 1980s. “Girl I Like the Way You Move” was in there as well as their other great record, “Time” That was probably the best haul of phenomenal music I’ve ever made. I kept a good number of them and then sold the rest at my record store or individually to other DJs, including DJ Garth from Wicked fame! Here, take a listen:
The vinyl of this record can be purchased at Discogs.com using the link below:
https://www.discogs.com/master/137456-One-Dove-Transient-Truth
Pick up this and other music on Amazon Music with the link below:
The last mix we are picking here to explore is a bit on the funkier side with a Breakbeat record by Crime on the label Nuphonic in 1996. It has kind of a Disco influenced vibe with heavy calypso percussion and jazzy elements, like many of the records on the label Nuphonic. Here, take a listen:
The vinyl of this record can be purchased at Discogs.com using the link below:
https://www.discogs.com/master/302017-Crime-Dont-Fake-It-Breaking-Point
Pick up this song and other music using the link below to Amazon Music:
Conclusion
We hope you have enjoyed our first, inaugural episode of Edge of EDM, “Trippy Disco Sample Storm”. Learning about where the music we all love came from and the dynamic journey it has taken from its original inception on to the various masks it takes on can be fascinating! We hope you learned something and now you can flex your knowledge at the next club, rave, or house party you go to. See, learning is fun! Go ahead and explore our site and feel free to read other articles and our main pages for more information. Be sure to subscribe to our blog at the top of the page or on our Subscribe link here so you are kept up to date on new episodes, articles, interviews, mixes, and events! Peace, out!
If you’d like to hear a modern DJ mix that uses Disco and Funk sampled to created a newer sound, check out DJ Chris Sick’s “Dumpsta Funk Part 4”! It’s a phenomenal mix of funky, Disco inspired gems of Disco House and Funky Breaks mixed on three turntables of all vinyl!
This was a great read! Well written and informative. Love the links to the videos and Discogs. Looking forward to seeing this grow!
Glad you liked it and learned some neat stuff. Yeah, the music links are key to appreciating the effects of older music on our music now! Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more to come! Stay tuned!
discotheque!! A joy to read. Looking forward to more articles. Love the added links to listen to the tracks.
I know a good bit about the history of disco . And Ive never heard this story . Great read . Thats an awesome photo of the stadium . Cant wait for more stories .
First episode did not disappoint and I learned something new today. It’s always crazy when you find out about the origins of a sound or a beat that you have been hearing in records for decades. Sample etymology. Thanks Professor Sick!