The trouble kid, the urban legend, the godfather of jungle and its art.
A short time travel through Goldie “Timeless” album, its surroundings and its relevance.
Goldie was one of this troubled Foster kids truly fighting with himself and with his multiple family ambients throughout his youth. Living up Hip Hop philosophy he discovered art, first in London street walls and later behind the turntables. Being half Jamaican half Scottish, young bad boy Clifford Joseph Price a.k.a Goldie was in flesh and bone what jungle is all about. As the tropical sounds flew to the London streets, brought by Jamaicans, the fusion boiled by these two sides and the social aspects of this crossfire were amazingly strong. The graffiti art battles, the sound system culture, the pirate radios and the post-hardcore scene played a significant role in this melting pot. The exodus tiddlers themselves created the richest form of music and urban lifestyle that the Queen ever saw.
Goldie fought graffiti battles in the streets of London with Robert “3D” Del Naja later to be the co-founder of Massive Attack. This symbolizes the rise of the two most important nineties UK scenes, each with its unique character and sound.
From jungle to trip-hop, from London to Bristol, in a time when acid-house and hardcore were making people dance, these local heroes decided to “break” it, setting the path for the next generations.
Artwork by Goldie
In 1992, after entering this music circle, Price released his first records, signing as Ajax Project, Rufige Cru and later as Metalheadz. “Terminator” was one jungle hit of that period. After two years he created his own record label recycling and using the Metalheadz name for it, and so the nineties London “Factory” was born.
In 1995, Goldie released his debut album “Timeless”, a blend of jungle rhythms, ragga/punk breakbeats, soul vibes and urban atmospheres.
The album was a major UK export, released by FFFR, reaching the five corners of the world and being included in Neil Strauss’s list of the Top 10 Albums of 95, where he said “(…) the frenetic break beats of England’s jungle dance-music rub against lush ambient music, live instruments and a technology-addled sense of soul (…)”.
“Timeless” was simultaneously released as a double album, as a single album and vinyl edition. We are dealing with the latter here. The vinyl edition did not include the epic 21:02 minutes title track but we will review it as if it did, as it is too innovative and iconic not to talk about it.
“Timeless” is the first track of all the CD editions, a blend of three other tracks: “Inner City Life”, “Pressure” and “Jah”.The first third represents for it self the sound of Goldie and the Metalheadz and could represent this subculture perfectly. “Inner City Life” is a trip to the London skies with approaches to the soul of its ghetto streets. The blend of these famous rolled drums, the ambient synths, the time-stretched sounds and the voice of Diane Charlemagne is a masterpiece mixture, it flows directly to the ears and brings the simplicity and delightfulness of the early nineties jungle.
Further on, the track is mixed with darker textures as it goes to second and third part ”Pressure” and “Jah”, yet the elegance of some of Diane’s chorusses transport the deepness of the track until the last minute.
“Saint Angel” is the second track of the CD-release, but the first in the vinyl edition. Clearly a floor track, the disconnected snares, the darker synths and the sliced voice samples dressed up this track to the dark basements and underground warehouse parties.
“Kemistry” and “Angel” are both rolling drum tracks full of soul voices. Goldie uses various layered beats, synths and a set of amazing basslines that we hear a lot of producers using nowadays. The track “This is a bad” sounds clearly different. The drumfunk beat, the full-bodied “Bristol” bass, the electronic textures and minimalism forewent the upcoming drum and bass icons such as Roni Size and Dj Krust and their productions.
Tracks like “A Sense Of Rage (Sensual V.I.P Mix)” and “You Me” also had a different perspective, the first has an eighties feeling with a “Miami Vice” bassline intro and an atmospheric light ambiance. The second has an acid-jazz-jungle flavour where the piano notes, the strings and Lorna Harris vocals contribute big, although as most of Goldie tracks, this one suffers a dark transformation while arriving to the end.
“Still Life” is a 10:47 minutes track where again Goldie starts with 80´s synths and a classic 808 drum kit and then flows to deeper jungle beats and sounds, always with a perfect layered set of sampled beats, sounds and harmonies, using the cycles inside the track resulting in a dynamic breakbeat science.
Artwork by Adam Martin
Goldie truly invented a sound and an attitude and spread it all over the world, he became an “overground” star. From his street art, to his famous girlfriends, his roles in the movie industry, and lately as speaker in the TED talks series, he never seized to amaze us, be it with some narcissistic voidnesses, and to prove that he is definitely an unique character and achieved his position as one of the most important and iconic artists of modern pop culture, not only in the UK, but worldwide.
Artwork courtesy of Goldie.
