‘The Bomb’ that changed house music

‘The Bomb’ that changed house music

16 June, 2009 | 10.15AM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: 20 years of dance music, kenny dope, masters at work

House music was changed forever in 15 minutes in 1994. It was transformed by Kenny Dope Gonzalez’ ‘The Bomb’, an unplanned B side hit that sent shock waves across the house landscape and exploded up into the dance music atmosphere like a giant mushroom cloud, its fallout felt for years afterwards.

The track’s unusually long intro and sample-heavy sound exploded like a flash on the horizon, interrupting the natural order of things.

The idea to build a house track around a catchy old sample came to Kenny Dope one night when his friend Johnny “D” De Mairo played him some eurodance hits during a car journey from Manhattan to Brooklyn. “They were all sample-based, and they were terrible records,” says Kenny Dope, who after listening to the music decided he could do it better himself.

So Gonzalez went home, produced an EP called ‘Dungeon Tapes’ under the alias The Bucketheads, and released it on Johnny D’s Henry Street Music record label via a series of 12-inches. Within a week, the first 12” had sold out. It was not the A-side ‘I Wanna Know’ that shifted copies but rather the B-side that caught fire.

“I put ‘The Bomb’ together real quick and didn’t think too much about it,” explains Kenny, 15 years later. “It’s not like I didn’t care about the track, it was just one of those tracks where we said ‘Aight, we need something for the flip side’.”

That intro

I never meant for it to be 15 minutes. When I recorded the track, I kept flipping through the sequences on my drum machine and it sounded ok so I just left the intro like that.

‘The Bomb’ kept selling and selling. Kenny Dope believes its success came down to the extended intro that he kept in so DJs could easily mix into the track.

“I never meant for it to be 15 minutes. When I recorded the track, I kept flipping through the sequences on my drum machine and it sounded ok so I just left the intro like that,” says Gonzalez.

“The long intro created a huge amount of suspense, as it kept building up and building up, and when you thought it was going to drop, it never did. Eventually when the main song kicked in, people just went crazy.”

Another factor that made ‘The Bomb’ stand out was the catchy vocal and trumpet sample that the track was built around. Kenny Dope had been “obsessed with hunting down samples since the age of 13,” he says, whilst indicating his collection of 7-inch records that spans two walls in his house.

“I started out with an obsession initially for funk, breaks, reggae and hip hop as that was what was played in our neighbourhood in Brooklyn.

“Back then there used to be these block parties, where the whole block would be shut off so that people could play music and dance in the street.

“A lot of hip hop was played there, and I wanted to find the original records behind that early hip hop, as a lot of it was based on funk and soul.”

The track’s vocal sample ‘These sounds swirling through my mind’ was based on the track ‘Streetplayer’ by the 1970s band Chicago.

“Because ‘The Bomb’ was so successful, I had to then go through the process of trying to clear the sample, which took time, but we got it done,” says Gonzalez.

It was worth the legal effort. ‘The Bomb’ kept being replayed over and over in clubs across the UK, Europe, and the US for years afterwards. Its impact never diminished with each play.

“You know it’s still played in stadiums today, at football games and basketball games. It still has the same effect on people today, just like when I first played it,” says Kenny Dope.

Lasting influences

‘The Bomb’ properly kick started Henry Street Music, which went on to become one of the biggest house music labels in the world helping to break the careers of Armand Van Helden, Tronco Traxx aka Robbie Tronco, and DJ Sneak.

It also changed Carl Kenneth Gonzalez’ life in many ways. “I made my living from it, for sure. The checks still roll in from that record. I was able to move out of Brooklyn to New Jersey where I live now, and was able to buy a few properties and get set up,” says Dope, who has also enjoyed worldwide success as one half of the Masters At Work duo alongside Louie Vega.

The success of ‘The Bomb’ also proved to Kenny Dope that he was making the right moves. “My thing was to put out quantity, but good quantity. Todd Terry taught me that to build a name for yourself you had to put out good records and a lot of good records at the same time.

“The idea was to flood the market, so that when somebody went into a record store and saw five Kenny Dope releases or eight Todd Terry tracks they saw that you were being prolific and consistent, and it would eventually lead to more bookings.”

The sample-based nature of ‘The Bomb’ was also a pattern later championed by Daft Punk, Etienne De Crécy, and other French house pioneers.

Kenny Dope’s legacy

Kenny Dope is not done influencing house music just yet. His knowledge of samples and obscure records is so vast, that he’s currently in the middle of writing a book about it.

“I’m also working on a DVD documentary, and writing another book about my life, as I feel it’s important that this new generation gets to see how music was made before the days of computers and software,” says the 39-year-old, who after 20 years of DJing success is looking at side projects beyond the decks.

“I guess, my career has been a minute. I’m getting a little tired, you know. Not tired of the music, but tired of all the gigs and traveling. I can’t do three week tours anymore. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m not as young as I used to be,” he says, with a laugh.

‘The Bomb’ though, is still as energetic as it always was.

Tracks that defined 1995 - 1996

Kenny Dope helps review some tracks that defined dance music 1995 - 1996.

Lil Mo Ying Yang ‘Reach’ [Strictly Rhythm] (1995)

“‘Reach’ is one of the records Louie did with Erick Morillo. I did a remix of it last year actually.

“It’s a great record and I’ve still got it on vinyl. In fact, I probably have them all on vinyl because I didn’t really get into CDs until the Pioneer CDJ-1000 came out.”

Josh Wink ‘Higher State of Consciousness’ [Strictly Rhythm] (1995)

“Yeah this record stuck out at the time. It was totally different to anything else out there. Josh is a really good dude and I worked with him in the early days.

“I definitely played this out - although I can’t tell you where as one of the problems I have is remembering the clubs. I can remember the bigger gigs, but in general, I can never pinpoint when such and such happened.”

Kenlou ‘The Bounce’ [MAW Records] (1995)

“That was a great record, and it came out on our MAW Records label that me and Louie ran.

“It was made when we were into this whole filtered phase. We made a lot of records where we messed with filters live, and a lot of stuff happened on ‘The Bounce’ where it was all done live I think.”

Boris Dlugosch ‘Keep Pushin’’ [Real Time Records] (1996)

“Real Time Records was a label run by our old manager.

“I remember playing dubs of that record and Boris is a cool guy. We worked with him and Mousse T from Germany a lot back then.”

Alcatraz ‘Give Me Luv’ (Yoshitoshi) (1995)

Deep Dish’s label Yoshitoshi Recordings really hit its stride in 1995, with Alcatraz ‘Give Me Luv’ taking over clubs that year.

Produced by Jean Phillippe Aviance and Victor Imbres the track to date remains one of Yoshitoshi’s biggest hits.

Mighty Dub Katz ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ (Southern Fried Records) (1996)

By 1995 Norman Cook was well on his way to becoming the DJ phenomenon Fatboy Slim, with his pseudonyms Pizzaman and The Mighty Dub Katz topping charts respectively that year.

‘Magic Carpet Ride’ was one of his most successful tracks prior to the Fatboy Slim days, and its catchy exotic samples and soundclash vibe was something that Cook later became a master at.

Sandy B ‘Make My World Go Round’ (Deep Dish Vocal) [Champion Records] (1996)

If you went anywhere near a dance music club in 1996, the voice of NYC vocalist Sandra Barber aka Sandy B could be heard, thanks to a career-defining remix by Deep Dish.

The duo’s remake of ‘Make My World Go Round’ was an instant classic and remains a strong contender for best house track of all time.

The catchy bassline, cut up vocals, and soulful chorus helped give house a beating heart in 1996.

Winx ‘Don’t Laugh’ [Nervous Records] (1995)

Josh Wink released a string of hits in 1995, and ‘Don’t Laugh’ became one of his biggest ever records.

Its filtered laugh, that was forever looped, was completely unique at the time and it entertained and freaked people out in equal measure.

Surgeon ‘Atol’ [Downwards] (1995)

British wonderkid Anthony Child rocked the UK techno scene in 1995 with groundbreaking releases that focused on percussive, abstract club techno.

His third EP ‘Magneze’ became a benchmark for high quality minimalism, and ‘Atol’ was one of his most popular tracks at the time.

Later, Surgeon went on to become a resident DJ at Berlin’s infamous Tresor club.

• (10) Comments
• (12151) Views
• Get Essential Classics, 1995 - 1996