Bongo Rock
Bongo Rock
Customer Review: Killer Bongo Vibes
Born out of a movie soundtrack commission in 1972 from MGM to compose some music for a chase scene, Michael Viner and Jerry Botkin Jnr. have never looked back. The whole concept for the original two pieces (Bongolia and Bongo Rock) was distinctly tongue in cheek… with full cinematic big band backing they had a pomposity that was tempered by some superbly COOL bongo playing. The single took off, eventually selling 2 million copies. This led to the band being re-formed to make the bulk of this album.
Now time has not been kind to the whole thing, and there is a distinct Blow Up style kitsch to the project as a whole, dating everything to almost the month of production and most of the album has a decidedly cheesy or quaint feel to modern ears throwing in loads of cliched phrases and hooks, but buried here are at least five or six solid gold gems for any breaks or dance aficionados…. largely down to said seriously out there bongo playing.
Top tunes: Apache (both versions), Bongolia (12 bar bongo blues) , Bongo Rock, Kiburi Pt.1 (think Shaft), Sing Sing Sing (complete with 70’s drum solo!), a very groovesome version of Wipe Out, complete with Hendrix style wah wah guitar solo followed by yet another drum workout, and the fantastically titled When The Bed Breaks Down, I’ll Meet You In The Spring with seriously funky talking drum
Many years later, Grandmaster Flash remixed Apache (included here) and turned it into a seven and a half minute 12″ monster. In fact countless Hip hop and latterly breaks acts have used Apache and other tunes here for super-cool samples on a whole roster of re-rubs and MPC s-s-s-samples….many not crediting the originators, but Viner takes it all with a bemused smile…. “it was only meant as a joke”.
It’s more than that… believe me.
–
MTV | Rock Music Videos | Streaming Video Premieres, Online Heads …
