Spencer Parker's Top Ten Inspirations

So lets TRY (and probably fail) to do this shit chronologically, and break it down record by record (lock the doors)...

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Soul II Soul - Club Classics Vol. 1

Perfect, I’ve already failed to pick one record from this era and instead chosen two - a great start I’m sure you'll agree, but then, if you've heard me Dj, you'll know that I like to keep expectations as low as possible right from the get go, so you should be used to this kinda thing. If you haven't heard me play - come check me out - I am FUCKING AMAZING! Anyhow, moving on, let's deal with these two albums that were among the first I ever bought and threw into the tape deck of my mums midi system or my beautiful, state of the art, Alba personal stereo. Truth be told, Soul II Soul would get more outings on the midi system than Public Enemy, as my mother, curiously enough, always favoured Caron Wheeler's beautiful, soul drenched harmonies, over Chuck D's militant, Nation Of Islam influenced, raps - I told her to concentrate on the Shocklee brothers awesome drum programming and production skills instead of the lyrics, but she wasn’t having any of it... Again. I Digress.

I was first exposed to Public Enemy when I somehow stumbled across Tim Westwood's Capital Rap Show on Capital Radio 95.8fm, broadcast every Friday from midnight - 2am and every Saturday from 10pm - midnight (I think). I would stay up late, with my huge, clunking great headphones on, listening intently to the tracks and trying to tape the ones I liked best with a nifty finger on the 'pause' button to edit out Mr Westwoods dulcet tones. The show opened up a whole new world to me and would, of course, often feature tracks by the mighty P.E. I kinda missed Yo! Bum Rush The Show (although I bought it later) and It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back was one of my first ever album purchases.

I loved everything about it, from the phenomenal Bomb Squad production to the conscious lyrics of Chuck D, to the jester-like madness of Flavor Flav and the on point scratching of a certain Mr Terminator X. It was exciting, completely new and it blew my tiny mind. From this record, and the radio, I sought more and more tracks by Public Enemy and various other hip hop luminaries such as Kool G Rap and DJ Polo, BDP, Eric B and Rakim, Redman, Wu Tang Clan, D Nice, Organized Konfusion and many more. These tracks started my obsession with hip hop that I still have to this day. Every track on It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is great and it also works as an entire album - without doubt, a classic and definitely an album that inspired me to seek out more and more of this amazing new (to me, at least) music.

Club Classics Volume 1 by Soul II Soul was a slightly different beast from Public Enemy, but I remember having them around the same time and playing the whole album, back to front ALL the time - as did nearly every other kid in my year at school. This was the soundtrack to my times of fucking up homework and not kissing girls (or boys! - Quit trying to be funny and stop that sniggering at the back!). The production was amazing, the simple drum loop that introduces Back To Life ALONE drove me crazy and I would never tire of it. I also kinda dug the arrogance of titling your debut album Club Classics Vol.1, who'd have thought it would actually pretty much come true? Every track on this album is great and although the huge hits were obviously Back To Life and Keep On Movin' I always had a soft spot for Jazzies Groove and Fairplay, featuring the amazing Rose Windross. I wasn't quite old enough (or cool enough) to attend the Africa Centre to hear the Funki Dreds play, but that worn out cassette made a suburban music nerd, almost, feel like he was there.

Hyper On Experience - Lord Of The Null Lines (Foul Play Remix)
Origin Unknown - Valley Of The Shadows (Original/Remix)



After being so heavily into Hip Hop as I was growing up, I eventually started going out to my local shithole club ('big ups' to Blue Orchid, Croydon and Jaz Discotheque, Purley -RIP) where there wasn’t a great deal of credible hip hop on offer. But, I did (again - along with the help of late night radio listening sessions, this time, pirate radio) start getting into what was, I guess, early jungle/drum n bass. Amongst all the chart (s) hits there was always 30/45 minutes or so of what was, I guess, the most popular jungle/drum n bass tracks of the time, played too. This was my favourite time of the night and I’d take time out from not talking to girls to sway, almost in time, to this mad, futuristic sounding music. Lord Of The Null Lines is a phenomenal record that still sounds great now and was on the outstanding Movin' Shadow label, I’d hear it a lot on the pirate stations I’d tune into and always loved the fact it was so raw but also had a kind of ‘intelligent’, cold, steely sound to it. Throw in a cool sounding sample from the film Predator and I was in fucking heaven! It's inspired me because I just love the intricate drum programming and all the layers of atmospherics and sounds, its more than the sum of its parts - but all those delicately crafted little parts really work off each other, and that’s something I always try to think about when I’m producing.

A track that got a lot more play out and was nothing short of an anthem was Origin Unknown's Valley Of The Shadows, also known as '31 Seconds' because that's what everyone use to call it - due to its vocal sample from what sounded like a US space shuttle launch. The other spooky vocal in the track was from a UK television program about life after death and feeling like you were going "down a long dark tunnel, with a very bright light at the end...” I think it was produced by Andy C and Ant Miles and was definitely released on RAM Recordings. I was completely in love with this track and remember queuing up in a downtown Croydon record shop to purchase my copy like it was yesterday! I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it just had a certain call to arms for the dancefloor - people would wait the whole night to hear it and from the opening arpeggio, everyone would just lose it. Listening now it still sounds great, still menacing, still kinda trippy and still raw as fuck. I used to hear this when I would go to clubs like Lazerdrome in Peckham and dance badly to Djs like Randall, Fabio, or the amazingly monikered Dr S. Gachet! Lazerdrome also had a ‘House’ room which leads us to....

Masters At Work feat. India - I Can't Get No Sleep (MK Remix)
NY's Finest (Victor Simonelli) - Do You Feel Me
Solution - Feels So Right

Aaaaah - the pianos! By now I was venturing out to clubs like Ministry Of Sound on a Saturday or Cafe De Paris for Release The Pressure to hear people like Tony Humphries, CJ Mackintosh or any other big ‘US jock’ that had flown in to play. I'd also bought decks and I remember practicing mixing for hours with the Do You Need Me track. These records really remind me of a certain time and were inspirational for different reasons. I was the BIGGEST Marc Kinchen fan and the first time I ever went to MoS was to see him and his brother Scott Kinchen play a rare Dj set. The way he would completely fuck up vocals and come out with a completely new melody always really interested me, and his tracks or remixes always had a great groove and warmth to them. I still play a lot of his tracks (or edits of them) and they still sound great. Do You Need Me was just a record I really liked, as was Feels So Right. I really just liked the simple melody and groove and vocal samples - I think these kind of tracks can be so damn effective, and, when they are done right - you could just listen to them for days on end on a loop. I really like this sound and I’ve definitely tried the same approach in my production, but I’m not sure I’ve ever nailed it as good... yet!

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy



Taking a break from the dancefloor for a second... I was never really a huge Massive Attack fan and although I really liked Day Dreaming I could never really deal with 3D's ‘raps’ when I’d compare them to the likes of KRS 1, Masta Ace or Large Professor - so I never bought the Blue Lines album. But as soon as I got cable I was a huge fan of MTV and would just watch it on loop for hours. This was a time when video directors were really starting to get artistic and if you are gonna talk about this record you HAVE to talk about the video too. EVERYTHING about this track inspires me, the beat, the productions, the string arrangements, Shara Nelson's voice, the lyrics, the ‘one continuous tracking shot’ video and yes - even the 2 crazy girls in it towards the end throwing cabbages at each other. I guess its a bit of an easy/obvious choice but it doesn’t stop it being a ridiculously good piece of art. If I had made this record, I could quite easily die a happy man.

Cajmere feat. Dajae - Brighter Days
Cajmere feat. Dajae - You Got Me Up
Murk - If You Really Love Someone
Celeda - Be Yourself
Octave One - Blackwater

I had to include a great vocal house track(s) as, when done right, I really do love 'em! The Cajmere tracks and their accompanying double packs of remixes and dubs are still something I occasionally reach for when Djing and are inspirational in the sense that, they're all just so damn GOOD! Amongst so much crap that fills the record stores and online sites now, I really do think that releasing a full on, vocal house track, which is credible, is probably the most difficult thing a producer could do. I'm sure many producers don't give a shit about songs, and great vocalists, but I certainly do. The Murk track is great and I’m a big fan of the dub on the clear vinyl Tribal issue that I hunted down after hearing Marcel Dettman play it. I also wanted to include something on Tribal as it was such an amazing label that, again, definitely inspired me - I could almost do a top ten on them alone! The Celeda track reminds me of one of the first times I visited New York and seeing Tenaglia at Ark… or was it Vinyl? Or are they the same place? Anyway, seeing him play all night and Body and Soul on the Sunday was definitely inspirational to say the least. And Blackwater... I just love it! I must have every version of it that was released. The perfect marriage, for me at least, of the futuristic Detroit sound, combined with a great vocal - not a combination you get to hear that often.

Thomas Bangalter - Trax On Da Rocks vol.1
Le Knight Club - Boogie Shell
Romanthony - Rock Shock
Archigram - Carnaval



Where would we be without the robots and their friends? I've always been a real sucker for a well put together sample track and was a HUGE fan of Roule, Scratche and Crydamoure, so to say these labels inspired me is an understatement. From Trax on Da Rocks Vol. 1 with its jackin' Chicago-esque sort of sound, to the quirky funk of Romanthony, to the big room bang of Carnaval; just about every release had something to love. Definitely one of my favourites was the Sister Sledge sampling Boogie Shell, an amazing loop just worked to death but in such a way that you never got bored of it. This combined with a ton of subtle, constant changes and the trademark warmth that came across in all Crydamoure/Scratche/Roule tracks made it a staple in a lot of my sets around this time. Of course, I could also mention the influence and inspiration of all the Daft Punk albums too.... but I think they've all been discussed enough.

Alberto Iglesias - Lucia Y El Sexo (Original Score)
Nancy Wilson - Elevator Beat
Kath Bloom - Come Here



I've always been a huge film buff and studied a lot of foreign films for my degree (yes, I have a BA Hons. Degree - believe it or not!), something that I’ve kept up ever since. This score to Lucia Y El Sexo or Sex And Lucia is really, truly beautiful and definitely one of my favourites. It has some crazy ambient noises, some amazingly emotive parts and, most importantly, perfectly accompanies the film (which I also love). The film itself is pretty trippy and Iglesias' music manages to move from sounding malevolent one minute to completely blissed out the next, with consummate ease. Nearly every producer I know says they'd love to move into making film scores or supervising soundtracks and I’m no different, if I could get halfway as good as Alberto Iglesias - I’d be pretty damn happy! Elevator Beat is also from a film, this time, one that everyone but me seemed to hate, Vanilla Sky - what can I say - I’m a big Penelope Cruz fan! I love this track and find it inspirational because I think it's great how it manages to be so powerful and emotive without any lyrics, and using so few instruments. I know there are a lot of other tracks out there that do that too, but for some reason this track just does it for me. Finally, there is a lovely, beautiful, heart-wrenching song by Kath Bloom, which I first discovered on the Before Sunrise soundtrack. This song gets me every time and I’m a big fan of the film (and sequel) that it comes from too. I don't think I’ll ever be able to come up with something as good as this on any level - but surely inspirations should inspire you to try the (seemingly) impossible, non? Don’t worry - even if i do come close - I’ll get someone else to sing on it.

Ame - Rej



Every now and then a track/artist/collective/label comes along that completely changes the game, and I’d have to say there is no finer example of this than Ame and the Innervisons crew. I first heard Radio Slave play this at a club in Brighton when it had just come out, I’d listened to it in a record shop and, have to admit, I didn’t really ‘get it’. I thought it was cool but it didn't really hit me, that was, until I heard it out… this track is quite simply phenomenal and on so many different levels, the brooding energy that comes more and more to the fore as it progresses, the naggingly insistent arpeggios that bury into your subconscious and the simple, perfectly executed sound-bed it is all layered on, combine to create something that can easily be seen as akin to modern day ‘classical’ music. Yes, it IS that good. And it's inspirational, in the sense that it sets the benchmark pretty fucking high for the rest of us newbie’s/mere mortals.

It could have just as easily popped up on Warp, Planet E, Transmat or Underground Resistance but was actually on Innervisions, who continued, and went on to be, seen as the most rare of things - a classy record label. A label that concentrated on quality over quantity, great artwork and a small team of core members, while still not eschewing interesting new talent. I've seen Ame play (along with Dixon) a couple of times at Panorama Bar, here in Berlin, and their Dj sets are nothing short of incredible - moving from deep house to techno with ease, ensuring you're just as likely to hear a new unreleased Innervisons bomb as you are an old DJ Pierre record on Emotive, while also throwing in classics that you had almost forgotten about (the last time I heard them, they had people climbing up the walls as they dropped Armand Van Helden's oft forgotten collaboration with Roland Clarke, Flowerz, at around 2am). In short - this record did the single most difficult thing you can do in an industry of increasingly similar sounding producers/Djs - it broke new ground. 

Radio Slave - Modena

One Radio Slave track? How the hell do I pick one Radio Slave track?! Especially when he seems to make about 3 a week anyway!? And what can you say about someone who has all but created his very own genre of house/techno? Well, I could have picked Grindhouse or Screaming Hands or Secret Base or any number of other tracks by Mr Edwards, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Modena and it's always been somewhat of a (until now) secret weapon for me. As with all of Matt's tracks, it seems to be devastatingly simple until you notice all the tiny intricacies, buried amongst what can only be described as an audio collage - I could literally listen to this track on loop for days!

Matt is inspiring in a lot of ways, the way he can leap from making deep house on one release to tear-out techno on the next and loved up disco on the next is inspiring in itself. But I think he is as close to a ‘complete’ artist as you would hope to find in the electronic music community today, the only comparable Djs/producers that immediately spring to mind, for me, would be names like Laurent Garnier, Francois Kevorkian or Carl Craig.

I'm a huge fan of Matt's, whether it's his early work making epic, glitched out re-edits of hip hop or pop tracks, his work with Joel Martin as Quiet Village, or be it under his Rekid alias (the album Made In Menorca on Soul Jazz Records is a chill out masterpiece that never seemed to quite get the props it should have) or Radio Slave moniker. Artists like this are inspiring because (similar to the Innervisons crew mentioned above) - they care. They want the artwork to look amazing, they are happy to release a weird 109bpm record from a complete unknown, they are interested to do a collaboration with some crazy Japanese toy manufacturer and they want to do something DIFFERENT! In a beatport age, where an infinite amount of identikit labels compete to release as much ‘product’ (or banal, loop based tracks featuring South American vocals as I like to call them) as possible - this attitude is admirable in the very least. I admire people like Matt or Carl Craig or Laurent Garnier all for the same reason - because they are all attempting to do the same thing - push things forward. And they are doing it by jamming live in the booth with machines and turntables and keyboards, or they are inviting Italian piano prodigies to play with them at Space or they are playing and releasing an amazing amount of music, right across the board at a consistently, dizzyingly high rate/standard.

Storm Queen - Look Right Through



Aaaaaah - a new record! This track, produced by the excellent Morgan Geist, is inspiring simply because it exists and was released. It could have been made 10 years ago, it's got a phenomenal, heartfelt, beautifully sung vocal and the production is straight up quality. It could have been released any time in the last 10 years, but was actually released at the tail end of 2010, and the fact that great labels are releasing tracks like this, great Djs like myself (cough) are buying them and playing them, and the fact I can dance to them in clubs like Panorama Bar at 1am on a Sunday night is not only inspiring... but gives me hope for the future.

So there you have it.... I was asked for a Top Ten Inspirational Records and I give you 23 of 'em instead. Yes, I could have waxed lyrical about obscure Ron Hardy re-edits or exclusive tracks I have CDR's of - but that’s not really the point is it? Yes, it would have been cooler to say I was listening to Chez Damier records at the age of 16, instead of jungle, but I wasn't. And yes, I could have named a million different records that inspired me too... but I didn't. Today, off the top of my head and using my limited memory and brainpower.... it's all of the above... and I think, more or less, that it just about sums it all up.