Search - Timelords :: History of the Jams

The Timelords really Doctor the TARDIS and samples

Daniel J. Hamlow | Narita, Japan | 12/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Taking sampling to its logical conclusions was revolutionary in the 80's. Tone-Loc himself sampled McCartney's "Band On The Run", and Van Halen's "Jamie's Crying". 2 Live Crew used Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' About Love" on As Nasty As They Wanna Be, and who knows how much Zeppelin was used on the Beastie Boys.Then there are the Jams (Justified Ancients of Mu Mu), one of the aliases used by the Kopyright Liberation Front (read KLF), a duo of Scottish rap-pillage artists with strong brogues who made it to #1 in the UK with "Doctorin' The TARDIS", a song familiar to Dr. Who fans. Their basic sound consists of loud rapping, scratching, loud guitar chords, and ripe drum machine synthsA loud irreverent vocalization of the first notes from the La Marseillaise comes, followed by a brief "love, love, love" from the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." And then... "KICK OUT THE JAMS, M---------ERS!" And later on, do I hear Samantha Fox's "touch me, touch me" from her best known single? Yes, I do. A collage of fierce AC-DC guitar chords, human beat box-type sounds, scratching, samples follow the rest of the raucous opening track, "All You Need Is Love.""Don't Take Five (Take What You Want)" is advice given to the rappers by a man with antler ears and is basically a story about how the rappers make it rich. TV commercials or programems are sampled, but the main musical sample is "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck, done briefly."Mission Impossible, we were told. She'll never join the Jams." The "she" in question is Whitney Houston, and the loud brass climactic chords from the Theme from Shaft, along with Hayes' "can you dig it" and "right on" being heard. Then, the telltale percussion from "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is heard, and then that opening whoop from Whitney, to which the Jams cheer. "Oh! Whitney Houston joined the Jams!" to which Isaac Hayes says "right on, right on!" More Whitney and Hayes are heard later on. This is crazy! I was surprised Houston didn't sue them the same way ABBA did."Porpoise Song" is not the song by the Monkees from Head, but a drum machine/rap and scratch that samples airy synths from Pet Shop Boys and takes the rhythm from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." I really miss that scratching from the 80's. Look at rap now!"Candyman" is a song centered around Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady." Later on, a brief sample from Richard Wagner's "Die Valkure," the track featured in Apocalypse Now, is played, over weird special effects."Burn The Beat" is a party jamming in full swing. "can't stand the party" a la Sly and the Family's "Dance To The Music" can be heard. After a sampling of Michael Jackson's "Bad", the song jars to a halt to the traditional New Year's Eve countdown on BBC1, leading to Big Ben's chimes ushering in the New Year.And then... "Doctor who, hey doctor who, doctor who, hey, the TARDIS..." sung a la the chorus of Gary Glitter's "Rock And Roll Pt. 2" and then the wheezing and grinding sound of the TARDIS, a Dalek's "exterminate!" A wailing siren predominates in parts of the song. The Who theme used is the new one used in 1980, and thudding drums. The line "we obey no one, we are the supreme beings" are taken from Episode 6 of Genesis Of The Daleks. This was used in the inbetween segments of The Making of Silver Nemesis."Gary In The TARDIS" is like the previous number, except with Gary Glitter vocals, where chants for Gary, and Gary asking, "Did you miss me? Do you love me? Do you want to touch me?" References to being the leader of the gang is mixed in with mention of the TARDIS. The Dalek still says his lines from Genesis.The liner notes also contain a timeline of the Jams, including their ruthless sampling of many artists until ABBA sued them for using "Dancing Queen" sans permission. Result, they had to destroy all copies of their first album and reissue it with all the samples taken off, leaving wide gaps between raps(!!)This was one of the few CDs I bought in 1990, and I listened to it over and over as a result. One of my favourite CDs."

Take what you want!

Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 05/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The Jams) formed in 1987. The tracks on this CD are taken from their various early singles and LPs. The group also recorded as The Timelords, KLF and 2K. The Jams were a sample crazed production team that took sampling to the extreme. They made a lot of really interesting music sampling anything they felt like sampling. Consequently, they got sued a lot. Anyway, this is a really fun CD that features some of their work that they got permission to release, including their first real hit "Doctorin' the Tardis". If you like that song, you'll probably like the rest of the CD. It even incudes a Christmas song, "Downtown", and a New Years song, "Burn the Beat"."