Benny Hill riddim

Dancehall outdoes itself in the silliness stakes once again, demonstrating at the same time its skill in co-opting even the most outlandish sources and reversioning them in an interesting and devastating way.

This time, producer and artist Leftside samples Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax, perhaps best known as the theme tune for The Benny Hill Show, to create a fast-paced bashment rhythm propelled by handclaps, sax riffs and parping brass stabs.

MP3: Leftside - Benny Hill Riddim

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It's not dissimilar in concept to Leftside's criminally underrated 2006 Big Band riddim for the Gravi-T label, which never got the attention it deserved despite great vocals from Kiprich & Blacker, T.O.K. and General Degree.

This riddim at least looks like it won't suffer that fate: as soon as I heard it on Young Lion's excellent BBC 1Xtra show last week I knew I had to blog about it and also thought it sounded like a hit. And since then it's been flagged up by Cyan Wait, DanceCrasher and the people of Dissensus, though not always in a positive way...

I'm definitely with Pure Fire's Peter Gunn on the riddim's greatness and I love the sheer exuberance of Elephant Man's No Tikkle: "She nuh want Benny Hill, Benny Hill; want climb up Ele hill, Ele hill".

MP3: Elephant Man - No Tikkle

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Due to its use on The Benny Hill Show to accompany comedy chase scenes I've always associated this tune with a quaint, ridiculous and possibly politically incorrect old-fashioned Englishness. Actually I've never even seen the TV show, but references to it pop up everywhere and in fact I saw it on an episode of The Simpsons just a week or two ago.

So it's funny to hear Lady Saw and Leftside vocalling the rhythm track with hilarious country and western accents, though once the tune is divorced from its previous cultural context it's easy to see the country connection.

MP3: Lady Saw - Jealous

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And the Jamaica-Nashville link up isn't as unlikely as it might seem, as is made clear by the Skatalites' use of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire, Lady Saw's 90s hit Give Me A Reason or 2004's outrageous Chaka Chaka riddim by Fire Links.

MP3: Leftside - Cowboy

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But still, the cultural confusion that is Leftside's Cowboy is pretty crazy, in a good way: hoe down pastiche, old English comedy, a vaguely distasteful pimps'n'hos theme, robotic autotune and a hint of Leftside's Dr Evil alter ego!

Timberlee's cut on the riddim pretty much entirely eschews the Yakety Sax melody and is definitely my favourite song about high heels since Ashanti & Nelly's Switch. I love how Timberlee also flips interestingly between vacuous American fashion speak, syrupy autotuned eurodance vocals and pure Jamaican chatting in what is probably her strongest release since last year's Bubble Like Soup.

MP3: Timberlee - Heels

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Posted by Gabriel | Wednesday 17 September 2008