Pump Up The Volume (song)
"Pump Up the Volume" is a song and the only single by British recording act MARRS. Recorded and released in 1987, it was a number-one hit in many countries and is sometimes regarded as a significant milestone in the development of British house music and music sampling. The song derives its title directly from a lyrical sample from "I Know You Got Soul", a hit single by 4th & B'way/Island labelmates, Eric B. & Rakim, released only months prior in that same year.
The single was the product of an uneasy collaboration between electronica-fusion group Colourbox and alternative rock band A R Kane, two groups signed to the independent label 4AD. The link-up was suggested by label founder Ivo Watts-Russell after the two groups had independently sounded him out about the possibility of releasing a commercially oriented dance record, inspired by the American house music that was starting to make an impact on the British charts. When the M|A|R|R|S project was first released early in 1987, the popularity of the style of the song had already started to grow.
Just as important to M|A|R|R|S in the long run was the underground dance scene which was beginning to emerge in the UK, particularly records such as "Say Kids What Time Is It?" by Coldcut and "All You Need Is Love" by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. These sample-heavy dance records were critically acclaimed, but failed to achieve mainstream success.
Read more about Pump Up The Volume (song): Production, Influence, Samples Used, Notes
Famous quotes containing the words pump and/or volume:
“My nurses, those starchy ghosts,
hover over me for my lame hours
and my lame days. The mechanics
of the body pump for their tricks.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“F.R. Leavis’s “eat up your broccoli” approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy. If reading a novel—for the eighteenth century reader, the most frivolous of diversions—did not, by the middle of the twentieth century, make you a better person in some way, then you might as well flush the offending volume down the toilet, which was by far the best place for the undigested excreta of dubious nourishment.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)