Michael Moog – That Sound

Thursday February 24, 2011 · By

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/michael-moog-that-sound/32293

This is the stupidest reason for an update ever, but we just renewed the domain and figured we should do SOMETHING with it.

Basically, I was listening to the 70’s channel on Sirius/XM, because the 70’s are awesome and the Sirius electronic selection is utter garbage. It’s also the best place for trainspotting since they took The Strobe (disco) off the air.

So what comes on but The Spinners – I’ll Be Around, an excellent (if a bit creepy) tune with a great little string hit on the break. I knew I’d heard this riff (2:00 in the video) in at least one early disco-house track. I knew it from some random dj set, and knew that it faded into Armand Van Helden’s “U Don’t Know Me”, but couldn’t quite place the artist.

Eventually I had to cheat to track this one down. Honestly, there’s nothing that special about the song. It’s classic 1999 filtered house, and might bring back some memories for party people of a certain age, but why is it on ELVAD?

Three reasons: 1) like I said, I figured it was overdue to post SOMETHING, and this happened to be in the hopper; 2) he’s just trying so hard in this video, and you just know he can’t play any of those instruments… he’s even got a little dance routine, it’s adorable; 3) well he “plays” the instruments and sings but isn’t the dj, kind of interesting in that WTF IS THAT ARMAND VAN HELDEN?

Seriously, WTF? I can’t find AVH’s name attached to this song anywhere, other than the fact that it was released on NYC’s Strictly Rhythm label. Was he actually the producer here, with Moog providing only the vocals? Or was he actually famous enough in 1999 that the label asked him to add “star power” to the video? The answers are lost to time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this foray into the past… makes me want to look up some other disco/filtered house hits and party like it’s 1999 (literally).

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