Talk:MARRS

Untitled

Okay, why is this article a "stub", when the november 5 edit gives the full story? Why was all this material removed? 85.165.5.149 22:04, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. since then the article has been "refurbished" but material from this old version should probably still be re-included:

MARRS (or M/A/R/R/S or M|A|R|R|S) was a one-off recording act from 1987 whose sole release was the single "Pump Up The Volume", which was a UK number one hit and a significant milestone in the development of British house music and sampling culture. "Pump Up The Volume" is considered the first UK #1 to contain samples from other songs.

Context

"Pump Up The Volume" was the product of an uneasy collaboration between Colourbox and A R Kane, two groups on the independent art-pop 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 MARRS project was first mooted early in 1987, the style had already spawned two major hits - Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around" in the autumn of 1986, and Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body", which reached number one in January 1987. But just as important to MARRS in the long run was the underground dance scene which was beginning to emerge in the UK, particularly records such as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's "All You Need Is Love" and Coldcut's "Say Kids, What Time Is It?". These sample-heavy dance records were critically acclaimed, but were not mainstream hits.

The record

However, the collaboration did not go entirely to plan. Once in the studio, the groups' different working methods and personalities failed to gel. Producer Jon Fryer found himself in the middle and unable to resolve the conflict between the two camps. The result was that instead of working together, the two groups ended up recording a track each, then turning it over to the other for additional input. Colourbox came up with "Pump Up The Volume", a percussion-led near-instrumental, while A.R. Kane created the more deliberately arty "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)" in another studio. Colourbox then added a heavy drum-machine rhythm and effects to "Anitina" and A.R. Kane overdubbed some additional guitar to "Pump Up The Volume". The coup de grace, however, was the addition of scratch mix effects and samples by DJs C.J. Macintosh and Dave Dorrell.

The two tracks were released to UK dance clubs in July 1987, with no artist or label credit. "Pump Up The Volume" proved to be the more popular side and was the track more heavily promoted (in particular, it was the track for which an accompanying video was produced) when 4AD released the 12" single (as, officially, a double A side) on August 24. It entered the UK singles chart the following week at number 35, a strong initial showing for an unknown act, especially on 12" sales only. However, what gave "Pump Up The Volume" its commercial edge was the remix released a week later. This remix became the best-known version of the track, transforming it by the addition of numerous samples which provided the record with additional hooks besides its oft-repeated title chant - Public Enemy shouting "You're gonna get yours!", the title line from Criminal Element Orchestra's "Put The Needle To The Record" (a minor house hit from earlier the same year), samples from The Bar-Kays "Holy Ghost", and most distinctively, a speeded-up sample of Israeli singer Ofra Haza's "Im Nin Alu". It was this remix, rather than the original, which was edited down to create the 7" version of the track, which began picking up radio play.

As the record climbed the charts, however, the single ran into legal difficulties. With "Pump Up The Volume" standing at number two, an injunction was obtained against it by Stock Aitken Waterman, who objected to the use of a sample from their hit single "Roadblock". Distribution was held up for several days while negotiations took place, which resulted in an undertaking that overseas releases would not include the "Roadblock" sample. Dave Dorrell later stated that he believed SAW would never have noticed the highly-distorted sample had he not rashly boasted about it in a radio interview. Many observers suggested that SAW's motives had just as much to do with extending the run of their production, "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, at the top of the chart. "Pump Up The Volume" went on to spend two weeks at number one in October 1987 and was also, minus the "Roadblock" sample, a hit in many other countries.

Influence

As the first big British-made house hit, "Pump Up The Volume" marked a turning-point in the popularity of the genre. Eric B & Rakim's "Paid In Full", which entered the top 20 in November, sold on the strength of a Coldcut remix which unashamedly recycled elements from the MARRS single (though the original artists, an American rap duo, were reported to hate the mix). This was a very rapid response indeed, since "Pump Up The Volume" seemed to catch the record industry off-guard. It wasn't until February 1988, a good four months after "Pump Up The Volume" reached the top ten, that the floodgates truly opened. Like "Pump Up The Volume", many of the first major wave of British house hits were on independent labels. Not all of them displayed an obvious influence from MARRS, though many did. While Two Men, A Drum Machine And A Trumpet's "Tired Of Getting Pushed Around", one of the first such hits, was principally just a dance groove with minimal use of samples, it was the sampling angle that made most impact on the public consciousness in the short term. Among the hits clearly following in MARRS' footsteps were "Beat Dis" by Bomb the Bass, "Theme From S'Express" by S'Express and "Doctorin' The House" by Coldcut. These in turn spawned imitators from across Europe and the USA. The sample montage craze would soon burn itself out, since many of the later records relied heavily on recycling the same samples already heard on the hits mentioned above. The style was also parodied, notably by Star Turn on 45 Pints, with their UK hit Pump up the Bitter, and by Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney single. More significantly, the house boom of 1988 would later come to influence later dance music styles, including the "rave" scene and, in a different form, "Madchester".

MARRS themselves never even came close to recording again. A.R. Kane gave interviews to the music press in which they explained that while they were proud to have been part of MARRS, it was not an experience they were keen to repeat. They were particularly unhappy at having their contribution to "Pump Up The Volume" all but removed from the track (though this may have been the decision of Dorrell, Fryer and/or Macintosh, rather than Colourbox). Colourbox attempted to carry on using the name MARRS, but were not willing to pay the £100,000 that A.R.Kane wanted for full rights to the name, and the project remained a one-off.