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09 Feb 2010

 

 

War Of The Worlds

 

Jeff Wayne's musical retelling of The War of the Worlds by HG Wells must be one of the most-sampled albums ever. I think it's Richard Burton's grave and forboding narration that does it. The man's voice just sounds great laid on top of a spooky or atmospheric track. There's also the subject matter of Martians attacking earth and laying waste to towns and villages with enormous alien machines. Science fiction has always appealed to dance music producers, meaning this is the perfect sampling resource. The music is also rather good, if a little cheesy at times.

 

There's an album of War of the Worlds remixes that includes a nice reworking of Dead London by Apollo 440. But the best examples I can think of come from drum & bass. Take Another Planet by Pendulum. "I wandered through the weird and lurid landscape of another planet," says Burton just before that well-known synth line comes in. The later quotes also come from him, for instance "suddenly there was a change". These are taken straight from War of the Worlds.

 

Logistics loves the Wayne musical so much he faithfully covered the tune Thunderchild on his 2005 EP Release the Pressure. The same EP features Summer Sun, also using large samples from War of the Worlds and featuring that tell-tale vocal sample "the timeless worlds of space". I've lost count of how many times I've heard that snippet in various drum & bass tracks. Something about it seems to tap into d&b producers' love of the futuristic and alien. Plus there's an unintended reference to Goldie's seminal Timeless album.

 

Can you name any other dance tracks that have sampled War of the Worlds? If we can get enough together we could petition to have Jeff Wayne inducted into the Knowledge Hall of Fame for most-sampled artists. He could occupy a place beside James Brown and MJ.

 

 

 

 


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