Mother Tongue, Message Is Love  
Mother Tongue
Message Is Love
NED 1xLP 
Label: Rush Hour
Release Year: 2022
 
  First time (commercially available) 12" pressing of this seminal U.K. House production. Originally released in 1989. For fans of Dream 2 Science / Sha-Lor ao. TIP!

"The United Kingdom has long been an ardent supporter and consumer of African-American music. Dating back to the electrifying earliest performances of blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy during the early 1950s – an influence on Eric Clapton and John Lennon – right through to the dawn of Chicago house and onwards. In fan clubs, like the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, started by soul writer Dave Godin, to the numerous fan magazines that have documented dance music culture from Blues & Soul to Mixmag, there has been an extended obsession with black music culture.

This lineage continued into the house era, our generation’s defining dance genre, and one with which British producers were swift to adopt. This record is a prime example of this. Although Mother Tongue was a one-off project, its history is rooted in this long-standing culture stretching back decades. The main man behind Mother Tongue was a drummer and record producer named Richie Stevens. Stevens was steeped in music and the industry, thanks to his father, John Stevens, also a professional drummer. Stevens senior played in numerous jazz ensembles during the 1960s and onwards, including performing with Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and was a session player with John Martyn (among numerous others) during Martyn’s finest period (it’s John’s drumming you can hear on ‘Big Muff’).

His son, Richie, was playing professionally while still a teenager for the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and has subsequently backed everyone from Tina Turner and Simply Red to Hugh Masekela and George Clinton. He is also a long-term collaborator with Boy George. But the story of Mother Tongue begins with a band called Well Red. This group, effectively a studio creation by Richie and his then manager Martin Poole, recruited vocalist Lorenzo Hall, a fixture on the London reggae scene and sold the concept to Virgin Records. Well Red yielded two albums – Motion and Respect Due – but never really got the crossover success their songs perhaps deserved. “Virgin were very supportive of us,” recalls Poole, today. “They gave us a lot of money. They pumped money into it, and it never quite paid off, but we did okay. We recouped and got to make a second album with George Clinton. It was a good move, recording with him. It did us a lot of good here and in America. We did pretty well in the US. We were very well-supported over there.”

This same team, working in a tiny studio near Richie’s house in Wood Green, north London, called The Watershed, produced ‘Message Is Love’. It features the vocals of Syn-Dee (Sindy Finn) and Lovebase (Louise Porter), who co-wrote the track with Richie and Alan Lane, another Stevens collaborator, and Ian ‘Spy’ Austin, who’d previously played in the same reggae band, The Instigators, as Lorenzo Hall from Well Red. “Remember it well,” says Martin Poole. “We were just writing it there and then in the studio. It was me, Richie, Spy, and I think Syn-Dee was there as well. When I got home later, Richie played it to me over the phone and I said, ‘That just sounds brilliant,’ from how we'd started it off, you know?” Thanks to their experience in the studio with Well Red, they managed to produce a song that has the timeless feel of all good music.

Mother Tongue was the opening track on a compilation called On The Loose Volume 1 on their own Furious Fish Records. Every track on the album, despite having different artist credits, was done by Stevens and Poole, often using a rotating cast of characters that had also appeared on ‘Message Of Love’. Although it did not sell especially well at the time, it’s become a collector’s item over the years. This is the first time Mother Tongue has appeared as a 12-inch single, a long overdue (but very welcome) happening. "
 
      Wish List  
  Price: CHF 17.00   Currently not on stock!
Please check back later or call us for more information:
+41 (0)43 322 02 04
 
  Releases of the same artist  
  No items found ..  
  Releases of the same label  
   Linda  
Linda "Babe" Majika / Thoughts Visions And Dreams Featuring Ray
Let's Make a Deal
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 18.00 Add To Cart
 
  Aardvarck, Well, Well, Well  
Aardvarck
Well, Well, Well
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 16.00 Add To Cart
 
  Arp Frique, Nyame Ye  
Arp Frique
Nyame Ye
[Rush Hour]
NED 7inch  Wish List
CHF 16.00 Restocking!
 
  Awanto 3, Party Volume 1  
Awanto 3
Party Volume 1
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 17.00 Restocking!
 
  Boo Williams, Residual EP  
Boo Williams
Residual EP
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 17.00 Add To Cart
 
  Chicco, Shigomase  
Chicco
Shigomase
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 18.00 Restocking!
 
  Cinnaman & Jay Scarlett present..., Beat Dimensions Vol. 2 EP 4  
Cinnaman & Jay Scarlett present...
Beat Dimensions Vol. 2 EP 4
[Rush Hour]
TIP  
NED 7inch  Wish List
CHF 15.00 Add To Cart
 
  Daniel Wang, The Balihu Bootleg E.P.  
Daniel Wang
The Balihu Bootleg E.P.
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 10.00 Restocking!
 
  Djosa, Botanica Obscura  
Djosa
Botanica Obscura
[Rush Hour]
NED 7inch  Wish List
CHF 17.00 Restocking!
 
  Dream 2 Science, Dream 2 Science  
Dream 2 Science
Dream 2 Science
[Rush Hour]
TIP  
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 18.00 Add To Cart
 
  Erb, The Weekend  
Erb
The Weekend
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 15.00 Add To Cart
 
  Gene Hunt, Cancemnini EP  
Gene Hunt
Cancemnini EP
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 12.00 Add To Cart
 
  Gigi Testa, Esoteric Paradise  
Gigi Testa
Esoteric Paradise
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 15.00 Add To Cart
 
  Gigi Testa, Jinja  
Gigi Testa
Jinja
[Rush Hour]
NED 12inch  Wish List
CHF 17.00 Add To Cart
 
  Haruomi Hosono, N.D.E  
Haruomi Hosono
N.D.E
[Rush Hour]
NED 2xLP  Wish List
CHF 32.00 Restocking!
 
21 Savage
American Dream
[Slaughter Gang]
Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
Souvenirs
[Mississippi Records]
Major Arcana
Major Arcana
[Out-Sider]
Manillio
Deheim
[Bakara Music]
Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Magnetic Sunshine
[Library Of The Occult]
Tara Clerkin Trio
On the Turning Ground
[World Of Echo]
  1. Earl Sweatshirt & Alchemist
Voir Dire
 
  2. Mogwaa
Translucent
 
  3. CCO
Sonic Atmospheres
 
  4. TamTam
Ramble In The Rainbow
 
  5. Benedek
Southland Mystic EP
 
  6. Dimitri Grimm
For Beauty's Source
 
  7. Fugees
The Score
 
  8. VA
Instrumental Dubs 2
 
  9. Arctic Monkeys
AM
 
  10. Che
The Incident