Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Thunderpuss

If I made a compilation CD entitled "My Musical Childhood: Edited" it would probably be dominated by Thunderpuss (aka Chris Cox & Barry Harris). When Thunderpuss was formed in late 1997, I doubt they had any idea that their sound would dominate the world's dance music genre.

Their songs became the ones everyone knew and preferred. Whether it's Whitney's "It's Not Right, But It's Ok" or Amber's "Sexual (Li Da Di)", their music had staying power which is relevant today just as much as it was then. Go to any club and throw on either of those and watch the place erupt.

What's even better about them is that they almost ALWAYS made official radio edits and managed to get them PERFECTLY! It's very rare that I would ever have to even make my own, unless there just isn't one!

They've given us so much great music and I'm so happy and proud to display some of it here. So without further ado: Thunderpuss.

Amber - Sexual (Li Da Di) (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**Does anyone NOT know this song? Classic classic classic!**

Anastacia - Boom (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**This song wasn't a huge success (it never even charted in the US) but it was the official song for the 2002 Fifa World Cup in Korea and the highest it got was any chart was #7, in Sweden. I love this song and this is one of those rare remixes that actually works on it's own as just a tribe-a-pella. Even the club mix is pretty simple at times, without a lot of synth work at all.**

Boomkat - The Wreckoning (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**Boomkat is made up of brother and sister Kellin & Taryn Manning who's first CD, 2003's "Boomkatalog.One" seemed full of promise...however, aside from a cult following, the CD only reached #88 here (reaching it's highest peak at#43 in New Zealand). Now, five years later, the group just released their second CD "A Million Trillion Stars" in June. This song though, the ambitious lead single from their first CD has Taryn screaming out lyrics like "You don't give a shit about me!", paired with Thunderpuss' almost distorted sounding synths is a dance music dream!**

Charlotte Church - Tonight (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**Nothing about Charlotte Church should've brought her close to a dancefloor lol. This mini-me Sarah Brightman had an established career becoming the youngest artist with a #1 album in the British classical crossover charts (for her cd "Voice Of An Angel"). In 2001, Charlotte released "Enchantment" which followed in the same footsteps as her first two CD's, this one including a duet/cover of Celine & Andrea Bocelli's "The Prayer" with pop-opera favorite Josh Grobin. Track one is this song, a cover of the classic "West Side Story" showstopper and how it landed in Thunderpuss' lap, I'll never know but I'm SO glad it did! They took this song to place it never dreamed of going!! I had the opportunity to see Thunderpuss live at Roxy in NYC and they played this and it was INSANE!!! The vocal tricks in this mix are to DIE for!!!**

Cher - Song For The Lonely (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**Believe it or not, this isn't one of my favorite Cher songs. It's a great song and I do like it alot, but I could do without it...It's just eh to me. Thunderpuss did what they do best though and made magic with it. Being such a huge fan of Cher though, it was always great to hear her voice in the clubs! I also just had to include that picture which is the cover for the European promo single. It's so rediculous, I love her!!**

Christina Aguilera - What A Girl Wants (JM's Thunderpuss Radio Edit)
**This song always bothered me for one reason. The lyric: "I wanna thank you for giving me time to breathe. Like a rock, you waited so patiently while I got it together..." is so rediculous! Rocks don't wait patiently. It's not like they have a choice, do they? Ah well. It was a huge hit for her and we get two different remixes here from Thunderpuss. The Fiesta Mix and the Dirty Club Mix. The Fiesta one is full of horns and has a latin flair which is fun, but I don't think it works that well with this song. The Dirty one is just that; Dirty industrial sounding synths make this mix work better and take a much younger Aguilera then on a wild ride!**
Eurythmics - 17 Again (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**This song has the distinction of being the most money I've ever paid for a piece of vinyl. $40 bucks got me the Peter Rauhofer vinyl which was pressed by Peter himself and only sent out to a very select few. Mere pittance for something of that caliber and at the time when this song was making waves, I just HAD to have it! When I heard that Thunderpuss did a mix, I was thrilled as well, but could it beat the masterpiece that was Peter's mix?? Well, I dunno if it beats it, but it's definitely on the same level. Much more of a pop sounding remix, this one has sick energy and great buildups that are just SO Thunderpuss!**

Janet Jackson - All For You (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**This has to be some of Thunderpuss' best vocal work. This and their mix for Mandy Moore's "In My Pocket" sees Thunderpuss making the most of their vocal re-working capabilites and this was the perfect song to do it on. By far, my all time favorite Janet remix!**
Kina - Me (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**ANTHEM ALERT!!! ANTHEM ALERT!!! Most people know Kina from when she was in the Grammy nominated band Brownstone but back in 2000 she set off on what should've been a very successful solo career. She released her first single "Girl From The Gutter" which peaked at #21 on the Hot Dance/Club Play charts (with amazing mixes from both Thunderpuss and Hex Hector--both of which will be featured in due time) but single number two, "Me" is where it's at!! Thunderpuss rips this song apart!!! This song made it to #3 on the same charts and it's easy to see why! I couldn't have edited this song more perfectly if I tried. DOWNLOAD THIS NOW!!!! lol**
LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight (Thunderpuss Radio Edit) **Official Edit**
**Can you believe that LeAnn has released 35 singles in her career from 12 albums? Wow. This song off the Coyote Ugly soundtrack was LeAnn's first foray into straight up pop music and it was a good choice! It went #1 on the pop charts in Australia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK (stalling at #11 on the US pop chart, #17 on the US dance chart--Do we EVER have a clue music wise??). This song, to date, was the last song by LeAnn to chart in the top forty Hot 100 chart. Im sure that all the able-bodied remixers jumped at their chance to remix this. It was made for the dance floor. Plasmic Honey, Graham Stack and Thunderpuss all got their chances to take this song on and Thunderpuss was a cut above the rest. This mix is made of vocal stutters and buildups!**
Thunderpuss feat Thea Austin - First Class Freak (JM's Ripped Radio Edit)
**Thunderpuss first got together with Thea Austin (who many don't realize was the voice behind 1992's "Rhythm Is A Dancer" by Snap and 1999's "Can't Get Enough" by Soulsearcher) for the song "You're The Worst Thing For Me" which I've posted previously and it was awesome! This song, which unfortunately never saw a proper release, was featured on their compilation CD "Barry Harris & Chris Cox preset Thunderpuss". If anyone has a full mix, I'd be greatly appreciative, but till then, I ripped this from the cd and polished the edges a bit. Enjoy!**

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, these are some blasts from the past. Thanks for posting them.