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This is the fourth Great Stuff Roots Edition after Rocker’s Hi-Fi, Pressure Drop and Margot Meets The Melody Maker’s ‘Torch’

You may recall Nicolette’s vocal style was described as “Billie Holiday on acid” and was the vocalist on Massive Attack’s album Protection as well as being heavily involved with the drum & bass project Shut Up And Dance.

Gilles Peterson, always on the look out for new talent for his Talkin’ Loud label, signed her up and released ‘No Government’ which was one of the most popular and influential of all of the label’s releases. The original, with it’s anarchic message ended up on the soundtrack to Mission Impossible, but before that Gilles was never happy with one promo/remix release when he could do 10. So ‘No Government’ was subject to a plethora of remix releases at the time (my favourite, Berlin’s Alex Reese version that appeared on the 21st Century Soul ten years ago) but you thought they’d never be another?

Well you weren’t banking on Rainer and the Roots Edition Series. He told me last year, “Yeah, I was a big Talkin’ Loud fan back in the days. Always quality and as you can see now, many classics in their catalogue. I just moved house and had to sort my record collection out, when my Talkin’ Loud collection fell into my hands. And the Nicolette original was the one that still stood out. Simply amazing vocals”.

In fact, the original gets a modern day re-mastering and it sounds just as good as it ever did; slightly out there headonistic poetry set to an Indo-jazz blues March. Certainly gets you in the mood for the new versions. Rainer knows exactly who will excel as he calls up Tocadisco and by Vienna’s producer/DJ duo Makossa & Megablast.

Makossa & Megablast fresh from Daniel Haakman’s Funk Mundial duties with ‘Late Que Eu Tô Passando’ and a timely reminder their Kunuaka is in the top five albums of the year! Hey, we love Makossa & Megablast at Fly almost as much as Great Stuff so you can take it as read; their signature Afro-dub-house-electro treatment suits the original trip-hoppy acid jazz dnb period.

And not to be outdone, Tocadisco enters into the spirit of things with a Brian Auger & The Trinity inspired disco dub with synths and big strings. Could we possible get Julie Tippetts (nee Driscoll) to sing over this? Too much to ask but she was very good at Unsafe3 recently.

Heady times for Rainer as this 12” follows his debut (totally solo) release, ‘Bamboo’/’Very Nice’ and after the success of Gregor Tresher’s ‘A Thousand Nights’ they’ve got the album coming out soon. And there’s a big club night Trocadisco 12” called ‘Shrine’ also coming soon on Great Stuff.

With all this going on, the power crazed madness is making them think there’s no government to control them. And what another brilliant cover!

Hectic Mix: all of them but especially the Dub and the Deep Dub.

Reviewed: Nicolette — No Government (Roots Edition) (Great Stuff) GSR056 Release date: 5th December 2007)
Tracklisting
Nicolette — No Government (Tocadisco’s Lazy Days Remix)
Nicolette — No Government (Tocadisco Dub)
Nicolette — No Government (Original Re-mastered)
Nicolette — No Government (Makossa & Megablast Remake)
Nicolette — No Government (Makossa & Megablast Deep Dub)

Links:
www.myspace.com/makossamegablast
www.greatstuff.eu.com
Tocadisco (aka Roman Böer) is Spanish for ‘record player’. He started his DJ career in 1996 at Düsseldorf’s Unique Club. A remix für Slam’s “Lifetimes” was his breakthrough as producer when the track was voted among the best remixes of the year 2001 in the reader poll of Groove magazine.
www.tocadisco.com
www.myspace.com/djtocadisco
www.myspace.com/nicolettemusic
www.myspace.com/alecempire6666
www.plaid.co.uk