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Colourbox, "Best of 82/87"

I doubt there is one person reading this who doesn't know "Pump Up TheVolume," but how many know the history of Colourbox up until thatmoment, possibly 4AD's biggest worldwide smash in their entireexistence?Martin and Steven Young (the M and the S in M/A/R/R/S) hadbeen influenced by the dub/rock/dance hybrid music coming out of NewYork in the early 1980s but unlike many of their contemporaries didn'tinvest anything into their personal image. 4AD was a perfect match asthe label had artistic visions for covers and the like while thebrothers Young preferred to be faceless and rather distant. While Ialways respected Colourbox, I found their output was alwayshit-and-miss. I was more into their primitive pre-sampler sound collagebits and not so much into their vocal 12" single tracks. Songs like"Sleepwalker" never did anything for me, but as soon as that vocalsample "Let's Hear Some Music" rips into the opening of "Hot Doggie,"fond memories of that 'Lonely is an Eyesore' comp bring a smile to myface. Sure, the music is dated, but this is a very tastefully donearchive, including "The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme," and the12" single and video of "Pump Up the Volume." To its credit, "Pump Upthe Volume" was a very important song, giving way to many futuresamplers, igniting the careers of Ofra Haza and Eric B & Rakim,while Martin and Steven kept losing lawsuits. How did they follow up anumber one single? They stopped recording. - 

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