BY Cesar de Melero
for me
Liquid Liquid, is one of my favorite bands from the 80s, and I say band, because at that time DJs were not considered as producers, simply because DJs did not produce as they do now. In the 80s, DJs produced only Hip Hop.
Liquid Liquid was a New York, no-wave and dance-punk group, originally active from 1980 to 1983, and consisted of:
Dennis Young – guitar, marimba and keyboards.
Richard McGuire – bass and keyboards.
Salvatore Principato – singer.
Scott Hartley – drums and percussion
They started out as Liquid Idiot. To this day, and especially in the underground dance sound channels of the 80s, they are well known for their song “Cavern”, which was covered by the Sugar Hill Records band, Grand Master Flash & Melle Mel for the classic of rap “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”. At that time, music was already beginning to be created using fragments from other records, from other tracks.
They baptized their sound as “Big Beat”, which over the years was an English movement of a type of electronic music nothing to do with theirs.
The original records of the group were printed in very limited quantities on 99 Records, and now they are hard to find, and their price is very high.
“Cavern”, which is the track that I present to you today, originally appeared on the EP “Optimo”, recorded by Don Hunerberg. A true classic today. Michael Sporn produced the music video.
I was always a lover of bass, and I was playing it for many years until paradoxically when I became a DJ I stopped doing it regularly.
The bass line of “Cavern” was very simple but very percussive and effective at the same time. I enjoyed playing it, and in what way, with my band “de La Motta”, in those effervescent 80s. How we had fun doing covers in the rehearsal rooms on Calle Aldana in Barcelona. It has rained … (almost forty years by God!)
After “Cavern” was sampled for Grandmaster & Melle Mel’s old school rap classic “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”, 99 Records took Sugarhill to court for unauthorized use of the line. Bass from “Cavern” and, after a costly court battle, won compensation. However, before the Liquid Liquid guys could get paid, Sugarhill went into bankruptcy and it all came to a bluff.
Recently, albeit a few years ago, LCD Soundsystem held their farewell concert in the U.S.A at Madison Square Garden in New York City with Liquid Liquid as the opening act.
To this day, some of the members of the band continue to produce music, as is the case with Principato. McGuire on the other hand, is a graphic designer and makes movies.