FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
The Streets – Original Pirate Material
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FOR this edition of Vinyl Corner…
IN THIS PHOTO: Mike Skinner (The Streets) in 2002/PHOTO CREDIT: Harry Borden
I was keen to feature The Streets’ Original Pirate Material. I have been a huge fan of The Streets since that album came out in 2002 – it must rank alongside the best debut albums ever released. It is a wonderful immersive and accomplished album from Mike Skinner (The Streets). If you can get it on vinyl then do so, as it is truly wonderful. The album was mostly recorded in a South London flat Skinner was renting at the time, and it was put together using a laptop and digital audio software. Mixing influences of U.K. Garage and U.S. Hip-Hop, it was not a surprise that Original Pirate Material was a big success. Skinner’s incredible lyrics and lo-fi songs get in the head and stay in the heart. Singles such as Has It Come to This? and Let’s Push Things Forward are classics that sound incredible nearly twenty years after the album’s release. One can hear the influence of American Hip-Hop and Skinner himself stated how groups like Wu-Tang Clan were big influences. The lyrics and vibe of the album, mind, puts us on the London streets; in cafes and settings that are distinctly British. Skinner’s main drive was to incorporate the emerging and rising British Garage scene of the late-’90s, and make the album genuine. He could not well discuss the same sort of themes you’d hear in Hip-Hop: boasting about wealth and trying to be American. A flash and braggadocio-laden album would not have played well.
Original Pirate Material is full of confidence, but it is much humbler and more grounded than a lot of Hip-Hop records. I think it is the relatability of the album that makes it so enduring. I do think those who have not experienced Original Pirate Material should snap it up on vinyl. Although Skinner followed the album with the immense A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004), I still think his debut is his finest moment. The reviews for Original Pirate Material – with very few exceptions – were hugely positive. This is AllMusic’s take on one of the finest albums from the first decade of the twenty-first century:
“When Streets tracks first appeared in DJ sets and on garage mix albums circa 2000, they made for an interesting change of pace; instead of hyper-speed ragga chatting or candy-coated divas (or both), listeners heard banging tracks hosted by a strangely conversational bloke with a mock cockney accent and a half-singing, half-rapping delivery. It was Mike Skinner, producer and MC, the half-clued-up, half-clueless voice behind club hits "Has It Come to This?" and "Let's Push Things Forward." Facing an entire full-length of Streets tracks hardly sounded like a pleasant prospect, but Skinner's debut, Original Pirate Material, is an excellent listen -- much better than the heavy-handed hype would make you think.
Unlike most garage LPs, it's certainly not a substitute for a night out; it's more a statement on modern-day British youth, complete with all the references to Playstations, Indian takeaway, and copious amounts of cannabis you'd expect. Skinner also has a refreshing way of writing songs, not tracks, that immediately distinguishes him from most in the garage scene. True, describing his delivery as rapping would be giving an undeserved compliment (you surely wouldn't hear any American rappers dropping bombs like this line: "I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint"). Still, nearly every song here succeeds wildly, first place (after the hits) going to "The Irony of It All," on which Skinner and a stereotypical British lout go back and forth "debating" the merits of weed and lager, respectively (Skinner's meek, agreeable commentary increasingly, and hilariously, causes "Terry" to go off the edge). The production is also excellent; "Let's Push Things Forward" is all lurching ragga flow, with a one-note organ line and drunken trumpets barely pushing the chorus forward. "Sharp Darts" and "Too Much Brandy" have short, brutal tech lines driving them, and really don't need any more for maximum impact. Though club-phobic listeners may find it difficult placing Skinner as just the latest dot along a line connecting quintessentially British musicians/humorists/social critics Nöel Coward, the Kinks, Ian Dury, the Jam, the Specials, and Happy Mondays, Original Pirate Material is a rare garage album: that is, one with a shelf life beyond six months”.
In this review, NME were keen to praise an album from a very special British talent who was capturing the attention of so many different people:
“What we’re dealing with here is an album that owes a lot to garage, but also quite a lot to the all-night garage, too. By turns dark, funny and heartbreaking, the songs on ‘Original Pirate Material’ are snapshots of ordinary life as a young midlands resident, set to innovative two-step production: tales of love, going out, being skint, getting drunk (there’s a lot of this – sometimes it’s a surprise Skinner has called himself Streets and not The Coach and Horses), and eating chips. It’s Streets by name, and streets by nature, and it’s great.
The single ‘Has It Come To This?’ may have given you the idea already, but there’s an incredible strength of character to Streets. It’s small wonder that Mike Skinner presently finds himself feeling the love of the people (the single reached number 18), but not of garage’s more established crews – he sounds nothing like them, and he’s making the isolation sound splendid.
There’s the voice, of course, upfront in the mix as if this were a spoken-word record, but what it’s saying is better still. The heartbreaking ‘It’s Too Late’ is a musical highpoint and tearful updating of [a]Specials[/a], but includes the line: ‘We first met through a shared view/She loved me, and I did too‘. Elsewhere there’s the heavy hip-hop of ‘Sharp Darts’, and Specials-like ‘Same Old Thing’, casting an eye over the late night takeaway scene to further smash the urban mould. As he says on ‘Let’s Push Things Forward’, ‘this ain’t your archetypal street sound’, and it’s an admirable mission statement.
Because the sound of the streets is too often like an episode of ‘The Bill’ – hard hitting and ‘real’, certainly but without any of the stupidity, joy and occasional moments of beauty that you’ll find in here. As in records, as in life – you’re simply much poorer if you never get a chance to experience it”.
I will wrap things up soon, but I wanted to bring in an article (from 2017) from FADER published to mark the fifteenth anniversary of The Streets’ Original Pirate Material. It is a testament to the strength and diversity of Original Pirate Material that it has resonated so far and has made an impact on so many people. The feature brought in a range of artists and journalists to give their take on the album. I have selected a couple of extracts:
“Rob Mitchum, journalist
In 2002, the nuances of British electronic and hip-hop culture went way over your typical American music critic’s head — which is my lame excuse for wildly misinterpreting Original Pirate Material when reviewing the album for Pitchfork that year. Since then we’ve had grime and dubstep to put U.K. garage in retrospective context. But I was pleased to discover Original Pirate Material still sounds bonkers 15 years later. Tracks like “Don’t Mug Yourself” and “Sharp Darts” are like head-on car collisions that somehow build a motorcycle — there’s no way these combinations of beat and flow should work, but they do. Mike Skinner was also ridiculously adept at mixing the grand and the mundane, with severe, ragged orchestra loops scoring the most minute of observations. “Weak Become Heroes” might still be the most accurate song about raves in existence, with a woozy pulse, a relentless, wavy piano loop, and stream-of-consciousness imagery detailed enough to trigger flashbacks. Call it first-timer luck or genius, but The Streets’s sound aged a lot better than its genre labels and clueless reviewers”.
Kojey Radical, artist
I remember hearing [Original Pirate Material] for the first time and thinking, This feels like the perfect medium between garage culture and indie music. It was like the perfect soundtrack for not knowing what you want to listen to. Hearing “Stay Positive” in [2006 U.K. film] Kidulthood confirmed it was the soundtrack for growing up in London and marrying all the cultures that you come across. I’m from east London and the way [Skinner] spoke reminded me of just going to a cafe on Roman Road and speaking with the people there. Lyrical rap can feel daunting, but Mike Skinner’s approach removed all that tension in understanding lyrics, and made it sound like a conversation. (As told to Jacob Roy.)”.
If you need album suggestions, then I will point you the way of The Streets’ Original Pirate Material, as it is a remarkable record. You can also stream it, and however you do it, marvel in the skill and genius of Mike Skinner! It is one of my favourite albums from the past twenty years, and it is one that never sounds old or boring. Without further ado, make sure you give this remarkable album…
SOME serious attention!