FEATURE:
Something Good…Again
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of Cloudbusting (a single from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love)
The Idea of an Iconic New Kate Bush Sample or Remix
__________
THE thought came to me…
that we do not really hear Kate Bush mixed or sampled into songs. Maybe that is a cost thing or she has been approached but has not given permission. However, she has granted permission for her music to be used on screen. People cover her songs. However, when it comes to music and use of Kate Bush’s own music, that has not really happened. I am not really a fan of a lot of the cover versions of her songs. However, there was an interpolation from 1992 that stands out. That is Utah Saints and Something Good. In 2022, the brains behind Something Good spoke with The Guardian about their iconic track:
“Tim Garbutt, DJ/producer
Jez and I met in Harrogate in a club called The Mix. I DJ’d house on Friday, and he played funk and disco on the Saturday. One night, Jez brought a rough copy of What Can You Do for Me on cassette. I played it and the place went mad, so we began working together.
As with all Utah Saints tracks, the tune for Something Good was written before we decided on any samples. It’s generally easier to build tracks the other way around, but our back-to-front method meant any borrowings were used in a different context rather than taking someone else’s creativity, and making it the essence of our track.
For Something Good we recycled a line from Kate Bush’s 1985 hit Cloudbusting. We are super honoured that we’re the only act she has officially cleared a sample for and we hope it’s because we created something new out of her singing. We used it in such a way that Something Good stood up as a song in its own right. We still see tweets now from people who hadn’t realised it was Kate Bush on the track. She is such an enigma, superstar and an all-round great person. We did send her a letter to say thank you, but I’m not sure if she ever saw it.
The song was made on limited equipment – old Akai samplers and Atari computers – and saved on to floppy disks. It took more than two weeks of fine tuning to make it all work.
We were buzzing when the track was used over the highlights of the ’92 Barcelona Olympics coverage by the BBC: you don’t forget moments like that. When we performed it on Top of the Pops, health and safety powered down my mixer during the recording – they were set up for a lead guitarist, not a lead DJ, and I had to work fast to make our performance look natural. Luckily, I was spending eight hours a day practising. It was one of six times the show had us on.
After the first album we spent a lot of time touring, and doing remixes for lots of different acts, from Blondie and the Osmonds to Hawkwind. We were about to start recording another LP, but then got a call to do the Zooropa stadium shows with U2, so we went off and did that. And then a load more shows after that.
That’s why the gap between our first and second albums was a long one. Not as long as the gap before our next one, though. We’re working on tracks now.
Utah Saints video for Something Good
Jez Willis, producer/DJ
Tim and I had been DJing since school. He was way cooler, becoming a DMC World DJ finalist when he was 17. He’s still that good now. We always wanted to do music full-time, but never expected hits – we just tried to make interesting tunes that we thought were good.
As a DJ, you constantly think about which tracks work together, and that helped when choosing samples. The Kate Bush vocal came straight off the CD. Hardware in 1992 was very basic, and getting all the elements to sync was tricky. We had to pitch-bend the first part of Kate’s vocal to keep it in time, which is why it goes “oo-oo-aye”.
We threw the kitchen sink at Something Good. There was so much happening, and Guy Hatton, the ace studio engineer mixing it, managed to keep everything together.
Pete Tong was our A&R man at the time, and we were lucky to have such a legend in our corner. He would always input something really helpful, and was confident in Something Good being a hit – in fact, the whole record company thought it was a No 1, which it would have been if it had come out earlier or later that year, based on how much it was selling [the single got to No 4].
When it was rereleased in 2008 we had to rebuild everything on the original track from scratch, and then send it to Van She Tech, the remixers in Australia. We then finished it on a laptop in our Leeds studio. It still has the DIY elements, and when it became Radio 1’s most played track of that year, we were really honoured. Just as we were when it was recently voted the ultimate Ministry of Sound track.
Our music has been used on a number of soundtracks, everything from Mortal Kombat to FIFA to Ridley Scott’s Raised By Wolves. Recently, Olly Alexander from Years and Years posted a video of him hula-hooping to Something Good, which was amazing. What a legend”.
In 1992, a year before Kate Bush released her only album of the 1990s, The Red Shoes, this helped bring her back into public consciousness. Not that she had ever gone away. However, they reimagined Cloudbusting from 1985’s Hounds of Love and gave it this Rave spin. That was over thirty years ago now. Since then, we have not seen anything like this. I was thinking a huge summer hit with a Kate Bush song interpolated would be timely. You cannot recreate the sound of Something Good and the era in which it was released. However, as I have stated in previous features, you do not really get Kate Bush remixes or samples. I am sure Bush would allow it and be intrigued. Covers are fewer than you’d hope and there is that real lack of music interrogation. The biggest viral moment happened in 2022 when Stranger Things gave another Hounds of Love cut, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), a spotlight. The song was sort of remixed and was not in its original form. However, that was quite dramatic and dark. Showing how people can reinterpret and experiment with these songs. Whether it was a third dip into Hounds of Love or a long-overdue look at one of her other studio albums, I would love to hear this modern-day Something Good. I am not sure what is holding people back. Maybe Rave is not a thing anymore. Pop artists provide Rave and Trance-like songs, though Dance and Rave are not at the forefront as much as they were in the 1990s. I am thinking who in the current landscape could do something like that. Take a sample of incorporate one of her songs into a banger. Maybe waiting until this summer. However, we are due something like Something Good.
It does confuse me why there is this real absence of Kate Bush sampling. I don’t think she is anymore expensive or restrictive than any major artist. The expense of using a sample compared to writing oriignal music. However, back in 1992, I don’t think Utah Saints were expected to pay thousands to use Cloudbusting. Now, as Kate Bush is pretty comfortable financially, she is not going to extort an artist or D.J. who wants to use one of her songs. In terms of the joy and rush of a song like Something Good, what other Kate Bush track could be used? There are plenty of options to choose from. Anything from The Kick Inside, like Wuthering Heights, or a Never for Ever cut like Babooshka. How about something tense from The Dreaming given a bit ofg light and a Rave backdrop?! Think about The Red Shoes and songs from there. There are even songs on 2005’s Aerial that are already Balearic and Dance-like, such as Nocturn or Aerial, that could be heightened. Bringing Kate Bush back to the clubs. Her music has been on the screen more emphatically the past few years than it has in music itself. Artists nodding to her but there not being too many huge covers or moments. The Last Dinner Party and CMAT have covered her and there has been airplay of her catalogue. Even so, I feel more could be done. I have pitched endlessly for a Kate Bush tribute album or even someone high-profile including a Kate Bush cover on their album. When was the last time this happened?!
The heady and euphoric Something Good might seem nostalgic and a dated throwback. However, it was a real revelation in 1992. At a time when Kate Bush as more influential than she has ever been, where are the producers and artists doing something as inventive? Whether you like Something Good or not, there is no denying that is was a smash and a rightful chart success. In 2022, Rolling Stone Australia named Something Good among their favourite 200 Dance tracks ever: “Long before Stranger Things, an earlier electronic generation discovered Kate Bush through this song by Brit duo Tim Garbutt and Jez Willis, who sampled Bush’s “Cloudbusting” and made a stadium-rave anthem out of it. “We’ve taken a lot of flak about that sample,” Willis admitted, “but we’ve always been very open and honest about it. Still, I’m surprised how many people didn’t know it was Kate Bush. When we were on tour, in South Carolina, the program director of this radio station had never heard of Kate Bush!”. Something Good was remixed in 2008 and went back on the charts. A number four success in the U.K. back in 1992, that does seem like an age ago, A definite gulf to fill! I hope that this year sees a lot more activity. I am sure that Kate Bush is played at D.J. sets but, when it comes to the mainstream, there is not a lot of representation there. And there should. I feel Bush would like it and it. You could say that other major icons are not represented either. David Bowie, Prince or even The Beatles. Joni Mitchell or anyone you can name. Perhaps too expensive to get clearance or sample culture being a thing of the past. I hope not. It is clear that we need to make something good happen…
ONCE more.