New one up is an undercover white label breakbeat slammer, via the Jet Star label.
Where do I start with Jet Star? Probably one of my favourite labels to collect. When getting into buying records, naturally I was drawn to rare white label pieces. Raw, uncommercial and unique, I realised that many of them bore the same font in their stamp. That font, I realised, was from Jet Star.
Halfway between Comic Sans and Times New Roman, that font became a signifier to me of something that I should probably listen to, something that was not necessarily rare, but rarely not interesting.
Big time reggae publishers from the late 1970s, by the 1990s Jet Star seemed to be at the forefront of UK Sreet Soul and later pushing boundaries in breakbeat and jungle.
I've often picked up bargain bin reggae bits that I take to every gig or street soul singles that I know will get pricey, but the main thing I've got is an addiction to finding that font and taking any record that bears it with me.
This pickup came as a symptom of that. A blind buy, I didn't know what to expect. What I got was a chaotic breakbeat 12-inch, sample heavy and high-tempo.
But this one on the flip I really loved. The vocal looks to be sung by the Phillip Leo, a regular in the Jet Star stable. As far as I can tell it's that vocal that gave the track it's title, rather than as things are recorded on Discogs.
In a way, it sums up a lot of what Jet Star means to me. There is a lot of naivety and experimentation in the production, notably it's unapologetic sample of The Night Writers' Let The Music Use You, one of my favourite house tunes ever.
But it's that playfulness that really draws me in. It's just a record that somebody made once to make people dance. Somehow it's ended up halfway across the world on my turntable. That's why I love this stuff.
Check out the record on Discogs here.
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