PVC Perversion / Son Of A Crackwhore
Gizelle Vs Dirty Blonde
Have 08
1998
The Tale of Havok 8
At Havok, one of Medicine Man’s and my philosophies was to break the mould a little bit and do things differently. To that end, at each Havok event, we always tried to give a new, up-and-coming DJ their first opportunity to play in a club. We also booked unknown live acts—simple rule, if they were bangin’, then they could play. One memorable event was the infamous ‘Sirens’ night, featuring female-only DJs (if I remember correctly, I wore a dress for the occasion – just to fit in, of course!). Female DJs are ten-a-penny nowadays, but they were still a rarity in the late nineties. The ‘Sirens’ night and its follow-up, ‘Return of the Sirens’ were such successes that we invited Dirty Blonde (representing Manchester) and Gizelle (representing London) to produce our eighth release, The Sirens E.P.
Dirty Blonde’s track is one of my favourite tunes on Havok Records, as it features so many darkly humorous elements. The sample at the very beginning is someone having their head drilled into (from Ice-T’s Iceberg album, if I remember correctly). The long screech just before the beat kicks in after the breaks was sampled from the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye and then of course, there is also Eric Cartman’s infamous ‘You Sick Bastard’ sample from South Park, which also gives the tune its name (Eric was indeed the son of a crack whore).
We do however still owe Gizelle a long-standing and ongoing apology. Due to a cock up at Havok HQ, the names Dirty Blonde had proposed for her track (PVC Perversion and Son Of A Crackwhore), both made it onto the vinyl instead of the title Gizelle had chosen for her tune. This was obviously very embarrassing, but could not be easily corrected after pressing 1,000 vinyl copies. We are truly sorry, Gizelle!
Run Out Groove Etchings
This Side – This Is Pretty Fucked Up Right Here
South Park was peaking probably around the same time as Havok and Havok records and people were quoting (and sampling) line from it left, right and centre. This etching pays homage to the four lads from Colorado and is probably one of the most common catchphrases from the show, often uttered by Stan Marsh.
That Side – Don’t Take Away Our Music
The vocal sample on Gizelle’s tune is ‘We’re lost in music‘ but I was never sure if this was sampled directly from the Sister Sledge disco classic of the same name or simply re-spoken and fucked around with by either Gizelle or Guy Geezer. Either way, this etching also references classic 70’s disco (This time from Tavares), but is also a broader political statement.
