Friday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to F. Gary Gray's 1995 stoner film Friday. It was released on April 11, 1995 through Priority Records and consists of hip hop and R&B music.
The soundtrack reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it held the position for 2 weeks, and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for 6 weeks. It also spawned the successful Dr. Dre single "Keep Their Heads Ringin'", which made it to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on June 4, 1996. Music videos were shot for "Friday" and "Keep Their Heads Ringin'".
pusher 1996 soundtrack 13
AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: "the soundtrack to a lightweight comedy co-written by Ice Cube, the record conveys all the strengths of hit urban radio. Keeping all the good elements of the format -- including the G-funk of Dr. Dre, old-school soul, contemporary R&B, and gangsta rap -- the record sounds like a "Best of the '90s" collection".[2] James Bernard of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "No surprises here. Dr. Dre rumbles over his smooth, insistent groove ("Keep Their Heads Ringin'"), Ice Cube sounds angry ("Friday"), Cypress Hill is still obsessed with pot, and E-A-Ski, a Bay Area hip-hop artist, contributes the gun-happy "Blast If I Have To". Throw in Rick James and Isley Brothers classics and you've got a listening experience that's familiar and fun".[3] Rolling Stone reviewer wrote: "accompanying the new comedy penned by Ice Cube and partner D.J. Pooh, FRIDAY....[is a] righteous set".[4]
Two songs did appear in the film but were not released on any soundtrack: "Hittin' Corners" written by Darrel Johnson and Shaquil Taja-Allah and performed by K-Dee, and "Control" written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and performed by Janet Jackson.
Tom Jenkinson (born 17 January 1975), known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid techno, jazz fusion, and electroacoustic music. His recordings are often typified by a combination of complex drum programming, live instrumental playing, and digital signal processing. Since 1995, he has recorded for Warp Records as well as smaller labels, including Rephlex Records. He is the older brother of Ceephax Acid Crew (Andy Jenkinson).
At this time, Jenkinson was becoming obsessed with bringing a "dark psychedelia" to drum and bass (which would eventually reach its zenith with Go Plastic from 2001). During this period Jenkinson also made a remix for Ninja Tune's DJ Food, which featured on the EP "Refried Food". The remix led Ninja Tune to offer Jenkinson a record contract, which along with an offer from Belgium's R&S records he declined in favor of a contract offered by Warp Records, which was partially instigated by Richard D. James.[3] Correspondence between James and Jenkinson sprung up after meeting at The George Robey. The resulting meeting led to Jenkinson's first hearing of the Hangable Auto Bulb EP which Richard had brought with him. But the meeting also facilitated James' initial selection of Jenkinson's tracks that went on to form the Feed Me Weird Things album, released on Rephlex Records in 1996.[3]
Jenkinson accepted a five-album record contract with Warp Records in December 1995.[3] This led him to defer his studies at Chelsea Art College. Early in 1996, James completed the compilation process for Feed Me Weird Things, which was made from over 50 tracks that Jenkinson had given him on DAT, which were recorded from late 1994 to 1995. Around the same time James and Jenkinson recorded two tracks together, one of which was subsequently edited by Jenkinson and released as "Freeman Hardy & Willis Acid" on the We Are Reasonable People compilation album in 1998. Jenkinson's contribution to the other track was reinterpreted and released as "Happy Little Wilberforce" on the Alt. Frequencies compilation released on Worm Interface in 1996. 1996 saw Jenkinson starting to be offered gigs both in the UK and in continental Europe.
Early that year Jenkinson made the acquaintance of Talvin Singh who offered him a slot at his club night "Anokha" held at the Blue Note Club in Hoxton Square, London. Jenkinson and Singh went on to play together on several occasions during this period, including improvised sessions at the end of the night at Anokha, one of which featured guitarist Guthrie Govan, and also at the first Big Chill Festival in 1996.
Shortly after the release of Feed Me Weird Things came "Port Rhombus" which was Jenkinson's (by now known as Squarepusher) first release on Warp Records.[3] The title track actually started life as a remix of a track by Ken Ishii, commissioned by R&S Records in Belgium. However, the remix was rejected on the basis of it having insufficient similarity to Ishii's piece. "Significant Others" used the DR660 drum machine running through a spring reverb, that Squarepusher found at a jumble sale.
Squarepusher's electric bass work becomes apparent on this record. He states that he was "still battling with the influence of (Jaco) Pastorius." He wanted to "make the styles interrogate each other, such that one track would question the premises of another and vice versa. As such I suppose it might indicate tentativeness, but in my mind at the time I liked the idea of bringing musical assumptions into question by smashing stylistically divergent elements into each other".[6] In this he follows a precedent set by Frank Zappa, whom Squarepusher claimed is "always hovering in the background" for him.[7]
The sleeve artwork was generated from a set of images taken by Squarepusher wandering about Chelmsford town centre. The front cover image is based on a view of the gasometers situated at Wharf Road, near where he lived as a teenager. The 8-bit graphics reflected Squarepusher's resurgence of interest in old video consoles and home computers at that time. This location was subsequently used in some of the press shots in the Hello Everything promotional campaign.
In January 1997, Squarepusher moved to a flat on Albion Road in Stoke Newington, London. This particular residence was shown in the Jockey Slut "All Back to Mine" article from that year, and it was also where Squarepusher's appearance in the "xxx" documentary was filmed.
"Journey To Reedham" brings the 8-bit computer influence right into the foreground. The piece was the first to be recorded of the set and was originally commissioned to be used in a computer game, but Squarepusher decided it was too important to hand over to somebody else's project. The track immediately became a favourite at gigs and was still making appearances as an encore in Tom's run of live shows in 2013. "The Body Builder" was Tom's favourite of the set. This exemplifies a more abstract take on the 8-bit aesthetic, with sounds constructed to deliberately resemble computer game sound effects. "Come on My Selector" has become one of Squarepusher's most well-known tracks, partly due to it having a video by director Chris Cunningham. Doing the video led Squarepusher to develop a friendship with Chris Cunningham.
Squarepusher started considering new ideas about how to put music together. At this time James introduced Squarepusher to the music of Tod Dockstader, an American composer who had worked extensively in the 1960s, principally realising his compositions by tape editing. Alongside this Squarepusher was becoming interested in the work of 20th Century composers such as Stockhausen and Ligeti, specifically their electronic and electroacoustic works.
After Budakhan Mindphone was completed in May 1998, Squarepusher went to South East Asia for two months, and on this trip acquired a selection of Gamelan instruments. He stated that he was keen to carry on with the method of making music he had developed making the "abstract jazz" elements of Music Is Rotted One Note. Given that the "abstract jazz/musique concrète" idea had in Tom's view been proven by Music Is Rotted One Note. He decided to switch focus slightly and approach the following phase with a less rigorous aesthetic in mind.
This is the first record where Squarepusher started using effects processors in such a way that values for the available parameters would all vary as the piece progressed.Squarepusher relates that "Iambic 5 Poetry" is "apparently one of Björk's favourite songs". This period also produced the "Maximum Priest" EP. "Our Underwater Torch" was partially inspired by a developing obsession he had for the sounds of water. He stated that this piece was obliquely inspired by the films Solaris and Stalker by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. The organ in this piece is triggered directly from an electric bass. "Decathlon Oxide" carried on the ideas initiated in "Fly Street" and "Varkatope" from Budakhan Mindphone and features a Gamelan gong. The record also contains remixes by Luke Vibert, Autechre and Matthew Yee King.Very few live shows happened around this time, although Squarepusher claims he did in fact do quite a few gigs unannounced:He did organise two shows for an ephemeral organisation known as the "Squarepusher Ensemble" which amongst others featured Jamie Lidell on vocals, Mick Beck on saxophone and Squarepusher on bass. The idea of the group was to try to approximate some of the aesthetic of Music Is Rotted One Note and Budakhan Mindphone. The improvisation took place with no guidelines.
In March 1999, with the Budakhan Mindphone and "Maximum Priest" sessions wrapped up, he found himself in quite changed circumstances. He had made new friends in Sheffield and found himself a regular DJ and punter at various club nights around Sheffield. At this point he became quite skilled at tape editing. Another element that he was keen to bring back was the usage of sampled breakbeats. At this time, Squarepusher was frequenting a Manchester-based club night called "Schizm". It was run by friends of Sean Booth and Rob Brown from Autechre who themselves had played there on occasion. 2ff7e9595c
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