1990 Snap!: The Power

I've always viewed the dance music scene of early nineties as akin to the late sixties and seventies psychedelic and punk movements - that is, a genre huge in the counterculture yet a rare visitor to the popular mainstream in anything other than a diluted, radio friendly format. A sweeping statement certainly but broadly accurate, and unlike the UK/US axis that dominated the music of those earlier genres, dance was far more cosmopolitan in its sources. The language barrier didn't present the usual hurdle of course - the music was the thing regardless of whether it came from Milan or Manchester, but what's interesting is the number of European players who managed to score decent hits with a memorable, English vocal single during these years but then failed to follow it up with anything worthwhile (or at all in some cases).

Haddaway - 'What is Love', Culture Beat - 'Mr Vain', 2 Unlimited - 'No Limits' et al - brash, loud and tacky; these tracks are not for everyone, I admit, but I can confess to sometimes enjoying them in the way that I sometimes enjoy the teaser trailer for a film that distils all the 'best bits' into three minutes of 'wow' excitement where the full length features turn out to be rubbish. In the same vein, the likes of Dr Alban were never going to be here for the long haul, but listening to the bite sized best take on the best he could do ('It's My Life') is always a pleasure of sorts.

German band Snap! were the exception that proves my own self defined rule - they managed two chart toppers. We'll come to their second in due course but for now I can say my strongest memory of 'The Power' comes via one of my rare forays to a local nightclub in 1991 where I passed comment (to myself, if memory serves) that I couldn't believe the DJ was still playing it. Perhaps I was being a tad harsh on the him in hindsight for playing a song barely twelve months old, yet there was obviously something about it that led me to think it was much older than it actually was or else had dated incredibly badly.

It's probably a bit of both all told; there's no doubt that parts of 'The Power' still leap out like a jack in the box (generally anything Penny Ford plays a part in) and parts that don't (generally all the parts where she doesn't). I think my main beef with all this both then and now is that for a dance track, 'The Power' is for the most part less a dervish under a strobe and more a pedestrian soft shoe shuffle that's not helped by the hardwire hobble of Turbo B's rapping; competent it may be, but it also clumps like a lumpen millstone where it should hip and hop with exuberance; "like the crack of the whip I snap attack" - if only Mr B, if only.

All eyes turn then to Ford to save the day which she does with a ferocious gospel belt of a hook - "I've got the power!" - and by god we believe her, yet while she's a live wire plugged directly into the national grid, the rest of 'The Power' chugs along behind powered by Poundland batteries. Luckily, her hook is a strong one and it marks the difference between fishing all day and landing a monster trout right at the end and fishing all day without a nibble. Which is what 'The Power' would have been without it: la-di-da run of the mill and totally unmemorable.