Also love that Freemasons track. They deserved more success in the charts than they had - better than their Phats & Small material if you ask me :P

 

I much prefer their three first singles than 'Uninvited' (Bailey's vocal is a bit too poppy for me and I prefer funky orchestral production like in their first two singles rather than just orchestral), although after that 'When You Touch Me (ft Katherine Ellis) I really enjoy, as you may expect.

Proper Education still feels gloriously wintry to me, the soundtrack of cold January nights - a few dance tracks released in the winter sound like that to me, 'White Noise' from a few years later being another.

 

Two obvious 90s links in the other two tracks - What You Do heavily samples Bizarre Inc's Playing With Knives from 1991, and that Rain Down Love video acts as something of a sequel to that of Daft Punk's Around The World!

Two obvious 90s links in the other two tracks - What You Do heavily samples Bizarre Inc's Playing With Knives from 1991, and that Rain Down Love video acts as something of a sequel to that of Daft Punk's Around The World!

 

'What You Do' should have done better in the charts I think though. Makes you think there may well have been more of a 90s dance revival if it wasn't for electro. Especially considering we will see another 90's dance inspired track getting top 10 and dance #1 soon on our thread.

Edited September 24, 20177 yr by Northside Hisser

Any more to come? :o

Let me hear you scream if you want some more, like aaaah!

Let me hear you scream if you want some more, like aaaah!

 

Yes it will definitely be coming this afternoon or this evening at the latest. :) I wanted to leave it a while so it is nice and fresh again for everyone hopefully when we do come back to this thread. But today is the right day to return to this!

 

There was this guy in my secondary school who started chanting that quote you posted Billy along with the rest of that line of the song, I didn't know what he was on about (I knew it must have been a song though, although I thought it was a more underground one as he was a big dance music fan) as I hadn't heard the song (didn't really listen to radio or music channels as much then oops) :o

Edited October 11, 20177 yr by HissingSparkler

Mason ft Princess Superstar - Perfect (Exceeder)

 

 

Date: 28th January 2006

Weeks at #1: 5 weeks

Official Chart Run: 80-78-11-3-5-5-6-12-18-25-33-40-40-52-58-64-69-71-87-x (10 weeks top 40, plus 9 weeks top 100)

 

 

This is the only UK hit from Dutch dance producer Mason (real name Iason Chronis). There is another dance hit credited to Mason (Strong In Love with Chicane #32 October 1998) but this seems to be a different Mason.

 

Princess Superstar had another hit before it in February 2002 with Bad Babysitter (#11 UK) which is trashy of course but an enjoyable bop imo and she has an excellent rap flow in it and excellent production and I think I prefer it to Perfect (Exceeder) oops.

 

Electro house was now really starting to take off in the UK charts now, gradually replacing the vocal funky house and 80s remixes that mostly represented chart dance before it. Electro songs generally had spoken word/rapped vocals and this was no different with Perfection. Originally an instrumental, it was turned into a mashup with a 2005 track by American rapper Princess Superstar called 'Perfect' and it was in this guise it became a big hit, reaching #3 and being only beaten to the top spot by two other iconic 00s hits, 'Grace Kelly' by MIKA and 'Starz In Their Eyes' by Just Jack.

 

The video is still rather sexualised in the 00s dance music video trend sadly, depicting a gymnastics contest, although I suppose you could argue that the video isn't quite as sexist as the men in the video are also presented in a sexualised manner. And I do suppose with the video it does make a song I thought took itself too seriously a bit less serious.

 

I only remember the drop of this from the time which sounded very different back then! It is a good tune instrumentally I think but with the spoken word vocal about slightly imo frivolous matters and cold electro synths it does come across as a bit cold and emotionless to me compared to stuff like 'Rain Down Love'. I do though feel I am judging it too harshly based on really liking the uplifting vocal house that this sort of thing largely replaced in 2007 chart dance music. I can at least say though that I much prefer Perfect (Exceeder) to most of the late 2006/2007 electro songs. I may have also liked it more now if I could remember it more at the time, which I don't really apart from the drop as I didn't watch music channels much back then and only once remember seeing a snippet of the video for it on a music channel with the drop part.

Loved this one at the time but not sure what about it suggests it took itself too seriously, Hiss! Please do divulge :lol:

 

I have to say, I preferred this as simply "Exceeder" but unlike with what they did to "Riverside" by Sidney Samson, I do like the vocal version of this too.

Loved this one at the time but not sure what about it suggests it took itself too seriously, Hiss! Please do divulge :lol:

 

Yeah I think the sound of it sounds quite serious compared to stuff like 'Rain Down Love' to me for some reason, I suppose I just think it just tries to be a bit 'over-cool', rather like 'Yeah Yeah'.

I LOVED the instrumental of Exceeder, was one of my favourite songs of 2006. I'd sort of made my own vocal version of it in my head, a sort of break-up song that went along the lines of 'now you can see, that you're not the one for me' lyrics going over the top of the slowed down bit (right before the chorus in the official version). So I always used to sing these made-up lyrics in my head along to the instrumental until the Princess Superstar version came out. Nonetheless, it didn't take me long to get used to this version, absolute tune in any guise and this was a really inspired mash-up.

Yeah I think the sound of it sounds quite serious compared to stuff like 'Rain Down Love' to me for some reason, I suppose I just think it just tries to be a bit 'over-cool', rather like 'Yeah Yeah'.

It's a mashup of what was a serious banger with non-so-serious vocals which IMO made it a bit tacky so can't quite agree with you there. I think "Rain Down Love" sounds like a track to take much more seriously. Such a tune :P

Loved this one at the time but not sure what about it suggests it took itself too seriously, Hiss! Please do divulge :lol:

 

Yeah I think the sound of it sounds quite serious compared to stuff like 'Rain Down Love' to me for some reason, I suppose I just think it just tries to be a bit 'over-cool' sounding, rather like 'Yeah Yeah'.

 

As I said I am just judging it harshly probably compared to the vocal funky house that came before that you all know I enjoy so much! Also I don't really remember many of the electro house hits or indeed many of the dance hits from the time for 2007, unlike mid 2004-2006 as me/my mother was watching less music channels or were watching different music channels that didn't play much dance music. Most of 2007 music that I remember from the time is indie and pop, whereas for the mid 00s before it was more dance music I remember from the time (probably because of the impact of The Box which played a lot of it), together with the other genres.

 

There is an electro song in 2009 though that I do remember from the time a lot more than Perfect (Exceeder) and I really liked! More on that later in the thread!

Edited October 11, 20177 yr by HissingSparkler

I really enjoyed this one at the time, and my source for discovering new music was the video channels so I was unaware of the instrumental mix prior. I must say I prefer it with the vocals anyway, they compliment the instrumental well and the lyrics clearly don't take themselves seriously (Snakey :P)

 

Electro house felt very refreshing anyway following the era of looped house, it produced quite a few great hit singles this being one of them.

Electro house felt very refreshing anyway following the era of looped house, it produced quite a few great hit singles this being one of them.

 

Yeah but there had been a lot of vocal retro house tracks making the charts along with the looped house and that trend kind of died out with electro house's increasing popularity (Rain Down Love and Stupidisco (Dare Me) (which we will soon see on this thread - not as a dance number 1 though) are the last of them really for a while (although Alex Gaudino ft Shena - Watch Out did quite well in early 2008 and there were a few others lower down in the top 40 that year too).

 

My favourite electro house song of 2007 doesn't make dance number 1 sadly but I will mention it when the time comes! It is a song that reminds me a bit of Tomcraft - Loneliness with the production actually!

 

EDIT: Just remembered, there is another electro house song that does make dance number 1 on this thread for 2007 featuring a well known dance act that had several previous hits to it that I really like though!

Edited October 11, 20177 yr by HissingSparkler

Some more dance tracks that made the UK chart at the time of 'Perfect (Exceeder)'

 

#25

 

Here's the electro house one I was talking about that I like and reminds me a bit of Tomcraft - Loneliness with the style of instrumental synths. I think I remember this from the time, not sure, I think I liked it and found the vocal catchy.

 

#34

 

A decent 80s cover in the sort of Sunblock reminscent eurodance style to add to the growing list of 80s dance covers of the 00s, but I think Sunblock did this sort of style of dance better with their updated version of Baby Baby with Sandy (more on that later in the thread).

 

#20

 

The video is awful imo (so I decided not to post it and posted the only non-official video, non-remixed version with Shena's additional vocal I could find, which is this 6:27 long version), but in terms of the music, I absolutely adore this song as you might expect, much better than the 2004 version with the additional Shena vocal (this version was probably inspired by the My My My re-release), don't remember this song from this time though. It really was coming near the end for this style of dance in the charts though :(

Edited October 11, 20177 yr by HissingSparkler

Stupidisco is much better without the additional vocals imo. Same with My My My.

I would have to disagree with you Dan, the additional vocals make it more interesting and euphoric I think, although the original My My My in particular is still brilliant I think.

 

Oh and there was also this one that made #45 during the time of Perfect (Exceeder) at dance number 1 I discovered on your 00s dance spotify playlist dan. Really like this, mix of electro and Ancient Egyptian style music. In terms of the style of music, it really sounds to me like something Pupok would send to BJSC! Nadia Oh looks a bit bored in the video though despite it being a vibrant song :lol:

 

and I in turn discovered that from one of Lewis' throwback playlists.

'Perfect Exceeder' was a fantastic dance anthem! I also preferred the vocal version of 'Stupid Disco' to the original as it added abit more flavour to the track.

A FHM Honeys remix of 'I Touch Myself' really happened ew.

 

Shame Mason didn't follow up, did they?