Blog ‘92: U-U-U-UTAH SAINTS
6. Utah Saints - Something Good
Another mainstream chart hit for Rave ‘92, one which has cemented itself into the consciousness of the Great British listening public thanks to that stuttering name-check announcement.
The prim & proper Royal Doulton strings are joined by blasts of distorted kick drum and crowd noise, and the cry of “Utah Saints! Utah Saints! Utah Saints! U-U-U-Utah Saints!” The overall result is an enormous monolith of sound crammed into a few short bars, before suddenly dropping to a tinny computer game end-of-level twiddle riff. But there’s no pause for breath: the gut-rumbling bass and pounding drums bash you round the head straight away and launch off into the stratosphere.
It’s an incredibly busy record, but each sound is clearly distinguishable: the ticka-ticka-ticka of the underlying tech beat propelling the song forward, weaving in and out of syncopated piano chords and wiggling synths; the meaty electric guitar compressed to within an inch of its life; the gothic organ waterfall trickling between build-up and chorus. All the parts have a common theme of fast-paced, stoccato notes - short arpeggios, punchy beats, even the phrase “U-tah-Saints!” is spat out like gun-fire. Not only the notes are short - each section is only given a few bars to prove its worth before tipping into the next. And before you know it, the track is winding down to the outro: the energy spent, a chance for the more extravagant dancefloor inhabitants to get their breath back before the next song.
Utah Saints were the sample kings: Kate Bush’s vocal is completely shorn from the ‘Cloudbusting’ backing and twisted to fit their pattern. ‘Something Good’ could almost manage as an instrumental: Bush’s euphoric optimism is the icing on the cake - a subtle garnish rather than a foundation for an entire song (very difficult to achieve when the sample is a famous vocal). It’s interesting to contrast ‘Something Good’ with its neighbour, Messiah’s re-recorded hyperdrive version of ‘I Feel Love’, which still relies on the original for its name and underlying tune without sampling it directly.
‘Something Good’ is perfectly constructed piece of uplifting ’stadium house’, and deserves to be one of the defining records of the rave era. Such was its impact on me as a force to be reckoned with, I had no idea that the song had sampled ANYONE famous (let alone Ms Bush) until I bought the Saints’ debut album eight years later and looked at the liner notes. Kate who?
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FT's katstevens on October 31st, 2007
Utah Saints’ own brand of ‘rockism’ was also written on the liner notes:
“Utah Saints use samples to FREE us from the confines of popular instruments. THE sample may be a vocal phrase, 100 guitars, or everyday MACHINES and animals. these are all just instruments to us. No tape was used in the making of this album. TAKE CONTROL of the machine NOW!”
Marcello Carlin on October 31st, 2007
But the kids preferred Rage Against The Machine.
Mark M on October 31st, 2007
I believe that legend had it that this was conceived above the halal butcher shop at the end of Brudenell Road, LS6. (Utah Saints are not to be confused with the rather less famous Pale Saints, of course, who definitely bought their veg at the shockingly bad greengrocer on Brudenell Road).
Steve on October 31st, 2007
first time i heard this was seeing them perform it on Dance Energy, man i loved that show - and this track was definitely an instant hit with me, much more than ‘What Can U Do For Me’ which I wasn’t as mad on.
Their attitude to samples was probably more brazen and blatant than anyone else having big rave-associated hits at the time bar Shut Up And Dance, because like SUAD the sample as hook was SO ramped up and both the nucleus and the highlight (recontextualised) of the track. The Prodigy too of course but Howlett usually had a lot of other things going on in additional e.g. two or three additional big samples, his own melodic hooks plus more complicated beats. I think I’m disagreeing with Kat here re ’subtle garnish/foundation’ but maybe I’m under-estimating the piano and whatnot. But ‘Something Good’ would only be something half as good without the presence of KB imo (that’s still pretty good tho).
FT's katstevens on October 31st, 2007
What I was trying to get at is that while vocal sample is definitely important & is a brilliant addition, it’s by no means the basis of the song (hello Kanye West etc). For all I know it might have started off that way but it has evolved into a higher form!
FT's katstevens on October 31st, 2007
Their other big sample singles aren’t quite so clever, eg ‘Believe In Me’ is quite clearly all about Phil Talking throughout.
Billy Smart on October 31st, 2007
Perhaps the Utah Saints’ greatest achievement was in reconstructing the Eurythmics’ ‘There Must be an Angel’ to actually sound like the explosion of bliss that that misbegotten song must have been intended to evoke.
Steve on October 31st, 2007
I figure my perception is affected by having recognised the sample and liking ‘Cloudbusting’ beforehand. But I agree ‘Believe In Me’ isn’t quite as good (altho as well as the ‘Love Action’ sample I like that it lifts the ‘woo hoo’s from ‘You Gave Me Love’ by Crown Heights Affair just as much) although I wouldn’t say ‘Something Good’ is necessarily cleverer as they’re both based on the same formula - same goes for the first single really. I liked ‘I Want You’ at the time too (lol used on Fisherman’s Friend advert) but don’t recognise any samples from that if there are any.
FT's katstevens on October 31st, 2007
Jez recorded his own vocals for ‘I Want You’ - apparently they sampled some song called “War Ensemble”. Cool!
henry s on October 31st, 2007
the New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in the late-70’s, and became the Utah Jazz…if the New Orleans Saints followed suit, they would become the…Utah Saints…
. on November 1st, 2007
When I was a nipper, I actually thought they were from Utah.
Marcello Carlin on November 1st, 2007
As I recall they did a remix of “Crazy Horses” around 1995.
FT's Tom on November 1st, 2007
I know Norman Cook did a Crazy Horses remix at some point.
The great Utah Saints missed opportunity is their “New Gold Dream” version - I am sure that there is an amazing rave record lurking in NGD (tho NGD in itself is pretty phenomenal) - but it surely doesn’t have Jez Saint singing it.
FT's katstevens on November 1st, 2007
My favourite Utah Saints track is actually ‘Kinetic Synthetic’, a high-octane instrumental with no obvious samples in it at all. It’s less pop than ‘Something Good’ in that there’s fewer hooks, but the hooks it does have are brilliantly brain-melting.
Steve on November 1st, 2007
‘I am sure that there is an amazing rave record lurking in NGD (tho NGD in itself is pretty phenomenal)’
isn’t this Usura’s ‘Open Your Mind’?
i’m intrigued by ‘Kinetic Synthetic’. i also quite like ‘Ohio’ for the Jocelyn Brown sample altho by then they were stretching the formula to breaking point really. 5 years after that they sounded a lot more Underworldy with the ‘Love Song’ single (and there’s yer actual Simple Minds connection).
Steve on November 1st, 2007
apart from their NGD version i mean! didn’t Moby cover or remix ‘New Gold Dream’ also?
Marcello Carlin on November 1st, 2007
Norman Cook did a remix of “One Bad Apple” in his Beats International days which incorporated portions of “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool.” Donny loved it but the record company nixed it.
FT's Tom on November 1st, 2007
Ah, that was what I was thinking of - yes!
jason on November 6th, 2007
Utah Saints are PLAYING on the 7th of December in Cardiff Q BAr!!! wooop woooop!!! see you there:
http://www.tantrumpartyheads.com