The B Boys - Cuttin' Herbie
DJ Chuck Chill Out scratching up Herbie Hancock. Rushed out to capitalise on the massive club success of Rockit by Vincent Davis in 1983. Cuttin' Herbie is one of two tracks featured on the second release from Vintertainment Records. One of the very first DJ scratch / cut-up records and one of an on-going series on Vintertainment that were all structured around no other instrumentalization than a drum machine.
Like me, a lot of European beat heads will probably have heard this first on the iconic Electro 2 mix by Mastermind Herbie, or from the French or English 12" extended EP also featuring 2, 3, Break and Rock The House. Unless you were old enough to be getting into night clubs back in '83!
What you are hearing here is the result of cleaning-up vinyl sourced audio. In total I used 14 copies of the track from different vinyl pressings as reference. In reality, that's actually 7 different records each featuring the track on both side. I listened to so many copies to check what I felt needed cleaning up and what needed to remain in the mix. There are a lot of noise artifacts in the track, particularly where Chuck Chill Out is scratching with his copy Rockit. I've left it in as much as possible. I did make a version with almost all of these artifacts removed but it sounded too clinical and clipped.
Hope you enjoy this crisper sounding headphone version of Cuttin' Herbie.
Up next, 2... 3... BREAK!