It Took Seconds

Five minutes and forty-two seconds: “Lookin’ good - hangin’ with the Wild Bunch” - “Buffalo Stance” shouts out not just to Bristol’s famous sound system but to producer Tim Simenon’s Bomb The Bass project - and like the early records by BTB and Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry’s debut is a foundation tune for modern British urban music (even though she’s Swedish!), a massive step towards how pop in the UK sounds now.

Much more importantly, its bridge-building between rap, DJ-culture dance music and pop still sounds absolutely brilliant. A product of its time, sure, indelibly reminiscent for Brits of a certain age of the country’s sudden discovery of a whole chunk of its youth culture. But “Buffalo Stance” is a record in complete command of itself, which you’d probably expect from someone who was playing in bands and working with sound systems and collectives from her early teens. From “Ladies and gentlement, I would like to introduce - the hi-hat” to those teasing guitar figures on the fade, it’s perfect pop.

What would your 5’42” track have been?