Cuban Boys - John Peel Session, 13.01.99

by Dave Goodwin

published: 8 / 3 / 2024

Cuban Boys - John Peel Session, 13.01.99

English electronic group and production team, The Cuban Boys, get high marks from iDave Goodwin for this release on Precious Recordings of London for their 1999 John Peel session..

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Another fine ten inch record hit the doormat over the weekend from the lovely folk at Precious Recordings, the people responsible for other wonders reviewed here at PennyBlackmusic, such as records by the likes of The Soup Dragons, bis, Even as we speak and Standard Fayre. This particular gem is recordings from ‘Nineteen Ninety Nine’ of The Cuban Boys and one of their sessions for John Peel. If you didn’t know, The Cuban Boys are an English electronic group and production team. And you would expect them to be a band of boys from Cuba, but they are not, because there is a girl in the band. The band is currently composed of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn and also formerly included B.L. Underwood, known as "Blu" and Jenny McLaren, who is actually Autobahn's sister. They lit up the late nineties dance floors with a succession of tracks involving fast electronic beats with a heavy reliance upon samples, and the repetition of the name drop "the Cuban Boys" in the background of many of their tracks. They gained considerable success after being aired on Peel's BBC Radio 1 and if you remember, went on to have a UK No. 4 hit single ‘Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia.’ The band actually formed the year before this recording and were also responsible for the South Park induced ‘Oh My God! They Killed Kenny’ which also combined ‘The Bump,’ also by Kenny. This outing houses the Kenny track along with three other dance-floor detonators: ‘Let’s get Raunchier’ and ‘Stardust’ from part of the early days, and are listed on this record, as is the super-synth track ‘Hanging on the Telephone.’ And before you ask, yes, it is a cover of the Blondie outing from ‘Parallel Lines.’ Now, I’m not a big lover of the cover. And I’m a big Blondie fan with all the originals, even had the six-foot poster pinned to the back of my bedroom door (perhaps too much information), so in theory, I should not like this, but it’s banging. Its sparse synth in places and includes a weird, reverse reverb on the vocals of Jenny McLaren which do sound weirdly Harry-Maggie Rielly-like. Forget the ‘Kenny’ link, buy this just for the last track – marvellous!