THE NO SLEEP POLICE LIVE AT PURE - DREAMING
BORN IN THE FALL OF 1990 WHEN RAPPERS WORE BIG ASS ADIDAS TRAINERS, AND STAMPED THEM IN TIME TO BIG ASS BASS LINES, AND RAPID SCRATCHED TRACKS; WHEN WHITE RAPPERS WERE UNHEARD OF AND PRETEND KILLING WAS ON THE SLIGHT INCREASE ACCORDING TO TIRED AND WOVEN GOVERNMENT FIGURES. A COUPLE OF SCRAWNY, BONY, SKELETAL LIKE TEENAGERS, WHOSE VOICES HAD YET TO BREAK, HAD YET TO GROW ANY PUBIC HAIR IN ANY OF THE THREE PUBIS REGIONS; A COUPLE OF LATE DEVELOPING, UNDER NOURISHED KIDS WHO WERE TURNED DOWN BY EVERY SINGLE SWEET GIRL FROM THEIR SCHOOL YEAR AND THE ONE ABOVE THAT AND EVEN THE ONE BELOW. TRYING WITH ALL THEIR MIGHT UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT MAYBE ONE SWEET GIRL WOULD LIKE THEM (THOUGH IT NEVER WORKED) CAME UP WITH A MUCH USED IDEATO FORM A RAP CREW AND GOT SOME FANCY ASS RAP TUNES MIXED TOGETHER, PERFORMED AND POSSIBLY RELEASED ASS.
THE ICE TROOP WAS BORN. UNDER THE WATCHFUL GUISE AND CONTROLLED YET FREE FLOWING ANGER OF MUGGY FRESH. THE SPIRIT OF REMORSE FUELLED BY THE AGONY OF BEING ABOANDONED BY A GIRL, CFC, THE BLATANT, YET SECRET SELF LOATHING OF EVERYONE ELSE, COCHESE AND THE SERIOUSNESS, YET UNCONTROLLABLE OUTBREAKING BY MEDICATION, GELS OR CREAMS OF THE RASH - THESE WANABEE RAPPERS STARTED MAKING SOME PRETTY HARD HITTING TRACKS SUCH AS "I LOVE GIRLS" AND "WHEN WILL I TELL MY MUM I SWEAR LIKE F**K" TO NAME BUT TWO OF THE VERY EARLY YET USELESS TUNES. MADE UP OF HIGH PITCHED, PANIC RAPPING, WHICH WAS ALWAYS A VERY NEW CONCEPT, AND EARLY SYNTHETIC MOVABLE BROKEN BREAK BEATS, IT WAS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED BY THE MINORITY OF HIGH PITCHED ASTHMATIC RAP SUPPORTERS. THIS RESULTED IN A NORMAL SIZED ...TAPE RECORDED IN REAL TIME HAVING TWELVE MINUTES OF SCREECHED GENIUS BEING PLAYED IN AN AWKWARD, SPLIT BY REGIONAL LOCALITY, BUT NOT ABILITY COMMON ROOM ON AN ALMOST DAILY BASIS. THE ICE TROOP SOLD ZERO COPIES OF WHAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE "WITHOUT PUBES EP" THEY COULDNT EVEN GIVE COPIES AWAY AND THE LAST THAT WAS HEARD ABOUT THE EP WAS THAT IT WAS USED TO TAPE CHART HITS FROM ATLANTIC 252 LONG WAVE RADIO. BUT HISTORIANS HAVE TOLD ME THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE SONG NAMES CROSSED OUT ON THE SMALL CARDBOARD INSERT SLEEVE ON SIDE A AND THE NEW TITLES SQUEEZED IN ABOVE.
UNFORTUNATE AS A PERSISTENT COUGH, THEY FOUND THEMSELVES OVERSHADOWED BY THE VANILLA ICE SOUND AND WERE UNABLE TO BREAK FREE OF THE SHAME THAT SURROUNDED THEM IN THAT ERA. AS THEY DID NOT HAVE THE PRE-PRODUCTION OF THE AMERICAN, THE POST PRODUCTION, AND NOT EVEN THE TRAM LINES TO COMPETE THEY WERE LAUGHED AT. NOT BULLIED, JUST IGNORED BY SNIGGERING BEWILDERMENT OF CREEPING MEATBALLISM. CFC LEFT AS HE WAS TOO DISSAPOINTED TO BE OVERSHADOWED BY THAT SOUND THAT NOW MAKES PEOPLE LAUGH AND WAS REPLACED BY CFC WHO TOOK OVER THE RAP HANDLE. CFC THOUGHT THAT NEEDED NO EXPLANATION. A FEW TRACKS LATER AND THREE FRONT ROOM GIGS TO THEIR NAME - THE ICE TROOP - SPLIT FOR GOOD AFTER HAVING ENOUGH OF HAVING THEIR ARMY OF FANS ASKING THEM TO COVER "ICE ICE BABY" ON AN ALMOST PERSISTENT LOOPED BEAT OF VERBAL REQUEST. EVERYTIME THEY WOULD TALK ABOUT THEIR MUSIC THE ONLY QUESTIONS PEOPLE WANTED TO ASK AND HAVE ANSWERED WERE THOSE RELATING TO VANILLA. NOW ONLY A FEW OF THEIR TRACKS REMAIN ON OLD C-90S, WITH HANDWRITTEN IN BLUE PEN TAPE STICKERS, WHICH WERE THEMSELVES BELIEVED TO BE BEING DECOMISSIONED IN THE MAY OF THAT YEAR AND GETTING HOLD OF THEM WILL BE NEAR ENOUGH IMPOSSIBLE IF NOT IMPROBABLE.
IT WAS A DEVASTATING BLOW FOR THE CHECKED OUT MEMBERS BUT UNTIL ROBERT VAN WINKLES MUSIC HAD GONE THEN THERE WAS NO WAY OUT FOR THE TROOP BUT TO CALL IT A DAY. THERE IS DIGNITY IN TRYING YET FAILING BUT NO PRIDE IN CRYING WHEN FAILING.
R.I.P THE ICE TROOP 1990 - 1992
IN 1996 AFTER THE DUST THAT HAD THINNED, THE AIR OF OXYGEN THAT WAS MAKING IT HARD FOR THOSE WITH BREATHING DIFFICULTIES TO ENJOY THE TIME HAD SETTLED. MR WINKLE HAD GONE FROM RAPPING TO MAKING MORE METAL SOUNDING MUSIC FOR HIS FOURTH ALBUM [MORE METAL THAN RAP APPARENTLY BUT IVE NEVER HEARD IT. YOU PROBABLY HAVENT EITHER. YOU PROBABLY DIDNT KNOW HE HAD MADE FOUR ALBUMS], MILLIONS WOKE WITH AN IDEA, TO RESURRECT THE RAP CONTINGENT. HE HAD BEEN MONITORING ALL THE MUSIC MAGAZINES, JOURNALS AND POP-UP PICTURE BOOKS AND WAS CERTAIN IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE PROBLEMATIC SOUND THAT HAD TORE A ONCE ABLE RAP SPLINTET TO PIECES HAD BEEN DROWNED OUT BY LAUGHTER. MILLIONS WARNED HIMSELF NOT TO DO IT BUT HE DID. HE CREATED THE NO SLEEP POLICE. K.D. WHO WAS AT THE TIME WRITING PERSONAL RAPS ABOUT HOW MUCH HE HATED GIRLS AND WHAT HE WOULD LIKE TO DO TO THEM, AND WHY GIRLS WERE BAD FOR HIS HEALTH ETC. ANYWAY. K.D. WAS TALKED INTO RE-JOINING THE NEW IMPROVED, LESS BURDENED BY ACROSS THE POND PENIS, OUTFIT (IF THAT IS POSSIBLE). THIS TIME THEY ENLISTED A HUMAN BEAT BOX FROM LONDON, UK LONDON LEE, IN ORDER TO MAKE THEIR MUSIC MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE REST OF THE UK WITH THE FACT THAT HE HAD A SET OF DRUMS IN HIS MOUTH. THEY CRANKED OUT THE TUNES AND SUCH HITS AS "IDAHO" AND "H" (WHICH ARE STILL LIVE SHOW FAVOURITES). THESE CAN BE FOUND ON THE ORIGINAL ELECTRO BLITZ WEBSITE, THE ORIGINAL HOME OF THE NO SLEEP POLICE.
IN THE FALL OF 2000 AFTER ENJOYING AND AMUSING THEMSELVES, THE NO SLEEP POLICE WERE PUT ON UNPERMANENT HOLD AS CURRENT CATALOGUED NSP MEMBERS HAD TO STRUGGLE WITH FORGING A LIFE FOR THEMSELVES. K.D. MOVED TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY, TO ENGLAND, AND MILLIONS HAD A TEMPORAL BREAKDOWN OVER A SICKLY RELATIONSHIP PROBLEM THAT THE GIRL THAT USED TO LIKE HIM WAS ABOUT TO MARRY SOMEONE ELSE AND HE WAS STUCK WITH A HOWLER AND THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO ABOUT IT. SO HE STAYED IN HIS HOUSE ALL THE TIME, SOMETIMES REAPPEARING JUST TO BATTER THE HELL OUT OF HIS NEIGHBOURS (THESE THINGS HAPPEN).
THEY SPENT TWO YEARS SLOWLY MUTATING, VOICES NOW BROKEN, HAIR GROWN IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES AND FATTENING THEMSELVES UP AND OUT ON RED MEAT SUBSTITUTES AND IN THE FALL OF 2002 THE NO SLEEP POLICE WERE BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER AND REUNITED AFTER AN ACT OF UNCERTAINTY JEOPARDISED THE RAP PHENOMENA. SOMETHING HAD COME TO THEIR ATTENTION WHICH COULD NOT JUST BE LEFT. AS IT WAS SO PURCHASING THE CHEAPEST 8 TRACK AVAILABLE AND DRAFTING IN THE BEAR AKA BIZNESS, AKA WHISKEY AKA BIZQUIT AKA BIZEE BEE WHO WASN'T EVEN BORN WHEN THE ICE TROOP WERE YAPPING ON AND PERFORMING ON FRONT ROOM SOFAS, THEY STARTED WRITING AND PERFORMING AND RHYMING AND PIMPING AND KILLING AND DRINKING AND CITING AND ROLLING AND TEARING AND MUELING AND MAKING SOME OF THE FINEST UNDERGROUND SOUNDS EVER. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED TO REMAIN THAT WAY. THE THREAT THIS TIME WASN'T AMERICAN. IT WAS THE UNFORGIVABLE MISREPRESENTATION OF THE WELSH RAP AND HIP HOP SCENE THAT HAS SEVERELY RESTRICTED THOSE SINCERE WELSH HIP HOP AND RAP BANDS AND HAS RESULTED IN THE WHOLE WORLD THINKING THAT THOSE WITH A GENUINE PASSION FOR PRODUCING THIS GENRE ARE NO MORE THAN JOKE BANDS. IT RESULTED IN THE NO SLEEP POLICE RISING AND STEPPING FORWARD OUT OF THE SHADOW OF THEIR MEANINGFUL, IF ONLY TO THEM EXISTENCE AND HAVING TO START RAPPING UP FOR THEMSELVES AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT MATTERED. NOW HAVING RECRUITED THE MOST TALENTED AND SPITEFUL, ILL-NATURED, VENEMOUS AND CRITICAL RAPPERS IN THE BUSINESS THEY ARE BACK AND NO LONGER UNDERGROUND AND LOOKING FOR REVENGE...JO WHILEY MAY BE FIRST
THE N$P WILL RISE AGAIN...
