Newcleus On His New Song: “JAM ON REVENGE”

Newcleus is a pioneering electro and hip-hop group from 1980s New York City, known for their innovative use of drum machines, synths, and sci-fi–inspired themes. Their track JAM ON REVENGE combines dark, futuristic beats with sharp social commentary, capturing the excitement and anxiety of a technology-driven world while helping define the sound of early electro.(

Electronic / Rap)

Newcleus made this song called "Computer Age (Push the Button)". They had no idea it would still sound so good today. The main singer is using one of those things and he is really frustrated with all the technology people use to buy stuff. He says "Everyone must have a machine" and "They say its gonna make life easier but I just can't stand it”. Newcleus is saying that people think machines will make their lives better. Newcleus does not like it. Newcleus is unhappy, with the way people are always using machines to buy things. The music has a strong beat and it sounds like something from the 1970s but with a darker tone. It is like the synth-pop music but now it is about a scary future. The song gets really crazy with lots of noises like alarms and sirens. This song is like science fiction stories it uses the idea of a high tech future to talk about the problems we have now. For the band Newcleus the problems they were talking about were in New York City, in the 1980s. At that time music was changing because people could buy drum machines cheaply and that was changing the way music sounded and was made. A new version of Jam on Revenge is out. It shows us a great example of music from a special time. This time was important because it was changing from one style to another. The music, from back then still has a lot to teach us about Jam on Revenge. How it was made.

The album has a lot of songs but people really remember it for the 1984 song "Jam on It". This song is like a big hip hop anthem. It even made it to number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The song "Jam on It" is an example of what people can create when they have new equipment like the Roland.

The song "Jam on It" is a weird song. It can be scary it can be funny. It can be exciting all at the same time. The song "Jam on It" has rhymes about the group from Brooklyn who're from outer space. They are fighting against Superman. They are really good at DJing. The song "Jam on It" is also, about saving New York from being destroyed. The song uses every part of its sound to draw you in. When kids at the roller skating rink heard the beat and the bouncing bass they could imagine the action for themselves. The year 1984 was very important, for hip hop music and how it connected with the rest of music. Hip hop was becoming a part of the music scene in 1984. Stan Lathan made a film called Beat Street. This film showed people what breakdance, DJing and graffiti are about in the Bronx. The music in Beat Street had songs like Arthur Bakers "Breakers Revenge".

The year Newcleus performed with Run-D.M.C., Whodini and the Fat Boys at the Fresh Fest. The Fresh Fest was a hip-hop tour that went all around the country. It was the time hip-hop had a big national stadium tour, like this.

The people who formed Newcleus ended up at Jam on Revenge after going through a lot of things in the Brooklyn music scene. They started out as a group called Jam-On Productions. They would play music and rap over funk and disco songs at parties in Brooklyn back in 1977. Newcleus went through some changes with people playing rock music and reggae music. The main people in the group were related to each other. There was Ben Cenac, also known as Cozmo D and his future wife Yvette also known as Lady E. They were part of Newcleus along with Bens cousin Monique, also known as Nique D and her future husband Bob Crafton also known as Chilly B. Newcleus was really a family thing, with all these people working to make music. Cozmo and Chilly were the people who made the music and wrote the songs for Cozmo and Chilly and every member of Cozmo and Chilly sang. When Cozmo and Chilly first started recording music the songs sounded like church music. They called themselves Positive Messengers. Even the first recordings that Cozmo and Chilly made had a lot of drama and catchy parts which is something that Cozmo and Chilly were really good at doing. Cozmo was always getting equipment from the Electro Harmonix store, near his house and Cozmo and Chilly used this new gear to make their music sound better.

The song that helped Newcleus get a start in the music business and gave them a science fiction image actually started out as a joke. Newcleus was, in Brooklyn. They heard a lot of songs with simple rhymes that sounded like kids singing. Newcleus thought these songs were silly. Cozmo told Red Bull Music Academy that Newcleus did not like the way these songs sounded. People liked the kind of rapping they heard at parties so Cozmo made a record called "Jam on Revenge" that was really different. This record was like nothing you would expect from Cozmo it had space sounding music and high pitched voices that sounded like chipmunks saying "wikki-wikki". The record was making fun of another DJ from Brooklyn who made fun of Cozmo for not being good at scratching records. Cozmo made "Jam on Revenge" to get at this Brooklyn DJ. The music on "Jam on Revenge" was not like rap music it was more, like a joke, an "anti-rap" record. They added this song at the end of a demo just to fill space. It was like an afterthought.. People loved it. They would play it at parties. Everyone would laugh and have a good time. The song became a hit. This happened after producer Joe Webb heard the song and liked it. He helped make it their first single. This is what can happen in the music world. It is a place where people are always looking for music. They will find hits in the unexpected places. The music culture is very open, to things and very competitive. This means that people are always searching for the big thing. They will find hits in places that you would not normally think to look.

Newcleus has a lot of the things that make them special on Jam on Revenge. They have those high pitched voices that sound like chipmunks and crazy science fiction ideas. This is pretty similar to what George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic do.

Newcleus is like P-Funk because they are really good at using instruments and ways of arranging songs to make people want to write new music that is interesting and means something.

For example listen to the song "Automan”. In this song the main character is a robot who's sad because he was not made to love. He says things like "I do not have a heartbeat…listen”. Newcleus is really good at making songs like this that are fun and also make you think about what they're saying.

The music of Newcleus on Jam on Revenge is full of these kinds of ideas and songs. They have a lot of the spirit, as George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic which is why their music is so much fun to listen to.. Right on cue the oscillating synths show us the amazing sounds that beat in his empty chest. The music is really cool.

The song "Destination Earth (1999)" has a rhythm with a slow and funky beat in its drums and bassline. It is like the heavy synthesizer sound is pulling everything along, with it. Many of the songs have guitar and bass added to them. When Newcleus performed live on tour they played all the music with instruments. What is interesting is that all the members of Newcleus were musicians who taught themselves how to play. Newcleus had a time keeping control of their music when it started to get popular. This was a problem for artists who made new Black music that people liked. They would play it at block parties. It would end up on the charts.. When Newcleus worked with people in the music industry they had trouble making decisions about their own music.

The person who mixed the songs on Jam on Revenge was Jonathan Fearing. He was a DJ at WBLS. He liked the pop music of the 80s. Jonathan Fearing made some changes to the songs without asking Newcleus what they thought. He did not let the members of Newcleus into the room where he was working on the music. Newcleus was not happy about this because they wanted to have control, over their music. Fearing, who passed away in 1985 did not know much about the streets he knew what people liked in clubs said Cozmo. The versions of the songs that Fearing was familiar with are still on this version and the notes that come with the album, which are written in Comic Sans say "a jonathan fearing mix" in quotes. Newcleus never got any money from the album when it first came out on Sunnyview Records. This record company was owned by Morris Levy, who was a name in the music business and also by someone else. Morris Levy was in trouble with the law in 1986, for doing some things.

Newcleus had some great songs on their later albums.. They did not do as well with selling music throughout the 1980s. This is because hip-hop music was changing fast. Ben Cenac started doing something with music. He made house music with a project called Dream 2 Science. His wife Yvette sang the parts.

Ben Cenac still runs Jam-On Productions. He has a lot of Newcleus music on their website. Newcleus music is still available because of this. His friend Chilly B helped him make music for a time. Chilly B died in 2010 after he had a stroke. The song "Disco Kryptonite" is a remix of "Jam on It" that's new to this version. It stands out because it uses sounds like whistles and hand drums. These sounds are not what you usually hear in music.. Disco Kryptonite" does not feel like it does not belong. It reminds me of the old disco records that people played at the Newcleus parties almost 50 years ago. This is a connection, to the music that started it all for Newcleus. This album takes us back to an important time before the kind of music we call electro was fully formed and everyone was talking about it. The music on this album is from a time when electro was still new and people were just starting to make it. This album is special because it reminds us of what electro music was, like before it became so popular and everyone started copying it.

Jam on Revenge is more than an idea that has been tested. It shows that a lot of the power of music comes from what the artists do. They have to balance what they want to do with what's going on around them. This includes the people they meet the people they work with and the things they deal with every day.

The song "I'm Not a Robot" is from a demo by Positive Messengers. It is a story that people can relate to about a man who lives in the city and is struggling with addiction. It is a story in R&B music. Jam on Revenge shows how artists, like the ones who made "I'm Not a Robot" try to stay true to themselves while also dealing with the world around them. What Cozmo is looking for is how to be free. What Cozmo finds is that he has lost hold of reality Cozmo sings. The people in charge think they have our lives all planned out. They make it seem like it is impossible for us to speak up for ourselves.. Cozmo does it anyway. Cozmo says "They cannot stop me from living." The message, from Cozmo is clear: even when things seem bad we can still find a way to be creative. We just need to find the things to do like pushing the right buttons.

Mason Morgan