Njs4ever: The Forum

Big props to this site and everyone here for representing and keeping the swing scene ALIVE!!. Im Dj Puppet from Australia, 29 years old and to everyone out there let me just say that YES......new jack swing was a huge movement down here in Oz, especially in Melbourne and Sydney. Mainly due to places like Central Station Records, we were really amongst the madest stuff comin straight from the states from 87 right thru til 93'...those certainly were special times for r&b music and being in high school at the time, i was already collecting vinyl and experimenting with th 1200's. Anyway im still collecting to this day and am lucky enough to be able to play it to about 400 people every Saturday night here in Melbourne. So that's me basically and am glad to be part of such a cool site! Peace.

Welcome to the board DJ Puppet. I'd be interested in knowing.....were there ever any aussie NJS acts?

Thanx 4 the welcome . There were a handfull of " new jack flavoured" loca groups and acts around the country, most of em' just faded off with the exception of a couple. "KPS JAM" released " i got soul" on 12" that was a BBD inspired type of groove(112 bpm) but never really had much of an impact. The good news is that the boys are still going strong today and souding as smooth as ever! Then along came "CDB" , who achieved nation wide success with two albums- "glide with me" and "lifted". The boys actually had the number one song in the country with " let's groove" (Earth wind & fire cover) that definately crowns them as the only real new jack flavoured act to have achieved major success in Oz ....hope this enlightens you...

it sure does enlighten me
I'm always on the lookout for more obscure stuff. I take it these are impossible to find outside australia though.

KPS JAM have tight vocals, and are great live. I prefer their covers though to their original stuff. One of the members actually cut a remake of R Kelly's Vibe with another group, I remember seeing the video ages ago, can't remember the name of the group though.

Urban acts are still finding their feet here in Oz, and there were hardly any acts getting label deals around the New Jack period. I don't think anyone really had a straight New Jack sound either, but you can see some New Jack influence there as DJ Puppet pointed out.

CDB I belive had a lot of production from the Rockmelons (pretty sure Rockmelons have had some success outside Oz) who sometimes like to incorporate vocoder/talkbox work into their production (Pretty sure they did the Let's Groove cut).

Kulcha was another group who had a top 40 single in the early to mid 90's. There was another Islander group too around that time that had some chart success... Boys in Black I think.

Some more current Urban acts include Kaylan, who had some Jodeci sounding stuff on their LP (less new jack more like late jodeci), I think they worked with Soulshock and Karlin too, but they've gone house now under the name of Disco Montego, J Wess (kind of a light radio G funk sound), and Selwyn (pop R&B). There are a few others with record deals, but they veer mostly towards straight pop than R&B, let alone New Jack.

Puppet what club you at?

Hey "Boot' at the moment my week goes like this...DA FUNK@ Monsoons- Thursdays, BROOKLYN@ Next blue Fridays, GROOVALICIOUS@ Evolution Saturdays , and MOTHERSHIP@ Mercury Lounge Sundays. We had Ricky Bell here last October at EVO where he performed a crazy showcase of the BBD classics as well as some more recent BBD and N.E stuff as well. You freaked me out a bit with all that info Boot , where are you from?

You freaked me out a bit with all that info Boot , where are you from?

Sydney.

Damn didn't know Ricky Bell was in the country, did he do Sydney as well?

I'm not sure that he did a Sydney show, however i went up to Canberra the following night (sunday) where i played at a Mothership gig...Ricky performed again there along with Dj Green Lantern. It was held at the National Museum.

Hey dj puppet this is a late welcome but hi !!!
just wanna let people know on here that dj puppet is the forums BEST KEPT SECRET !!! he's got as much crazy knowledge of new jack as what i have even though he seems to stay down in the "obscure " section !!!
puppet - we need to get you more in the mix on here you crazy "kangaroo hopping castlmiane xxxx sheila " you !!!
big respect !!

Hey "dj puppet" and "Boot", i'm a die hard NJS fan from oZ also. I got excited as you guys mentioned such acts like Kulcha and especially CDB who are probably my all time favourite urban act to come out from Australia. Some of the cuts from the "Glide With Me'' set have definate New Jack Swing elements. Its good to know their are Australians who post on this site, and i'll be looking forward to your comments! yo puppet tell me more about your show, theres a station in Sydney called 2RDJ, and one or two of the DJs have a lot of NJS cuts playing, usually the same songs, but at least its being played! I can't believe Ricky came downunder and i didn't know!!!

Hey Puppet, keep representin for Melbourne town man !!!

It's been a while since I been to Monsoons or Next Blue...I'll have to come check out your set !

Iit IS quite likely I've already heard you spin many times, just never realized it was you Don't worry, it ain't nothing to do with your skills, it's just that my focus was elsewhere ...i.e. the flyy females !!!

Keep the party jumpin bruh !

Hey wassup Trish , so good to hear a female from Oz's perspective on njs.....what city are u from??? sorry for any confusion but the Saturday night thing was actually a club gig, not a radio show ....however there is somethin on the airwaves comin real soon thats definately new jack to the core!!I have " donated" a mega mix that i put together for this site so it should be up soon with part 2 to follow.... Shout out to Ruff mix.... drop int Monsoons anytime ( now on Sat as well) and say hi......and to Stevieswing........ur a new jack champion!!!....u should write your own book !!!! And to the one and only DJC.... tell ya mamma to leave the back door key in the usual spot for me!!!!

cant wait to hear this mix puppet - i await it with baited breath !! dj puppet the mix master in effect !!!

Yeah Puppet, the mix sounds like it is gonna be PHAT !

Thanks for the invite to Monsoons bruh...hope 2 catch u down there sometime soon

..ruffmix

Heyy thanks for the reply Dj Puppet, by the way trish is short for trishan, i'm a guy! haha...no worries cuz, lookn foreward to the mix!