Welcome to The Slaughterhouse.

Once again a series of tracks that take me back to the first years of the NPGMC.

I remember hearing that electrobeat of Silicon (silly con) and just smiling, there is a way that Prince can work a drum machine like no other. And all the fritzed synth lines make it sound like a machine short-circuiting. Even the treatment to his vocals gives us this detached feel as the lyrics flow. For me this is a dark song, with a fair bit of anger dripping in the groove. Powerful and edgy, it reminds me of some of the highlight tracks from Rave.

S&M Groove was a song I remember blasting one summer in my car. In fact when I made a compile of all the NPGMC downloads I called it S&M Groove. This is just one of those classic Prince tracks that makes you just get into it from the first beat. At first listen it sounds fairly sparse, but repeated plays rewards you with the little gems of samples playing under the main groove. This reminds me of some of the harder songs from Emancipation.

Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? Just hit me and has never let go. As if teaching class, Prince tells the newbies of samples and “interpolations” about how original work is played… with the emphasis on played! Although there is a strong electronic vibe to the track, you know Prince has the musical skills to back up the claims. The early seeds of the thought that would blossom into Musicology.

If there was an instant should have been hit on here Golden Parachute is it. A song smooth in its lament for the passing of the music and the rise of the business. It just floats in an ethereal way that sinks into you mind and gets you singing along before you realise what it is the words say. Debate aside about if it is about Clive Davis or not, it certainly is targeted at the suits who purchase music as a product and not as an art. Such heavy words just float down like the symbolic parachute and hopefully get a great safe landing.

Hypnoparadise never did it for me. It sounded like a bad remix of what would have been a good track. For some reason I see ballroom dancing when I hear this track, and that in itself is a bad association.

Thankfully, backing up HP is Props and Pounds, this easy does it funk track lays out the legend that is P without being too self involved and then underplays it with the idea of giving credit and love where its due. Sounding like a TRC track, this has always been a fave with me, especially the midsection. And every time I hear the quote “he knows when to stop….. usually” and the music kicks off to a new level I just laugh and love it. Who said the man didn’t have a sense of humour?

Northside reminded me more of a NPG track than a P song. Like it would be something from Gold N*****. A little bit of by the book song writing here but still Prince manages to lay a hook in the track. It’s an ok track but compared to some of the other gems on here it feels like filler,

Peace starts off as filler, admit it now, and then builds into a classic funk groove with a dash of gospel added in for good measure. Reminds me of the finer moments on Graffiti Bridge.

I had never heard 2045:Radical Man until this release. And I can still remember sitting back after the download and anxiously pressing play. With a preacher inspired rant, P delivers his argument for music and masters and the current state of play of the music business. Jazz tinged, this shuffle funk groove was well worth the wait.

The first time I heard The Daisy Chain I just played it over and over for about half hour. It was just too funky for a Prince starved guy to handle. I love the whole distorted effect on the guitars, bass and occasional vocal line, and the stevie inspired synth lines near the end of the track. I have to admit, hopes were high when I heard this and The Work Pt 1, thinking we might get a return to funk form. They were just where I wanted Prince to be, of course they weren’t where he was going. But maybe that’s the way he likes to play it. Lead em thinking this way and then open their mind with something new and unexpected.

As a set, I think TSH is a stronger collection of tracks than TCI, they seem to be more cohesive and in synch. And maybe it’s because they seem to hit more of the songs I remember downloading. Either way, when the vault doors sneak open you can beat I’ll be there to sample whatever we can get our hands on.

I equally love both albums in the end, though this one is indeed the funkiest of the 2. I was totally in love with all this material when 1st released in 2001. God how often did i listen to these songs!!! To me they might just be Prince's best records of the whole decade alongside the jazz albums: it's fresh, it's a mix of pop and electrofunk in the vein of his classic material, it had some great linn sounds but still sounded very contemporary at the time... I honestly consider this material to be much more solid than any of his post 2003 releases.

It's kind of a pity that there wasn't either more tracks on each album or a 3rd volume.

The magnificent "My Medallion", "When Will We Be Paid", "Cybersingle" and "Jukebox In A Heartbeat" SHOULD have been included. We could have had 2 more songs on each album!

Less necessary were "Van Gogh" and "Instrumental" +"One Song" and "U're Still The One". I like them less but i like them nonethless. And a bit out of place but still able to make it without seeming totally irrelevant were the great 1994 "The Funky Design" and "Mad".

So we had enough material for a 3rd 10 songs album, or at least 2 albums with 12, 13 or 14 songs each.

I'll actually never understand how Prince could exclude "My Medallion" of all things. This song was SUCH an instant classic!!!

Databank - I agree - there were serious omissions from the these 2 releases - and totally understand your confusion over the non-inclusion of My Medallion.

Love this album

Cool.

I didn't even know this existed. Likely impossible to find... I'm jealous. Thank you..!

Hanklin said:

Cool.

I didn't even know this existed. Likely impossible to find... I'm jealous. Thank you..!

ebay is a good place to check for Prince stuff.

luv4u said:

Hanklin said:

Cool.

I didn't even know this existed. Likely impossible to find... I'm jealous. Thank you..!

ebay is a good place to check for Prince stuff.

Shame on you moderator. Any copy of this on ebay or anywhere else will be a bootleg.

This was a download only "release" from NPGMC, as was The Chocolate Invasion.

MikeyB71 said:

luv4u said:

ebay is a good place to check for Prince stuff.

Shame on you moderator. Any copy of this on ebay or anywhere else will be a bootleg.

This was a download only "release" from NPGMC, as was The Chocolate Invasion.

My post was just being helpful. It was not intended to direct to bootlegs. tsk tsk mikey.

You are correct that it was released through the NPGMC.

Love this album and The Chocolate Invasion (althought I love this one more). I think they're underrated and generally underheard. But since I was a long-time paying member at the NPGMC, I don't really care if other people missed out on these. ....OK, maybe a little. There's some great material on these albums that Prince (as usual) has largely ignored since it's release.

I probably regularly listen to more songs from this one album than any other Prince has released in the last decade. I might listen to more from Lotusflow3r (single disc). But Silicon, S&M Groove (seek out the unedited version - small changes, but it's still better), Golden Parachute, Northside and The Daisy Chain are all regular listens on the Prince playlist.

The thing I liked about Slaugherhouse & Chocolate Invasion is (to me) these songs felt like they belonged in roughly the same pot. Same goes for Xpectation, NEWS and C-Note. I also loved Musicology, but post-2004 Prince has felt disjointed - tossed off or overdone.

[Edited 10/21/10 14:38pm]

nice album

daisy chain is my fave

Rightly said:

nice album

daisy chain is my fave

its an album i know deep deep dwon isnt very good but i still enjoy it

MikeyB71 said:

luv4u said:

ebay is a good place to check for Prince stuff.

Shame on you moderator. Any copy of this on ebay or anywhere else will be a bootleg.

This was a download only "release" from NPGMC, as was The Chocolate Invasion.

In her defense, a lot of this stuff was released on those Hit n Run tour singles.

"Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? Just hit me and has never let go. As if teaching class, Prince tells the newbies of samples and “interpolations” about how original work is played… with the emphasis on played! Although there is a strong electronic vibe to the track, you know Prince has the musical skills to back up the claims. The early seeds of the thought that would blossom into Musicology."

Funny that Prince uses a chopped up sample of James Brown's Funky Drummer as the beat, while going on about real music etc - "this dummer wicked". (in fact it's the legendary Clyde Stubblefield on the skins, and he is indeed wicked, but somehow it doesn't work for me - woulda prefered Prince or even Kirk drumming live instead!).

...

Spinlight said:

MikeyB71 said:

Shame on you moderator. Any copy of this on ebay or anywhere else will be a bootleg.

This was a download only "release" from NPGMC, as was The Chocolate Invasion.

In her defense, a lot of this stuff was released on those Hit n Run tour singles.

Yeah...i know, i was just having a jovial dig.

Nice things those singles, genuine copies are very expensive, they have began to be bootlegged too. Some very good imitations floating around.

MikeyB71 said:

Spinlight said:

In her defense, a lot of this stuff was released on those Hit n Run tour singles.

Yeah...i know, i was just having a jovial dig.

Nice things those singles, genuine copies are very expensive, they have began to be bootlegged too. Some very good imitations floating around.

I always wanted copies of that shit, but I never got around to picking any up and I don't even remember if the tour went through my town back in the day. I'd like legit copies. Mostly because it was so much like going to indie shows where they sell their little mixtapes and shit. I wish Prince would go back to a more underground, continuous flow of music.

Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This ... just the 'funk'