Nookie – Give A Little Love (94 Lick) (Reinforced Records, 1994)
Gavin Cheung AKA Cloud 9 and Nookie was the engineer behind many of Ray Keith’s classic tunes such as yesterday’s ‘Something I Feel’. He’s a great producer in his own right though with a discography that goes from frenetic hardcore to ambient drum & bass, reflecting his eclectic influences which range from Quincy Jones and Donald Byrd to the Ultramagnetic MCs and Kevin Saunderson. His earliest productions were for his hip-hop crew Illegal Pressure before a job at Red Records in Soho in the late eighties helped him make the connections which would lead to his first releases. He went on to put out records on several of the scene’s most respected labels including Moving Shadow, Reinforced and Good Looking.
The original version of ‘Give A Little Love’ was released on Simon ‘Bassline’ Smith’s Absolute 2 label in 1992. Nookie updated the track for Reinforced in 1994 and this is the earliest record of his that I have on vinyl. It’s an incredibly energetic tune with a positive message to it thanks to the “Give a little light, give a little love” vocal from ‘People Hold On’ by Coldcut featuring Lisa Stansfield. The other “I’m for Real” vocal is the voice of Robert Owens from the much sampled ‘Tears’ by Frankie Knuckles presents Satoshi Tomiie. The uplifting piano riff is borrowed from ‘Kinda Groovy (Psychotropic Remix)’ by Cool 2 while the high pitched synth sound is taken from ‘Homicide’ by Shades Of Rhythm. A rare drum & bass tune that retained the hardcore vibes in ’94, and never fails to put a smile on my face.
‘Give A Little Love’ appeared on his debut album, The Sound Of Music, which was one of the first artist albums produced by the genre. You can purchase the digital over at Drum&BassArena, Beatport and most other download stores. Check it out in this superb mix of his ’92 to ’94 material from Law of Drumtrip:
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