It's over 300 pages long and I have a PDF of it for some reason. Oh look it's on the university website still if you want to peek at it. https://golds.academia.edu/GaborValyi
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,906 Posts
Thanks for the link. I'm looking forward to reading that. Over the years I've met so many other collectors through Soul Strut that all sort of went through the same thing. Listening to hip hip and then going back and searching out original samples. Another old Soul Strutter came by my house during one of the last Austin Record Conventions for a record swap. He recounted the first time he had come over to buy a record from me almost 15 years ago and asked if I had remembered what the record was. I couldn't remember and he said it was Bob James - One and that he couldn't wait to go post it up on Soul Strut at the time. I remember trying to post up my finds and fit in with the cool kids club on here back then also but was just a younger tommy dig-a-lot myself. Hopefully Le Toupt and others can make their way back on here. Long live Soul Strut.
In retrospect he may have been the only honest on in the bunch. He freely admitted that he knew nothing, but he liked those fast and rare breakbeats that his favorite dj played and he wanted more of that shit, dammit. And we clowned him for asking in broken English. It was mean, but goddam it was funny too. I didn’t know anything either but I was too “cool” to admit it.
I wonder what happened to Bsides? I was scrolling through the ancient threads and this post had me dying. I had better chill out before somebody posts all the cringe worthy shit I’ve said over the years.
I remember once in the early days asking what the song was where the guy grunts and the girl makes this wheezing laughing sound, and DJ Marco the magnificent says I’m probably thinking of different strokes And I said there’s no way that came from the different strokes theme song. I wasn’t kidding and I had no idea what he was talking about. And that’s how I learned that Syl Johnson exists. I could have been clowned hard but I was shown mercy that day. That was probably 2002. Le Toupt is my spirit animal.
Man thanks for the reminder! That is the thing with Le Toupt, he seemed like a gimmick because he was clearly playing up his raer obsession, but he absolutely represents who the fuck I was when I was reading SS in '02 afraid to post and look like a herb for asking about the brainfreeze tracklist or whatever. 95 Wall of Fame breakbeats and stuff.
Le Toupt posts up there are like the Werner Herzog "ecstatic truth" of the early 2000s little dude. Stalking DJ Leacy! Baking croissants shaped like records! Shitting yourself over literal Leo Sayer, unironically! He only did what we were all thinking.
I came for the mixes, once I'd gotten an internet connection that made downloading mixes practical in human lifespan.
I recall my first posts were asking about samples and lyrics that I'd found to be ungoogleable at the time but turned out to be dollar-bin knowledge on the deliberately-off-grid-underground-too-cool-for-school-shaped web that was '02(?) Strut.
Of course I was clowned, mercilessly.
But I expected it, and still, there are very few places where you could say "What else sounds like [obscure '64 Miles gig]?" and get Horseleech and dem coming back with way more nuanced suggestions you'd ever get from the deepest Spotify algorithm.
The whole schtick about baking croissants in the shape of records to give to leacy and getting pulled out of the record shop before he could get his hands on the boz scaggs to look for breakbeats just kills me.
If I remember correctly iron monkey was the one behind the fake le toupt.
It does seem mean but in the strut’s defense you had a forum of experts, people who earned their knowledge via years of digging through turds to find the diamonds, walking encyclopedias in a hobby where people are known to be secretive about about nearly everything, and he was just like “tell me what the good shit is”. It was harmless but also wonderfully naive. And he wasn’t even trying to get records, he was happy with MP3s! Partly what made it so funny was the thought of him listening to these boz scaggs and Leo sayer records and wondering why it doesn’t sound anything like the uptempo b-boy breaks the Leacy played.
Yeah it's the openness and desperation I was afraid to show when I spent years lurking: I JUST WANT BIG DRUMS, SHOW ME WHERE ALL THE BIG DRUMS ARE. That was me, and seeing guys get clowned and sent to the-breaks for sample-spotting and stuff made me wanna put my head down and learn first. I'm still pretty un-knowledgeable but I did sit back and observe first.
That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time from the Strut:
Once someone told me there was a Jews For Jesus record with a drum break. I have listened to many many JFJ records trying to find it, but never have. They all suck.
It reads like a poem, a tribute to the Leo Sayer sweating break fiends. Desperation as they pull every goddam jews for jesus record they see for many years, only to conclude "they all suck". It's perfect. I wonder if Le Toupt ever found a break amongst the chud.
Comments
Yep.
https://golds.academia.edu/GaborValyi
Le Toupt posts up there are like the Werner Herzog "ecstatic truth" of the early 2000s little dude. Stalking DJ Leacy! Baking croissants shaped like records! Shitting yourself over literal Leo Sayer, unironically! He only did what we were all thinking.
I recall my first posts were asking about samples and lyrics that I'd found to be ungoogleable at the time but turned out to be dollar-bin knowledge on the deliberately-off-grid-underground-too-cool-for-school-shaped web that was '02(?) Strut.
Of course I was clowned, mercilessly.
But I expected it, and still, there are very few places where you could say "What else sounds like [obscure '64 Miles gig]?" and get Horseleech and dem coming back with way more nuanced suggestions you'd ever get from the deepest Spotify algorithm.
Ah haha of course! Well everything I said still applies to the real dude if I recall correctly.
That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time from the Strut:
It reads like a poem, a tribute to the Leo Sayer sweating break fiends. Desperation as they pull every goddam jews for jesus record they see for many years, only to conclude "they all suck". It's perfect. I wonder if Le Toupt ever found a break amongst the chud.