The three sisters – Emerald, Sapphire and Gold- aka the Scroggins sisters (there were actually five initially) made minimal music for the dancefloor, which wasn’t concerned with melody, but rhythm. ‘UFO’ really broke the mould though, with its disturbing space age noise, eerie scraping sonics juxtaposed with a killer funk bass line.
It was excessively sampled in hip-hop, apparently 500 times- notably by Beastie Boys and Wu-Tang Clan, and their influence is immense: everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Yeah Yeah Years cites them as favourites.
For me, it’s yet another track that freaked me out as a kid. It was so “out there”, so other, that I had no reference points, or ways to comprehend it. It frightened and confused me like the most interesting work always does. Now of course, I love it. And it’s timely, with the recent moon landings…
Hit The North 