Carry Like Mariah

ESG

ESG were an all-female group out of the South Bronx who were active in the early eighties, and reformed in the nineties and earlier this decade. They played post-punky, funky, discoey awesomeness, and heavily influenced groups like the Rapture, Luscious Jackson, and Le Tigre. I had heard about them for a while, but I just downloaded disc one of “A South Bronx Story” off Emusic this week, and I love it. It’s funky, it’s happy, it’s amazing. The thing I like most about ESG is that it is dance music made with real instruments, so it is much warmer and more human than your typical Roland 808 beat. I’m a fan. So are rappers. ESG was sampled by a lot of artists, including the Wu Tang and the Beasties. In the 90s, the ladies spent some time collecting what was owed to them by the various artists that had sampled them.

Moody is my favorite track on the album, so here it is.