Touch Sensitive has shared new track In A Dream and it immediately got us up and dancing. We also immediately recognized the vocal sample that the track is built around.
It reminded of a semi-regular section that used to run on the music page of the print edition of OUTinPerth called Heard It All Before. So we’re reviving it just to celebrate this new tune!
As soon as you hear Touch Sensitive’s new tune you might recognise the “Ah hey ma ma ma hey-y-yah” vocals too.
The same sample was featured prominently in the Dario G song Sunchyme which was a huge hit back in 1997.
The song got to number 22 on the Australia charts, but was a number 2 hit in the UK, kept from the top spot by Sir Elton John’s Candle in the Wind tribute to Princess Diana.
The original source of the chant though is a 1985 smash from British band The Dream Academy. Life in a Northern Town was written by singer Nick Laird-Clowes and bandmate Gilbert Gabriel.
The original track was produced by David Gilmour from Pink Floyd and is dedicated to British folk singer Nick Drake, Laird-Clowes said he wrote it on a guitar previously owned by the late singer.
The song was the band’s debut single, and while they are remembered as one hit wonders, they went on to record three albums The Dream Academy (1985), Remembrance Days (1987), and A Different Kind of Weather (1990).
Earlier this year a new version of the song was recorded by composer Mike Batt with Justin Hayward from The Moody Blues on lead vocals.
Classic examples of ‘Heard it All Before’
In 2007 Kanye West released his song Stronger which was based around a sample of the 2001 Daft Punk song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. That song was created around a sample of the 1979 Edwin Birdsong tune Coke Bottle Baby.
In 2010 Canadian outfit had a dancefloor smash with their tune Barbra Streisand, it sampled German Disco group Boney M’s 1979 hit Gotta Go Home, which in turn was based on the 1973 song Hallo Bimmelbahn by Nighttrain.
In 2011 Jennifer Lopez returned to the charts when she teamed up with Pitbull for On the Floor. The song featured a melody that many people recalled from Kaoma’s 1989 single Lambada. The song originated as the Bolivian folk song Llorando se fue recorded by Los Kjarkas in 1981.
