The Party Album

It's party music, as the title implies. It's meant to move your body, and moving your soul is optional. Although what I've heard of the Vengaboys all sounds the same, it does achieve the desired result.

The vocal "we like to party" is actually a sped-up sample from Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's "La Di Da Di". If you're going to quote a lyric, make sure it's actually a lyric, such as "the VengaBus is coming, and everybody's jumping, from New York to San Fransisco, and inner-city discos!"

I know the style is old now, but if you ever want to create your own Vengaboy-style track, which is pretty much the Ibiza party anthem style, all you need are a few ingredients:

1 punchy kick drum (a slightly compressed TR-909 works well)
1 bright open hihat (again, a 909 provides a nice one)
1 handclap (yet again another 909)
1 sawtooth waveform

Lay down the percussion to create a 4-on-the-floor boom tchka beat. With the sawtooth, choose three keys you will base the entire melody on. Arpeggiate the first key as 32nd notes for the first 1/4 of the measure. Arpeggiate the second key as 16th notes for the next quarter of the measure. Finally, the third key will fill in the rest of the measure as two quarter notes. Repeat ad infinitum. Mix Ibiza partygirl vocals. Serves 500,000.

Most of The Party Album is standard 'boom-tss-kch-tss', basic stuff, but nearer the end the tracks get less poppy and more trance-y. The final track, Paradise, is a smooth number with almost no vocals, which I rather like. Movin' Around, The Vengabeat and Superfly Slick are less smooth, but still don't conform to the Vengaboys' normal 'image'. Vengababes from Outer Space is much more poppy, but I like the bassline (and the silly lyrics as well). The first half of the album is more party-oriented, consisting as it does of vocal-heavy (hence, hummable/singable) songs which are easier to dance to.

Oddly enough, a search of FreeDB for The Party Album turns up several matches, all different, none matching the version I have access to. Also, the Vengaboys website has no mention of The Party Album (it seems to have been renamed 'Vengaboys - Greatest Hits' (Greatest Hits? Rather odd for a debut album...)) in its 'Story' section. (It also has a couple of other oddities...I quote: "...the band nearly survived a plane crash in Bombay and made European headlines by bluntly refusing an export award..." Was that before or after that plane crash?) Here's the track listing for what appears to be the UK version:

• We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)
• Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!
• Up And Down
• Ho Ho Vengaboys!
• To Brazil
• We're Going To Ibiza
• Vengaboys From Outer Space
• Superfly Slick
• Movin' Around
• The Vengabeat
• You And Me
• Paradise...

The album booklet contains brief descriptions of each of the members of the group (the visible ones, not the DJs behind the music) - their birthdays, star signs, favourite foods and people.

On the subject of where the Vengaboys originated from, here's an excerpt from the web site ( http://www.vengaboys.com ):

In the summer of 1995, DJ's Danski and Delmundo teamed up with four of the regular guests at their infamous illegal beachparties, two girls and two boys. At first, the foursome worked as professional dancers for the DJ's to spice up their performances, giving away the most outrageous acts. Some of them included live animals, singing nuns, burning furniture and jerry cans of Vaseline.

Nice.