Touch Me

This achingly deep bit of house went straight into the UK charts at No.1 when finally released. This is the highest chart ranking ever reached by a artist from Portugal. The release was delayed because of an injunction involving a music sample. EMI accused Rui of using a guitar sample from a Spandau Ballet track, 'Chant No.1'. The allegations were later dropped.

Rui Da Silva has created an amazing slice of deep and trippy music with this release. It was labelled 'Dance Anthem of 2001' by Mixmag, and is a perfect example of how house and trance elements can sound when blended together properly. The track begins ambient and slow, with Cassandras enchanting vocals, a steady beat and faint strings. The melodic beat gradually builds into an explosion of pumping sound, which fluctuates up and down for the remainder of the song.

Touch Me is a real mood shifter, building and weaving layers and textures as it progresses. It is haunting and stands out from many more typical house mixes. Divine when experienced in a fast car at night, windows wound down, and bass pumping; Or of course in the dark recesses of an amazing club. Let yourself go with this song. Drift on the music. Trust me - It's absolute bliss.

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Song by Rui Da Silva Ft. Cassandra, 2001

You will always be my baby
I'm always thinking of you, baby

Touch me in the morning
And last thing at night
Keep my body warm, baby
You know it feels right

Take it a little higher
I'm thinking it too (too)
Tell me what you're feeling
I feel it with you

We can only understand
what we are shown
How was I supposed
to know our love would grow?

Move a little closer
Things sure are looking up
Heal me with your loving
I need you so much
I need you so much
I need you so much

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(lyrics largely removed by Oolong, at bexxta's request, to comply with E2 Copyright Changes; now CST Approved)

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Along with CD single and Vinyl release, this track can also be found on the following compilations:

Clubber's Guide To 2001 - Mixed By Tall Paul (Ministry Of Sound)
Ministry Of Sound Annual 2002
Nu-progressive Era (Hooj Choons)
Lagered! The Next Level - Mixed By Sample Gee
Trance Nation 2001 (Mixed By Ferry Corsten - System F)(Ministry Of Sound)
Essential Mix - mixed by Pete Tong

We were sitting on the outside balcony of a very posh country club, and lightning was rolling across the sky at exact intervals. The flashes were timed by the universe to amuse us. To scare us with the regularity of the timing contrasted with the perfect individuality of the bursts themselves. What was that promise that you made?

We were on the third floor and behind us, just through those large glass doors, was the enormous bar; the only bar within 100 miles of this dry county in Northern Alabama. Tommy's dad was the manager of this country club in the middle of nowhere, and we owned the place. We owned the championship course that lay out underneath our view like a personal pathway to the heavens. We owned the liquor in the bar behind us. We owned the jukebox, which was turned up to twelve to match the time of the night. We owned the Doors and Jim Morrison who was asking us both to "Touch him." I might have obliged, but I could tell that he'd be dead soon. Call me psychic. I never liked touching dead things.

Earlier that night, we'd been out on the golf course chasing fireflies. There had been some more folks with us, and all of us had been peaking on the tabs around nine, when it gets dark in the South in the summer. One par 3 had a steep uphill approach, and we'd spent some time lying on our sides and rolling down that steep hill. You have to tuck your arms tight by your side and trust gravity when you do this. Don't try to stop yourself. You can't stop. You're speeding up to slow down, anyway; so what's the use?

Around 11:00, Tommy told the others that they had to leave. I don't know why I always seemed to be invited into these little secret societies. Maybe I'm giving off some sort of tangential vibe which I can't control. Tommy was giving me that same vibe. He was not a popular kid, but he was most assuredly not a nerd or a geek or a hood or a jock or . . . what the hell was he, anyway? His little brother was a horn-rimmed glasses-wearing classical guitar-playing certified geek. His mom was a redhead who fluttered out the door Lucille Ballish every time I came over. His dad was never seen, but his dad was from a very prestigious family in that little town, and I guess that's why they'd made him the manager of this new country club out in the new haven for the rich folks. It was so, so far out in the sticks, though. It'd never fly, would it?

That's what I was thinking when it was just Tommy and me sitting there on that third floor balcony. We had sat at the bar for a while and tried to decide what to drink as the night wound down. The ceilings were high and the fireplace was deep. The decor was Club Room, for sure. So, of course, we chose Brandy in the big snifter glasses. I didn't like the taste that much, but you by God cannot argue with that mystique. We also lit up a couple of large cigars. Young men -- very young men -- in ownership of life itself. Can't you see that I am not afraid?

After a couple of snifters, we went out onto the balcony and reclined. As if on some sort of heavenly cue, the lightning began. You know that sort of lightning where there is no real threat of rain nor any loud thunder? How many miles away was this storm? Far beyond us to say. We were paralyzed by the majesty of it. Neither of us could say a word. We just sat there and felt the humid, cool air float over us, while we tried to act like this was something that happened every day.

I'm gonna love that memory 'til the stars fall from the sky. For you and I.

Atari never had much luck with hand held computer games (i.e., Atari Lynx). Their first hand-held game was called Touch Me. Like Lynx, it pretty much bombed in the market place. Like Lynx, many thought “great idea” and then took Atari’s general idea and made it a success. Okay so that said, most people today would look at Touch Me and say “Oh that’s a rip off of Simon”. Simon, of course, was that addictive UFO-shaped game you plunked on your den’s shag carpet and squatted around with your friends, back when you were at that age when you could be female and squat in polite company. The object of Simon, and Touch Me, was to memorize a pattern of lights and press the appropriate buttons to replicate the given light pattern.

What’s important to note, here, Touch Me was released before Milton Bradley's Simon. Touch Me, however, was small enough to be held in your hand. You didn’t have to squat. And maybe that was what made it just a bit less fun, hence a failure.

Now an astute historian of video and electronic games would note that the Touch Me hand held was released 1978 and Simon was released in 1977. So how can you, you Ann, you sweet honest Ann, be screaming ATARI WAS RIPPED OFF AGAIN! Ann *slap* the numbers don’t lie.

They don’t. But the thing is Atari originally released Touch Me as a coin op video game in 1974. Ah ha! It came hot on the heals of Atari’s Pong. But I mean when you could be playing an exciting game of electronic ping pong, pushing buttons to match increasingly complex patterns just wasn’t considered fun. And since most of these games were put in bars and bus stations, well, they weren’t exactly the best venue for memory games.

However, Milton Bradley proved that the Touch Me concept, if marketed to kids who liked to squat, could be an amazing success. Oh yeah Milton Bradley also added some fat sounds. The arcade Touch Me had no sound. The following year, Atari came out with a hand held version, keeping the name Touch Me. They added sound too.

The Touch Me hand held nearly didn’t make it to store shelves in time for the 1978 Christmas rush. The game was being manufactured in Asia but they were having problems with the battery housing. An Atari engineer flew out to Asia to work the problem. Apparently he didn’t like it out there and kept threatening to fly home before the problem was solved. To keep him from flying the coop, someone stole his passport and made him think he mislaid it until he fixed the problem.

A variant of Touch Me was released in 1978 on a 2600 cart called Brain Games.