Serge Gainsbourg as sampled by The Beatnuts

The Light in the Attic reissue of Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson has garnered some heady praise, including a 10.0 and Best New (Old?) Music status from Pitchfork.

I don’t claim to be at all familiar with Gainsbourg’s work, but when I listened to the album, the opening bass line to the first song, En Melody, was instantly recognizable: The Beatnuts, the criminally overlooked New York-based trio (now duo), sampled it on Superbad, which appears on their 1994 full-length debut Street Level.

The Beatnuts push the tempo on the sample, turning the provocative mood of the original into the perfect low-end foundation for one of the best tracks on Street Level (and possibly The Beatnuts’ catalog).

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