Review
Genre and Mood
The Lost Fingers play Pump up the Jam as gypsy jazz: a cover, on acoustic strings, of a song that was born in a dance-music studio. It is playful by design, nostalgic for anyone who danced to the original, and energetic in the way swing can be without a single synthesizer.
Song Summary
Technotronic’s Pump Up the Jam, released in 1989 and written by the rapper Ya Kid K (Manuela Kamosi) with the producer Jo Bogaert (as Thomas De Quincey), was a hip-house hit that reached number two in both the US and the UK. Critics heard a hyperkinetic, booming-bass number, simple, spare and relentlessly rhythmic. The Lost Fingers keep its words and give it to two guitars and a double bass, the line-up of a jazz swing trio.
Musical Breakdown
No source we found describes this recording section by section, so this review stays with its line-up and leaves the structure to your ears.
The Strings
Christian Roberge and Byron Mikaloff play the guitars; Alex Morissette plays double bass. Between them they take over everything the original did with electronic production and its booming bass.
The Voices
Roberge sings lead and Morissette backing vocals, in English, as on all of Lost in the 80’s except the French Incognito.
Concepts in Focus
This is a cover version that changes genre, not words. The trio formed, one profile says, to pay tribute to the 1980s the way a gypsy jazz master might have, and named itself after Django Reinhardt, who lost the use of two fingers in a fire. Compare Postmodern Jukebox, KENTON – Closer, which does the same to a 2016 hit.
The swing is the point of the swap: gypsy jazz is swing music, built on the lilt of uneven note pairs, where the original was house.
The song also shows how loose the word remix can be. A Technotronic release, The Remixes, lists a Manouche Jazz Remix by The Lost Fingers, running 3:49, a second longer than this album track.
Artistic Context
The Lost Fingers formed in Quebec City in 2006. Lost in the 80’s, their debut, came out in Quebec on 6 May 2008 through Tandem and Distribution Select, and across Canada in January 2009, with Pump up the Jam as its opening track.
Impact and Reception
The album went platinum in Quebec within twelve weeks, reached 200,000 sales once it was distributed across Canada, peaked at number two on the Canadian albums chart and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2009 Junos. Not everyone was charmed: one blogger found that it works at times and sucks at times. Decide for yourself, then play Technotronic’s original.
