Mos Def - Ms. Fat Booty

This is from the dying days of the Golden Age: 1999. It's built on an Aretha Franklin sample, which has been chopped up like sushi. It's good.

Mos Def is in full-on parable mode here, to good narrative effect. I want to play this in a convertible one day before I die.

Sash! - La Primavera

My only excuse is that it came out when I was 11, and it (almost) samples the riff from Chariots of Fire. For me, this song held so much promise in its synths - it hinted at a glamorous world where women whispered in Italian and people knew how to dance. Which means it somehow subliminally encapsulated Balearic Beat.

That bleepy melody and the big drum break are still sensational: this is one of my cheesiest anthems, but I stand by it - that tune is phenomenal. And I still have no freaking clue what she's saying.