Artist: Dominatrix

Title: The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight

Year: 1984

Label: WEA  

Personnel: S. Arbright, Claudia Summers, Kenneth Lockie

Tracklisting: The dominatrix sleeps tonight, Chants, The dominatrix sleeps tonight (dominant mix), Beat me

Glass say…

Based out of New York, Stuart Arbright and an assortment of collaborators that included ex-reviewee Ken Lockie (Cowboys International), notched up a club classic with their only release as ‘Dominatrix’.

Far from being the sinewy slice of electro-funk you might expect, ‘Sleeps Tonight’ is actually a rather innocuous and sweet tune whose crisp rhythm programs and staccato sequencers are quietly reminiscent of Junk Culture-era OMD. More intriguing than the title track, however, is ‘Chants’. The simple exercise of laying out all of the song’s vocal hooks a cappella (and carefully inserting periods of silence between them), acts either as a defiant gesture to Warners, or as a carefully orchestrated piece of marketing. ‘Chants’ is nothing more than an open invitation for musicians to go ahead and use Dominatrix samples in their own work, both legally and illegally. No surprise then that parts of it popped up in other guises and on other dance floors for years to come.

Clever, cunning and, most of all, culturally significant.