My dear friend Balthazar Monsoon, who posts as often as possible on this blog, graduated college this weekend. To celebrate, I thought it would only be appropriate to post two tracks that combine both his love of dance music with his love of Kate Bush.
One thing that always disturbed me was the copious supply of Kate Bush material in the used bins at Los Angeles record stores. One could easily acquire the bulk of her catalogue, or at least the essentials, on vinyl in a single trip to a well-stocked used record store. Perhaps Kate Bush fans are simply older folks who lost interest in record players and swapped vinyl for cds. However, part of me fears that she's the sort of artist that people just don't get. Maybe she's too out there for Adult Album Alternative types and too NPR for hipsters. I just don't know.
Certainly, though, the scope of Bush's influence is huge. Tori Amos aside, however, Kate Bush is a frequently referenced artist. Her songs have been covered extensively throughout numerous genres. Two of my favorites are The Futureheads' version of "Hounds of Love" (hear it on My Space) and Placebo's rendition of "Running Up That Hill" (available for preview and purchase on the band's website).
Dance club aficionados know that Bush's music has been sampled and reworked nearly as often as it has been covered over the years. Perhaps the best known of the Dancefloor Kate tracks is the one below.

Utah Saints "Something Good"
(Song Removed)

Released in 1992, "Something Good" gives a kick to the best known lyric Bush sang throughout the course of "Cloudbusting."
"Surely something good is going to happen."
I heard this track for the first time somewhere in the midst of ninth grade and the line stuck with me. I hated school, hated my boring, virtually friendless life, but something good was going to happen, right? Even today, I hum that line, trying to mimic the pitched-up sound of this Utah Saint's track, whenever I need some sort of reassurance.
A few years later, I came across the 12" while rummaging around at Aron's in search for stuff to play at the DJ gigs that I was just starting to book. I didn't think I would have any use for this number at a club, but at $2, the record called me. It said, "Liz, buy me and you won't be sorry. Someday, you will play me and your friends will dance." I think I played it two or three times on my show at KXLU, obscuring the name on the playlist I had to fill out so that no one could say anything about playing a song that was too dated and too dance. However, I never played it at a club until the spring of 2003 (roughly) at Transmission, which has everything to do with the following track.

Kate Bush v. Infusion "Running Up That Hill"
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Again with the rummaging. I was in Amoeba one day following my usual ritual inside the store: brief overview of the new releases in rock and dance; perusal of various artist files in search of albums on my mental list; serious dig of the white label section. I picked up this remix by Australian group Infusion with no clue as to its sound. All I understood was that it was some sort of dance mix of "Running Up That Hill" and I had to have it.
Now, "Running Up That Hill" is actually a big goth club track, or at it least it was for a lengthy period of time. However, even the original 12" extended version is incredibly difficult for non-goth dancing, which is why you probably won't even hear it at a 1980s club unless you arrive fairly early. (For the record, I don't believe that I ever played it at an 80s club, although it was pretty much required spinning at my goth gigs.) When I put this record on my turntable for the first time, it was like manna falling into my hands. The beat was perfect for an electro-heavy club like Transmission and there was just enough of the original song incorporated into this mix to pique the attention of the late-20s/early-30s crowd that the club attracted. It became a staple of my set for the rest of the year. Avid followers of dance music probably heard it frequently in the sets of major progressive house DJs and/or read about it in magazines like Jockey Slut.

Finding these songs in a tangible form:

Amazon does have used and sealed copies of the CD version of "Something Good." As for vinyl, while copies of "Something Good" don't match the proliferation of "Running Up That Hill" 12" singles in the bins, it isn't that hard to find. Keep your eyes open and you'll find it.

Although it was issued in limited quantities as a white label, I have seen copies of the Kate Bush v. Infusion vinyl at Amoeba in the past year. This is what you will be looking for.

There is a wealth of information regarding Kate Bush available online. Start with her Wikipedia entry and work your way through the links. Also, Mojo ran an incredible piece on her about three years ago, that you should seek.