THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (20) : Beastie Boys – Intergalactic

Intergalactic is probably the answer most folk would give to the question, ‘Name a hit single by the Beastie Boys’

It’s likely got as much to do with the memorable video, conceived and directed by Nathaniel Hornblower (aka Adam Yauch aka MCA), in which the trio, dressed as construction workers, are filmed in and around Tokyo while a dancing giant robot (which doubles as a spaceship) fights a deranged giant octopus armed with a trident.

But it turns out that Intergalactic was indeed the biggest hit they enjoyed in the UK, reaching #5 in July 1998.

mp3:  Beastie Boys – Intergalactic

I didn’t buy Intergalactic at the time, saving my cash to pick up a copy of Hello Nasty, which provided them with their first, and as it tuned out, only, #1 album in the UK.  It would have been a few years later that I grabbed a copy of the single in Missing Records as part of a wider haul of second-hand CD singles and albums.

Turns out it was released in 2xCD formats, and the version I have is CD1, which came with three other tracks.

mp3: Beastie Boys – Hail Sagan (Special K)
mp3: Beastie Boys – Intergalactic (Prisoners of Technology/TMS 1 Re-Mix)
mp3: Beastie Boys – Intergalactic (Fuzzy Logic Re-Mix)

The first of these is a strange and hugely uncommercial instrumental, which I assume is a tribute to the astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan who had passed away in late 1996 just a few months prior to work beginning on Hello Nasty.

The others are exactly as they say on the tin.

The first of them could be described as Beastie Boys meeting Drum’n’Bass, thanks to the contribution of a London-based producer and DJ whose output around the turn of the century and into the 00s was quite extensive.

The second is a bit more straightforward and is the work of Sam Sever and Jonathan Hoffman under the name of Fuzzy Logic which was the name given to their studio and production company.

JC