DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

GLR066–12

MC Conrad & Makoto – Golden Girl

2005

Today marks the last of the Good Looking releases for the time being, as we reach the end of the first block of releases from Good Looking. Twelve years, 66 releases and memories to last a lifetime. 

The label had even passed off some of the distribution work to the German company ZYX / Benz which also had a hand in distributing Earth Volume 7 and Progression Sessions 10. All these were helping Good Looking survive for one last breath before it sank beneath the waves temporarily until 2007. The promo of this release had the Good Looking style of black and white label, but it was still ZYX and Good Looking Holdings that were behind this.

   Things will return though. Luckily for us, that means tomorrow. Let’s roll this classic out though. 

  The timing of this review seems to have happened at a very poignant time. Makoto has released a re-recording of Golden Girl and provided a great story behind it. It meant so much just reading his words that I felt like I had to put them here. It goes as follows: 

“Thank you so much for all your love for re-recorded version of Golden Girl. I just wish Conrad could see this✨

Conrad was a true artist. Many people think he was only the vocalist on Golden Girl, but he also co-produced it with me. He always wanted to show he was just as great in the studio as behind the mic.

In 2003, while I was in the UK after releasing my debut album Human Elements, Conrad invited me to his studio. What started as an instrumental quickly became something special. He already had a razor-sharp Amen break chopped up (we called it the “Golden Girl Amen”), and I brought in a string sample. While I was sleeping, he chopped it like crazy, and when I woke up, I created the riff you hear through the track.

We added a Conrad’s 808 bass, layered with a DX7-type sound. One note came out wrong, but it made the bassline bouncy in a way we loved, so we kept it. After finishing the structure, I felt it needed vocals. At first, Conrad wasn’t sure if he should sing, but I encouraged him. Then the melody and lyrics came out of him instantly, like they had been waiting all along.

That’s how Golden Girl was born—just two days in the studio, back in 2003.”

(Makoto – 2025) – Priceless background and included with many thanks!

    Side A has ‘Golden Girl’ with the iconic and unforgettable voice of MC Conrad. 

   The tune smears gallons of love, emotion and sunshine into the lives of everyone  that hears this tune. Makoto teamed up with the legendary MC Conrad for probably one of the biggest post millenium releases on the Good Looking label. Conrad was the true driving force behind making this tune, and quite rightly deserves the credits to this tune as a music producer, not just lyricist. 

    Now..the commercial aspect is clearly more present here than many previous releases and with the label about to drop anchor and sit stagnant for the next couple of years, it holds more of a swan-song, and then the heartfelt remembrance regarding the loss of one of the finest MCs to ever grace us. 

   A musical testimony to the voice of the music. 

Forever in our hearts – RIP Conrad. 

   The flip, AA side has the same tune but is ‘Golden Girl (Instrumental)’. The amens roll, the usual tools cast out from the A Side but without Conrad..? Hearing it is actually harder because I can picture his microphone on the stage just lying there without any sign of him emerging with that swagger, through the smoke and lasers, picking it up and doing his thing, as the song plays. There’s a really respectful duration of musical mourning where I just get a lump in my throat without his voice in this tune, as though this where we now are.

   Conrad Thompson had that presence and gift to elevate the air and space around him. Nothing will ever be the same without him, but the music carries us all toward the memories and cherished times, filling our lives with music he gave life too. 

I need a new hanky now…. 

    That’s 2005 and the doors to GLR close…for now. Luckily for us, we don’t have to wait two years to reopen them. Tomorrow we move onto the next plate and fast forward to 2007.