THE story has become the stuff of legend. Back in the South Bronx, Helen Scroggins decided she had to do something to keep her four young daughters away from the drugs and gangs that were ravaging the neighbourhood.
It was 1973 and she didn't want her girls out all night hanging with the Savage Skulls or Roman Kings. So she purchased some musical instruments for them. Her bright idea was that they would become so engrossed in the music that they wouldn't have time for what was happening outside their apartment.
"We were the only kids in the neighbourhood making music. Everyone else was outside making some kind of trouble," recalls one of those daughters, Renee. The four girls would play their instruments over and over again. "What kept us in the house practising was our mother. She was a formidable woman. You wouldn't mess with her."
But Mrs Scroggins didn't count on her daughters becoming so darn influential. As ESG (named after their emerald, sapphire and gold birthstones), their spacey, pared-down mutant funk has produced tracks like Moody, UFO and You're No Good, which have encouraged dozens of other musicians into action. Many hundreds more sampled ESG's grooves, including The Beastie Boys, Miles Davis, Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. And many more didn't bother to send cheques to the Scroggins, leading them to release the 1992 EP, Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills.
In their heyday, ESG supported The Clash and PiL, headlined the closing party at New York's legendary Paradise Garage and played at the opening bash for Manchester's Hacienda. The toast of New York's fashion, design and art scenes, the Scroggins girls were hip, even if they themselves didn't realise it at the time.
"We just came out to shows to play music," says Renee Scroggins from her home in Atlanta. "We were just kids from the Bronx having fun and we just happened on that scene. For us, it was all about the music rather than any scene. Like, I'll always remember those gigs with Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, not for the crowd but because it had the best sound system in the world."
What everyone was bugging out about was ESG's groove. Minimal, sparse and alien, ESG's tracks were like nothing else around. Scroggins puts the streamlined sound simply down to their lack of instruments.
"There was no plan. We could only play the instruments that our mom could afford to buy for us. We didn't have effects, we didn't have extras, we had the bass and the drums. We just had the bare minimum, so that spacy sound that everyone was going crazy about was down solely to the instruments."
The only real musical influence was James Brown. The Scrogginses would listen to the radio and hear Brown and his band in full flight. "He was all we listened to," says Renee. "James Brown takes it to the bridge and he drops out all the instruments and you got the bass and drums, and that was what hooked us. It was all about James Brown."
ESG's first live performances beyond their livingroom were talent shows in local community centres. At one such show, Ed Bahlman from the arty downtown 99 Records label saw them and spotted something fascinating in their sound. Downtown shows followed, and ESG began to rub shoulders with hipsters, punk rockers and artists. They recorded their first single with the late Martin Hannett, and the ESG grooves found their way into the hands of other producers.
Samples followed, but the cheques didn't. It's something which still vexes Scroggins. "We didn't get paid for all those samples for so long. We had to hire us some attorneys to get what was due to us. Ninety per cent of people have paid up but we still have that 10 per cent to track down.
"Oh, yes sir, we're still chasing them. Its not so much the acts and producers who are holding everything up, it's the big labels denying that those samples exist and giving us the runaround. But we're onto them, we'll get them in the end."
By the mid-Eighties, ESG's time in the limelight was at an end. Fads and fashions had moved on, leaving ESG and their primitive sounds behind.
The band, though, didn't shut up shop. "We didn't take a break from gigging and naturally we didn't take a break from one another because we're family. We did whatever gigs were available. We'd play clubs and venues in New York, Detroit and Chicago and some shows in Canada. Then, when A South Bronx Tale came out, we started playing Europe."
A South Bronx Tale, the Soul Jazz compilation of ESG's most striking tunes, introduced a whole new audience to this family affair. With a punk-funk revival in the air, ESG suddenly found themselves in vogue once again.
"Good music lasts," says Renee of this turnabout in their fortunes. "It made complete sense to us because we were still playing the music we've always made. We haven't changed. But it was really cool to have a new group of fans eager to hear our stuff. That's always a good thing because the older fans don't seem to be around no more!"
A new ESG album hit the shops earlier this year. Like their best tunes of old, Keep on Movin' is simple, stark and minimal, right down to the sleeve design. Expansive and innovative, ESG's nagging, insistent basslines, spacious, rhythmic grooves and alien vocal refrains still charm and beguile.
"Everybody thinks that ESG is just about the old stuff, all the classics," Renee says. "But I think this album shows people that our new stuff is just as good."
Naturally, the band remains a family affair. When original members Deborah and Marie left ESG, Chistelle and Nicole joined their mothers Renee and Valerie to keep the show on the road.
For Renee, it's a full-time job. "I've done nothing but the band for the last six years. Valerie still has her job as a bus driver in New York, but it's the band which keeps me busy." Her mother would be proud.
Keep on Moving is out now on Soul Jazz. ESG play Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin on November 17th
