I’ve no idea where this came from, it was on a DAT tape with no info, it’s definitely me playing but I’ve no idea the date aside from these tracks are all from around 1996. It’s trip hop all the way though with UNKLE’s mix of Tortoise opening and on into the Sonic Assault mix of Attica Blues’ ‘Tender’. Danny Breaks’ ‘Science Fu’ Pt.2 is followed by something I just cannot remember and Spotify cannot identify – anyone got any ideas? I’m think it’s maybe European?
UPDATE: Edward ZentaurusMan – one of Solid Steel’s biggest fans – has set me straight, it was by Si Begg and the exact date was 29/12/1996 – thanks Edward!
Brighton graffiti artist Req makes his debut on wax for the Skint label at the end and it’s all done in under 30 minutes. The presence of random spoken word samples makes me think this was recorded up at Ahead of our Time studios in Clink St rather than KISS FM and it’s fairly basic on the mixing side of things. I’m wondering if it was even broadcast, it’s unusual to have no date on something.
Fun fact: I painted and sealed the walls of the studio above once it was built (we never got round to properly painting it after), it stood inside the main office of Ninja Tune in London Bridge, sound proofed and the Journeys By DJ mix, A Recipe For Disaster and Let Us Play were largely recorded there among others.

Tracklist:
Tortoise – Djed (Bruise Blood Mix)
Attica Blues – Tender (Sonic Assault Mix)
Danny Breaks – Science Fu (Pt.2)
Si Begg – Nothing Is True Zen Say
Req – 8 Models In A Sauna

I felt like a bit of hip hop and found this hour where I was playing catch up with a load of mid 2005 releases, the quality is outstanding with a leaning towards West Coast artists in particular, the underground was really firing 15 years ago. Not too much to say about this really except that it contains a couple of Soundsci demo mixes that changed a little by the time they were released.

Tracklist:
Pangea / My Private Utopia – Solid Steel intro
Cage feat. Jello Biafra – Grand ‘ol Party Crash
Stateless – Exit
Blackalicious – Rhythm Sticks (remix)
SoundSci – The Remedy (demo mix)
Porn Theatre Ushers – She’s Busted
Madvillain – Rhinestone Cowboy (Fourtet remix)
Quasimoto – Bully’s Hit
Tom Caruana feat. Arch Co – It’s Arch
Hot Karl feat. MC Serch – Let’s Talk
Madvillain – Strange Ways (Koushik remix)
Madvillain – interlude
Koushik – Too Many Ways
Living Legends – Good Fun
Nextmen feat. Dynamite MC – Spin It Round
Edan – Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme
Natural Self feat. Alice Russell – I Don’t Need This Trouble
Quasimoto – Rappcats 3
Edan feat. Percce P – Torture Chamber (Cut Chemist remix)
SoundSci – The Illness (demo mix)
APSCI feat. Mr Lif – See That?
Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large (Devil McDoom remix)
Ch3vy – Hard Massage

Recorded to DAT at home (hence the title) and missing the first 10 minutes or so due to an Autechre live track and Boards of Canada’s ‘Aquarius’ Peel session being taped over them. This mix is rough and ready with some brutal half time Bug/Ice beats giving way to jump up D’n’B including UK remixes of The Beastie Boys and Missy Elliot.

Part 2 slows the pace a little and moves into sample territory with the Weather Report-sampling Noise/Paradox ‘Last Night on Earth’ and Jadell’s old school nod, ’Sureshot’ (apologies for the dust on the needle). An unknown track follows that gives way to the techno jazz of Bedouin Ascent’s remix of Move D, such a complex bit of programming. I’m sure I’ve got a tape of unreleased BA music from way back somewhere.

I’ve no idea why Knights of the Turntable is in here, an early 80’s electro B side with all this modern stuff? I must have just got a copy second hand and the tempo was right. CSM’s ‘The Way’ was on Clear offshoot, Reel and Norken’s remix does that rare thing of evoking what I call ‘night time techno’, early hours of the morning headphones music like Elektroids or B12. Jega comes along and ruins that particular mood with his distorted beats and we finish with excerpts from Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium Is The Massage’ which has been laced throughout the mix. You can detect traces of samples that appeared in the following year’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ album in here too in some of the vocal snippets.

For the Solid Steel scholars, the missing tracks from the start of part 1 were apparently:
DJ VADIM – AURAL PROSTITUTION (SWOPE MIX)
STEVE GREY – STEVE GREY

Track list:
Part 1
DJ VADIM – LORD FORGIVE ME (BUG DOOMSDAY LINE MIX)
ICE – X-1(UNDERDOG MIX)
BEASTIE BOYS – INTERGALACTIC (P.O.TECH/TMS REMIX)
MISSY ELLIOT – HIT ‘EM WITH THE HEE (GANJA KRU REMIX)

Part 2
NOISE/PARADOX – LAST NIGHT ON EARTH
JADELL – THE SURE SHOT
Unknown – unknown
MOVE D – HURT ME (BEDOUIN ASCENT MIX)
KNIGHTS OF THE TURNTABLE – FRESH DUB
CSM – THE WAY (NORKEN MIX)
JEGA – CARBON 60

Delayed Pt. 2 to Mixcloud 72 because of the Now, Listen anniversary the past 2 weeks

Recorded over the Xmas break of ’98/99 (where PC and I went to LA to play at a disastrous New Year party which ended in multiple hospitalisations from a bad drugs batch and police shut down). This sounds like a live set recorded at home, possibly on three decks and is full of contemporary electronica, jazz, library and that end of the millennium weirdness where there wasn’t any dominant scene happening.

The King Biscuit Time track that kicks this off is a real anomaly for me, I never founds anything else by them that did it for me but this absolutely rocks. Absolutely joyous with that filthy break and weird bass line. Paddington Breaks were from the same stable as Animals On Wheels, lazily bundled in under the name ‘drill n bass’ on account of them sometimes aping Squarepusher‘s completely style of programming. As you can hear, that was far from the truth with this track, sounding more like vintage Black Dog that anything else.
Stereolab were generally turning anything they touched to gold around this time and their Pastels remix is no exception despite dodgy ‘scratched’ flute sound. John Callaghan has been making music for 30 years and released a couple of 7″s on Warp at the end of the decade. The spooky ‘I’m not comfortable in my own mind’ wasn’t something you’d associate with the label at the time but not a million miles away from Broadcast in tone. More Warp with another BoC Peel Session track before something from Bundy K Brown‘s short-lived Pullman project, an acoustic instrumental outfit with only two albums to their discography.

Bundy was always moving on to different projects from Tortoise, Grey Market Goods or Pullman, his Directions debut EP, Echoes, has just been reissued after 25 years with extra material on Temporary Residence. Air (the German alias of Pete Namlook version – their are over 30 bands called Air on Discogs) appear again with another track from their Fax debut. Major Force West had an album collected on Mo Wax of various tracks from ’97-99, some rumoured to originally be slated for the UNKLE LP before James Lavelle changed direction and producers. To me it’s a brilliant record, full of mind-expanding trip hop in the very best psychedelic sense. Snatches of the moon landing, shortwave recordings, parts of How To Speak Hip and all manner of analogue electronics over a steady breakbeat goes down very nicely.

We finish where we started in part one of this show with the Karminsky‘s and a track from their second single, ‘The Hip Sheik EP’, insultingly files under Electronic: Acid Jazz on Discogs, far from it. Peppered throughout this show and the previous one were snatches of The Tape Beatles from their ‘A Subtle Buoyancy Of Pulse’ debut (or possibly ‘Music With Sound’, I forget). Either releases are incredible cut up/collage albums in the style of Negativland, People Like Us or The Books and The Orb have pillaged the latter for years.

King Biscuit Time – Niggling Discrepancy
Paddington Breaks – Blimsearch
The Pastels – One Wild Moment (Stereolab mix)
John Callaghan – Smearhead
Boards of Canada – Olsen
Pullman – Tall Grass
Air – 1st Impression
Major Force West – Circling Round
The Karminsky Experience – Suspense
The Tape Beatles – Outro