The ‘3-Way Mix’ Oz mini tour recap

We got back from Australia at 5am on Wednesday morning after what seemed like days of flying in cramped seats but it was worth it. The first mini tour of the Paul’s Boutique 3-Way Mix went well and I’ll throw out some highlights here rather than going into a prolonged tour diary.

Playing the Perth Festival outside and finishing before 10pm then going out into the crowd to chat and give away our rider.

Landing in Melbourne to a torrential rainstorm, worse than back in the UK but being taken around by tour manager Joel to see local graffiti spots and ERT, shop sporting a tattoo parlour, recordstore, clothing, posters and spices.

Seeing old friends at the Melbourne show and rocking it despite the show being advertised as ‘Beastie Boys (USA) Paul’s Boutique feat. DJ Food, Cheeba, Moneyshot(grrrrr). Finding out about ‘Vaporwave’, ‘Sea Punk’ and ‘Business Funk’ via a radio show on Melbourne radio.

Recording an impromptu mix of originals from ‘Shake Your Rump’ and ‘Hey Ladies’ for Jack Shit‘s show on FBI radio – you can listen back to it here.

Playing our best show in Sydney in front of more friends but ducking out of the proposed after party with Grandmaster Flash as it became a roadblock.

Taking the ferry to Manly to hang out with Moneyshot’s girlfriend’s ex-pat mates who served up the best BBQ.

Meeting up with DJ Hickory Dickory Dock who took me round various Sydney record spots, ending up at the excellent Revolve store near Newtown.

3-Way Mix interview on Universal Magnetic

There’s an interview with Cheeba, Moneyshot and myself on this edition of Bristol’s Universal Magnetic Radio show with Ben One and Awkward. It was conducted inside the boat shortly after we’d nailed the InnoFADER routine a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the other two don’t get much of a word in until about half way through as a lot of the questions seemed to be directed at me. The show deals with the theme of cut ups in general and also has a section dedicated to William Burroughs who would have been 100 this month. Our interview starts about an hour in…

UM-04-02-14-Cutups by Universal Magnetic Radio Show on Mixcloud

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3-Way Minimix for InnoFADER in Bristol


Cheeba, Moneyshot and I were filmed by the Scratch Pro Audio crew for the InnoFADER sessions on a boat in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. We performed a short routine culled from part of the ‘3-Way Mix’, the reconstruction of ‘Paul’s Boutique’ we’re touring this year.

The Scratch Pro Audio crew sell and distribute specialist DJ products and very kindly hooked us up with InnoFADER cross faders for our mixers and Dr Suzuki Slipmats. Along with the Rane 62 mixers, Serato DJ software & control records and Magma DJ bags, we’re very lucky to be using some of the best gear out there. Thanks guys!

All together now, “I’m on a boat motherfu…”

3-Way Mix Tour poster graphics

DJ Cheeba, DJ Moneyshot and I are touring the ‘3-Way Mix’ this year. That being a 4 deck, 3 DJ reconstruction of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique album made from all the original tracks that they, and the Dust Brothers, sampled + more.
Here’s the first round of tour dates (more to come) with a graphic I made featuring all the sources they sampled, can you spot the Beasties? I made several versions + several Facebook timeline headers. Click for large versions.


3 Way Mix logo ROUNDx2 web

‘3-Way Mix’ trailer with Cheeba, Moneyshot & myself

DJ Cheeba, DJ Moneyshot & DJ Food – ‘3-Way Mix’ trailer from Solid Steel on Vimeo.

Here’s a little short I just edited to promote the ‘3-Way Mix’ tour DJ’s Cheeba, Moneyshot and I are doing at the moment. It was shot by Jim Alexander at Solid Steel‘s 25th anniversary party at Fire in London last December. We’re still taking bookings so, if you want to see this in your town or city then check the details at the end.

‘Raiding the 20th Century’ is 10 years old

It’s been bought to my attention that the original version of my ‘Raiding The 20th Century’ mix is now 10 years old. Originally a 40 minute guest mix on Eddy Temple-MorrisXFM radio show, The Remix, it was my attempt to construct a rough history of ‘cut up’ music in the midst of the mashup up/bastard pop craze. Taking in Music Concrete, avant garde tape composition, radiophonic tape experiments, megamixes, edit kings, scratching, early sampling and of course mash ups, it was one of the most densely mixed and edited things I’ve ever done. When it debuted it was put up on the Ninja Tune site at the time and quickly went a bit viral, causing the server to melt down and the site to grind to a halt by the next morning. More info here and here.

New Food mix + Markey Funk Trish Keenan tribute

Solid Steel this week features an exclusive hour of Kid Koala live in Victoria, Canada. The second hour brings a mix from yours truly coupled with a tribute to Trish Keenan and the music of Broadcast by Markey Funk.

It’s now three years this week since Trish passed away and last year Markey put together a new soundtrack to the 1966 Jonathan Miller TV version of Alice In Wonderland made entirely from the music of Broadcast. We feature half an hour of that mix but it’s best watched with the film in full which you can see here or here.

My mix kicks things off though and takes the distorted drums and fuzzy electronics route with a detour into James Murphy‘s recent David Bowie remix in the middle.

Abbey Road studios yesterday

Abbey Road Studios yesterday with Matt Johnson (right), engineer Alex Wharton (left) and the Neumann VMS 82 DMM cutting lathe (far left), the only operational one of its kind left in the country.

Oh! Gear porn! Big, clunky machines with real knobs and buttons that scream, ‘ANALOGUE!’. But what were we doing there? Cooking up something for Record Store Day but that’s all I’m allowed to say. You’re welcome to make an educated guess though…

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Big Fish Little Fish party mix

I did a mix for Big Fish Little Fish – the party for parents and kids with a more discerning taste in music.

It’s straight up club classics with no messing about pretending to be cutting edge, classic Hip Hop, Rave and Disco all features plus there’s also a healthy dose of humour in there too.

Bestival have hosted it on their Bestimix site as well as part of their online advent calendar. I can’t embed it unfortunately but you can listen HERE.

DJ Food now represented by Elastic Artists

I’m very pleased to announce that I am now represented by Ben Coghill at Elastic Artists who is also responsible for booking the ‘3-Way’ mix shows I’m doing with DJ Cheeba and DJ Moneyshot next year.There’s a shiny new DJ Food page up on the Elastic Artists website with a handy ‘BOOK NOW’ button, should you be that way inclined.

If you want to book either myself solo or the Paul’s Boutique reconstruction show then Ben is the man to go to. I’ve known him for years under his other pseudonym, Boom Monk Ben, and he provided many a great Solid Steel mix back in the day before moving into promoting and agency work full time. Very excited to see what 2014 brings…

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DJ Food Solid Steel mix set

DK and I have created a set on Soundcloud where you can directly access all my Solid Steel mixes with one click. With the archive on Soundcloud now several years deep and also being that it is part of the overall Ninja Tune account, it’s increasingly hard to find things easily. Now you can with one click. If I’ve had a mix on the show it should be here, whether a solo mix, part of a collaboration or sharing an hour with another DJ.

So, if you wanted to check the Beastie Boys ‘Paul’s Boutique’ reconstruction I did with Cheeba and Moneyshot, it’s here. Likewise the ‘Free Comic Book Day’ mix, ‘O Is For Orange’ or ‘In:Motion’ mixes and many more. I give most of my mixes titles, one day I should go through and make an inventory of the lot…

Solid Steel 25 – post gig round up

What to say about last Friday’s Solid Steel 25th anniversary at Fire in London? It was amazing, exhausting, exhilarating and unique at different times. I personally had a great night and haven’t danced so much in years (mainly to Robin Hexstatic‘s amazing Acid set in the Light Box).

I heard fantastic music in all three rooms, it’s just a pity I couldn’t actually be in all of them all night. DK, PC and I surprised people by doing an unannounced version of the ‘Now, Listen’ mix CD from 2001 – unrehearsed and mainly mapped out at sound check. Cheeba, Moneyshot and I managed to just about pull off the Paul’s Boutique 3-Way mix and PC stepped up afterwards with a rousing Nelson Mandela speech (RIP) and straight into Ritchie Havens’‘s ‘Going Back To My Roots’.


Here are some photos of the night by Beth aka Daddy’s Got Sweets and there are more over on Resident Advisor. (Coldcut meets The Orb flight deck, Matt Black and Alex Paterson and 3-Way Mix kit photos by Cheeba and I)


There’s a fantastic review of the night here by Raya Raycheva and Joe Muggs did a huge 5 page history of the show with myself, Coldcut, DK and Ninja label boss Peter Quicke for FACT.

I did an interview about the show with The Ransom Note last week, you can read it here and I also wrote a piece about the show and my favourite mix – Coldcut meets The Orb – for The Quietus.

 

Earlier in the evening, at the pre-gig dinner, DK and I were presented, completely by surprise, with a tongue-in-cheek framed disc by Coldcut, recognising our ‘broadest beats, masterful mixing and unerring dedication’ to the show over the years :)

Solid Steel piece for The Quietus

I wrote a piece about 25 years of Solid Steel for The Quietus, highlighting one of my favourite mixes – the original Coldcut meets The Orb from 1991.

Only one week until the big London show where they meet for a third time alongside Four Tet, Mr Scruff, Actress, Trevor Jackson, Illum Sphere, DK, PC, Hexstatic, James Mountain and myself, Cheeba and Moneyshot doing our Paul’s Boutique routine.

The Hydra (who are promoting the event) have a competition over on Facebook to win tickets, goodies and a £100 bar tab if you share the flyer from their page.

 

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