A short half hour this week consisting of cover versions or mash ups. Opening with two versions of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by The Bad Plus and Tori Amos – superimposed over each other with a splash of the original at the end. The Evolution Control Committee take a brief walk on the moon with a cluster of pitch-shifted Beach Boys’ harmonies before we get another Nirvana take, this time from Dani Siciliano in a jazz style, it seems the Seattle trio’s music lends itself to the genre nicely. I’ve always thought Pendulum’s ‘Another Planet’ could be done in a firey jazz style with a Coltrane sax blast replacing the synths but that’s one for another time.

Vicki Bennet aka People Like Us stretches and splices The Carpenters into oblivion on ‘When I Was Young’ while the Roy Merriweather Trio take on the tune which most Brits will know as the theme to Film (insert year here) with Barry Norman. It’s actually ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’ from the Jesus Christ Superstar Goes Jazz album which annoyingly doesn’t have a version of ‘Heaven On Their Minds’ but does include ‘McArthur Park’ (!?). The Quantic Soul Orchestra’s ‘Hold It Down’ (featuring an early vocal from Alice Russell) is an original and then we’re into the home stretch with Max Tundra’s take on Wings’ ‘Coming Up’ and Frenchbloke & Son’s mash up of the same with Destiny’s Child’s ‘Say My Name’ which both up the electro quota and bounce to the finish line. The final skit comes from one of Si Begg’s Noodles comps where a phone prankster plays Arnold Schwarzenegger samples down the line to a hapless employee. A short and slightly silly half an hour that I enjoyed revisiting even if it’s not a classic.

My first monthly Electrik Collage radio show drops today April 12th on ROVR radio at 2-4pm wherever you are in the world. Tune in live here https://rovr.live/#/ or download the phone app to get archive access.

Track list:
The Bad Plus – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Tori Amos – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Evolution Control Committee – Walk on the Moon
Dani Siciliano – Come As You Are
People Like Us – When I Was Young
Roy Meriwether Trio – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Hold It Down
Max Tundra – Coming Up
Frenchbloke & Son – My Name Keeps On Coming Up

This hour is a bit of an unruly mess in places, a real hodge hodge of styles that, while mixing in tempo, certainly don’t all mix in key – Stuff & Nonsense indeed. I have to apologise for the mash up of ‘Hey Ya’ and ‘Pinball Number Count’ that kicks this off because, whilst it does kind of work with the odd time signature, it’s annoyingly out of tune, something I couldn’t hear at the time I made it. Much better is the Columbus remix of Alicia Key’s ‘You Don’t Know My Name’ using the Burning Spear track of the same name as a backing track. No idea who made it but it appeared on a 45 around this time and stayed in my record box for years. Zinc’s ‘Casa De La Musica’ is from his Faster album, love the way the off-beat pops over Alicia, and Toolshed’s take on Morricone’s theme from the Exorcist 3 was the B side of their only release on Toolshed Recordings. Loo & Placido were a drummer and bassist from different French bands (allegedly) who appeared for a couple of years in the mid-00s but amazingly still have an online presence at https://www.loo-placido.com/ – they were always a cut above a lot of the people doing mash ups I thought. ‘Work In Progress’ is from their first album – Mash Up The Tops – and adds a reggae skank to Beyonce’s hit from the Austin Powers film.

Zinga’s ‘Evil Eye’ seems to be their only release and the third and final one for OffDaWallMusic, I thought it had a catchy pop hook at the time and found some spoken word about ‘the evil eye’ and hypnotism to add to it. Skalpel’s ’1958’ got licensed to a yoghurt commercial back in the day I seem to remember and, whereas even 5 years before this would have been heresy, any notion of ‘selling out’ had long since evaporated within most of the electronic community by the mid 00’s. As the music industry started to go down the pan due to illegal downloads, any means of attracting extra revenue to shore up plummeting physical sales was a blessing. Skalpel, to me, were the last of the Ninja artists mining the older sounds of the original 90s version of the label, this couldn’t last as samples would become too problematic as the label grew. The original players on the ‘Are You Being Served?’ theme are still a mystery to me but DK and I were obsessed with it and ended up licensing the film version heard here for our Now, Listen Again mix a few years later. I’d forgotten I’d actually played the whole thing over the middle of Skalpel, thus giving it a kind of DnB makeover.

Squarepusher’s ’50 Cycles’ sees him exploring his own vocals, largely unprocessed and I think the Peter Cook dialogue in the middle comes from a promo for Godley & Creme’s ‘Consequences’ album but don’t quote me. Def Harmonic made four albums but never seemed to hit, not sure why as their brand of hip hop was melodic and intelligent. The Tiki Two mix an Ella Fitzgerald version of the old classic with some downtempo Latin breaks and I remember being given this 45 by one of the two guys responsible when he was in London from his homeland of Australia. Four Tet’s remix of Jef Gilson is taken from the Tribute To… 12” he shared with MATO that spearheaded a rediscovery of the French pianist and arranger. More French jazz from Troublemakers – spun from a one-sided 10” on Blue Note. And now more Four Tet, this time remixed by Jay Dee aka Dilla for his ‘Serious’ single and Jazi P3z’s ‘Petaco 2004’ slides in perfectly after it – at last a mix in tune at least. 8-bit video game FX mix with Latin rhythms as if they were made for each other. G Form’s ‘From The Block’ rather ruins the mood with a Northern acoustic take on Jennifer Lopez’s hit. It was taken from Cassette Boy vs DJ Rubbish’s mix album ‘Inside A Whale’s Cock Vol.1’ (I don’t think there was a follow up) and bizarrely I finally met one of the Cassette Boy duo last week as we were both giving a talk at Industry Week in Nottingham. Their talk turned into part stage invasion, part gig with a cut up of Alan Sugar which never made it to the internet that had me crying with laughter. Funny how things work out 20 years down the line.

Tracklist:
Flexus – Pinball Ya Ya
Alicia Keys – You Don’t Know My Name (Columbus remix)
Zinc – Casa De la Musica
Toolshed – Pazuzu
Loo & Placido – Work In Progress
Zinga – Evil Eye (Capp-O D mix)
Skalpel – 1958 (Skalpel remix)
Unknown – Are You Being Served (film version)
Squarepusher – 50 Cycles
Def Harmonic – Villain
Tiki Two – Caravan
Jef Gilson – Fable of Gutemberg (Four Tet remix)
Troublemakers – Every Day is an Extension of Yesterday
Four Tet – Serious (Jay Dee remix)
Javi P3z – Petaco 2004
G Form – From The Block

Banging in with Doubleclick’s entry to the Solid Steel intro competition – we had so many entries – he went on to work with Amon Tobin later on in the early incarnation of Two Fingers. San Diego’s DJ Riko’s P Funked-Up remix of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Daft Punk Is…’ is a brilliant execution of the idea with extra female vocals to push the point home. Riko was a late-comer to the mash up craze but definitely did some memorable entries, probably best known for his ‘Whistler’s Delight’ release. Phil N’ Dog’s ‘Phat Pants’, best known for their huge ‘Doctor Pressure’ mash up, they follow it up by taking Leftfield’s ‘Phat Planet’ and Orbital’s ‘Acid Pants’ where Sparks’ Russel Mael intones “when the love track starts then the fun starts” over and over. It’s a banger but I don’t know if it came out, Phil – who today still drives his replica American police car, painted to resemble the KLF’s Ford Timelord – probably gave me a CDr with this on it. *Phil remembers: “I think I gave you the CD at Cargo if I remember correctly. No it never really came out as such. Eddy used to play it on XFM and Annie Mac on Radio 1, both from CDR’s I gave them but no vinyl pressings or anything more official were made.” Freddy Fresh comes with the first of three tracks from his Accidentally Classic album, did you know Freddy has made 26 albums over a 32 years career so far?

Another LCD mash-up pits their ‘Disco Infiltrator’ against the Star Wars Cantina Band – I’d forgotten this one, should have dug it out when I did the SW Secret Cinema. DJ Godzilla was responsible but I can’t find any release so this was probably an online download during those Wild West years of file-sharing. More Freddy Fresh with the B12-ish electro of ‘Random’ and then something that rung no bells until I googled it – Mikrosopht ‘Here Today’. Originating from a British online mash-up compilation ‘Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds’ which appeared at Hippocamp.net, this ambient patchwork of Beach Boys vocals and voices floats through the ether as an extraordinary example of this kind of audio collage. A similar approach was taken years later by Atticus Ross on the soundtrack for the Brian Wilson biopic, Love & Mercy. It’s the perfect bed for the extremely long build for the next track which takes up the middle section of the mix.

Autechre’s remix of Seefeel’s ‘Spangle’ from the mid 90’s was a classic in my mind the minute I heard it, despite not being released at the time for reasons unknown. I’d tried to get it on our Blech mix in some shape or form but Warp wouldn’t let us have it so I was pleased when Mark Clifford later independently released all 12.15 mins of it on his Polyfusia Records. It’s the ultimate slow burn builder from Sean and Rob and Warp later digitally released it in 2021. The next track by Hood definitely had me scratching my head – no recollection at all – but apparently they were a UK-based post rock band from Leeds, signed to Domino for the first half of the 00’s before going on hiatus. ‘Over The Land Over The Sea’ appeared on one of their last singles and pre-empts the final Freddy Fresh track of the set, the sparse electro of ‘I Go Around the World’. I don’t remember him being this electronic but he’s been all over the map in his career so it should come as no surprise. The final track comes from Bola’s fourth LP, ‘Gnayse’ (Bola-Gnayse – geddit?), the sublimely laid back sounds of Darrell Fitton on Skam overlaid with a bit of Blade Runner dialogue.

Track list:
Doubleclick – Solid Steel intro
DJ Riko – P Funk is Playing In My House
Phil ‘n’ Dog – Phat Pants
Freddy Fresh – Do You Hear It?
DJ Godzilla – Cantina Inflitrator
Freddy Fresh – Random
Mikrosopht – Here Today
Seefeel – Spangle (Autechre remix)
Hood – Over The Land Over The Sea
Freddy Fresh – I Go Around The World
Bola – Effanajor

Opening with a phone message from DK asking me to whip up a mix as he was stuck in Mexico we have a round up of stragglers from 20002. DK always seemed to be jet-setting around the globe back in the day, he’d go off for a few weeks here and there on ‘business’ and then be back only to jet off on tour again. Anyway, opening with one of two comedy skits based on Ja Rule’s then ubiquitous features on pop or rap records by an unknown comedian, these were probably downloaded from the web in those heady early days when the entire world of music seemed to be up for grabs on the feeblest of internet connections. A web search reveals that they were made by someone named David Brody for radio station Z100 NY and apparently later turned up on a 50 Cent mixtape without permission. ‘White Love’ was probably my best mash up and one I regularly played out for years to general approval from the dance floor – a ‘White Lines’ / ‘Like I Love You’ combo that just works, here in an extended form. The Splinter Group was another appearance by DK alongside old Ninja mucker Dean Smith in a one-off single that was an off-shoot from another project (splinter-geddit?).

Freeform’s ‘The Hallaboink’ was the b-side of a 7” on Skam and another Mancunian connection, Andy Votel, follows with his ‘Komedahead’ single which still gets an airing sometimes. More mash-ups with Frenchbloke and Son’s Kraftwerk/Right Said Fred collision that really shouldn’t work but does something neither could do in isolation – hence it joining the ranks of the very best of the genre. I had to look up where Luke Vibert’s ‘Feel Real Mad’ came from because it doesn’t appear on any album from that time, debuting at it did on the first Law & Auder release; a 3-track 12” also featuring Muslimgauze and Bedouin Ascent called ‘High Density 01’. Law & Auder was an interesting label that kind of caught the fall out from the demise of Rising High records for a bit, continuing to put out interesting compilations of leftfield electronic music including what must be one of the first all-female comps in 2011 which in itself was compiled 10 years before.

A prime bit of electro breakbeat from Polar next on the Certificate 18 label, straying away from DnB into other territories and then the Kid Koala-esque cut-up of Jack Planck with a mix which was in time but shouldn’t have been attempted with the swing it had on it. This was another alias of Jackknife Lee that appeared on an odd 7” on Rodeo Meat who released all sorts of oddities before being picked up by One Little Indian for a full album later on. A left turn into screeching organ funk with the Apparat Organ Quartet on David Holmes’ short-lived 13 Amp label with a car crash end mix as the former track wigs out just in time for the beat from Chief Xcel to drop. Xcel’s track mixes ‘Dear Prudence’ strings with a political message and played out the ‘Constant Elevation’ compilation on Astralwerks and here slides simply into ‘Charlie’s Theme’ from Jimi Entley Sound – an Adrian Utley / Geoff Barrow collaboration with a cover of ‘Apache’ on the flip. This now goes for silly money, hope I still have my copy.

Ja Rule is back! The second skit of Ja Ruling the cover version market mixes over the uptempo section of the former track before morphing into the frantic Busdriver ‘Imaginary Places’ where I get very scratch-happy, sorry about that. Seriously though, this track (without my scratching) is amazing, although the origin of the flute sample is alluding me right now. If only more rap was as forward-thinking as this – I was very happy to see him signed to Big Dada for three albums later on. John Kennedy’s superb remix of Aim’s ‘The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice’ is a bit of a lost classic although it doesn’t help that I’m mixing out-of-tune horns over the end of it from Jadell’s ‘To Morning’. My ear for tuning definitely wasn’t what it is now back then, there’s some wince-making moments on some of these mixes, of course, a lot of it was on the fly so sometimes you didn’t know until it was too late. Proper good soundtrack business from Jadell here with a bit of Burroughs slung over the top, this was one of the last things he did it seems, not seen him for years now.

Apologies for the rough mix into the Roots Manuva remix of The Free Association, that really was wonky but I used to love these dubs Rodney did, loose as you like, nice tempo switch up in the middle there too. Mr. Guder (featuring Dr. Rubberfunk on drums) crash in with a raw version of Herbie’s ‘Chameleon’ from Super Guder Breaks vol.1. Otto Von Schirach released a lot of his early material on Schematic out of Miami but this little number comes from a pink 7” on Imputor? (yes the ? is part of the label name) from Seattle, check their label profile on Discogs for a mission statement https://www.discogs.com/label/3497-Imputor?sort=year&sort_order=asc
Mr Dan (aka Dan Carey) plays us out with the excellent ‘Together’ which shows off his pop credentials despite being a electronic beat-fest – he’d be co-writing and producing Kylie’s ‘Slow’ that same year – and we end with another phone message from DK.

Track list:
Unknown – Ja Rule Diss
Flexus – White Love
The Splinter Group – Meaning of Life
Freeform – The Hallaboink
Andy Votel – Komedahead
Frenchbloke & Son – I’m Too Sexy to Be a Model
Luke Vibert – Feel Real Mad
Polar – Lectric
Jack Planck – 1974 Square Dance Documentary In Sound
Apparat Organ Quartet – Romantika (Live)
Chief Xcel – Multitude
Jimi Entley Sound – Charlie’s Theme
Unknown – Ja Rule Diss 2
Busdriver – Imaginary Places
Aim – The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice (John Kennedy remix)
Jadell – To Morning
The Free Association – (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Roots Manuva remix/Dub)
Mr. Guder – Chameleon
Otto Von Schirach & Sindri – Sduisant Lollipop
Mr Dan – Together

The second half of a tape from a show shared with Julia aka the Black Bitch, an excellent techno and electronic DJ who featured on Solid Steel a few times during the 90s. This is just my set, a busy half hour that jumps all over the place stylistically and kicks off with Scotland’s DJ Krash Slaughta featuring II Tone Committee and Killa Instinct. A dynamite slice up uptempo hip hop at a time when the faster Britcore styles had largely faded from the scene. Turntablist Krash Slaughta was a DMC finalist and absolutely slays on the cuts before Brian Eno’s ‘Fractal Zoom’ attempts to enter the mix but I obviously thought better of it during the manic cut-fest and opted for the more minimal St. Germain with ‘Sentimental Mood’ from the Boulevard series of 12”s. These three singles on F Communications were huge at the time, combining jazz with a heavily swung minimal house groove and still hold up.

Kushti’s UR Allstars was the second release on the short-living Octopus label and brings back lots of happy memories, there’s also a snatch of a DJ Toolz track in there too which I can’t identify. Toolz was an alias of Jazzy Jason, also part of the legendary Blapps posse, London Funk Allstars and Mad Doctor X, the four volumes he released on Ninja Tune in the early 90s were akin to the DJ Food Jazz Brakes both in style and sleeve design. Alpha Proxima’s immense ‘459 – / z’ is sadly truncated in this recording because the tape ended and had to be turned over so some is missing. The track resumes just as Autechre’s excellent remix of Scorn’s ‘Falling’ enters – another one of their classic mid 90s remixes that’s worth tracking down.

Sounds of Life was a collaboration between Photek and Source Direct’s Jim Baker and we hear their ‘Release The Bells’ here mixed in on 33rpm rather than its intended 45, I used to like a lot of my DnB on the wrong speed back then. Some Christian Marclay plunderphonics interjects far too soon and we’re treated to turntablism from the avant garde side of the tracks long before the word had been invented, this live improvisation dating from the 80s. DJ Krush’s ‘A Whim’ plays us out, a single from his Strictly Turntablized album which also birthed an excellent Alex Reece remix on 12” and two mixes by Roni Size and DJ Krust on 10” as I recall.

Track list:
DJ Krash Slaughta – Broken Needles Blown Mics
St.Germain – Sentimental Mood
Kushti – UR Allstars
DJ Tools 4 – ?
Alpha Proxima – 459 – / z
Scorn – Falling (Autechre FR 13 mix)
Sounds of Life – Release The Bells
Christian Marclay – Pandora’s Box
DJ Krush – A Whim

A dark but beautiful selection from a show I shared mix duty on with Riz Maslen aka Neotropic. My tape dates it as 30/01/98 but my online reference from Marcus Maack’s BTTB database says 04/01/1998. Whatever, it was sometime in January 1998 and this was recorded in the Ahead of Our Time studio in Clink St. most likely with engineer Ali Tod at the controls and my flanger pedal in the mix by the sounds of things.

Starting with the classic monologue about Cymatic frequencies that Coldcut used so often in shows we drift into an almost Steve Reich-ian minimalist piece from A Reminiscent Drive whose back catalogue contains a wealth of such treasures. Opiate’s ‘Small Talk Whirl’ is from his debut 12” on April Records which I can’t remember ever owning but that’s old age for you. Track 8 from the CD of Aphex Twin’s Analogue Bubblebath 3 is up next, a classic I was still dropping in my Selected Aphex Works mixes some years back.
Small Fish With Spine was/is an alias of Riz’s and she’d just released her Ultimate Sushi album on Oxygen Music Works (which I’d designed the cover for too). Not sure what I was thinking playing her new record before her, bad DJ etiquette but I was young and foolish back then. ‘Korona’ comes from the uber-rare MASK 100 12”, a very early Boards of Canada track from 1996, pre-Warp when they were still on Skam and largely unknown. Funny how you can just search for it now and it’s on YouTube, back then it was rare as hen’s teeth. There’s a snatch of Andy Partridge & Harold Budd’s ‘Mantle of Peacock Bones’ with some unidentified spoken word over the top and then Mike Paradinas finishes the first set with ‘Hi-q’ of which I can find hide nor hair of on Discogs.

The second half opens with some abstract ambience and another unknown spoken word piece, presumably from Coldcut’s might Word Treasure CD library. As One’s gorgeous ’Soliel Levant’ from his debut Reflection album slides in before the Ramsey Lewis’ Charles Stepney-produced cover of ‘Dear Prudence’ chugs through with its oddball electronic intro. Exquisite Corpse were connected to the Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia and produced what I’d call trance music in the most literal definition, the sort of tribal rhythms you could perform rituals to long into the night. ‘Cantadora’ bangs hard and comes from their 1993 album Inner Light and while I’m talking definitions; Water Melon and their comrades, Major Force are about as close to ‘trip hop’ in my mind as you could get. Their amazing Out Of Body Experience EP hosts two cuts that feature in this half hour. Harder to find outside of Japan but well worth tracking down. Another from Riz’s LP in the form of ‘Foul Play’ that more than liberally samples from Lalo Schifin’s Dirty Harry/Magnum Force soundtracks before the Prunes’ makeover of DJ Vadim’s ‘Conquest of the Irrational’ single on Ninja Tune. Finishing with another Water Melon track from the aforementioned O.O.B.E. EP and we’re out – I really enjoyed rediscovering this one, I’d probably not heard it since it was recorded over 26 years ago.

Track list:
Solid Steel jingle – The film you are about to see…
A Reminiscent Drive – Everything Is As I Am
Opiate – Small Talk Whirl
Aphex Twin – Analogue Bubblebath 3 track 8
Small Fish With Spine – In Your Own Bubble
Boards of Canada – Korona
Small Fish With Spine – Fung Koo
Andy Partridge / Harold Budd – Mantle of Peacock Bones
Mike Paradinas – Hi-q

Unknown – Unknown
As One – Soliel Levant
Ramsey Lewis – Dear Prudence
Exquisite Corpse – Cantadora
Water Melon – Moon Shaker
Small Fish With Spine – Foul Play
DJ Vadim – Conquest of the Irrational (Prunes mix)
Water Melon – Slow Boat to Mars

Mid May of 1995 was another smorgasbord of eclecticism with drum n bass making in-roads onto the show playlists. After the show’s intro and a snatch from Negativland’s plunderphonic ‘The Perfect Cut’ LP we get what may be the first outing of the Wagon Christ remix of 2 Player’s ‘Extreme Possibilities’. It’s hard to convey how exciting it was to first hear this remix, possibly Luke’s premiere public foray into DnB and a now classic milestone in the Ninja Tune catalogue. That he put this much work into such a mix is incredible and for a relatively new band consisting of Jon Tye (aka MLO/Lo Recordings) and a little-known composer named Daniel Pemberton. Daniel is now a world famous soundtrack composer of course, working on films for Marvel and Ridley Scott among others, but back then he was still at school and would come to our Stealth nights at The Blue Note before going home to study for his exams. He didn’t waste any time making inroads into the studio either, hooking up with Jon on various Lo Recordings and Ntone releases, recording with the Future Sound of London and releasing his first album on Pete Namlook’s Fax label, for which I did the artwork.

More DnB clatters in next from Sounds of Life which was Rupert (Photek) Parkes and Jim from Source Direct collaborating and taking a big chunk of FSOL’s Lifeforms by the sound of it. Spacepimp’s only outing on Clear pits a 70s car chase synth bass line against a DnB rhythm too, everyone was having a go at this ‘new’ style around this time as it emerged from its jungle origins although Spacepimp was an Acen alias so it wasn’t too much of a stretch. After an ad break there’s a swirling ambience I can’t place before the legendary Jello Biafra monologue that we used on the Coldcut Journeys By DJ mix later that year which then led on to Matt and Jon hooking up with the ex-Dead Kennedy frontman to record ‘Every Home A Prison’. Alec Empire’s debut album, Generation Star Wars kicked off with the excellent ‘Lash the 90ties’, the elongated ambient intro suddenly crashing into Aphex-ish distorted beats. Mike Ink’s ‘Rosenkranz’ came from one of the early Sahko releases and this jaunty, marching track is in stark contrast to his then usual 150bpm driving acid techno.

G-Man was Gez Varley from LFO on his first solo outing via the Swim label and this absolutely banging piece of techno is such a joy to hear, despite my fumbled mix with Mike Ink at one point. I must have visited Vienna recently because Elin’s ‘Mondlandung’ is featured and I remember Pita aka Peter Rehberg (RIP) giving me copies of the first few Mego releases when we played there of which this was the second. Soon after comes the masterful Autechre remix of Beaumont Hannant’s Psi-Onyx – all 9 minutes + of it with Ae on peak form – ah the memories… Flanging in over the end beats is a track from Caustic Visions, a group who originally debuted on Industrial Strength with nosebleed acid techno before releasing steadily more experimental fair on their own label, influenced by Aphex Twin and beyond. ‘Corner of a Sphere’ comes from their fourth self-released EP and is well worth investigating if you see a copy and enjoy forward-thinking electronica. ‘Lunatic Jam’ by Germany’s Fauna Flash takes a large chunk of DJ Food’s ‘Dark Blood’ and builds a soulful track around it, from their debut 12” on Compost. We get a snatch of the Jedi Knights’ remix of ‘Antacid’ and then it appears the tape switches to Aphex’s ‘Ventolin’ except it may be from one of my own mixes that I’d taped over as the presence of my old flange pedal in the mix is a telling sign of the era.

Track list:
Solid Steel – intro jingle
Negativland – The Perfect Cut
2 Player – Extreme Possibilities (Wagon Christ mix)
Sounds of Life – Intellect
Spacepimp – Space Chase
Unknown – Unknown
Jello Biafra – A Message From Our Sponsor
Alec Empire – Lash the 90ties
Mike Ink – Rosenkranz
G-Man – Legion
Elin – Mondlandung
Beaumont Hannant – Psi-Onyx (Psix Million Dollar Myx Oscar Goldman’s Bonus)
Caustic Visions – Corner of a Sphere
Fauna Flash – Lunatic Jam
Link & E621 – Antacid (Jedi Knights remix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Deep Gong mix)

What a time for music, early 1995 and not only did we have the hugely anticipated new single from DJ Shadow but also Aphex Twin’s Ventolin EP and Fatboy Slim’s debut single when he was still in downtempo mode with ‘The Weekend Starts Here’. After ‘In/Flux’ blew up, not only for Shadow but by putting MoWax into a higher orbit, everyone was waiting for new music from Josh Davis and he delivered big time with a four part 30 minute single called ’What Does Your Soul Look Like’. The first half of the show covers three of the parts, available on a set of three blue vinyl 10” promos inside sleeves that joined together. Interspersed between them is the Fatboy with the Weekend Bonus Beats version of his single and Death’s sole release (aka Thomas Heckmann) on Trope, a modular bleep-fest called ‘Electronic Realisations Chapter 4’. Following ‘What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 4’ come three ‘Ventolin’ mixes from Aphex, the second, the Deep Gong mix, is by Wagon Christ and a snatch of the London Funk Allstars’ ‘Listen To The Beat’ appears before the tape runs out.

Track list:
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 1
Faboy Slim – The Weekend Starts Here
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 3
Death – Electronic Realisations Chapter 4
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 4
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Crowsmengegus Mix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Deep Gong Mix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Marazanvose Mix)

We’re still in the early 00s here with a mid November 2002 set that includes a few boots/mash ups and a lot of great RnB / Hip Pop. A strong start to the show with the remix of DJ Shadow’s ’Six Days’ featuring Mos Def, this was undoubtedly the most hyped track of his second LP, The Private Press, and a no-brainer for a single makeover. Nice little cut up with the Solid Steel jingle and the ‘it’s only Monday’ lyric (our show used to got out on Monday nights on BBC London at this time). I don’t know which came first, this mix on the tour with Amon Tobin but I was dropping the Streets/Fine Young Cannibals/Gloria Jones combo in DJ sets around that time although it’s one of the only times I played anything by Mike Skinner as it wasn’t my bag at all, the baseline in the High Contrast remix was the catalyst. Adding Gloria Jones’ ’Tainted Love’ with the rhythm the FYC stole after was a no brainer.

I was deep into the mash up thing at this time and Dsico was an Australian producer whose productions I liked a lot, his extreme cut up/glitch styles going way further than most on the scene, riffing off that Kid 606 sound but with plenty of funk. He appears here twice, first dismembering Beyonce and later dicing with Puff Daddy, by this time, P Diddy. A sharp contrast is Joni Mitchell who I’d suddenly ‘got’ and hoovered up a load of albums on tour in the US, weird how tastes change and then one day an artist just makes sense, I’d had the same thing with the Beach Boys a couple of years before. ‘Dry Cleaner from Des Moines’ is from her Mingus album but I’m not sure what I was thinking adding it in here with way too much ‘jazz scratching’ to boot.

RJD2’s excellent ‘Final Frontier’ from his debut, Deadringer begins a trio of rap tracks followed by the ‘Halfway Home’ interlude from Blacklicious’ Blazing Arrow album. This was produced by DJ Shadow and is hard as nails, search for an amazing remix of this by UK producer Awkward which really bangs. N.O.R.E.’s ‘Nothin’ is such a simple tune, a straight loop of basic drum, bumping bass and that haunting flute top line, loose as anything and reliant on the vocals to provide a chorus. The genius of the Neptunes right there although having Noreaga on the mic helps too and I think his ‘SuperThug’ track from four years before was the first time I ever heard a Neptunes production. They had virtually taken over at this point, issuing track after track with different vocalists that were classics as soon as they hit the dance floor. I let the instrumental run out of Blacklicious, add the Discover Hip Hop advert that gives the mix its name and then off into the radio edit of the vocal.

Randy Maverick’s ‘Pure Love’ is funk 45 heaven and still gets spun – I just looked him up and this is his sole release on Discogs, I’d presumed it was some sort of reissue/re-edit at the time but it seems it was a remix of Al Reed’s ’99 444/100 Pure Love’ by the Nextmen and the Maverick name was a cover. I’ve just heard the original for the first time and they did a great job, the definition of a remix breathing new life into an old song. You can find the Randy Maverick for £6 on Discogs which is a lot cheaper than the Al Reed. DJ First Rate (or just First Rate later on) put out a 3 track sampler in 2002 with a demo mix of ‘One Day’ on it which would later surface on his first album proper in 2005 and it’s doing my head in as to where that bass comes from. Reminds me a bit of Air with those little synths flourishes.

Into some crazy versions next with the second Dsico cut up of P Diddy’s ‘Diddy’ then a mash of Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’, The Gap Band’s ‘Oops Upside Your Head (see what they did there?) and Bob Marley(!). It sort of works in places but is mercifully short. Lightning Head is Glyn ‘Bigga’ Bush with his dub hat on, here versioning Jean Jacques-Perry’s ‘E.V.A.’ which, of course, then leads onto Gang Starr who chopped up the original many years before. Skanking along in the mix for a good while is The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Horizon’, a stand alone single that followed the ‘Every Day’ album and should have been a huge hit in a just world. This whole section really rocks along nicely and I’m layering up extra FX over the top, I might try and re-work this into the DJ set. Next we head to Brighton for a Limp Twins cut and DJ Format remixed by Pablo of the Psychonauts who whips ‘B-Boy Code’ up into a chugging break-fest that was a set staple for a good while. I can’t remember where the ‘Discover Hip Hop’ spoken word came from but it’s not on the original record. There’s some genius sampling on this, pairing old school rap bars from different records to make a new verse.

John Kennedy’s ‘Chocolate & Cheese’ has something I can’t put my finger on but I like it. Tony Touch’s ‘The Diaz Brothers’ I can only take in instrumental form though as it samples David Shire’s ‘Salsation’ from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the same tune that Lightning Head covers on ‘Mudman Skank’ so it was a no-brainer to put them together. I have to apologise for what comes next but you can always switch off as it’s the last track, a mash up of Eminem and Phil Collins that I thought was a good idea at the time. By matching the former’s ‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ and the latter’s ‘Mama’ I thought there was some fun to be had. To be fair, it does work in the verses with a nice tension building but the choruses are a painful mess – sorry about that, bit of a duff ending to the hour.

Track list:
DJ SHADOW – SIX DAYS (REMIX feat. MOS DEF)
THE STREETS – HAS IT COME TO THIS (HIGH CONTRAST REMIX)
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS – GOOD THING
GLORIA JONES – TAINTED LOVE
BEYONCE – WORK IT OUT (DSICO 160 MIX)
JONI MITCHELL – DRY CLEANER FROM DES MOINES
RJD2 – FINAL FRONTIER feat BLUEPRINT
BLACKALICOUS – HALFWAY HOME (INTERLUDE)
N.O.R.E. – NOTHIN’
RANDY MAVERICK – PURE LOVE
DJ FIRST RATE – ONE DAY (Demo Mix) feat. JOHN MACALLUM
P DIDDY – DIDDY (DSICO CUT UP)
MIXED BIZNESS – OOPS TO BE LOVED
LIGHTNING HEAD – E.V.A.
GANG STARR – JUST TO GET A REP
CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA – HORIZON
THE LIMP TWINS – MOVIN’ CLOSER TO THE SOFA
DJ FORMAT – B- BOY CODE (PSYCHOPAB REMIX)
JOHN KENNEDY – CHOCOLATE & CHEESE
TONY TOUCH – THE DIAZ BROS (INSTRUMENTAL)
LIGHTNING HEAD – MUDMAN SKANK
FLEXUS – I’M SORRY MAMA

A true mixed bag with this set from March 2003, opening with Dark Circle from their Jazz Fudge release bolstered by a double time Flytronix DnB tune with a fine filtered horn line. The original listing for McKay’s acappella that I float over the top was wrong, it’s actually ‘Rising Tide’ rather than ‘Bluesin’ It’ – check her stuff, she’s made some great music with the likes of Boca 45, DJ Spinna and Katalyst over the years. Spanish producers Camping Gaz and Digi Random drop a tune from their 3rd and final EP together before Nino Nardini stomps in with Afro-Beat. I’m not sure where this version comes from but I think it’s different from the one put out on a 45 by Jazzman which I still play out on occasion. I always like Def Tex’s approach to hip hop, never afraid to switch things up and ‘Dancehaul’ is no exception, tight beats and scratches and lyrics all over the rhythm. Pepe Deluxe’s ‘Salami Fever’ was the first time they caught my ear with the crazed cut up of beats, power chords and scratching and they’ve not deviated far from this path for the last 20 years despite various psychedelic adventures.

Nostalgia 77 aka Ben Lamdin put out many a great 45 on Tru Thoughts in the 00s and it’s great to see he’s still releasing material, the latest being an album on the aformentioned Jazzman. I must dig this out again as I’d forgotten it – HUGE Beatles sample! Taskforce get jiggy on ‘Rockstarz’ which comes from the Low Life Records’ compilation Main Courses -Food. Things take a turn with Plasikman’s ‘Kriket’ and Lisa Maffia’s ‘All Over’ acappella which is a pairing I used to do regularly in DJ sets around this time before we journey over to Montreal for Sixtoo and MattH and the first release on the Bully label. Mostly dealing in screen-printed, hand assembled 7”s, the label, run by the mysterious Marco, put out around 30 experimental beat-led releases from 2003 onwards including a Silver Apples album at one point! Loads of great stuff on the label and the records are beautiful objects.

Aah, it’s great to hear this Gray Market Goods track again, a release by my old friend Bundy K Brown for which I also supplied a meticulously drawn homage to Vaughn Bode for the sleeve. We’ve been chatting a bit online of late about various states of the music industry and I always respect his take on things. He has a unique way of putting together samples that never bores me and is rewarded by repeated listens, this Herbie Hancock-sampling groove being no exception. Herbie was a big love of Bundy’s and he hipped me to the Mwandishi Band era stuff when I first visited the US looking for records in the mid 90s. The killer wah wah groove of the Stark Reality is up next from the ‘Now’ compilation on Stones Row around this time, with ‘All You Need To Make Music’ which runs through the various differences between musical notes. I noticed that this version is just over 8 minutes but on the original Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop LP it’s over 12 minutes!

Back to the future next for Wagon Christ’s remix of Tipper’s ‘Donut’ – a match made in heaven I think. Dan Snaith’s Manitoba (before he had to change it to Caribou) up next with the lengthily-titled ‘If Assholes Could Fly,This Place Would Be An Airport’ which is all 2-Step beats and Amen breaks, overlaid with spoken word from Yoshinori Sunahara’s ‘Tokyo Underground Airport’ – a concept single about said airport. The record comes in a gatefold gold printed sleeve with picture disc, booklet and sticker sheet, all designed immaculately as only the Japanese can. Sunahara has made many airport or airline-themed records over the years. Da Boo’s lone release, the Herbie Hancock-sampling (again) ‘Spark This’ underpins the end of the show with a lengthy dialogue from Bell Telephone Labs which comes from a strange double album I found of spoken word entirely about computers from serious science to comedic skits.

Track list:
Dark Circle – That’s Cool
Flytronix – Zig Zag (Alternative DJ mix)
McKay – Rising Tide (acapella)
Camping Gaz & Digital Random – Gazoul (Camping Gaz Symphony 3)
Nino Nardini – Afro-Beat
Def Tex – Dancehaul
Pepe Deluxe – Salami Fever
Nostagia 77 – The Goat
Taskforce – Rockstarz (remix)
Plastikman – Kriket
Lisa Maffia – All Over (acapella)
Sixtoo & MattH – webeganhearingthings
Gray Market Goods – We Live In The Future
Stark Reality – All You Need To Make Music
Tipper – Donut (Wagon Christ remix)
Manitoba – If Assholes Could Fly…
Yoshinori Sunahara – Tokyo Underground Airport
Da Boo – Spark This
Bell Telephone Labs – Computer Speech