I fell in love with Javi P3z’s music when I discovered his and Camping Gaz’s ‘Circus World’ 12” on Novophonic and played it to death. It’s strange mix of skanking batucada with theremin top line mixed with circus clowns and children cheering (yes, really). Totally unhinged and unlike anything else, I once found five copies in a bargain bin for £1 each and proceeded to give them to anyone who would take one. Here’s his follow up, under another of his many aliases – ‘Safari-Hari’ – an equally audacious romp through the jungle if less on the crazed side but beautifully packaged in a cardboard shopping bag as part of the Onze Sports double 7”.

Mr Melvis – ‘A Walk Through The Powerhouse’ was featured on a 2xCD compilation of “Strange and unusual music from the Exotica Mailing List” put together by my friend Otis Fodder on his Comfort Stand label. Otis and I had met online when he started the 365 Days Project in 2003, posting a weird and wonderful track or album every day via the WFMU website. This was a great resource in the early days of file-sharing on the web and the whole project is a wonderland of treasures. Otis was a resident in Montreal at the time (or was it Toronto?) and we later met up a few times when I toured over there, bonding over our love for strange music from the margins. Despite saying ‘never again’ once the year was up, he repeated the feat through 2007 and both are still archived online. http://wfmu.org/365/

Anyway, Mr Melvis is covering a favourite, Raymond Scott’s ‘Powerhouse’ before we subtly shift into a deep house masterpiece of a remix by Charles Webster that totally captivated me when I heard it. Doing away with all but a single phrase from Martina Topley-Bird’s ‘Soul Food’ Webster grooves on a cappella cooing and deep bass pads and I could listen to this all day, I wouldn’t call myself a deep house fan but this could covert me. M*A*R*Y was a Richard X alias, this track was the sole release on a split 7” single with Liquitex until 2022 when an archive album appeared called High Noise Cassette – no doubt the product of lockdown hard drive excavation like so many of us. The Emperor Machine was a no brainer for me as soon as I heard Andrew Meecham’s analogue radiophonic stylings and this was the beginning of a golden run of releases on the DC label through the 00’s. NSM I don’t remember much about but it was short for New Sector Movements, IG Culture’s loose collective of broken beat collaborators.

I don’t remember this DJ Zinc boot of ‘Milkshake’ either, no idea where I got that, dodgy offbeat mix by me there too, sloppy. Coldcut remix the Dr Who theme, this was another that came and went with little fanfare although there’s plenty of work in there transforming it into a half time dub with female vocal replacing the main melody. In fact I can’t find any info about it on Discogs so I’m wondering if it even came out? I asked Jon More and he confirmed that the Beeb shelved it, to quote the Guardian: “The best series of songs inspired by Dr Who is annoyingly locked away in a record company vault. In 2004 the BBC planned an album called Resistance Is Futile: Doctor Who Remixed, which was to feature St Etienne (who finished recording There There My Brigadier), 808 State (The Master’s theme), The Orb and Coldcut. But production delays had it jostling with the launch of the revamped TV series and it was scrapped.” I’ve spun the infamous outtake of Tom Baker in the vocal booth over the beginning which was a popular meme doing the rounds in the early days of file downloading. LCD Soundsystem’s amazing ‘Yeah’ still sounds utterly relevant and exciting and I’m thinking I must have compiled some of this mix using my old Numark CDJ as the pitch shift up and subsequent phase FX into the DJ Zinc track after bear all it’s hallmarks. Bit of Kylie over the top there before the switch and that’s quite a tempo increase, hold tight! ‘Next Tuesday’ was from Zinc’s Faster album, a decent attempt to make a well rounded dance album covering all styles rather than just club bangers.

Aaaah, Sixtoo and Damo Suzuki – what a track, what a beat, could listen to this all day, was so proud to have had a hand in bringing Rob to Ninja Tune back in the day, wasn’t for everyone but it floated my boat. This is a really random selection, we go through the heavy Krautrock-isms of Sixtoo to dark electronic rap via the Shadow Huntaz and then acoustic pop from Air. P-Love’s ‘Clausland Man Rd’ from his time on Bully Records (with my dodgy scratching over the top) into Ricci Rucker’s ‘New Dirt’, always interesting on the scratch/beat tip – rounding out a truly eclectic selection of contemporary tracks of the day.

Listening back to this (and a lot of the mixes in this archive) I’m reminded how much music soundtracks our lives and how I’m not currently soundtracking the present day by recording shows of current music and digging finds. I guess I didn’t expect to be listening back to these mixes nearly 20 years later and getting so nostalgic for the eras they evoke. Maybe when this is over I’ll start something new but it’s a big commitment and I’m not sure I could do it every week anymore. Maybe a new kind of show, I don’t know, what kind of music-related show would you tune in to?

Track list:
Digital Onze – Safari-Hari
Mr Melvis – A Walk Through The Powerhouse
Martina Topley-Bird – Soul Food (Charles Webster’s Bangin’ House Dub)
M*A*R*Y – 73 Club
The Emperor Machine – Expanding in Reproduction
NSM – Trying Times
Kelis – Milkshake (DJ Zinc remix)
Delia Derbyshire – Dr Whooligan (Coldcut remix)
LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (Stupid version)
DJ Zinc – Next Tuesday
Sixtoo feat. Damo Suzuki – Storm Clouds and Silver Linings
Shadow Huntaz – Razbar
Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
P-Love – Clausland Mtn Rd
Ricci Rucker – New Dirt

I’ve completely forgotten which show these were recorded for on 6 Music or why they needed two 16 minute mixes (if anyone remembers please drop a comment) but they’re on a disc with a private mix I did for my then wife in February of 2004. Parts of this resemble DJ sets of the day including the whole ‘Clapping Song’ routine with multiple copies on 7” that I’d switch between in quick succession. J Star who kicks things off did a series of white label reggae mash-ups at the time that were some of the best around, crazy to think people were actually pressing these bootlegs on vinyl but I suppose it’s no different to the multitude of 7” re-edits doing the rounds today. As the real Cure morphs into Kurtis Rush’s Missy Elliot/George Michael medley I thought I’d better double check if my memory was still correct as to who was behind the name. Yes, Kurtis was in fact Erol Alkan who made a trio of white label mixes around 2001/2002 and was also rumoured to be behind the Kylie/New Order blend that she premiered at the Brits that year.

Chuck Brown & The Soul Searches’ pre-Go Go classic ‘Ashley’s Roach Clip’ is immediately recognisable for the drums that Eric B & Rakim nicked for their ‘Paid In Full’ classic. I add in a Jungle Brothers acappella which really needed to be chased along with the wavering tempo. Coldcut of course remixed ‘Paid In Full’ into an even bigger classic and it’s their ‘instrumental’ of the mix under the title ‘Not Paid Enough’ that begins the second mix, with Martine Girault’s beautiful ‘Revival’ over the top which was enjoying a errrrm… revival at that time. Out of this is the Play School breakbeat monster ’Bang On A Drum’ that Coldcut sampled for the outro of their remix and then we get into some country and western hip hop comedy with Ricky V. Valentine who I’m still no wiser as to the identity of. This little skit appeared on a 12” on the C Side Trax label and Ricky was never heard of again. This Kid Named Miles’ cover of ‘Ring of Fire’ didn’t leave my DJ box for about five years I think, always a great end of nighter and Nicky Thomas’ version of ‘Soul Power’ pads out the end of the mix.

Track list:
Pts.1&2
J Star – No Diggity
The Meters – Hand Clapping Song
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
Malcolm & The Humphries Singers – The Clapping Song
Ray Russell – The Clapping Song
Pia Zadora – The Clapping Song
The Cure – Close To Me
Kurtis Rush – George Gets His Freak On
Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roach Clip
The Jungle Brothers – Jimbrowski (acappella)
Coldcut – Not Paid Enough
Martine Girault – Revival
Play School – Bang On A Drum
Ricki V. Valentine – Ghetto Classics
This Kid Named Miles – Ring Of Fire
Nicky Thomas – Soul Power

Tony Morley was the guest this week – who had then just launched his Leaf label – still going strong all these years later and releasing great music too. We met through Chantal aka Mira Calix (RIP) who interned at 4AD where he was working at the time and DJ’d with him at Robin ‘Scanner’ Rimbaud’s Electronic Lounge at the ICA. We invited Tony to play at both Telepathic Fish and onto Solid Steel and later he and I would go on a possible midlife crisis pilgrimage to Dusseldorf together to see the old men of techno perform their Man Machine and Computer World albums but that’s another story. This mix is a weird one, the selection is all over the place and the mixing too, maybe I was too busy chatting and not concentrating much, consider this all about the selection rather than any mix skills.

Starting as I ended a few weeks back with Jimi Tenor’s ‘Cafe Europe (live)’ (which Jon refers to as easy listening funk) there’s an oddity from a Flora Purim promo that was doing the rounds with remixes of her back catalogue – the best of which was the Guy Called Gerald one which is horribly out of tune with Jimi for a few bars at least. This clatters into a Doctor Rockit track from his Ready To Rockit EP on Clear, ‘Cameras & Rocks’, where this Matthew Herbert alias took his usual modus operandi of making tracks solely from sounds listed in the titles. After this is some unknown breakbeat track, possibly from the American New Breed label but I can’t place it and neither can Spotify but the Jaziacs & Snowboy tune after I had not heard in years and bought back many good memories. Hunt this 12” down (starting at 99p on Discogs) it’s a great snapshot of the acid jazz/trip hop crossover happening at the time which a huge dose of old school scratching over ‘Beat Street Strut’ on this track.

PC used to do a great impression of the Doctor Rockit track next, the opener of the aforementioned Clear EP but I’m not sure what the big electronic interference is that suddenly appears, possibly a mixing desk mistake! Then the DnB is back with Luger, from guest Tony Morley’s Leaf label, this was the third release I believe. An odd trio of Keith LeBlanc tracks follow from his Global 2000 album under the name Spike (he’d dropped the ‘DJ’) which was CD only, unusual for me to play three in a row from the same artist. Jimi Tenor is back and then Bjork thunders in after what was most likely an advert break there – tune! Some un-ID’d DnB after – maybe more Droppin Science? and then another tune that I’d not heard in years. Gliderstate’s ‘Landscapes’ – what a beautiful piece of music – airy, melodic DnB with hints of jazz that still retains some weight via those pushing hi hats driving it along. More Clear business with the best title from the Greg Fleckner Quartet’s ‘A Gentle Intro To The GFQ’ 12” in ‘Oi, That’s My Bird’ but definitely not a good mix with Gliderstate, ouch. I’m not sure I even tried to mix Up, Bustle & Out’s ‘Ninja Principality’ out of this but it still sounds tough, Clandestine Ein could program them beats.

Track list:
Jimi Tenor – Cafe Europa (live)
Flora Purim – What You See (Ghost of Flora’s Dream remix by A Guy Called Gerald)
Doctor Rockit – Cameras & Rocks
Unknown – Unknown
Jaziacs & Snowboy – Give It Up Me
Doctor Rockit – Hello
Luger – Pass Agent (Leaf)
Spike – Change
Spike – Story Of Violence
Spike – The Mark
Jimi Tenor – Europa (Main Theme)
Bjork – Army Of Me
Unknown – unknown
Gliderstate – Landscapes
Greg Fleckner Quartet – Oi, That’s My Bird
Up, Bustle & Out – Ninja’s Principality

A very funk and beats-orientated set from 20 years ago starting with the Quantic Soul Orchestra featuring Alice Russell where I’m cutting the Melle Mel line, ‘Don’t push me’ from ‘The Message’ in and out. The Hieroglyphics consisted of Del Tha Funkee Homosapian, Souls of Mischief and more and ‘Let It Roll’ comes from their second album, ‘Full Circle’. The Good Dr Rubberfunk now lives in my hometown of Reigate weirdly and his Bossa For The Devil was always a favourite whilst DPF was on Ninja-affiliated hip hop label Son. DJ Revolution and Sinbad’s turntable face-off is genuinely hilarious in places as well as jaw-dropping technically, a turntablism track which invites multiple listens. In the wake of the ‘sexed-up’ Iraq dossier the country was on the march and unhappy about being dragged into a bogus war alongside the US. I took Color Me Badd’s ‘I Wanna Sex You Up’ and cut up a load of news footage over the top to tell the story, it’s an obvious idea but I’m still pleased with it.

Returning to normality we get a version of ‘The Champ’ by the Skatalites, J Rocc cutting up breaks and then two P Brothers Heavy Bronx joints in succession. For me, The P Brothers perfectly channelled a specific period of 80s hip hop that I love and gave it an extra dose of grit. Never slavishly retro and using many UK MCs, the only others to do it so well were Edan and DJ Format. Pest’s gloriously wonky ‘Already Said’ is still one of those Ninja Tune oddities of the era and then we’re back for more J Rocc and a very slick breaks cut up by Cut Hustlers which may or may not have had something to do with DJ Razorcuts but I’m having trouble finding info on it. It features Statler and Waldorf – the two old men from the theatre box in The Muppets – which is why it leads into DJ Streetsahead’s brilliant 1987 remix of Was (Not Was) where they also feature and was the first time I heard the break from ‘Hot Wheels (The Chase)’ cut up.

Booty Babes’ mash up of Britney over the Massive Attack-sampled ‘Mellow Mellow Right On’ by Lowell will be an ear worm for the rest of the week with 100 Strong’s sensual ‘Brain Busy’ complimenting its laid back vibe perfectly. I added samples and scratches about hitting and crying over the chorus to mirror the vocal, at one point tracking two different scratch patterns, one for each ear – I had more time back then, pre-kids. Aesop Rock’s ‘Freeze’ was a Blockhead-produced cut on Def Jux but then things take a bit of an odd turn with Backini’s electro swing ‘Company B-Boy’ which hasn’t dated too well. I do love that Andrews Sisters sample though, mainly because of its inclusion in Art of Noise’s ‘The Army Now’ but the whole thing goes on far too long. Luckily there’s the bizarre humour of Kid Koala awaiting us at the other end and the low end ‘Caravan’-sampling skank of Galaxian’s ‘Fresh’ to finish but the set drags at the end I felt, could have stopped around the 50 minute mark.

Track list:
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Pushin’ On
Hieroglyphics – Let It Roll
Dr. Rubberfunk – Bossa for the Devil
DPF – Yadda Yadda
DJ Revolution feat. DJ Spinbad – Head to Head
Flexus – I Wanna Flex U Up
Skatalites – Champ
J Rocc – Play This (one)
P Brothers – Ich Nichten Lickten Das Mark Evans
P Brothers feat. Lee Ramsey/Donald D – Rock The House
Pest – Already Said
J Rocc – Kashmere Bonus Beats
Cut Hustlers – On The One
Was (Not Was) – Spy In the House of Love (Streetsahead mix)
Booty Babes – Mellow Me
100 Strong – Brain Busy
Aesop Rock – Freeze
Backini – Company B-Boy
Kid Koala – Stompin’ At The Savoy
Galaxian – Fresh

A slightly Beatles-themed start to this short set from late 2002 gives it its name – kicking off with two then-current mash ups, the mysterious white label 7”, ‘Bad Production’ and Avril Plays The Beatles. The former pairs ‘Come Together’ with Mary J Blige’s ‘Family Affair’ and the latter glitches up ‘Because’ and adds beats – two of the better examples around at the time when the internet was awash with such things. Incidentally I was just watching a video about AI mash ups and I think we may be on the cusp of the next iteration of the mash up although this time round they’ll be ‘original/unreleased’ tracks by artists no longer with us in every style conceivable. The Future Sound of London turn in a suitably Beatles-esque remix of Robert Miles, sounding more like their Amorphous Androgynous alias which isn’t surprising seeing as they had reactivated it in full psychedelic mode earlier in the year.

An at the time unreleased Sixtoo instrumental is up next with dialogue from a DJ Shadow interview about digging over the top as well as a snatch of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’ – which prefigures its usage on my own Raiding The 20th Century mix some two years later. Suktekh’s ‘Privacy’ is a beautiful, brooding Rhodes piece from his ‘Fell’ LP and JG Thirlwell’s Manorexia alias is reactivated for the spooky ‘Canaries In The Mineshaft’. Boards of Canada’s ‘From One Source All Things Depend’ was a bonus track on the Japanese CD of Geogaddi and liberally samples children talking about God from a Tony Schwartz’s The Sound of Children LP. Food was/is a jazz group fronted by Iain Ballamy and ‘Freebonky’ is from their second album, Organic & GM Food which I have to admit that I down to for the gorgeous Dave McKean artwork. The William Burroughs dialogue comes courtesy of Steinski’s ‘Audio Collage 6’ which was on a Cdr of his work he’d given me when I visited him in New York. Finishing up is 80’s Baby, a vaguely horrible concept which seeks to recreate popular songs in a sickly-sweet twinkly lullaby style to play to your child at bedtime. Various different eras were covered and on the 80s edition was a version of Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ which I thought I’d run the original under in the distance. George Carlin rants about cars and driving over the top just to ram the message home.

Track list:
Bad Production – Bad Production
Avril plays The Beatles – Becoz
Robert Miles – Paths (FSOL Comic Mix)
Sixtoo – Untitled
Suktekh – Privacy
Manorexia – Canaries In The Mineshaft
Boards of Canada – From One Source All Things Depend
Food – Freebonky
Steinski – Audio Collage 6
80’s Baby – Cars
Gary Numan – Cars

Back in 2004 when DK and I had our monthly Solid Steel night residency downstair at Ruby Lo in the west end we decided to put on a boat party for the end of summer. I think it was DK’s idea and he wanted to have a door price that included a free BBQ on entry which was to be served from the deck while people came on board. I won’t post the terrible flyer I made at the time but it did contain the line ‘All hands on decks’ which made me laugh. We co-opted our wives to help serve alongside James Mountain (Solid Steel DJ and Ninja employee at the time) and provided a load of burgers, hot dogs and salad for people our of our own pockets. DJs on the night were Dean Smith (on the top deck whilst food was served), James, Matt Black, PC, Harley Harl, DJ Yoda, Diplo (then still relatively unknown but fast rising as a star in his own right), DK and myself.

Harley Harl and James Mountain (Solid Steel)

Matt Black (Coldcut)

DK (Solid Steel)
The boat we booked was on the dock on the North side of the Thames and the owners were a tad shady, so much so that when we started admitting people it was obvious that other people were coming on board without tickets and going to another part of the boat we didn’t know about. When confronted we were told that there was another private party on board and that it would be Ok, no one would cross over but we knew this was BS. Too late, the party had started and the deck was filling up and the weather was great for a late summer evening. The place was packed and there were three rooms, a main one and a more chilled one plus a couple of bars, at one point we gave everyone free lollies too. The set here is mine from the main room, complete with crowd noise and scrappy mixing but if you imagine a cramped top deck cabin with 100 or so sweaty people crammed in then you get the picture.

PC (DJ Food)

DJ Yoda

Yours truly (DJ Food)
I think I was on either before or after Yoda but sadly missed most of his set as I had to sort stuff out with the food side of things. We had a problem with Diplo as he was flying into the UK that afternoon and coming straight to the boat to play and with no contact we were winging it as to whether he’d turn up in time or not. Luckily he did, literally minutes before he was due to play and proceeded to turn out a storming set – phew! DK went to see the boat owners afterwards to sort out the money and we ended up not having to pay for the boat hire as a result of all the nonsense with the other party – they certainly must have made a fortune on the bar that night anyway.

Me and Diplo on the boat, it was sweaty!

Photos by Elisa Parish, Graham (Fraser?) and another unknown photographer.

I’m not going to go through every track as there are many classics here most will know – keep an ear out for the switch up out of ‘Tour de France’ into Roni Size though – that was a moment. I loved this era of DnB, loads of fun, heavy rolling beats, synth bass lines and pop vocal hooks – check the Britney bootleg. I know Pendulum fell off but ‘Another Planet’ will always be a monster tune for me – never failed back in the day. The Carmel of ’Nujazzkiller’ isn’t the British jazz artist but a one-off on the Fluid Ounce label for 2002.

Track list:
Stas – Solid Steel Intro
Double Trouble – Live At The Amphitheatre
Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble (Graham Coxon mix)
The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home
Boom Bip – Cords Will Be the Death Of Me
Quantic feat. Spanky Wilson – Don’t Joke With A Hungry Man
Awkward – Plug Me In
Gang Starr – Play That Beat ’99
Double D & Steinski – Lesson 1
Steinski – Ain’t No Thing
West Bam – Monkey Say Monkey Do
Think Tank – Hack One
Carmel – Nujazzkiller
Ty – Wait A Minute (acappella)
Brass Incorporated – At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal
The Beatles – Taxman
Beck – New Pollution
Kraftwerk – Tour De France
Roni Size feat. Rahzel – Out Of Breathe
Kayne West – Jesus Walks
DJ Shadow – Walkie Talkie
Rodney P vs Roni Size – Trouble (Roni Size remix)
Britney Spears – Toxic (D n B mix)
Pendulum – Another Planet
Tribe of Issachar – Junglist (DJ Zinc remix)
Mark 1 – Hoovers & Spraycans
Supergrass – Kiss of Life (Tom Tom Club remix)

This set is extracted from a longer recording with PC on the decks before and after me, recorded near the end of 1995. The file comes from a huge caché of shows given to me by Paul Johnston and I’ve yet to fully go through them to see what I have or don’t have on his list. Paul has had a couple of mixes featured on Solid Steel over the years and they are always packed out with hilarious samples and a ton of work. He kindly shared his stash of shows with me so that I could fill in some gaps, thanks Paul. Here’s one he did back in the day – Smoke Filled Adventures

Kicking off with some Alec Empire from his Low On Ice album and a fine piece of twisted filter breakbeat, followed by some excellent unknown acid trip hop – I’d really like to know what this is but it would require a deep dive into the record collection – anyone know? Some vintage Orbital with the opener from their second album appears and then we splice into a break and cello track that again I can’t recall. DJ Food’s’ Spiral’ from the then-current ‘A Recipe For Disaster’ album plays out and I’m trying something with the intro of Mantronix’s ‘King Of the Beats’ and the pitch control over this but thankfully don’t overdo it. Another unidentified snatch of cut up party business is up next and this sounds like something from DJ Smash or the AV8 label from overseas but I can’t find anything after a scour of Discogs. The use of Doug E. Fresh’s “well it started off on 8th Avenue” from his classic ‘The Show’ is the main signifier.

Public Enemy’s excellent ‘You’re Gonna Get Yours (Dub / Terminator X Getaway Version)’ is next and rumour has it that the Terminator didn’t exactly do the cuts on this but it was the Kings of Pressure’s Johnny ‘Juice’ Rosado who was also connected to the Bomb Squad. David Holmes’ ‘Slash The Beats’ has Kooner and Burns of the Sabre of Paradise’s production fingerprints all over it and is a version of the track ’Slash the Seats’ without the acid line and spoken word. Instead I add the acappella to PE’s ‘Bring The Noise’ (starting on the wrong beat!). Air Liquide’s ambient ‘Robot Wars Symphony Part 1 System Engaged’ from their The Increased Difficulty of Concentration double CD is floated over and out of both these before a classic DnB tune that I just can’t pin enters.

Anyone know this? It’s doing my head in and I spent nearly an hour on Discogs looking for it, thought it might be Alex Reece at first, Robin the Fog thought Wax Doctor or DJ Pulse but I couldn’t find anything – please comment if you recognise it. The next track IS Alex Reece by way of a remix of DJ Krush’s ‘A Whim’ on Mo Wax with Cypress Hill’s ‘Scooby Doo’ floated over it, a mix I used to do often back then. Rolling, quite literally, out of this is Autechre’s ‘Rsdio’ and we’re in slow mode so it’s as good a time as any to air DJ Shadow’s ‘In/Flux’, or at least half of it. Up next is a tune I’ve not heard in years but remember so well, Luke Vibert’s near 10 minute remix of Ruby’s ‘Paraffin’. Ruby was Leslie Rankine from the thrash band Silverfish who were always in the indie music press in the early 90s, she then teamed up with Mark Walk and made a vocal trip hop album,’Salt Peter’. Their debut album is excellent and sadly overlooked although several singles were released with remixes by all sorts of contemporary artists and Vibert’s is one of the standouts, all time-stretched vocals and playful twists and turns. The track succeeding this is again lost in the midsts although sounds very familiar, so many records and so many years ago, it’ll come along some day. We play out with Small World’s ‘Dual Tone’ on Hard Hands, a chugging bass banger that got many an airing back in the day.

No mix next week as I’m on holiday, see you in two weeks…

Track list:
Alec Empire – 22.24
Unknown – unknown
Orbital – Time Becomes
Unknown – unknown
DJ Food – Spiral
Unknown – Unknown
Public Enemy – You’re Gonna Get Yours (Dub / Terminator X Getaway Version)
David Holmes – Slash The Beats
Public Enemy – Bring The Noise (acappella)
Air Liquid – Robot Wars Symphony Part 1 System Engaged
Unknown – Unknown
DJ Krush – A Whim (Alex Reece remix)
Cypress Hill – Scooby Doo
Autechre – Rsdio
DJ Shadow – In/Flux
Ruby – Paraffin (Wagon Christ remix)
Unknown – Unknown
Small World – Dual Tone

A late August show with Matt Black and I at the controls in which I kick off with three tracks straight from The Sound of MZEE compilation – a German label obsessed with Britcore rap. The two No Remorze tracks are straight out of the Hijack book of hardcore hip hop but with a German slant. Find their first album if you can, amazing record. Hearts of Darkness were the first release on Manchester label The Ruf errr… Label, releasing a couple of 12”s in the mid 90s before the label went full on hip hop. Alex Reece’s classic swinging remix of DJ Krush’s ‘A Whim’ should be familiar to all Mo Wax heads out there but Chronicles of Intense was lost in the mists of time to me and only Matt’s brief back track near the end gave any clue to it. Also lost is the identity of the stumbling breaks-y DnB cut after it that sounds like it’s nearly tripping over its own shoelaces, even more so when I turn it down to 33 rpm. As ever, if any of you recognise it, please leave a comment. UPDATE: Found it! The Committee – Profound Love on Creative Wax (but played here on 33rpm).

Kirk DeGiorgio’s Elegy slides in nicely and I discovered Kirk has not one but two compilations of rare material on his Bandcamp page featuring a whole host of bits and pieces from singles, comps and the like, no doubt excavated during lockdown – nearly 75 tracks in all spanning 1991-2014 – the man’s a genius. BPMF is a US 12” I picked up whilst working in Ambient Soho, really odd four-tracker that I still have somewhere on the Rancho Relaxo label. ‘Untitled #4’ is a bubbling acid thing that grooves away nicely out of Kirk’s track and then into Redcell (aka B12, a version of which also on a companion release to the Elegy track – ART 7.1/B1214.1). ‘Primitive Lites’ was taken from the then-new ‘Time Tourist’ LP and later featured in our Blech mix, still sounds like a futuristic city at night to me. Meat Beat Manifesto’s ‘That Shirt’, from their criminally under-appreciated Satyricon LP, still makes me laugh and exclaim, ‘It’s a Ben Sherman!’ whenever I chance upon one of their fine wares. Autechre’s ‘Second Bad Vilbel’ from the Anvil Vapre EP plays us out, brand new at the time, we didn’t know how good we had it, this was just another single on white label back then. I think it was either for this or the Keynell EP where I was staying at Sean and Rob’s after a gig in Sheffield and they were sampling kitchen utensils for beats and percussion sounds.

Track list:
Coldcut – Solid Steel intro
No Remorze – Interlude
No Remorze – Condemned To Death
Fast Forward – Day Of Infamy (Instrumental)
Hearts of Darkness – Don’t Fight The Featherweight
Coldcut – Solid Steel jingle
DJ Krush – A Whim (Alex Reece remix)
Chronicles of Intense – Prophecy
The Committee – Profound Love
Elegy – /P Switch
BPMF – Untitled #4
Redcell – Infinite Lites (Primitives mix)
Meat Beat Manifesto – That Shirt
Autechre – Second Bad Vilbel

An approximation of a DJ Food club set around 2004, this is the kind of thing I was playing out at the time via two decks and a CDJ, still using vinyl, no Serato yet. Kicking off with Peloton’s entry for the Solid Steel intro competition which we’d conducted via the Ninja Tune forum. Sounds like I was plundering the Megatrip Soundbank collection of spoken word for samples featuring the word ‘more’ too over Roots Manuva and Ty’s ‘Oh You Want More?’. This, Alex Cartana and the Rootz n Works rework of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’ were examples of the Bangra rhythm style made popular by Missy and M.I.A. around this time. Speaking of Missy, here she is with Timberland over a bit of ‘Dark Lady’ although I can only hear The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ with this since our second Solid Steel mix CD.

A little funk section from That Kid Named Miles, Quantic Soul Orchestra (featuring Alice Russell), Roy Budd (from the ‘Vigilante! Remixes EP) Nostalgia 77 and Bobby Shad – (from Coldcut’s Life:Styles compilation of the same year) before a brace of hip hop numbers from Edan & Insight, a mash up of Obie Trice by Dizzy Bull and classic UK old school from Caveman. Back to the funk with classic Roy Ayres and I get scratch happy with Double Dee & Steinski’s James Brown cut up, ‘Lesson 2’ before things go into the unexpected with the I Royals’ reggae cover of the Coronation Street theme. This was possibly the first outing on the show too for my now good friend Stephen Coates’ Real Tuesday Weld with his ‘Bathtime In Clerkenwell’.

Another Solid Steel intro entry, this time from DJ Flywheel, for a change of tempo into Billy Squier’s (big) beat break into Steve Miller’s equally classic B-Boy sample-fest and general all round anthem, ‘Fly Like An Eagle’. Not sure what I was thinking with this section, it’s a very odd selection of tunes, possibly more linked by tempo than anything else although Floormaster Squeeze (aka Coldcut) goes pretty nicely into Japan’s ‘Visions of China’. Japan into Serge Gainsbourg into Boards of Canada – not something I’d attempt most days but it sort of works, especially the Indeep track over the top of the latter, something I’d repeat years later in my ‘O Is For Orange’ mix. We end as we began with another jingle competition entry, this time from Laptop Nancyboy, I wonder what happened to them?

Track list:
Peloton – Solid Steel intro
Ty feat. Roots Manuva – Oh U Want More? Refix
Alex Cartana – Hey Papi (Ross Orton Remix)
Prince – Sign ‘O The Times (Rootz n Workz mix)
Grandmaster Melle Mel & Duke Bootee – The Message
Timberland & Magoo feat. Missy Elliot – Cop That Shit
DJ Food – Dark Lady
That Kid Named Miles – Ring of Fire
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Pushin’ On
Roy Budd – Foxy
Nostalgia 77 – Thing
Bobby Shad – I Want You Back
Edan feat. Insight – The Science of The Two
Dizzy Bull – Got Some Teeth
Caveman – I’m Ready
Roy Ayres – Brother Green (The Disco King)
Double D & Steinski – Lesson 2 (The James Brown mix)
The I Royals – Coronation Street
The Real Tuesday Weld – Bathtime In Clerkenwell
DJ Flywheel – The Beaten Match Solid Steel intro
Billy Squier – The Big Beat
Steve Miller Band – Fly like An Eagle
Floormaster Squeeze – Kick Out The James (Again)
Japan – Visions of China
Serge Gainsbourg – En Melody
Boards of Canada – Nlogax
Indeep – Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
Laptop Nancyboy – What’s Everyone’s Obsession With Intros?

Break out the TDK D90s, make sure the tape is tightened using an old pencil or biro lid and pop the door of the cassette deck for this collection of pause button-enhanced electronica from mid 2002. Obsession with bootlegs and mashups was still relatively new at this stage and the discovery of Cassetteboy was a key link in the chain. Their meticulous cut ups of TV and radio shows added to the (toilet) humour of the movement and made sure nothing ever got too serious. That they would end up doing material for the Guardian website was something I doubt any of us could have foreseen. This mix is strewn with excerpts from The Parker Tapes, their debut album on Barry’s Bootlegs (an offshoot of Spymania who first gave us Squarepusher), parts of which I would also include in my Raiding the 20th Century mix some years later.

Amon Tobin’s Out From Out Where LP was released this summer and the track ‘Back From Space’ opens the show before Antipop Consortium’s amazing ‘Ghostlawns’ creeps in, still sounding as fresh as the day it was released. The clipped minimalism of Murcof took everyone by surprise when he debuted on Leaf, coming on like a classical Akufen, the beauty of which I totally spoilt by running a Cassetteboy Jamie Oliver sketch over the top – “I’m gonna whack my old man, right up his alley” – yes, quite. Monkey Magic’s ‘More Than We Know’ I had to look up – seems it was a lone 12” on the Deep-Water label and I’m not sure if the Monkees cut up at the end was part of the track or not. Cujo aka Amon Tobin’s sole album was reissued on Ninja Tune around this time and it’s great to hear the contrast although I quite like the cheesy silliness of ‘Popsicle’ myself, sounding more like something Tipsy would have put out than his later material.

Sinewave – ‘Attack Of The Triffids’ – this was Canadian drum n bass artist, Mark Wiebe, not sure where I got this, maybe given it on tour? That guy has some drum editing skills, I do love rediscovering all these old tracks when digging out 20+ year old shows. Apani B Fly’s ‘Ghost Cauldrons’ was a hip hop that was remixed by Blacklodge and Patrick Pulsinger, the latter of which proceeded to cut up Herbie Hancock’s electronic rendition of ‘Cantaloupe Island’ from his Japanese Dedication album all over the track. Computer Jockeys’ ‘Ping Pong’ was another that had me reaching for Discogs and this appears to have first been released in 1999 on the Harvest label – yes, that Harvest – but was included on a compilation is 2002 which is probably how I found it. Steinski’s remix of Moloko’s ‘Small World’ was taken from his Nothing To Fear Solid Steel mix CD that never was – and now Roisin Murphy is a fully fledged Ninja artist.

Another brief Cassetteboy interlude precedes Edan w Eric Ferguson’s ‘Clinical Rhymes’, an old school freestyle over classic B Boy beats – Edan still untouchable, just wish he’d make more records. Herbert remixing Fridge wasn’t a pairing I’d have ever put together but it works as Matthew Herbert smooths out the rough edges and adds female vocals to beautiful effect. More Cassetteboy before we finish with a rather jovial Witchman remix of The Orb and the tape is ejected.

Track list:
Amon Tobin – Back From Space
Antipop Consortium – Ghostlawns
Murcof – Maiz
Monkey Magic – More Than We Know
Cujo – Popsicle
Sinewave – Attack of the Triffids
Apani B Fly – Ghost Cauldrons (Patrick Pulsinger remix)
Computer Jockeys – Ping Pong
Moloko – The Id (Small World – Steinski version)
Edan w. Eric Ferguson – Clinical Rhymes
Fridge – Ark (Herbert Fully Floooded mix)
CassetteBoy – Your Love is Like Benelyn
The Orb – Ow Much? (Witchman 2975 mix)

Kicking off 2005 in full-on DnB style with a monologue from Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet radio series, a not entirely serious look at music through the ages, which glues this set together. Steaming in with Pendulum’s remix of Concord Dawn’s ‘Tonite’ we’re into 170bpm dance floor destruction straight away and it rarely lets up. I loved Pendulum early on, before and around the first album, I felt they really revitalised DnB for a while after years of it going down a dark, minimal 2-step path which sounded like music for ketamine and a good kicking rather than the euphoric party it had been just a few years before. The Good Looking stable and its ilk were too soft for me back then although I’ve reappraised that since, mellowing with age and all. Back then I wanted my DnB hard and fast, with intricate drum programming and stomping basslines and Pendulum bought all that back with a twist and a swing only previously heard in the Brazilian styles of DJ Marky and Shy FX & T-Power. Of course it all went horribly wrong once they became a stadium band and started using guitars but for a few years there were some great singles and remixes.

There were a spate a white label DnB reworkings of RnB/Pop hits for a good while too in the mid 00s, post-bastard pop where hip hop and soul met in the charts and then got a good rinse out on the dance floor. Here, Beyoncé’s ‘Naughty Girl’ gets the treatment, apparently by T.C. from Bristol. The DJ Deval track I barely remember but it was on Reformed Recordings, a sub label of Formation. Fracture & Neptune were the first producers I remember who paid homage to Photek and Hidden Agenda with their early records. More Pendulum with ‘Back 2 You’, much more electronic than their later work and then Dynamite MC, for my money one of the best MCs to hold it down over DnB, breaks, hip hop or garage over the years, so funky. Here he trades verses with Skibadee to brutal effect, this used to go down a storm. That rework of Britney’s ‘Toxic’ is just too fast isn’t it? I think was the first release on a label called Toxic who also released the earlier Beyoncé retool.

Zen ‘Monster Munch’ – had to look this up, thought it might have been an alias of DJ Zinc but no, it’s another Reformed release, what a bassline! HUGE hoover bass! Fracture & Neptune back again, with the second track from their 12” on Breakin’, this time sampling Vangelis’ Blade Runner, what’s not to like? Ghost People I had to look up too and then realised that the artist name was actually Influx UK and I’d had it round the wrong way all these years – whoops, those white label promos! More early Pendulum with ‘Trail Of Sevens’ which starts out more like Link’s ‘Chameleon’ than their later stuff, then there’s that breakdown and the rave synths come in with that bass bounce and precision percussion and we’re in some rapid-fire car chase scenario. Fracture & Neptune are back for another slice, ‘Too Doggone Funky’ is a perfect example of how to dig for breaks and not always fall back on the ol’ faithful Amen. Killer track, love it when DnB goes out on a jazz trip like this, will have to go and dig the 12” out, I had a big DnB cull a few years back but I’m pretty sure this didn’t go – again taking notes from the Photek school of production, could be ‘KJZ’ part 2.

We’re back in Pendulum territory again although this is DJ Fresh from his Breakbeat Kaos label (no.2 actually) that he ran with Adam F and which Pendulum were associated with early on. And here’s a DJ Deval track I definitely remember, his remix of RSL’s ‘Wesley Music’ – a rare case of a 130bpm anthem being retrofitted into a new speed and genre without losing the vibe of the original although it’s a bit long! My attention span doesn’t run to five minutes of one track in the mix these days it seems. But suddenly – Cheese! Richard that is – ha ha I’d forgotten this too, one of the best to do it but what a rude awakening, then it’s exit stage left from Iannucci’s museum of lost keyboards. See you next week.

Tracklist:
wasps – Stolen Solidly intro
Armando Iannucci – Museum of Lost Keyboards
Concord Dawn – Tonite (Pendulum Remix)
Beyonce – Naughty Girl (Unknown remix)
DJ Deval – Jah Creationz
Fracture & Neptune – Untightled
Pendulum – Back 2 You
Dynamite MC feat. Skibadee – Over Here Now
Britney Spears – Toxic (Unknown remix)
Zen – Monster Munch
Fracture & Neptune – Continuities
Influx UK – Ghost People
Pendulum – Trail of Sevens
Fracture & Neptune – Too Doggone Funky
DJ Fresh – Foreigner
RSL – Wesley Music (DJ Deval remix)
Richard Cheese – Milkshake

We return for part 2 of my 15 year Solid Steel anniversary show – the Solid Steel Sound Museum. Another romp through my favourite moment from the archive from ’92 through to the mid 00’s. The mix of MBM’s ‘Electro The Robot’ into Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’ – did someone want the show with that mix on it? Still not found it, sorry. Love that Wookie/808 State mix, hard to pull off but just about works. Frederic Galliano into the Bundy K. Brown remix of ‘Timber’ – so good, Ken is channelling electric Miles in that second half of the mix to my ears. Thankfully I chilled things out a bit for the second half of this compilation and it’s a bit less frenetic after ‘Mr. Blue Sky’.

Not too much more to say, it’s certainly odd for me to hear things that were recorded at very different times next to each other, sometimes over a decade apart. Normal service will be resumed next week, I estimate we have enough to take us up to #200 before the well is dry, probably including some exclusives along the way. Thanks for listening…

Tracklist:
DJ Shadow & the Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Samson & Deliilah – There’s A DJ In Your Town
DJ Shadow & the Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Dirtstyle DJs – Bionic Booger Breaks
Meat Beat Manifesto – Electro The Robot
Kraftwerk – The Robots
West Bam – Monkey Say, Monkey Do
Think Tank – Hackattack
Wookie – Scrappy
808 State – Cubik
Strictly Underground – Strictly Hardcore advert 
Circuit Breaker – Overkill
Unknown – The Space Race dialogue
Circuit Breaker – Frenz-e
Public Works – Blue Beautiful Place
ELO – Mr Blue Sky
Ken Nordine – Blue
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp – Bringing Down The Light
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight & Premonition
Leonard Nimoy – Quequeg and I
Barbarella – Barbarella (Irresistible Force remix)
David Sylvian – Gone To Earth
This Mortail Coil – Firebrothers
B12 – Theme From Space
Sequential – Mission
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 3
Frederic Galliano – Espaces Barouques Part 1
Coldcut – Timber (Bundy K Brown remix)
Skylab – Knickers Of A Girl
Nightmares on Wax – Night Interlude
George Carlin – God
The Orb – Star 6,7,8,9
Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling
Boards of Canada – Sometime In The Future (Geoghaddi minimix)
Boards of Canada – Aquarius (Peel Session)
Ken Nordine – Orange
DJ Shadow – Press Cuttings (The Private Press minimix)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 4
War – Four Cornered Room
Phlabby – So Much About Music  

Mix 150! (plus add a handful of exclusives) Thanks to everyone for sticking with me on this, people come and go and I’m always grateful for the hardcore who tune in each week, especially when I’m writing these notes last thing at night on a Thursday in time for Friday morning. For the 150th edition I thought we’d have a special anniversary show – the Solid Steel Sound Museum.
I’d previously made a mental note to cut off shows at 2007 as that’s when stuff started appearing online via Soundcloud but this show dates from 2008 although most of it is from much earlier than that. By then I’d been a part of Solid Steel for 15 years and had done a similar show five years previously to celebrate a decade on the radio, ’10 Tons of Steel’, which shares some of the same content as this set. By coincidence it’s nearly 30 years to the day when I first appeared as a guest alongside Openmind DJ Mario (11/07/1993) but since this is upload 150 we’ll celebrate early and part 2 will fall closest to the anniversary.

This hour is basically a compilation of some of my favourite moments and mixes from the first 15 years on the show and it jumps through times and music styles like nobody’s business so, if you want a calm, linear listen then maybe this isn’t the show. To me it embodies what Solid Steel was all about, stylistically all over the place, liberally sampling from everywhere and slathering spoken word over everything like it was going out of fashion. I was surprised, listening back, how much old 80s and 70s material was in the selection, especially in the first part, there are also snatches of old Coldcut shows that I didn’t feature on like that evergreen CC vs The Orb one which so influenced me 18 months before I joined them on the airwaves. Bits of my Raiding the 20th Century mix drift in and out as we freewheel through the years and the radio dial including the odd bit of genuine atmospheric interference and a load of classic KISS FM jingles.

I’m not going to attempt to step through the track list, some of the original shows segments of this were taken from have already aired and there’s a lot here that will be familiar to most. A couple of things I’d forgotten about though; mention of a Coldcut remix of Black Sheep’s ‘Strobelight Honey’, I must ask them about that. The medley of versions of ‘The Clapping Song’ I used to do live from 7”s in my DJ sets back in the early 00’s, the Strictly Kev Back In Town intro was done after I spent a week in the Big Apple, visiting the Children’s Television Workshop, hanging with Steinski and buying records, I chopped up a load of blacksploitation trailers on my return to intro a show of my finds. Ken Nordine helps tie things together with his Sound Museum track which is where the mix title obviously comes from. The image I’m using for this (as there is no tape or Cdr) is one I used at the time, of the vinyl floor of The Treasury, a place PC, Amon Tobin, Kid Koala and I visited in Johannesburg back at the turn of the century

Part 2 next week…

Tracklist:
Steinski  -Theatre of the Mind (CDR)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 1
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 1 excerpt)
The The – Infected (energy mix)
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Hackattack
Negativland – Downloading
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?
Gwen McCrae – Compared To What?
Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together?
KLF – America No More
Pepe Deluxe – Go for Blue (Viva Voce remix)
Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky
Coldcut vs the Orb intro
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 3/4 excerpt)
Black Sheep – Strobelight Honey (Coldcut remix) (unreleased)
Mark the 45 King – 900 Number
Spacepimp – K9 Law
De La Soul – You Got
Bobby Byrd – I Know You Got Soul
Aretha Franklin – Respect
The Beatles – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
Beastie Boys – Sounds of Science
The Breakbeatles – Feel Alright
Chemical Brothers – Setting Sun
The Smiths – London
Pigbag – Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 2
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 1 excerpt)
Japan – Life Without Buildings
Michael Brook – Albino Alligator
Andrew Poppy – Goodbye Mr G
Nino Nardini – Catch That Man
*commercial break*
Steinski  -Theatre of the Mind
Strictly Kev – Back In Town intro
Robert Klein – Every Record Ever Recorded
The Herbaliser – Something Wicked (Bossa remix)
ECC – K-Tel Greensleeves ad
J Star – No Diggity
The Meters – Hand Clapping Song
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
Malcolm & The Humphries Singers  – The Clapping Song
Ray Russell – The Clapping Song
Les Surfs – Claptape
Anita Harris – The Clapping Song
Josie & The Pussycats – Clapping Song

Part 2 of last week’s tape excavation and we kick off with the first fruits of Mark B & Blade’s collaborations, released on Jazz Fudge as the Hitman For Hire EP, an amazing record that I had the pleasure of providing artwork for. Shot one rainy Friday night in DJ Vadim’s Kingston loft studio using the reflections in a circular subway mirror – good times, RIP Mark B. Here he chops up Mantronix’s production of Just Ice and makes it his own, with Mr Thing on the cuts and Blade on fine form, just excellent hip hop. Amon Tobin remixes Gus Gus’ ‘Polyesterday’ on 4AD, one of his first remixes, and another Ninja Tune group, The Herbaliser, remix The Invisible Pair of Hands before neatly segueing into Boards of Canada’s ‘Aquarius’. Always a bugger to mix with the beat-less intro chords, I actually manage to drop it in on beat here but that old BoC detuning gets you every time, there is no harder band to mix melodically, everything sounds out of tune with everything else, it’s one of their secrets.

DJ Vadim lopes into view with ‘Aural Prostitution’ from his debut LP on Ninja and then into Pt.2 of Skylab’s ‘?’ release. I loved Skylab, they embodied everything that I thought the phrase ‘trip hop’ should have but ultimately didn’t – electronics, heavy beats, swirling psychedelia and weird spoken word from the most left field records they could find. Unfortunately the phrase is usually reserved for bands like Portishead these days who are up next with a Parlour Talk remix which really is not that comfortable to listen to, I’m sorry, should never have played this one. Req is back briefly with the Linn Mix of his ‘I’ track from part 1 and so is a snatch of the KLF UFO mix of the Pet Shop Boys then we play out with the soothing tones of Kid Koala and Money Mark’s track from the Funkungfusion compilation, ‘Carpel Tunnel Syndrome’. Kid Koala was still working on his debut album at this point (from which this track’s title was taken) and played typewriter for beats under Mark’s soft keyboards.

This was an exclusive for the comp (as were most of the tracks at the time) and it’s an interesting snapshot in time for the label which was just coming off the back of its first flush of success and was looking to the future. You have a Roots Manuva track which predates his Big Dada releases, the first music from what would become The Cinematic Orchestra under the name J Swinscoe (then still working in Ninja’s shipping department). The mix of artists were drawn from sub label Ntone as well as Ninja and the outlook was far more electronic and jazz-based. It was a turning point for the label at the time I felt and I think the comp was received with some confusion from fans and critics but it pointed to the future, away from the trip hop label and onto new horizons. By the time the Xen Cuts anniversary album rolled around 2.5 years later it would all make sense and several of the artists featured here for the first time would be making their marks with their own records.

Track list:
Mark B & Blade – Use Your Head
Gus Gus – Polyesterday (Amon Tobin remix)
The Invisible Pair of Hands – Sloppy’s Not Sloppy Any More (The Herbaliser vs Invisible Pair of Hands remix)
Boards of Canada – Aquarius
DJ Vadim – Aural Prostitution
Skylab – ? Pt.2
Portishead – Elysium (Parlour Talk)
Req – I (Linn Mix)
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Kid Koala & Money Mark – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Another blast from the tape drawer past in the form of an early March 98 show where we roll through many of the tunes of the day and try to recall what exactly I played. Kicking the door in with their amazing remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Scraper’, the Psychonauts absolutely load the track up with heaviness, dropping down into a slower tempo at one point and adding all manner of dance floor destruction. Always loved what they did and had a chance to play with them down in Brighton (I think) early on when there were four of them in the crew. Boards of Canada’s ‘Sixtyten’ – not much to be said here, it’s a classic now but this was being played from a white label test pressing before the album was released at the time. Scorn’s ‘Falling’ gets made over by Rob and Sean from Autechre in a finely sliced piece of precision dark techno dub.

From there I’m mixing well above my ability, the 4/4 of Autechre’s moody remix into the lush heavily swung 6/8 of Max Brennan (from the Invisible Soundtracks compilation on Leaf) and then out into more heavy swing of ‘Mrs Chombee…’ (this time on the wrong beat). The tempos might be the same but they sure don’t sit together too nicely – thankfully the mix back out into Cut Chemist’s remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Cavern’ isn’t too painful. I’d forgotten how excellent this was, Cut was on a roll at this point, after his mix of Shadow’s ‘Number Song’ and with his Major Force one yet to come.
At this point we dip into something weird and formless that seems to be a mix of Headstone Lane’s ‘Back In The Day’ from the EBV label, the KLF’s UFO remix of the Pet Shop Boys and Req’s ‘I’ before what must have been an ad break interrupts.

Part 2 next week…

Track list:
Unknown – Intro
Liquid Liquid – Scraper (Psychonauts remix)
Boards of Canada – Sixtyten
Scorn – Falling (Autechre FR 13 mix)
Max Brennan – From The Temple To The Nile
The Herbaliser – Mrs Chombee Takes The Plunge (DJ Food remix)
Liquid Liquid – Cavern (Cut Chemist Rocks A Rave In A Missile Silo remix)
Headstone Lane – Back In The Day
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Req – I

It’s been a packed week… Saturday was Jonny Trunk‘s Groovy Record Fayre at the Mildmay Club (see more of that here) and a great time was had. Nursing a hangover and then a cold through the week I managed to catch the end of Stephen Coates‘ ‘Bone Music‘ book launch at the Horse Hospital and see the extraordinary Rain Time exhibition at the same time, ending up in the pub with the authors and making more connections that will unravel over time. There’s been more press to do for my Wheels of Light book, published by Four Corners Books, some of which is hitting the shelves this week in the form of Moonbuilding issue 2 and the latest Shindig! magazine. A podcast for the Bureau of Lost Culture should debut this Sunday (Nov 5th) about the book and light show culture in general (if we finish it in time). In between I managed to design a zoetrope for an Australian TV show, finish the artwork for an anniversary Ninja Tune release which will be announced soon and see Michael Rother live at the Clapham Grand last night.

I was slightly non-plussed by a lot of it, the highlight being a storming Harmonia track early in the set. New Order’s Stephen Morris and the right honourable Paul Weller were guests for the encore and Stephen looked like he was having trouble approximating Klaus Dinger‘s motorik beat. Weller seemed to either be having trouble with his guitar or looking to Rother for cues whilst the latter was head down, deep in his immaculate guitar playing, only looking up in the final bar to signal that this was the end. My judgement may have been clouded by the cold currently consuming my head though. The postman has just delivered an odd package of vintage light show wheel ephemera from my friend John at Funky Parrot (see above). Since publishing the book all sorts of people have been coming out of the woodwork with related facts and pieces connected with the light show world. If you’re such a person or know someone in that field, please get in touch, there’s still more work to do in that area.

On to this week’s show…
A really old one here, from an original show with PC and I on the decks and Jon More on the mic. I’ve snipped PC’s part out and sent it to him so here are the two of mine joined at around the 25 min mark. The first section makes me want to up my game, there are so many bits and pieces weaving in and out of the mix in places it’s a nightmare to track mark them (yes I try and track mark all my uploads in Mixcloud so that you can find out what’s playing more easily – you did know that, right?). This is still so early that I’m referred to as Kevin from Openmind but the Strictly Kev moniker wasn’t far round the corner and I’m still in chill out mode for the most part.

Kicking off with two Solid Steel jingles we’re into a short Mika Vainio track from his debut album ‘Metri’ on Sahko with those gorgeous pure high frequency notes before drifting into a Woodentops B side. Rolo McGinty intones, bathed in much reverb for the Late Night version of ‘You Make Me Feel’. I swear there’s a bit of Cocteau’s creeping into the mix before Beautyon’s mesmeric ‘To Swing Pil’ enters with a ton of extra electronic sounds of whose origins I’ve no clue. ‘Moist Moss’ is the choir-like piece that originates from Mark Van-Hoen’s Weathered Well album under his Locust moniker, why isn’t he remembered more in the IDM halls of fame? The recall is patchy on the next one and Shazam is no help when things are this layered up. There might be some Air Liquide in there, or something from the Reflective label, it’s so hard to tell and this was nearly 30 years ago. This must have been done on multiple CDs and vinyl at the KISS FM studio as well as Coldcut adding occasional jingles.

An uncharacteristic electronic beat track from Scanner’s Mass Observation release enters before a gorgeous Andrew Poppy track from his second album for ZTT, Alphabed (A Mystery Dance). I found Andrew through my love of ZTT back in the 80s and when ambient and chill out came around his music seemed perfect to slip in (the stuff that wasn’t based around Reich’s minimalism that is). I played ‘Goodbye Mr G.’ to my mum once and it seemed to intensely annoy her as she had no handle on its structure or when it began or ended. I know Andrew a little now which is very weird and he’s still making music, releasing an album, ‘Jelly’ recently.

An old faithful, ‘Plight’ from David Sylvian and Holger Czkay’s ‘Plight & Premonition’, slides in and was a staple of my ambient sets for years. It’s a dark but beautiful piece of world building with found sound and snatches of instruments and radio interference that serves as a bridge or overlay to anything. Path were one of the first bands I ever designed a label or sleeve for and their debut single, ‘Pleasant’ rounds out the mix. There is an odd edit right near the end that slices us into a snatch of Sheila Chandra with Jon reading out something about a fund-raising event but I’m not sure what happened there as it came from a batch of digitisations I made years ago.

The second half of the mix is mostly based on the entirety of The Irresistible Force’s 20 minute ’Mountain High (live)’ track, the final side of his debut LP, Flying High. Woven into this ambient masterpiece are a quick blast of ‘Bhaja Mana Hure’ from the Radha Krsna Temple and a couple of beat tracks including Up, Bustle & Out’s ‘Nightwalk’ and La Funk Mob’s ‘Motor Bass Gets Phunked Up’ which slips and slides in and out of time for a few moments here and there. It sounds like I’m constantly chasing it in the mix. Slivers of Tony ‘Moody Boys’ Thorpe’s Voyager track ‘Arrival’ rise and fall as La Funk Mob take their exit – this was a CD only track, 20 minutes long, beatless, twinkling ambience, also never far away when making ambient mixes back in the day.

Mixmaster Morris’s track takes a left turn before the 38 minute mark and either my vinyl was knackered or the one he took the sample from was as there’s crackling all over it. Into this section creep no less than indie pop darlings then turned experimental mavericks, James. Post-‘Sit Down’ they were indulged by their record company and ended up making a couple of albums with Eno, one called ‘Laid’ with an offshoot album of less poppy tracks called ‘Wah Wah’. Out of the sessions from the latter came an amazing 33 minute 12” of Sabres of Paradise mixes called ‘Jam J’ where Weatherall, Kooner and Burns dubbed them to infinity and back again in one of their then epic reconstructions. This huge, loping fuzz bass-ed monster slouches into the mix in half time before taking centre stage, only to be ousted at the very end by the final moments of Mountain High.
Phew, bit of a heavy trip that one.

Tracklist:
Coldcut jingle intro
Mika Vainio – Sisaan
The Woodentops – You Make Me Feel (Late Night version)
Beautyon – To Swing Pil
Locust – Moist Moss
Unknown – Gated ambience
Scanner – Mass Observation
Andrew Poppy – Goodbye Mr. G
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts)
Path – Pleasant
Sheila Chandra – unknown
Coldcut Russian jingle
The Radha Krsna Temple – Bhaja Mana Hure
The Irresistible Force – Mountain High (live)
Up, Bustle & Out – Nightwalk
La Funk Mob – Motor Bass Gets Phunked Up
Voyager – Arrival
James vs Sabres of Paradise – Jam J (Phase 1: Arena Dub)

28 years ago last week I was heading back into London from my Dad’s 50th birthday party to the Holloway Road to meet Matt Black at KISS FM. This was the first time I ever appeared on Solid Steel, alongside old DJ partner Mario Aguera as part of the Openmind collective. Mixed totally live on air on 3 decks and a CD player (the old rack mounted ones) with a few Coldcut jingles being thrown in off of 8 track-style carts by Matt (Jon wasn’t in the studio for this session).

I’ll never forget it, the nervous countdown to 1am in the quiet studio, both of us shitting ourselves as we were going to be live on the radio for the first time and it was on Solid Steel! The news ending and Matt triggered the intro jingle, and we were off with the luxury of 3 turntables layer up the mix with. It was a seminal moment in my DJ career and I’m eternally grateful to Matt for inviting us on and giving us a chance as it was like getting a foot in the door or the first rung of the ladder. If I’d never done another Solid Steel again I’d have been happy but of course he asked us back again and again.

Looking at the track list I’m pleased that it all still stands up and a few long-term staples were in there; Kraftwerk, Aphex, ZTT, Jungle Brothers and The Irresistible Force. The mix is mostly tight, the odd stumble here and there but no disasters – not bad for a first go live on 3 decks although there was way too much George Carlin in the mix.

Mario took over after  the Barbarella track, we shared a house at the time and pooled our records when playing out as I was only just out of college and he had a full-time job so could afford to buy more new records than me. Along with Chantal Passamonte (now Mira Calix) and David Vallade, a fellow graphic designer who has done covers for Clear, Reflective, Worm Interface, Ninja Tune and many more, we did the Telepathic Fish chill out parties. One day I’ll get a little site together with all the mixes, photos, magazines and flyers I have stored up from those years…

Thanks to Steve Norgate many years ago for the superior audio and track listing as the quality is superior to my own D90 cassette and I doubt a DAT recording of this exists.

Track list:
Sequential – The Mission (Live From the Outer Zone
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome to The Pleasure Dome 12″ intro (on 33rpm)
Sexy Selector – Original Rockers
St Etienne – Your Head My Voice (Voix Revirement by Aphex Twin)
Jungle Brothers – Ultimatum Jungle Beats + unknown African chanting
LS Diesel & Launch DAT – Rougher Than A Lion
Psychic Warriors of Gaia – Maenad (The Valley) + Hear This! spoken word
Kraftwerk – Home Computer
Seefeel – Minky Starshine
Nightmares On Wax – Nights Interlude + George Carlin – God
No-Man – Heaven Taste
21st Century Aura – Disorientation
DJ Spike – Outer Land (part one)
Grace Jones – The Crossing (Ohh The Action…)
Kraftwerk – Morgenspaziergang
Dreamfish – School Of Fish
Barbarella – Barbarella (Irresistible Force Mix) + George Carlin – Nursery Rhymes

Track notes:
Going through my CDRs this week to make them easier to sort, I tried to find a show that was close to this week’s date. Worryingly there seems to be a batch of CDs yellowing around the edges so I should get them encoded before the CD rot sets in further.

This mid 2003 set from 17 years ago seems to have several links from some sort of meditation record which for the life of me I don’t remember. Musically it’s the era of great chart hip hop, reggae, silly mash ups and garage-y club bangers. Also there seem to be a couple of Marilyn Manson tracks nestled in there which I remember caused a few raised eyebrows at Ninja back then. The funk 45 craze was still unearthing treasure and the show opens with Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier’s incredible ‘La Horse’ which had just been reissued as part of DJ Oof’s Cinemix project.

Nestled in the middle of the mix is a mash up I made under my Flexus alias called ‘Bite My Salami’ (there’s a whole album’s worth of these which I used to make for DJ sets). It layers  Justin Timberlake’s ‘Rock Your Body’, Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and Pepe Deluxe’s ‘Salami Fever’ and sort of works but really needs some of the guitar from Timberlake’s tune. At the time you couldn’t get the a cappella for this so I ended up buying the CD single and using the phase insertion trick with the vocal and instrumental versions to cancel out everything but the vocal. Then Sean Paul gets overlaid with a version from The Bug, it was a different time…

Track list:
Serge Gainsbourg/Jean Claude Vannier – La Horse
Geezers of Nazareth – Loving the Pole (pt 1)
HIM – The Way the Trees Are
Cardinal Offishall – Belly Dancer
Trashman – Got To Get Ya
Connie Prince – The Badger
DJ Format – Here Comes the Fuzz (Quartertones remix)
Prince Paul feat. Chubb Rock, MF Doom, Wordsworth – People, Places and Things
Marilyn Manson – Baboon Rape Party
Amon Tobin – Hot Korean Moms
Flexus – Bite Your Salami (demo mix)
The Bug – Slew Dem (version)
Sean Paul – Get Busy (acapella)
Massive Attack – Butterfly Caught (Jagz Kooner remix)
Marilyn Manson – Thaeter
Camping Gaz & Digi Random – Circus World (Skamping Gaz Simphony 2)
Jammin’ – Tonka
Tubbs – 5 Day Night (Baloo mix)
Instrumental – All Shook Up