A mixed bag of then current music and what an embarrassment of riches! From contemporary psyche rock instrumental beats to post electroclash tracks and downtempo sample-fests.
The Giallos Flame first came to my attention via the DC Recordings 12” that the opening track was taken from, of which the mix title is a play on as this set was recorded when I was living in Dulwich. I know the Cdr says ‘Dunwich’ but that’s wrong and so is the date, being when it was recorded, not broadcast. Following swiftly is an early Heliocentrics track from a Jazzman 45 followed my another track from the aforementioned Live From Dunwich 12”. DC Recordings were on a ridiculously good run at this point with releases from The Emperor Machine, Padded Cell, Tom Tyler, The Oscillation and White Line Circus, all wrapped in gorgeous La Boca artwork and the Padded Cell remix of Future Loop Foundation’s ‘The Sea & The Sky’ is still a banger to this day and cheap as chips.

Keeping the tempo high there’s the Ted Nugget-sampling ‘Shake A Fist’ from Hot Chip, an amazing Optimo remix of Prinzhorn Dance School’s ‘Space Invader’ (check the 303 breakdown) and LCD’s ’Sound of Silver’ which I seemed to think sounded like Frankie’s ‘Relax’ in the middle, hence the acappella overdub. Racing through ‘other mystery beats’ as Matt Black always used to call the ones he couldn’t recall – Mr 76ix was a Skam records artist who sounds like he’s sampling a snatch of the Ronnie Corbett ’Sorry’ theme tune in there. The Shocking Pinks remixed by the Glimmers I barely recall but would have been sent on promo, mining that Liquid Liquid percussion sound repopularised by the DFA crew. More spy jazz Giallos Flame with a mystery preacher sermon too low in the mix and then Indoor Life’s ‘Archeology’ which must have been on a compilation as it’s an old 80s track on Celluloid. A quick look on Discogs confirms that it was on a B-Music comp titled after the track itself, dig and dig and dig indeed.

The excellent but sadly none too prolific Mr Chop (these days simply known as Chop) is up next from his Jazz & Milk release, ‘Sounds From The Cave’, he’s go on to get picked up by Now Again Records for a few releases and has also since had a 10” out on the coveted Drumetrics series. I don’t recall the Kid Acne ‘Sliding Beats’ either but what a banging beat, seems it was the instrumental of his ‘Sliding Doors’ release on Lex, co-written with Req One, mixed by Ross Orton and mastered by Rob Gordon no less! Next is a brace of Bullion’s breakthrough mash up of Jay D/Dilla beats and Beach Boys samples. So good I included four in a row, mainly because they were quite short too, he turns an unlikely alliance into something quite magic and forms a third ‘artist’ in the process which is what the best mash ups are all about. I’d been contemplating a Beach Boys sample-fest of my own for some years but he took it further than I ever could, I must revisit that record soon, it still sounds fresh.

For the last section we go deeper into sample territory, starting with what, for my money, is one of the first sample records in pop – Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts and the spooky ‘Come With Us’. I could rhapsodise about this album until the cows come home as it’s one of my favourite records ever but Gescom throw any reverence away, shoving the whole thing into some sample chopping and rearranging programme that expertly reconfigures it from a meandering ramble into an uptempo electro stomp. Add in Murcof’s darkly creeping ambience over the end and you have something quite special as the track contorts and breaks down under its own complexity. ‘Cosmos 1’ is from the fourth of his five album debut run with the Leaf label and what a fine group of albums. This melts into the final track from the sole release by The Dead Soul Brothers, a record I don’t recall ever having but which may have come to me digitally by this point as it’s 2007 and methods of distribution were changing fast every year in the music business and they got hold of the digital realm.

Track list:
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Heliocentrics – Dance of the Dogon
The Giallos Flame – Crime Squad
Future Loop Foundation – The Sea & The Sky (Padded Cell remix)
Hot Chip – Shake A Fist
Prinzhorn Dance School – You Are The Space Invader (Optimo remix)
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Mr 76ix – Romanticism
Shocking Pinks – Smoke Screen (12″s & A Bit More by The Glimmers)
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Indoor Life – Archeology
Mr Chop – Snob
Kid Acne – Sliding Beats (instrumental)
Bullion – Let’s Be Friends
Bullion – Pet Sounds
Bullion – Sloop Jay D
Bullion – Don’t Talk (Close Your Eyes)
Brian Eno & David Byrne – Come With Us
Gescom – B1
Murcof – Cosmos 1
Dead Soul Brothers – Overtime

The CDr tells me this is a longer edit of the set that finishes the live in Tofino gig I posted part 1 of last week – at 42 minutes I assume only 30 mins was used on the show. While there was a snatch of what I presume was the Dreadlock Holiday mash up 2 Many DJs did with Destiny’s Child creeping in at the end of that set, we blast into Quantic Soul Orchestra’s ’Super 8’ here. I remember Will from Quantic telling me he’d recorded those drums on a mini disc at the time and this was when everyone was trying to put drums down to tape to get that ‘analogue distortion’ – sounds like mini disc worked pretty good too. This was a raucous 45 and the first of many killer cuts Tru Thoughts put out in the 00’s that established the label. Gotta say, that ‘Poppa Large’ acappella sits nicely over the top, some quick cuts between Dennis Coffey and the Mowhawks funk classics and Breakestra retread of ‘Humpty Dance’ and then into a pairing I’d completely forgotten about.

The pairing of Playgroup’s ‘Number One’ with the dub mix of Time Zone’s ‘The Wildstyle’ works amazingly well until the end when things get a bit messy as they’re adding odd spoken word over the top – must revisit that and maybe do a re-edit. Into the bonus beats of Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’ classic before a quick flip over into the vocal and a rather messy mix of ‘Apache’ being cut up by Grandmaster Flash from the BBE sampler. I was rocking the odd country number that breaks down into an amazing break by the name of ‘Saga of the Blue Beaver’ at the time and then we go full on party time with Mr On’s cheeky pairing of ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough’ with ‘Breathe & Stop’ – one of the better early mash ups. Then what sounds like an edit brings us to a pumped up electro version of Prince’s ‘Kiss’ – no idea who did this, any ideas? We’re veering into cheese territory before Rufus Thomas’ ‘Itch & Scratch Pt.2’ pulls us back but, oh no – I’d really caught mash up fever around this time and Madison Avenue’s ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ gets paired with Blur’s ‘Song 2’ and, to be fair, this absolutely tore it up at the time as it was all so new.

Back to the funk with Paul Humphrey & his Cool Aid Chemists with the awesome stop/start of ‘Funky L.A.’, galloping stormer of a 45 before a switch of tempo into a well known pairing of Mr Scruff’s ‘Ug’ with DJ Vadim’s ‘The Terrorist’ from the Now, Listen Solid Steel mix CD a year before. A snatch of Cut Chemist’s ‘Bunky’s Pick’ before Reuben Bell’s ’Superjock’ – given a second outing a year before with Cut and Shadow’s Brainfreeze 45s mix – and then a, frankly, ham-fisted mix into Q-Bert’s amazing scratch cut in the form of ‘Bear Witness’ by Doctor Octagon. I used to do a trick with Pharoah Monch’s ’Simon Says’ where I’d hold the Godzilla sample and scratch it into the Addams Family theme tune and this is what rounds the set out. It was originally created for the aforementioned Now, Listen mix but unfortunately we couldn’t license it (because they’d sampled Godzilla!) so I would do it at gigs and it always went down well once the crowd caught on.

Track list:
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Super 8
Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large (acappella)
Dennis Coffey – Scorpio
The Mohawks – The Champ
Breaksetra – Humpty Dump
Playgroup – Number One
Time Zone – Wildstyle (Original 12″ dub mix)
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime/bonus beats
The Incredible Bongo Band – Apache (Grandmaster Flash Rock Steady Mix)
Beaver & Krause – Saga Of The Blue Beaver
Mr. On vs Jungle Brothers – Breathe Don’t Stop
Prince – Kiss (unknown electro mix)
Rufus Thomas – Itch & Scratch Pt.2
Unknown – Don’t Call Me Song 2
Paul Humphrey & his Cool Aid Chemists – Funky L.A.
Mr Scruff’s – Ug
DJ Vadim feat Motion Man – The Terrorist (acappella)
Cut Chemist – Bunky’s Pick
Reuben Bell – Superjock
Doctor Octagon – Bear Witness
Pharoah Monch – Simon Says

An odd assortment from mid 2002 here with a bit of party-style mash up, a bit of funk, some Four Tet and some cut ups thrown in, sounds a bit like I was tidying up some loose ends. The inclusion of ‘Milk’ by The Basic dates it instantly to around the time of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s ‘Product Placement’ mix, of which this was a staple, both musically and visually. It’s also the first time Luke Vibert’s ‘Homewerk’ gets an airing, a track that would be in the record box from most of the decade and still comes out for the Kraftwerk Klassics, Kovers and Kurios set.

‘Yoda’s One Man Band’ sounds more like Kid Koala than he did back then and I’m not entirely sure it was serious. I never knew who the Freelance Hairdresser was, obviously a play on the Freelance Hellraiser and in early on with the mash up craze. Here he/she mixes the BBC Pot Black theme (Winifred Atwell – Black & White Rag) with Eminem to ‘hilarious’ effect, hasn’t dated a bit – but seriously, this is half of what I enjoyed about the bastard pop craze, it was ridiculous and unpretentious fun, mostly made by people who had nothing to lose.

‘Funk’ is, of course, the less famous B side to Meco’s huge disco-fied hit, ’Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band’ although something tells me they needed a filler track quickly for the flip and didn’t stop to think too hard about the title. Here comes Luke with his obvious steal homage to the Dusseldorf Quartet and I have to say, that tempo switch down mix out of it into Paul Kass is inspired. There’s also a link between the two as ‘Underground Agent’ is featured on the Further Nuggets compilation of library music that Luke made for Lo Recordings around this time.

And here’s The Basic with their advertisement for the dairy industry, not 100% sure where the spoken word about cows comes from that I’ve slung over it but it’s probably a Sesame Street sketch. I remember seeing the Product Placement show at, I think, the Scala of all places, in London. Shadow and Cut confounded a few people after the party-tastic ‘Brainfreeze’ set by digging pretty deep to the point where the tracks were cool but more of a head-nod than a get down. Z-Trip ripped it up on that show, pure showmanship with Nirvana cut ups and plenty of mic action.

A couple of Four Tet pieces follow, first, a remix for James Yorkson, and second, something he did for the Domino label which takes a big slabs of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’ and weaves it into something beautiful. It comes as a 7”, split over two sides and features a photo of a young Kieran with his sister on the cover. We play out and turn off the light with Al Dente and Ill Chemist – friends of Steinski’s – and a little track from a CDr I was given I think as I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Nighty Night!

Track list:
DJ Yoda – Yoda’s One Man Band
Freelance Hairdresser – Marshall’s Been Snookered
Meco – Funk
Luke Vibert – Homewerk
Paul Kass – Underground Agent
The Basic – Milk
James Yorkson & the Athletes – The Lang Toun (Four Tet remix)
Four Tet – I’m On Fire (Part 2)
Al Dente and Ill Chemist – Nighty Night

Back for part 2 of the set from last week where Matt Black and I recorded a Solid Steel session in my bedroom as the KISS FM studios were booked out. This hour is a mix of the two of us but it’s hard to determine who played what so I’ve left the thing whole, the tape also started with Cypress Hill’s ’Scooby Doo’ but it was incomplete so I’ve cut it. I kick off with a snatch of the Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia’s majestic ‘Obsidian’ remix before Digital Underground’s ‘Packet Man’ – a tale of a sexual experience sold in a pill. A short snatch of a DJ Spike track precedes the newly released ‘Sound Of The Police’ from KRS 1’s Return Of The Boom Bap LP, a virtual classic as soon as it hit the streets before a ‘pause for the cause’ and into a bit of Matt on the decks. The Tape Beatles had become a spoken word staple on the show since the Orb visited and hipped Matt & Jon to their work and the first two tracks from their Music With Sound album feature here. Steve Reich was also a mainstay of shows, continually popping up over the years in different mixes with his minimalist works, joined here by a spoken word piece, read by Matt’s dad. Out of this comes another ambient classic, ‘Flurescence’ (spelling as on the record) from Jonah Sharp’s debut EP as Spacetime Continuum, another track that got many outings in the early 90s.

A NSFW sketch about vinyl opens the next section with a a near ‘C bomb’ moment quickly cut with a fader. Tournesol’s ‘Holy Cow’ was a bumping trip hop-y moment on their Kokotsu album for R&S, followed by early Chemical Brothers when they were still masquerading under the Dust Brothers’ moniker with ‘If You Kling To Me I’ll Klong To You’. Brian Eno’s ‘Alternative 3’ from Music For Films creeps in with the exorcism from the I Am Lucifer album which I only finally found last year, always a favourite of Matt’s and one he used extensively on the show. The Future Sound of London’s ‘Lifeforms (Path 2)’ was new at the time too, what a time to be alive! I wish I knew what the track following was but it’s gone and Shazam doesn’t know either. Likewise with the burbling acid track after that although I do recognise some bits of David Sylvian & Holger Czukay’s ‘Plight & Premonition’ in there somewhere but it might be as a sample. Ah, here comes Global Communication according to Matt although I can’t identify the track and neither can he (I’m not entirely sure it’s them actually). Matt’s dad crops up again reading a passage about ‘the 9th world’, “How does an eye work? How does a foot work?” – another spoken word favourite. It’s all beginning to blur into one ambient mass around this stage until we get to Attica Blues’ ‘Contemplating Jazz (D’Afro’s Picky Head Dub)’ which plays us out only to be rudely interrupted by the KISS news jingle.

Track list:
Psychic Warriors of Gaia – Obsidian (Organically Decomposed)
Digital Underground – Packet Man
KRS 1 – Sound Of The Police
The Tape Beatles – Beautiful State / Green, Blue Beautiful Place
Steve Reich – Six Pianos
Spacetime Continuum – Flurescence
Monty Python – Vinyl record sketch
Tournesol – Holy Cow
Dust Brothers – If You Kling To Me I’ll Klong To You
Brian Eno – Alternative 3
The Future Sound Of London – Lifeforms (Path 2)
Unknown – Unknown
Unknown – Unknown (Global Communication?)
Attica Blues – Contemplating Jazz (D’Afro’s Picky Head Dub)

Happy New Year for 2023! I hope it was fun for you all, sorry this is late today, I’ve been deep in design and gig mode, opening for The Art of Noise two nights in a row at the Jazz Cafe. On with the show I promised in the last entry.
Matt Black rang up one day in the summer of 1994, there was a problem. KISS FM had been booked out, both studios, for the Friday pre-record so he needed somewhere else to record the show that week. I’m not sure if Jon More was around, maybe away DJing with PC? I’m also not sure the exact turn of events aside from KISS wasn’t available but could he come over and do the show at mine? Wow, this was a turn up for the books, I’d only been a guest on the show for just over a year, had a handful or more under my belt and was becoming part of the crew due to now providing artwork for the label as well as the odd gig away with Coldcut. OK, come over to East Dulwich and set up in my bedroom and record Solid Steel, why don’t you? Holy shit!

At the time I shared a house with Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix further down the line), David Vallade and Mario Aguera and we had hosted the original Telepathic Fish party in the three story house above a chemists on Goose Green which we’d dubbed 102 Central. Mario had by now started working with Hex as a computer programmer and David and Chantal were working in Ambient Soho, the record shop in Berwick St, Soho, while I was up the road at Books Etc. on Oxford Street. At the time I had three decks set up in my room, a couple of Technics and something else I forget, not sure what the mixer was but it was the same one on the cover of the Funkjazztical Tricknology compilation. I also had a keyboard, a drum machine, CD player and an odd flanger guitar pedal hooked up – see the blurry photo for reference. Matt came down and we took turns playing into a portable DAT player he’d bought along I think. Can’t remember what we used for a mic but it was probably a pair of headphones plugged into the mic. input hence the terrible sound quality. I think the Coldcut jingles were flown in off cassette and this recording was probably taken from the radio broadcast as it has the KISS news jingle added onto the end, probably live by the sound engineer.

Starting off with a then holy trinity of electronica pioneers Autechre, MuZiq and Caustic Windown (Aphex Twin) tells you we’re in the golden age of Artificial Intelligence era electronica. AI only took another 30 years to become part of everyday life. None of the tracks here have aged badly either, I still play the Aphex track out sometimes too. Following ‘On The Romance Tip’ (where did that title originate? It’s not on the record anywhere) there’s an elongated trance-ish acid thing that makes me think it might be European. Shazam gives me nothing and the ears don’t recognise it at all – anyone? Starts about 11 mins in and bubbles away for another four minutes until Global Communication’s ‘Sublime Creation’ races in on 45 instead of 33, sounding not far off Acen’s ‘Trip To The Moon’ in places.

Cut for an ad break and more Glob Comm with the opening track to their classic 76’14 album, ‘4’02’ with the opening of The Orb’s remix of Material’s ‘Praying Mantra’ slurped over, a common DJ tool of mine. Another was the phasing, filtered and panning intro to Mergener / Weisser’s ‘Sunbeam’ from a New Age Music comp on Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication label that Mixmaster Morris had hipped me to, I think I found this in Beanos or somewhere along Berwick St. on my lunch break one day in Soho. This can be heard bridging ‘4’02’ and Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man Machine’ classic, which needs no introduction. Out of the other Fab Four into Coldcut’s own ‘Eine Kleine Hed Musik’ – fresh on vinyl from the extra disc that accompanied the Ninja Tune vinyl version of the album and first heard opening the original Coldcut meets The Orb radio show on New Year’s Eve 1991/92. Which brings us full circle, 31 years later… exit Matt Black stating, ‘Openmind in the house, or rather I’m in Openmind’s house!’

Track list:
Autechre – Lost
MuZiq – Nettles & Pralines
Caustic Window – On The Romance Tip
Unknown – unknown
Global Communication – Sublime Creation (on 45)
Global Communication – 4’02
Kraftwerk – The Man Machine
Coldcut – Eine Kleine Hed Musik