Mixcloud Select 89 – Let’s Have A Dinner Party For Six – 30/10/00 Pt.3

MS88 bush house sticker
This is the third part recorded for the show I put up last week. A very Mo Wax-centric mix this time round with five of the tracks being from the label or previously signed to it. Attica Blues had moved on by this time and were signed to Columbia which was sadly the last we’d hear of them with the Test. Don’t Test album that this is taken from. The first part of Nigo’s Japanese exclusive ’Symphony No. 250910 – Escape From Planet of the Apes’ is up next which was from the Ape Sounds LP and literally sampled huge chunks of the POTA soundtrack over heavy beats. Around the same time the album was released in the UK but without this track, possibly for legal reasons.

DJ Shadow’s ‘Dark Days’ soundtrack was out on 7” and his excellent David McCallum-sampling theme was exactly what was needed by an audience fiending for more after the uneven UNKLE album. The Cinematic Orchestra rearranged Krust’s erm… ‘Re-Arrange’ which was probably from their remix album collection as I can’t find it in his discography and contains the same spoken word sample that PC used on his ‘The Sky At Night’ on Kaleidoscope the same year. Nigo Pt.2 is next – this part was remixed and became known as ‘March of the General’ on copies of the album outside of Japan, a highlight in the late period MW catalogue. I seem to remember Jadell did production on this at some stage with the Scratch Perverts, top work.

We end with Shadow’s ‘Giving Up The Ghost’, at that point unreleased but taken here from a mix James Lavelle had done from an acetate. You can hear the quality isn’t great but also it’s very fast compared to the version on The Private Press, but what a track, the follow up to Endtroducing gets a bad rep but for me its every bit as good. The mix is interspersed with various snippets of food-related spoken word, one from the How To Have a Dinner Party album and two from a Warner Bros. comp with skits related to eating vinyl and the quality of the plastic.

Tracklist:
Attica Blues – The Man
Nigo – Symphony No. 250910 (pt 1)
DJ Shadow – Dark Days (Spoken For mix)
Krust – Re-Arrange (Cinematic Orchestra mix)
Nigo – Symphony No. 250910 (pt 2)
DJ Shadow – Giving Up The Ghost

Mixcloud Select 88 – Robots/Every Record Ever Recorded – 30/10/00 Pt.1/2

MS88 CD cover A two-in-one offering today as we kick off the year proper with a blend of robot-themed tracks from late 2000. This sowed the seed for my Remember The Future mix seven years later, constructed from records about robots. Jon More fave and Solid Steel spoken classic ‘Music For Robots’ kicks things off then into the Electro The Robot version of MBM’s ‘Original Control’ with samples from an actual robot built by the Westinghouse Electric Corp in the late 30’s.
Kraftwerk should need no introduction and then we have an oddity from a soundtrack by Milton & Anne DeLugg called Gulliver’s Travels Beyond The Moon. ‘Rise, Robots, Rise’ is a stomping brass affair that gives way to an always funky Rufus Thomas dance number, ‘The Funky Robot’.

After that mix of mechanics it’s back to business as usual with the reissued-on-7”-at-the-time ‘Brutus Drums’ by Eddie Warner and a precursor to the first Now, Listen mix in the form of Sabu Martinez’s ‘Hotel Alyssa’. I think this had been bootlegged at the time and the early 00’s were a ripe era for all sorts of ‘unofficial reissues’ popping up in shops no doubt making a few people a bit of cash in return. Much like the web at that point it was still the Wild West and huge shops like HMV regularly carried bootlegs with no questions asked. Freeform Arkestra was always a great tune to play out with that plucked bass sample and building tension. Some chancer called DJ Food follows and then into an evergreen classic from the box, Camping Gaz & Digi Random’s ‘Circus World’. Around this time I found five mint copies of this in the bargain box in Soul Jazz Records (now Sounds of the Universe) for a pound and proceeded to give them away to anyone who would take them. The combination of Circus clowns, ska, screaming children and theremin solo has never been bettered or even attempted by anyone else.

The covers above and below were from a (very short) period where I was going to make a custom cover for each mix, around the year 2000 when I think I got a decent inkjet printer for the first time and could print glossy colour images. This lasted for approximately three Solid Steel mixes but I did make others for one-off themed sets like the Kraftwerk Kovers and the interview shows.

MS88 CD Inlay

Into part 2 of the original show with Robert Klein’s hilarious ‘Record Offer’ of every record ever recorded, “we drive a truck to your house!”. Klein has several 70’s comedy records that are worth tracking down as he covers the usual topics of sex and drugs in a manic style. A Ninja classic from Up, Bustle & Out into Coke Escvedo’s ‘Runaway’ leads into ‘Funkyacidstuff’ from Luke Vibert via a 12” of archive material on Planet Mu, the same one where the track ‘Analord’ gave the Aphex series its name.
Photek’s name has been coming back up a lot recently it seems and ‘Terminus’ was possibly the last track he made that caught my attention before he fell off the radar. A B side on one of the Virgin releases, this huge downtempo monster just tramples over everything else in size and scope, proper widescreen break beats with bouncing bass, distorted drums and synth stabs. The Prodigy were occasionally mining this vein too and another B side, ‘Molotov Bitch’ follows with its ‘Ants Invasion’ sampling melody line. Klute plays us out with ‘Kahno’ from a 12” release on the Certificate 18 label. More spoken word crops up that would later be used on Now, Listen too, this was from an airline travel record about the Far East I think although the name escapes me.

There’s a part 3 saved for next week…

Part 1
Forrest J. Ackerman – Music For Robots
Meat Beat Manifesto – Original Control (Electro The Robot)
Kraftwerk – The Robots
Milton & Anne DeLugg – RIse, Robots, Rise
Rufus Thomas – The Funky Robot
Eddie Warner – Brutus Drums
Sabu Martinez – Hotel Alyssa
Freeform Arkestra – Freeform Theme (Raw Deal mix)
DJ Food – Rubber Samba
Camping Gaz & Digi Random – Circus World

Part 2
Robert Klein – Record Offer
Up, Bustle & Out – Aqui No Mas
Coke Escvedo – Runaway
Luke Vibert – Funkyacidstuff
Photek – Terminus
The Prodigy – Motolov Bitch
Klute – Kahno

Mixcloud Select X-02 Jagz Kooner Remix selection

DJFood MSX-02In the second of this occasional series for Mixcloud Select subscribers I turn the spotlight on another remixer who’s always been one to check over the last 30 years. Jagz Kooner made his name as one third of the Sabres of Paradise production team, alongside Gary Burns and, of course, the late Andrew Weatherall. Some of the greatest remixes of the 90s were created by the Sabres and Kooner went on to join The Aloof when the group disbanded in 1995.

In demand in his own right as a remixer to just about anyone as well as a producer, he has a precise production style, mainly working in the rock world after leaving Sabres. His Discogs page lists 175 remixes for everyone from Primal Scream, Oasis, Kasabian, The Charlatans, Garbage, Killing Joke, Massive Attack, Soulwax… the list is endless.

This mix is LOUD and has the most brutal waveform I’d seen on a set, Kooner likes his compression it seems and the waveforms on most of these mixes are solid blocks of sound with everything pushed right up to the top. Nevertheless, everything is crystal clear in the mix, with hard as nails drums that sound like they’d hurt you.

If the bands discussed above aren’t your bag then turn away now as plenty feature, toughened up and fed through the grinder to make them fuzzed out and tweaked from the originals. Plenty of the original songs are still fully present, these aren’t complete reconstructions but they wear a new coat of armour. For some reason I just hear metal when I listen to these mixes which mostly lean away from the dance side and more to rock.

Track list:
Kasabian – Club Foot (Jagz Kooner remix)
Regular Fries – Fused (Jagz Kooner mix)
S’Express – SuperFly Guy (Jagz Kooner Tainted Paradise Update – edit)
Kasabian – Empire (Jagz Kooner Remix)
Primal Scream – Miss Lucifer (Hip To Hip) [Remix by Jagz Kooner]
Oasis – The Turning (The Jagz Kooner remix)
South – Broken Head (Jagz Remix)
Oasis – The Shock Of The Lightning (The Jagz Kooner Remix)
Clint Mansell – Coney Island Express (Requiem For A Dream Jagz Kooner Remix)
Freeland – Mind Kller (Jagz Kooner Remix)
Killing Joke – Seeing Red (Jagz Kooner remix)
Leigh Devries – Strange (Jagz Kooner Dub mix)

Mixcloud Select 87: Xmas collection 22/12/2003

MS87 CDr Better late than never, Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all my subscribers for tuning in each week for your vintage slice of archive Solid Steel! Here’s a short but sweet swinging selection from 2003 leaning heavily on the hip jazz end of things and includes my favourite festive song of all time, The Soulful Strings’ version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’.

As I recall, this set takes liberally from an excellent compilation put together by Martin Green called ‘Cool Yule, The Swinging Sounds of Christmas’. Stick it on whilst preparing the dinner and raise a glass to having made it through another year. Have a great one, see you on the other side…

MS87 PRS

Track list:
Tony Rodelle Larson – Cool Yule
Herbie Hancock – Deck The Halls
Bill Darnell & The Smith Bros – We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo
Bill Cosby – Merry Xmas Mama
John Rydgren – A Christmas Reflection
Lalo Schrifrin – Joy To The World
Billy Taylor & David frost – Bright Star In The East
Soulful Strings – Little Drummer Boy
Dickie Goodman – Santa & The Satelitte Pt 1&2 (edit)
Phil Spector – Silent Night
Ed ‘Kookie’ Burns – Yulesville

Mixcloud Select 86: DJ Food at Stealth – The Blue Note, Dec 7th 1995 – Part 2

Stealth tape 2 Dec 7th 1 Here’s part 2, DJ Food – PC and myself – on 4 decks at The Blue Note, Dec 7th, 1995 – a more drum n bass led set coming out of some Ninja business from Up, Bustle & Out and The Herbaliser. It’s possible, listening back, that these first two tracks aren’t PC and I but the end of either The Herbaliser or Coldcut’s DJ set and we start with the breakdown sample of Dirty Harry from the end of The Real Killer Pt.2. There are also sudden stops or breaks in the recordings where tapes must have run out and by the time they’re changed the music has moved on so I’ve crossfaded a couple of bits so there are no sudden stops or jump edits. The levels on a lot of it were up and down so I’ve done my best to make volumes a bit more consistent across the mix.

This is available as part of my Mixcloud Select subscription – £3 a month gets you an archive mix a week every Friday morning with tracklist and notes – you can sign up here and leave any time

At a couple of points there’s what seems to be a theremin being played over the top of the set, I’d completely forgotten about this but it lit a dim recollection of someone doing something like this, not Patrick or I though I hasten to add. The mix is rough and ready, straight from the central mixer we were both plugged into with no crowd noise sadly so it’s a little dry. Every rough mix, distorted level and jumping record can be heard but you get the sense that this is very live, improvised on the spot with vinyl and the occasional spoken word overlaid from CD. For some context, this is very early days of this kind of music being played in a main room of a club, not the back room/chill out, on a four deck set up with DJs facing each other on a club stage in London. There are a lot of unknown tunes in these sets, some PC’s and some mine, lesser known break beats and DnB tunes that Spotify can’t recognise and the old braincells won’t remember, I’m hoping people can spot some and fill in the blanks.
Stealth tape 2 Dec 7th 2
There was an odd jump at the end of this tape, from DnB to a sudden 130 tempo, the DAT must have either stopped or ended and there was a sudden change at Bushflange. We probably did the 45-33rpm trick and turned the deck off for a second so the tempo ran down and landed at a more techno pace then mixed into that at the slower speed. Bushflange have come up numerous times during these mix excavations and their tracks were always solid, strange that they weren’t remembered in the scheme of things. Owners of the Sunday At Bundy’s mix tape will probably recognise a couple of sections from this set as they were featured on that tape back in 1996.
Below is the original print file layout for the flyer, this was printed on gold card so the purple came out more a burnt umber brown as you can see by the tape inlay above that I made from a flyer.
blue note flyer 7th - AI55 web

Stealth T shirt crop
Remember, if you want a 1 of 100 commemorative Stealth T shirt then I think there are some left, follow this link, choose you colour, size and T shirt number from the ones left and place an order, once the 100 are sold there won’t be any more.
https://weare1of100.co.uk/limited-edition/dj-food-openmind/
Stealth ecru 242 sqStealth black white2 sq

Track list:
Up, Bustle & Out – Revolutionary Woman Of The Windmill
The Herbaliser – The Real Killer Pt.2 (Rooftop Prowler)
Larceny – Who Are You? (Aquasky mix)
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown (acappella on 33rpm)
Alex Reece & Wax Doctor – Detroit
DJ Vadim – Call Me
Photek – The Rain
The Pharcyde – Passin’ Me By (acappella)
Unknown
The Shamen – Transamazonia (LTJ Bukem mix)
Unknown
Incognito – Still A Friend Of Mine
Squarepusher – Male Pill 5
Dream Warriors – My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style (acappella)
Fatboy Slim – Weekend Bonus Beats
Rae – Free Rolling
KRS One – Uh Oh
Cypress Hill – Scooby Doo
Unknown
Unknown
Bushflange – Cloud Cover
Plastikman – Helikopter
DJ Shadow – In/Flux
Colourbox – Baby I Love You So

Mixcloud Select 84 – Strictly’s last half hour 20/11/2002

MS84 PRS This was the last quarter of a show broadcast 11/11/2002 in a show with DK and The Unabombers, very much a chill out, wind down half hour. The original CD is described ‘Amb half hour’.

The Linda Lewis track was released on Riz Maslen’s Council Folk label on a 7”, a beautiful acoustic number. ‘Ghosts In The Weewee’ was a mash up I did using Japan’s ‘Ghosts’ and the instrumental of a Japanese Kool Keith with Natural Calamity release called ‘In The Wee Wee Time’. The sparseness and tempo of both seemed to work but it’s a bit out of tune in places and was more of an experiment than a club track. The version of The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Oregon’ was from the ‘Horizons’ single I think, possibly the same one on the Every Day album.

Andrew PecklarSteam, I have no recollection of where this comes from and Discogs isn’t yielding any info either, if anyone has any info please let me know. Amon Tobin ‘The Whole Nine’ was from the B side of the ‘Verbal’ single, Amon in brilliant cinematic mode. JG Thirlwell’s Steroid Maximus alias had been reactivated and ‘The Trembler’ was the opening track from his third album, ‘Ectopia’. By this time I’d met Jim and remixed a track for him for his ‘Blow’ album, alongside Amon, banking it as a favour for a vocal at a later date. This would take another ten years when he honoured his word and contributed to ’Prey’ on The Search Engine album.

Ill Chemist was a friend of Steinski’s and ’Take This, Brother’ is taken from a CD called The BreakBeatles he gave me while in NYC. Obviously this is not official but it was one of the best Beatles cut ups at this time (this is long before The Grey Album) and the whole package was really well done. Ollie Teeba and I had a plan to do a Beatles cut up megamix back in the 90’s under the name The Big Beatles, sadly it never came to pass.MS71 CD

Tracklist:
Linda Lewis – I Keep A Wish
Flexus – Ghosts In The Wee Wee
Cinematic Orchestra – Oregon
Andrew Pecklar – Steam
Amon Tobin – The Whole Nine
Steroid Maximus – The Trembler
Ill Chemist – Take This, Brother

Mixcloud Select 83 – Strictly Kev Solid Steel Junglist set 05/02/1995

MS83 Openmind Junglist set 05:02:1995This set was on the end of the Scanner vs Openmind tape and dated 05/02/1995. I had to re-pitch it down slightly as the tape I dubbed it from was running a little fast and Matt’s voice at the end seemed quite high pitched originally. It’s also a bit overloaded in the second half but that was radio reception coupled with tape compression for you.
Drum n Bass was getting exciting, trip hop is bubbling up from the cracks in the pavement and Ninja Tune was finding its feet and direction, something that would continue to build for some years to come.

I’m unsure of the first track, Matt says it’s Deep Blue ‘The Helicopter Tune’ but I don’t think it is and I don’t have a copy of that so it wouldn’t be me playing it, maybe he did before me? I have a feeling it may be from Germany’s Smokin’ Drum Recordings label who put out some really interesting DnB in the early to mid 90s. If anyone knows then please leave a comment. D’Cruze is another artist who’s not released anything for 20 years, one of the original Boogie Times / Suburban Base Records crew.

Studio Pressure aka Photek – this might be one of the first times I’d played him and I do the little 45 to 33 rpm switch down trick to change the tempo in Bomb The Bass. ‘You See Me in 3D’ was a B side and I still play it to this day, a great breaks cut up track, just pure driving beats at 120 bpm.
Bridging this and The Herbaliser’s then-forthcoming debut single on Ninja Tune is, possibly, Akbar Ali Khan but that could have been flown in off a CD by Matt.

More trip hop with a trio of promo Ninja tracks ensues with a Marden Hill remix of 9 lazy 9 from the forthcoming Ninja Cuts compilation and one of Ashley Beedle’s takes on DJ Food’s ‘Consciousness’. Spank Da Monkey’s track came from the Fusion Flava’s Chapter 1 12” EP which was an early UK collection of trip hop beats with a graffiti tag cover. Orin Walters who would go on to record as Afronaught and a be a part of Bugz In The Attic was part of the group. I also slipped in Trouble Funk’s ‘Pump Me Up’ for good measure.

Track list:
Unknown – Niceness (Smokin’ Drum Recordings?)
D’Cruze – Lonely
Studio Pressure – Touching Down… Planet Photek
Bomb The Bass – You See Me In 3D
Akbar Ali Khan – unknown
The Herbaliser – The Real Killer
Spank Da Monkey – Down Side Up
9 Lazy 9 – Train (Marden Hill remix)
Trouble Funk – Pump Me Up
DJ Food – Consciousness (Ashley Beedle Dub)

Mixcloud Select 82 – SS 15/12/2003 – Symphony In F

MS 81:82 PRSThis half hour comes from a disc with two mixes on it (see MS 81 for the other) although I’m not convinced the date on the disc matches with the actual transmission dates on the solidsteel.net website so I’ve made an educated guess as to the TX date. Sometimes I wrote dates the mixes were made on the discs when archiving which would have been in the files titles. I’d send these off to DK, the show producer, and they would air when he had a slot for them unless they were time-sensitive. In this case, a mix made in November of 2003 saw the light of day over a month later.

An excellent updating of the Meat Beat classic ‘I Got The Fear’ opens the set, just check those drums, no one makes heavy beats like Jack Dangers and with long time collaborator Ben Stokes aka DHS on the remix (his classic ‘House of God’ still stands up) it just gets better. DJ Revolution was always one of the funkiest of the wave of turntablists who came up in the wake of the ISP, X-Men, Beat Junkies era of the 90s. Here he faces off against The Allies, a DJ Craze, A-Trak, Infamous and DVLP coalition of world class DJs in ‘4+1’ from his album, ‘In 12’s We Trust’.

It’s odd doing these mix round ups and checking Discogs for details on records and artists that were made by seemingly major players at the time only to find they haven’t released anything for over 10 years. Koushik seemed to be a unique talent amongst the Stones Throw roster even if he wasn’t as prolific as some on the label and his mix of beats and acoustic guitar songwriting stood out. ‘One In A Day’ comes from his second single of the same name. The Bran Flakes were Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt’s cut n paste project, full of fun and silliness, and ‘Give Yourself A Stereo Check Out’ comes from their 2000 album, ‘I Don’t Have A Friend’. Otis was running the 365 Days Project on WFMU at this time and we bonded over the weird and wonderful world of vinyl oddities. He would of course do his own Solid Steel guest mix at one point and we still keep in touch to this day.

Nestled inside or on top of these tracks are several other oddities, Not The Nine O’Clock News’ Hi-Fi Shop sketch where Mel Smith wants to buy a ‘gram-o-phone’ and the young salesmen in the shop – played by Griff Rhys-Jones and Rowan Atkinson – give him a hard time over the technicalities of a stereo set up. Also floated in are excerpts from a Tom Baker voice over session outtake compilation that was doing the rounds on the web at the time and has subsequently been sampled by people like Wagon Christ. The internet was throwing up all sorts of material as speeds got faster and people started sharing audio clips on forums and servers.

Belleville Rendez-vous is a beautiful animated film from the same year and this track must have been inspired by the electro swing fad around at the time. The Evolution Control Committee track is an insane bit of cut up fun in a similar style to the Bran Flakes with some samples of a young Ken Nordine in the mix by the sound of it. This track originally turned up on the Free Speech For Sale compilation by Snuggles. The DJ Ordeal track shows how you can also do something poignant and charming with cut ups and dodgy pause buttons and comes from an odd four track 7”. Ordeal released loads of cut up/concrete music in the 00’s but again, another artist who hasn’t had a release for over a decade. The Scala cover of Nirvana’s classic was odd and unique 18 years ago, little did we know that this sort of guff would be soundtracking every Hollywood blockbuster trailer in the future.

Tracklist:
Meat Beat Manifesto vs DHS – Cease To Exist (DHS remix)
DJ Revolution vs the Allies – 4 +1
Koushik – One In A Day
The Bran Flakes – Give Yourself A Stereo Check Out
Ben Charest – Belleville Rendez-vous (version Francaise Par -M-)
Evolution Control Committee – IGA Giant Pineapple Party
DJ Ordeal – You Win 4 I
Scala – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Mixcloud Select 81 – Solid Steel 01/12/2003 – Broken Tape Recorder

MS 81:81 CDR

This mix had a lot of current tracks on display, from Luke Vibert’s drum n bass alter-ego, Amen Andrews (vol.5) and the Soundmurderer & SK1 releases on RePhleX at that time kicking things off in a hectic style. The DJ Patife track is actually a remix of a Michel Magnet track on the excellent Cinemix compilation put together by Fred Elalouf aka DJ Oof and contains loads of excellent remixes of French soundtracks by the likes of Carl Craig, Howie B, Sofa Surfers and the ever-present Luke Vibert.
Bonobo’sPick Up’ is expertly worked over by Four Tet, a hang over from our tour of North America in late 2001 where they bonded over clattering jazz drums. Ty’s ‘Wait A Minute’ seems to come in at an odd place in the bar but it all makes sense once the chorus kicks in and the two tracks align melodically but it’s still rough and ready which makes me think this is probably a one-take mix made at home.

Forss’ ‘Journeyman’ is from one of those albums that went under the radar and has remained there but definitely deserves reappraisal. Made by Swedish producer Eric Wahlforss, his debut in a minimal, unassuming blue cover entitled, ’Soulhack’ is a very deep record taking in trip hop, jazz, electronica and drum n bass, earning comparisons with Amon Tobin’s work at the time. Preceded in the mix by Deckard’s photo-enhancement scene from Blade Runner (my inclusion) it takes the set into different territory with a spoken word vocal by Rich Medina that’s rarely been bettered. It’s never been reissued and is freely available cheap on Discogs, go and find a copy. Apparently Eric went on to co-found Soundcloud which might explain why there are only four releases from him in the last 20 years.

The set continues in a similar vein with UK MC HKB Finn aka Huntkillbury Finn who featured on early Music of Life releases in the 90s and later had several releases on Ninja offshoot, Son. This must have been taken from the CD promo as the title was shortened to ‘In The Stillness’ for the 12” release. I wouldn’t call it hip hop in the regular sense, more a commentary on a night out in the city, and it plays the set out in fine style. I’ll feature the other mix, ‘Symphony in F’ next week…

Tracklist:
Amen Andrews – London
Soundmurderer & SK1 – Stylee
DJ Patife – Compartiment Tueurs
Bonobo – Pick Up (Four Tet remix)
Ty – Wait A Minute (acappella)
Forss – Journeyman
HKB Finn – In The Stillness of the Night

Mixcloud Select 80: The Openmind Collective on Solid Steel 07/11/1993

MS80 TapeThis was mixed totally live on air via 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 Black (Jon wasn’t in the studio for this session). The third of the Openmind sets on Solid Steel, I took the second hour after Mario Aguera and kicked off with an Albert Hoffman monologue, borrowed from Mixmaster Morris who had the 50th anniversary of LSD album that it’s taken from. As can be heard throughout I was mixing indie rock ambience in with the electronic kind as student funds were tight and I was still digging around in bargain bins at places like Cheapo Cheapo’s, occasionally unearthing a Roedelius or Bill Nelson album. Also on a huge 4AD kick around this time and hoovering up Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil albums which fitted into the mix but have since become forgotten in the history of things around this time, as has dub.

I wasn’t quite earning enough or on enough promo lists to have all the latest Warp and R&S releases yet so there’s an element of making do with the little you have, but limits can sometimes be good and foster more creative results. Sylvian & Fripp’s sole collaborative album had just been released and ‘Bringing Down The Light’ was the Frippertronics piece on it, getting plenty of play around this time. I also slipped in a little 808 State sample from ‘Open Your Mind’ as an ID of sorts for us. Klaus Schultze and David Sylvian’s ambient releases got tons of play for their drifting openness and were constant mix tools. Leonard Nimoy reading ‘Quequeg and I’ was from a spoken word album about whales. Bill Nelson was one of those artists that was always on the periphery of loads of scenes but never quite got the attention others like Eno did, his albums around this time are full of weird and wonderful experiments and worth a revisit. Voyager was an alias of Moody Boyz’ Tony Thorpe and ‘Arrival’ is a 20 minute ambient piece only available on the CD single of the release – another ambient mix staple as you can fly it in and out anywhere without disrupting the flow.

The opener to Orbital’s second album was always good to float over a mix and I’ve taken the trouble to correct something that’s always annoyed me with this mix since it was done. The Cocteau Twins always came in way too loud and kind of jolts in the mood of the mix so I’ve turned it down. I’ve also joined two sections as there was a tape turn over moment during Eno’s ‘An Ending (Ascent)’, a track that became almost a cliché in ambient sets around this time due to its ubiquity. Senser’s ‘The Key (The Other Side Mix)’ was totally out of character for a band mixing rock and rap in the same manner as PWEI or Asian Dub Foundation. Playing out the B side of the single it was remixed by Club Dog’s Micheal Dog, dragging the band into a brief tangle with ambient, one that I don’t think they ever repeated. Pedro & Man where basically Cheech & Chong, a scene from Up In Smoke and, I only just realised, drops the phrase ‘motherfucker’ if you listen carefully. Schultze appears again and Eno for the first of two appearances before one of Youth’s epic dub remixes of The Sugarcubes‘Vitamin’ lumbers into view. This was an age of indie groups getting dance remixes on 12”s, no doubt from the fall out of records like Screamadelica, a practice that would continue for most of the 90s as dance music culture grew and grew.

Eon’s ‘Spice’ 12” contained a lock groove at the end which I used to transfer from an ambient wash to a 133bpm groove so that the Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia’s ‘Exit 23’ could enter the fray. This was a big tune at the time and actually originated in 1989 on their first release, being remixed into the monster groove that it was in 1993, securing their place in the ambient scene. Diving back into the indie scene, Cranes had J.G. Thirlwell remix their ‘Clear’ single and the B side was a remix by Ivo Watts-Russel and John Fryer – basically a form of This Mortal Coil – I always thought the voice was way too high pitched but changing the speed just made her sound like a man. S’express‘C.O.M.A.’ (not to be confused with ‘C.O.M.A. II’ on the album) was given away free on a 7” with Record Mirror around the end of the 80s and I always used to mix it over things back then, being just respirator breathing and sonar pings.

The set ends with a glimpse of what was to come in ’94 – elements of trip hop but from the US rather than the UK. Cypress Hill’s weed-extolling ‘Hits From The Bong’ and Justin Warfield’s acid LP opener, ‘Introduction by Ellis Dee’. I’d kept my eye on what was going on in hip hop and most of what interested me was on the fringes as most of the rest of that world dived into gangsterism following NWA and Ice T’s successes. Little did we know that Mo Wax were about to release DJ Shadow’s ‘In/Flux’ in the weeks after this show aired which would set a whole new scene in motion. I dearly love this mix, it evokes a certain time when I had just left college, was finding my way into the music scene, still putting on parties with friends but soon start to DJ more regularly with Coldcut, design for Ninja Tune and start producing and playing as part of DJ Food. But that was all yet to come…

Track list:
Albert Hoffman – Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp – Bringing Down the Light
808 State – ‘Open Your Mind’ sample
Klaus Schulze – Bayreuth Return
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight & Premonition
Leonard Nimoy – Quequeg and I
Bill Nelson – Calling Heaven, Calling Heaven, Over
This Mortal Coil – Andialu
Voyager – Arrival
Unknown (phasing up and down)
Orbital – Time Becomes
Cocteau Twins – Oomingmak
Senser – The Key (The Other Side Mix)
Pedro & Man – 1st Gear, 2nd Gear
This Mortal Coil – Late Night
Klaus Schulze – Bayreuth Return
Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent)
The Sugarcubes – Vitamin (Decline Of Rome Pt.II) check
Dead Can Dance – The Spider’s Stratagem
Eon – Spice (locked groove)
Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia – Exit 23 (Source)
Brian Eno – Alternative 3
Cranes – Cloudless (Thais mix)
S’express – C.O.M.A.
Cypress Hill – Hits From The Bong
Justin Warfield – Introduction by Ellis Dee

Mixcloud Select 79 – Strictly Research Labs PRS 24/07/2000

MS79 CD

I was looking for a Halloween/horror mix for ages for this week’s upload but just cannot find it anywhere (anyone got any ideas?). I’ve chosen this one instead as a little half hour entitled Strictly Research Labs with a mix of electronica from the summer of 2000. This must first play of ‘Monacle’ from the as yet unreleased Quadraplex EP which wouldn’t see the light of day for 6 months. The set is peppered with spoken word snippets taken from the Survival Research Laboratories documentary based on Mark Pauline’s incredible industrial robot performances.

The Wagon Christ remix of David Sylvian appeared on the CD of his ‘Godman‘ single and manages to retain both the original and be quintessentially Luke Vibert at the same time, one of his best remixes IMO. Alder & Elius were on the Skam label with the weird Andy Warhol-sampling 7″, the 23 Skidoo track is from their reformation rather than their golden era. The Federation started out on Mo Wax but this track was from the B side of a 12″ on Indochina. Andy Votel does his thing with The Avalanches before the finish with Stratus, a 12″ on the Pussyfoot label offshoot, Fragments, that contained none other than Martin Jenkins aka Pye Corner Audio.

MS79 PRS

Tracklist:
David Sylvian – Godman (Wagon Christ remix)
Alder and Elius – King of Pop
DJ Food – Monacle
23 Skidoo – Ayu
Mos Def – Umi Says
The Federation – Sea of Green
Avalanches vs Andy Votel  – Thankyou Caroline
Stratus – Uplink

Mixcloud Select 78: DJ Food (Kev) untitled DAT 29/12/1996

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

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

Mixcloud Select 77: Hip Hop catch up 19/09/2005

MS77 CD I felt like a bit of hip hop and found this hour where I was playing catch up with a load of mid 2005 releases, the quality is outstanding with a leaning towards West Coast artists in particular, the underground was really firing 15 years ago. Not too much to say about this really except that it contains a couple of Soundsci demo mixes that changed a little by the time they were released.

MS77 PRS

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

Mixcloud Select 76 – Homespun Solid Steel 26/07/1998

MS76 Homespun Box

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

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

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

For the Solid Steel scholars, the missing tracks from the start of part 1 were apparently:
DJ VADIM – AURAL PROSTITUTION (SWOPE MIX)
STEVE GREY – STEVE GREYMS76 Homespun DAT

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

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

 

Mixcloud Select 75 – Strictly’s New Year Homework Pt.2 10/01/1999

MS72 NY homework DAT
Delayed Pt. 2 to Mixcloud 72 because of the Now, Listen anniversary the past 2 weeks

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

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

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

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

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

Mixcloud Select 74: DJ Food & DK – Now, Listen Solid Steel Director’s Cut Pt.2 17/10/2001

MS74 disc The incredible Cut Chemist 2.5 minute workout of Blackalicious’ ‘Alphabet Aerobics’ starts us off into the second section of the Director’s Cut, upping the tempo considerably into Four Tet’s epic ‘Glasshead’. Camping Gaz and Digi Random’s crazed theremin and ska ‘Circus World’ didn’t make the cut and neither did  the UK garage beats of Sunship’s ‘Cheque One, Two’ (it’s a nice idea but a bit out of tune). The next section is so sublime and stayed in for exactly that reason, Herbie Hancock’s ‘Nobu’ out of ‘Glasshead’ and then into Link’s ‘Arcadian is, as Ninja’s licensing manager at the time, Dean Smith, used to say, ‘a moment’. Talking of which, this half of the mix was taken from the radio broadcast so DK, Dean and I are present occasionally to chat and track back over things. PC performed some judicious edits of ’Nobu’ for the final mix as it’s a very long track but the full thing appears here.

It was such a shame we couldn’t license Lorez Alexandra’s ‘Baltimore Oriole’ as the mix out of Link with the pitched down ending melody over it and then into Art of Noise’s ‘Moments In Love’ is just delicious. Another, err, moment occurs out of the AON and into Vangelis’ ‘Let It Happen, originally slated to be the closer but replaced by Faze-O’s ‘Riding High’ on the final CD. The final section here was a proposed end selection I made which was vetoed for the mix coupling Coldcut’s ‘Autumn Leaves’ acappella with Air’s ‘Modular Mix’ and a lot of delay action. Following this is 10cc’s classic, ‘I’m Not In Love’ beautifully sliding into ‘Moments In Love’, the former I’m convinced of which was some sort of inspiration for the latter. The chord change as they mix together is another moment for me but the others weren’t having it, 10cc were just too uncool. The telephone message that ends the mix was left for me by Dom Smith, another Ninja Tune office employee (and now manager of Flying Lotus, Thundercat and the Cinematic Orchestra), in response to my answerphone containing a snatch of Missy Elliot’s ‘Beep Me 911’ at the time.

Part 2
Blackalicious – Alphabet Aerobics
Four Tet – Glasshead
Camping Gaz & Digi Random – Circus World
Sunship – Cheque One, Two
Herbie Hancock – Nobu
Link – Arcadian
Lorez Alexandra – Baltimore Oriole
Art of Noise – Moments in Love
Boards of Canada – The Colour of the Fire
Vangelis – Let it Happen
Air – Modular Mix
Coldcut – Autumn Leaves (acappella)
10cc – I’m Not in Love
Art of Noise – Moments in Love

MS73 PRS

Mixcloud Select 73: DJ Food & DK – Now, Listen Solid Steel Director’s Cut Pt.1 17/10/2001

MS73 Disc 20 years ago PC, DK and I presented a unique extended cut of our new Solid Steel mix as the CD was released and we were about to embark on a US tour with Four Tet and Bonobo to support it. This gave us an opportunity to retool the mix and add many parts originally up for consideration but not included for various reasons of time, flow or licensing restrictions. The devastating events of 9/11 the week before meant that the idea of including DJ Vadim’s ‘The Terrorist’ acappella was now firmly out of the window and this was replaced by Missy’s ‘Get Ur Freak On for the tour. In this mix it’s replaced with a selection of interview snippets PC had recorded from a round of pre-tour interviews.

Solid Steel Now Listen 150

In the original mix incarnation we had a section by Ollie Teeba from The Herbaliser as a guest (there was an idea that this would come out as an all-star affair with the Ninja Tune 10th anniversary Xen Cuts compilation originally but it wasn’t finished in time). Ollie’s section was added back in as well as many other ideas and additions that got cut in the final edit. Licensing problems meant that we couldn’t get loads of these like Vangelis (had fallen out with his label), Pharaoh Monch (big Godzilla sample they were being sued over) and Sesame Street were unhappy with their track being used next to rap tracks. This ended up being a godsend as their ‘Pinball Number Count’ would have settled near to DJ Vadim’s track and possibly scuppered the whole release. As it was we released it later as a standalone track and it was all the better for it.

The Jeru / Cinematic / DJ Shadow / Ken Nordine mix I used to do on my opening sets for Kid Koala and Amon Tobin during 2000 and Pharaoh Monch’s ‘Simon Says’ scratched into The Addams Family Theme was a little thing I used to do in my DJ sets and we overlaid the original to labour the point for this mix. Sabu Martinez made it into the mix and got extended with a couple of other tracks for a really uptempo part.

The Boards of Canada meet Grandmaster Flash long form mash up was a staple of my club sets around this time with the payoff coming when Melle Mel’s verse comes in as the track takes off. Blending perfectly into Ollie Teeba’s set of old school hip hop, breaks and Herbaliser tracks, this section didn’t make it as I think we changed directions as it wasn’t ready for the 10th anniversary and the Solid Steel mix CD series was formed out of that idea with The Herbaliser doing the third entry. Another Boards track after Pinball Number Count was probably way too much but the counting and children subject matter made it fit as well as the perfect tempo to introduce Blackalicious’ ‘Alphabet Aerobics’ which will kick off part 2 next week…

MS73 PRS

Part 1
Jeru Tha Damaja – Come Clean
The Cinematic Orchestra  – Channel 1 Suite
Neotropic – Beached
DJ Shadow – Changeling
Ken Nordine – Looks Like It’s Gonna Rain
Mr Scruff – Ug
The Grooverobbers feat. DJ Shadow – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Pharoah Monch – Simon Says (instr)
Sabu Martinez – Hotel Alyssa-Soussie, Tunisia
Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling
Grandmaster Flash – The Message
Jazzy Jay – Cold Chillin’ In the Spot
Wildstyle Brakebeats – Gangbusters
Creators – Hard Margin (instr)
The Herbaliser feat Bahamadia – When I Shine (acappella)
The Nextmen – Mental Alchemy (instr)
The Herbaliser feat Latyrx – 8 pt Agenda (accapella)
Slick Rick – It’s a Boy (remix Instr)
Common – Resurrection
The Herbaliser – Shocker Zulu
Walt Kraemer feat. The Pointer Sisters – Pinball Number Count
Boards of Canada – Aquarius

Mixcloud Select 72: Strictly’s New Year Homework Pt.1 10/01/1999

MS72 NY homework BoxRecorded over the Xmas break of ’98/99 (where PC and I went to LA to play at a disastrous New Year party which ended in multiple hospitalisations from a bad drugs batch and police shut down). This sounds like a live set recorded at home, possibly on three decks and is full of contemporary electronica, jazz, library and that end of the millennium weirdness where there wasn’t any dominant scene happening.
A blast of Tape Beatles opens before The Karminsky Experience Inc. and Dynamic Syncopation bring the fast breaks and soundtrack vibes in. People were increasingly becoming interested in OSTs and library tracks at the end of the 90s with lots of bootlegs and a few licensed comps floating around. Air‘s ambient classic on Fax continued this but in a more downtempo vein, not to be confused with the French band of the same name despite using a French title, this was a Pete Namlook alias.
Bruce Haack’s ‘Word Game’ beams in, completely from another galaxy with its chugging Moog groove, only to be superseded by Grooverider‘s excellent ‘Where’s Jack The Ripper’. I felt D’n’B was going through a dull patch at the time with all the dark No U-Turn type stuff not really floating my boat but this had that funk to it that had been lost over the last few years. The Boards of Canada Peel Sessions were out and they always got a lot of love from me on the show so I couldn’t resist halving the tempo and then mixing Grooverider in again over ‘Aquarius’. Followed is Slag Boom Van Loon‘s ‘Poppy Seed’, a track Boards would soon remix for the Planet Mu label.

Part 2 next week!

The Tape Beatles – Intro
The Karminsky Experience Inc. – The Hip Sheik
Dynamic Syncopation – Closer To The Line
Air – Je Suis Triste Et Seul Ici
Bruce Haack – Word Game
Grooverider – Where’s Jack the Ripper
Boards of Canada – Aquarius
Slag Boom Van Loon – Poppy Seed
The Tape Beatles – Outro

Mixcloud Select 71: Strictly Kev – Solid Steel Final BBC LDN show (edit) 21/10/2002

MS71 CD Here’s a silly little set from the last show we broadcast on Radio LDN, part of the BBC network, on a Monday nights in the early 00’s.
BBC London could never make up it’s mind around the turn of the millennium; after 18 years of being BBC Radio London and another 12 of Greater London Radio (GLR) they decided to switch to BBC London Live just as we joined the station in 2000. A year later and they changed it again to BBC LDN and then further to BBC London around the time they got rid of most of their specialist programmes in favour of talk radio.

We were part of this cull along with other DJs like Ross Allen and Dr Bob Jones and it came out of the blue, one week we were on, the next we had one show left. I found out from another presenter who casually mentioned “sorry to hear about your show”, whilst I was covering for the others solo one time. Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she realised her faux pas and explained that the station had axed all but two of their late night specialist music shows in favour of a more talk based radio station. We had one week’s grace and that was it but we really made use of that week…

But let’s start with how we came to be on the BBC in the first place: after leaving KISS in Feb ’99 (before we were pushed – big changes were ahead) Solid Steel set up home online, streamed via the Ninja Tune homepage every week, still maintaining it’s 2 hour format, uncertain as to how many people were listening. With DK now firmly in the producers chair, syndications to overseas stations had been instigated and we were looking around for a ‘home’ on a London station. There was a pilot show for GLR on 27/06/99 but the first regular slot was 27/03/2000, the week the station relaunched as BBC London Live. We had a midnight until 2am slot on a Monday night which suited us fine, no playlist, minimal fuss or bother from the powers that be and a proper studio to broadcast from.

The big drawback was that the studio was more geared to CDJing than turntable mixing and the decks there were more of an afterthought than an integral part of the set up. Out went the live mixing and in came the pre-prepared, home studio mixed sets, something that did no end of good for the quality control threshold but which sounds odd at times when listening back as we had to leave instrumental gaps for talking and tracklists in the selection. Another revelation was no adverts other than the occasional station sting for an upcoming event or show – yes! More uninterrupted mixes and less stop / start nonsense.

Initially we took over after Ross Allen‘s Destination Out show which was perfect as we caught a lot of his audience but he moved on to two separate nights of the week as his star rose. Generally two of us would present the show live whilst playing that week’s selection of mixes and we also had the means to take calls for competitions where we gave away tickets to shows or CDs in return for answers to ridiculously easy multiple choice questions. The BBC had a full online streaming web presence too so we were beamed live worldwide and, on occasion, we got calls from overseas for the competitions, including one from New Zealand! Being ‘on the BBC’ also afforded us instant credibility when asking for high profile interviews and both David Axelrod and Herbie Hancock were recorded using their facilities.

MS71 PRS

But all good things must come to a (tr)end and 21/10/2002 was the last show we did at the station, but we weren’t going out without making a statement and Matt, Jon, DK and I were all determined to make it one to remember. I kicked things off with plenty of loaded spoken word and songs aimed at the Beeb – Has It Come To This?,  It’s All Over Now,  The Show Must Go On, Fool If You Think It’s Over, It’s Just Begun – you get the idea. I must apologise firstly for the cheesiness of some of the tracks (a worrying amount of Queen) but mostly for the tuning on some of the mixes – oh my ears! This recording is the original studio mix without talking, not the live broadcast with the ridiculous competitions, shout outs and studio banter. I’ve actually edited this down as some of the tracks really laboured the point and some were in there for us to talk over so sound odd without it. Plus there’s a Stones track in there and Charlie Watts died this week (RIP).

After this (but not included here) Matt turned in a storming old school ultimate breaks and beats cut up using the Street Beat compilations in Ableton Live. Jon waded in with possibly the first BBC jingle and presented a set of mashed up hip hop acappellas, ending with Monty Python‘s phone in sketch. DK ran through some of the show favourites from the last few years, the tracks getting the most plays from the variety of DJs over the course of our tenure, flagged up some of the high profile jingles we’d recorded and ended appropriately with The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ as the final word. It was sad to go but we had no choice and it wasn’t as painful as the KISS departure because we had the internet support fully set up by this time, still it was great to be part of the BBC for a while.

Track list:
The Streets – Has It Come To This? (Hi Contrast Remix)
The Who – My Generation
The Rollings Stones – It’s All Over Now
RJD2 – The Final Frontier
Queen – The Show Must Go On
Mr Guder – Super Guder Breaks 3
Chris Rea – Fool If You Think It’s Over
Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun
Studio Housten – It’s Not Right But It’s OK
Blackalicious – Chemical Calathenics
DJ Food – Turtle Soup (Wagon Christ Remix)
Geoff Muldaur – Brazil
The Carpenters – It’s Only Just Begun
Joni Mitchell – Parking Lot
Jackson 5 – Never Can Say Goodbye

Mixcloud Select 70 – Strictly’s Childhood Faves 30/11/00

MS70 CD This is an odd one because the first 10 minutes or so is an involved multi-layered affair with 2 or 3 tracks overlaid simultaneously in a way that would be virtually impossible with turntables. I can only assume that this section was an early idea for the first Solid Steel mix CD, Now, Listen.
The Aphex Twin/ DJ Food combo is frustratingly slightly out of time at the start and the tuning is a bit off too. Neotropic’s ‘Beached’ is in there and the only track to make it to the aforementioned mix CD and works well with Aphex and the Orb remix of Material ‘Mantra’ although it’s a long, laboured mix and wouldn’t have stood up on the CD. Cornershop’s ‘Easy Winners’ part 1 is such a killer beat, I remember Kid Koala in particular used to cut two copies of this up. It doesn’t quite work with the sombre tone of Neotropic in the background but Mantra rumbles along nicely in there.
After this section we get into some contemporary releases of the day with Andy Votel’s ‘November’ from his and Cherrystones’ excellent 10” EP ‘The Amazing Transplant’. A tempo switch mid-track see the unlikely addition of Hijack’s ‘The Badman Is Robbin’ but one I’m sure Andy would appreciate as it bridges the Cherrystones track from the same EP and they compliment each other for a while. A track from the lone Papa Blue EP on PUU features, still a lost classic and so beautiful and this is another 3 tracks at once mix which makes me think there may have been some computer overdubs going on. Back into another Votel/Cherrystones track and then the mallet instruments continue with Syd Dale’s excellent theme to Screen Test, ‘Marching There & Back’ on Trunk. Incidentally there’s a fabulous compilation album just out celebrating 25 years of the label which is pretty essential if you’re a fan of all things Trunk-related.
Continuing the wacky theme tunes that no doubt gave this mix its name we have an odd 7” on Acupuncture from around this time by Black Lodge that chopped up the ‘Pink Elephants On Parade’ song from Pinocchio to good effect. I think this was the first release on the label and was associated with a shop of the same name, Black Lodge went on to release material in the dying days on Mo Wax. The final track is 9 Lazy 9’s ‘Brothers of the Red’ overlaid with a fictitious listings read by an unknown narrator from Chris Morris’ Blue Jam album and still stands up although who could have predicted that Cerys from Catatonia would end up as a DJ?MS70 PRS

Track list:
Aphex Twin – Untitled
DJ Food – The Sky At Night
Material – Mantra (Preying Mantra Orb remix)
Neotropic – Beached
Cornershop – Easy Winners part1
Andy Votel – November
Hijack – The Badman is Robbin’
Cherrystones – A Pattern Emerges
Papa Blue – Luna En La Pampa
Andy Votel + Cherrystones – A Pattern Emerges
Syd Dale – Marching There & Back (Screen Test Theme)
Black Lodge – Pink Elephants On Parade
Chris Morris – Club News (9 Lazy 9 – Brothers of the Red)