Mixes/Solid Steel

Coming this Friday to Solid Steel…

Beck YoDelay

Last week, DJ‘s Cheeba & Moneyshot finished their deconstruction of Beck’s album, ‘Odelay’, which celebrated it’s 20th anniversary on June 18th. As he plays Glastonbury this coming weekend, Solid Steel will premiere the mix on Friday 24th, entitled, ‘Yo! Delay’. A long time in the making, it’s over an hour of the LP broken down into samples, interview snippets, scratch routines and more, in the same way our ‘Caught In The Middle of a Three-Way Mix’ did with the Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ a few years back.

Lucky enough to hear it before the public, I stuck it on and we had a message session via Facebook, below are some of my (edited) comments as I listened for the first time…

you get a Devil’s Haircut acappella?
is that the Stones with the guitar riff?
mad JB cover there
I reckon Beck might thank you for not putting the track list out there
This is great guys
oh that New Pollution sax break is great
Oh Lee Michaels! – you have that album? Killer
I hope you got Mantronix into Where It’s At?
There she blows!
hairs on the back of the neck moment
Anyone ever do a porno with whales called ‘There she blows’ Roy?
ah this is f**king great guys, I’m grinning
This extended freakout bit with samples and spoken cuts is redefining the mix guys – insane
oh! Dick Hyman!
f**k guys, mix of the year so far
A few people are going to have their dreams shattered though – “I thought Beck wrote that!”
make a little commentary to go with it, the first real time mix commentary – you could break down what you did?
Well, guys – mix of the year so far, you nailed it, didn’t want it to end – well done

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Cavern of Anti-Matter Solid Steel mix

I totally forgot to post this last weekend as I was away. After their storming gig in London in February I asked Tim Gane from COAM if he’d be up for a Solid Steel mix for us. Not only did he say yes but he delivered two exclusive hour long mixes titled ‘Whiteout Mix’ and ‘Blackout mix’ that parallel each other with some of the same artists appearing on both hours. As a result we gave the whole of last week’s show over to him.

“An abstracted trawl through some prized recordings. Music can be like a fever dream with no rational interpretations possible and all these tracks have given me that rush. Over the years they have shown me the door and window to another kind of sound and new forms of composition and an endless collage of possibility.Totally shocking listening to these tracks again and putting the mix together. I have included one of my own mess about loops from about 8 or 9 years ago.”

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The Comet Is Coming Solid Steel mix


The Comet Is Coming celebrate the release of their debut album Channel The Spirits on The Leaf Label, King Shabaka, aka Shabaka Hutchings (also of Sons Of Kemet and Melt Yourself Down) drops his first mixtape with a quality selection of music personal to him.

“I’ve never done a mixtape before so when asked to do this I immediately though back to my favourite DJs and what their selections did for me. I love it when I hear massive leaps in genre during a set which seem to make sense despite all the odds and retain a trajectory of intensity. Immediately I think of Gaslamp Killer who I toured with last year and was able to see him do his thing up close, and Ntone Edjabe who is a DJ extraordinaire based in Cape Town. These are all tunes that have meant a lot to me at various points in my life so it’s interesting for me to see the narrative which connects them.”

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Near Mint show Pt.1 & 45 Live Show mix


For all those who won’t see the updated posts further down the feed; here’s last night’s new Resonance FM show, Near Mint, that I featured on with some highlights of my collection. Plus here’s the 45Live Radio Show I had an all-45s guest mix slot on with Greg Belson last Friday night/Saturday morning on Dublab.

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Researching the Ramm.Ell.Zee

RAMM_Will_IanRAMM_DrZuluRacer2

Last week I played at the opening of the ‘Cosmic Flush’ exhibition in London at the Magda Danysz Gallery. The contents of which celebrated the work and life of Rammellzee, the MC and artist who passed away in 2010. Instigated by the Gamma Proforma label, it was full of art from the new album and attended by a who’s who of the leftfield art scene. Pieces by Futura 2000, Kofie 1, She One, Will Barras, Dan Lish and Poesia sat with art from three of Ramm’s crew: Doze Green, Ian Kuali’i and one of Dr Zulu‘s Lego letter racers. There were also life-size cut-outs of Rammellzee in full battle gear by Will Barras with backgrounds by O.Two.

RAMM_OTwoRAMM_Futura

The exhibition will run until 22nd December. The gallery is open daily from 11am-7pm, closed Mondays.
You can buy the seven releases that make up the ‘Cosmic Flush’ album from Gamma’s online store.

During the run up to the exhibition opening The Quietus website premiered a piece I’d written about Ramm which you can read in full here. It featured a previously unseen image by Timothy Saccenti, made in collaboration with Rammellzee, for a photo session they did in 2005. Here’s another unpublished image from the same time and I’m incredibly grateful to Timothy for letting me use these great images for the piece.

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At the opening I played an all-Rammellzee set including a new mix I made for Solid Steel celebrating his musical career. The object was to map an aural history of Rammellzee‘s recorded output, in roughly chronological order, to showcase his music, theories and wordplay for those who wondered what all the adulation and legendary status was about. Take a trip from the early 80s up to the present day, through Ramm’s intricate, confusing, yet always unique recording career from his old school origins through to his final masterpiece.

As an addition to The Quietus piece, for which I had way too many images, here’s an extended look at some of his releases over the years. Going back to the beginning, want to see Profile Records‘ original master tape of the ‘Beat Bop’ single? It was recently unearthed by Noah Uman and given a proper reissue after countless bootlegs over the years. Originals now go for triple figures, but here’s the no frills master tape box that was taken from Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s original reel.
Beat Bop Master tape frontBeat Bop Master tape back

Here’s the Slinky Gym School single he featured on in 1983

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The 1985 Death Comet Crew 12″ on Beggars Banquet 

Ramm DCCfrontRamm DCCbackThe Gettovets album with Shock Dell and Delta II, produced by Material on 4th & Broadway in the late 80s
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RammGhettovetsbackRammGhettovetsdetail

Whilst researching the mix I came across some beautiful sleeve artwork from the various Japanese-only albums and DVD releases in the 00s. Some of these were news to me but well worth tracking down.
Ramm Japanx3Ramm discRamm Japanx32

 

Posted in Design, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music, Records. | 1 Comment | Tags: ,

DJ Food ‘Music On A Shoestring’ mix [Psychonavigation 2000 – 2015]

MusicOnAShoetringHere’s the details for the Psychonavigation Records 2000-2015 mix CD I’ve just finished: 23 tracks from the 45 track ‘Music On A Shoestring’ digital compilation, mixed by yours truly into a 74 minute head trip. Here’s an online stream of the mix in full, see what you think…

If ambient electronica, deep space dub, classical piano and acoustic pieces are your thing then this is for you.
Some names you might recognise from the line up: The Future Sound of London, Autechre, Brian Eno, Alex Paterson, Thomas Fehlmann, Dr Atmo, Spacetime Continuum…
It was very hard to fit all the tracks I wanted onto one disc as the hit rate on the compilation is so high, my original wishlist was 35 of the 45 tracks. You can pre-order the mix CD here or buy the full digital compilation for only €10(!), selected by label boss Keith Downey from the last 15 years of releases. I can’t convey how many beautiful tracks are on this comp and all for €10 is an absolute steal, some of them are available to preview on the Bandcamp page right now.

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45 Live Radio Show on Dublab.com starts Nov 2015

45 Live Radio ShowWe’re excited to announce a brand new radio show broadcasting live out of Los Angeles CA, on Friday 6th November, 8pm US PST (4am UK GMT) on the legendary Dublab.com featuring the entire 45 Live Crew!

‘The 45 Live Radio Show’ will be on air bi-monthly which will fall on the first and third Friday of each month. Your host will be soul, funk & gospel connoisseur DJ Greg Belson, and it’ll feature a guest on a rotational basis from the 45 Live elite (full roster here if you want to know who will be featured).

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DJ Food meets Ambigraph – Dune AV mix

Last Saturday (Sept 12th) I played an hour long set after a showing of ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ documentary at one of the FEAST film nights in West Norwood’s Portico Gallery. During the mix the audience were greeted with a film of the slowly evolving, geometric designs of Ambigraph aka Ameet Hindocha.
Night co-ordinator Pete Williams recorded the mix and Ameet has reworked his visuals to accompany it in an hour long, meditative soundscape where all tracks are sourced from releases connected with Frank Herbert‘s most famous novel. *I recommend viewing in HD, probably late at night with the lights off.

Dune Screening
Over the decades many artists have been inspired by this work and there are many concept albums built around themes from his books. As well as Toto‘s score for David Lynch‘s big screen adaptation there’s also music from the forthcoming soundtrack to the documentary I mentioned and tunes from Bernard Szajner‘s ‘Visions of Dune’ release among others.

4xDune

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The Tracks Go Off In This Direction… a Star Wars mix

topps star wars cardweb
Finally, after a long hiatus, I’ve managed a new mix, and a audio visual one at that. The school summer holidays are a killer creatively when you have kids to attend to but now that the little ones are back to the 9-3.30 I’m back in gear. Something else that’s been occupying my time this summer, since May to be precise, is Secret Cinema‘s production of The Empire Strikes Back that I’ve been playing at in various locations and guises since it opened. Last night was my last gig, sound-tracking the Cantina Bar post-film with the run finishing completely in two weeks.

SWSC poster
To say it’s been an experience is an understatement and it’s one I will cherish forever as it is like nothing else out there. If you were one of the thousands who attended then you’ll know what I’m talking about and I’ll do a full post about my time there in a few weeks time when it’s closed as I don’t want to spoil things for those yet to go. But to commemorate the end of my run I’ve put together this 30 minute Star Wars-themed mix, complete with a video accompaniment, featuring some of the songs I played in amongst the rest of the themed tunes selected for the different areas.


Titled ‘The Tracks Go Off In This Direction…’ it follows the hunt for the Droids as songs and styles from the SW canon get progressively more random. It’s all Star Wars, plenty of which you will have seen and heard before, but I like to think I’ve dug a little and unearthed some hidden gems that might not be as familiar as Meco‘s ubiquitous disco-fied Star Wars Theme.

Rico - Ska Wars

For example: Rico Rodriguez, The Specials‘ trombonist who recently passed away, released a cover version called ‘Ska Wars’ (what else?) in 1977 on Island records which I’ve included as a tribute. Dickie Goodman, creator of the infamous UFO ‘break-in’ records’ made a ‘Star Warts’ 45 to cash in the same year, I’ve included a later (better) version and several cuts from Herbie Hancock‘s modular synth sidekick, Dr Patrick Gleeson‘s analogue Star Wars album.

Rave Wars disc
It’s not all period covers though, there’s plenty of modern day Hip Hop, Rave and Techno from the likes of AGT Rave Cru, Mark Archer, DJ Shadow and all manner of, shall we say, ‘copyright infringing’ releases under pseudonyms. At the start of the Secret Cinema run, when they also ran a separate satellite Cantina Club in Hoxton, I made a ton of video clips to go with tracks for a one-off AV performance and some of the work I put into those has found its way into the video mix. With a property like Star Wars this is a red flag to a bull so how long it will stay up is anyone’s guess. Grab it while you can…  UPDATE – Sorry folks, I’ve been asked to take it down…  back up!

Posted in DJ Food, Film, Mixes/Solid Steel, Star Wars. | 10 Comments | Tags:

Coldcut ‘Journeys By DJ’ 20 Years on by Joe Clay on the Quietus

quietus_coldcut-70minutescropJoe Clay interviewed Coldcut, PC and myself back in January for a 20th anniversary piece about the making of ‘Seventy Minutes of Madness’, Coldcut‘s contribution to the Journeys By DJ series back in 1995. It seems crazy that this was two decades ago now but time flies when you’re having fun. It’s a pretty extensive delve into the circumstances and techniques involved in the creation of what they’re calling ‘the greatest DJ mix album of all time’ *blushes*.
This piece also reveals why Coldcut never made a follow up but highlights the logical successor to the mix and kicks off a series on the Quietus where writers pick their favourite mixes. Incidentally the photo above was taken in Japan around 1996/7, back stage with DJ Takemura before a gig. If you’ve never heard the mix before or fancy a refresher after reading then someone called GarethisOnit has put it up on Soundcloud as part of a Classic Mix CD Series he’s creating.

 

Posted in DJ Food, Mixes/Solid Steel, Music. | 4 Comments |

United States of Audio ‘A History of the KLF’

USA23.2webOn the 23rd anniversary of The KLF retiring from the music industry, deleting all their back catalogue (and later vowing 23 years of silence), comes this new mix from United States of Audio. He’s assembled a chronological trip through the band’s history from underground bedroom samplers to Stadium House pop overlords.

As ever with USofA’s mixes it’s perfectly threaded together with interview snippets that tell the tale (listen out for how they build ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ sample by sample at one point). If you don’t know their story then jump in and if you do then all hail the Mu Mu, The Timelords and the Kings of Low Frequency and wonder where that 23 years went.KLF_exit NMEad

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Brand new Solid Steel website by antipattern

SSSite_Featured
We have a brand new Solid Steel website, built for us by antipattern, which finally does all the things we wanted it to do with the vast archive of mixes we’ve accumulated from the last 27 years. We’re very pleased with the results as the site is full of easy to navigate touches that leave plenty of room for a gallery of artwork and photography to grace your desktop, tablet or phone whilst you listen.

Here’s a quick walk through: (above) Main landing page with Featured mixes bar on the right – just tap Featured to close it. (Below) Once a mix is selected just hit play on the Solid Steel logo on the left, you can jump through the mix once it’s loaded or pause by tapping the logo again. Click Tracklist to open a side bar with a scrollable tracklist.
SSSite_Tracklist

SSSite_Tracklist

(Above) Click the Synopsis tab to bring up details of the mix plus a link to Soundcloud where you can find the mixes and leave a comment or download. (Below) If you fancy finding an old mix there are several ways of accessing them: the good old Search button in the middle of the three top left circles or the Timeline button next to it which brings up a new graphic showing the decades from 1988 to the present.

SSSite_Timeline
SSSite_Year_weeks

(Above) Click the Year you want and a side bar will appear with a scrollable list of all the shows from that date. You can also then scroll vertically through the years too. (Below) Finally there’s an A-Z directory down at the bottom left so that you can see if an artist you love has contributed a mix to the show, hit the name and all their mixes will appear in a scrollable side bar.
SSsite_-Z
Big thanks again to Suki and Paul at antipattern, go visit their new site, DK for producing the whole project and Tom and James at Ninja for the behind the scenes help.

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The final 3-Way Mix tonight at the Funk & Soul Club


Above was filmed at the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art in St. Petersburg earlier this year, check around the 1 minute mark for the stage-diver :)
Tonight DJ Cheeba, DJ Moneyshot and I retire the ‘3-Way Mix’ live set as part of the line up at the Funk & Soul Club at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. It’s been 18 months since we debuted it in Paris and since then we’ve toured it across Europe, to Russia, Canada and Australia, adding a full video component as we went. The 25th anniversary of the ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album it’s based on has come and gone and the third anniversary of MCA‘s death fast approaches. Time to put it to rest and move on…

3-Way Mix LDN poster

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Last performance of the 3-Way Mix in London, April 17th

3-Way Mix LDN posterDJ Cheeba, Moneyshot and I are putting our 4 deck, 3 DJ reconstruction of the Beastie Boys‘ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ album to bed for the foreseeable future on April 17th at the Funk & Soul Club in London. We feel that it’s done it’s job and we want to end it 18 months after it’s premiere and just 2 weeks short of the anniversary of MCA’s death on May 4th. We’ll have the full AV set up for this gig and Moneyshot’s other group, The Allergies, are also on the bill amongst others with Mixmaster Morris playing the second room as well. It’s at the Electric Ballroom, Camden and tickets are £8 advance.

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‘Future Shock 2’ mix for Solid Steel

A new mix I did back in January has finally come to the top of the pile for Solid Steel. ‘Future Shock 2’ is the follow up to last summer’s first outing of retro electronica and future beats. This was completed just as Edgar Froese passed away at the end of January and I went back to it to include a track and interview snippets in tribute to him. Sadly it’s been waiting in the queue for a spot on the show for two months so the moment has gone plus we’ve lost other greats or equal importance since but that’s what comes with popularity and the show has been going from strength to strength over the last couple of years.

The first 10 minutes of this took an age to get right but it’s one of the most satisfying slow build intros I think I’ve ever sequenced, the pacing and layers unfold in a way that’s hard to engineer often. From then it’s a measured climb into harder and heavier waters until we hit Mark Moore & William Orbit‘s remix of ‘The Future’ by Prince. In fact there are many builds and breakdowns in this mix but of the slow burn variety rather than the euphoric kind, I’d imagine it’d be pretty good to drive to at night.

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