Funki Porcini returns to Coventry’s Commonground for a week-long residency from Nov 25th to Dec 2nd. This is his new show, The Laserium, which I had the pleasure of seeing debut at this very venue last year and also was a support act for at Iklectik recently. The set has come a long way since it was first in Coventry and was amazing in London last month. Go see it if you can. Tickets here
Heading back to mid 1995 this week for a fine selection of trip hop, drum (drill?) n bass, retro lounge, ambience and more. I realised that the ’96 / ’97 uploads have been thin on the ground and have spent some time digitising cassettes as well as doing some general housekeeping on the 125 previous uploads. This takes a lot longer than the CDs as all the track lists have to be done by ear as very little exists pre-’97. I’m probably about half way through the tapes and 3/4s through the CDrs by now, still a way to go. Finding some gems though.
I wish I knew what the first track in this set was, a jumble of spoken word about possession, Satan, burning records etc. Perfect for one of my religious mixes, if anyone knows, please leave a comment. Wagon Christ’s superb remix of Moloko’s ‘Lotus Eater’ is taken from the Further Self Evident Truths 3 compilation on Rising High, a fantastic comp with barely a bad track on it. Just love the creeping intro on this, the strings, chopped up beats and hand claps, just amazing. The Gentle People were amazing too, such a curveball for RePhLeX, those soaring strings… ‘Emotion Heater’ isn’t quite up to their debut, ‘Journey’, but has aged very well.
Conrad Schnitzler swoops in with ‘Electric Garden’ from his Con LP, a track that Mixmaster Morris hipped me to a few years before, sounding as fresh now as back then and it’s 45 years old next year! ‘Squarepusher Theme’ barges into proceedings, doing what only Tom Jenkinson can do in a frantic five minutes before we exhale for The Orb’s Peel Session version of ‘O.O.B.E.’ Odd that I put Squarepusher between Conrad and The Orb, these days common sense would tell me not to but I suppose it does mix in time. Ethik’s ‘Moral Sculpture’ is one of those tracks I instantly know but can never remember the name of and comes from a great 1993 album, ‘Music For Stock Exchange’ – reissued a couple of years back on Kompakt.
It’s nice to know that I was playing Andy Votel right from the beginning, his left field, wonky take on sample collage has always appealed. ‘Spooky Driver’ comes from his debut 12” on Grand Central – then just billed as VOTEL. Careering out this is JG Thirlwell at the wheel of a sonic juggernaut under his Steroid Maximus moniker from the ‘Gondwanaland’ album. His cover of Raymond Scott’s ‘Powerhouse’ has all the industrial (sorry, Jim) bombast you’d expect from the master of disaster. I remember Jon More rolling his eyes at this one as some of my more over the top choices weren’t always to his taste (‘it’s an un-easy listening sound’). In hindsight he could probably hear all the late night listeners switching off or over. The sudden end wrong-footed me (it was only on CD) and we get a snatch of the next track, ‘Homeo’ before submerging into Funki Porcini’s gorgeous ‘Going Down’ from his second album for Ninja Tune, ‘Love, Pussycats & Carwrecks’. Calm is restored as we ‘whinge on into the night’ as Jonathan puts it.
Track list:
Unknown – Possessed intro
Moloko – Lotus Eater (Wagon Christ remix)
The Gentle People – Emotion Heater (Instrumental Mix Parts I,II,III)
Conrad Schnitzler – Electric Garden
Squarepusher – Squarepusher Theme
The Orb – O.O.B.E. (John Peel Session)
Ethik – Moral Sculpture
Andy Votel – Spooky Driver
Steroid Maximus – Powerhouse!
Steroid Maximus – Homeo
Funki Porcini – Going Down
Some images of a vintage Yellow Submarine mobile I stumbled across whilst looking for something else on the web. Not all the pieces are shown sadly. Manufactured in 1968 by Sunshine Art Studios, Inc. There’s an amazing website with images of loads of original Yellow Submarine memorabilia here.
It’s been a packed week… Saturday was Jonny Trunk‘s Groovy Record Fayre at the Mildmay Club (see more of that here) and a great time was had. Nursing a hangover and then a cold through the week I managed to catch the end of Stephen Coates‘ ‘Bone Music‘ book launch at the Horse Hospital and see the extraordinary Rain Time exhibition at the same time, ending up in the pub with the authors and making more connections that will unravel over time. There’s been more press to do for my Wheels of Light book, published by Four Corners Books, some of which is hitting the shelves this week in the form of Moonbuilding issue 2 and the latest Shindig! magazine. A podcast for the Bureau of Lost Culture should debut this Sunday (Nov 5th) about the book and light show culture in general (if we finish it in time). In between I managed to design a zoetrope for an Australian TV show, finish the artwork for an anniversary Ninja Tune release which will be announced soon and see Michael Rother live at the Clapham Grand last night.
I was slightly non-plussed by a lot of it, the highlight being a storming Harmonia track early in the set. New Order’s Stephen Morris and the right honourable Paul Weller were guests for the encore and Stephen looked like he was having trouble approximating Klaus Dinger‘s motorik beat. Weller seemed to either be having trouble with his guitar or looking to Rother for cues whilst the latter was head down, deep in his immaculate guitar playing, only looking up in the final bar to signal that this was the end. My judgement may have been clouded by the cold currently consuming my head though. The postman has just delivered an odd package of vintage light show wheel ephemera from my friend John at Funky Parrot (see above). Since publishing the book all sorts of people have been coming out of the woodwork with related facts and pieces connected with the light show world. If you’re such a person or know someone in that field, please get in touch, there’s still more work to do in that area.
On to this week’s show…
A really old one here, from an original show with PC and I on the decks and Jon More on the mic. I’ve snipped PC’s part out and sent it to him so here are the two of mine joined at around the 25 min mark. The first section makes me want to up my game, there are so many bits and pieces weaving in and out of the mix in places it’s a nightmare to track mark them (yes I try and track mark all my uploads in Mixcloud so that you can find out what’s playing more easily – you did know that, right?). This is still so early that I’m referred to as Kevin from Openmind but the Strictly Kev moniker wasn’t far round the corner and I’m still in chill out mode for the most part.
Kicking off with two Solid Steel jingles we’re into a short Mika Vainio track from his debut album ‘Metri’ on Sahko with those gorgeous pure high frequency notes before drifting into a Woodentops B side. Rolo McGinty intones, bathed in much reverb for the Late Night version of ‘You Make Me Feel’. I swear there’s a bit of Cocteau’s creeping into the mix before Beautyon’s mesmeric ‘To Swing Pil’ enters with a ton of extra electronic sounds of whose origins I’ve no clue. ‘Moist Moss’ is the choir-like piece that originates from Mark Van-Hoen’s Weathered Well album under his Locust moniker, why isn’t he remembered more in the IDM halls of fame? The recall is patchy on the next one and Shazam is no help when things are this layered up. There might be some Air Liquide in there, or something from the Reflective label, it’s so hard to tell and this was nearly 30 years ago. This must have been done on multiple CDs and vinyl at the KISS FM studio as well as Coldcut adding occasional jingles.
An uncharacteristic electronic beat track from Scanner’s Mass Observation release enters before a gorgeous Andrew Poppy track from his second album for ZTT, Alphabed (A Mystery Dance). I found Andrew through my love of ZTT back in the 80s and when ambient and chill out came around his music seemed perfect to slip in (the stuff that wasn’t based around Reich’s minimalism that is). I played ‘Goodbye Mr G.’ to my mum once and it seemed to intensely annoy her as she had no handle on its structure or when it began or ended. I know Andrew a little now which is very weird and he’s still making music, releasing an album, ‘Jelly’ recently.
An old faithful, ‘Plight’ from David Sylvian and Holger Czkay’s ‘Plight & Premonition’, slides in and was a staple of my ambient sets for years. It’s a dark but beautiful piece of world building with found sound and snatches of instruments and radio interference that serves as a bridge or overlay to anything. Path were one of the first bands I ever designed a label or sleeve for and their debut single, ‘Pleasant’ rounds out the mix. There is an odd edit right near the end that slices us into a snatch of Sheila Chandra with Jon reading out something about a fund-raising event but I’m not sure what happened there as it came from a batch of digitisations I made years ago.
The second half of the mix is mostly based on the entirety of The Irresistible Force’s 20 minute ’Mountain High (live)’ track, the final side of his debut LP, Flying High. Woven into this ambient masterpiece are a quick blast of ‘Bhaja Mana Hure’ from the Radha Krsna Temple and a couple of beat tracks including Up, Bustle & Out’s ‘Nightwalk’ and La Funk Mob’s ‘Motor Bass Gets Phunked Up’ which slips and slides in and out of time for a few moments here and there. It sounds like I’m constantly chasing it in the mix. Slivers of Tony ‘Moody Boys’ Thorpe’s Voyager track ‘Arrival’ rise and fall as La Funk Mob take their exit – this was a CD only track, 20 minutes long, beatless, twinkling ambience, also never far away when making ambient mixes back in the day.
Mixmaster Morris’s track takes a left turn before the 38 minute mark and either my vinyl was knackered or the one he took the sample from was as there’s crackling all over it. Into this section creep no less than indie pop darlings then turned experimental mavericks, James. Post-‘Sit Down’ they were indulged by their record company and ended up making a couple of albums with Eno, one called ‘Laid’ with an offshoot album of less poppy tracks called ‘Wah Wah’. Out of the sessions from the latter came an amazing 33 minute 12” of Sabres of Paradise mixes called ‘Jam J’ where Weatherall, Kooner and Burns dubbed them to infinity and back again in one of their then epic reconstructions. This huge, loping fuzz bass-ed monster slouches into the mix in half time before taking centre stage, only to be ousted at the very end by the final moments of Mountain High.
Phew, bit of a heavy trip that one.
Tracklist:
Coldcut jingle intro
Mika Vainio – Sisaan
The Woodentops – You Make Me Feel (Late Night version)
Beautyon – To Swing Pil
Locust – Moist Moss
Unknown – Gated ambience
Scanner – Mass Observation
Andrew Poppy – Goodbye Mr. G
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts)
Path – Pleasant
Sheila Chandra – unknown
Coldcut Russian jingle
The Radha Krsna Temple – Bhaja Mana Hure
The Irresistible Force – Mountain High (live)
Up, Bustle & Out – Nightwalk
La Funk Mob – Motor Bass Gets Phunked Up
Voyager – Arrival
James vs Sabres of Paradise – Jam J (Phase 1: Arena Dub)
The second Groovy Record Fayre, hosted by Jonny Trunk and Ian Shirley, took place on Saturday at the Mildmay Club on Newington Green, N16 and again, it was a blast. Pete Williams and I had a stall again and many friends and faces passed by. It was celeb central at points, from superstar DJs to stand up comedians and supermodel it girls. I missed a chance to chat to Stewart Lee who was looking through the Krautrock box because I was explaining what Go-Go and cut up mixes were to a younger buyer but Lee wasn’t buying anyway.
Pete with our stall, notice my Wheels of Light book placed in prime position bottom left.
Pete sleevefaces with Buried Treasure’s Alan Gubby
Andy Higgs digs
Marc Mr Thing journeyed up from Hastings for the day
Paul Putner bought my book shock!
A right pair of tits, and Martin & James of The Karminsky Experience Inc.
Richard Norris also picked up my book and Children of the Stones (like everyone else)
Rat Records mini reunion with Ronan and Philippe
Comix legend Edwin Savage Pencil Pouncey bought six of my underground comix, a true seal of approval.
Pop quiz winner (later on) Simon Gitter with smooth dancer and pop quiz secret weapon 2 Tone Tony.
Everyone was packed up and out of the hall by 6pm and people disappeared for dinner. Around 7.30 the pop quiz kicked off and 90 minutes later the team Jonny Trunk happened to be on claimed victory to cries of ‘fix!, fix!’. The fact that there was a 10 point Trunk section might have helped. Martin Green and Jarvis took to the stage as tables and chairs were cleared in record time, the glitter ball ignited and the bar besieged. Much drink was drunk and dancing had until 1am with a packed dancefloor and singalongs to Plastic Bertrand, Bowie, The Beatles, Adam & The Ants, The Sweet, Prince, Double Dee & Steinski, Beastie Boys, Sparks, B-52s and so many more.
Meanwhile in the toilets, Alex Chung had other things on her mind…
A selection of gig posters for the Retinal Circus. The Circus nights, promoted by Roger Schiffer, ran from summer 1967 to the end of 1968 in a basement venue in Vancouver, Canada and would play host to many of the top bands of the day in the late 60s. The main poster artist was Steve Seymour who managed to weave all sorts of intricate typography into each image including dates, bands, start and end times and even a dot-to-dot puzzle which spelt out ‘surprise’ when filled in. The main exception I can see being the Velvet Underground one by Frank Lewis who also did other posters around Vancouver, early Afterthought ones being an example, Vancouver’s psychedelic venue before the Retinal Circus.
There was also a light show called The Retina Circus in Seattle at the same time but they weren’t connected, the main two house lighting crews were called Addled Chromish and Ecto Plasmic Assault.
*Thanks to Greg Evans from the Acid Rain light show in Victoria, Canada for additional info.
This was one of those shows where I put together a mix largely from the contents of my record buying trips whilst abroad in North America plus some current new releases. I can’t quite believe I used to go a couple of times a year at one point, each time coming back laden with music new and old. I don’t think I’ve been back for over a decade now and I really miss it, one day I’ll get back out there.
We kick off with Ramsey Lewis (RIP) and the break-tastic ‘Do Whatever Sets You Free’, chopped up nicely by Natural Self once I seem to remember… Eddie Harris slinks in with a nasty beat and a fuzzed up horn, plenty of sample action here and I think this is the source for a bit of Shadow’s ‘In/flux’. I’m not sure if the DJ Zinc track quite works out of old Eddie, sure it’s in time but not quite in tune or swing, that’s quite a change of pace. I had a white label at the time but now know that the track is called ‘Tonka’. Then into The Human League (!) mixing by bpm, not feel, I like the way Phil Oakey calls everyone ‘big heads’ at the start. This was from the Richard X released ‘Golden Hour of the Future’ album of early Human League recordings.
I like what Push Button does with the Anti-Pop vocal of ‘Ghostlawns’, putting it on a different beat of the bar and slowing the tempo to half time. But into The Banana Splits? What was I thinking? This the most uneven mix of all time, just because it’s IN time kids, doesn’t mean it should go next to that similarly tempo-ed tune. Doesn’t sound quite like Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky though does it? The Incredible Shrinking Man was an alias of Shawn Lee who apparently is also singing on this cover of ‘Wichita Lineman’ as well as playing almost everything else too. Killer version on a 7” on Ape City who only put out three releases.
Sixtoo I hooked up with on tour and ‘Duration’ was his long-digesting masterpiece, featured here in an excerpt, maybe he was living in Montreal by this time or maybe that was after he signed to Ninja Tune, it was around this time anyway. The ‘stop scratching’ vocal sample is actually from a 7” comedy record about a dog, the cover folds out three times into a dog shape, I think it’s a Fred Basset tie-in maybe. Stan Kenton covers ‘Hair’ with his take on ‘Coloured Spade’, I’d go on to collect many versions of the musical over the years and have lost count how many I have now. The New Seekers’ ‘It’s The Real Thing’ – do the Coke advert from a promo 7”. Pugh’s ‘Love Love Love’ I’m sure we all recognise the opening bars of? This was the opening track of Cherrystones’ then current ‘Rocks’ compilation and also the opener of Pugh Rogefeldt’s debut LP.
From Swedish psych rock to Brit hip hop and out into Yo La Tengo covering Sun Ra – edited for radio. This should be called the dis-jointed mix, veering all over the place, it made sense to me at the time. The Free Association were a psychedelic outfit led by David Holmes who made one great album and a clutch of singles and seemed to be the point after which he jumped into soundtrack work. Plenty of sampling going on and all the better for it. Still veering all over the place the Dsico rework of Nelly’s ‘It’s Getting Hot In Herre’ was further twisted out by my occasional Flexus guise for a particularly sweaty party on the hottest day of the year in the old basement under the newsagent that used to house the Bastard night. I think it was a Kinky Voodoo event hosted by my friend John Power and during this song I threw out tons of ice poles for the audience from a cooler I’d bought with me.
I don’t remember the track after this featuring a female rap over ‘Superbad’, but Dsico was putting out loads of mash ups at this time. Another switch, down into dub with Tino, a Ben Stokes and friends alias, from the Hallowe’en Dub album which seems relevant this week. We finish with ‘Acetate Prophets’, the DJ track from the end of Jurassic 5’s third LP. After ‘Lesson 6’ on the first and ‘Swing Set’ on the second we get a complex eastern-themed set of breaks and samples which I wish Cut and Nu-mark would do more of.
Track list:
Ramsey Lewis – Do Whatever Sets You free
Eddie Harris – Carry On Brother
DJ Zinc – Tonka
The Human League – Dance Like A Star
Ant-Pop Consortium – Ghostlawns (Push Button Objects mix)
The Banana Splits – Doin’ The Banana Split
The Incredible Shrinking Man – Wichita Lineman
Sixtoo – Duration (excerpt)
Stan Kenton – Coloured Spade
The New Seekers – It’s The Real Thing
Pugh – Love Love Love
Die & Skitz feat Rodney P/Ms Dynamite/Tali/Mixologists – It’s On
Yo La Tengo – Nuclear War
The Free Association – Don’t Rhyme No Mo
Nelly/Dsico vs FLEXUS – It’s Getting Hot Hot Hot In Herre
Dsico – Super Hiding
Tino – Living Dead Dub
Jurassic 5 – Acetate Prophets
The new edition of Moonbuilding, the quarterly magazine by ex-Electronic Sound writer Neil Mason, published by Castles In Space, is out today. It features a 2 page interview with me about my new book, Wheels of Light, and the mag also comes with a free CD of CiS artists appearing at the label’s Levitation festival next month.
You can order it here and there is also an option to get issue 1 or a bundle of both issues.
The Trunk Groovy Record Fayre is this Saturday! My Further partner Pete Williams and I are having a stall again at the Mildmay Club, Newington Green. I’ll have lots of dance 45s if that’s your thing, part of a huge collection recently bought by Michael from The Book & Record Bar, doubles from my personal collection including Ninja stuff and copies of my new book, Wheels of Light, among other things. Do stop by, the last one was excellent as was the pop quiz and party afterwards.
And it’s FREE!
October 29th, 11am until late, the Mildmay Club, Newington Green, London, N16 9PR.
A follow up to last week’s upload with a set full of bits and pieces floating around at this point in time, most of it contemporary with some oldies to finish. The recording at the start is DK from my answerphone, he’s a huge World’s Famous Supreme Team and I’d peppered the set with bits of a recording of an old WHBI show I’d found. A full length version of 2 Tall’s entry into the Solid Steel intro competition kicks things off before Diplo’s premiere release, the amazing ‘Epistomology Suite’ enters. I remember how exciting this was to hear at the time, we felt Big Dada had discovered the new DJ Shadow and this was his ‘Entropy’. It didn’t quite work out like that but his debut LP, ‘Florida’, is still a classic debut. Smoove switches things up with a swinging double time soul banger featuring Jess Roberts, I used to play this out for years. Firstborn’s Northern Soul-esque stomper, ‘The Mood Club (Part 2)’ is taken from the 7” and features a great tempo switch down.
Señor Coconut remixes Stephen Coates’ The Real Tuesday Weld and Madlib tackles The Free Design with a Nostalgia 77 track sandwiched in-between. Earl Zinger cuts up the Pink Elephants on Parade theme tune before Black Lodge (RIP) puts his twist on it and then Sun Ra and his Arkestra cover it from the Disney compilation, Stay Awake. Def Tex’s slamming, bleeping ‘Freaks’ ruins the mood somewhat as does the frantic mix into Awkward’s excellent break-fest ‘Plug Me In’, must dig that out again. Ivory blazes a trail all over the shop before Steinski gets old school with the cuts from his split 12” on Stones Throw with J.Rocc. Dr Rubberfunk gets the treatment from Fort Knox Five before Four Tet gets made over by Icarus – I seemed to like the remixes over the originals half the time. This latter remix starts like some lost Terry Riley piece before the drums steam in, must revisit!.
This end section was sonically themed: I thought the vocal harmonies of Air’s ‘Run’ were a clear reference to 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’ so found the original and a Godley & Creme version. I’ve always thought there was an obvious sonic fingerprint shared with 10cc’s I’m Not In Love’ and the Art of Noise’s ‘Moments in Love’, a theory strengthened by the fact that AON’s JJ Jeczalik collaged the 10cc/Godley & Creme History Mix Vol.1 LP together and then Lol Creme joined the AON in the 00’s. You could further add G&C’s Trevor Horn-produced ‘Cry’ to the equation, forgive the tuning, it’s way out. A further link to the AON/Trevor Horn axis comes in the form of Hibs’ excellent fan mix of Frankie’s ‘Two Tribes’ which could have been a lost mix from the 80’s. Hibs – aka Jeff Knowler to his friends – engineered my recording of Paul Morley for the Raiding The 20th Century mix and then went on to mix most of my work since.
2 Tall – Solid Steel intro (full version)
Diplo – Epistomology Suite
Smoove feat. Jess Roberts – Coming Back
Firstborn – The Mood Club (Part 2)
(The Real) Tuesday Weld – Ugly & The Beautiful (Senor Coconut remix)
Nostalgia 77 – Sad Thing
The Free Design – Where Do I Go (Madlib remix)
Earl Zinger – Heavy Hitter
Black Lodge – untitled
Sun Ra & His Arkestra – Pink Elephants On Parade
Def Tex – Freaks
Awkward – Plug Me In
Ivory – Blaze A Trail
Steinski – Ain’t No Thing
Dr Rubberfunk – The Owner (Fort Knox Five remix)
Four Tet – My Angel Rocks Back and Forth (Icarus remix)
Air – Run
Godley & Crème – I’m Not In Love
10cc – I’m Not In Love
Art of Noise – Moments In Love
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes (Hibs’ Reagan Says No More mix)
World’s Famous Supreme Team – outro
Another London-based light show event, the Boyle Family were some of the first artists to work with fluids and projection on the avant garde art scene in the sixties. Staged on Sunday Nov 13th at the now-endangered Iklectik venue in Waterloo with talks, music, film and projection performances. Go and support both the film and the venue.
More info here
A random delve into the archive this week from a year we’ve not covered too often recently, 2004. Kicking off with a rather tranced up version of the Solid Steel theme by Redroof we start the show proper with Waxfactor’s (aka Pete Sasqwax) ’Reggaenomics’ from his lost classic LP ‘Sci-Fu’ which has just been re-released by coincidence. I’d forgotten about BJ Cole and Luke Vibert’s ‘Surf Acid Hoedown’, what an acid monster, crazy 303 patterns and time changes. One of the first (that I heard) versions of The White Stripes’ classic ‘Seven Nation Army’ was by Brighton’s finest, Nostalgia 77 (Ben Lamdin) and Alice Russell, then starting to make a name for herself as a premier soul vocalist. Dynamite MC’s ‘Bubble’ sounds exactly like that, with early grime licks meeting the sort of production coming out of DJ Zinc’s Bingo Beats label around that time.
The Council Flats of Kingsbury is some kind of dirty fuzzed out beats before that kind of thing was the fashion over on the West Coast, this was from a split white vinyl 7” with LJ Kruzer on the flip on Uncharted Audio. Prince Po featuring MF Doom – ‘Special Distortion’ was from the Danger Mouse-produced, Lex-released LP The Slickness, Lex were really on a role at this point. Bristol’s Boca 45 steams in with ‘Air Drums’ from his second release on High Noon Music. Blend Crafters was a one-off thing Jurassic 5’s DJ Nu-mark did with Pomo which saw one LP and a handful of singles around in 2004 which is followed by the aptly-named ‘Genuine’ by Sharon Jones (RIP) and the Dap Kings. Has a new funk tune ever sounded so authentically 60’s? At that point it was one of the first that hit that sweet spot.
J Star’s take on Erick Sermon’s ‘Music’ was one of his first reggae make overs and it’s another Luke Vibert tune, under his Wagon Christ nom de plume with a track from his second Ninja Tune LP, ‘Sorry I Make You Lush’. Rhymefest’s ‘Jackin’ (it got ugly)’ single, chock full of classic rock samples, was something of a breath of fresh air at this point, stealing indiscriminately from all over the map. Diplo’s Hollertronix had come late to the mash up party but were putting out some (mad) decent examples in the states with this Clash meets Missy Elliot example being one of the best. Deisler’s first six track release for Tru Thoughts yielded the latin-infused ‘Xibaba’. I Monster come on like the mutant cousin of a glam-stomping ELO with Hey Mrs’ before an ill-advised segue into my favourite Supergrass track, the Talking Heads-aping ‘Kiss of Life’. If they didn’t go into the studio with the exact intention to ape the Eno-produced era of the Heads then I won’t believe it, they even got Tom Tom Club to do a remix for god’s sake. Interesting that Gaza’s brother, Rob Coombes in credited as primary writer on it. Party Ben’s hip house take on the Beastie’s ‘Ch-Ch-Check it Out’ is fun but hasn’t aged well, would probably work on the dance floor but in the mix here it’s a bit full on as a final track.
Track list:
Redroof – Solid Steel intro
Waxfactor – Reggaenomics
BJ Cole & Luke Vibert – Surf Acid Hoedown
Nostalgia 77 feat Alice Russell – Seven Nation Army
Dynamite MC – Bubble
Heiroglyphics – Love Flowin’
The Council Flats of Kingsbury – Dirty Floor
Prince Po feat MF Doom – Special Distortion
Boca 45 – Air Drums
Blend Crafters – Lola
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – Genuine
Jstar – Music
Wagon Christ – The Funnies
Rhymefest – Jackin’ (it got ugly)
Hollertronix – Untitled
Deisler – Xibaba
I Monster – Hey Mrs (Glamour Puss remix)
Supergrass – Kiss of Life (Tom Tom Club mix)
Party Ben – Ch Ch Check it Out Old Skool
Saw this doc on King Crimson by Toby Amies last night and boy, it’s excellent – highly recommended. Funny, insightful and touching, far better than the Bowie doc doing the rounds – various streaming events and showings are scheduled in the next month before it gets a release before Xmas. More info on the various contents and formats to be released here
A quick one this week as I’m pushed for time. A half hour from late 2003 which was originally coupled with some left field Xmas songs. This set is a bit disjointed, lots of bits and pieces that I wanted to play but didn’t fit together too well – hence the name of the mix. A mash up of Beyonce that hasn’t aged well kicks things off before Hey Ya, which I’m sure you’ve heard too many times but it was new at the time, please skip if you need to. The mix gets interesting after this with 808 State’s ‘Ancodia’, remixed on the Extended Pleasure of Dance EP 12” with an obvious but satisfying blend into Richard X’s ‘You Used To’ after. Love that transition.
Steinski’s frenetic remix of Melle Mel’s ‘Freestyle’ follows and I think that’s Cut Chemist on the decks. The insane Captain Funkaho crashes in and all over the place with his Dick Hyman-sampled ‘Capt. Chaos’ before we drift into the original – ‘The Moog & Me’. We play out with Boards of Canada’s sublime remix of cLOUDDEAD’s ‘Dead Dogs Two’ which is about as good as it gets.
Track list:
Cropstar – Crazy Prado
Outkast – Hey Ya
808 State – Ancodia (Taters Deep Nit Funky Beat mix)
Richard X – You Used To
Melle Mel – Freestyle (Steinski remix)
Captain Funkaho – Capt. Chaos
Dick Hyman – The Moog & Me
cLOUDDEAD – Dead Dogs Two (Boards of Canada remix)
It’s back! The return of the Trunk Groovy Record Fayre. My Further partner Pete Williams and I will be having a stall again this October at the Mildmay Club, Newington Green. I will have lots of dance 45s if that’s your thing, some records from my personal collection and copies of my new book, Wheels of Light, among other things. Do stop by, the last one was excellent as was the pop quiz and party afterwards.
Do stop by, last year’s was amazing (see photos here), from the daytime fair to the evening pop quiz and after party get down.
And it’s FREE!
October 29th, Mildmay Club, Newington Green, London, N16
Oh my word! Best use of AI so far, from the Wizard’s forthcoming album, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, out on Friday, the first of three albums released this month(!)
I’ve seemingly neglected this blog a bit this year save for a lot of the Mixcloud Select weekly entries but that’s because I’ve been so damned busy (which is good!). Last month my friend Elion Paz – photographer, dirt bike enthusiast and now marathon runner – arrived in the UK for three weeks of preliminary shoots and interviews for the second Dust & Grooves book. You may know the first book, a beautiful hardback tome to record collecting published in 2014 with Mr Scruff on the cover, perched atop some of his collection.
Way back then there weren’t many books like this about vinyl collectors and obsessives. Things have changed quite a bit since then it’s fair to say and the next book will cast the net even wider into other areas. While Eilon was here I helped him out with interviews, contacts and also featured in a piece myself focusing on Command record covers (see above).
© Eilon Paz/Dust & Grooves
Our first assignment together was a visit to Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter to check out her collection of reggae and Chinese records, here we are sniffing the acetate dubplates.
© Eilon Paz/Dust & Grooves
We then headed to West Norwood to The Book & Record Bar to speak to Alex Paterson of The Orb who pulled out one of his tour boxes, unopened for over a decade and walked us through the contents before we retired to his home to dig into his collection. Alex later told me it was one of his favourite interviews.
Next up was a trip down to Brighton to dig with the ultra-hospitable DJ Format and take a journey through his career with a focus on odd religious records. Here we are messing about with his copies of Marshall McLuhan‘s ‘The Medium Is The Massage’.
© Eilon Paz/Dust & Grooves
Lastly, after much persuasion, we visited Stockport and the incredible collection of Andy Votel, someone Eilon had wanted in the first book but hadn’t been able to fit in. Oh the sights we saw…
Eilon then went to Bristol for several days before returning to his home town on New York last week and running his first marathon at the weekend. His work ethic and vision are nothing short of extraordinary, I know the next book will be right up there with the first.
A short, mellow set from 19 years ago – Johnny Cash’s ‘One Piece At A Time’ is one of the first songs I remember hearing as a child. My dad was/is a mechanic so this song always appealed to him and he explained that it was about a guy building a car out of bits and pieces of parts he’d stolen from the factory he worked at. He would do a similar thing with all manner of bike parts (not stolen!) over a 14 year period when he built his own custom bike later on in life. The track is book-ended by excerpts from the ‘Live At Folsom Prison’ album. Lunz’s ‘Wobbly Flu Twilight’ is a dark and delicate piano piece and then a Blackalicious track produced by DJ Shadow called ‘Changes’ appears, introduced by a short John Rydgren interview from a series called ‘Scenes’. In the interview the artist (who I’m not sure the identity of) talks about changes that he made on the new record and how the record label weren’t happy with it.
This is one thing I always tried to do with spoken word inserts, make the subject matter somehow reference the track it was placed with or over, it wasn’t always possible but when it works it’s lovely. The track was taken from an original beat tape of DJ Shadow’s I was in possession of at the time and I later found out it appeared on the Japanese version of the ‘Melodica’ album (credited to UNKLE) but I’ve never found a copy to check if it’s the same. Keeping on the Shadow theme, I had recently discovered one of the samples from one of my favourite tracks of his, ‘Changeling’ from Endtroducing, in the form of ‘Imagination Flight’ by the Chaffey College Jazz Ensemble, a private press LP with various composers, Charles Argersinger being the writer of the title track.
‘This River’ by Colder, on Trevor Jackson’s Output label has a beautiful, dark piano motif I could listen to all day and Colleen’s ‘Babies’ floats in like a saccharine lullaby. Ken Nordine narrates ‘Little Boy Blue’ from Billy Vaughn & his Orchestra’s 1956 release on Dot, one of his first appearances on vinyl. There’s more of Johnny Cash’s dialogue to the crowd from the Folsom Prison album over the start of Super Numeri’s ‘Coastel Bird Scene part 1’, at the time a new signing to Ninja Tune who would make two albums and singles before various members split into Loka, Snap Ant and Pop Levi. What I didn’t know at the time was that James Morgan aka Snap Ant, had also previously released a 12” on Ntone under the name Ominium which is presumably how Super Numeri came to be on the label. The originally mis-titled Eternals’ ‘Zero Gravity’ is the opening track from the Astropioneers OST of which I have absolutely no recollection of owning but it’s a lovely way to end a fairly sedate set.
Track list:
Johnny Cash – One Piece At A Time
Lunz – Wobbly Flu Twilight
Blackalicous – Changes
Chaffey College Jazz Ensemble – Imagination Flight
Colder – This River
Colleen – Babies
Ken Nordine – Little Boy Blue
Super Numeri – Coastal Bird Scene part 1
The Eternals – Zero Gravity
Opening with Pedro Chamorra’s entry to the Solid Steel intro competition (we got so many good entries it was hard to pick a winner and I used loads of runner up tracks as intros) and we’re off on an hour journey through time and space, punctuated by excerpts from series 1 of the Mighty Boosh. The first series is still my favourite with Howard and Vince’s riffs on music (jazz vs electro) always a joy to hear.
The Kleptones kick the mix off with an odd collage based on Queen samples from their A Night At The Hip Hopera cut up mix, most of their stuff is still online for free at https://www.kleptones.com/. Soulwax’s incredible mix of LCD’s ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ builds and builds and was one of those rare things, a remix that improves on the original. Kevin Mark Trail’s track was probably a promo 12” with MJ Cole remixes as was the Bluefoot Project Away team mix, coming from a compilation 12” entitled Interesting Flavours on Chocolate Fireguard Records.
Ms. Thing’s ‘Love Guide’ was the Switch-produced cut from the Two Cultures Clash compilation and predates the sort of material he would go on to make with Diplo as Major Lazer. Vincent made one EP in 2004 and two tracks from it are on this mix, the duo of Phil Donkin (bass) and Simon Vincent (piano) formed the group and the broken beat jazz of the Sentinel EP was the result. More broken beats from the Sun Ra cover of Likwid Continual Space Motion Ope-ra, a collaboration between IG Culture and Bembe Segue on a 25 minute version of the classic ‘Space Is The Place’. Two producers who have since become good friends and collaborators team up next as Johnny Trunk remixes Stephen Coates’ The Real Tuesday Weld’s classic ‘Bathtime In Clerkenwell’ into a reggae skank.
Meanwhile back at Ninja Tune the label was signing new acts and one – Loka – remixes the other – Blockhead – in fine fashion on his ‘Sunday Seance’. I always liked Loka, they were exactly what I was after at that point and their first album is a hidden classic. I don’t remember where the Def Harmonic track came from, I can’t recall owning one of their records but maybe it was on a comp? Max Sedgley’s follow up to his massive ‘Happy’ single was almost as big and then it’s the second Vincent cut, bringing jazz to the funk – should have waited with that earlier Mighty Boosh sample. Finishing with a remix from Herbert in which I get busy on the loop pedal at the end we wind things down with Atom TM’s glitchy take on Emiliana Torrini’s ‘Sunny Road’.
Tracklist:
Pedro Chamorra – Solid Steel spot
Kleptones – Precession
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing… (Soulwax remix)
Kevin Mark Trail – D Thames (MJ Cole Dub)
The Bluefoot Project – Little Miss Selfish (Away Team mix)
Ms. Thing – Love Guide
Vincent – Gift
Likwid Continual Space Motion Ope-ra – Space Is The Place (Prelude…)
The Real Tuesday Weld – Bathtime In Clerkenwell (Jonny Trunk mix)
Blockhead – Sunday Séance (Loka remix)
Def Harmonic – The Deep
Max Sedgley – Devil Inside
Vincent – Sentinel
Brazillian Girls – Lazy Lover (Herberts Busy Lover mix)
Emiliana Torrini – Sunny Road (Atom TM’s Future Folk mix)
Due to being crazily busy this week, not least having to sort a set out for a friend’s wedding on Friday (playing AND taking my decks – this is a real rarity) I’ve not had time to prepare a show this week. But! I did drop a new mix on Sunday for Matt ‘King Megatrip’ King‘s new kickstarter.
Long time listeners to Solid Steel will know the name King Megatrip from back in the 00’s, he was one of the first collectors of old shows online, provided the occasional guest mix and used to send us spoken word samples on CDRs back in the day, culled from old films and records that he would religiously record and edit down. These started as discs with 99 entries as that was the most ‘tracks’ you could fit on a disc and each one had its own cover, track list and number. Slowly the ‘Soundbank’, as it came to be known, grew in size to the point where it was 200 volumes, each track-indexed with the basic premise of the sample and compiled on a DVD. I still use it to this day and Matt has threatened to share a new 200 volume follow up some day.
He’s been slightly distracted however by his Tales To Enlighten project – the first was a 200 page graphic novel detailing the son of Satan and his robot consort, Manfred’s adventures trying to gain enlightenment. He successfully Kickstarted that last year and it was a blast. Now, the sequel – Tales To Enlighten: The New Testament – is here and it’s a whopping 550 pages with 30 artists and a ton more content. He’s aiming to get $20k which means the whole book will cost just $52 once printed – a bargain – and as of writing he’s already got $17k of it after nearly 2 weeks. Help him out if you want a ton of indie/underground comix full of sex, drugs, violence and blasphemy hitting your doorstep (or just to use as a doorstop) soon. If you fancy pledging then head over to the Kickstarter page, there’s loads of different levels and goodies on offer with extra zines, T-shirts and even original artwork.
To try and help drum up some publicity and as a good excuse to fit a new set of funky religious psychedelia together I constructed Songs of Revelation: Further Religious Rock & Spiritual Spoken Word for him a few weeks back, a follow up to last year’s Songs To Enlighten mix.
Track list:
Reformation – In The Beginning
Otis Skillings – A World Mixed Up
Reformation – Reformation ’71
John E. Schroeder & Richard Koehneke – Doors Are For Locking (excerpt)
Truth of Truths – John The Baptist
The Continental Singers – Step Up, Sit Down
Truth of Truths – The Trial
John Rydgren – Cantata Of New Life (excerpts)
The Crimson Bridge – First Suite by Gary Rand (1st movement Searching For Reality)
W. Cleon Shonsen – The Hippy Psalm (Instant Insanity Drugs excerpt)
John E. Schroeder & Richard Koehneke – The Best Tombs In Life Are Free (excerpt 1)
Kent Schneider – The Church Is Within Us, O Lord
The Crimson Bridge – Birthright
John Rydgren – The Lord Is My Shepherd (New Life spot)
Reformation – Let There Be Light
John E. Schroeder & Richard Koehneke – The Best Tombs In Life Are Free (excerpt 2)
Otis Skillings – Love Can Work A Miracle (edit)
Katarzyna Gartner – Kyrie (excerpt 1 edit)
U.S. Apple Corps – Don’t Do Me Nothing
Peter Link & C.C. Courtney – Deadalus
Katarzyna Gartner – Kyrie (excerpt 2)
The Mission – A Feeling