Mixcloud Select 122: Months of Debris vol.1 15/07/2004

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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.

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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

Mixcloud Select 121: Messy Half 22/12/2003

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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.

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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)

Mixcloud Select 120: 30 Minutes For Cash 22/09/2003

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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.

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‘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

Mixcloud Select 119: A Bird In The Boosh 21/03/2005

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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.
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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)

No Mixcloud Select archive mix this week – a new one!

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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.

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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

Mixcloud Select 118 Openmind on Solid Steel 09/09/1994

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A section of a Solid Steel from 28 years ago today(!) that popped out at me when looking through the archive. Matt Black and Jonathan More were also in the studio and I’d wager PC was there too as the four of us would often troop up to the KISS studios on a Friday night to pre-record the Saturday night.
Both Matt and Jon would take turns on the mic and the decks with Patrick and I mixing and writing up the PRS sheets of what was played.
Mixing out of something possibly played by PC, I kick off with an often played S’Xpress ‘track’ – ‘Coma’ from a free 45 given away with Record Mirror – that consists largely of heavy respirated breathing and sonar pings. This always served as a good bridge between sets and styles and I used it a lot in my ambient sets a few years earlier. Running into Pat Metheny’s gorgeous rendering of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint (most likely found via The Orb’s ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ sampling) and some unidentified ambience (possibly Spacetime Continuum) before DJ Food’s ‘Cosmic Jam’ unsteadily enters the mix.

An overdub of Reich’s ‘Come Out’ interjects and there seems to be up to four sources going here – possibly two decks and two CDs. Mantronix’s ‘Mega-Mix (’88)’ is an often overlooked trip hop precursor, this sounded like the future of hip hop 1988. Justin Warfield was looking back to 1968 to move hip hop forward in the early 90s with his classic ‘My Field Trip To Planet 9’ album and Tim Simenon wisely grabbed him to front the huge ‘Bug Powder Dust’ single from his third Bomb The Bass LP. The Dust Brothers (pre-Chemical) gave it their big beat worker before the term was even coined, nicely cutting up the bass line lifted from ‘Dark Lady’ which in itself was lifted from…
MS118 Openmind section of Coldut tape

Opening the next section is the famous ‘Closing of Places of Entertainment’ speech that Coldcut often played on the show – segueing into Autechre ‘Flutter’, their protest at the Criminal Justice Bill which stated that any gatherings with repetitive beats could be shut down and prosecuted. They decided to produce a track without repetitive beats, played here on my preference of 33rpm. I was heartened to hear a dedication from Matt for my old flatmate Chantal (Passamonte) who was leaving London for Sheffield at this time to go and work for Warp. Some Ninja business in the form of Up, Bustle & Out’s ‘Nightwalk’ from their debut LP (not ‘Lazy Daze’ as is read out later) into La Funk Mob’s ‘Motorbass Gets Phunked Up’, Ritchie Hawtin’s remix which seems to be jumping all over the place. Slamming straight into this is the no-compromise of Bedouin Ascent’s amazing ‘Internal Bleeding’ and then we’re rocking out with La Funk Mob’s ‘357 Magnum Force’ again from Mo Wax’s original golden run. Orbital’s ‘Sad but True’, my favourite track from their patchy third LP (after the peerless first two albums admittedly) brings the electro funk. The final track is Mu-Ziq’s aptly-titled, ‘Metal Thing #3’, I had a habit of upping the ante with my music choices until things were really quite brutal and it would take one of the others to bring things down a notch, in this case with a reggae set from Jon after the jingle at the end of this set.

S’Xpress – Coma
Pat Metheny – Electric Counterpoint I -Fast
DJ Food – Cosmic Jam
Steve Reich – Come Out
Spacetime Continuum – unknown
Mantronix – Mega-Mix ’88
Bomb The Bass – Bug Powder Dust (Dust Brothers remix)
Autechre – Flutter
Up, Bustle & Out – Nightwalk
La Funk Mob – Motorbass Gets Phunked Up (Electro Funk remix)
Bedouin Ascent – Internal Bleeding
La Funk Mob – 357 Magnum Force
Orbital – Sad But True
Mu-Ziq – Metal Thing #3

Mixcloud Select 117: US Vinyl Excavations Pt.1 Unwind Your Mind – Solid Steel 03/07/2000 Pt.2

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I’m fairly sure that this was the first kind of psychedelic mix that I did, largely made up of records bought whilst on tour in North America with Kid Koala and Amon Tobin during the Spring of 2000. It kicks off with something from the Blast First compilation Nothing Short of Total War (Rock Music Report) and then into some whispering piano talk from The Mothers of Invention. John Simon’s ‘Painting For Freakout’ precedes The Electric Flag’s incredible 10 minute … uh, ‘Freakout’ on the All You Can Eat soundtrack which is a fine record in the tradition of the Monkees’ Head and parts of this mix would end up in my rescore for that film later. Rod McKuen jumps on the hippy bandwagon with his soothing tones from the Takes A San Francisco Hippy Trip album with ‘Of Girls’ – warning the cover is more psychedelic than the record. The Three Ring Circus made one single and an album with a clown through a kaleidoscope on the cover which which was enough for me to check it out. Goblin’s ‘Blind Concert’ is from their classic Suspiria soundtrack and the Two Daughters track is from a Cherry Red comp from the early 80s, Perspectives and Distortion, which has all manner of interesting post punk, new wave experimentation on it including an early solo Matt Johnson track.

The Monkees’ ‘Opening Ceremony’ montage from Head makes an appearance, in the middle of the mix, before we segue into a bit of Barry Gray’s ‘Breakaway’ from the Space 1999 soundtrack, as sampled a few years previously by Tipsy for their ‘Space Golf’ tune. Susan & The Children’s Chorus was a Sesame Street spin off record, not actually on Sesame Workshop, the label of the TV show. I was already collecting funky Sesame St material around this time before approaching the company to license their Pinball Number Count and later put together a compilation. I dived into Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention pretty hard in the early 00’s, spurred on by his music concrete tape collages and Cal Schenkel’s amazing cover art. The Landlords’ ‘The Landlord’ is from the soundtrack to The Landlord – who’d have thought? This was basically an Al Kooper pseudonym and the OST has a few nice bits and pieces on it as well as a great cover.

Along with Zappa I was hoovering up David Axelrod productions including the more far out Cannonball Adderly ones and it took a little while to track down Soul Zodiac where Rick Holmes narrates the 12 signs over spacey jazz. A fairly pedestrian cover of ‘The Sound of Silence’ follows, the amount of cheap easy listening albums with vaguely funky versions of old standards was mind boggling back then. The Beatle’ ‘Jessie’s Dream’ – should probably be Aunt Jessies Dream I think and is from their Magical Mystery Tour film, it probably came from a bootleg of psyche-era stuff I was into along with all the Beach Boys Smile sessions I could find. ‘Bendix 2: The Tomorrow People’ comes from one of the greatest compilations of all time, Raymond Scott’s Manhattan Research Inc. on Basta which was newly released at the time and caught the ear of a certain J Dilla. We play out with the title track from probably the UK’s nearest equivalent to Scott, Joe Meek from his freaky space travel epic I Hear A New World, probably also a bootleg from around that time.

UPDATE: I found a second copy of this tape and it was subtitled ‘US Vinyl Excavations Pt.1’ so here is the missing part, I’ve updated the title to reflect that.

The Mothers of Invention – Are You Hung Up?
John Simon – Painting For Freakout
Rod McKuen – Of Girls
Three Ring Circus – Fantastic Voyage
Goblin – Blind Concert
Two Daughters – Return Call/We Are
The Monkees – Opening Ceremony
Barry Gray – Breakaway
Susan & The Children’s Chorus – The Counting Song
The Mothers of Invention – Flower Punk
The Landlords – The Landlord
Cannonball Adderly – Cancer
Groovin’ Strings and Things – The Sound of Silence
The Beatles – Jessie’s Dream
Raymond Scott – Bendix 2: The Tomorrow People
Joe Meek & The Blue Men – I Hear A New World

Mixcloud Select 116: Hip Hop 2000 – Solid Steel 03/07/2000 Pt.1

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A quick round up of what can now be seen as a golden age for UK and US independent hip hop from the middle of 2000. This is the first half of an hour long mix that concludes with a psychedelic mix (next week).
Def Tex on the Ninja-affiliated Son Records from their Synchronise EP – hugely underrated IMO, early PUTS from their second album and Jurassic 5 making their second album comeback with lead single, Quality Control. One Cut – straight outta Bristol from a 12” that now goes for an eye-watering price due to its Banksy cover then Mark B & Blade with a crazed cut up instrumental of their ‘Ya Don’t See The Signs’ 12”. Styles of Beyond were from the US and made a ton of singles, this one was actually from 1998 and The Nextmen’s DJ cut from their debut LP, ‘Amongst The Madness’.
‘The Last Tune’ from Task Force’s amazing Voice of the Great Outdoors single samples a snatch of ‘Caravan’ from some easy listening LP I can’t remember now – check the whole 12” if you can. Advertising The Invisible were Brad from The Nextmen and Cept 148 and I totally recognise that bass sound but can’t place it. Yes that is a Morcheeba track but it’s a banger featuring Biz Markie and we finish with a classic from the Jungle Brothers although it’s the remix version.

Track list:
Def Tex – Written Response
People Under The Stairs – Code Check
Jurassic 5 – Quality Control
One Cut – Underground Terror Tactics
Mark B & Blade – Ya Don’t See The Signs
Styles of Beyond – Spies Like Us
The Nextmen – We Originate
Task Force – The Last Tune
Advertising The Invisible – Making Heads Turn
Morcheeba – In The Hands of the Gods
Jungle Brothers – J Beez Comin’ Through (remix)

Mixcloud Select 115: Version Aversion 2 20/05/2002

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Part 2 of the Version Aversion mix kicks off with another ‘dictionaroake’ cover, of Ken Nordine’s ‘Flesh’ of all things! Go here for more of an explanation of this strange medium: http://www.dictionaraoke.com/ I’d always loved ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ theme, hearing the Jet Harris version on a tape my dad had when I was a kid. What happens if you take three different versions and synch them up to play simultaneously, cutting back and forth frequently? Listen and find out. This strings and drums version of ’Strawberry Fields Forever’ was possibly taken from one of the Anthology compilations, chock full of interesting Beatles outtakes.

The Roy Meriwether Trio take on the Nina Simone’s ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’ and then we get another excerpt from the Langley Schools Music Project album, this time with excerpts of a radio documentary interspersed telling the story of how it came to be. Bowie’s ’Space Oddity’ gets the treatment and again, the eerie oddness of not quite trained voices with strange arrangements gives it a unique quality. Monk Higgins provides Gang Starr with a sample on ‘Little Green Apples’ from his ‘Extra Soul Perception’ LP and ‘Brother’ John Rydgren pervs out over ‘Music To Watch Girls By’. Finally, a remix rather than a cover, Bill Laswell does the impossible and takes electric Miles Davis and makes something decent out of it from the Panthalassa remix project. This 1998 album is worth tracking down, Laswell gets given the masters to run riot with in the studio and creates four extended soundscapes, each ranging around the 15 minute mark from music written 1969-74. It’s respectful as he doesn’t attempt to contemporize the sounds, instead extended and dubbing them out into Orb-like epics, an hour of fusion-era Miles, reimagined 25 years later by a master.

Track list:
Ken Nordine – Flesh
Billy May & His Orchestra – The Man With The Golden Arm
Jet Harris – The Man With The Golden Arm
Jack Nitzche – The Man With The Golden Arm
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7)
Roy Meriwether Trio – Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Langley Schools Music Project – Space Oddity
Monk Higgins – Little Green Apples
John Rydgren – Music to Watch Girls By
Miles Davis – Rated X /Billy Preston (Bill Laswell reconstruction)

New DJ Food 45 Live mix Fri/Sat night on Dublab

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My now annual mix for those lovely 45 Live people goes out this Friday night (PST) or Saturday morning (GMT) depending where you are in the world. Greg Belson is still running the show which must be approaching its 150th episode soon. Airing on Dublab at 8-10pm every 1st and 3rd Friday, it’ll be available afterward via their site or Mixcloud. I’m again mining the late 80’s for early house, acid and freestyle (lots of Todd Terry productions). I thought I’d exhausted these theme a few years back but tracks just keep popping up and I have more than enough for two more mixes moving into the 90s.

Mixcloud Select 114: Version Aversion 22/04/2002

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The first of two ‘Version Aversion’ mixes – various covers in all sorts of styles – I love a good cover version, one that takes the original and does something weird with it ideally. The opening ‘Girl From Ipanema’ is a good example – this kind of cover was called ‘dictionaraoke’ – using computer-generated words to voice a cover version. There were a spate of them on the web around this time and I have a feeling it’s connected to Negativland by the mentions on this website http://www.dictionaraoke.com/ . Having just had the beginnings of the mash up craze (which was still gaining momentum) and being perpetually on the look out for the latest thing, I was convinced this was the answer. Instead it was a fun novelty that got old quite fast.

The Lenny Constanza version of Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ I have a vague memory might have something to do with Rob Galliano. The only mention of it on Discogs is on a compilation called The Selector from Hungary but I’m sure I have it on a 7” somewhere.
Julius Brockington’s version of ‘Rock Steady’ gets mixed with a bit of Aretha’s original, not always successfully but there’s some nice scratching in there. Johnny Hammond smooths out Carole King’s ‘It’s Too Late’ into an easy organ instrumental before Breakestra cover The Vibrettes’ ‘Humpty Dump’ in convincing analogue style. Mixing Digital Underground’s ‘The Humpty Dance’ over the top at rapid speed may not have been a good idea but it occasionally works. Christ, an Elbow track! This cheeky rinky dink cover of Destiny’s Child was from something on Twisted Nerve, possibly the Jukebox series of 7”s that yielded all sorts of oddities.

The Langley Schools Music Project was one of those records that just appeared and everyone was talking about it. The first of the privat press ’school music’ recordings I remember being reissued and their take on The Carpenters’ eerie but evergreen, ’Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’ is so epic it has to qualify as one of the greatest covers ever. Little Miss Trintron was another Twisted Nerve oddity who produced one single and a couple of compilation appearances before disappearing leaving this 8-bit version of The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ for us to mull over. Again, placing the original vocal over parts of it at a greatly reduced speed wasn’t maybe the best idea in the world. With all these little mixes where they’re mainly unmixed selections I was trying to tart them up and give value for money by overdubbing spoken word and extras on top, usually using a computer by this stage.

No mix next week as I’m on holiday but there will be the second part of this set once I return.

Track list:
Mittelschmerz – Girl From Ipanema
Lenny Constanza – Can’t Get You Out Of My Bed
Julius Brockington – Rock Steady
Johnny Hammond – It’s Too Late
Breakestra – Humpty Dump
Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance
Elbow – Independent Woman
Langley Schools Music Project – Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Little Miss Trinitron – Hotel California

Brian Eno – The Lighthouse, what’s on it?

The-Lighthouse-Station-ArtworkI’ve been compiling this, off and on, all year, while listening to the 340+ unreleased tracks on Brian Eno‘s Sonos HD radio station, The Lighthouse. If I had the phone nearby I’d check what’s playing, make a note of the track number and year and write a short description. I was intrigued to see how often tracks repeated (not very often), how long it would take me to hear all of them (over 6 months) and what the ratio of good to average to bad was. It became quite addictive as I’d fill in more each day, a bit like collecting cards in a numbered sequence, filling in the blanks each day. Of course as time went on I’d hear more repetitions and less new tracks so filling in a new entry was like finding another piece of the puzzle. After a while I began to give them star ratings from 1 to 5; 5 being amazing, as good or better than anything he’d ever released, 4 great, 3 good, 2 so-so, 1 skippable.

For those interested, the highest number I’ve heard has been #349 (all the tracks are titled by number and year), the oldest was from 1989, newest from 2021. There were occasional different versions of previously released tracks from Nerve Net and Drawn From Life and many that had similar undertones to albums like Apollo or Ambient 4. The shortest was around a minute and 30 seconds, the longest approximately 24 minutes at a guess (there are no times on any of the tracks). If a title has been given to a piece in one of the two Lighthouse interviews it’s included in brackets. Where there’s no entry, I’ve not yet heard that track on the stream.
If albums on average have 10-15 tracks then that’s over 30 albums worth, or maybe The Lighthouse IS an album? It’s like being let into a secret vault every time you tune in, catching glimpses of precious (and sometimes not so precious) gems as the algorithm cycles through the selection. Similar to Aphex Twin‘s Soundcloud dump a few years back, this is the archive mother lode from one of my favourite artists.
UPDATE: at least another 75 tracks added since Sept 2023 – have heard #424 and counting and some tracks are from 2023, the longest one is over 24 minutes(!)… I noticed that at least two tracks from the Top Boy soundtrack that Eno released in September feature on The Lighthouse, I will mark them when I find them.

Track list: (UPDATED 23/12/23)
001 (2018) Algorithmic rhythm system groove w. male vocal ** (5.01)
002 (2018) Almost an ‘I Zimbra’ remix, Give it up and turn it loose bassline & female vocal – (title: Funk Groove Reduced) ***** (3.23)
003 (2018) Wooah yay, slow vocal sway ** (4.23)
004 (2019) Night drive passing cars, sudden end *** (3.28)
005 (2010) Slow beats glissando echo *** (4.54)
006 (2021) Dark low rumble bass pad, winding in and out *** (3.36)
007 (2019) Short solo keyboard lament ** (2.29)
008 (2019) Gated choir crawl abruptly stopping ** (2.41)
009 (2019) Stunning beauty but so short ***** (1.45)
010 (2019) Hovering guitar noodle *** (2.29)
011 (2018) Dark laidback plod with lead electric guitar *** (3.35)
012 (2011) Low sub bass ambience, v. short **** (2.15) 
013 (2018) Computer controlled upbeat rhythm w. languid melody/‘lonely time’ vocal **** (4.31)
014 (2018) Uptempo sequencer tightness ** (4.37)
015 (2018) Gated voice over insistent machine rhythm ** (4.55)
016 (2018) Eno brings the machine funk w. female vocals ** (4.02)
017 (2018) Excellent fast paced rhythm w. drums and skronk piano **** (3.43)
018 (2021) Dark piano tension **** (9.59)
019 (2020) Super calm deep drift **** (3.27)
020 (2020) Hovering quiet piano *** (6.28)
021
022 (2018) Dinky keyboard workout ** (2.20)
023 (2018) Mid tempo funky wah wah w. distorted vocal sample, deep bass kicks ** (4.42)
024 (2021) Rapid Edits on machine funk *** (3.28)
025 (2018) Spiky funk excellence – love this one ***** (3.36)
026 (2021) Cheeky little number, almost reggae ** (3.44)
027 (2021) Beautiful space drift w. violin and electronics ****
028 (2015) Jaunty vocal funk w ping ponging electronics *** (4.14)
029 (2015) Twangy offbeat vocal country song ** (3.36)
030 (2017) Climbing sinister piano ** (2.59)
031 (2017) Airy piano drift / Slow hovering w. minor key piano ** (3.24)
032 (2017) Short wistful ambient *** (1.56)
033 (2015) Fast double time picking pattern *** (7.41)
034 (2017) Marimba with splashy snare ** (4.48)
035 (2009) Sweet high synth modulations descending *** (4.04)
036 (2009) Solo cautious piano / Wandering solo piano w. birds ** (4.31)
037 (2009) Aphex-ish Wandering piano and occasional wordless vocal delay interjections **** (4.13)
038 (2009) Moody Warszaw-ish Solo piano patterns (title: Eagleman 22)** (4.04)
039 (2009) Hesitant solo keys ** (2.48)
040 (2021) Slow, sustained, quiet decaying strings *** (5.05)
041 (2019) Slowly unfurling tones *** (5.02)
042 (2015) Any man… Dead Can Dance-ish medieval vocal *** (5.08)
043 (2015) Suspended vocal tones w. odd jungle interlude *** (6.20)
044
045 (2018) Solo soaring/searing string section *** (7.57)
046 (2011) v short Sinister gongs **** (2.18)
047 (2018) Jaunty bass synth riff * (4.03)
048 (2019) Bass plod and positive chords *** (6.04)
049 (2019) Short ringing, decaying loops **** (3.29)
050 (2020) Bright twang guitar and mysterious mood *** (3.48)
051 (2020) Plod bass dreamy underwater w. descending piano **** (2.15)
052
053 (2019) Floaty synths, buoyant melody, bit new age-y * (4.08)
054 (2020) Yawning expanse Fripp-like guitar w. shimmering bottom end rumble **** (5.55)
055 (2017) Chirrups and thunks, fading ** (2.39)
056 (2019) Thumping climber with whistling * (4.19)
057 (2019) Epic throbbing string soundtrack *** (5.53)
058 (2019) Sweet solo synth Shimmering *** (3.25)
059 (2019) Rushing and rising washes of bright synth *** (3.11)
060 (2020) Squalling funky guitar over bouncy rhythm ** (3.29)
061 (2011) Slow acoustic lament ** (5.01)
062 (2018) Synth strings, earnest, church- like ** (3.30)
063 (2020) Sawing cello and pitch bent strings * (3.05)
064 (2020) Underwater electronics **
065 (2020) Lightly gated church organ w. bubbling bright top end ** (2.46)
066 (2020) Dark shifts / Alien beasts viewed from afar *** (2.52)
067 (2020) Gently bubbling sorrowful surges **** (4.42)
068 (2020) Swamp ambient w. industrial overtones and buzzing malfunctioning electronics ** (4.22)
069 (2920) Industrial alarm warning with flourishes ** (3.45)
070 (2002) Twanging country vocal tune (3.50)
070 (2021) High pitched solo synth ** (3.50)
071 (2015) Bright, plucked machine guitar and drums, almost hi-life *** (3.29)
072 (2001) Creepy keys electric mood *** (8.42)
073 (2002) Expansive Bass exploration / winding drone ** (5.06)
074 (2002) Abstract audio synthesis / mysterious world *** (12.15)
075 (2002) Squalling fast funk w. synth brass *** (3.04)
076 (2002) Female spoken word (spots) over languid keys and deep bass **** (3.18)
077 (2002) He doesn’t want to be found, fast vocal song *** (3.13)
078 (2002) Jaunty sky saw Fripp guitar ** (3.17)
079 (2009) Rolling vistas ambient *** (6.34)
080 (2002) Frankly awful vocal country * (4.59)
081 (2002) Meandering country twang w. mournful bass *** (3.41)
082 (2002) Gentle vocoder vocal and electric guitar ** (5.09)
083 (2002) Bright keyboard ditty * (2.13)
084 (2002) Twangy guitar and bass idea ** (2.13)
085 (2002) Bouncy pop instrumental ** (4.43)
086 (2021) Low Humming w. signal bleeps ** (4.35)
087 (2021) Ambient lullaby humming w soaring strings *** (7.07)
088 (2021) Electro thrumming with yawning sawtooth surges *** (4.43)
089 (2021) Quiet keyboard figures ** (2.57)
090 (2021) Deep sea dive **** (5.22)
091 (2021) Springy bleeps and whirring w. heavy beat ** (2.28)
092 (2021) Low night time creeper ** (3.29)
093 (2021) Complex bass bounce, machine beat with skittering high synth **
094 (2021) Heavy Fairlight beat, Indian scales and time stretch *** (3.27)
095 (2021) Gravelly spring beat w. odd bass figure ** (2.43)
096 (2018) Fast funky drum, guitar & horn flourishes w. keyboard escapades **** (4.01)
097
098 (2021) Air snares skittering w. bells and industrial kettle drum ** (4.26)
099
100 (2001) Questing solo keys *** (3.46)

101 (2002) Gorgeous soaring sad keys **** (4.05)
102 (2002) Tentative keys in reverb soup, short ** (2.52)
103 (2003) Juddering gated bass beat with glissando guitar ** (3.41)
104 (2004) Gnarly distorting bass w bouncing pings **** (3.33)
105 (2004) Vocal guitar dirge * (4.04)
106 (2004) Swinging Eno vocal song with yearning guitar ** (4.03) (title: All The Bloody Fighters)
107 (1997) Lilting loop *** (4.24)
108 (1997) Short mysterious piece ** (2.32)
109 (1998) Upbeat xylophone ditty, great chorus *** (1998)
110 (1998) Building chord sketch for pop song ** (4.57)
111
112 (1998) Wobbling experiments – quite Aphex-ish ** (5.52)
113 (2021) Twinkling synths short ** (2.22)
114 (2015) Bubbling bright synth motifs occasionally coalescing into brief rhythms *** (2.31)
115 (2021) Beautiful soft focus morning ***** (6.11)
116 (2021) Classic Eno ambient drift voices **** (5.39)
117 (2021) Synthetic melodic runs almost identical to Funki Porcini’s ‘6 Minutes To Manchester’ *** (2.05)
118 (2021) Minimal suspense, fading *** (5.15)
119 (2011) Excellent Fast breakbeat cut up ***** (2.37)
120 (2020) Understated deep piano pads *** (2.54)
121 (2020) Gorgeous ambient drift ***** (6.08)
122 (2000) Vocal choir jolly ditty Slow That Bell ** (4.30) 
123 (2000) Vocal song Run Out of Time ** (5.33)
124 (2000) Short strummy vocal song * (2.05)
125 (1998) Euphoric synth melodies ** (6.44)
126 (1998) Short eerie Eastern synth figure ** (1.33)
127 (1998) Ticking filtered sinister apprehension w. disturbances breaking through **** (5.56)
128 (1998) High pitched atonal crystalline rhythm pattern ** (2.28)
129 (1998) Church organ plays sea shanty * (2.08)
130 (1998) Odd little bass mood *** (3.04)
131 (2015) Japanese percussion & horns *** (2.46)
132 (2015) Mysterious mechanical groove **** (2.42)
133 (2015) Industrial trip hop beats + phased, gated noise – excellent **** (3.15)
134 (2015) Bright airy synth , fast beats *** (3.00)
135
136 (1998) Stumbling solo piano ** (3.26)
137 (1997) Jolly but slightly annoying descending melody * (4.23)
138 (1997) Cheeky electronic rhythm w DAT glitch fx ** (2.31)
139 (1997) Apollo-esque ambience ***** (11.08)
140 (2020) Soft reverb piano, contemplative *** (4.30)
141 (2011) Super lush ***** (6.51)
142 (1998) Distant tinkly reverb piano *** (10.40)
143 (1998) Apollo-ish drift, beautiful as only Eno can do ***** (11.34)
144 (2000) Dreary vocal pop with Bontempi organ * (3.48)
145 (2002) Minimal Darkness tubular echoes *** (10.29)
146 (2002) Lush strings pulling in and out of focus **** (7.12)
147 (1997) Slowly see-sawing drone *** (4.01)
148 (1998) Downbeat moody chugger ** (5.32)
149 (1998) Version of ‘Blissed’ from The Drop, Piano, bongos and insistent chink **** (4.23)
150 (1998) Climbing starlight filtered melody, glistening, twinkling *** (3.53)
151 (1998) Electronic bird screeches ** (3.47)
152 (1998) Aimless keyboard doodle * (2.30)
153 (1998) Stilted electric piano solo ** (2.48)
154 (1998) Icy high keys ** (3.44)
155 (1998) Hesitant flute-esque keyboard exploration * (2.25)
156 (1994) Scary Deep space choir *** (6.27) 
157 (1994) African drums and metallic solo ** (4.15)
158
159 (2009) Solemn/sweet notes suspended *** (5.22)
160 (1991) Unreleased version of Fractal Zoom with distortion ***** (2.02)
161 (1991) Indian Violin and tablas ????
161 (2011) Slow, soft drifting pads **** (5.39)
162 (1991) Sneaky Bar jazz ** (4.02)
163 (1991) Sneaky Bar jazz II ** (3.57)
164 (1991) Eno vocal w. acoustic guitar, slap bass and keys – funky breakdown * (4.55)
165 (1991) Hey nonny nonny, Indian strings, London Bridge is falling down. * (3.49)
166 (1990) Ambient 4-ish – one of the best here ***** (12.02)
167 (2010) Slight sustained solo synth figure, hovering * (9.01)
168 (2019) Long decay piano & strings, slow sparse *** (9.26)
169 (1998) Purring undulating loop surges building to harsher noise *** 12.05)
170 (1989) Gentle Amazon forest ambience with birds, insects, building dread drone and bells **** (11.50)
171 (1995) Unbelievably beautiful dark ambience, celestial drift ***** (9.48)
172
173 (2017) Uplifting full band cut ***** (3.02)
174 (1994) Generative Xylophone noodle jazz * (3.39)
175 (1994) Insistent chugging machine rhythm w. whipping – long! *** (17.47)
176 (1994) Industrial hum / Stomping trip hip beat w. shimmering synths – long! **** (11.47)
177 (1994) Squeezebox & woodblock ** (4.22)
178 (1994) Percussive eastern rhythms ** (4.52)
179 (1994) Vocal harmonies and solemn keyboard * (1.50)
180 (1994) Eighties ambience with slithering background menace *** (2.18)
181 (1994) Menacing loop w. sudden random jazz piano *** (9.11)
182 (1991) Late night wander **** (3.14)
183 (1991) Nerve Net era snaking bass funk *** (4.47)
184 (1991) Off kilter bass mood *** (4.53)
185 (1991) Another Green World-like guitar and piano journey *** (2.46)
186 (1991) Atonal melody meander – Aphex before Aphex *** (3.39)
187 (1991) Sprightly, frantic urgent twiddling eastern melodies *** (2.51)
188 (1991) Godlike genius ambient ***** (5.34)
189 (1991) Slap bass and organ groove, Fractal Zoom-like drums ** (3.14)
190 (1991) Deep broody ambience / ‘The Electrician’-like dread **** (4.27)
191 (1991) Deeper broody ambience / Distant suspense, deep bass tones **** (5.56)
192 (1994) Short, sparse, hesitant bongs * (2.07)
193 (1994) Light, bobbling, slightly creepy ambience **** (6.05)
194 (1994) Low strings, acoustic, background female choir harmonies *** (4.29)
195 (1994) Low hovering cello *** (6.07)
196 (1994) Low whirring menacing drones and strings *** (3.56)
197 (1994) Low synth bass w high weirdo keys * (2.43)
198 (1994) Military tattoo drums w. metal banging and airy keys * (3.52)
199 (1994) Waves of voices, rushing, percolating noise, chiming bell, industrial thud *** (9.35)
200 (1989) Marsh-like Ambient 4 whistling birds ***** (14.55)

201 (1991) Organ-led vocal song *** (3.23)
202 (2005) Sombre string synths soaring and diving *** (3.29)
203 (1995) Hysterical piano and modulating sub bass machine jazz *** (3.36)
204 (1995) Watery submerged piano cascade reverb *** (8.06) an alternative version of ‘A Long Way Down’ from ‘Another Day on Earth’
205 (2001) Short filtered rising falling drum ** (2.55)
206 (2018) Live drums w. menace *** (4.09)
207 (2020) Cautious keys, building, dropping *** (5.25)
208 (2021) Fast bleep-y keyboard algorithm composition, sounds like early LFO or Autechre *** (3.54)
209 (2021) Gorgeous ambient drift / Distant reverb flutes, this one is lush – long too ***** (7.47)
210 (2020) Soft focus waves ebbing and flowing **** (4.57)
211 (2021) Solo piano algorithms & building strings *** (2.49)
212 (2021) Violin top note ambience, soft low and slow **** (12.53)
213 (2018) Euphoric ambient pads *** (3.21)
214 (1991) Eastern keyboard figures * (5.04)
215 (1991) Wailing vocal ballad with piano ** (5.33)
216 (1991) Off-kilter creep jazz bass riff w. soaring synth guitar solo and random piano * (4.46)
217 (1991) Fractal Zoom-ish upbeat funk w. squalling synths, metallic drums **** (5.35)
218 (1991) Vocal version of another song with different backing ** possibly 215 (5.18)
219 (1991) Dark ocean seabed *** (8.26)
220 (1991) Duplicate of another track here (163 Sneaky Bar Jazz II) eastern keyboard melody on fast tapping rhythm ** (3.57)
221 (1991) Arabic jam *** (2.52)
222 (2019) Ambient version of faster break number, excellent slow swoop **** (3.56)
223 (2021) Guitar and piano meander * (3.31)
224 (1994) Scary swirling **** (11.18)
225 (1991) High pitched ambience – beautiful and long ***** (12.25)
226 (2001) Singing bowls *** (3.25)
227 (2001) Choir singing bowls ***** (6.13)
228 (1995) Creeping ambience *** (3.26)
229 (1991) Deep ambient, winding drone w. distant movements **** (5.54)
230 (1994) Urgent snappy machine rhythm w. bubbling xylophone menace **** (4.23)
231 (1991) Stately synth bombast – same track as 232 despite year difference * (4.28)
232 (1994) Solemn synths – same track as 231 despite year difference * (4.28)
233 (2020) Spatial drift w. skittish surging signals *** (8.14)
234 (2020) Low droning cello ** (7.28)
235 (2020) Fading mournfulness / Low slow strings sweeps *** (4.44)
236 (2000) Offbeat machine funk and twisting bass **** (3.49)
237 (2000) Ominous drone ** (5.40)
238 (2000) Trampolines no beat with fast violin, short * (1.56)
239 (1996) Sombre strings ** (4.35)
240 (2000) Late night radio hiss, bobbing tempo and interference building to gorgeousness **** (5.11)
241 (2020) Insistent percussion over mysterious drone *** (2.28)
242 (1995) Digital horns over tepid rhythm – more sneaky bar jazz? * (4.16)
243 (1996) Whirring ambience *** (5.09)
244 (1996) Plinky Piano / Duelling solo pianos * (3.00)
245 (2021) Twangy guitar and backwards tape loops ** (4.05)
246 (2000) Early version of ‘Bloom’ from Drawn From Life **** (4.28)
247 (2021) Solo piano repeat figures *** (4.40)
248 (2020) Buzzing gated rhythm surging, ping pong highlights *** (2.13)
249 (2000) Dark fuzzy menace – Electrician-like ** (5.39)
250 (1994) Fast throbbing industrial engine rhythm w. floating electronics – long jam *** (12.12)
251 (2020) Desolate windy tundra **** (5.03)
252 (2020) Short slight tension, bright, Vangelis-like *** (4.11)
253 (2000) Ghostly vocoder ambience / Synthetic vocal poem with eerie accompaniment *** (5.01)
254 (2000) Acoustic light *** (2.51)
255 (2021) Distant girl reverb ambient *** (3.36)
256 (2021) Warm bass, high shimmering tones, hovering **** (7.29)
257 (1996) Fast percussion + bass, pursuit *** (7.40)
258 (1996) Lilting late night keys **** (3.14)
259 (2021) Double-timed bass with half time percussion and keyboard flourishes *** (5.10)
260 (1994) Insistent bobbing rhythm with synth washes and exploratory keys ** (3.32)
261 (1991) Gorgeous ambient, one of the best on here ***** (18.06)
262 (1998) Short bass groove with sinister keys *** (3.39)
263 (2009) Beautiful rising/falling synth chords w. muted kick drum **** (5.23)
264 (1994) Ominous background riff w. new bulletins and football match *** (2.26)
265 (2000) Two dogs in the night – excellent female spoken voice dark bass groove ***** (4.13)
266 (2019) Undulating pulsing techno *** (3.55)
267
268 (1996) Banging techno w. very bad scratching down to downtempo trip hop w. Miles David trumpet – very un-Eno **** (2.50)
269 (2000) Odd meandering wordless vocal w. sprightly melodic keys **** (7.41)
270
271 (2021) Downtempo doom-y band groove w. synth horns and percussion *** (3.14)
272 (2021) Ringing chime triplets ** (1.57)
273 (2018) Speedy skittering techno jazz w. organ solo and distorted vocal ***** (3.39)
274 (2018) Hiiiieeee!!!! *** (3.53)
275 (2018) Solo tremolo guitar ** (4.35)
276 (2020) Minimal plucked bleeps * (2.11)
277 (2010) Beautiful sparse chime keys – gorgeous **** (5.43)
278 (2021) More machine funk, algorithmic edits and high pitched top notes *** (2.44)
279 (2010) Lilting piano and odd strings – (title: Ross & Cromarty) ** (3.32)
280 (2021) Soft xylophone type melodies ** (2.05)
281 (2020) Grinding bass groove **** (4.03)
282 (2020) Murky reverb keys** (3.35)
283 (2020) Creepy pings, oriental tones *** (2.10)
284 (2018) Fast throbbing helicopter drumming *** (3.15)
285 (2006) Banging trip hop beats and breaks **** (3.04)
286 (2021) Off kilter machine funk *** (3.40)
287 (2019) Fractured transmissions breaking through, rumbling, becoming clearer ** (6.34)
288
289 (2018) Drum machine edits & wah wah funk **** (2.14)
290 (2103) Dark ambient kick short *** (3.30)
291 (2017) Bell-like tones **** (8.47)
292 (2017) Mournful woodwind ambience *** (15.17)
293 (2013) Live band jam, wandering guitar plucks, squealing solos, Drawn From Life-ish ** (8.34)
294 (2021) Bass synth noodle & stabs * (3.35)
295 (2011) Filtered fast breakbeat, throbbing bass and mysterious keys, DnB tempo *** (2.38)
296 (2016) Mid tempo bobbing gated pad / Gently bobbing keyboard instrumental ** (296)
297 (2019) Excellent moody downtempo beats and electronics ***** (4.50)
298 (2020) Arabian Eno vocal, uptempo live drums **** (4.05)
299 (1997) Epic choir and State of Independence vibe / pitched vocals **** (4.20)
300 (2019) Sweet descending reverb motif, building *** (4.57)

301
302 (2018) Meandering lightness & bass drops – long and beautiful! ***** (21.34)
303 (2004) Chugging rhythm w. wordless auto tuned vocal song idea, euphoric keys, short then fade*** (3.15)
304 (2009) Double time kick drum progression under triumphant organ melody ** (2.43)
305 (2005) Vocal song about eyes w. electric guitar and organ accompaniment ** (3.27)
306 (2004) Piano decays + ticking, short spoken word ‘almost like now’ *** (3.12)
307 (2004) Solo Eno vocal and piano *** (1.48)
308 (2006) Brian sounds miserable vocal song * (4.26)
309 (1996) Choir in space- short *** (2.15)
310 (2000) Beautiful undulating ambience, sunny warmth **** (9.58)
311 (2000) Slightly atonal glimmering crystal synths and washes ** (6.12)
312 (2000) Terry Riley-esque organ figures *** (4.05)
313 (2000) Drums w. echo & keys jam * (10.27)
314 (2000) Version of ‘Persis’ from Drawn From Life. Plodding beat and strings ***** (5.17)
315 (1999) Stark drum break reverb w. distorted electric bass *** (4.04)
316 (1999) Offbeat dark jazz rhythm w. surging monster sounds **** (5.23)
317 (1999) Shimmering crystal ambience **** (5.43)
318 (1999) So so-lo synth melody ** (6.59)
319 (2000) Frippertronic-like interweaving ambience **** (4.12)
320 (1999) Soaring & dive bombing ambience ***** (7.23)
321 (1999) Downtempo beats and drill bass ** (8.01)
322 (1999) Downtempo gated bass, drum machine and 80s-ish synth song arrangement ** (4.30)
323 (1999) Vocoder version of ‘Two Voices’ from Drawn From Life ***** (4.35)
324
325 (2019) Sweet ethereal melodies, Xmas-y ** (3.09)
326 (2021) Short Beautiful solo piano **** (2.08)
327 (2014) Female vocal experiments bird-like calls **** (6.52)
328 (2020) Squelchy fast machine funk ** (4.11)
329 (2000) Building Kinetic machine rhythms *** (8.06)
330 (2012) Neon Lights-ish pleasant synth and drum machine song ** (4.48)
331 (1999) Solo Arabian synth melody noodle * (2.41)
332 (2021) Abrasive chime reverb drone w. undulating high notes **** (8.57)
333 (1999) Short church organ figure ** (1.20)
334 (2021) Very fast drum machine percussion and wailing eastern synth w. micro edits *** (3.21)
335 (2019) Uplifting synth in 6/8 time *** (4.03)
336 (1999) Insistent throbbing foreboding click rhythm, snaking melody **** (9.10)
337 (2020) Odd, weird, slow, disjointed ** (3.11)
338 (1999) Oh this is really good! Beautiful soaring ambience ***** (6.29)
339 (2004) Eno vocal harmonies meets odd pop w. edited screech guitar and wayward piano ** (3.44)
340 (2021) Insistent strumming w. airy pads – short! *** (3.29)
341 (1999) Uptempo tribal drums, wah guitar, percussion and stereo electronics FX – funk jam **** (2.41)
342 (2021) Euphoric synth stomp ** (3.16)
343 (1999) Shimmering high pitched crystals **** (14.29)
344 (2013) Winding acoustic and piano shimmer ** (7.48)
345 (1999) Funeral procession solo keys** (2.17)
346 (2020) Galloping almost acid techno fading into ambience *** (2.09)
347 (1999) Crystals dropping – stunning ***** (2.58)
348 (2005) Upbeat vocal pop ditty, down down ** (5.21)
349 (1999) Excellent moody throbbing 6/8 beat & bass, War of the Worlds-ish synth motif ***** (5.33)
350 (2004) Rhodes-y solo ambience ** (4.58)
351 (1996) Mid tempo funk bass/guitar w. meandering keyboard + female instructional vocal ** (4.48)
352 (2000) Woozy high keyboard figures *** (3.33)
353 (1996) Sustained voice and keyboard drift meld *** (6.42)
354 (1996) Short stark piano piece ** (1.58)
355 (2021) Electronic autechre-ish mood ** (3.58)
356 (2004) Jangly acoustic vocal song, “I saw you there” ** (3.34)
357 (2019) Synth bass and glitched, loping beats ** (2.00)
358 (1996) Fast guitar funk w. keyboard solos and robotic drums *** (3.32)
359 (1994) Organ workout, short * (2.09)
360 (2000) Gorgeous ambient lushness ***** (7.28)
361 (2000) Bass synth exploratory w. delays ** (3.29)
362 (1996) Pitch-bent high synth solo, George Duke-esque * (3.52)
363 (1999) Bright, positive vocal pop tune * (6.42)
364 (2000) Undulating high pitched keyboard solo figures ** (2.06)
365 (2019) Slowly surging keyboard collage *** (3.10)
366 (2000) Gentle suspense, singing bowls tapping, builds to dark mood *** (7.57)
367 (2020) Plodding slow loop w sax/cow moo ** (3.42)
368 (2020) Mournful suspense *** (6.13)
369 (2020) Slow, sombre, languid guitar and keys ** (4.28)
370 (2020) Edited tabla workout with bass zooms and insistent piano *** (4.12)
371 (2021) Slow, meandering, open plains drift w. Skittish high pitched vocal **** (4.36)
372 (2020) Subdued mood movement ** (4.20)
373 (2020) Slow, mournful organ piece w. sparse beats ** (3.19)
374 (2021) Piano and Oboe-ish tension ** (3.22)
375 (2005) Country Eno song * (4.01)
376 (2005) Reverb-y downtempo song, swing hi-hats, ‘it’s no’ vocal *** (2.44)
377 (2006) Space radio signals, sparse w. huge swells *** (3.47)
378 (1994) TFF Shout-esque beat with wobbly top line ** (5.54)
379 (2000) Spooky climbing keys w reverb *** (5.16)
380 (2000) Sleep, sleep, vocal song idea ** (2.57)
381 (1999) Muted guitar squall and distant vocal repeats ** (2.10)
382 (2021) Gated epic chords ** (4.49)
383 (1999) Swirling atmospherics, ominous tension ** (3.00)
384 (1999) Muted Jazz drums w filtered atoms loop delays ** (5.06)
385 (1994) Gorgeous synth ambience **** (3.25)
386 (1996) Nerve Net-ish dark insistent groove with tapping and huge shifts *** (8.22)
387 (2021) High pitched dark ambience, Eno cyber vocal ‘In the last world’ **** (3.52)
388 (2021) Intrepid gongs **** (3.40)
389 (2020) Minimal shifting bass ambience w. panning high notes *** (4.08)
390 (2020) Urgent passing data surges in the night ** (2.49)
391 (2020) Soft beats and underlying static with minimal melodic flourishes ** (2.48)
392 (2013) Winding feedback screech pad and sombre ambience ** (2.24)
393 (2019) Solo keyboard melody idea *** (1.56)
394 (2017) Ticking beats and Kraftwerk-ish vocoder voice *** (2.29)
395 (2018) Inside a huge metallic tunnel ** (4.03)
396 (2020) Soft spooky-voiced wailing lament * (7.11)
397 (2019) Gated, almost Silent Night melody ** (3.28)
398 (1994) Fast machine rhythm, industrial w. fluctuating blobs and high synth lines, Long jam! *** (14.42)
399 (2011) Gorgeous drifting ambience with gaps, stereo panning – lush and very long ***** (24.20)

400 (2023) Long decay generative piano figures *** (13.33)
401 (2021) Fast sci-fi beats and urgent synths with micro edits **** (3.22)
402 (2022) Very odd, almost tribal electronica with decays *** (2.54)
403 (2023) Creeping suspense *** (4.44)
404 (2019) More amorphous gorgeous ambience ***** (5.04)
405 (2023) Stunning, how does he do it? ***** (5.09)
406 (2017) High female vocals ambience + reverb *** (3.03)
407 (2019) Cocteau’s-like guitar shoe gaze *** (3.38)
408 (2018) Pitched down Laraaji-like acoustic plucking with strings *** (7.30)
409 (2023) Wordless male and female voices swirling about the ether with crows. Soft far away tocking ** (4.51)
410 (2023) Quivering wordless ghostly voice + piano * (2.35)
411 (2019) Jaunty bright synth piece ** (3.09)
412 (2023) Percussion and electronics joined by male voices *** (2.44)
413 (2023) Lantern organ wurlitzer with faraway explosions ** (3.12)
414 (2023) Throbbing hum with choir-like synth voices ** (4.24)
415 (2023) Deep moody ambience with ticking ** (3.47)
416 (2023) Beautiful ambience, rising and falling, wordless high vocals, end of your life credits stuff, possibly related to 415 in places *** (6.39)
417 (2023) Otherworldly, mysterious deep space – gorgeous **** (3.27)
418 (2023) Fast jazz jungle jam with recorded documentary voice background and ominous sax *** (4.39)
419 (2023) Slow, deep bass synth and percussive rocking ** (4.11)
420 (2019) Epic Ship-like ambience with Eno singing *** *clicks (7.32)
421 (2023) Meandering medieval drone * (5.52)
422 (2023) Theme to a deep sea dive, inside the diving suit *** (7.56)
423 (2020) Solo organ piece, dips between funeral and euphoria *clicks ** (4.11)
424 (2023) Slow techno beat with bright overtones and female choir *** (3.43)

UPDATE 2024: There are at least 25 new tracks from 2023 and 2022 added as of Feb 2024 bringing the total up to 449. #429 will also be available on the forthcoming Eno documentary soundtrack album.

425 (2023) (3.27)
426 (2022) (3.21)
427 (2023) (5.34)
428 (2023) (4.46)
429 (202?) (5.43)
430 (2023) (2.13)
431 (2023) (1.20)
432 (2023) (2.24)
433 (2023) (4.51)
434 (2023) (3.29)
435 (2023) Thin synth with moody bass and washed-out female vocals. (6.26)
436 (2023) (5.35)
437 (2023) (4.39)
438 (2023) (9.22)
439 (2023) (1.16)
440 (2023) (3.43)
441 (2023) Muffled vocal sounds with minimal, hesitant beat (3.48)
442 (2022) (4.15)
443 (2022) (4.54)
444 (2023) Electronic birds with drifty ambient strings and light (8.59)
445 (2023) (5.00)
446 (2023) (2.31)
447 (2023) Solemn but beautiful piano ambience with long decay *** (6.54)
448 (2023) (4.16)
449 (2023) Airy, low atmospherics, building and fading with sinister shimmer (3.56)

Mixcloud Select 112 Strictly Kev – Soul Jazz Selection 25/07/2005

MS112 Soul Jazz Select CDR
A jazz and beats-heavy hours from mid July 17 years ago this week. The lead track is from Loka who were just releasing their first records on Ninja Tune and who now have so many aliases I can’t keep up (I just got the new Rotary Fifth LP this week and there’s also Harmoniche 23). Nostalgia 77 follows, this was during Tru Thoughts golden period where they barely put a foot wrong release-wise and Nostalgia aka Ben Lamdin was always a solid producer. Afu-Ra’s ‘Poisonous Taoist’ was doing the rounds on a weird bootleg-like 12” I seem to remember which I can’t find on Discogs, great DJ Premier production.

The only mention of the Kid Sublime ‘This Way’ track on Discogs is on a Japanese comp from 2008 which can’t be right unless I had a time machine. Lovely Harmonic 33 track mining the Lalo Schifrin vibe, the first of two from the ‘Music For Film, Television & Radio volume 1’ album on Warp (still don’t think we’ve seen a vol.2). Elmore Judd fitted into that west coast beat maker scene for a bit, Madlib, Dilla, Sa-Ra and Dr Who-DAT?. DJ Vadim’s One Self project with Blu Rum 13 and Yarah Bravo was on the same tip too. The Bees’ trippy remix was only on the 7” and sees Ninja riding a nice line between rap, soul and jazz. I really need to revisit this Harmonic 33 album, it’s really aged well. More Ninja business from The Herbaliser’s fifth album, ‘Take London’ with one of my favourites of theirs – ‘Geddim!’ in fine Roy Budd style, (as usual I love the uptempo numbers). Ollie once told me the source of the main riff and it’s really obvious once you know it but I’m sworn to secrecy.

Weirdly I’ve had Digital underground’s ‘Packet Man’ in my head all week and now Humpty Hump (RIP) turns up on this Perceptionists track, a group that includes Mr Lif from the B side of their second single. It’s a brilliant expose of gang bangers wanting to get into the rap game and they suggest better alternatives for their ‘skills’. Roisin Murphy produced by Matthew Herbert is always a joy, he has such a minimalist groove and bounce to this, from her Ruby Blue album. Ending with the vocoder funk of Rubin Steiner and Break Reform’s gorgeous Cut A Map in The Soles Of My Feet from their final album.

MS112 Soul Jazz Select PRS

Wasps – Solid Steel intro
Loka – Safe Self Tester
Nostalgia 77 – Cheney Lane
Afu Ra – Poisonous Taoist
Kid Sublime – This Way feat. U Gene
Harmonic 33 – Long Shadow
Elmore Judd – There’s A War Going On
One Self – Blue Bird (The Bees version)
Harmonic 33 – Paranoia
The Herbaliser – Geddim!
Prefuse 73 – Just The Thought feat. GZA & Masta Killa
Perceptionists – Career Finders feat Humpty Hump
Roisin Murphy – Ramalama (Bang Bang)
Rubin Steiner – Turn Off The Lights
Break Reform – Cut A Map In The Soles Of My Feet

Mixcloud Select 111: Solid Steel – Kev vs Oscar The Golden Child 08/02/1998

MS111 TapeHere’s a couple of early 1998 sets strung together from a Solid Steel show I did with Oscar The Golden Child aka Oscar Wilson. I knew Oscar from the early days of the Sunday Best club, run by Rob Da Bank before he started Bestival. Oscar was/still is a super-talented illustrator and graphic artist as well as a DJ so we hit it off easily and I invited him in to play on the show a few times. We took turns in doing a half hour each and here I’ve strung my two sets together, check out his work here

Kicking off the mix with good old Boards of Canada, I think this might be the original Skam 7” mix of Aquarius, itself now an eye-watering average price of around £170 to find. Sliding messily into Skylab, and I do know the title, it’s actually ‘?’ but I don’t know whether this is part 1,2 or 3 as I can’t find my 12” of it. Over to the French connection for DJ Vadim’s remix of DJ Cam’s ‘Innervisions’ next featuring A-Cyde and Air’s still exquisite ‘All I Need’ classic. I’d forgotten the madness of Clifford Gilberto’s Timber remix, wow, how crazy is that? Probably doesn’t help that I’m playing the Balanese Monkey Chant over parts of it. This might have been before he’d actually released anything on Ninja aside from a track on the Funkungfusion compilation too, nothing like a new artist wanting to impress. The madness continues with AFX’s ‘Bummy’ from the Mealtime compilation on Planet Mu, complete with its odd speed up/slow down programming.

After an intrusive KISS jingle we’re into the second set, kicking off a brief electronic section with Lowish from the debut dual release with Solvent on Canada’s Suction Records and Phoenicia’s debut on Warp. Food fans may recognise the odd sample cropping up in the coming selection but it would be remiss of me to give the game away, it was a different time and library, electronic jazz and easy listening was being hoovered up and turning up all sorts of great tunes. Apologies for the chunky mixing, those tricky time signatures. Jasper van’t Hof’s amazing ’T.E.E. Again’ sounds like Boards before Boards and I always thought the early On-U Sound project Missing Brazilians sounded like a template for some of The Orb’s dub workouts. The distortion on that is actually on the record, crazed dub from 1984 on their sole release, Warzone which was reissued back in 2015.

I have to say, I don’t remember these really full on KISS FM jingles that crop up now and again, they point to the change the station was undergoing, getting more commercial and we’d be leaving in a year or so.

Track list:
Boards Of Canada – Aquarius
Skylab – ? (Part ?)
DJ Cam – Innervisions (DJ Vadim remix)
Air – All I Need
Coldcut – Timber (Clifford Gilberto mix 2)
AFX – Bummy
Lowfish – ESP (edit)
Phoenecia – Y-intercpnkt
George Duke – Nigerian Numberuma
Piero Umiliani – Topless Party
Hugo Montenegro – Stutterology
Jasper van’t Hof – T.E.E. Again
Missing Brazillians – Savanna Prance

Mixcloud Select 110 – Coldcut & Openmind in for Andrew Weatherall – 25/08/1994 3rd hour

MS110 tape

I’m doing something different this week by putting this hour up for all seeing as it’s half by Coldcut and half by myself. Subscribers who have last week’s 2nd hour can complete the full 3 hr show if you head over to Coldcut’s Solid Steel Mixcloud page where they will upload the first hour by Matt Black. The 3rd hour is below and open to all.

In a mirror of my set in last week’s upload I start with a Ken Nordine then an Orb track and into a pivotal tune that holds a special place for me in how things evolved in the 90s musically. I first heard Coldcut’s ‘Eine Kleine Hed Musik’ on their incredible Coldcut meets the Orb show of New Years Eve, 1991/92. At the time it was unreleased and when I first met Matt Black at one of our Telepathic Fish parties in 1993 I asked him what it was as there was no track list and no clue as to where it came from. He told me it was a Coldcut track but others weren’t sure about releasing it, to which I told him in no uncertain terms that it was amazing and perfectly timed with what was happening at the moment (elements of what would become trip hop bubbling up through the ambient scene).

This propelled him to include it on the vinyl version of Coldcut’s ‘Philosophy’ LP when Ninja Tune released it (the majors not seeing the point in vinyl at that point, how things change). This was at a point when (I think) Coldcut were still signed to A&M but breaking away and trying to get their name back to use on Ninja Tune as the label seemed to be losing interest and they were keen to be their own bosses, hence Ninja and the DJ Food alias. By the time of this show I had a solid vinyl copy of the track at last after having it on tape for 2.5 years, it gave Matt and I a connection from our first meeting and it represents a key point in my career as a DJ.

The Ballistic Brothers vs Eccentric Afros 12”s got so much action back in the mid 90s, seminal trip hop blueprints, probably never to be repressed due to huge samples I’d wager. The unknown ambient sax track up next was from a tape I bought in Ambient Soho, long since lost in the mists of time and the sax loop I’ve just discovered (via the power of Shazam) is the intro to Dionne Warwick’s ‘A House Is Not A Home’. Such a beautiful track made from a simple idea. Mike Oldfield meeting the Orb was always an idea waiting to be ticked off the list and their overhaul of his Sentinel track is one of their best remixes IMO. Swimming out of this come the Cocteau Twins with ‘Whales Tails’, I played a fair bit of 4AD stuff in chill out sets around this time, lots of This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance too.

I think Matt takes over for this last section so I can’t comment too much although the Autechre tracks might be me but I can’t be sure. This 3rd hour concludes the set – I’ve sent Matt’s 1st hour to him to put up on the Coldcut Mixcloud – and has a similar feel to the Alien Sphinx shows we used to do something on Solid Steel where we’d forego the ads and sometimes have an extra hour for one reason or another (British Summer Time ending was always one).

Tracklist:
Ken Nordine – You’re Getting Better
The Orb – Back Side Of The Moon (Underwater Deep Space)
Coldcut – Eine Kleine Hed Musik
The Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afros – Anti-Gun Movement
Unknown – Ambient sax track
Mike Oldfield Vs The Orb – Sentinel (Orbular Bells)
Cocteau Twins – Whales Tails

The Ink Spots – Do I Worry?
Coldcut – Sign
Drome – Hinterland, Kassler Kessel
Unknown – Unknown
Autechre – The Eggshell
Autechre – Flutter (on 33rpm)
Deep Space Network – Om
Tonoto’s Expanding Headband – Jetsex

Mixcloud Select 109 – Coldcut & Openmind in for Andrew Weatherall – 25/08/1994 2nd hour

MS109 Tape
Andrew Weatherall once had a late night, weekday show on KISS FM back in the 90’s, running – I think – between 1993 and 1994. Coldcut were asked to sit in for him a few times and I got to play one of these during August 1994. I can’t remember if we did it live, I doubt it being that it was 1-4am on a Wednesday night, we probably pre-recorded it.

This particular set is Matt Black and myself using multiple decks and CD players, I think I even bought a cassette in to play one particular piece from and it’s a good example of Solid Steel from around that time, quite ambient, downtempo with an uptempo electronic ending. Of the three hours, Matt did the first, I did the 2nd and most if not all of the 3rd, it’s hard to tell until I have a full track list.

Kicking off with Ken Nordine, then a recent find on a Rhino best of CD via Mixmaster Morris who introduced me to him in 1993 and blew my mind. The Orb we all know, hard to believe it’s 30 years this summer that this came out on the UFOrb album. Early Ninja beats from Up, Bustle & Out into Sounds From The Ground – a lesser heralded act from around this time which included Elliot Morgan Jones who was also Path who appear later. One of the first vinyl design jobs I ever did was for him under the Path alias on his own Sound Information label – lovely guy.

There’s been a lot of talk on the internet about trip hop this week and here are a brace of beats from older 80s cuts by the likes of Depth Charge and Tackhead with a couple of tracks from Aphex’s then newly-released Selected Ambient Works II and the Psychic Warriors of Gaia sandwiched in between. A brief dash of the Orb’s mix of KLF’s 3AM and another snatch of Ken from the Sound Museum, one of my absolute favourites by the man.

Things get multi-layered from here and I can’t identify all the tracks going on as many of them bleed into one another or run in the background, ducking and diving in and out of the mix. Steve Hillage’s ‘Rainbow Dome Musick’ is one of them and must play for at least 10 minutes or more. Global Communication’s ‘9.25’ I can definitely hear, the Path vs Spacehead is another and Tounesol’s ‘Holy Cow’ but there’s lots more going on in there. Once we reach Hillage there’s a slow build into quite a raucous section of pounding acid techno with a Beaumont Hannant track from the vinyl version of his Texturology album that I can’t find the name of. Out of this comes one of my favourite UK acid tracks – Sulphuric’s ‘Acid Chamber’ on Infonet – a sole release under this name being the work of Pete (The Hypnotist/MLO and may more) Smith and Kris Needs and it’s incredible. Hillage is still in the mix and then we get another Aphex track to play out, the pounding but mysterious ‘D-Scape’ from his ‘On’ release.

Tracklist:
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum
The Orb – O.O.B.E.
Up, Bustle & Out – Lazy Daze
Sounds From The Ground – Triangle
Depth Charge – Bounty Killers (Measly 1000 Bucks version)
Aphex Twin – Untitled (Flute SAW II)
P.W.O.G – Linkage
Aphex Twin – Untitled (Industrial Beats SAW II)
Tackhead – What’s My Mission Now?
KLF – 3AM (Blue Danube Orbital)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum
Global Communiation – 9.25
Unknown – Unknown
Path vs Spacehead – Neptune
Tounesol – Holy Cow
Steve Hillage – Rainbow Dome Musick
Beaumont Hannant – unknown
Sulphuric – Acid Chamber
Aphex Twin – D-Scape

Mixcloud Select 108: Beating Around The Bush 14/02/2005

MS108 CDr

This was a last half hour in early 2005, we’d traditionally save selections like this for the last slot, material that was a bit more esoteric and unusual, something to wind down with rather than kick off the show and risk people turning off. It’s a game of two halves but both are played for laughs with the former being country cover versions of hip hop classics and the latter being George Bush cut ups, mainly focused on the War in Iraq.

Ricky V Valentine’s ‘Ghetto Classics’ (split into two halves here) first appeared on the Souvenirs EP via the Leeds-based C Side Trax label and is – as far as I know – the only thing released under that name by whoever was behind it. It’s a brilliantly observed take off of Grandmaster Flash, NWA, Outcaste and Jay Z and more of a skit than a song. Nina Gordon was in mid 90’s band Veruca Salt, an indie/grungy pop band who the UK press loved for a minute which is why it’s so odd to hear her cover NWA in such a delicate way, brilliantly absurd. I probably got it from the internet but it turned up on what looks like a bootleg 45 years later in 2010 with a Richard Cheese cover on the flip which makes an appearance next with his take on Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin & Juice’.

MS108 PRS

Through the power of Discogs I’ve finally discovered who did the cover of ‘Boyz In (N) The Hood’ – it was alt rock band Dynamite Hack (no, me neither) – there’s a cheesy frat boy golfing video on YouTube to go with it too. Then we have tales from Boris ‘the hip hop roadie’ from Pitman’s second LP, according to Boris he was the catalyst for most of hip hop’s founding moments. No idea where I found the ‘Ace of Spades’ cover (probably online, it was the file-sharing 00’s) but the vocal is a dead ringer for Lemmy or they found the multi-tracks somewhere.

Now comes the George Bush half of the set with the bizarre George Bush Singers shadowing lines cut from Bush speeches. This comes from a whole album entitled ‘Songs In The Key of W’ which I’m now keen to hear and has sent me down a YouTube/Discogs wormhole. Big City Orchestra have been making cut ups in the tradition of Negativland for decades and they have a special take on George, the origin of which I’ve no idea as their discography is so huge. After another blast of the GWB Singers we finish with ‘Bushwhacked 2’ – a collaboration by Chris Morris and Osymyso released on Warp records with this being a remix by Jonathan Whitehead. Dubya was the subject of many cut ups over the years with his speeches an easy target for re-editing, these weren’t the first or the last to be featured on Solid Steel.

PS: As you can see my KLF mix was also archived on this disc although it wasn’t broadcast on this show, to hear it you can go here https://www.mixcloud.com/strictlykev/the-sound-of-music/

Track list:
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.1
Nina Gordon – Straight Outta Compton
Richard Cheese – Gin & Juice
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.2
Dynamite Hack – Boyz In the Hood
Pitman – Boris
Twistin Tarantulas – Ace Of Spades
The George W. Bush Singers – 4,000 Hours
Big City Orchestra – F The Leader
The George W. Bush Singers – War in Iraq
10NN – Bushwhacked 2 (Gim Ponavesspa conclusion)

Mixcloud Select -107 Satanic Messages in Rock pt 492 Solid Steel 03/02/2003

MS107 Satanic Messages in Rock CDR
This is a silly one, a short collection of mostly comedy, cover versions or mash up tracks that was probably a last half hour in early February of 2003. The CD says ‘Satan’ but the PRS sheet states, ‘Satanic Messages in Rock pt 492’. Opening with Kenny Everett who loved his Jean-Jacques Perry as a backing track, we slide quickly into a laid back Stereolab remix of The Polyphonic Spree’s ‘Soldier Girl’. By this point, the internet was yielding all sorts of audio treats via numerous illegal file sharing sites and the preacher talking about Satanic messages in rock music is spoken word gold and peppered throughout the mix. Including Missy Elliot’s ‘Work It’ chorus which reverses itself was a nice touch. The Queen classic ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ was mentioned so it made sense to include it and showcase exactly what the preacher was talking about, I’ll let you discover it for yourself.

I’ve no idea where ‘I’m A Mormon’ came from but I thought it was funny, apologies to all Mormons out there. Now into a couple of ska cover version, Mancini’s peerless ‘A Shot In The Dark’ from the Pink Panther and ‘Caravan’, always go down well at parties. The Amelie theme song set to an electronic background was probably found on the web, I loved the film so this connected. More preaching over the end of it in the form of a ludicrous list of performers and films that were deemed ‘satanic’ by the church in the 80’s. Back to the silliness and the Perry & Kingsley, this time paired with the ‘Thong Song’ by Frenchbloke & Son, two of the funniest practitioners of the mash up scene and friends to this day. Moog Country meets Missy next with more backwards lyrics and then into Andy Votel’s cover of the ‘Chatanaga Choo Choo’ from the Finders Keepers Jukebox series of 45s.

We play out with an excerpt from the DJs On Strike Solid Steel mix which was so crazy it was vetoed by the powers that be and self-released on CD by the group as ‘Too Hot For Solid Steel’. I excerpted a couple of bits so that you get the gist and added Kenny in for the final few bars.

Tracklist:

Kenny Everett – Hello/Moog theme
Polyphonic Spree – Soldier Girl (Stereolab remix)
Missy Elliot – Work It
Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
Janine Brady & the Brite Singers – I’m a Mormon
Roland Alphonso – A Shot In The Dark (Take 1)
Roland Alphonso – Ska-ra-van (Take 2)
Unknown – Amelie On Ice
Frenchbloke & Son – Unidentified Flying Thong
Dsico – This Is Missy Country
Andy Votel – Chatanaga Choo Choo
DJs On Strike – Too Hot For Solid Steel (excerpt)

Mixcloud Select 106: Tomorrow Radio Solid Steel 16/09/2002

MS106 CDr
Tomorrow Radio is the name of an amazing LP by the advertising group, TM Productions Inc. I found it in the States one time on tour and the whole album is an audio play based on a fictitious radio station showcasing what the production company can do for your station in the way of ads, jingles and suchlike. Samples from the album feature throughout the mix and it’s worth checking out if you find a copy as there’s a very dodgy ‘advert’ nestled in there which wouldn’t pass in today’s world. This is a Solid Steel set from nearly 20 years ago, a time when I was very prolific on the show and getting more into making densely layered mixes.

Anyway, let’s get to it, an excellent Four Tet remix opener as he takes on Blue States, the Sinewave track I’d completely forgotten though. He was a Canadian drum & Bass artist who is mixed over the Four Tet remix, the track comes from his debut album, ‘Interplanterary Ridicule’. The P Brothers work over The Herbaliser and Blade in their unique style, love the way they put his vocal through an Echoplex, not enough delay in hip hop, not since ‘Beat Bop’ anyway. RJD2’s ‘Let The Good Times Roll’ still sounds as rough and ready as it always did, he seemed to just appear fully formed and slot straight into the scene at the time before moving off into other areas. Dennis Coffey’s classic, ‘Scorpio’ flows nicely out of it and under LCD Soundsystem’s debut ‘Losing My Edge’, one of my favourite tracks of the decade – absolutely timeless, still makes the hairs on my neck stand up. ‘Scorpio’ needs a fair amount of pushing and pulling to keep in time but it’s just about there.

MS106 PRS

The Free Association liberally take from Johnny Jones and the King Casuals’ version of ‘Purple Haze’ on ‘Everybody Knows’ – this was an instrumental before the vocal version I think. I always hoped Holmes and co. would do more with this alias but he had bigger fish to fry in Hollywood. Soulwax’s excellent remix of The Sugarbabes slotted right in, you can hear the Electroclash scene working into the mix here. Apparat Organ Quartet put out a curious 7” on David Holmes’ 13 Amp label and I had to look them up to see what else they’d done. A CD single on Duophonic Super 45s and two albums it seems. Johann Jonhannsson was also part of the group early on as well it says on Discogs but had to leave because of solo projects. I think I first heard of Mr Chop via his releases on the Jazzman offshoot label, Stark Reality and he’d later go on to record for Jazz & Milk, Now-Again and Five Day Weekend. I love Barry Adamson, he has the kind of voice I can always listen to and he’s in hamming it up pop mode here, I’d love to do something with him one day, almost remixed him a few years back but the stars didn’t align. A rare case of an artist adding their child to a record and it not being cringe-worthy.

Always have time for Andy Votel’s work, whether graphic or sonic, ‘Lenica’ was a promo-only release at the time (big sample I think) which showcases his wonky production style to perfection. Nice little delay mix into it and odd Tomorrow Radio insert in the middle, I must have added that later in the edit as a lot of this mix seems live. I would record a pass on decks (all vinyl, no Serato yet) with a delay pedal and then tidy up stuff and overdub spoken word sections in Cubase afterwards. Early Reptiles release from their debut 7” on Jazz Fudge offshoot Electro Caramel (only four releases) with vocals from Juice 126 and Remi/Rough who is still one of the hardest working men in the game. Ah, the Bug/Tom Jones mash up I made under my Flexus alias (there’s an album’s worth of these peppered throughout Solid Steel mixes). I played this at the Supersonic festival in Birmingham when I appeared the next year with The Bug, LCD Soundsystem and Coil among others, in fact I think Coil were playing their Time Machines set outside while I was inside, they were probably well pissed off as the sound leaked like buggery. Ming & FS were super-prolific around the late 90s and 00s and ‘The Most Dangerous Drip’ comes from the Subway Series on OM Records. I’ve no idea why The Goodies’ version of ‘Wild Thing’ finishes the set off here but I have a soft spot for their uniquely British silliness.

Track list:
TM Productions Inc. – Tomorrow Radio intro
Blue States – Metro Sound (Four Tet mix)
Sinewave – Escape From The Island
The Herbaliser feat Blade – Time To Build (P Brothers mix)
RJD2 – Let The Good Times Roll pt 2
Dennis Coffey – Scorpio
LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge
The Free Association – Everybody Knows
Sugarbabes – Round Round (Soulwax mix)
Apparat Organ Quartet – Stereo Rock & Roll
Mr Chop – Electric Vibes
Barry Adamson – Cinematic Soul
Andy Votel – Lenica
Reptiles – Electriclovesong
Flexus – Unusual killer
Ming & FS – The Most Dangerous Drip
The Goodies – Wild Thing
TM Productions Inc. – Tomorrow Radio outro

Mixcloud Select 105: Strictly’s Hip Hop Hour 29/05/2001

MS105 CDr
21 years ago this week I rounded up a bunch of current hip hop and presented the first half of a Solid Steel show that also included mixes from Four Tet and DK. The tracks largely fall into two camps, the serious, ‘backpacker’ kind, pushing things forward like the Anticon crew or the good time party kind with an eye of the 90s like the Quannum and Ugly Duckling camps. Samples are still a thing and the music is all the better for it with a mix of US and European artists. A lot of this has aged very well and I had a great trip down memory lane listening back. After the usual Solid Steel intro there’s a snatch of a US news report about the new phenomenon of hip hop where the newscaster actually raps along with a snatch of Beat Street Breakdown, probably found online.

Bristol’s Aspects open the show proper with a spoken word cut up track straight out of the Cut Chemist mould, possibly sampling the Columbia School Of Broadcasting set of ‘How To Be A DJ’ albums. Porn Theatre Ushers came out strong with ‘Me & Him’ in the late 90s and ‘Blah Blah Blah’ is taken from the follow up, Sloppy Seconds. They only released one album in 2004 which I’ve still not heard. PUTS were mining that classic 90s Primo/Pete Rock production style and always had solid tracks on their releases. DJ Vadim remixes Supersoul who released a bunch of singles and a couple of LPs over a ten year period and there’s another snatch of the vintage news report on hip hop.

MS105 PRS

The A-Trak scratch fest is worth hearing if only to catch DMC’s Tony Prince getting his name wrong from the time he won the Disco Mix Club finals when he was still 15. Def Tex were always underrated IMO, soulful production and decent lyrics, self-releasing before signing to Ninja-affiliated Son Records whose back catalogue is full of gems. It’s party time with the next three tunes kicking up the funk factor with The Nextmen remixing Rae & Christian, Cut Chemist all over Ugly Duckling and Pablo from the Psychonauts giving Lyrics Born and the Poets of Rhythm a bit of turntable grit. This track is a contender for the last great record on MoWax. More Aspects and Def Tex before a lesser known DJ Shadow compilation track makes an appearance.

Guru from Gang Starr’s remix sees him in Jazzmatazz mode of the M, M&W track and then we come to one of my fave Def Tex tracks, ‘Sing Sad Songs’. Produced by Francis Gooding (always asleep by midnight at parties) and Liam Large (he painted my windows once you know) under the name the Large Lefties on a one-off 7” that can criminally still be had for pennies. This is the instrumental part 2 with a scratched story over it but the Def Tex-rapped A side is great too. ‘Basmentized Soul’ is taken from Mr Flash’s debut 7”, ‘Le Voyage Fantastique’ and predates his move to Ed Banger by a couple of years. Changing things up a bit we get a Timmy Thomas cut from his debut LP before Canadian Kunga 219 slips into the mix. His sole album is quite a gem with people like Sixtoo, Buck 65, DJ Moves, Sole and more contributing production or rhymes and has since received a vinyl pressing some years back which you can still find copies of on Bandcamp. ‘Seasus’ brilliantly samples one of my favourite George Duke tracks, ‘North Beach’ so it made sense to finish the set with that.

Track list:
Coldcut – Solid Steel intro
Unknown – 80s Hip Hop News intro
Aspects – Correct English
Porn Theatre Ushers – Blah Blah Blah
People Under The Stairs – Underground Run
Supersoul – Sleepwalker (DJ Vadim remix)
A-Trak – Umbilical Chord
Def Tex – Hey Tune In
Rae & Christian feat. The Pharcyde – It Ain’t Nothing Like (Nextmen remix)
Ugly Duckling – Eye on the Gold Chain (Cut Chemist remix)
Quannum/Lyrics Born & The Poets of Rhythm – I Changed My Mind (Pablo mix)
Aspects – Bristol Fingers
Def Tex – Into The Future
DJ Shadow – Untitled Heavy beat 1&2
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Whatever Happened to Gus (Guru remix)
Def Tex – Sing Sad Songs Pt 2
Mr Flash feat. Mike Ladd – Basmentized Soul
Timmy Thomas – Cold Cold People
Kunga 219 – Seasus
George Duke – North Beach