Banging in with Doubleclick’s entry to the Solid Steel intro competition – we had so many entries – he went on to work with Amon Tobin later on in the early incarnation of Two Fingers. San Diego’s DJ Riko’s P Funked-Up remix of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Daft Punk Is…’ is a brilliant execution of the idea with extra female vocals to push the point home. Riko was a late-comer to the mash up craze but definitely did some memorable entries, probably best known for his ‘Whistler’s Delight’ release. Phil N’ Dog’s ‘Phat Pants’, best known for their huge ‘Doctor Pressure’ mash up, they follow it up by taking Leftfield’s ‘Phat Planet’ and Orbital’s ‘Acid Pants’ where Sparks’ Russel Mael intones “when the love track starts then the fun starts” over and over. It’s a banger but I don’t know if it came out, Phil – who today still drives his replica American police car, painted to resemble the KLF’s Ford Timelord – probably gave me a CDr with this on it. *Phil remembers: “I think I gave you the CD at Cargo if I remember correctly. No it never really came out as such. Eddy used to play it on XFM and Annie Mac on Radio 1, both from CDR’s I gave them but no vinyl pressings or anything more official were made.” Freddy Fresh comes with the first of three tracks from his Accidentally Classic album, did you know Freddy has made 26 albums over a 32 years career so far?

Another LCD mash-up pits their ‘Disco Infiltrator’ against the Star Wars Cantina Band – I’d forgotten this one, should have dug it out when I did the SW Secret Cinema. DJ Godzilla was responsible but I can’t find any release so this was probably an online download during those Wild West years of file-sharing. More Freddy Fresh with the B12-ish electro of ‘Random’ and then something that rung no bells until I googled it – Mikrosopht ‘Here Today’. Originating from a British online mash-up compilation ‘Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds’ which appeared at Hippocamp.net, this ambient patchwork of Beach Boys vocals and voices floats through the ether as an extraordinary example of this kind of audio collage. A similar approach was taken years later by Atticus Ross on the soundtrack for the Brian Wilson biopic, Love & Mercy. It’s the perfect bed for the extremely long build for the next track which takes up the middle section of the mix.

Autechre’s remix of Seefeel’s ‘Spangle’ from the mid 90’s was a classic in my mind the minute I heard it, despite not being released at the time for reasons unknown. I’d tried to get it on our Blech mix in some shape or form but Warp wouldn’t let us have it so I was pleased when Mark Clifford later independently released all 12.15 mins of it on his Polyfusia Records. It’s the ultimate slow burn builder from Sean and Rob and Warp later digitally released it in 2021. The next track by Hood definitely had me scratching my head – no recollection at all – but apparently they were a UK-based post rock band from Leeds, signed to Domino for the first half of the 00’s before going on hiatus. ‘Over The Land Over The Sea’ appeared on one of their last singles and pre-empts the final Freddy Fresh track of the set, the sparse electro of ‘I Go Around the World’. I don’t remember him being this electronic but he’s been all over the map in his career so it should come as no surprise. The final track comes from Bola’s fourth LP, ‘Gnayse’ (Bola-Gnayse – geddit?), the sublimely laid back sounds of Darrell Fitton on Skam overlaid with a bit of Blade Runner dialogue.

Track list:
Doubleclick – Solid Steel intro
DJ Riko – P Funk is Playing In My House
Phil ‘n’ Dog – Phat Pants
Freddy Fresh – Do You Hear It?
DJ Godzilla – Cantina Inflitrator
Freddy Fresh – Random
Mikrosopht – Here Today
Seefeel – Spangle (Autechre remix)
Hood – Over The Land Over The Sea
Freddy Fresh – I Go Around The World
Bola – Effanajor

Opening with a phone message from DK asking me to whip up a mix as he was stuck in Mexico we have a round up of stragglers from 20002. DK always seemed to be jet-setting around the globe back in the day, he’d go off for a few weeks here and there on ‘business’ and then be back only to jet off on tour again. Anyway, opening with one of two comedy skits based on Ja Rule’s then ubiquitous features on pop or rap records by an unknown comedian, these were probably downloaded from the web in those heady early days when the entire world of music seemed to be up for grabs on the feeblest of internet connections. A web search reveals that they were made by someone named David Brody for radio station Z100 NY and apparently later turned up on a 50 Cent mixtape without permission. ‘White Love’ was probably my best mash up and one I regularly played out for years to general approval from the dance floor – a ‘White Lines’ / ‘Like I Love You’ combo that just works, here in an extended form. The Splinter Group was another appearance by DK alongside old Ninja mucker Dean Smith in a one-off single that was an off-shoot from another project (splinter-geddit?).

Freeform’s ‘The Hallaboink’ was the b-side of a 7” on Skam and another Mancunian connection, Andy Votel, follows with his ‘Komedahead’ single which still gets an airing sometimes. More mash-ups with Frenchbloke and Son’s Kraftwerk/Right Said Fred collision that really shouldn’t work but does something neither could do in isolation – hence it joining the ranks of the very best of the genre. I had to look up where Luke Vibert’s ‘Feel Real Mad’ came from because it doesn’t appear on any album from that time, debuting at it did on the first Law & Auder release; a 3-track 12” also featuring Muslimgauze and Bedouin Ascent called ‘High Density 01’. Law & Auder was an interesting label that kind of caught the fall out from the demise of Rising High records for a bit, continuing to put out interesting compilations of leftfield electronic music including what must be one of the first all-female comps in 2011 which in itself was compiled 10 years before.

A prime bit of electro breakbeat from Polar next on the Certificate 18 label, straying away from DnB into other territories and then the Kid Koala-esque cut-up of Jack Planck with a mix which was in time but shouldn’t have been attempted with the swing it had on it. This was another alias of Jackknife Lee that appeared on an odd 7” on Rodeo Meat who released all sorts of oddities before being picked up by One Little Indian for a full album later on. A left turn into screeching organ funk with the Apparat Organ Quartet on David Holmes’ short-lived 13 Amp label with a car crash end mix as the former track wigs out just in time for the beat from Chief Xcel to drop. Xcel’s track mixes ‘Dear Prudence’ strings with a political message and played out the ‘Constant Elevation’ compilation on Astralwerks and here slides simply into ‘Charlie’s Theme’ from Jimi Entley Sound – an Adrian Utley / Geoff Barrow collaboration with a cover of ‘Apache’ on the flip. This now goes for silly money, hope I still have my copy.

Ja Rule is back! The second skit of Ja Ruling the cover version market mixes over the uptempo section of the former track before morphing into the frantic Busdriver ‘Imaginary Places’ where I get very scratch-happy, sorry about that. Seriously though, this track (without my scratching) is amazing, although the origin of the flute sample is alluding me right now. If only more rap was as forward-thinking as this – I was very happy to see him signed to Big Dada for three albums later on. John Kennedy’s superb remix of Aim’s ‘The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice’ is a bit of a lost classic although it doesn’t help that I’m mixing out-of-tune horns over the end of it from Jadell’s ‘To Morning’. My ear for tuning definitely wasn’t what it is now back then, there’s some wince-making moments on some of these mixes, of course, a lot of it was on the fly so sometimes you didn’t know until it was too late. Proper good soundtrack business from Jadell here with a bit of Burroughs slung over the top, this was one of the last things he did it seems, not seen him for years now.

Apologies for the rough mix into the Roots Manuva remix of The Free Association, that really was wonky but I used to love these dubs Rodney did, loose as you like, nice tempo switch up in the middle there too. Mr. Guder (featuring Dr. Rubberfunk on drums) crash in with a raw version of Herbie’s ‘Chameleon’ from Super Guder Breaks vol.1. Otto Von Schirach released a lot of his early material on Schematic out of Miami but this little number comes from a pink 7” on Imputor? (yes the ? is part of the label name) from Seattle, check their label profile on Discogs for a mission statement https://www.discogs.com/label/3497-Imputor?sort=year&sort_order=asc
Mr Dan (aka Dan Carey) plays us out with the excellent ‘Together’ which shows off his pop credentials despite being a electronic beat-fest – he’d be co-writing and producing Kylie’s ‘Slow’ that same year – and we end with another phone message from DK.

Track list:
Unknown – Ja Rule Diss
Flexus – White Love
The Splinter Group – Meaning of Life
Freeform – The Hallaboink
Andy Votel – Komedahead
Frenchbloke & Son – I’m Too Sexy to Be a Model
Luke Vibert – Feel Real Mad
Polar – Lectric
Jack Planck – 1974 Square Dance Documentary In Sound
Apparat Organ Quartet – Romantika (Live)
Chief Xcel – Multitude
Jimi Entley Sound – Charlie’s Theme
Unknown – Ja Rule Diss 2
Busdriver – Imaginary Places
Aim – The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice (John Kennedy remix)
Jadell – To Morning
The Free Association – (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart (Roots Manuva remix/Dub)
Mr. Guder – Chameleon
Otto Von Schirach & Sindri – Sduisant Lollipop
Mr Dan – Together

The second half of a tape from a show shared with Julia aka the Black Bitch, an excellent techno and electronic DJ who featured on Solid Steel a few times during the 90s. This is just my set, a busy half hour that jumps all over the place stylistically and kicks off with Scotland’s DJ Krash Slaughta featuring II Tone Committee and Killa Instinct. A dynamite slice up uptempo hip hop at a time when the faster Britcore styles had largely faded from the scene. Turntablist Krash Slaughta was a DMC finalist and absolutely slays on the cuts before Brian Eno’s ‘Fractal Zoom’ attempts to enter the mix but I obviously thought better of it during the manic cut-fest and opted for the more minimal St. Germain with ‘Sentimental Mood’ from the Boulevard series of 12”s. These three singles on F Communications were huge at the time, combining jazz with a heavily swung minimal house groove and still hold up.

Kushti’s UR Allstars was the second release on the short-living Octopus label and brings back lots of happy memories, there’s also a snatch of a DJ Toolz track in there too which I can’t identify. Toolz was an alias of Jazzy Jason, also part of the legendary Blapps posse, London Funk Allstars and Mad Doctor X, the four volumes he released on Ninja Tune in the early 90s were akin to the DJ Food Jazz Brakes both in style and sleeve design. Alpha Proxima’s immense ‘459 – / z’ is sadly truncated in this recording because the tape ended and had to be turned over so some is missing. The track resumes just as Autechre’s excellent remix of Scorn’s ‘Falling’ enters – another one of their classic mid 90s remixes that’s worth tracking down.

Sounds of Life was a collaboration between Photek and Source Direct’s Jim Baker and we hear their ‘Release The Bells’ here mixed in on 33rpm rather than its intended 45, I used to like a lot of my DnB on the wrong speed back then. Some Christian Marclay plunderphonics interjects far too soon and we’re treated to turntablism from the avant garde side of the tracks long before the word had been invented, this live improvisation dating from the 80s. DJ Krush’s ‘A Whim’ plays us out, a single from his Strictly Turntablized album which also birthed an excellent Alex Reece remix on 12” and two mixes by Roni Size and DJ Krust on 10” as I recall.

Track list:
DJ Krash Slaughta – Broken Needles Blown Mics
St.Germain – Sentimental Mood
Kushti – UR Allstars
DJ Tools 4 – ?
Alpha Proxima – 459 – / z
Scorn – Falling (Autechre FR 13 mix)
Sounds of Life – Release The Bells
Christian Marclay – Pandora’s Box
DJ Krush – A Whim

A dark but beautiful selection from a show I shared mix duty on with Riz Maslen aka Neotropic. My tape dates it as 30/01/98 but my online reference from Marcus Maack’s BTTB database says 04/01/1998. Whatever, it was sometime in January 1998 and this was recorded in the Ahead of Our Time studio in Clink St. most likely with engineer Ali Tod at the controls and my flanger pedal in the mix by the sounds of things.

Starting with the classic monologue about Cymatic frequencies that Coldcut used so often in shows we drift into an almost Steve Reich-ian minimalist piece from A Reminiscent Drive whose back catalogue contains a wealth of such treasures. Opiate’s ‘Small Talk Whirl’ is from his debut 12” on April Records which I can’t remember ever owning but that’s old age for you. Track 8 from the CD of Aphex Twin’s Analogue Bubblebath 3 is up next, a classic I was still dropping in my Selected Aphex Works mixes some years back.
Small Fish With Spine was/is an alias of Riz’s and she’d just released her Ultimate Sushi album on Oxygen Music Works (which I’d designed the cover for too). Not sure what I was thinking playing her new record before her, bad DJ etiquette but I was young and foolish back then. ‘Korona’ comes from the uber-rare MASK 100 12”, a very early Boards of Canada track from 1996, pre-Warp when they were still on Skam and largely unknown. Funny how you can just search for it now and it’s on YouTube, back then it was rare as hen’s teeth. There’s a snatch of Andy Partridge & Harold Budd’s ‘Mantle of Peacock Bones’ with some unidentified spoken word over the top and then Mike Paradinas finishes the first set with ‘Hi-q’ of which I can find hide nor hair of on Discogs.

The second half opens with some abstract ambience and another unknown spoken word piece, presumably from Coldcut’s might Word Treasure CD library. As One’s gorgeous ’Soliel Levant’ from his debut Reflection album slides in before the Ramsey Lewis’ Charles Stepney-produced cover of ‘Dear Prudence’ chugs through with its oddball electronic intro. Exquisite Corpse were connected to the Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia and produced what I’d call trance music in the most literal definition, the sort of tribal rhythms you could perform rituals to long into the night. ‘Cantadora’ bangs hard and comes from their 1993 album Inner Light and while I’m talking definitions; Water Melon and their comrades, Major Force are about as close to ‘trip hop’ in my mind as you could get. Their amazing Out Of Body Experience EP hosts two cuts that feature in this half hour. Harder to find outside of Japan but well worth tracking down. Another from Riz’s LP in the form of ‘Foul Play’ that more than liberally samples from Lalo Schifin’s Dirty Harry/Magnum Force soundtracks before the Prunes’ makeover of DJ Vadim’s ‘Conquest of the Irrational’ single on Ninja Tune. Finishing with another Water Melon track from the aforementioned O.O.B.E. EP and we’re out – I really enjoyed rediscovering this one, I’d probably not heard it since it was recorded over 26 years ago.

Track list:
Solid Steel jingle – The film you are about to see…
A Reminiscent Drive – Everything Is As I Am
Opiate – Small Talk Whirl
Aphex Twin – Analogue Bubblebath 3 track 8
Small Fish With Spine – In Your Own Bubble
Boards of Canada – Korona
Small Fish With Spine – Fung Koo
Andy Partridge / Harold Budd – Mantle of Peacock Bones
Mike Paradinas – Hi-q

Unknown – Unknown
As One – Soliel Levant
Ramsey Lewis – Dear Prudence
Exquisite Corpse – Cantadora
Water Melon – Moon Shaker
Small Fish With Spine – Foul Play
DJ Vadim – Conquest of the Irrational (Prunes mix)
Water Melon – Slow Boat to Mars

Mid May of 1995 was another smorgasbord of eclecticism with drum n bass making in-roads onto the show playlists. After the show’s intro and a snatch from Negativland’s plunderphonic ‘The Perfect Cut’ LP we get what may be the first outing of the Wagon Christ remix of 2 Player’s ‘Extreme Possibilities’. It’s hard to convey how exciting it was to first hear this remix, possibly Luke’s premiere public foray into DnB and a now classic milestone in the Ninja Tune catalogue. That he put this much work into such a mix is incredible and for a relatively new band consisting of Jon Tye (aka MLO/Lo Recordings) and a little-known composer named Daniel Pemberton. Daniel is now a world famous soundtrack composer of course, working on films for Marvel and Ridley Scott among others, but back then he was still at school and would come to our Stealth nights at The Blue Note before going home to study for his exams. He didn’t waste any time making inroads into the studio either, hooking up with Jon on various Lo Recordings and Ntone releases, recording with the Future Sound of London and releasing his first album on Pete Namlook’s Fax label, for which I did the artwork.

More DnB clatters in next from Sounds of Life which was Rupert (Photek) Parkes and Jim from Source Direct collaborating and taking a big chunk of FSOL’s Lifeforms by the sound of it. Spacepimp’s only outing on Clear pits a 70s car chase synth bass line against a DnB rhythm too, everyone was having a go at this ‘new’ style around this time as it emerged from its jungle origins although Spacepimp was an Acen alias so it wasn’t too much of a stretch. After an ad break there’s a swirling ambience I can’t place before the legendary Jello Biafra monologue that we used on the Coldcut Journeys By DJ mix later that year which then led on to Matt and Jon hooking up with the ex-Dead Kennedy frontman to record ‘Every Home A Prison’. Alec Empire’s debut album, Generation Star Wars kicked off with the excellent ‘Lash the 90ties’, the elongated ambient intro suddenly crashing into Aphex-ish distorted beats. Mike Ink’s ‘Rosenkranz’ came from one of the early Sahko releases and this jaunty, marching track is in stark contrast to his then usual 150bpm driving acid techno.

G-Man was Gez Varley from LFO on his first solo outing via the Swim label and this absolutely banging piece of techno is such a joy to hear, despite my fumbled mix with Mike Ink at one point. I must have visited Vienna recently because Elin’s ‘Mondlandung’ is featured and I remember Pita aka Peter Rehberg (RIP) giving me copies of the first few Mego releases when we played there of which this was the second. Soon after comes the masterful Autechre remix of Beaumont Hannant’s Psi-Onyx – all 9 minutes + of it with Ae on peak form – ah the memories… Flanging in over the end beats is a track from Caustic Visions, a group who originally debuted on Industrial Strength with nosebleed acid techno before releasing steadily more experimental fair on their own label, influenced by Aphex Twin and beyond. ‘Corner of a Sphere’ comes from their fourth self-released EP and is well worth investigating if you see a copy and enjoy forward-thinking electronica. ‘Lunatic Jam’ by Germany’s Fauna Flash takes a large chunk of DJ Food’s ‘Dark Blood’ and builds a soulful track around it, from their debut 12” on Compost. We get a snatch of the Jedi Knights’ remix of ‘Antacid’ and then it appears the tape switches to Aphex’s ‘Ventolin’ except it may be from one of my own mixes that I’d taped over as the presence of my old flange pedal in the mix is a telling sign of the era.

Track list:
Solid Steel – intro jingle
Negativland – The Perfect Cut
2 Player – Extreme Possibilities (Wagon Christ mix)
Sounds of Life – Intellect
Spacepimp – Space Chase
Unknown – Unknown
Jello Biafra – A Message From Our Sponsor
Alec Empire – Lash the 90ties
Mike Ink – Rosenkranz
G-Man – Legion
Elin – Mondlandung
Beaumont Hannant – Psi-Onyx (Psix Million Dollar Myx Oscar Goldman’s Bonus)
Caustic Visions – Corner of a Sphere
Fauna Flash – Lunatic Jam
Link & E621 – Antacid (Jedi Knights remix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Deep Gong mix)

What a time for music, early 1995 and not only did we have the hugely anticipated new single from DJ Shadow but also Aphex Twin’s Ventolin EP and Fatboy Slim’s debut single when he was still in downtempo mode with ‘The Weekend Starts Here’. After ‘In/Flux’ blew up, not only for Shadow but by putting MoWax into a higher orbit, everyone was waiting for new music from Josh Davis and he delivered big time with a four part 30 minute single called ’What Does Your Soul Look Like’. The first half of the show covers three of the parts, available on a set of three blue vinyl 10” promos inside sleeves that joined together. Interspersed between them is the Fatboy with the Weekend Bonus Beats version of his single and Death’s sole release (aka Thomas Heckmann) on Trope, a modular bleep-fest called ‘Electronic Realisations Chapter 4’. Following ‘What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 4’ come three ‘Ventolin’ mixes from Aphex, the second, the Deep Gong mix, is by Wagon Christ and a snatch of the London Funk Allstars’ ‘Listen To The Beat’ appears before the tape runs out.

Track list:
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 1
Faboy Slim – The Weekend Starts Here
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 3
Death – Electronic Realisations Chapter 4
DJ Shadow – What Does Your Soul Look Like Part 4
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Crowsmengegus Mix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Deep Gong Mix)
Aphex Twin – Ventolin (Marazanvose Mix)