South London heads: Dan Lish‘s excellent Egostrip book of hip hop portraits gets a reissue via Velocity Press next week & he’ll be at the independent print market in Peckham on Nov 18th to sell and sign copies. Also stalls from Castles In Space, Moonbuilding mag + more
Later that day at 3pm Dan will be the cHip sHop, Brixton for a Q&A about the book too.
More hoovering up the recent crop of promos and new finds in the second Bits & Bobs show of 2007 (not too great with the titles there but I was juggling 20 month old twins at the time).
Starting concurrently, the Emperor Machine remix of White Line Circus makes an excellent bed for Break Reform’s ‘Cut A Map In The Soles of my Feet’ even if I say so myself. Both killer tunes in their own right and I seem to remember that the La Boca sleeve design for ‘Rocket Ride’ is one of their best of the era when they were designers for DC Recordings and the label bearly put a foot wrong for a few years. The Bamboos, still going strong on Tru Thoughts, this time with Ohmega Watts paraphrasing Double Trouble’s ‘At the Amphitheatre’ rap from Wild Style. Skipping a couple of tracks I had completely forgotten that Lost Idol made stuff with heavy beats like this, always one to watch for, glad I was hip to his stuff in 2007. Kids In Tracksuits featured a certain Matt Cutler who most will now know as Lone and I think this track comes from their ‘Get Your Kit On’ EP.
The RamaSutra track is a bit of a tune, seems it was one of the last things he put out in 2003, not sure how I was playing it in 2007. Bit of a sharp cut into !!!’s ‘Myth Takes’ and then into AmmonContact’s ’Drum Riders’ from their album on Ninja at the time, Cut Chemist on the cuts. DJ Dren’s ‘Wot Da Hell’ is from the excellent ‘CTRL C / CTRL V’ comp from 33 Throwdown Recordings, must dig that out again as it has all sorts of cut up goodness on it. Remix heat from Cherrystones for Pedro and more Emperor Machine, this time on his own track but again with a female vocal over it from another track, I seemed to have a thing for this at the time. The song in question is Stephanie Dosen’s cover of ‘Within Without You’ which doesn’t quite work tuning-wise and certainly should have been mixed out by the time The Dragons’ ‘Peace Garden’ arrives in the mix. We were on the cusp of releasing their unissued debut album on Ninja at the time and this track comes from a soundtrack, ‘A Sea For Yourself’.
Up next, an unidentified vocal talking about originality before an Eno track from the second compilation of Curiosities, a pair of collections put together by one of Eno’s studio assistants at the time I believe from selections of the vast catalogue of unreleased material he had. Having been absorbed in Eno’s Lighthouse station on Sonos for most of this and last year – a constant stream of over 400 previously unreleased tracks from his archive – I can see what prompted these CDs. They were meant to be a series but only two were ever released, maybe they didn’t sell or maybe the compiler moved on? Friction = Fire’s Dunmore East was the last track on an Irish compilation on the Alphabet Set label which I must have been given when I performed one of the Head soundtrack gigs over there and Peter Wyngarde’s short outro comes from the actor’s very odd solo album to round things up.
Track list:
White Line Circus – Rocket Ride (Emperor Machine remix)
Break Reform – Cut A Map In The Soles Of My Feet
The Bamboos feat. Ohmega Watts – Get In The Scene
Yoko Ono w. Shitake Monkey – O’ Oh
Natalie Walker – No One Else
Lost Idol – We Can Find Love
Kids In Tracksuits – Real Axe
Regal – Capt. Ahab
Ramasutra – The Curse of the Eye
!!! – Myth Takes
AmmonContact – Drum Riders
DJ Dren – Wot Da Hell
Pedro – Fear & Resilience (Cherrystones mix)
The Emperor Machine – Fear of Woman
Stephanie Dosen – Within Without You
The Dragons – Peace Garden
Brian Eno – Haslet
Friction = Fire – Dunmore East
Peter Wyngarde – Pay No Attention
In case you didn’t know, I post monthly lists on Buy Music Club, a Bandcamp-affiliated site where you can keep lists of handy URLs to releases you like or recommend for others. I usually make one a month and post it near the 1st or on Bandcamp Friday (which is today). Each listing takes you straight to the release’s Bandcamp page or you can hit play on the top track and it will cycle through a selected track from each release automatically.
By 2007 vinyl production was slowing down and a lot of this set was mixed off of CDs or digital files by the looks of the waveform on this file when I booted it up, there’s compression and crushed waveform peaks all over the place. Promos were starting to come in digital form as it was quicker and cheaper to produce CDrs with paper inserts in plastic wallets than mail out 12”s after weeks(!) away at the pressing plant. I think streaming and digital promos were maybe just starting around this time too but the music industry was still in freefall from digital downloading and any costs that could be cut would be. Dublin’s Kormac kicks off the show this week before we’re quickly into ‘The Riddle’, produced by The Sugarman and voiced by Harry Dean Stanton. This came to me via a promo CD and the group were apparently a trio of reclusive South Londoners who self-released this single (with remixes from Ashley Beedle and more) and an album which was possibly promo only. I’m not sure if the vocal is sampled from anywhere but that’s quite a cameo for a debut single if not. DJ Pandaj hails from Italy according to discos and Mirrorsystem was an offshoot of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy’s System 7 project for the more ambient side as their main group became more techno-orientated. They cover Jam & Spoon’s ‘Stella’ to fine effect before The Bamboos’ try their hand at Max Segdley’s ‘Happy’. And is that Matt Berry talking about Fairlight samplers before it kicks in?
!!! (aka Chk Chk Chk)’s ‘Yadnus’ is still such a tune, love that swinging glam beat on anything. DJ Kentaro featuring Spank Rock from his debut Ninja Tune LP next and you’ve never felt smaller as a DJ than when you have to step up to play after him in front of a home crowd in Tokyo, truly humbling. Tiga’s ‘You Gonna Want Me’ takes inspiration from Altern8’s ‘Infiltrate 202’ which in turn sampled Candi Staton’s ‘I Know’ vocal (amongst other things) and this version is the Van She remix. Deekline & Wizard’s collaboration with SOTO on Ghetto Blast Ya uses the metronome tick as a percussion device and I think I must have played the radio mix of Tim Deluxe’s ‘Let The Beats Roll’ here as I remember a much longer intro on this than here. l played this to death in the clubs for a while back in the day, there’s a great dub version too if you’re not into the vocal.
The Chris Carter feat. Fine Cut Bodies track is almost speed garage and I’d forgotten that Mark Spiler tune, how crazed, not sure what time signature that’s in. Pendulum’s ‘Blood Sugar’, this came out between their first and second albums and was kind of where I checked out as the next record upped the guitar quota and left me a bit cold. Fracture and Neptune were (are) always good value and were spearheading a kind of return to Photek-era DnB in the 00’s. Can you tell the DJ Fresh mix of DJ Shadow is off vinyl? I had to turn it up on the file here as the drop from the previous track was like a cliff face – such a killer club track but that abrupt ending was always difficult to get out from. Fracture & Neptune are back to play us out with a big Steve Miller Band sample on ‘Ventura’ and there’s a random drugs spoken word collage to finish. Back for part 2 next week…
Track list:
Kormac – Mr Heidi Hi (intro)
The Sugarman – The Riddle
DJ Pandaj – The Lazy Trip Project
Mirrorsysytem – Stella (Duende mix)
Bamboos – Happy
!!! – Yadnus
DJ Kentaro – Space Jungle
Tiga – You Gonna Want Me (Van She remix)
Deekline & Wizard vs SOTO – Ghetto Blast Ya (VIP)
Tim Deluxe – Let The Beats Roll
Chris Carter feat. Fine Cut Bodies – Frogmarch
Mark Splier – Globul Bleu
Pendulum – Blood Sugar
Fracture & Neptune – A Clue
DJ Shadow – Enuff (DJ Fresh remix)
Fracture & Neptune – Ventura
Out today – ii15 – Locked Loop Group – Phonomontages #15.1-4 – a mini album of four techno-centric Quadraphon turntable workouts on the heavier side of things. Of course it’s also Bandcamp Friday today which is when 100% of the revenue for all releases bought goes to the artists and labels on the platform.
These are nearly the last of the sessions that I recorded earlier this year in preparation for the Ramsgate Music Hall gig (which has just celebrated 10 years as a venue!). I’m hoping to get one more release out by the end of the year and there are some other pieces I’m saving for a label compilation that may come in cassette form in the new year which will tie up this phase of my label, Infinite Illectrik. There are a few more pieces floating around though; one will be coming out on a compilation early next year, another two will be part of a physical release on a new label at some point in 2024 too, more on that when I’ve finished the design. The Quadraphon is getting a companion soon which may change the whole set up and I also want to work on the hole in the catalogue, ii03, which still isn’t underway and is a very different beast.
Also just out: part 2 of James In Real Life‘s ‘Duplokit’ build series
His Duplokit Infinite Illectrik release: https://duplokit.bandcamp.com/album/phonocollage-131-132
Support him on Patreon for more videos and exclusive audio: www.patreon.com/JamesInRealLife
Dropping soon: video footage of Graham Dunning and I at Iklectik earlier this year for Fog Fest.
You may have heard the news but it seems the venue’s numbered days may be even shorter than anticipated. The whole of the Waterloo Paradise complex that houses the venue and several other businesses and art studios now faces eviction before Xmas when they were previously told there would be none until the proposed development deal was finalised and demolition due to begin. Due to their campaign to fight the site being levelled to make way for office buildings they now believe that the eviction notice has been accelerated to remove any resistence from the land despite demolition proceedings being way off into the future. Please read their latest statement here and help spread the word.
Graham and I play at the NEXT Festival on modified turntables on Nov 29th in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Design work has been relentless since September (I’m not complaining) with multiple zoetropes in the works, an album for The Real Tuesday Weld under a new alias, work for De:tuned that should be announced in December and work for Castles In Space. This is alongside writing assignments for the second Dust & Grooves book, my weekly Mixcloud Select uploads and research for another book.
This Sunday sees a Delights special radio show for Out Of The Wood at the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood alongside Paul Osbourne (Project Gemini) and Hannah Brown with special guest Markey Funk beaming in live from Jerusalem. Sadly because of the war in Israel he won’t be able to make it to the UK for a long projected trip and several gigs but this is as near as we can get, huge thanks to Pete Williams for sorting the technicals out. The show is an all 45 set from the four of us and you can listen back to all four sets here
This one’s been in the pipeline a while now but finally its time has come. Jonny Trunk asked me to repackage the cover to Jezz Woodroffe‘s 1981 album, ‘Wonders of the Underwater World’ over a year ago now but to turn it into a seascape that stickers could be used on to make your own scenario in the style of those old rub down tranfer books from the 70s. He looked for the old Letraset style transfer-makers but to no avail so we plumped for a transparent sticker sheet holding all manner of fish, divers and a SP-350 Denise mini sub as featured in the Jacques Cousteau documentaries.
Elements of the seabed were generated using AI (well over a year ago now) and then collaged together for the cover and labels. We chose to keep the original typography as it’s so of its time and the insert with the album notes apes the wavey countours of the original back cover. The album is a synth-heavy soundtrack to a documentary about the Truk Lagoon, an infamous battleground which is now home to numerous sunken military vehicles; planes, tanks and boats which are slowly rotting on the sea bed.
You can order it right here and now
There’s also the recent announcement of the Obscure label boxset that sees all ten albums on the label from the mid to late 70s run via Island records re-issued with an 80 page book, I’ll be writing more about this once I’ve devoured it.
Meanwhile I’m still trying to listen to everything on Eno’s Sonos radio station The Lighthouse, now with 424 unreleased tracks from between 1989 and 2023 streaming randomly 24 hrs a day but that algorithm just isn’t playing certain tracks. Of course Brian also plays London tonight with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic to perform his Ships show that’s been doing the rounds in Europe.
I was struck by the cover art to Floating Points‘ new single, ‘Birth4000’ the other week as it resembles the liquid light shows I so love. On further investigation, it seems that’s not far off as the artist, Akiko Nakayama, projects her ‘Alive Painting’ onto huge canvases from microscopic sizes. Her website is well worth some investigation and she made a video for the single which you can see below as well as a billboard that Ninja Tune showed off somewhere in London recently.
I fell in love with Javi P3z’s music when I discovered his and Camping Gaz’s ‘Circus World’ 12” on Novophonic and played it to death. It’s strange mix of skanking batucada with theremin top line mixed with circus clowns and children cheering (yes, really). Totally unhinged and unlike anything else, I once found five copies in a bargain bin for £1 each and proceeded to give them to anyone who would take one. Here’s his follow up, under another of his many aliases – ‘Safari-Hari’ – an equally audacious romp through the jungle if less on the crazed side but beautifully packaged in a cardboard shopping bag as part of the Onze Sports double 7”.
Mr Melvis – ‘A Walk Through The Powerhouse’ was featured on a 2xCD compilation of “Strange and unusual music from the Exotica Mailing List” put together by my friend Otis Fodder on his Comfort Stand label. Otis and I had met online when he started the 365 Days Project in 2003, posting a weird and wonderful track or album every day via the WFMU website. This was a great resource in the early days of file-sharing on the web and the whole project is a wonderland of treasures. Otis was a resident in Montreal at the time (or was it Toronto?) and we later met up a few times when I toured over there, bonding over our love for strange music from the margins. Despite saying ‘never again’ once the year was up, he repeated the feat through 2007 and both are still archived online. http://wfmu.org/365/
Anyway, Mr Melvis is covering a favourite, Raymond Scott’s ‘Powerhouse’ before we subtly shift into a deep house masterpiece of a remix by Charles Webster that totally captivated me when I heard it. Doing away with all but a single phrase from Martina Topley-Bird’s ‘Soul Food’ Webster grooves on a cappella cooing and deep bass pads and I could listen to this all day, I wouldn’t call myself a deep house fan but this could covert me. M*A*R*Y was a Richard X alias, this track was the sole release on a split 7” single with Liquitex until 2022 when an archive album appeared called High Noise Cassette – no doubt the product of lockdown hard drive excavation like so many of us. The Emperor Machine was a no brainer for me as soon as I heard Andrew Meecham’s analogue radiophonic stylings and this was the beginning of a golden run of releases on the DC label through the 00’s. NSM I don’t remember much about but it was short for New Sector Movements, IG Culture’s loose collective of broken beat collaborators.
I don’t remember this DJ Zinc boot of ‘Milkshake’ either, no idea where I got that, dodgy offbeat mix by me there too, sloppy. Coldcut remix the Dr Who theme, this was another that came and went with little fanfare although there’s plenty of work in there transforming it into a half time dub with female vocal replacing the main melody. In fact I can’t find any info about it on Discogs so I’m wondering if it even came out? I asked Jon More and he confirmed that the Beeb shelved it, to quote the Guardian: “The best series of songs inspired by Dr Who is annoyingly locked away in a record company vault. In 2004 the BBC planned an album called Resistance Is Futile: Doctor Who Remixed, which was to feature St Etienne (who finished recording There There My Brigadier), 808 State (The Master’s theme), The Orb and Coldcut. But production delays had it jostling with the launch of the revamped TV series and it was scrapped.” I’ve spun the infamous outtake of Tom Baker in the vocal booth over the beginning which was a popular meme doing the rounds in the early days of file downloading. LCD Soundsystem’s amazing ‘Yeah’ still sounds utterly relevant and exciting and I’m thinking I must have compiled some of this mix using my old Numark CDJ as the pitch shift up and subsequent phase FX into the DJ Zinc track after bear all it’s hallmarks. Bit of Kylie over the top there before the switch and that’s quite a tempo increase, hold tight! ‘Next Tuesday’ was from Zinc’s Faster album, a decent attempt to make a well rounded dance album covering all styles rather than just club bangers.
Aaaah, Sixtoo and Damo Suzuki – what a track, what a beat, could listen to this all day, was so proud to have had a hand in bringing Rob to Ninja Tune back in the day, wasn’t for everyone but it floated my boat. This is a really random selection, we go through the heavy Krautrock-isms of Sixtoo to dark electronic rap via the Shadow Huntaz and then acoustic pop from Air. P-Love’s ‘Clausland Man Rd’ from his time on Bully Records (with my dodgy scratching over the top) into Ricci Rucker’s ‘New Dirt’, always interesting on the scratch/beat tip – rounding out a truly eclectic selection of contemporary tracks of the day.
Listening back to this (and a lot of the mixes in this archive) I’m reminded how much music soundtracks our lives and how I’m not currently soundtracking the present day by recording shows of current music and digging finds. I guess I didn’t expect to be listening back to these mixes nearly 20 years later and getting so nostalgic for the eras they evoke. Maybe when this is over I’ll start something new but it’s a big commitment and I’m not sure I could do it every week anymore. Maybe a new kind of show, I don’t know, what kind of music-related show would you tune in to?
Track list:
Digital Onze – Safari-Hari
Mr Melvis – A Walk Through The Powerhouse
Martina Topley-Bird – Soul Food (Charles Webster’s Bangin’ House Dub)
M*A*R*Y – 73 Club
The Emperor Machine – Expanding in Reproduction
NSM – Trying Times
Kelis – Milkshake (DJ Zinc remix)
Delia Derbyshire – Dr Whooligan (Coldcut remix)
LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (Stupid version)
DJ Zinc – Next Tuesday
Sixtoo feat. Damo Suzuki – Storm Clouds and Silver Linings
Shadow Huntaz – Razbar
Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
P-Love – Clausland Mtn Rd
Ricci Rucker – New Dirt
Not only was my book ‘Wheels of Light’ published a year ago by Four Corners Books but it’s now available in the US with free UPS ground shipping from D.A.P. – they are also supplying bookstores too if you want copies for your store. Order here
In other related light show news, Optikinetics are close to fulfilling the Kickstarter for their new Kino projector, a mini home projector that takes 6″ wheels and includes several options to back including one with my book and vintage Pluto wheels.
You can back the campaign and get your own home projector here
There’s a new record shop coming to South East London and I couldn’t be happier as it’s run by my good friend Philippe of Rat Records fame. Currently nearing completion in Deptford, Upside Down Records will be part of a new building devoted to artist studio spaces and should be open by Xmas this year.
In the meantime Philippe is amassing stock for the shop so, if you’re looking to offload that vinyl collection then now’s the time to sell as Philippe is on a buying mission around the South East of the country, contact him via his website or Facebook page, give him a follow on Instagram to see latest buying trips and sign up to his mailing list for first dibs on what’s coming.
I’ve completely forgotten which show these were recorded for on 6 Music or why they needed two 16 minute mixes (if anyone remembers please drop a comment) but they’re on a disc with a private mix I did for my then wife in February of 2004. Parts of this resemble DJ sets of the day including the whole ‘Clapping Song’ routine with multiple copies on 7” that I’d switch between in quick succession. J Star who kicks things off did a series of white label reggae mash-ups at the time that were some of the best around, crazy to think people were actually pressing these bootlegs on vinyl but I suppose it’s no different to the multitude of 7” re-edits doing the rounds today. As the real Cure morphs into Kurtis Rush’s Missy Elliot/George Michael medley I thought I’d better double check if my memory was still correct as to who was behind the name. Yes, Kurtis was in fact Erol Alkan who made a trio of white label mixes around 2001/2002 and was also rumoured to be behind the Kylie/New Order blend that she premiered at the Brits that year.
Chuck Brown & The Soul Searches’ pre-Go Go classic ‘Ashley’s Roach Clip’ is immediately recognisable for the drums that Eric B & Rakim nicked for their ‘Paid In Full’ classic. I add in a Jungle Brothers acappella which really needed to be chased along with the wavering tempo. Coldcut of course remixed ‘Paid In Full’ into an even bigger classic and it’s their ‘instrumental’ of the mix under the title ‘Not Paid Enough’ that begins the second mix, with Martine Girault’s beautiful ‘Revival’ over the top which was enjoying a errrrm… revival at that time. Out of this is the Play School breakbeat monster ’Bang On A Drum’ that Coldcut sampled for the outro of their remix and then we get into some country and western hip hop comedy with Ricky V. Valentine who I’m still no wiser as to the identity of. This little skit appeared on a 12” on the C Side Trax label and Ricky was never heard of again. This Kid Named Miles’ cover of ‘Ring of Fire’ didn’t leave my DJ box for about five years I think, always a great end of nighter and Nicky Thomas’ version of ‘Soul Power’ pads out the end of the mix.
Track list:
Pts.1&2
J Star – No Diggity
The Meters – Hand Clapping Song
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
Malcolm & The Humphries Singers – The Clapping Song
Ray Russell – The Clapping Song
Pia Zadora – The Clapping Song
The Cure – Close To Me
Kurtis Rush – George Gets His Freak On
Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roach Clip
The Jungle Brothers – Jimbrowski (acappella)
Coldcut – Not Paid Enough
Martine Girault – Revival
Play School – Bang On A Drum
Ricki V. Valentine – Ghetto Classics
This Kid Named Miles – Ring Of Fire
Nicky Thomas – Soul Power
Recently I was lucky enough to accompany my friend Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves to Peel Acres – John Peel‘s family home and site of his incredible record collection. We’d been granted a visit by Tom Ravenscroft, one of John and wife Sheila‘s four children and renown BBC 6 Music DJ in his own right. We were getting an exclusive look into his archive for the follow up to Eilon’s 2013 book on vinyl collecting, Dust & Grooves – due out next year. This piece isn’t about the whole visit though – for that you’ll have to buy the book and see all the amazing treasures we found – but about something that was discovered before we arrived that I took a special interest in. On the drive up from the station Tom revealed that the week before they’d uncovered a huge stash of tapes from a hidden cavity in the floor below John’s studio, previously some sort of sunken sitting space that had been covered over decades before for space and safety reasons. In amongst the hundreds of cassettes were demos and submissions from hundreds of bands, some unknown and unsigned at the time and one name sprang out at me from the list he reeled off – Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Readers of this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of both the band and their label, ZTT so an early demo from them was of interest despite having heard pretty much everything that’s ever come to light from their recorded history (plus plenty of material yet to be officially released). Even better was that there was a personal letter enclosed as with many of the things we found that day. Once in the house and faced with the mammoth task of even knowing where to begin, Tom kicked things off by retrieving the tape from a small pile of the more interesting finds he’d pulled from the boxes. Extracting the letter, he began to read and by the time he’d finished I was more confused than when he started. See for yourself, most Frankie fans will be similarly scratching their heads.
Three things that instantly jump out are: who was A.K. Reynolds? There was no one of that name in the band. The track titles – I’d never heard of any of them – and the time frame – recorded ’77 – 80? The Frankie that became world famous didn’t form until 1982 but this letter was from a Liverpool address and the writer a bassist, as was Holly Johnson originally, the band’s vocalist, when he was a member of Big In Japan. Maybe this was a pseudonym and he’s sent some solo material to John in the hope of getting airplay? There couldn’t be two Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s, the name was too unique, taken from a page of Guy Peellaert‘s 1973 book, ‘Rock Dreams’ which Holly had then adapted.
I decided to consult Holly’s 1994 autobiography, ‘A Bone In My Flute’, as his recall of the early Liverpool years is extremely detailed, hoping I’d find a reference to the name or address on the letter. Eventually my patience was rewarded on page 132 with first, the writer’s name, and simultaneously the origin of the band’s moniker.
The band Holly formed with Ambrose Reynolds – the A.K. Reynolds who wrote the letter, also a bassist – were Frankie Goes To Hollywood mk1. Steve Lovell and BF Tin were also members and I’d say that the time frame here was about 1979/80 although it doesn’t explicitly say in the book. Ten pages later there’s another clue as to those sessions as Holly meets and starts writing songs with Peter Gill, Brian Nash and Mark O’Toole in the embryonic stages of what we now know as Frankie, when they were part of a band called The Dancing Girls and later, Sons and Egypt.
As nothing came of Frankie mk1 I’d hazard a guess that Ambrose sent the recordings (or some of his own maybe?) to John and used the name? Holly released at least one solo single between Frankie mk1 and 2 so there was a gap, it’s a pity I didn’t see if there was a date on the letter. Looking up Reynolds on Wikipedia shows that he was pretty active on the music scene around Liverpool, later teaming up with ex-Big In Japan vocalist Jayne Casey to form Pink Industry and starting Zulu Records together, but one paragraph stood out:
“In 1980, Reynolds formed a new band, Frankie Goes To Hollywood with Holly Johnson, BF Tin and Steve Lovell. The name is a matter of contention; Johnson wanted to call the band Hollycaust, Reynolds disagreed, Johnson responded “we could call it anything”; his eyes then drifted to a poster on the wall of Frank Sinatra (from a book called Rock Dreams) as he read out the caption, saying disparagingly, “we could even call it Frankie goes to Hollywood, it doesn’t matter”, at which point Reynolds said, “yes, that’s what we SHOULD call it, it’s original and different”. The band split up soon after that, and Reynolds continued to work under that name until 1981, when Johnson began using the name for his more successful band of the same name a few years later.”
So there we have it, the contents of the tape are from the little known – and I suspect even lesser heard – Frankie Goes To Hollywood mk1 although whether any of the recordings include Holly’s contributions we may never know. Thanks to Tom for bringing it to light and Eilon for inviting me along, we found some great stuff but you’ll have to wait for the book next year to see and read about that. Thanks also to Tom’s mum, Sheila for her hospitality, here we are together with a John Lennon promo pack, shot by Eilon (can you tell by the superior quality?).
Take a look at the Dust & Grooves website and give Eilon a follow on Instagram as he continues his Vinyl Nomad tour (inc more photos) – he’s off to Japan next week!
This has been another DJ Food digging mystery solved…
PS: There was also a nice additional passage in Frankie member Brian Nash‘s autobiography remembering John:
I made a video for my Magnetic Cartridge Quartet ‘Polykicks B’ track from the Buried Treasure ‘Decapod’ compilation – all made using a vintage Strand Patt theatre light with 18″ glass optical effects discs, patterned glass or coloured gel inserts.
The label’s 10th anniversary party is tonight, Sat 14th at The Couch in Bracknell – compilation and ticket here
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/decapoda
The track was made live using my Quadraphon turntable, edited down and given a sonic scrub on the mix by Osymyso. The video footage was filmed using an original Strand theatre light with 18″ rotating glass disc attachments and other visual tricks. Thanks to Rob Halliday for access to the lights and for working the FX.
Opti(kinetics) have launched their mini projector the Kino via Kickstarter including an array of wheels, mirrors and even my Wheels of Light book as added incentives. One of the wheels on offer is an original vintage Pluto wheels from the 70s, the company bought the remaining stock from the company many years ago and once these are gone they’re the last of the surviving stock. You can pledge your support here for this lovely little projector that will take magnetic 6″ FX wheels and can be controlled via a phone app. I’ve used a prototype and they are beautiful and work straight out the box, perfect for home use rather than clubs and gigs.
Tony Morley was the guest this week – who had then just launched his Leaf label – still going strong all these years later and releasing great music too. We met through Chantal aka Mira Calix (RIP) who interned at 4AD where he was working at the time and DJ’d with him at Robin ‘Scanner’ Rimbaud’s Electronic Lounge at the ICA. We invited Tony to play at both Telepathic Fish and onto Solid Steel and later he and I would go on a possible midlife crisis pilgrimage to Dusseldorf together to see the old men of techno perform their Man Machine and Computer World albums but that’s another story. This mix is a weird one, the selection is all over the place and the mixing too, maybe I was too busy chatting and not concentrating much, consider this all about the selection rather than any mix skills.
Starting as I ended a few weeks back with Jimi Tenor’s ‘Cafe Europe (live)’ (which Jon refers to as easy listening funk) there’s an oddity from a Flora Purim promo that was doing the rounds with remixes of her back catalogue – the best of which was the Guy Called Gerald one which is horribly out of tune with Jimi for a few bars at least. This clatters into a Doctor Rockit track from his Ready To Rockit EP on Clear, ‘Cameras & Rocks’, where this Matthew Herbert alias took his usual modus operandi of making tracks solely from sounds listed in the titles. After this is some unknown breakbeat track, possibly from the American New Breed label but I can’t place it and neither can Spotify but the Jaziacs & Snowboy tune after I had not heard in years and bought back many good memories. Hunt this 12” down (starting at 99p on Discogs) it’s a great snapshot of the acid jazz/trip hop crossover happening at the time which a huge dose of old school scratching over ‘Beat Street Strut’ on this track.
PC used to do a great impression of the Doctor Rockit track next, the opener of the aforementioned Clear EP but I’m not sure what the big electronic interference is that suddenly appears, possibly a mixing desk mistake! Then the DnB is back with Luger, from guest Tony Morley’s Leaf label, this was the third release I believe. An odd trio of Keith LeBlanc tracks follow from his Global 2000 album under the name Spike (he’d dropped the ‘DJ’) which was CD only, unusual for me to play three in a row from the same artist. Jimi Tenor is back and then Bjork thunders in after what was most likely an advert break there – tune! Some un-ID’d DnB after – maybe more Droppin Science? and then another tune that I’d not heard in years. Gliderstate’s ‘Landscapes’ – what a beautiful piece of music – airy, melodic DnB with hints of jazz that still retains some weight via those pushing hi hats driving it along. More Clear business with the best title from the Greg Fleckner Quartet’s ‘A Gentle Intro To The GFQ’ 12” in ‘Oi, That’s My Bird’ but definitely not a good mix with Gliderstate, ouch. I’m not sure I even tried to mix Up, Bustle & Out’s ‘Ninja Principality’ out of this but it still sounds tough, Clandestine Ein could program them beats.
Track list:
Jimi Tenor – Cafe Europa (live)
Flora Purim – What You See (Ghost of Flora’s Dream remix by A Guy Called Gerald)
Doctor Rockit – Cameras & Rocks
Unknown – Unknown
Jaziacs & Snowboy – Give It Up Me
Doctor Rockit – Hello
Luger – Pass Agent (Leaf)
Spike – Change
Spike – Story Of Violence
Spike – The Mark
Jimi Tenor – Europa (Main Theme)
Bjork – Army Of Me
Unknown – unknown
Gliderstate – Landscapes
Greg Fleckner Quartet – Oi, That’s My Bird
Up, Bustle & Out – Ninja’s Principality
Summer 1995 was a busy time, Ninja Tune had released their first compilation, Ninja Cuts: Funkjazztical Tricknology in March which had bought in the first big flush of attention for the label and we were working on the Coldcut Journeys By DJ mix and the next DJ Food album, A Recipe For Disaster. We were still a few months away from the LP launch party at the Blue Note that would give birth to the infamous Stealth night but things were flowering for the label and its slowly expanding roster of artists like The Herbaliser, 9 Lazy 9, The London Funk Allstars, Up, Bustle & Out and Funki Porcini. Another label that was hitting a purple patch was Rising High who were diversifying out of the hardcore that had made their name with artists like Wagon Christ, Bedouin Ascent, Plug and Witchman. The opening track here is by Luke Vibert and comes from the label’s Further Self Evident Truths 2 compilation, a beautiful example of his Throbbing Pouch era trip hop and newly discovery love of drum n bass under his Plug alias.
Joe Nation released a sole 12” on the Chill Out Label and the group consisted of a certain Jonathan Moore – note the spelling of the surname – not the Jonathan More of Coldcut but someone who would go on to play a crucial role in the Ninja Tune label for some years to come. I think I’ve written about Jonathan before, largely under his Voda alias, he occupied a small studio in the same building as Ninja Tune in the 90s and later moved up to occupy the whole of the top floor of the building. He mastered recordings for a living as well as occasionally making music and he was in high demand as both the label and others around the area grew. You can see his Voda label and credit on many Ninja and Ntone releases of the time. He worked as an engineer on Mixmaster Morris’ third album, Coldcut’s records and also engineered the collaboration Coldcut and I did with Grandmaster Flash. I really liked him and, as his empire grew, he eventually moved out and had a large studio up in Soho, mastering, editing and duplicating for all and sundry. The last job I remember doing with him was the remastering for the Cookie Monster/Pinball Number Count 12” that the label released as well as cutting a video for it at his place which would place it around 2003 I think. I looked him up and and he now lives in Bristol and runs a TV subtitling service, I hope he’s well.
More DnB with Danny Breaks from an early Droppin’ Science release, remixed by Origin Unknown, I was still working part time in Ambient Soho around this time and would grab these releases when they came in. Others I would grab were anything on the Pharma label out of Germany, usually on coloured vinyl and a mixture of downtempo acid and electro from the Air Liquide/Jammin’ Unit/Cem Oral/Khan collective with a million aliases. The two tracks here from Kerosene and Zulutronic were from the label’s first two releases and the label would be active for the next five years releasing a mixture of dubbed out acid beats and bleeps. Now, a slight diversion but bear with me, it is relevant to what comes next.
A funny thing happened to me the other day as I was walking down the back streets of Peckham, looking at stickers on lamp posts and eyeing up a particularly decorated one that D’Face had stuck about ten different designs on. A man walking his dog passed by and suddenly asked if I was Kev? Yes, I replied, not sure if someone had played a trick on me and stuck a label on my back. Turns out he follows me on Instagram and had seen I lived locally, posted a lot of street art bits and also had a connection to Leicester. We got chatting and he revealed that not only did he come from there but also made music and that I had once reviewed one of his releases favourably for Muzik magazine in the 90’s. After more chat it transpired that he was one half of the Headphonauts – a group who released two singles in the mid 90s and then disappeared (as far as I knew) and that no one else I’ve ever talked to even remembers – how random is that!? Anyway, this opened the floodgates and it turns out Ali Gibbs (for it was he) moved to London and started making music solo under the name Nebraska, recording for various labels and running his own, Friends & Relations. We met up again a week or so later and he furnished me with a lovely pile of his back catalogue which included a release by Rex Mitsui, ‘Heddohõn Shõ Ryokõ’ which is the missing link between the Headphonauts’ work and his solo Nebraska releases. Thank you Ali, I now have closure not only on the NT album (read last week’s entry) but also of what happened to the Headphonauts, plus I made a new friend. Isn’t life weird sometimes?
Back to the tunes, some upfront pressure from an unknown called DJ Food – taken from a 12” promo for a Ninja label showcase in Koln I think – mixes out of the aforementioned Headphonauts’ track ‘Adverse Pt.3’. We get a snatch of the Wagon Christ remix of Witchman’s ‘Red Demon Loco’ (not ‘Watchman’ as Matt Black reads later) and what I love about this is that Luke time-stretches the already slow beat to half time and then stretches it again to half of that, complete with all the sonic aberrations that the technology of the day gave the sound. This just leaves the gate open for a good run of Gescom’s electro-fied ‘Pulz’ from their 12” release on Clear, another sleeve that I helped assemble from a mass of tags Rob and Sean provided of local Manchester writers, like I said, it was a busy year.
PS: For those wondering about the 4/11/95 date on the tape, it was about 10 minutes of As One, B12, Black Dog-esque tracks from another mix, nothing to write home about mix-wise so I’ve not included it. Back with more 1995 beats next week…
Track list:
Wagon Christ – Wet Leg
Joe Nation – Zvona (45-8 Mix)
Danny Breaks – Firin’ Line (Origin Unknown remix)
Kerosene – Nurse City
Zulutronic – Sodotronic
Headphonauts – Adverse Pt.3
DJ Food – Spiral
Witchman – Red Demon Loco (Wagon Christ remix)
Gescom – Pulz
It has to be said that looking back at the 80s was not on many minds during late 90s. The business of nostalgia wasn’t rearing its head in the dance music world after a decade of year-on-year musical innovation with new genres and styles springing up seemingly annually. I remember the early years of library music, Moog and easy listening compilations around this time, some licensed, some bootlegs and the worlds of soundtracks, Krautrock and music concrete / tape music being explored more and more by diggers who had exhausted the funk, soul and jazz genres. 80’s pop was something very few were looking at which is why I was royally taken the piss out of when I announced I was going to do an 80’s mix on Solid Steel.
Not that this was full of Rick Astley, Kylie or Madonna bangers, the track listing still stands up IMO and I haven’t change my opinion of any of these tracks since the first time I heard them. The The need no introduction, the Energy Mix of ‘Infected’ was hidden away on a 12” B side and is aptly named. My tape crashes in part way through so I’m not sure what, if anything, preceded this but I’d wager it was the opener. Sigue Sigue Sputnik still invite ridicule today although the critics are kinder to them now than they were back in the 80s where they were really one of the last great bands pedalling any kind of danger into the charts before SAW fully took hold or the end of the decade welcomed dance music and Madchester into the top 40.
The Pop Will Eat Itself track is essentially their cover version of the Dirty Harry theme and is technically a 90s release but they were another band who were rarely given kudos even though their This Is The Day… This Is The Hour… This Is This! LP is a lost sampling masterpiece. Propaganda get a big chunk of the mix with multiple versions of their incredible ‘Dr Mabuse’ debut single and are trailed by the Art of Noise – showing the ZTT love way back when. The B side of Tears For Fears’ ‘Mothers Talk’ single was a track called ‘Empire Building’ which always sounded like they were trying to do an Art of Noise thing to me, I remember the credits stated that the A side was produced by Chris Hughes and that the B side was not produced. My mix is noisy and quite scrappy, not helped by crappy tape compression as this was recorded over a promo tape I had at the time (which I’ll get to later).
JG Thirlwell aka Foetus in all his guises has to be present in any 80s mix and the opener from his classic album, Nail starts a less frantic section before segueing into the outro of the original Pet Shop Boys ‘Opportunities’ 12”. From here we drift into an extended track from Andrew Poppy’s second ZTT LP, Alphabed (A Mystery Dance) and then a bit more Foetus from the Sink compilation. No one is going to argue with Japan in the credibility stakes and the largely instrumental ‘Life Without Buildings’ from the B side of ‘The Art of Parties’ single sounds like something out of a lost Shogun soundtrack. This reminded me of Coldcut’s mixer – as this session was recorded in their Ahead Of Our Time studio in Clink St., not KISS FM – I think it was a Gemini, black with white decals and orange details. It had an inbuilt sampler on the right side where you could take clips of audio on the fly by punching a big round button at an in and out point. You could then loop that or use it as a one-shot which you could stab away at to your heart’s content, even pitching it up and down. You can hear a bit of this in the Japan track as I took a clip of David Sylvan saying, ‘in my building’ and then played over the top of the track afterwards, it’s quite quiet but it’s there. But I digress, the next two tracks were actually contemporary and not 80’s nostalgia – Michael Brook’s ‘Albo Gator’ had been out the year before on 4AD and Max Tundra’s debut on Warp sounds like an even more crazed Squarepusher and apparently samples one of Andrew Poppy’s other ZTT tracks for the choral vocals, which is a nice touch.
Now, the subject of the tape – ‘EN. T. ERPRATAESHUN’ it says and I have a vague memory of this being a promo tape for a Scottish band called NT who were around at the time. They had a sound somewhere between trip hop and soulful vocal funk back when it wasn’t hip to try and sound like the Meters. They were signed to RCA and put out three singles between 1995-1999 which didn’t quite blow up and the album that everyone expected never materialised aside from a promo CD under the title ‘To The Surface’. I always wondered what it sounded like and why it never got released, occasionally looking for it on Discogs but it’s never been sold. Then last week I was in a local record shop (the excellent Soul Proprietors in Brixton), perusing the cassette racks, and there was a promo tape of the album, under the title State Of Play despite having the same track list as the promo CD. The cover is obviously a colour laser copy with the box tabs crudely punched through the back and inside is the same make of cassette as the ‘EN. T. ERPRATAESHUN’ tape, simply labelled ’N.T.’. At last! £3 later it was mine and I can finally hear what could have been nearly 25 years later.
Was it worth the wait? Well, the singles still hold up, ‘Responsibilities’ the opening track and debut single is a soulful funk banger that sounds like it was birthed from the same 70s mould as Bill Withers but has subtle 90s samples and production touches. ‘To The Surface’ reminds me a bit of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’, except with a vocal hitched along for the ride. ‘Distances By Air’, also from the debut single, still stands up, and could happily sit alongside Air circa Moon Safari or some of Jimi Tenor’s flute-led instrumental jazz – pure smokers music. Following directly after is a Cheech & Chong spoken word intro mentioning acid-trips and uptempo hammond strut ‘State of Time’ definitely has ‘single’ written all over it with swirling dub effects and horns – a lost classic.
‘If U Don’t’ only came out as a promo 12” but slows the tempo with ruff drums, organ and wah wah guitar, well placed on the track list after the uptempo title track. I won’t go through the whole album but the sound is extremely tripped out in places, lots of echo, swooping tape delay, a sonic soup and very trip hop in lots of ways, which sometimes sits at odds with the soulful vocal although that’s what also alleviates it from similar music of the time. I think the problem with this record is that it was out of time, maybe five years too early, and people were looking elsewhere at the time, to the future rather than the past. This has a retro feel all over it and had it debuted in the late 90s or early 00s when the funk 45 boom happened then maybe it would have fitted like a glove. We’ll never know but I wouldn’t put it past someone to dig this up and release it as a lost 90s soul oddity somewhere down the line. I’m just a bit gutted that I taped over the ‘EN. T. ERPRATAESHUN’ tape as it’s nowhere to be found on Discogs or anywhere else.
Track list:
The The – Infected (Energy Mix)
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Hack Attack (Dub)
Steroid Maximus – Life In The Greenhouse Effect
Pop Will Eat Itself – The Incredible PWEI Vs Dirty Harry
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Suicide
Propaganda – (The Ninth Life Of…) Dr Mabuse
Propaganda – Dr Mabuse (13th Life Mix)
Propaganda – (The Ninth Life Of…) Dr Mabuse
Art of Noise – Beatbox Diversion 1
Tears For Fears – Empire Building
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel – Theme From Pigdom Come
Pet Shop Boys – Opportunities (Original Dance Mix)
Andrew Poppy – Goodbye Mr G
Foetus Eruptus – Lilith
Japan – Life Without Buildings
Michael Brook – Albo Gator
Max Tundra – Children At Play
When I set up my digital label, Infinite Illectrik, in 2020 it was with the intent that I would just use it as a platform for my own modified turntable recordings and other experiments (but that’s for later). I had no intention of it becoming a label to put out other people’s work but primarily as a personal playground both sonically and graphically, but as they say, ‘the best laid plans…’. With this month’s release I’m pleased to present the first experimental turntable work from James Meharry aka James In Real Life aka Duplokit.
James contacted me earlier this year from his home town in Christchurch, New Zealand after seeing my Quadraphon online as he was working along similar lines, albeit with a different, custom-built set up. Whereas my Quadraophon has one turntable with four tone arms, he is working with two decks, each with an extra tone arm – which solves the problem of changing records that I have at least. We’re both using rotary mixers with outboard FX, using locked groove records as our palette and have been building / refining our set ups in virtual tandem for several years with the end goal of a performance-based turntablism/DJ set based on experimental rhythm or soundscape building.
What James also has under his belt is a lathe to cut his own records and the technical knowledge to design his own parts, modifying his turntables to do some outrageous things. He sent a photo of his creation (now christened Duplokit) and I asked if I could hear some of what he’s been doing. What he sent immediately impressed as it’s similar to what I’m attempting yet different and we started a dialogue, exchanging info and I asked if he would be up for me releasing it on my label.
What has transpired since is that James has gone into new realms with the machine, adding ‘warp drives’ to each deck and is currently building further innovations for later that will mean he can do more than any regular turntable can with his set up. With this release, he’s starting a Patreon and will be doing regular YouTube episodes for members, taking you through each step of his build process, building to his own James In Real Life releases as the Duplokit develops. I’m pleased to showcase a couple of his earliest experiments on Infinite Illectrik today, give him a listen, a follow, even sign up to his Patreon if you’re curious as to what it’s all about and want to drill down into how he’s made the monster used to create these tracks. I think what he’s doing is something quite unique in the field of both custom-built equipment and also the advancement of turntablism into new areas.
Subscribe to follow and support James on his journey.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JamesInRealLife
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBxkXMFwtF_wfmLRsQXugiQ
Bandcamp: https://jamesinreallife.bandcamp.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesinreallifeofficial
I have to say, this is very well done, the fact that the AI can’t render everything ‘perfectly’ just adds to it for me.
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