The A side of the B mix posted last week reveals two roughly 15 minutes snatches from the Solid Steel shows two weeks previous. I used to tape my own contributions live from the radio where and when I could, that’s not to say I didn’t want to listen to the others’ contributions, it was more a necessity as I would have been swimming in cassettes otherwise. Kicking off with a short Wagon Christ track from Throbbing Pouch (Luke always has such great titles) into a snatch of ambience that I can’t identify. Paul Schutze’s stunning ‘The Mutant Beautific’ enters, sounding like something from Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts or one of Jon Hassel’s Fourth World albums. Utterly dark and beautiful, this originally appeared on his New Maps of Hell album in 1992 but I would have been playing it from the Assemblage compilation, a collection of tracks from artists on the Australian Extreme label. This was given away with releases around this time as a primer for the label and a lot of the content fitted into my more ambient sets.

Scanner’s ‘Arc’ is still one of my absolute favourites from Robin Rimbaud, nestling at the end of his Spore album, followed my another Wagon Christ selection – ‘Intermission’ from the aforementioned LP – looks like I was playing a largely ambient set this week. A regular artist on the Extreme label was Muslimgauze whose ‘Infidel’ appeared in all manner of variations on an EP and perfectly encapsulates his sound. Sadly he passed away in 1999 but was so prolific during his lifetime (he released ten albums in 1996 alone) that releases have still been forthcoming. We’re rudely interrupted by an edit into the next show and propelled into Bedouin Ascent’s ‘Crouched On Broken Glass’ – a brilliant piece of complex programming that is well worth investigating along with his first two albums on Rising High for some top shelf ambient techno. Yet another artist who appeared on the JDJ mix (not this track but one from the same EP) and who hasn’t released anything for over a decade. The Black Dog’s equally stunning rework of Phenomyna’s ’Into The Other World’ appears from Kirk Degiorgio’s Art Records before a snatch of ‘K/V’ from Ultramarine’s Bel Air album plays us out.

Mix URL:

Track list:
Wagon Christ – Night Owls
Unknown – Unknown
Paul Schutze – The Mutant Beautific
Scanner – Arc
Wagon Christ – Intermission
Muslimgauze – Infidel
Bedouin Ascent – Crouched On Broken Glass
Phenomyna – Into The Other World (Explained by The Black Dog)
Ultramarine – K/V

An early one from 1995 where I’m still referred to as ‘Telepathic Kev’ by Jon but am now fully ensconced in the Solid Steel family, recording most weeks along with Matt, Jon and PC or a combination of, depending who was available. This 45 minute mix runs the gamut of tasty electronica, trip hop, drum n bass (on 33 and 45) and acid electro.

Starting off with the modular bleeps of Death’s ‘The High Cost of Living’ (how relevant), a totally silver 12” with only a sticker to tell you the contents. This was Thomas P. Heckmann’s only release under this name, quite a full on start to the show but always nice to lead off with something weird. Barry Adamson’s excellent ‘Dead Heat’ follows at half time, I’ve never understood why he doesn’t get more props, his solo records in the 90s and through into the 21st century are perfectly observed slices of soundtrack, to the point of pastiche at times but still, I know guys who tried to get those kinds of feels for years and couldn’t do as well as he. Stepping back up to double time is Photek’s ‘The Water Margin’ – then a new release – which then gets switched down from 45 to 33 rpm to play as a laidback 120 bpm breakbeat roller, a trick we’d repeat on the Journey’s By DJ mix later that year.

Zoot Woman were one of the first releases on the fledgling Wall of Sound label at the time and an early alias of Stuart Price’s, ‘A Time That’s Closer’ is a hidden beauty of a track from their debut Sweet To The Wind EP that I still love to this day. If someone were to get me to compile a collection of hidden gems from the trip hop era, this would be one of them. Jon sounds like he needs the soothing tones from the track and I sometimes think I tested his patience with some of my more out there selections. J Saul Kane’s remix of the Sabres’ ‘Tow Truck’ thunders in after what would have been an ad break, few people could do beats as heavy as he could, wish he’d put some more music out. The Rockers Hi-Fi track seems to have beats from Audio Two’s ‘Top Billin’ over it or is that me mixing? There’s also a snatch of a jungle track from Section 47 that doesn’t fully play but I looked it up and now it goes for a fair bit – long gone from my collection though.

Gescom’s amazing ‘Mag’ appears, probably for the first time, this would also crop up on the JDJ mix later and was titled because of an Ultra Magnetic MCs sample that runs throughout. Mixed out before the drop of that oh so hard to judge breakdown and into Tranquility Bass’ classic, ‘Cantamilla’, a huge club tune at the time. Jon mentions ‘the blue label 12”’ as there were two doing the rounds at the time, the other one with a gold label, with different tracks and mixes on it. A change of tempo into Wagon Christ’s ‘Scrapes’ from his Throbbing Pouch album on Rising High, still one of his best in a huge discography for my money. This was were I felt he started to find his voice and it’s an album that works from start to finish. I love the little voices he brings in then reverses, a great late night album which I always think of as a trip hop record but this track disproves. Some killer acid from Link in the form of ‘Antacid’ and then the other side of the Gescom 12” with ‘Snakwitch’ which sounds like they’re cutting up some sort of film soundtrack over electro beats. I designed the labels for said 12” and the sandwich toaster on one side is my old one from the 90’s techno trivia fans.

That’s all for this session, next week there’s the A side of this tape with sections from two previous weeks’ shows dated 17th and 24th March 1995. I’m off to Ramsgate tonight to play at the Music Hall and premier my new Quadraphon show, no idea what will happen, it could be a breath of fresh air, it could be a disastrous folly. All I know is that this is where my head is at in terms of DJing right now and I’m so far out of my comfort zone that it’s got to be a good thing.

Track list:
Death – The High Cost of Living
Barry Adamson – Dead Heat
Photek – The Water Margin (on 33 rpm)
Zoot Woman – A Time That’s Closer
Sabres of Paradise – Tow Truck (J Saul Kane remix)
Rockers Hi-Fi – More & More (Heavy Persuasion Mix)
Section 47 – Drought
Gescom – Mag
Tranquility Bass – Cantamilla
Wagon Christ – Scrapes
Link – Antacid
Gescom – Snakwitch

A mixed bag of then current music and what an embarrassment of riches! From contemporary psyche rock instrumental beats to post electroclash tracks and downtempo sample-fests.
The Giallos Flame first came to my attention via the DC Recordings 12” that the opening track was taken from, of which the mix title is a play on as this set was recorded when I was living in Dulwich. I know the Cdr says ‘Dunwich’ but that’s wrong and so is the date, being when it was recorded, not broadcast. Following swiftly is an early Heliocentrics track from a Jazzman 45 followed my another track from the aforementioned Live From Dunwich 12”. DC Recordings were on a ridiculously good run at this point with releases from The Emperor Machine, Padded Cell, Tom Tyler, The Oscillation and White Line Circus, all wrapped in gorgeous La Boca artwork and the Padded Cell remix of Future Loop Foundation’s ‘The Sea & The Sky’ is still a banger to this day and cheap as chips.

Keeping the tempo high there’s the Ted Nugget-sampling ‘Shake A Fist’ from Hot Chip, an amazing Optimo remix of Prinzhorn Dance School’s ‘Space Invader’ (check the 303 breakdown) and LCD’s ’Sound of Silver’ which I seemed to think sounded like Frankie’s ‘Relax’ in the middle, hence the acappella overdub. Racing through ‘other mystery beats’ as Matt Black always used to call the ones he couldn’t recall – Mr 76ix was a Skam records artist who sounds like he’s sampling a snatch of the Ronnie Corbett ’Sorry’ theme tune in there. The Shocking Pinks remixed by the Glimmers I barely recall but would have been sent on promo, mining that Liquid Liquid percussion sound repopularised by the DFA crew. More spy jazz Giallos Flame with a mystery preacher sermon too low in the mix and then Indoor Life’s ‘Archeology’ which must have been on a compilation as it’s an old 80s track on Celluloid. A quick look on Discogs confirms that it was on a B-Music comp titled after the track itself, dig and dig and dig indeed.

The excellent but sadly none too prolific Mr Chop (these days simply known as Chop) is up next from his Jazz & Milk release, ‘Sounds From The Cave’, he’s go on to get picked up by Now Again Records for a few releases and has also since had a 10” out on the coveted Drumetrics series. I don’t recall the Kid Acne ‘Sliding Beats’ either but what a banging beat, seems it was the instrumental of his ‘Sliding Doors’ release on Lex, co-written with Req One, mixed by Ross Orton and mastered by Rob Gordon no less! Next is a brace of Bullion’s breakthrough mash up of Jay D/Dilla beats and Beach Boys samples. So good I included four in a row, mainly because they were quite short too, he turns an unlikely alliance into something quite magic and forms a third ‘artist’ in the process which is what the best mash ups are all about. I’d been contemplating a Beach Boys sample-fest of my own for some years but he took it further than I ever could, I must revisit that record soon, it still sounds fresh.

For the last section we go deeper into sample territory, starting with what, for my money, is one of the first sample records in pop – Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts and the spooky ‘Come With Us’. I could rhapsodise about this album until the cows come home as it’s one of my favourite records ever but Gescom throw any reverence away, shoving the whole thing into some sample chopping and rearranging programme that expertly reconfigures it from a meandering ramble into an uptempo electro stomp. Add in Murcof’s darkly creeping ambience over the end and you have something quite special as the track contorts and breaks down under its own complexity. ‘Cosmos 1’ is from the fourth of his five album debut run with the Leaf label and what a fine group of albums. This melts into the final track from the sole release by The Dead Soul Brothers, a record I don’t recall ever having but which may have come to me digitally by this point as it’s 2007 and methods of distribution were changing fast every year in the music business and they got hold of the digital realm.

Track list:
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Heliocentrics – Dance of the Dogon
The Giallos Flame – Crime Squad
Future Loop Foundation – The Sea & The Sky (Padded Cell remix)
Hot Chip – Shake A Fist
Prinzhorn Dance School – You Are The Space Invader (Optimo remix)
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Mr 76ix – Romanticism
Shocking Pinks – Smoke Screen (12″s & A Bit More by The Glimmers)
The Giallos Flame – Live From Dunwich
Indoor Life – Archeology
Mr Chop – Snob
Kid Acne – Sliding Beats (instrumental)
Bullion – Let’s Be Friends
Bullion – Pet Sounds
Bullion – Sloop Jay D
Bullion – Don’t Talk (Close Your Eyes)
Brian Eno & David Byrne – Come With Us
Gescom – B1
Murcof – Cosmos 1
Dead Soul Brothers – Overtime

The CDr tells me this is a longer edit of the set that finishes the live in Tofino gig I posted part 1 of last week – at 42 minutes I assume only 30 mins was used on the show. While there was a snatch of what I presume was the Dreadlock Holiday mash up 2 Many DJs did with Destiny’s Child creeping in at the end of that set, we blast into Quantic Soul Orchestra’s ’Super 8’ here. I remember Will from Quantic telling me he’d recorded those drums on a mini disc at the time and this was when everyone was trying to put drums down to tape to get that ‘analogue distortion’ – sounds like mini disc worked pretty good too. This was a raucous 45 and the first of many killer cuts Tru Thoughts put out in the 00’s that established the label. Gotta say, that ‘Poppa Large’ acappella sits nicely over the top, some quick cuts between Dennis Coffey and the Mowhawks funk classics and Breakestra retread of ‘Humpty Dance’ and then into a pairing I’d completely forgotten about.

The pairing of Playgroup’s ‘Number One’ with the dub mix of Time Zone’s ‘The Wildstyle’ works amazingly well until the end when things get a bit messy as they’re adding odd spoken word over the top – must revisit that and maybe do a re-edit. Into the bonus beats of Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’ classic before a quick flip over into the vocal and a rather messy mix of ‘Apache’ being cut up by Grandmaster Flash from the BBE sampler. I was rocking the odd country number that breaks down into an amazing break by the name of ‘Saga of the Blue Beaver’ at the time and then we go full on party time with Mr On’s cheeky pairing of ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough’ with ‘Breathe & Stop’ – one of the better early mash ups. Then what sounds like an edit brings us to a pumped up electro version of Prince’s ‘Kiss’ – no idea who did this, any ideas? We’re veering into cheese territory before Rufus Thomas’ ‘Itch & Scratch Pt.2’ pulls us back but, oh no – I’d really caught mash up fever around this time and Madison Avenue’s ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ gets paired with Blur’s ‘Song 2’ and, to be fair, this absolutely tore it up at the time as it was all so new.

Back to the funk with Paul Humphrey & his Cool Aid Chemists with the awesome stop/start of ‘Funky L.A.’, galloping stormer of a 45 before a switch of tempo into a well known pairing of Mr Scruff’s ‘Ug’ with DJ Vadim’s ‘The Terrorist’ from the Now, Listen Solid Steel mix CD a year before. A snatch of Cut Chemist’s ‘Bunky’s Pick’ before Reuben Bell’s ’Superjock’ – given a second outing a year before with Cut and Shadow’s Brainfreeze 45s mix – and then a, frankly, ham-fisted mix into Q-Bert’s amazing scratch cut in the form of ‘Bear Witness’ by Doctor Octagon. I used to do a trick with Pharoah Monch’s ’Simon Says’ where I’d hold the Godzilla sample and scratch it into the Addams Family theme tune and this is what rounds the set out. It was originally created for the aforementioned Now, Listen mix but unfortunately we couldn’t license it (because they’d sampled Godzilla!) so I would do it at gigs and it always went down well once the crowd caught on.

Track list:
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Super 8
Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large (acappella)
Dennis Coffey – Scorpio
The Mohawks – The Champ
Breaksetra – Humpty Dump
Playgroup – Number One
Time Zone – Wildstyle (Original 12″ dub mix)
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime/bonus beats
The Incredible Bongo Band – Apache (Grandmaster Flash Rock Steady Mix)
Beaver & Krause – Saga Of The Blue Beaver
Mr. On vs Jungle Brothers – Breathe Don’t Stop
Prince – Kiss (unknown electro mix)
Rufus Thomas – Itch & Scratch Pt.2
Unknown – Don’t Call Me Song 2
Paul Humphrey & his Cool Aid Chemists – Funky L.A.
Mr Scruff’s – Ug
DJ Vadim feat Motion Man – The Terrorist (acappella)
Cut Chemist – Bunky’s Pick
Reuben Bell – Superjock
Doctor Octagon – Bear Witness
Pharoah Monch – Simon Says

An odd assortment from mid 2002 here with a bit of party-style mash up, a bit of funk, some Four Tet and some cut ups thrown in, sounds a bit like I was tidying up some loose ends. The inclusion of ‘Milk’ by The Basic dates it instantly to around the time of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s ‘Product Placement’ mix, of which this was a staple, both musically and visually. It’s also the first time Luke Vibert’s ‘Homewerk’ gets an airing, a track that would be in the record box from most of the decade and still comes out for the Kraftwerk Klassics, Kovers and Kurios set.

‘Yoda’s One Man Band’ sounds more like Kid Koala than he did back then and I’m not entirely sure it was serious. I never knew who the Freelance Hairdresser was, obviously a play on the Freelance Hellraiser and in early on with the mash up craze. Here he/she mixes the BBC Pot Black theme (Winifred Atwell – Black & White Rag) with Eminem to ‘hilarious’ effect, hasn’t dated a bit – but seriously, this is half of what I enjoyed about the bastard pop craze, it was ridiculous and unpretentious fun, mostly made by people who had nothing to lose.

‘Funk’ is, of course, the less famous B side to Meco’s huge disco-fied hit, ’Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band’ although something tells me they needed a filler track quickly for the flip and didn’t stop to think too hard about the title. Here comes Luke with his obvious steal homage to the Dusseldorf Quartet and I have to say, that tempo switch down mix out of it into Paul Kass is inspired. There’s also a link between the two as ‘Underground Agent’ is featured on the Further Nuggets compilation of library music that Luke made for Lo Recordings around this time.

And here’s The Basic with their advertisement for the dairy industry, not 100% sure where the spoken word about cows comes from that I’ve slung over it but it’s probably a Sesame Street sketch. I remember seeing the Product Placement show at, I think, the Scala of all places, in London. Shadow and Cut confounded a few people after the party-tastic ‘Brainfreeze’ set by digging pretty deep to the point where the tracks were cool but more of a head-nod than a get down. Z-Trip ripped it up on that show, pure showmanship with Nirvana cut ups and plenty of mic action.

A couple of Four Tet pieces follow, first, a remix for James Yorkson, and second, something he did for the Domino label which takes a big slabs of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’ and weaves it into something beautiful. It comes as a 7”, split over two sides and features a photo of a young Kieran with his sister on the cover. We play out and turn off the light with Al Dente and Ill Chemist – friends of Steinski’s – and a little track from a CDr I was given I think as I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Nighty Night!

Track list:
DJ Yoda – Yoda’s One Man Band
Freelance Hairdresser – Marshall’s Been Snookered
Meco – Funk
Luke Vibert – Homewerk
Paul Kass – Underground Agent
The Basic – Milk
James Yorkson & the Athletes – The Lang Toun (Four Tet remix)
Four Tet – I’m On Fire (Part 2)
Al Dente and Ill Chemist – Nighty Night