Kraftwerk month #11 Mash Ups & Bootlegs

Girls On Top ‘I Wanna Dance With Numbers’ 7″, Frenchbloke & Son ‘Sexy Model’ 7″, Late Night Radio 12″, ‘Dark Side Of The Autobahn‘ Mordant Music 7″ picture disc.

These are among the best reworkings I own on vinyl because the artwork perfectly mirrors the contents. I can credit the Girls On Top record for igniting my love of mash ups, I picked it up because of the cover and took a listen in Rough Trade over in Ladbroke Grove the week it came out. It was so insane I had to have it and I remember being slightly worried it would clear the floor the first time I played it out. The crowd went mad for it. ‘Sexy Model’ is a genius pairing of Right Said Fred‘s ‘I’m Too Sexy’ with Kraftwerk’s most known hit; “I’m a model, you know what I mean”. It’s also backed by a latin take on ‘Neon Lights’ and comes on transparent vinyl with a free badge. Graeme Ross, aka ‘Son’ in the duo, helped me greatly when I was first compiling the Kover Kollections too.

Late Night Radio is a mind boggling medley in the same vein as the Stars on 45 records but pitting Kraftwerk with Vangelis, has to be heard to be believed. ‘Dark Side of the Autobahn’ is an excellent coupling of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ with ‘Autobahn’ (as you can probably guess from the title), as well as snatches of Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Cook. The B side plays the same track backwards and all of these can be heard scattered around the various Kraftwerk Kover Kollection mix series. Below is a strange artifact from Russian that I picked up, a 5″ red flexi disc of ‘Boing Boom Tschak’, these things pop up all the time for bigger name groups but this is the first Kraftwerk one I’ve seen.

Posted in Kraftwerk. | 3 Comments » |

Kraftwerk month #7 Kover Kollection 4


This one veers heavily into hip hop territory at the beginning but then into more rock and, inevitably, techno areas. I was using voice synthesizers to generate ‘lyrics’ over some tracks and it contains one of my favourite mixes: two versions of ‘Autobahn’ running concurrently in the left and right speakers.

Gorefest and The Balanescu Quartet had both done versions that I noticed were very similar in arrangement and tempo and, being that the track is so long, rather than play them separately I panned each one left and right and played them together, I like the fact that they’re just so opposite in terms of style. This one originally debuted on Solid Steel on 04/08/06


(and no, you didn’t miss pts. 2 & 3 yet, I’m just not putting them up in logical order)

Posted in Kraftwerk. | No Comments » |

Kraftwerk month #6 Ralf & Florian – the sitcom & UK LP

I’ve posted this video before but I never tire of it.


Also on the subject of ‘Ralf & Florian’, the UK pressing on Vertigo had a different sleeve to the regular release (see below), much the same as ‘Autobahn’. Both are believed to be the work of designer Barney Bubbles, although this has never been confirmed.

Emil Schult designed a sticker for the German issue of ‘Autobahn’ (right) that used the blue and white road sign and this was adapted and added to for the UK sleeve. Hardformat ran a great piece on it, arguing for Bubbles as the layout designer and there is a discussion on the subject here but the jury is still out. Also, the ‘Ralf & Florian’ UK cover below had embossing around the title and circuit pattern as well as florescent inks on the back cover.

Posted in Kraftwerk. | No Comments » |

Kraftwerk month on DJFood.org #1

I’ve decided to make March ‘Kraftwerk month’ on the site, which means I’ll be posting something Kraftwerk-related every day at least. This had been bought on by the recent news of the 8 night residency at MOMA in New York and the subsequent fact that no one I know has managed to get a ticket.

Volume 7 of my on-going Kraftwerk Kover Kollection mix series is way overdue so I plan to have that done by the time the group play their back catalogue (I should attempt vol.8 as well but back in the real world…). Volumes 5 and 6 are already on the web but, due to my old host site BosBos.net no longer being active, I thought I’d put the first four up here as well, one a week, starting with volume …1.

The one that kicked it all off in April 2004, some quite obvious choices here when you start to think of cover versions, don’t worry, they get more obscure as the mixes progress. I’m always on the look out for new versions so please send suggestions but don’t be offended if I don’t include them in future mixes as for every one that makes it, four or five won’t as I’m looking for the odd and left of center rather than the multitude of straight electro / techno covers that are also out there. Also included here is the original artwork I did for the mix: front/back and CD on-body.

RIP Florian Schneider-Esleben of Kraftwerk

FlorianWhat can be said about Florian Schneider that won’t have already been said by millions around the world? It’s no exaggeration to say that the group that he founded changed the face of music in ways that we now take for granted. The music that they went on to make broke boundaries, changed preconceptions and influenced untold artists after whilst touching on concepts years or decades ahead of their arrival in our everyday lives with albums like ‘Computer World’. Whether pushing technological boundaries, live performance or their own image as a group, they predicted the future whilst trying to escape their county’s past. Always a reluctant interviewee, rather letting partner Ralf Hutter take on those formalities, Florian often came across as the one with the mischievous twinkle in his eye for a split second when attention was elsewhere. His initial love of the flute was slowly phased out of the group’s sound and speech synthesis became his focus, something that he went on to work with after he left the group in 2008. He was a legendary figure in 20th Century music who’s contribution will never be forgotten.

In 2012 I did a month’s worth of Kraftwerk posts on this site, highlighting the most obscure sleeves, ephemera, video, graphics, reviews and tributes I could find. You can find those posts here.

Later in 2013 I did a ‘Kraftweek’ to celebrate their run of London gigs – find those here.

For all 100+ entries of Kraftwerk-related material on this site – go here.

Florian Autobahn smile

Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ animation by Roger Mainwood upgraded A/B comparison

Autobahn AB6

Whilst putting together my recent Kraftwerk: Klassics, Kovers & Kurios AV set I’ve been searching for the best quality footage possible for the visuals. One thing that has always alluded me is a decent copy of Roger Mainwood’s trippy video for ‘Autobahn’ that was commissioned by EMI in the late 70’s, originally to be issued on laserdisc. Bad to worse copies have cropped up on YouTube for years, hazy, blurred and cropped, always seemingly encoded from video sources which was the only official release it gained eventually.
Well, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a French DVD compilation of the Halas & Batchelor studio which features a whole host of animations, including the aforementioned Kraftwerk hit. I was expecting a better quality version with un-muddied colours but was blown away by not only the crystal clear clarity of the image (you can see pencil lines on the figures) but also new areas of each frame, much of which had been cropped off when encoded for the web. See above and below for some A/B comparisons of what I’d been missing, the new edition on the right will now be making its way into my future sets for your viewing pleasure.

Autobahn AB9Autobahn AB8Autobahn AB7 Autobahn AB5 Autobahn AB4 Autobahn AB1 Autobahn AB2 Autobahn AB3

How Kraftwerk changed my life x 20

The Vinyl Factory published this extensive article last Friday about Kraftwerk‘s influence on electronic music and I was asked to contribute. Alongside 19 other artists including Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, OMD, Moire, Malcolm Catto, Goat and more we were asked to pick our favourite release and how it changed our lives. I chose ‘Autobahn’ which, by coincidence, is 40 years old next month apparently. Read the full piece here.

Posted in Kraftwerk. | No Comments » |

45 Live mix for 2025

DJ Food 45 Live Mix 12th 2025 web
It’s that time again, my annual 45 Live mix over on Dublab for the fortnightly 45 Live show, hosted as ever by the mighty Greg Belson (whose unreleased 1995 album with Nick Faber under their The Hightower Set monikor finally came out last month). As ever I’ve been stockpiling those electronic 7″s from the acid house and rave era and this is a mostly techno and bleep-orientated mix, only occasionally straying into rave territory (believe me though, I have enough to make a stonking piano-led pop house set and probably two full-on rave/hardcore sets).

Kev’s 12th mix – House / Techno / Bleep ’88-92 – Aug 2025

Unknown – The Cimex Invasion promo advert
LFO – We Are Back (intro)
808 State – Cobra Bora (7” edit)
A Guy Called Gerald – Rhythm of Life
The Style Council – Can You Still Love Me?
A Guy Called Gerald – Hot Lemonade (Radio Edit)
Emmanuel – We Shall Overcome (Technogizer Instrumental edit)
Friends of Matthew – Out There (Technomix)
K-Klass – Rhythm Is A Mystery (Percussion mix)
Kraftwerk – The Robots (Single edit)
D-Shake – My Heart, The Beat
Rickster – Rickster Twister (Radio Mix)
Bassomatic – Attack Of The 50 Foot Drum Demon (Psycho Biker Mix)
Rhythmatic – Take Me Back (Robert Gordon Radio edit)
Kenny Larkin – Colony
GTO – The Bullfrog
Kid Unknown – Mayhem
Unique 3 – Rhythm Takes Control (Original Style mix)
Rhythmatic – Frequency
808 State – Open Your Mind
GTO – Listen to the Rhythm Flow
LFO – We Are Back
G.T.O. – Pure
Underground Posse – Hold Back
LFO – Nurture
Kid Unknown – Nightmare
Papillon – The Bully (Original Mix)
Orbital – Halcyon (Edit)
The Shamen – Phorever People (Shamen Dub)
Inner City – Unity

DJ Food 45 Live Mix 12th 2025 2 web

Mixcloud Select 192: Coldcut Alien Sphinx – Strictly Kev section 16/09/1994

MS192 Coldcut Alien Sphinx on Solid Steel 16:09:1994 tape
*Apologies – I’ve been away on holiday and thought I’d posted this on Thursday night last week

An Alien Sphinx or sometimes Solid Sphinx was a 2 hour, ad-free show where we dispensed with any chat and just went heads down into the mix. I’m not sure why there were no ads (maybe advertising was lacking that week and you’d get less coverage at 1am in the morning?) but this seemed to happen a couple of times a year at KISS FM. Here’s my section from a 2 hour ‘rub’ as Matt would call it, where the four of us were present in the studio; Matt going first, then me, PC and Jon last I think – I can usually tell by the song selections or playing style. While one of us was playing the others would be slurping spoken word or ambient sounds over the top to pad out the mix, hence the busy nature of the sound field.

Kraftwerk spring out of the end of Air Liquide from Matt’s set to being mine and then into Coldcut’s own ‘Beats & Pieces’ B-side, ‘More Beats’ which gets a speed switch half way to up the tempo. Motorbass’ Ritchie Hawtin/Plastikman slow-burn remix slides in before the second Kraftwerk outing of ‘Home Computer’ which then has its own tempo switch in the second half. Drome’s ‘Hoax! What Did You Got?’ from the slept on Ninja album is riding that early drum and bass sound but with classical Indian overtones. Actually this was released on Ninja TONE, but confusion made the label retitle it Ntone – a sub-label for more electronic fair. Bedouin Ascent’s astonishing ‘Manganese In Deep Violet III’ from the Pavillion of the New Spirit EP is somehow mixed in by the skin of its teeth, one of the hardest tracks to mix ever. There’s a snatch of an unknown ambient dub cut, some War of the Worlds dialogue and then we finish with Mantonix’ ‘Get Stupid Pt.3’ which samples Art of Noise and Billy Cobham’s ‘Spectrum’ three years before Massive Attack would make it their own on ‘Safe From Harm’.

Track list:
Kraftwerk – Boing Boom Tschak
Coldcut – More Beats
La Funk Mob -Motor Bass Get Phunked Up (Electrofunk remix)
Kraftwerk – Home Computer
Drone – Hoax! What Did You Got?
Bedouin Ascent – Manganese In Deep Violet III
Unknown – unknown
Mantronix – Get Stupid (Pt.III)

My first monthly Electrik Collage radio show from April 12th is also now archived on ROVR radio, download the app to get archive access. APPLE or ANDROID

Electrik Collage logo web
Show #1 April 2024 track list:

Coast Contra – Breathe + Stop Freestyle (DJ Food Edit)
Valentine Unlimited Orchestra – Take You Back
Resident Alien – It’s The Resident Alien
Your Old Droog & MF DOOM – Dropout Boogie
Resident Alien – Are You Ready
Tuff Crew – Soul Food
Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul – Ceci n’est pas un cliché
Edan – Real Bad Promo
Itsu Uno – Noise of the B-Boy
DJ Format – Beyond Disco
Edrix Puzzle – Lapetus
Jlin – Nyakinyua Rise
Rei Mitsui – Rekodoten Disuko
ScanOne – Serious Rhythm
Rei Mitsui – Kotozuke/Owaru
Clesse – Gehm
Raj Pannu – Elements
Beans – Pendulum
The Stone Roses – Begging You (Lakota Mix DJ Food Edit)
Emperors New Clothes – Boogie Electric
Planet Battagon – Endeavour Tugg Luke
Raj Pannu – The Heat
Prefuse 73 – Forever Chase (Scene One)
Patrick Carpenter – 27 Degrees of Sagittarius
Markey Funk – Five Minutes
Nevermen – Treat ‘Em Right (Boards Of Canada Remix – Instrumental + chorus re-edit)
The Luvmenauts – ’71 Shuttle
DJ Fingers – Pelham

Mixcloud Select 161: Solid Steel Boat Party Session 25/10/2004

MS161 CDr
DSC01448
Back in 2004 when DK and I had our monthly Solid Steel night residency downstair at Ruby Lo in the west end we decided to put on a boat party for the end of summer. I think it was DK’s idea and he wanted to have a door price that included a free BBQ on entry which was to be served from the deck while people came on board. I won’t post the terrible flyer I made at the time but it did contain the line ‘All hands on decks’ which made me laugh. We co-opted our wives to help serve alongside James Mountain (Solid Steel DJ and Ninja employee at the time) and provided a load of burgers, hot dogs and salad for people our of our own pockets. DJs on the night were Dean Smith (on the top deck whilst food was served), James, Matt Black, PC, Harley Harl, DJ Yoda, Diplo (then still relatively unknown but fast rising as a star in his own right), DK and myself.

DSC01469
Harley Harl and James Mountain (Solid Steel)
DSC01484
Matt Black (Coldcut)
DSC01532
DK (Solid Steel)
The boat we booked was on the dock on the North side of the Thames and the owners were a tad shady, so much so that when we started admitting people it was obvious that other people were coming on board without tickets and going to another part of the boat we didn’t know about. When confronted we were told that there was another private party on board and that it would be Ok, no one would cross over but we knew this was BS. Too late, the party had started and the deck was filling up and the weather was great for a late summer evening. The place was packed and there were three rooms, a main one and a more chilled one plus a couple of bars, at one point we gave everyone free lollies too. The set here is mine from the main room, complete with crowd noise and scrappy mixing but if you imagine a cramped top deck cabin with 100 or so sweaty people crammed in then you get the picture.

DSC01582
PC (DJ Food)
Image-1ED186A603A411D9
DJ Yoda
Image-1ED2507803A411D9
Yours truly (DJ Food)
I think I was on either before or after Yoda but sadly missed most of his set as I had to sort stuff out with the food side of things. We had a problem with Diplo as he was flying into the UK that afternoon and coming straight to the boat to play and with no contact we were winging it as to whether he’d turn up in time or not. Luckily he did, literally minutes before he was due to play and proceeded to turn out a storming set – phew! DK went to see the boat owners afterwards to sort out the money and we ended up not having to pay for the boat hire as a result of all the nonsense with the other party – they certainly must have made a fortune on the bar that night anyway.

DSC01556
Me and Diplo on the boat, it was sweaty!
MS161 PRS

Photos by Elisa Parish, Graham (Fraser?) and another unknown photographer.

I’m not going to go through every track as there are many classics here most will know – keep an ear out for the switch up out of ‘Tour de France’ into Roni Size though – that was a moment. I loved this era of DnB, loads of fun, heavy rolling beats, synth bass lines and pop vocal hooks – check the Britney bootleg. I know Pendulum fell off but ‘Another Planet’ will always be a monster tune for me – never failed back in the day. The Carmel of ’Nujazzkiller’ isn’t the British jazz artist but a one-off on the Fluid Ounce label for 2002.

Track list:
Stas – Solid Steel Intro
Double Trouble – Live At The Amphitheatre
Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble (Graham Coxon mix)
The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home
Boom Bip – Cords Will Be the Death Of Me
Quantic feat. Spanky Wilson – Don’t Joke With A Hungry Man
Awkward – Plug Me In
Gang Starr – Play That Beat ’99
Double D & Steinski – Lesson 1
Steinski – Ain’t No Thing
West Bam – Monkey Say Monkey Do
Think Tank – Hack One
Carmel – Nujazzkiller
Ty – Wait A Minute (acappella)
Brass Incorporated – At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal
The Beatles – Taxman
Beck – New Pollution
Kraftwerk – Tour De France
Roni Size feat. Rahzel – Out Of Breathe
Kayne West – Jesus Walks
DJ Shadow – Walkie Talkie
Rodney P vs Roni Size – Trouble (Roni Size remix)
Britney Spears – Toxic (D n B mix)
Pendulum – Another Planet
Tribe of Issachar – Junglist (DJ Zinc remix)
Mark 1 – Hoovers & Spraycans
Supergrass – Kiss of Life (Tom Tom Club remix)

Mixcloud Select 147: Coldcut Solid Sphinx (Openmind) 15/04/1995

MS147 tape
According to the tape box, this was a Coldcut Solid Sphinx, that being a 2 hr set with no ad breaks or chat from us. Given that I have most of it on tape that bears out the description but of course there are no track lists on the mic and no indication as to who is playing when. I could spot my section though and, from the sound of the rest of the tapes, Matt, Jon and PC were also present. Not enough mention is given to the insertion of jingles, spoken word and fx over the top of the DJ mixes and this was something that really made the radio shows special. Matt, Jon and Patrick were expert at this and would frequently have something ready for a break or pause in the music, all flown in live as we DJed.

All the shows were done in one take back then, although mostly pre-records on the Friday evening before they were aired Saturday night/Sunday morning. We didn’t have the facilities to do hard disc edits back then – well, KISS did but we didn’t like we do now – and also there wasn’t time. So if things are a little rough round the edges occasionally that’s because it’s all live. A quick run through of the tracks; Sam Sever from his Raiders of the Lost Art 12” licensed to MoWax kicks things off, I had to transplant the start of it from another source as the tape cut in after it had started. I see the ‘record company is the pimp, the artist is the ho…’ analogy attributed to Ice Cube a lot on the web but he was evidently cribbing from whatever source Sam sampled this from. DJ Shadow’s debut release, ‘Entropy’ had either had a repress after his first releases on MoWax due to high demand or someone had booted it, either way, copies started floating around again in 1995 and Discogs suggests it was the latter.

Another semi-official /semi-boot release was Think Tank, sporting a Tommy Boy label but on Hakattak Records. Both tracks appeared on the Information Society’s LP ‘Hack’ the same year so was this a promo idea from Tommy Boy because of the huge James Brown and Kraftwerk samples? The Jungle Brothers’ Ultimatum megamix came with the free 12” available with copies of the UK release of their debut LP, ‘Straight Out The Jungle’ and Ultimatum were actually the Stereo MCs when DJ Cesare was part of the crew. More trip hop, DJ Krush with ‘Ruff-Neck Jam’ from his debut LP and then into DJ Crystl’s classic ‘Let It Roll’ on the wrong speed for a quick switch up in tempo.

This stuff, along with early Photek and Droppin’ Science 12”s, were some of the first D’n’B I bought when I was working at Ambient Soho, jungle had largely passed me by but this newer, sleeker, more intricate form was working its way into the record box. The next track with ‘Gunshots… Firing’ initially drew a blank but Anon in the comments identified it as something from Luke Vibert’s Plug series, ‘3:41’ from Plug 1 – Visible Crater Funk. Link’s ‘Amazon Amenity’ Chameleon remix stands out a mile, such a tune, utter classic, and Danny Breaks’ ‘Step Off’ fits right in, funny that they collaborated later on too. Funki Porcini’s ‘Wicked, Cruel, Nasty & Bad’ rounds things off, from his Hed Phone Sex debut LP, I’d forgotten this, must dig that album out again. Speaking of Funki (as I was just the other day), he’s making high quality prints of my Fast Asleep album cover again very soon so if you fancy hanging that on your wall then check his website in about a month.

Track list:
Sam Sever & The Raiders of the Lost Art – Words of Wisdom (They Don’t Know)
DJ Shadow feat Gift of Gab – Count & Estimate
Think Tank – A Knife & A Fork (The Massively Parallel Mix)
Jungle Brothers – Ultimatum Ultramix
DJ Krush – Ruff-Neck Jam
DJ Crystl – Let It Roll
Plug – 3:41
Link – Amazon Amenity (Chameleon remix)
Danny Breaks – Step Off
Funki Porcini – Wicked, Cruel, Nasty & Bad

Mixcloud Select Xclusive 05 Candlemas Pt.1 29/01/2023

DJFood MSX-05-1

Rather than an archive mix this week I’ve decided to do a new one – of sorts – for subscribers as I’ve had this on the laptop for several months, waiting for a chance to edit and post it. There will be two parts and it’s culled from a DJ set I did earlier this year. There are no edits in this first section, just a fade in at the beginning from a longer piece. Part 2 follows next week with more info on the mix and I’m readying another Mixcloud Select Exclusive mix for May too…

Back at the start of the year, at the end of January to be precise, I took part in an outdoor sound and light celebration as part of the Candlemas festival at the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine in Limehouse, East London. I was mainly responsible for the music selection but also bought along some projectors and FX wheels to add to the many others happening around the site. Alongside me were Julian Hand and Paul Naudin, boiling oil and ink inside slides which they then projected around the canopy we were stationed under. Elsewhere Heena Song and Joe and Janie from Whyte Light Visuals were doing similar things either inside one of the cafe tents or in the main chapel area.

The musical brief was ambient / psychedelic / krautrock / cosmic and I was using a small digital controller to layer tracks and add FX, seated outside in the freezing cold, wrapped up in layers of clothing, thermals, hat and scarf. As part of my set I added a truncated version of the Solid Steel mix for the show’s 30 anniversary a few years back, so that I could have some time to socialise and see the rest of the site. This 30 minute mix could be seen as a continuation of the Influences set I put together for Dust & Grooves nearly 10 years ago, full of key tracks from the last 50 years that have stuck with me and informed my tastes. If you missed it back then then it’s a very densely layered set that took many hours to get right in the studio, not live by any stretch of the imagination, but something I laboured over to create a gently shifting flow of songs and textures. That it also included some religious references was a bonus considering the event and location we were playing at. It begins and ends with the Linda Perhacs track ‘Parallelograms’ and is preceded with some very deep ambient, largely from the German school.

More photos and details of the evening here:

Part 1 Tracklist:
Cyclicia (Extended) – Jon Brooks
Electric Garden – Conrad Schnitzler
Phaedra (shhhhhh) – Tangerine Dream
Aqua – Edgar Froese
Slow Action – Pictogram
– Solid Steel 30 A Dream Within A Dream mix (short version 30.29) – DJ Food
Parallelograms / Linda Perhacs
The Carrier / Brian Eno & David Byrne
On The Run / Pink Floyd
Autobahn / Kraftwerk
Ascent (An Ending) / Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois
Our Prayer / The Beach Boys
Gravitational Arch of 10 / Vapour Space
Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix) / David Bowie
Rain Dance / Herbie Hancock
Messer, Scissors, Fork & Light / Can
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
Tardis Cymbals / Cavern of Anti-Matter
Electric Counterpoint fast / Pat Metheny
Music for 18 Musicians / Steve Reich
Wet Rubber Soup / 10cc
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
Answered Prayers / David Sylvian
E2:E4 / Manuel Gottsching
Deep Shit (The Cult of Mu 7″ mix) / The KLF
A Mechanical Eye / Jon Brooks
In C (Version 4.2) / Terry Riley vs Meat Beat Manifesto
Telepath / Boards of Canada
Obsidian (Organically Decomposed) / Psychic Warriors of Gaia
Waves Become Wings / This Mortal Coil
Rainbow Dome Musick / Steve Hillage
A New Day / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani
Gravitational Arch of 10 / Vapour Space
Parallelograms / Linda Perhacs
Butterfly – The Fox