We’re still in the early 00s here with a mid November 2002 set that includes a few boots/mash ups and a lot of great RnB / Hip Pop. A strong start to the show with the remix of DJ Shadow’s ’Six Days’ featuring Mos Def, this was undoubtedly the most hyped track of his second LP, The Private Press, and a no-brainer for a single makeover. Nice little cut up with the Solid Steel jingle and the ‘it’s only Monday’ lyric (our show used to got out on Monday nights on BBC London at this time). I don’t know which came first, this mix on the tour with Amon Tobin but I was dropping the Streets/Fine Young Cannibals/Gloria Jones combo in DJ sets around that time although it’s one of the only times I played anything by Mike Skinner as it wasn’t my bag at all, the baseline in the High Contrast remix was the catalyst. Adding Gloria Jones’ ’Tainted Love’ with the rhythm the FYC stole after was a no brainer.

I was deep into the mash up thing at this time and Dsico was an Australian producer whose productions I liked a lot, his extreme cut up/glitch styles going way further than most on the scene, riffing off that Kid 606 sound but with plenty of funk. He appears here twice, first dismembering Beyonce and later dicing with Puff Daddy, by this time, P Diddy. A sharp contrast is Joni Mitchell who I’d suddenly ‘got’ and hoovered up a load of albums on tour in the US, weird how tastes change and then one day an artist just makes sense, I’d had the same thing with the Beach Boys a couple of years before. ‘Dry Cleaner from Des Moines’ is from her Mingus album but I’m not sure what I was thinking adding it in here with way too much ‘jazz scratching’ to boot.

RJD2’s excellent ‘Final Frontier’ from his debut, Deadringer begins a trio of rap tracks followed by the ‘Halfway Home’ interlude from Blacklicious’ Blazing Arrow album. This was produced by DJ Shadow and is hard as nails, search for an amazing remix of this by UK producer Awkward which really bangs. N.O.R.E.’s ‘Nothin’ is such a simple tune, a straight loop of basic drum, bumping bass and that haunting flute top line, loose as anything and reliant on the vocals to provide a chorus. The genius of the Neptunes right there although having Noreaga on the mic helps too and I think his ‘SuperThug’ track from four years before was the first time I ever heard a Neptunes production. They had virtually taken over at this point, issuing track after track with different vocalists that were classics as soon as they hit the dance floor. I let the instrumental run out of Blacklicious, add the Discover Hip Hop advert that gives the mix its name and then off into the radio edit of the vocal.

Randy Maverick’s ‘Pure Love’ is funk 45 heaven and still gets spun – I just looked him up and this is his sole release on Discogs, I’d presumed it was some sort of reissue/re-edit at the time but it seems it was a remix of Al Reed’s ’99 444/100 Pure Love’ by the Nextmen and the Maverick name was a cover. I’ve just heard the original for the first time and they did a great job, the definition of a remix breathing new life into an old song. You can find the Randy Maverick for £6 on Discogs which is a lot cheaper than the Al Reed. DJ First Rate (or just First Rate later on) put out a 3 track sampler in 2002 with a demo mix of ‘One Day’ on it which would later surface on his first album proper in 2005 and it’s doing my head in as to where that bass comes from. Reminds me a bit of Air with those little synths flourishes.

Into some crazy versions next with the second Dsico cut up of P Diddy’s ‘Diddy’ then a mash of Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’, The Gap Band’s ‘Oops Upside Your Head (see what they did there?) and Bob Marley(!). It sort of works in places but is mercifully short. Lightning Head is Glyn ‘Bigga’ Bush with his dub hat on, here versioning Jean Jacques-Perry’s ‘E.V.A.’ which, of course, then leads onto Gang Starr who chopped up the original many years before. Skanking along in the mix for a good while is The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Horizon’, a stand alone single that followed the ‘Every Day’ album and should have been a huge hit in a just world. This whole section really rocks along nicely and I’m layering up extra FX over the top, I might try and re-work this into the DJ set. Next we head to Brighton for a Limp Twins cut and DJ Format remixed by Pablo of the Psychonauts who whips ‘B-Boy Code’ up into a chugging break-fest that was a set staple for a good while. I can’t remember where the ‘Discover Hip Hop’ spoken word came from but it’s not on the original record. There’s some genius sampling on this, pairing old school rap bars from different records to make a new verse.

John Kennedy’s ‘Chocolate & Cheese’ has something I can’t put my finger on but I like it. Tony Touch’s ‘The Diaz Brothers’ I can only take in instrumental form though as it samples David Shire’s ‘Salsation’ from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the same tune that Lightning Head covers on ‘Mudman Skank’ so it was a no-brainer to put them together. I have to apologise for what comes next but you can always switch off as it’s the last track, a mash up of Eminem and Phil Collins that I thought was a good idea at the time. By matching the former’s ‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ and the latter’s ‘Mama’ I thought there was some fun to be had. To be fair, it does work in the verses with a nice tension building but the choruses are a painful mess – sorry about that, bit of a duff ending to the hour.

Track list:
DJ SHADOW – SIX DAYS (REMIX feat. MOS DEF)
THE STREETS – HAS IT COME TO THIS (HIGH CONTRAST REMIX)
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS – GOOD THING
GLORIA JONES – TAINTED LOVE
BEYONCE – WORK IT OUT (DSICO 160 MIX)
JONI MITCHELL – DRY CLEANER FROM DES MOINES
RJD2 – FINAL FRONTIER feat BLUEPRINT
BLACKALICOUS – HALFWAY HOME (INTERLUDE)
N.O.R.E. – NOTHIN’
RANDY MAVERICK – PURE LOVE
DJ FIRST RATE – ONE DAY (Demo Mix) feat. JOHN MACALLUM
P DIDDY – DIDDY (DSICO CUT UP)
MIXED BIZNESS – OOPS TO BE LOVED
LIGHTNING HEAD – E.V.A.
GANG STARR – JUST TO GET A REP
CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA – HORIZON
THE LIMP TWINS – MOVIN’ CLOSER TO THE SOFA
DJ FORMAT – B- BOY CODE (PSYCHOPAB REMIX)
JOHN KENNEDY – CHOCOLATE & CHEESE
TONY TOUCH – THE DIAZ BROS (INSTRUMENTAL)
LIGHTNING HEAD – MUDMAN SKANK
FLEXUS – I’M SORRY MAMA

Summer 2003 and I’ve no idea what the opening use of Pinocchio’s clock sequence was intended to convey but lots of the food-related spoken word overlaid came from Megatrip’s excellent sample collection that he’d send to us via CDr. John Book’s ‘eBay Trauma Centre’ comes from the first Tru Thoughts compilation ‘Shapes One’ and is – I think – the only track released under his own name so far, his band Crut however, have released plenty. I’d just discovered Mr. Bungle’s amazing ‘California’ album via old school friend Steven Baker (RIP) and still hold it in high regard as their masterwork to this day – I seriously recommend it as an example of incredible song writing collage and masterful playing, I mean come on, Dave Lombardo plays drums and a song called ‘None of them knew they were robots’ has to be good, right?. Not being a Streets fan I used the instrumental, non-Mike Skinner vocal version of Grafiti vs The Bug’s only single and filled in some of the vocals with spoken word snippets from Megatrip’s aforementioned Soundbank collection. I’d only just discovered Akufen’s My Way LP from the previous year and absolutely caned it around this time, still a peerless release that will forever be associated with painting a picture for my Dad’s 60th birthday where I listened to it on repeat.

Amalgamation of Sounds, always good value, LFO’s ‘Freak’ absolutely killer tune, RIP Mark Bell, caned that Five Deez ‘Funky’ a cappella for years over all sorts of tracks in clubs with DK. Hey, this mix is pretty slamming now, oh here comes DJ Zinc with Dynamite MC to tear the roof off with ‘People 4’, one of his most creative tunes of the era, a beats/rap match made in heaven. Big tempo switch up and then Reprazent homies Krust and Die cut in with a further switch up from 33 to 45rpm – this section is reminiscent of my club sets at the time, fast-moving shifts through different styles and we’re into the Nextmen and Cyantific’s computer game-flavoured ‘High Scores’ before sliding into another DnB cut that Spotify tells me is ‘Future Sonic’ by Tele Music but I have no memory of. Dipping out of the club and back into radio land with another Mr Bungle cut, ‘The Air Conditioned Nightmare’. This is another example of the band’s seamless collage style, mixing examples of different artists and musical styles into one song and making it work. I swear I once heard a live set from them where they sounded like they were tuning through a radio dial and switching music styles every few bars.

The mix into Jackson’s ‘Utopia’ isn’t too smooth but this track is similar to Akufen’s in that it takes tiny snatches of voice and re-edits them into a patchwork melody, the female vocal was a recording of his mother apparently and this was played from the original French release before he got picked up by Warp. I really should have taken it out of the mix faster rather than leave it under the Matthew Herbert Big Band, it’s painful. I loved this record (Goodbye Swingtime) and Matt’s move away from his earlier experiments for a full live band experience. Seeing them at The Big Chill one year blew me away – always inspirational. Four Tet needs no introduction of course but back in 2003 he was still building his rep with this single from his third album, Rounds. Next up, the Returner is a lesser-used alias of Mark Pritchard, creating a fine DJ tool in his ‘Throwdown No.1’ of which I proceed to cut up two copies before editing into Loon’s Schoolly D-quoting, Kelis-featuring ‘How Do You Want That’. This was a Neptunes-esque production despite not being by them and shows how much they’d influenced contemporary hip hop by this point. We finish up with Schoolly’s classic ‘Saturday Night’ because, why not? Live two copy cut ups from DJ Code Money, you can even hear the records jump and wobble in places, pure hip hop and swearing on record way before NWA made it hip. I think the final spoken word coda may have been from John Cage although it sounds like someone impersonating him rather than his actual voice.

Track list:
Pinnochio – Clock Sequence
John Book – eBay Trauma Centre
Mr Bungle – None of Them Knew They Were Robots
Grafiti vs The Bug – What IS The Problem?
Akufen – Late Night Munchies
Amalgamation of Sounds – Sharm
LFO – Freak
Five Deez – Funky (a cappella)
DJ Zinc feat. Dynamite MC – People 4
Krust & Die – Movin’ Fast
The Nextmen feat. Cyantific – High Score
Tele Music – Future Sonic
Mr Bungle – The Air Conditioned Nightmare
Jackson – Utopia
The Matthew Herbert Big Band – Misprints
Four Tet – As Serious As Your Life
The Returner – Throwdown No.1
Loon feat. Kelis – How Do You Want That
Schoolly D – Saturday Night