The first of two parts from a mid 1997 Solid Steel tape which bounces from uptempo drum ’n’ bass-ish techno to turntablism and jazz. Kicking off with Bedouin Ascent’s ‘Cat Can Blow!’ from the Law & Auder compilation Avantgardism III, I was wrong-footed into thinking this was Squarepusher at first. Kingsuk Biswas (Bedouin Ascent’s real name) contributed to many of the Law & Auder compilations – usually a title ending in ‘ism’ – and it seemed that quite a few of the Rising High roster found a home at the label when the techno label folded, including Luke Vibert who released a full album with BJ Cole in 2000. The identity of the two tracks following has been lost in time, I can’t place them at all and Shazam has nothing – as ever, if you recognise them, please leave a comment.

UPDATE!: Thanks to Edward ZentaurusMan for filling in some of the tracklist gaps

We take a drop in tempo to half time with DJ Ruthless’ ‘Flat Chested’ scratch-athon from the Return of the DJ vol.2 compilation next and I was very much in thrall of the west coast turntablist scene at this point, finding it an incredibly exciting progression in the art. In hindsight it hasn’t aged too well and although skilled on the decks, few of the DJs broke out of the standard mould and had the production skills to transfer them well to records. One DJ who definitely did though was Kid Koala, not that he was ever fully in the standard mould of your Skratch Piklz or Xecutioners, he always had one foot firmly in his own camp. To see how far he’s come today is humbling, scoring film music, putting on live shows with stories performed by puppeteers or conducting 50 turntable orchestras – his scope and vision is breathtaking. Here’s the record that started it all with Ninja Tune and the story has been told often – most prominently in the 20 Years of Beats & Pieces book – of the fateful car journey on tour in Canada. Eric popped his demo tape into the stereo while PC, Jon More, Funki Porcini and I were riding somewhere and this was the track that all ears pricked up to. From then on, we knew he was on the same page as us and duly signed him to the label and the rest is history.

Another piece of Ninja Tune history is PC’s classic remix of The Herbaliser’s ‘Mr Chombee Has The Flaw’ – completely rebuilt and renamed, ‘Mrs Chombee Takes The Plunge’ with little of the original identifiable. It shows how the art of the remix can translate a song into something completely new and we were all stunned hearing it for the first time. ‘The Art of Prophecy’ was the album that As One’s ‘The Huster’ first appeared on via the short-lived Shield records, a sub label of Substance Records, and Kirk Degiorgio does as only he can do with a dirty slice of techno jazz (added to by the KISS FM station compression and tape fuzz). Funki Porcini’s cheeky cut up of old war film dialogue, ‘Pete Pete Pete’, from the Let’s See What Carmen Can Do EP plays over the top and the title was a nod to Ninja Tune label head Peter Quicke (also of Mr Quicke cuts the cheese fame).

This tape brings back fond memories of frantic days spent designing, touring, rushing to and from the Ninja Tune office in Canary Wharf and a general sense of excitement over where the label was going next after the huge swell in popularity it had gained in the two years previously. Great music was pouring out of everywhere it seemed and we were gearing up for the release of Coldcut’s ‘Let Us Play’ album that summer which would be another Ninja milestone that would take Matt and Jon around the world, and some of us with them for the next two years.

Part 2 next week

Track list:
Margoo – Intro
Bedouin Ascent – ‘Cat Can Blow!
Quant – Intestinal Sound
The Bowling Green – Caucasian Flotsam
DJ Ruthless – Flat Chested
Kid Koala – Tricks ’N’ Tricks
The Herbaliser – Mrs Chombee Takes The Plunge
As One – The Hustler
Funki Porcini – Pete Pete Pete

Back To The Old School! Possibly the first person to want to get back to the old school – at that point only a few years ago in hip hop history – Just Ice aka Sir Vicious teamed up with Mantronik on production for this incredible album cut. Sounding anything but old school at the time, revisiting this for this upload it strikes me that it sounds like a dub version of a vocal tune, the way the vocal drops in and out with the delays. Hard to write a track like that with snatches of lyrics punching through, I wonder if any other versions exist? Certainly still sounds fresh though. A bit of ‘Mella’ from Jazz Brakes vol.2 with a snatch of the exorcism from the I Am Lucifer LP I finally located last year on vinyl.

The thunderous ‘Break Dancer’ by The Boogie Boys is now a forgotten classic in the mould of Art of Noise’s ‘Beatbox’ and only a year behind it, release-wise, love those huge beats. Bedouin Ascent’s ‘Internal Bleeding’ from his Pavillion of the New Spirit EP is just an incredible piece of techno jazz, the whole 12” is utter electronica gold and criminally un-heralded, one of the true unsung heroes of 90s electronic music. I think I mixed the Autechre track in on the wrong beat from here, in time but off beat. We take a pause for the cause and I thought I’d leave the ads in for curiositie’s sake – the East Coast Dr Dre and Ed Lover advertising Lugs footwear and a plug for a weekend of rare groove on KISS.

Then we’re back for some 9 Lazy 9, ‘Checkin’ On You’ on Ninja Tune, James and Kier’s funky jazz project before James went off solo as Funki Porcini. Still going strong, his latest project is his Laserium, multiple lasers reflected through prisms synched to his music, forming a new kind of Lumia projection show. I’m seeing him this weekend in Bristol at the IMAX along with old heads The Light Surgeons and ex-Hexstatic Stuart Warren-Hill’s Holotronica project. Jon mentions assembling at the South bank that weekend for a march and you can hear a shout of ‘Injustice!’ from Matt in the background and I think this refers to the Criminal Justice Bill protests happening around this time. The track underneath the chat I cannot remember and Shazam has nothing either, but coming in again on time but off beat is ‘Triangle’ from Sounds From The Ground from their debut EP.

Mix URL:

Track list:
Just Ice – Back To The Old School
DJ Food – Mella
The Boogle Boys – Break Dancer
Bedouin Ascent – Internal Bleeding
Autechre – Further
Ad break
9 Lazy 9 – Checkin’ On You
Unknown – Unknown
Sounds From The Ground – Triangle

Autumn 1994 and trip hop is steadily creeping into the playlist on Solid Steel with pioneering labels like Mo Wax and Ninja Tune heading the pack. The reality was that there were few tracks that fell into that category a year before with a crossover from the latter days of Acid Jazz providing the odd nugget, weird hardcore B sides, instrumental hip hop album tracks or the very first compilations like Give Em Enough Dope which kicked it off for Wall of Sound. Andy Pemberton’s Mixmag article christening this ‘new kind of hip hop’ had been published only two months before and there was definitely something in the air even though Mo Wax was only just breaking free of the jazz stylings that had birthed it, swapping hip obi strip designs by Swifty for graffiti street styles by Futura and 3D. Ninja had another year to go before it found its groove and around this time I started designing for them, re-moulding the Ninja logo into something sleeker and adding an eastern feel to early graphics.

But enough history, The Jackson 5, sampled most noticeably by The Original Concept back in the 80s, lead off with ‘It’s Great To Be Here’ for no other reason than it’s a fab opener. New Ninja signing Up, Bustle and Out lope in with the beat-heavy ‘Lazy Days’, a record box staple at this time before a Big Daddy Kane B side, ‘Show n Prove’ gets a full airing. This incredible posse cut includes a young Jay Z and suitably insane ODB amongst its cast and everyone is on fire throughout. DJ Toolz aka Jazzy Jason (Blapps Posse, London Funk Allstars, Mad Doctor X) could always be relied upon for a dose of banging beats and the La Funk Mob double 10” remix pack was one of the hottest releases of the moment. I’d actually forgotten this version of ‘Ravers Suck Our Sound’ but it actually improves on the original even though it was overshadowed by the Ritchie Hawtin mix.

After this there’s a Hendrix-sampling downtempo track which I can’t identify at all and isn’t included on the read out at the end of the mix, as ever, if anyone knows, it please leave a comment. Suddenly we’re back in ambient territory again with a huge dose of Frippertronics from Sylvian & Fripp (or Tripp as Jon later calls him) before a Further track (Rocket from Ambient Soho with Richard Norris) and a snatch of Journeyman’s ‘3001’ on Ninja electronic sub label Ntone. A second track involving Richard – the Grid’s ‘Rollercoaster’ – is sublimely remixed by Global Communication who could do no wrong at this stage, each release an epic production that just made everyone sound better. More Mo Wax with UNKLE and Major Force’s Timothy Leary-sampling ‘The Time Has Come’ and it certainly felt like it for James and co. who were entering into a purple patch that would last several years. Autechre’s ‘Foil’ from their second LP, Amber, plays out – another label who were well into a golden era which would last at least until the end of the decade.

Track list:
Coldcut Solid Steel Intro
The Jackson 5 – It’s Great To Be Here
Up, Bustle & Out – Lazy Days
Big Daddy Kane – Show ’n’ Prove
DJ Toolz – Rusty Goes GaGa
La Funk Mob – Ravers Suck Our Sound (Mystik Mix)
Unknown – Unknown
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp – Bringing Down The Light
Further – Angel’s Little House
Journeyman – 3001
The Grid – Rollercoaster (Global Communications remix)
UNKLE vs Major Force – The Time Has Come
Autechre – Foil

A drugs special this week from close to 20 years ago. I’d obviously been combing the web for spoken word samples or may well have got a copy of Megatrip’s Soundbank which had 1000s of searchable spoken word snippets he’d collected over the years and would burn onto CDs for us, 99 samples per disc. I think it got past the 200 disc mark before he burned them onto a DVD (which I still have and use) – anyway, what’s the first thing you search for in such a tidal wave of speech? That’s right, drugs, so here’s a mix peppered with vintage sound bites about the subject, woven between then contemporary releases of the day.

Brian Eno’s remix of Simian is suitably dislocated and about as un-ambient as he gets, still exciting and unexpected. Broadcast are simply used as a spoken word sample bed to bridge between a new Bonobo track with a dark soundtrack mood from his Ninja Tune debut, Dial ‘M’ For Monkey. Interloper only released a couple of albums but his Six Dragons LP is a lost trip hop classic in a similar vein to Broadway Project. Ian Tregoning was in the producers chair, search it out, still cheap but CD only. I remember speaking to Ian about it some years later and he was exasperated when it didn’t do anything.

King Geedorah still sounds fresh even if it does stand out like a sore thumb in this line up, a truly original record, then and now. Karsten Pflum’s two tracks I don’t remember but wow, they sound great and I see they were released on Worm Interface, the label from the Ambient Soho shop run by Rockit. Long since closed by this time, the label carried on and this was his debut album by the looks of things and he’s continued to release material regularly up until last year. Another track from Interloper should have you heading to Discogs to search out the album and we close with the excellent remix of Jelisha’s ‘Friendly Pressure’ by The P Brothers if I remember correctly, from one of those naughty Tru Thoughts Rebtuz bootleg 12”s – lush.

Speaking of King Megatrip aka Matt King these days, he’s just released his second comic anthology, Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – over 400 pages of uncensored underground filth which you should be able to get (along with limited copies of the original) here once all the Kickstarter copies have been sent out https://www.etsy.com/shop/kingmegatrip/?etsrc=sdt

Track list:
Simian – La Breeze (Brian Eno Remix)
Broadcast – One Hour Empire
Bonobo – Wayward Bob
Interloper – All Night Long
King Geedorah – The Fine Print
Karsten Pflum – Staying Pictures
Karten Pflum – Baronen Og Husset
Interloper – RTJ
Jelisha – Friendly Pressure (PB mix)

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

Back for part 2 of the set from last week where Matt Black and I recorded a Solid Steel session in my bedroom as the KISS FM studios were booked out. This hour is a mix of the two of us but it’s hard to determine who played what so I’ve left the thing whole, the tape also started with Cypress Hill’s ’Scooby Doo’ but it was incomplete so I’ve cut it. I kick off with a snatch of the Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia’s majestic ‘Obsidian’ remix before Digital Underground’s ‘Packet Man’ – a tale of a sexual experience sold in a pill. A short snatch of a DJ Spike track precedes the newly released ‘Sound Of The Police’ from KRS 1’s Return Of The Boom Bap LP, a virtual classic as soon as it hit the streets before a ‘pause for the cause’ and into a bit of Matt on the decks. The Tape Beatles had become a spoken word staple on the show since the Orb visited and hipped Matt & Jon to their work and the first two tracks from their Music With Sound album feature here. Steve Reich was also a mainstay of shows, continually popping up over the years in different mixes with his minimalist works, joined here by a spoken word piece, read by Matt’s dad. Out of this comes another ambient classic, ‘Flurescence’ (spelling as on the record) from Jonah Sharp’s debut EP as Spacetime Continuum, another track that got many outings in the early 90s.

A NSFW sketch about vinyl opens the next section with a a near ‘C bomb’ moment quickly cut with a fader. Tournesol’s ‘Holy Cow’ was a bumping trip hop-y moment on their Kokotsu album for R&S, followed by early Chemical Brothers when they were still masquerading under the Dust Brothers’ moniker with ‘If You Kling To Me I’ll Klong To You’. Brian Eno’s ‘Alternative 3’ from Music For Films creeps in with the exorcism from the I Am Lucifer album which I only finally found last year, always a favourite of Matt’s and one he used extensively on the show. The Future Sound of London’s ‘Lifeforms (Path 2)’ was new at the time too, what a time to be alive! I wish I knew what the track following was but it’s gone and Shazam doesn’t know either. Likewise with the burbling acid track after that although I do recognise some bits of David Sylvian & Holger Czukay’s ‘Plight & Premonition’ in there somewhere but it might be as a sample. Ah, here comes Global Communication according to Matt although I can’t identify the track and neither can he (I’m not entirely sure it’s them actually). Matt’s dad crops up again reading a passage about ‘the 9th world’, “How does an eye work? How does a foot work?” – another spoken word favourite. It’s all beginning to blur into one ambient mass around this stage until we get to Attica Blues’ ‘Contemplating Jazz (D’Afro’s Picky Head Dub)’ which plays us out only to be rudely interrupted by the KISS news jingle.

Track list:
Psychic Warriors of Gaia – Obsidian (Organically Decomposed)
Digital Underground – Packet Man
KRS 1 – Sound Of The Police
The Tape Beatles – Beautiful State / Green, Blue Beautiful Place
Steve Reich – Six Pianos
Spacetime Continuum – Flurescence
Monty Python – Vinyl record sketch
Tournesol – Holy Cow
Dust Brothers – If You Kling To Me I’ll Klong To You
Brian Eno – Alternative 3
The Future Sound Of London – Lifeforms (Path 2)
Unknown – Unknown
Unknown – Unknown (Global Communication?)
Attica Blues – Contemplating Jazz (D’Afro’s Picky Head Dub)

Happy New Year for 2023! I hope it was fun for you all, sorry this is late today, I’ve been deep in design and gig mode, opening for The Art of Noise two nights in a row at the Jazz Cafe. On with the show I promised in the last entry.
Matt Black rang up one day in the summer of 1994, there was a problem. KISS FM had been booked out, both studios, for the Friday pre-record so he needed somewhere else to record the show that week. I’m not sure if Jon More was around, maybe away DJing with PC? I’m also not sure the exact turn of events aside from KISS wasn’t available but could he come over and do the show at mine? Wow, this was a turn up for the books, I’d only been a guest on the show for just over a year, had a handful or more under my belt and was becoming part of the crew due to now providing artwork for the label as well as the odd gig away with Coldcut. OK, come over to East Dulwich and set up in my bedroom and record Solid Steel, why don’t you? Holy shit!

At the time I shared a house with Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix further down the line), David Vallade and Mario Aguera and we had hosted the original Telepathic Fish party in the three story house above a chemists on Goose Green which we’d dubbed 102 Central. Mario had by now started working with Hex as a computer programmer and David and Chantal were working in Ambient Soho, the record shop in Berwick St, Soho, while I was up the road at Books Etc. on Oxford Street. At the time I had three decks set up in my room, a couple of Technics and something else I forget, not sure what the mixer was but it was the same one on the cover of the Funkjazztical Tricknology compilation. I also had a keyboard, a drum machine, CD player and an odd flanger guitar pedal hooked up – see the blurry photo for reference. Matt came down and we took turns playing into a portable DAT player he’d bought along I think. Can’t remember what we used for a mic but it was probably a pair of headphones plugged into the mic. input hence the terrible sound quality. I think the Coldcut jingles were flown in off cassette and this recording was probably taken from the radio broadcast as it has the KISS news jingle added onto the end, probably live by the sound engineer.

Starting off with a then holy trinity of electronica pioneers Autechre, MuZiq and Caustic Windown (Aphex Twin) tells you we’re in the golden age of Artificial Intelligence era electronica. AI only took another 30 years to become part of everyday life. None of the tracks here have aged badly either, I still play the Aphex track out sometimes too. Following ‘On The Romance Tip’ (where did that title originate? It’s not on the record anywhere) there’s an elongated trance-ish acid thing that makes me think it might be European. Shazam gives me nothing and the ears don’t recognise it at all – anyone? Starts about 11 mins in and bubbles away for another four minutes until Global Communication’s ‘Sublime Creation’ races in on 45 instead of 33, sounding not far off Acen’s ‘Trip To The Moon’ in places.

Cut for an ad break and more Glob Comm with the opening track to their classic 76’14 album, ‘4’02’ with the opening of The Orb’s remix of Material’s ‘Praying Mantra’ slurped over, a common DJ tool of mine. Another was the phasing, filtered and panning intro to Mergener / Weisser’s ‘Sunbeam’ from a New Age Music comp on Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication label that Mixmaster Morris had hipped me to, I think I found this in Beanos or somewhere along Berwick St. on my lunch break one day in Soho. This can be heard bridging ‘4’02’ and Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man Machine’ classic, which needs no introduction. Out of the other Fab Four into Coldcut’s own ‘Eine Kleine Hed Musik’ – fresh on vinyl from the extra disc that accompanied the Ninja Tune vinyl version of the album and first heard opening the original Coldcut meets The Orb radio show on New Year’s Eve 1991/92. Which brings us full circle, 31 years later… exit Matt Black stating, ‘Openmind in the house, or rather I’m in Openmind’s house!’

Track list:
Autechre – Lost
MuZiq – Nettles & Pralines
Caustic Window – On The Romance Tip
Unknown – unknown
Global Communication – Sublime Creation (on 45)
Global Communication – 4’02
Kraftwerk – The Man Machine
Coldcut – Eine Kleine Hed Musik