Nineteen years ago today this show aired on Solid Steel and served as a round up of a current crop of music that had come my way over the previous months. There’s a large rap quota in this hour-long set, mostly from the independent sector and what you could call ‘backpack rap’ (although I wouldn’t). A particularly trippy Solid Steel jingle opens the show by Pedro Chamorra and I have no idea who Levi is/was or where the track featuring BC and Saul Williams came from, nothing’s coming up on Discogs. Diplo’s ‘Big Lost’ is from his debut Florida LP and is still a classic, DK and I were such a fan of this record and props to Big Dada for spotting his talent early on. Not sure if the northern chaps chatting about record collecting over the top are Mark and Lard from 6 Music (or were they on XFM back then?). Natural Self was putting out 45s in the early 00’s on Tru Thoughts and here remixes The Limp Twins (Will ‘Quantic’ Holland and Russell Porter) from the Shapes Yellow TT comp. More Brighton-based music next from the Catskills label with a track from Infinite Potential’s debut 12”, As The Record Revolves – some very tight scratching on that.

The Perceptionists were a US group including Mr Lif and Akrobatik and ’Medical Aid’ was one half of a split debut 12” with another group, 4th Pyramid on Definitive Jux. Mark Rae’s ‘Reach Out To Me’ was from his third album, Into The Depths, with vocals by Veba – should have been a big hit. Busdriver’s first album for Big Dada contained the ‘Kev’s Blistering Computer…’ track and I just found out that he did a third for the label in 2014 that completely passed me by somehow. I loved Busdriver most of all of that Mush crowd, full of personality and an incredible flow, love how the DJ D-Styles cuts up the little blip noise from Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rockit’ for the chorus here too. In the liner notes Busdriver is credited with ‘Vocal Tension & Lyrical Release’, D-Styles with ’Turntable Blasphemy’ and producer Daddy Kev with ‘Strange Rhythmic Noise’. Diverse with Vast Aire came from the Chocolate Industries label as they moved into hip hop territory, with production by RJD2, another artist – like Diplo – who was adjacent to DJ Shadow in the production stakes around this time.

Back over to the UK for Bristol’s Hundred Strong which was the brainchild of Ben from the Purple Penguin record shop, always a destination when we hit the city in the 90s. I used to get sent M.Craft promos in the 00s and I always REALLY loved a couple of tracks on them, I really should investigate his back catalogue a bit more, seems this was from his debut single on 679 Recordings. I don’t recall this Massive Attack song at all, it sounds more like a Barry Adamson take on The Man With The Golden Gun than the band’s usual material. Seems it was from a soundtrack they did to a film called Danny The Dog which can be had extremely cheaply on Discogs although it looks like it was done by 3D alone without Daddy G from the credits.

Quannum released a double A-sided single for their US tour in 2004 and this is the Shadow-produced cut, all drum machines and synths rather than samples and points the way to his work later on. Blade’s ‘Scream’ came from his ‘Pop Idol’ single and is that Mr Thing on the cuts? DFA’s Juan MacLean work over Air in fine electro ‘drug chug’ style before the term was even coined. Sounds like I was caning outer space samples from Megatrip’s Soundbank CDs over the top too. 4 Hero go all Beatles-y with the mellotron on their remix of Chunking’s ‘Making Music’ (another Brighton band!) and then it’s back to the Anitcon crew with Sixtoo from his Ninja Tune 10” ‘BodyAche Summer’ EP – yet another producer up there with Shadow but moving in his own directions. In between this and Max & Harvey’s ‘Untitled Dialogue’ (another 10” on Ninja) I use a piece of speech about seeing sound that I would later fashion into a track on my Search Engine album. One half of Max & Harvey (named after the duo’s dogs I think I was once told) was Paul Frankland aka Woob and also Journeyman – they only released one single on Ninja but all their other releases are available on their Bandcamp and are excellent.
https://maxandharvey.bandcamp.com/music

Track list:
Pedro Chamorra – Solid Steel intro
Levi feat. BC & Saul Williams – Resource : Life
Diplo – Big Lost
The Limp Twins – A Day in The Life Of Mr. Jones (Natural Self mix)
Infinite Potential – Can You Dig That?
The Perceptionists – Medical Aid
Mark Rae – Reach Out To Me
Busdriver – Kev’s Blistering Computer Tan And Driver’s Rapper’s Rapper Moniker
Diverse feat. Vast Aire – Big Game
Hundred Strong feat. Joseph Malik – All Ain’t The Same
M.Craft – On The 389
Massive Attack – One Thought At A Time
Quannum – Put Yer Back Into It
Blade – Scream
Air – Surfing On a Rocket (Juan MacLean remix)
Chungking – Making Music (4 Hero remix instr.)
Sixtoo – Waiting For Anything
Max & Harvey – Untitled Dialogue

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

This cassette was amongst a batch of tapes given to me recently by my ex-wife that she wanted digitised and probably dates from around early 1997. It’s also a very short tape as the whole mix is only 30 minutes long and that’s both sides! The Outer Limits (and later, Alexei Sayle) both hail from the original Comic Strip Presents album, recorded live at the Comedy Store before The Young Ones TV show propelled them all to fame. The Average White Band’s ‘Work To Do’ used to be on our answerphone, partly in jest that I used to work all hours and Sister Goose & The Ducklings ‘Super Shine #9’ is from the Gordon’s War OST. Marc Moulin was a new passion around this time due to a dodgy boot ‘reissue’ of his Sam’ Suffy album and the (re)discovery of his band, Placebo. You’ll notice a high quota of French artists on this tape as my ex is a huge Francophile and I wanted to showcase a few bits for her. Yusef Lateef is from his excellent Gentle Giant LP and the Gainsbourg cut was probably from some dodgy bootleg compilation as there were many floating round at the time.

Dimitri From Paris opens the B side with a fake trailer from the La Yellow 357 compilation on Yellow Productions. DJ Cam’s track is from his debut LP, Underground Vibes which is followed by the exceedingly un-French ‘Detttwork SouthEast’ by Black Twang, a perfect encapsulation of the South London vibe on vinyl. Blackanized 360 never really get remembered but this Edinburgh duo had some tunes back in the day when Acid Jazz was turning into Trip Hop and ‘Vibe’brations is from their debut 12” – ironically sampling the same source as an early Blackalicious 12” – it can be had for pennies on Discogs. The Herbaliser up next with their second single from their forthcoming second album, Blow Your Headphones, featuring What What and an oddity to close with Steady B’s ‘Rocking Music’. This is really a DJ track, sans Steady but featuring his DJ, Tat Money, and bears similarities to Jazzy Jeff’s ‘A Touch Of Jazz’ before the tape runs out.

Track list:
The Outer Limits – Lenny Flowers
Average White Band – Work To Do
Sister Goose & The Ducklings – Super Shine #9
Marc Moulin – Humpty Dumpty
Yussef Lateef – Jungle Plum
Serge Gainsbourg – Meurtre á l’extincteur
Alexei Sayle – Break
Dimitri From Paris – Bande Announce (The Trailer)
DJ Cam – Dieu Reconnaitra Les Siens
Blak Twang – Dettwork SouthEast
Blacka’nized 360 – Vibe,brations
The Herbaliser – New & Improved feat. What What
Steady B – Rockin’ Music

More hoovering up the recent crop of promos and new finds in the second Bits & Bobs show of 2007 (not too great with the titles there but I was juggling 20 month old twins at the time).
Starting concurrently, the Emperor Machine remix of White Line Circus makes an excellent bed for Break Reform’s ‘Cut A Map In The Soles of my Feet’ even if I say so myself. Both killer tunes in their own right and I seem to remember that the La Boca sleeve design for ‘Rocket Ride’ is one of their best of the era when they were designers for DC Recordings and the label bearly put a foot wrong for a few years. The Bamboos, still going strong on Tru Thoughts, this time with Ohmega Watts paraphrasing Double Trouble’s ‘At the Amphitheatre’ rap from Wild Style. Skipping a couple of tracks I had completely forgotten that Lost Idol made stuff with heavy beats like this, always one to watch for, glad I was hip to his stuff in 2007. Kids In Tracksuits featured a certain Matt Cutler who most will now know as Lone and I think this track comes from their ‘Get Your Kit On’ EP.

The RamaSutra track is a bit of a tune, seems it was one of the last things he put out in 2003, not sure how I was playing it in 2007. Bit of a sharp cut into !!!’s ‘Myth Takes’ and then into AmmonContact’s ’Drum Riders’ from their album on Ninja at the time, Cut Chemist on the cuts. DJ Dren’s ‘Wot Da Hell’ is from the excellent ‘CTRL C / CTRL V’ comp from 33 Throwdown Recordings, must dig that out again as it has all sorts of cut up goodness on it. Remix heat from Cherrystones for Pedro and more Emperor Machine, this time on his own track but again with a female vocal over it from another track, I seemed to have a thing for this at the time. The song in question is Stephanie Dosen’s cover of ‘Within Without You’ which doesn’t quite work tuning-wise and certainly should have been mixed out by the time The Dragons’ ‘Peace Garden’ arrives in the mix. We were on the cusp of releasing their unissued debut album on Ninja at the time and this track comes from a soundtrack, ‘A Sea For Yourself’.

Up next, an unidentified vocal talking about originality before an Eno track from the second compilation of Curiosities, a pair of collections put together by one of Eno’s studio assistants at the time I believe from selections of the vast catalogue of unreleased material he had. Having been absorbed in Eno’s Lighthouse station on Sonos for most of this and last year – a constant stream of over 400 previously unreleased tracks from his archive – I can see what prompted these CDs. They were meant to be a series but only two were ever released, maybe they didn’t sell or maybe the compiler moved on? Friction = Fire’s Dunmore East was the last track on an Irish compilation on the Alphabet Set label which I must have been given when I performed one of the Head soundtrack gigs over there and Peter Wyngarde’s short outro comes from the actor’s very odd solo album to round things up.

Track list:
White Line Circus – Rocket Ride (Emperor Machine remix)
Break Reform – Cut A Map In The Soles Of My Feet
The Bamboos feat. Ohmega Watts – Get In The Scene
Yoko Ono w. Shitake Monkey – O’ Oh
Natalie Walker – No One Else
Lost Idol – We Can Find Love
Kids In Tracksuits – Real Axe
Regal – Capt. Ahab
Ramasutra – The Curse of the Eye
!!! – Myth Takes
AmmonContact – Drum Riders
DJ Dren – Wot Da Hell
Pedro – Fear & Resilience (Cherrystones mix)
The Emperor Machine – Fear of Woman
Stephanie Dosen – Within Without You
The Dragons – Peace Garden
Brian Eno – Haslet
Friction = Fire – Dunmore East
Peter Wyngarde – Pay No Attention

By 2007 vinyl production was slowing down and a lot of this set was mixed off of CDs or digital files by the looks of the waveform on this file when I booted it up, there’s compression and crushed waveform peaks all over the place. Promos were starting to come in digital form as it was quicker and cheaper to produce CDrs with paper inserts in plastic wallets than mail out 12”s after weeks(!) away at the pressing plant. I think streaming and digital promos were maybe just starting around this time too but the music industry was still in freefall from digital downloading and any costs that could be cut would be. Dublin’s Kormac kicks off the show this week before we’re quickly into ‘The Riddle’, produced by The Sugarman and voiced by Harry Dean Stanton. This came to me via a promo CD and the group were apparently a trio of reclusive South Londoners who self-released this single (with remixes from Ashley Beedle and more) and an album which was possibly promo only. I’m not sure if the vocal is sampled from anywhere but that’s quite a cameo for a debut single if not. DJ Pandaj hails from Italy according to discos and Mirrorsystem was an offshoot of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy’s System 7 project for the more ambient side as their main group became more techno-orientated. They cover Jam & Spoon’s ‘Stella’ to fine effect before The Bamboos’ try their hand at Max Segdley’s ‘Happy’. And is that Matt Berry talking about Fairlight samplers before it kicks in?

!!! (aka Chk Chk Chk)’s ‘Yadnus’ is still such a tune, love that swinging glam beat on anything. DJ Kentaro featuring Spank Rock from his debut Ninja Tune LP next and you’ve never felt smaller as a DJ than when you have to step up to play after him in front of a home crowd in Tokyo, truly humbling. Tiga’s ‘You Gonna Want Me’ takes inspiration from Altern8’s ‘Infiltrate 202’ which in turn sampled Candi Staton’s ‘I Know’ vocal (amongst other things) and this version is the Van She remix. Deekline & Wizard’s collaboration with SOTO on Ghetto Blast Ya uses the metronome tick as a percussion device and I think I must have played the radio mix of Tim Deluxe’s ‘Let The Beats Roll’ here as I remember a much longer intro on this than here. l played this to death in the clubs for a while back in the day, there’s a great dub version too if you’re not into the vocal.

The Chris Carter feat. Fine Cut Bodies track is almost speed garage and I’d forgotten that Mark Spiler tune, how crazed, not sure what time signature that’s in. Pendulum’s ‘Blood Sugar’, this came out between their first and second albums and was kind of where I checked out as the next record upped the guitar quota and left me a bit cold. Fracture and Neptune were (are) always good value and were spearheading a kind of return to Photek-era DnB in the 00’s. Can you tell the DJ Fresh mix of DJ Shadow is off vinyl? I had to turn it up on the file here as the drop from the previous track was like a cliff face – such a killer club track but that abrupt ending was always difficult to get out from. Fracture & Neptune are back to play us out with a big Steve Miller Band sample on ‘Ventura’ and there’s a random drugs spoken word collage to finish. Back for part 2 next week…

Track list:
Kormac – Mr Heidi Hi (intro)
The Sugarman – The Riddle
DJ Pandaj – The Lazy Trip Project
Mirrorsysytem – Stella (Duende mix)
Bamboos – Happy
!!! – Yadnus
DJ Kentaro – Space Jungle
Tiga – You Gonna Want Me (Van She remix)
Deekline & Wizard vs SOTO – Ghetto Blast Ya (VIP)
Tim Deluxe – Let The Beats Roll
Chris Carter feat. Fine Cut Bodies – Frogmarch
Mark Splier – Globul Bleu
Pendulum – Blood Sugar
Fracture & Neptune – A Clue
DJ Shadow – Enuff (DJ Fresh remix)
Fracture & Neptune – Ventura