on Solid Steel…
Radio
A little off-the-cuff mix I did on Monday evening at the Market Place pub in Brixton for the Loose Lips Radio Show, was going to play a load of acid and then decided to go into outer space instead. Their Meat Transmission venue in Old Street was shut down just the week before so they quickly relocated to the back of the pub and we squeezed into a tiny DJ booth to do a Q&A before I took over to play to the rapidly-filling room of drinkers and diners. There’s a little teaser about a night I’m doing next year plus a couple of tracks that I picked that signpost my musical influences. The Loose Lips guys, Fred and Dan, are up first and then my bit starts around the 52 min mark onwards.
Simon James (The Simonsound) and Neil Cargill have created a 6-part audio drama which begins this Thursday. It centers on a radio ham (Ian McDiarmid) who picks up a mysterious voice which belongs to a girl (Joy McAvoy) trapped in an abandoned amusement park called Akiha Den Den. A whole community resides there, whose words and music become woven into a plea for help and when one of the trapped inhabitants finds a way into our
world his impact on us could be as devastating as an unknown virus. I’m lucky enough to have heard the first episode and it is extremely weird.
After a preview on Glasgow’s Radioprenia this weekend just gone and a very limited, 50 copy 7″ on Castles In Space selling out in hours (see below), the full radio play launches online on Thursday 15th September at 7.45pm at www.akihadenden.com. There is also a special launch event open to everyone – at Underdog, 1 Union Street,
Aberdeen on Thursday 15th September, doors open 7pm, starts 7.30pm. It features exclusive
excerpts from the series’ soundtrack performed by Simon and insights behind the scenes by Neil. Free, but you need a ticket – available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com or The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, or His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen or phone 01224 641122, and also on the door on the night.
Artwork featured here is by the excellent Nick Taylor
Above are some of the records I’ve pulled out for this Sunday’s live session of Out Of The Wood radio hosted by WNBC London from the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood. I’ll be on with Pete W. before Alex and George take over for their monthly afternoon Cakelab session. Pete and I will be playing selections from his recent digging finds in the French countryside along with some new pieces of recently acquired vinyl. You can listen live here and it will be uploaded to Mixcloud later. As usual, it’s FEAST weekend which means loads of food stall dotted around West Norwood, food, craft and vintage markets too, all for free and loads of music to soundtrack it all.
*UPDATE* – and here’s the mix (with very low mic. levels) and a photo by Pete of me playing, check his mix after mine, so many great tracks.
I play an El Paraiso Records special for the first hour on the Out Of The Wood show, followed by Pete W, with records featuring frogs, drugs, a blue lady and sunshine. Broadcast live from The Book & Record Bar in West Norwood, listen live every Sunday between 12-2pm on http://wnbc.london
The monthly FEAST in West Norwood is upon us this Sunday with myself and Pete Williams back for the Out of the Wood show on WNBC radio (West Norwood Broadcasting Company). Broadcast live from the Book & Record Bar from 12 midday until 2am when Dr Alex Paterson and George Holt wheel out the 2nd edition of Cakelab for the afternoon. Not sure what I’m going to be playing as yet but I have half a mind to do an El Paraiso Records special as I’ve played little else at home recently. You can listen in live here…
Elsewhere it’s well worth coming down in person as there’s all kinds of luscious food, craft and vintage stalls, live music and more – all for free.
A radio drama written and directed by Neil Cargill with music and sound production by Simon James (The Simonsound). This mysterious voice is picked up by a radio ham (Ian McDiarmid) – it’s the voice of a girl (Joy McAvoy) trapped in an abandoned amusement park called Akiha Den Den. Launching September 2016.
As Simon posted on his Facebook page; “I’ve been working on this project for a while – a radio drama that brings together all the things I like in sound and story telling. Anyone that knows me will have heard me moan about the stale state of BBC radio drama and how hard it is to get original ideas commissioned (I’ve tried). Well this is radio outside of the rigid scared to do anything different confines of that traditional broadcaster. It’s going to be weird, and a bit challenging but it’s going to be an interesting listen.”
Follow them @akihadenden or find out more at www.akihadenden.com
Today, 2 hrs before The Orb‘s Alex Paterson starts his new Cake Lab residency at the Book and Record Bar in W. Norwood, I’ll be on the Out of the Wood Show hosted by WNBC.LONDON https://m.facebook.com/outofthewoodradioshow/ after which….
“From 2pm a new Sunday ambient club called Cake Lab launches. Dr. Alex Paterson and George Holt take you back to the good old days of the Ambient Club Room, circa 1987 with a free Sunday afternoon club… Expect an eclectic mix of Electronica, Dub, World, Jazz, Dance and every genre in between… and there will be cake.. and coffee and tea, and beer and cider and wine and spirits….”
The Cake Lab set up Alex & George brought along was amazing; delicious cakes, crazy decor, T-shirts and most of all, great music. Pete W, Hannah Brown and I were playing on the Out Of The Wood show beforehand. Photos by Pete and Hannah from across the afternoon. In fact the whole of FEAST in West Norwood is really worth checking out, food, drink, retro goods, craft stalls, sound systems and live bands, first weekend of every month.
Lo, and did the hordes descend onto Rat Records in Camberwell like a plague of locusts and the music flowed freely, from the decks to the racks and into the bags of the hungry vinyl scavengers. Sometimes it didn’t even make it into the racks, being bagsied whilst still on the turntable by eagle-eared punters inquiring, ‘what’s this playing?’. Jonny Trunk and I played whilst Lucy and Pete (behind the camera below) served and a wonderful afternoon was had by all.
Rat has a policy of restocking their shelves with new stock every Saturday and several hundred discs make their way onto the floor each and every weekend for the regulars who are at the door at the 10.30 opening time. This past weekend they had an additional box of soundtracks, library and weird music to add to that, the difference being that no one knew what any of it was until Jonny or I played it so the music stood or fell on its own merits. A collection they’d got in recently was put aside specially for this purpose and most of what was played in the two and half hour set you can hear below was sold. I even added a clutch from my own collection to the box.
As the box emptied and more friends arrived at the shop it was decided that a drink was needed and the nearby Stormbird bar was chosen, partly because it’s the only place in London you can get a bottle of Pastelism, a beer brewed by Domino Records band, The Pastels. Much was consumed and many words were spoken of the crate-digging, vinyl-hunting nature alongside Tom Central (Keep Up!), PC (DJ Food), Graeme (Frenchbloke & Son) Ross, Zoe Lucky Cat Baxter and more. Robin the Fog and Hannah Brown from Resonance FM were also on hand to conduct an impromptu recording for their Near Mint show and the results can be heard below. The results of the alcohol consumption can also be heard as the show progresses too! It was great to see so many friends and play in my local record shop among like-minded punters and there are plans to do a rematch at Audio Gold in Crouch End soon. If any other record stores want to host this kind of event in the future then get in touch…
Beautiful typography on one of Adam James Seth-Ward‘s purchases.
Last week, DJ‘s Cheeba & Moneyshot finished their deconstruction of Beck’s album, ‘Odelay’, which celebrated it’s 20th anniversary on June 18th. As he plays Glastonbury this coming weekend, Solid Steel will premiere the mix on Friday 24th, entitled, ‘Yo! Delay’. A long time in the making, it’s over an hour of the LP broken down into samples, interview snippets, scratch routines and more, in the same way our ‘Caught In The Middle of a Three-Way Mix’ did with the Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’ a few years back.
Lucky enough to hear it before the public, I stuck it on and we had a message session via Facebook, below are some of my (edited) comments as I listened for the first time…
you get a Devil’s Haircut acappella?
is that the Stones with the guitar riff?
mad JB cover there
I reckon Beck might thank you for not putting the track list out there
This is great guys
oh that New Pollution sax break is great
Oh Lee Michaels! – you have that album? Killer
I hope you got Mantronix into Where It’s At?
There she blows!
hairs on the back of the neck moment
Anyone ever do a porno with whales called ‘There she blows’ Roy?
ah this is f**king great guys, I’m grinning
This extended freakout bit with samples and spoken cuts is redefining the mix guys – insane
oh! Dick Hyman!
f**k guys, mix of the year so far
A few people are going to have their dreams shattered though – “I thought Beck wrote that!”
make a little commentary to go with it, the first real time mix commentary – you could break down what you did?
Well, guys – mix of the year so far, you nailed it, didn’t want it to end – well done
This afternoon I sat in on Jonny Trunk’s OST show on Resonance 104.4 FM with a show brought to you by the letter ‘S’ – that means Sesame Street / Star Wars / Lalo Schifrin and special guest Jonny Cuba from Soundsci. Library cues, exclusives, soundtracks, skits, samples and more including mic fluffs and badly scratched records.
Two dates for your diaries: June 25th I’ll be DJing with Jonny Trunk at Camberwell’s finest used record emporium, Rat Records. They recently bought in a really good selection of soundtrack, electronic, library and weird records which we’ll be playing selections from before adding them to the racks for punters to buy. Let US try, before YOU buy.
But before that – this Saturday to be precise – I’ll be sitting in for Jonny on his OST radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM from 4.30-6.40pm. There’ll be a theme to the show and I’ll have special guest Jonny Cuba from Soundsci talking about library digs and soundtrack finds. Listen here this weekend
I totally forgot to post this last weekend as I was away. After their storming gig in London in February I asked Tim Gane from COAM if he’d be up for a Solid Steel mix for us. Not only did he say yes but he delivered two exclusive hour long mixes titled ‘Whiteout Mix’ and ‘Blackout mix’ that parallel each other with some of the same artists appearing on both hours. As a result we gave the whole of last week’s show over to him.
“An abstracted trawl through some prized recordings. Music can be like a fever dream with no rational interpretations possible and all these tracks have given me that rush. Over the years they have shown me the door and window to another kind of sound and new forms of composition and an endless collage of possibility.Totally shocking listening to these tracks again and putting the mix together. I have included one of my own mess about loops from about 8 or 9 years ago.”
A few weeks ago, when I played the Resonance FM fundraiser at The Book & Record Bar, I gave Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter a couple of Ultraman 45s from my collection as a present. I’d picked them up in Japan over 15 years before and had bought them in to an OST show with Jonny Trunk years ago, more to show him the sleeves than to play the music. I met Zoe for the first time there as she has the show before Jonny and she recently reminded me that she was wildly coveting the records back then as she loves East Asian culture.
They’d been sitting in my collection for years, unplayed and unseen, so I thought, ‘why not give them to someone who will appreciate them more than me?’, seeing as we were on the same bill. She’s already put them to good use by including them in an Ultraman special on her radio show and showing off the covers on her Instagram (see above and below). She has a wealth of information on the show and it’s nice to know that they’ve gone to a good home.
Thanks very much to Josh from Posthuman for putting me on his excellent radio show, there’s no chat in this one due to studio gremlins and my mix begins about 58m mins in.
The world’s first ever all 45 Acid mix? There’s a 7 day download link in the comments too
Taken from the Audio Arcana blogspot: this is an incredible find in the discography of Ken Nordine; a 7″ EP of the original Fuller Paint Company adverts that went on to form the basis for his classic album, ‘Colours’. These versions are markedly different from the ones on the Philips LP and a new track, ‘All Colours’ shows up at the end. More info and full download HERE
From one fundraiser for an independent radio station (Resonance FM) to another. This time it’s the turn of WFMU from New Jersey to appeal to the public, starting March 6th until the 20th. One of the items you can receive if you pledge money is a T-shirt with this ‘Space Vinyl’ illustration by Derek Yaniger on it. I love Derek’s work, in the traditions of artists like The Pizz, Shag or, of course, the originator – Jim Flora, painting that Tiki / Beatnik / Hot Rod / Rock n Roll thing with style.
I put this pile of 45s down in a mix last week, possibly the world’s first all 7″, all-Acid mix? I’ve been collecting acid tracks on 7″ for a while now and, when Josh from I Love Acid asked me to do a mix for his I Love Acid Radio slot, I thought this would be the perfect slot to showcase them. The mix is due to debut on March 10th, I’ll post a link here when it does. Pete Isaac from 45 Live is also a big acid 45 collector and we’ll be doing something in that vein later this year…
Acid on 45 is a pretty niche area, a lot of the releases are UK pressings as several tracks made the charts at the end of the 80s and record labels were still pressing 7″s alongside the 12s to get radio play. There are also a lot of european singles from around that time too, tracks that were big in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain but won’t maybe be known elsewhere. In the 90s a lot of acid on 45 is confined to the more uptempo almost gabba-techno kind and there are slim pickings to be had until the 00s when the sound made a resurgence back into techno.
The second part of Robin The Fog & Hannah Brown‘s ‘Neat Mint’ show for Resonance FM just aired tonight with the continuation of their peek into the odder end of my record collection. Hear what these records sound like below.
Also we’ll all be playing at The Book & Record Bar in West Norwood on Friday alongside the landlord Micheal (not listed below) and Zoe ‘Lucky Cat’ Baxter who, I just found out, is the daughter of Glen Baxter! Come down, the shop is less than a minute’s walk from the West Norwood train station. £5 entry in aid of Resonance FM who have their annual fundraising drive on at the moment to keep them on the air for another year. Some very unique prizes to be auctioned off in a very good cause, truly independent radio with no playlist.
