• RELEASED: 1999
• FORMAT: 2xCD
• LABEL: NINJA TUNE
• CAT No.: SSDK01
• DESIGN: Openmind
• PHOTOGRAPHY: n/a
• SPOTTERS DELIGHT: Only sold on tour at Coldcut shows but later made available on the 20 years of Solid Steel DVD
• EXTRA ZEN: Discogs page

From DK: About to tour North American with Coldcut in 2000, I wanted to put together a promo CD that I could give away on the tour and thus took three sections from some of my favourite Solid Steel shows that year and put them together on 2 CDs. Among the usual DK mix of old and new, are Yush 2K – Fade Away (which made the short list for Now, Listen), The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds given an excellent remix by Danny Tenaglia, Big Dada Allstars with their Planet Rock homage “Showtime”, Little Richard and Love on the breaks and beats. On the reggae front, Merciless, Cutty Ranks, Sean Paul, Burning Spear and King Tubby all make an appearance, Club favourites of the time were Solomon Funk, Re-Return of the Original Artform and Ozomatli (both getting the Cut Chemist lick) and 7 inch pressure from Eddie Warner and the Backyard Heavies.

Solid Steel only had a basic logo at that time and, needing some packaging, I enrolled the skills of Strictly Kev to design the artwork for the double CD. The starting point was an Audio Obstacle Course Stereo test record we both had and the design became a template for the real series that followed. Dubbed as the first “unofficial” Solid Steel mix CD, with it’s own catalogue no. SSDK01, the two CDs came housed in a double plastic wallet with printed colour insert and were only sold at shows on Coldcut’s ‘Let Us Replay’ tour.