As we approach the 200th upload from the archive I’ve decided that I’m going to finish on that round number and end what has become four years of weekly posts as the collection is nearly complete. The DATs were done long ago, there are only three CDrs left in the book and after about 2007 things started appearing online on Soundcloud, servers and such as internet streaming got better so should prove easy to find. There are still a few tapes left to be done but I’m down to a handful now and I think it’s time to move on, stop looking back and start looking forward.

One thing I realised when I started encoding all these mixes during the first lockdown was how evocative of their time they were and how many memories flooded back listening to them – good memories, often great memories. But as time passed I also found that I wasn’t making the equivalent for today so that in 20 or hopefully 30 years time I could be doing the same thing. I’ve not had a regular radio show for sometime now, my contributions to Solid Steel fluctuating after about 2014 until my final one as the show closed in 2019. I’ve done an annual 45 Live mix since 2015 and I featured a bit here and there on the Out Of The Wood radio show, run by Pete Williams from the Book & Record Bar in West Norwood since 2016 up until the pandemic with the odd show occasionally since but nothing regular.

That’s about to change in 2024 as I’m ready for a new venture and concentrating on more new music than old. I don’t want to get stuck in a nostalgia loop so from Friday April 12th I will be starting a monthly 2 hour show called Electric Collage on the new online ROVR radio station. Each show will be a collection of what I’m listening to and playing out in my DJ sets, including exclusive edits I make for sets or my own amusement. ROVR has assembled a huge roster of DJs who will have 2 hour shows rolling 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week at the same time internationally. My show will be Friday 2pm-4pm no matter where you are in the world. The station can be listened to on a desktop or streamed from their phone app, it’s free, there are no ads, no presenters and no algorithms, just music. Each show will be track listed and archives will be accessible via the phone app. Download it here. (MAC) or (ANDROID)

This is something new, both as a station and for me and I’m excited to be among so many great names and to have a platform for a monthly dig and a chunk of music to signpost the times. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the station develops and what I can bring to it each month. Trevor Jackson has designed the look and the app is easy to use and navigate. The first show drops next week but I’ll continue this Mixcloud Select for another 10 weeks until we hit 200 and then leave it open for subscribers to access. I expect a few will stop their subscription and that’s fine, the work is done, the main mission was to digitise my archive and put it online, everything will still be accessible to those paying. Maybe a way down the road I’ll start making some available to all, right now I’m looking forward, not back. Which inevitably brings us to this week’s upload…

This is a set that I think DK and I did on 4 decks for some sort of Solid Steel summer special gig but I forget where it was – it wasn’t the boat party as that was the year before. You can hear sections that would later appear in our Now, Listen Again and the later Now, Look & Listen AV mixes and I have to say, we’re on fire in places. This is a pure dance set, packed with classics and acappellas all over the place, we did some great sets together in the decade we were DJ partners touring the world and saw some great things. This is a dry desk recording with no crowd noise but I can assure you they were making noise during this set – a proper festival set.

The rave era classics in the middle were DK’s idea and I credit him with reuniting my love of that era with this set as not too many of our crowd were looking back to that time in the mid 00’s. That three way mix of ‘Pacific State’ / ‘Din Daa Daa’ / ‘Devil Inside’ is quite the slow burn build with a drop to pay off. I love all the little musical connections – NERD into Jungle Bros into Todd Terry and the way the Stetsasonic acapella makes a reappearance only to be staggered into the Max Sedgley tune. The ‘Organ Donor’ slow down part sounds like it was done using a CDJ but the rest of this should be vinyl as I didn’t go over to Serato until early 2006. The Danny Tenaglia mix of The Orb’s ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ was a big tune at the time and the end extension here with the Ambient mix and parts of ‘Earth’ is possibly an edit for radio as I can’t imagine us ending the set like this.

Tracklist:
Unknown – Solid Steel intro
Bob Dorough – Three Is the Magic Number
Double Dee & Steinski – Lesson 3
De La Soul – The Magic Number
Cozy Powell – Dance With the Devil
Stetsasonic – Talking All That jazz (clapappella)
DJ Format – You Hear That?
Ram Jam – Black Betty
Jonny Jones and the King Casuals – Purple Haze
Jungle Brothers – Beyond This World (accapella)
DJ Shadow – Right Thing (Z Trip Bonus Beat)
Primal Scream – Revenge of the Hammond Connection
Jimmy Bo Horne – Spank
Apathy – It Takes A Seven Nation Army…
NERD – She Wants To Move (Native Tongues remix)
Jungles Brothers – I’ll House You
Doug Lazy – Let It Roll (a cappella)
Royal House – Can You Party?
The Jacksons – Can You Feel It (Opening)
Nitro Deluxe – This Brutal House
Missy Elliot – Lose Control
Luke Vibert – Homewerk
808 State – Pacific State
George Kranz – Din Daa Daa (Dub version)
Max Sedgley – Devil inside
Stetsasonic – Talking All That jazz (clapappella)
DJ Shadow – Right Thing (Z Trip Get The Party Off mix)
DJ Shadow – Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)
Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase
Cut Chemist – A Peek In Time
The Chemical Brothers – The Boxer
Jay Z – I Just Wanna Love U
Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier – Psyche Rock
Coldcut – More Beats
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds (Danny Tenaglia mix)
The Orb – Earth (Gaia) (intro)
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds (Ambient mix mk 1)