As it’s my birthday weekend this week I thought I’d save this one until (nearly) last. Either recorded or broadcast on my birthday 21 years ago (it’s not unusual for me to work on a birthday) it’s one of the bumper crop of mixes I recorded for Solid Steel in 2003, probably my most prolific year on the show. The Glitter Band stomp of The Timelords’ ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ was a no-brainer to put with Goldfrapp’s ‘Train’ so I started off with a mash up of the two by Lionel Vinyl before progressing into the original and then Ewan Pearson’s straighter 6/8 and 4/4 mixes which still manage to be funky. RSL’s ‘Wesley Music’ was such a jam, huge tune back in the day, I once played it at a party some years later and a woman started screaming when she heard the opening bars, we thought she was in trouble but she actually just loved it so much! Linda Lewis’ ‘I Keep A Wish’ came out on Riz Maslen Council Folk label, was an acoustic ballad which serves as a near acappella here and I’m doing something with it with the Numark CDJ FX I used at the time by the sounds of it.

The Nextmen make over Reno’s ‘Rock n Roll’ and do a nice pitch up trick from downtempo to UK Garage beats before The Baker Brothers who had a nice run of funk 45s on their own ARSE label around this time of which this was the third I think. This slides smoothly into The Cinematic Orchestra’s ‘Man With The Music Camera’ which was possibly preceding the album at this point. The script flips quickly into the Geezers of Nazareth, a weird little 7” which is listed as a mini-album on Discogs, containing seven tracks and apparently soundtracking the short film, ‘Pole’. I was never much of a Blur fan but their track ‘Out Of Time’ really resonated and later named Miranda Sawyer’s book about middle age which I can recommend once you get there. The spoken word about Marrakech I overlaid was because they used the Marrakech String Orchestra or something for the backing.

Quite a change of mood and pace next with Kid 606’s remix of Amon Tobin’s ‘Verbal’ and then a sequence I would use often in my DJ sets around this time with Z-Trip’s mix of DJ Shadow / The D.O.C. / Nas all blended into a party-rocking mess. Actually a lot of this second half is something I would work into DJ sets in a myriad of variations over the 00’s, that Z-Trip mix was so useful as a mix tool. I think the Quantic Soul Orchestra mix of Sunshine Anderson’s ‘Heard It All Before’ was from one of the Tru Thoughts Rebtuz 12”s that were possibly not exactly legit but would arrive in the promo post of the day, this was from the first apparently. Frenchbloke & Son’s ‘Sound of da S-Club’ is one of THE best mash ups of the day – wrong-foots everyone when they first hear it but is so stupidly obvious you have to give it to them. For some reason I decided to add a bit of Neil Sedaka into the middle as the band were possibly breaking up at the time, pop showbiz gossip in the middle of a Solid Steel mix!

I used to do the Lisa Maffia/Lil Kim mix all the time, it required a pretty swift change of the record to get the acappella in on time and then switch from the instrumental to vocal version. Mr Guder was a funk combo with Dr Rubberfunk on drums who released a couple of 45s with breaks medleys – vol.1 and 3 but no vol.2. I recently asked the good Dr what happened to vol.2, did it come out and I miss it? Apparently not, they never finished it but he still has the tapes as well as sessions for vol.4 and 5! They sound pretty good too and he’s getting to finishing them soon… The Roots’ ‘Thought @ Work’ is one of those great pieces that can legitimately be filed under ‘old school hip hop’ despite being made in 2002 without violating the trades descriptions act. The band perfectly reimagine the old Bronx park breakbeat jams and I get busy with a copy of ‘Apache’ over the top, doubling up snares before running into Grandmaster Flash’s ‘rock steady’ cut up of the same for his Strut compilation. Another dose of the Quantic Soul Orchestra comes in the form of a vocal retake of their classic ’Super 8’ track and an Ochre edit-heavy mix of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Like I Love You’ plays us out. I’m constantly surprised at how much work I put into some of these mixes, lacing much of it with relevant spoken word clips sourced from Megatrip’s Soundbank CDs – that’s what happens before you have kids!

Track list:
Lionel Vinyl – Doctorin’ The Train
Goldfrapp – Train (original)
Goldfrapp – Train (Ewan Pearson 6/8 & 4/4 mixes)
RSL – Wesley Music
Linda Lewis – I Keep A Wish (Re-edit)
Reno – Rock ‘n’ Roll (The Nextmen – The Mines mix)
Baker Brothers – Aargh, Aargh, Aargh
The Cinematic Orchestra – Man With The Movie Camera
Geezers of Nazareth – Introducing the Pole
Blur – Out of Time
Amon Tobin – Verbal (Kid 606 remix)
DJ Shadow – Right Thing (Z-Trip Get The Party Off mix pts 1 & 2)
The D.O.C. – Portrait of a Masterpiece
DJ Shadow – Right Thing (Z-Trip Get The Party Off mix pt 3+bonus beats)
Nas – I Can (acappella)
Sunshine Anderson – Heard It All Before (Quantic Soul Orchestra mix)
Frenchbloke and Son – Sound of da S Club
Neil Sedaka – Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Lisa Maffia – All Over (acappella)
Lil’ Kim – The Jump Off (instrumental/Vocal)
Mr Guder – Mr Guder Breaks 3
The Roots – Thought @ Work
Incredible Bongo Band – Apache (Grandmaster Flash Rock Steady mix)
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Walking Through Tomorrow (Super 8 Pt 3)
Justin Timberlake – Like I Love You (Ochre mix)