A jazz and beats-heavy hours from mid July 17 years ago this week. The lead track is from Loka who were just releasing their first records on Ninja Tune and who now have so many aliases I can’t keep up (I just got the new Rotary Fifth LP this week and there’s also Harmoniche 23). Nostalgia 77 follows, this was during Tru Thoughts golden period where they barely put a foot wrong release-wise and Nostalgia aka Ben Lamdin was always a solid producer. Afu-Ra’s ‘Poisonous Taoist’ was doing the rounds on a weird bootleg-like 12” I seem to remember which I can’t find on Discogs, great DJ Premier production.

The only mention of the Kid Sublime ‘This Way’ track on Discogs is on a Japanese comp from 2008 which can’t be right unless I had a time machine. Lovely Harmonic 33 track mining the Lalo Schifrin vibe, the first of two from the ‘Music For Film, Television & Radio volume 1’ album on Warp (still don’t think we’ve seen a vol.2). Elmore Judd fitted into that west coast beat maker scene for a bit, Madlib, Dilla, Sa-Ra and Dr Who-DAT?. DJ Vadim’s One Self project with Blu Rum 13 and Yarah Bravo was on the same tip too. The Bees’ trippy remix was only on the 7” and sees Ninja riding a nice line between rap, soul and jazz. I really need to revisit this Harmonic 33 album, it’s really aged well. More Ninja business from The Herbaliser’s fifth album, ‘Take London’ with one of my favourites of theirs – ‘Geddim!’ in fine Roy Budd style, (as usual I love the uptempo numbers). Ollie once told me the source of the main riff and it’s really obvious once you know it but I’m sworn to secrecy.

Weirdly I’ve had Digital underground’s ‘Packet Man’ in my head all week and now Humpty Hump (RIP) turns up on this Perceptionists track, a group that includes Mr Lif from the B side of their second single. It’s a brilliant expose of gang bangers wanting to get into the rap game and they suggest better alternatives for their ‘skills’. Roisin Murphy produced by Matthew Herbert is always a joy, he has such a minimalist groove and bounce to this, from her Ruby Blue album. Ending with the vocoder funk of Rubin Steiner and Break Reform’s gorgeous Cut A Map in The Soles Of My Feet from their final album.

Wasps – Solid Steel intro
Loka – Safe Self Tester
Nostalgia 77 – Cheney Lane
Afu Ra – Poisonous Taoist
Kid Sublime – This Way feat. U Gene
Harmonic 33 – Long Shadow
Elmore Judd – There’s A War Going On
One Self – Blue Bird (The Bees version)
Harmonic 33 – Paranoia
The Herbaliser – Geddim!
Prefuse 73 – Just The Thought feat. GZA & Masta Killa
Perceptionists – Career Finders feat Humpty Hump
Roisin Murphy – Ramalama (Bang Bang)
Rubin Steiner – Turn Off The Lights
Break Reform – Cut A Map In The Soles Of My Feet

Here’s a couple of early 1998 sets strung together from a Solid Steel show I did with Oscar The Golden Child aka Oscar Wilson. I knew Oscar from the early days of the Sunday Best club, run by Rob Da Bank before he started Bestival. Oscar was/still is a super-talented illustrator and graphic artist as well as a DJ so we hit it off easily and I invited him in to play on the show a few times. We took turns in doing a half hour each and here I’ve strung my two sets together, check out his work here

Kicking off the mix with good old Boards of Canada, I think this might be the original Skam 7” mix of Aquarius, itself now an eye-watering average price of around £170 to find. Sliding messily into Skylab, and I do know the title, it’s actually ‘?’ but I don’t know whether this is part 1,2 or 3 as I can’t find my 12” of it. Over to the French connection for DJ Vadim’s remix of DJ Cam’s ‘Innervisions’ next featuring A-Cyde and Air’s still exquisite ‘All I Need’ classic. I’d forgotten the madness of Clifford Gilberto’s Timber remix, wow, how crazy is that? Probably doesn’t help that I’m playing the Balanese Monkey Chant over parts of it. This might have been before he’d actually released anything on Ninja aside from a track on the Funkungfusion compilation too, nothing like a new artist wanting to impress. The madness continues with AFX’s ‘Bummy’ from the Mealtime compilation on Planet Mu, complete with its odd speed up/slow down programming.

After an intrusive KISS jingle we’re into the second set, kicking off a brief electronic section with Lowish from the debut dual release with Solvent on Canada’s Suction Records and Phoenicia’s debut on Warp. Food fans may recognise the odd sample cropping up in the coming selection but it would be remiss of me to give the game away, it was a different time and library, electronic jazz and easy listening was being hoovered up and turning up all sorts of great tunes. Apologies for the chunky mixing, those tricky time signatures. Jasper van’t Hof’s amazing ’T.E.E. Again’ sounds like Boards before Boards and I always thought the early On-U Sound project Missing Brazilians sounded like a template for some of The Orb’s dub workouts. The distortion on that is actually on the record, crazed dub from 1984 on their sole release, Warzone which was reissued back in 2015.

I have to say, I don’t remember these really full on KISS FM jingles that crop up now and again, they point to the change the station was undergoing, getting more commercial and we’d be leaving in a year or so.

Track list:
Boards Of Canada – Aquarius
Skylab – ? (Part ?)
DJ Cam – Innervisions (DJ Vadim remix)
Air – All I Need
Coldcut – Timber (Clifford Gilberto mix 2)
AFX – Bummy
Lowfish – ESP (edit)
Phoenecia – Y-intercpnkt
George Duke – Nigerian Numberuma
Piero Umiliani – Topless Party
Hugo Montenegro – Stutterology
Jasper van’t Hof – T.E.E. Again
Missing Brazillians – Savanna Prance

This was a last half hour in early 2005, we’d traditionally save selections like this for the last slot, material that was a bit more esoteric and unusual, something to wind down with rather than kick off the show and risk people turning off. It’s a game of two halves but both are played for laughs with the former being country cover versions of hip hop classics and the latter being George Bush cut ups, mainly focused on the War in Iraq.

Ricky V Valentine’s ‘Ghetto Classics’ (split into two halves here) first appeared on the Souvenirs EP via the Leeds-based C Side Trax label and is – as far as I know – the only thing released under that name by whoever was behind it. It’s a brilliantly observed take off of Grandmaster Flash, NWA, Outcaste and Jay Z and more of a skit than a song. Nina Gordon was in mid 90’s band Veruca Salt, an indie/grungy pop band who the UK press loved for a minute which is why it’s so odd to hear her cover NWA in such a delicate way, brilliantly absurd. I probably got it from the internet but it turned up on what looks like a bootleg 45 years later in 2010 with a Richard Cheese cover on the flip which makes an appearance next with his take on Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin & Juice’.

Through the power of Discogs I’ve finally discovered who did the cover of ‘Boyz In (N) The Hood’ – it was alt rock band Dynamite Hack (no, me neither) – there’s a cheesy frat boy golfing video on YouTube to go with it too. Then we have tales from Boris ‘the hip hop roadie’ from Pitman’s second LP, according to Boris he was the catalyst for most of hip hop’s founding moments. No idea where I found the ‘Ace of Spades’ cover (probably online, it was the file-sharing 00’s) but the vocal is a dead ringer for Lemmy or they found the multi-tracks somewhere.

Now comes the George Bush half of the set with the bizarre George Bush Singers shadowing lines cut from Bush speeches. This comes from a whole album entitled ‘Songs In The Key of W’ which I’m now keen to hear and has sent me down a YouTube/Discogs wormhole. Big City Orchestra have been making cut ups in the tradition of Negativland for decades and they have a special take on George, the origin of which I’ve no idea as their discography is so huge. After another blast of the GWB Singers we finish with ‘Bushwhacked 2’ – a collaboration by Chris Morris and Osymyso released on Warp records with this being a remix by Jonathan Whitehead. Dubya was the subject of many cut ups over the years with his speeches an easy target for re-editing, these weren’t the first or the last to be featured on Solid Steel.

PS: As you can see my KLF mix was also archived on this disc although it wasn’t broadcast on this show, to hear it you can go here https://www.mixcloud.com/strictlykev/the-sound-of-music/

Track list:
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.1
Nina Gordon – Straight Outta Compton
Richard Cheese – Gin & Juice
Ricky V Valentine – Ghetto Classics Pt.2
Dynamite Hack – Boyz In the Hood
Pitman – Boris
Twistin Tarantulas – Ace Of Spades
The George W. Bush Singers – 4,000 Hours
Big City Orchestra – F The Leader
The George W. Bush Singers – War in Iraq
10NN – Bushwhacked 2 (Gim Ponavesspa conclusion)

This is a silly one, a short collection of mostly comedy, cover versions or mash up tracks that was probably a last half hour in early February of 2003. The CD says ‘Satan’ but the PRS sheet states, ‘Satanic Messages in Rock pt 492’. Opening with Kenny Everett who loved his Jean-Jacques Perry as a backing track, we slide quickly into a laid back Stereolab remix of The Polyphonic Spree’s ‘Soldier Girl’. By this point, the internet was yielding all sorts of audio treats via numerous illegal file sharing sites and the preacher talking about Satanic messages in rock music is spoken word gold and peppered throughout the mix. Including Missy Elliot’s ‘Work It’ chorus which reverses itself was a nice touch. The Queen classic ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ was mentioned so it made sense to include it and showcase exactly what the preacher was talking about, I’ll let you discover it for yourself.

I’ve no idea where ‘I’m A Mormon’ came from but I thought it was funny, apologies to all Mormons out there. Now into a couple of ska cover version, Mancini’s peerless ‘A Shot In The Dark’ from the Pink Panther and ‘Caravan’, always go down well at parties. The Amelie theme song set to an electronic background was probably found on the web, I loved the film so this connected. More preaching over the end of it in the form of a ludicrous list of performers and films that were deemed ‘satanic’ by the church in the 80’s. Back to the silliness and the Perry & Kingsley, this time paired with the ‘Thong Song’ by Frenchbloke & Son, two of the funniest practitioners of the mash up scene and friends to this day. Moog Country meets Missy next with more backwards lyrics and then into Andy Votel’s cover of the ‘Chatanaga Choo Choo’ from the Finders Keepers Jukebox series of 45s.

We play out with an excerpt from the DJs On Strike Solid Steel mix which was so crazy it was vetoed by the powers that be and self-released on CD by the group as ‘Too Hot For Solid Steel’. I excerpted a couple of bits so that you get the gist and added Kenny in for the final few bars.

Tracklist:

Kenny Everett – Hello/Moog theme
Polyphonic Spree – Soldier Girl (Stereolab remix)
Missy Elliot – Work It
Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
Janine Brady & the Brite Singers – I’m a Mormon
Roland Alphonso – A Shot In The Dark (Take 1)
Roland Alphonso – Ska-ra-van (Take 2)
Unknown – Amelie On Ice
Frenchbloke & Son – Unidentified Flying Thong
Dsico – This Is Missy Country
Andy Votel – Chatanaga Choo Choo
DJs On Strike – Too Hot For Solid Steel (excerpt)