An approximation of a DJ Food club set around 2004, this is the kind of thing I was playing out at the time via two decks and a CDJ, still using vinyl, no Serato yet. Kicking off with Peloton’s entry for the Solid Steel intro competition which we’d conducted via the Ninja Tune forum. Sounds like I was plundering the Megatrip Soundbank collection of spoken word for samples featuring the word ‘more’ too over Roots Manuva and Ty’s ‘Oh You Want More?’. This, Alex Cartana and the Rootz n Works rework of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’ were examples of the Bangra rhythm style made popular by Missy and M.I.A. around this time. Speaking of Missy, here she is with Timberland over a bit of ‘Dark Lady’ although I can only hear The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ with this since our second Solid Steel mix CD.

A little funk section from That Kid Named Miles, Quantic Soul Orchestra (featuring Alice Russell), Roy Budd (from the ‘Vigilante! Remixes EP) Nostalgia 77 and Bobby Shad – (from Coldcut’s Life:Styles compilation of the same year) before a brace of hip hop numbers from Edan & Insight, a mash up of Obie Trice by Dizzy Bull and classic UK old school from Caveman. Back to the funk with classic Roy Ayres and I get scratch happy with Double Dee & Steinski’s James Brown cut up, ‘Lesson 2’ before things go into the unexpected with the I Royals’ reggae cover of the Coronation Street theme. This was possibly the first outing on the show too for my now good friend Stephen Coates’ Real Tuesday Weld with his ‘Bathtime In Clerkenwell’.

Another Solid Steel intro entry, this time from DJ Flywheel, for a change of tempo into Billy Squier’s (big) beat break into Steve Miller’s equally classic B-Boy sample-fest and general all round anthem, ‘Fly Like An Eagle’. Not sure what I was thinking with this section, it’s a very odd selection of tunes, possibly more linked by tempo than anything else although Floormaster Squeeze (aka Coldcut) goes pretty nicely into Japan’s ‘Visions of China’. Japan into Serge Gainsbourg into Boards of Canada – not something I’d attempt most days but it sort of works, especially the Indeep track over the top of the latter, something I’d repeat years later in my ‘O Is For Orange’ mix. We end as we began with another jingle competition entry, this time from Laptop Nancyboy, I wonder what happened to them?

Track list:
Peloton – Solid Steel intro
Ty feat. Roots Manuva – Oh U Want More? Refix
Alex Cartana – Hey Papi (Ross Orton Remix)
Prince – Sign ‘O The Times (Rootz n Workz mix)
Grandmaster Melle Mel & Duke Bootee – The Message
Timberland & Magoo feat. Missy Elliot – Cop That Shit
DJ Food – Dark Lady
That Kid Named Miles – Ring of Fire
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Pushin’ On
Roy Budd – Foxy
Nostalgia 77 – Thing
Bobby Shad – I Want You Back
Edan feat. Insight – The Science of The Two
Dizzy Bull – Got Some Teeth
Caveman – I’m Ready
Roy Ayres – Brother Green (The Disco King)
Double D & Steinski – Lesson 2 (The James Brown mix)
The I Royals – Coronation Street
The Real Tuesday Weld – Bathtime In Clerkenwell
DJ Flywheel – The Beaten Match Solid Steel intro
Billy Squier – The Big Beat
Steve Miller Band – Fly like An Eagle
Floormaster Squeeze – Kick Out The James (Again)
Japan – Visions of China
Serge Gainsbourg – En Melody
Boards of Canada – Nlogax
Indeep – Last Night A DJ Saved My Life
Laptop Nancyboy – What’s Everyone’s Obsession With Intros?

Break out the TDK D90s, make sure the tape is tightened using an old pencil or biro lid and pop the door of the cassette deck for this collection of pause button-enhanced electronica from mid 2002. Obsession with bootlegs and mashups was still relatively new at this stage and the discovery of Cassetteboy was a key link in the chain. Their meticulous cut ups of TV and radio shows added to the (toilet) humour of the movement and made sure nothing ever got too serious. That they would end up doing material for the Guardian website was something I doubt any of us could have foreseen. This mix is strewn with excerpts from The Parker Tapes, their debut album on Barry’s Bootlegs (an offshoot of Spymania who first gave us Squarepusher), parts of which I would also include in my Raiding the 20th Century mix some years later.

Amon Tobin’s Out From Out Where LP was released this summer and the track ‘Back From Space’ opens the show before Antipop Consortium’s amazing ‘Ghostlawns’ creeps in, still sounding as fresh as the day it was released. The clipped minimalism of Murcof took everyone by surprise when he debuted on Leaf, coming on like a classical Akufen, the beauty of which I totally spoilt by running a Cassetteboy Jamie Oliver sketch over the top – “I’m gonna whack my old man, right up his alley” – yes, quite. Monkey Magic’s ‘More Than We Know’ I had to look up – seems it was a lone 12” on the Deep-Water label and I’m not sure if the Monkees cut up at the end was part of the track or not. Cujo aka Amon Tobin’s sole album was reissued on Ninja Tune around this time and it’s great to hear the contrast although I quite like the cheesy silliness of ‘Popsicle’ myself, sounding more like something Tipsy would have put out than his later material.

Sinewave – ‘Attack Of The Triffids’ – this was Canadian drum n bass artist, Mark Wiebe, not sure where I got this, maybe given it on tour? That guy has some drum editing skills, I do love rediscovering all these old tracks when digging out 20+ year old shows. Apani B Fly’s ‘Ghost Cauldrons’ was a hip hop that was remixed by Blacklodge and Patrick Pulsinger, the latter of which proceeded to cut up Herbie Hancock’s electronic rendition of ‘Cantaloupe Island’ from his Japanese Dedication album all over the track. Computer Jockeys’ ‘Ping Pong’ was another that had me reaching for Discogs and this appears to have first been released in 1999 on the Harvest label – yes, that Harvest – but was included on a compilation is 2002 which is probably how I found it. Steinski’s remix of Moloko’s ‘Small World’ was taken from his Nothing To Fear Solid Steel mix CD that never was – and now Roisin Murphy is a fully fledged Ninja artist.

Another brief Cassetteboy interlude precedes Edan w Eric Ferguson’s ‘Clinical Rhymes’, an old school freestyle over classic B Boy beats – Edan still untouchable, just wish he’d make more records. Herbert remixing Fridge wasn’t a pairing I’d have ever put together but it works as Matthew Herbert smooths out the rough edges and adds female vocals to beautiful effect. More Cassetteboy before we finish with a rather jovial Witchman remix of The Orb and the tape is ejected.

Track list:
Amon Tobin – Back From Space
Antipop Consortium – Ghostlawns
Murcof – Maiz
Monkey Magic – More Than We Know
Cujo – Popsicle
Sinewave – Attack of the Triffids
Apani B Fly – Ghost Cauldrons (Patrick Pulsinger remix)
Computer Jockeys – Ping Pong
Moloko – The Id (Small World – Steinski version)
Edan w. Eric Ferguson – Clinical Rhymes
Fridge – Ark (Herbert Fully Floooded mix)
CassetteBoy – Your Love is Like Benelyn
The Orb – Ow Much? (Witchman 2975 mix)

Kicking off 2005 in full-on DnB style with a monologue from Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet radio series, a not entirely serious look at music through the ages, which glues this set together. Steaming in with Pendulum’s remix of Concord Dawn’s ‘Tonite’ we’re into 170bpm dance floor destruction straight away and it rarely lets up. I loved Pendulum early on, before and around the first album, I felt they really revitalised DnB for a while after years of it going down a dark, minimal 2-step path which sounded like music for ketamine and a good kicking rather than the euphoric party it had been just a few years before. The Good Looking stable and its ilk were too soft for me back then although I’ve reappraised that since, mellowing with age and all. Back then I wanted my DnB hard and fast, with intricate drum programming and stomping basslines and Pendulum bought all that back with a twist and a swing only previously heard in the Brazilian styles of DJ Marky and Shy FX & T-Power. Of course it all went horribly wrong once they became a stadium band and started using guitars but for a few years there were some great singles and remixes.

There were a spate a white label DnB reworkings of RnB/Pop hits for a good while too in the mid 00s, post-bastard pop where hip hop and soul met in the charts and then got a good rinse out on the dance floor. Here, Beyoncé’s ‘Naughty Girl’ gets the treatment, apparently by T.C. from Bristol. The DJ Deval track I barely remember but it was on Reformed Recordings, a sub label of Formation. Fracture & Neptune were the first producers I remember who paid homage to Photek and Hidden Agenda with their early records. More Pendulum with ‘Back 2 You’, much more electronic than their later work and then Dynamite MC, for my money one of the best MCs to hold it down over DnB, breaks, hip hop or garage over the years, so funky. Here he trades verses with Skibadee to brutal effect, this used to go down a storm. That rework of Britney’s ‘Toxic’ is just too fast isn’t it? I think was the first release on a label called Toxic who also released the earlier Beyoncé retool.

Zen ‘Monster Munch’ – had to look this up, thought it might have been an alias of DJ Zinc but no, it’s another Reformed release, what a bassline! HUGE hoover bass! Fracture & Neptune back again, with the second track from their 12” on Breakin’, this time sampling Vangelis’ Blade Runner, what’s not to like? Ghost People I had to look up too and then realised that the artist name was actually Influx UK and I’d had it round the wrong way all these years – whoops, those white label promos! More early Pendulum with ‘Trail Of Sevens’ which starts out more like Link’s ‘Chameleon’ than their later stuff, then there’s that breakdown and the rave synths come in with that bass bounce and precision percussion and we’re in some rapid-fire car chase scenario. Fracture & Neptune are back for another slice, ‘Too Doggone Funky’ is a perfect example of how to dig for breaks and not always fall back on the ol’ faithful Amen. Killer track, love it when DnB goes out on a jazz trip like this, will have to go and dig the 12” out, I had a big DnB cull a few years back but I’m pretty sure this didn’t go – again taking notes from the Photek school of production, could be ‘KJZ’ part 2.

We’re back in Pendulum territory again although this is DJ Fresh from his Breakbeat Kaos label (no.2 actually) that he ran with Adam F and which Pendulum were associated with early on. And here’s a DJ Deval track I definitely remember, his remix of RSL’s ‘Wesley Music’ – a rare case of a 130bpm anthem being retrofitted into a new speed and genre without losing the vibe of the original although it’s a bit long! My attention span doesn’t run to five minutes of one track in the mix these days it seems. But suddenly – Cheese! Richard that is – ha ha I’d forgotten this too, one of the best to do it but what a rude awakening, then it’s exit stage left from Iannucci’s museum of lost keyboards. See you next week.

Tracklist:
wasps – Stolen Solidly intro
Armando Iannucci – Museum of Lost Keyboards
Concord Dawn – Tonite (Pendulum Remix)
Beyonce – Naughty Girl (Unknown remix)
DJ Deval – Jah Creationz
Fracture & Neptune – Untightled
Pendulum – Back 2 You
Dynamite MC feat. Skibadee – Over Here Now
Britney Spears – Toxic (Unknown remix)
Zen – Monster Munch
Fracture & Neptune – Continuities
Influx UK – Ghost People
Pendulum – Trail of Sevens
Fracture & Neptune – Too Doggone Funky
DJ Fresh – Foreigner
RSL – Wesley Music (DJ Deval remix)
Richard Cheese – Milkshake

We return for part 2 of my 15 year Solid Steel anniversary show – the Solid Steel Sound Museum. Another romp through my favourite moment from the archive from ’92 through to the mid 00’s. The mix of MBM’s ‘Electro The Robot’ into Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’ – did someone want the show with that mix on it? Still not found it, sorry. Love that Wookie/808 State mix, hard to pull off but just about works. Frederic Galliano into the Bundy K. Brown remix of ‘Timber’ – so good, Ken is channelling electric Miles in that second half of the mix to my ears. Thankfully I chilled things out a bit for the second half of this compilation and it’s a bit less frenetic after ‘Mr. Blue Sky’.

Not too much more to say, it’s certainly odd for me to hear things that were recorded at very different times next to each other, sometimes over a decade apart. Normal service will be resumed next week, I estimate we have enough to take us up to #200 before the well is dry, probably including some exclusives along the way. Thanks for listening…

Tracklist:
DJ Shadow & the Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Samson & Deliilah – There’s A DJ In Your Town
DJ Shadow & the Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Dirtstyle DJs – Bionic Booger Breaks
Meat Beat Manifesto – Electro The Robot
Kraftwerk – The Robots
West Bam – Monkey Say, Monkey Do
Think Tank – Hackattack
Wookie – Scrappy
808 State – Cubik
Strictly Underground – Strictly Hardcore advert 
Circuit Breaker – Overkill
Unknown – The Space Race dialogue
Circuit Breaker – Frenz-e
Public Works – Blue Beautiful Place
ELO – Mr Blue Sky
Ken Nordine – Blue
David Sylvian & Robert Fripp – Bringing Down The Light
David Sylvian & Holger Czukay – Plight & Premonition
Leonard Nimoy – Quequeg and I
Barbarella – Barbarella (Irresistible Force remix)
David Sylvian – Gone To Earth
This Mortail Coil – Firebrothers
B12 – Theme From Space
Sequential – Mission
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 3
Frederic Galliano – Espaces Barouques Part 1
Coldcut – Timber (Bundy K Brown remix)
Skylab – Knickers Of A Girl
Nightmares on Wax – Night Interlude
George Carlin – God
The Orb – Star 6,7,8,9
Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling
Boards of Canada – Sometime In The Future (Geoghaddi minimix)
Boards of Canada – Aquarius (Peel Session)
Ken Nordine – Orange
DJ Shadow – Press Cuttings (The Private Press minimix)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 4
War – Four Cornered Room
Phlabby – So Much About Music  

Mix 150! (plus add a handful of exclusives) Thanks to everyone for sticking with me on this, people come and go and I’m always grateful for the hardcore who tune in each week, especially when I’m writing these notes last thing at night on a Thursday in time for Friday morning. For the 150th edition I thought we’d have a special anniversary show – the Solid Steel Sound Museum.
I’d previously made a mental note to cut off shows at 2007 as that’s when stuff started appearing online via Soundcloud but this show dates from 2008 although most of it is from much earlier than that. By then I’d been a part of Solid Steel for 15 years and had done a similar show five years previously to celebrate a decade on the radio, ’10 Tons of Steel’, which shares some of the same content as this set. By coincidence it’s nearly 30 years to the day when I first appeared as a guest alongside Openmind DJ Mario (11/07/1993) but since this is upload 150 we’ll celebrate early and part 2 will fall closest to the anniversary.

This hour is basically a compilation of some of my favourite moments and mixes from the first 15 years on the show and it jumps through times and music styles like nobody’s business so, if you want a calm, linear listen then maybe this isn’t the show. To me it embodies what Solid Steel was all about, stylistically all over the place, liberally sampling from everywhere and slathering spoken word over everything like it was going out of fashion. I was surprised, listening back, how much old 80s and 70s material was in the selection, especially in the first part, there are also snatches of old Coldcut shows that I didn’t feature on like that evergreen CC vs The Orb one which so influenced me 18 months before I joined them on the airwaves. Bits of my Raiding the 20th Century mix drift in and out as we freewheel through the years and the radio dial including the odd bit of genuine atmospheric interference and a load of classic KISS FM jingles.

I’m not going to attempt to step through the track list, some of the original shows segments of this were taken from have already aired and there’s a lot here that will be familiar to most. A couple of things I’d forgotten about though; mention of a Coldcut remix of Black Sheep’s ‘Strobelight Honey’, I must ask them about that. The medley of versions of ‘The Clapping Song’ I used to do live from 7”s in my DJ sets back in the early 00’s, the Strictly Kev Back In Town intro was done after I spent a week in the Big Apple, visiting the Children’s Television Workshop, hanging with Steinski and buying records, I chopped up a load of blacksploitation trailers on my return to intro a show of my finds. Ken Nordine helps tie things together with his Sound Museum track which is where the mix title obviously comes from. The image I’m using for this (as there is no tape or Cdr) is one I used at the time, of the vinyl floor of The Treasury, a place PC, Amon Tobin, Kid Koala and I visited in Johannesburg back at the turn of the century

Part 2 next week…

Tracklist:
Steinski  -Theatre of the Mind (CDR)
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 1
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 1 excerpt)
The The – Infected (energy mix)
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Hackattack
Negativland – Downloading
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?
Gwen McCrae – Compared To What?
Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together?
KLF – America No More
Pepe Deluxe – Go for Blue (Viva Voce remix)
Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky
Coldcut vs the Orb intro
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 3/4 excerpt)
Black Sheep – Strobelight Honey (Coldcut remix) (unreleased)
Mark the 45 King – 900 Number
Spacepimp – K9 Law
De La Soul – You Got
Bobby Byrd – I Know You Got Soul
Aretha Franklin – Respect
The Beatles – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
Beastie Boys – Sounds of Science
The Breakbeatles – Feel Alright
Chemical Brothers – Setting Sun
The Smiths – London
Pigbag – Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag
Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum Pt 2
DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century (part 1 excerpt)
Japan – Life Without Buildings
Michael Brook – Albino Alligator
Andrew Poppy – Goodbye Mr G
Nino Nardini – Catch That Man
*commercial break*
Steinski  -Theatre of the Mind
Strictly Kev – Back In Town intro
Robert Klein – Every Record Ever Recorded
The Herbaliser – Something Wicked (Bossa remix)
ECC – K-Tel Greensleeves ad
J Star – No Diggity
The Meters – Hand Clapping Song
Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
Malcolm & The Humphries Singers  – The Clapping Song
Ray Russell – The Clapping Song
Les Surfs – Claptape
Anita Harris – The Clapping Song
Josie & The Pussycats – Clapping Song

Part 2 of last week’s tape excavation and we kick off with the first fruits of Mark B & Blade’s collaborations, released on Jazz Fudge as the Hitman For Hire EP, an amazing record that I had the pleasure of providing artwork for. Shot one rainy Friday night in DJ Vadim’s Kingston loft studio using the reflections in a circular subway mirror – good times, RIP Mark B. Here he chops up Mantronix’s production of Just Ice and makes it his own, with Mr Thing on the cuts and Blade on fine form, just excellent hip hop. Amon Tobin remixes Gus Gus’ ‘Polyesterday’ on 4AD, one of his first remixes, and another Ninja Tune group, The Herbaliser, remix The Invisible Pair of Hands before neatly segueing into Boards of Canada’s ‘Aquarius’. Always a bugger to mix with the beat-less intro chords, I actually manage to drop it in on beat here but that old BoC detuning gets you every time, there is no harder band to mix melodically, everything sounds out of tune with everything else, it’s one of their secrets.

DJ Vadim lopes into view with ‘Aural Prostitution’ from his debut LP on Ninja and then into Pt.2 of Skylab’s ‘?’ release. I loved Skylab, they embodied everything that I thought the phrase ‘trip hop’ should have but ultimately didn’t – electronics, heavy beats, swirling psychedelia and weird spoken word from the most left field records they could find. Unfortunately the phrase is usually reserved for bands like Portishead these days who are up next with a Parlour Talk remix which really is not that comfortable to listen to, I’m sorry, should never have played this one. Req is back briefly with the Linn Mix of his ‘I’ track from part 1 and so is a snatch of the KLF UFO mix of the Pet Shop Boys then we play out with the soothing tones of Kid Koala and Money Mark’s track from the Funkungfusion compilation, ‘Carpel Tunnel Syndrome’. Kid Koala was still working on his debut album at this point (from which this track’s title was taken) and played typewriter for beats under Mark’s soft keyboards.

This was an exclusive for the comp (as were most of the tracks at the time) and it’s an interesting snapshot in time for the label which was just coming off the back of its first flush of success and was looking to the future. You have a Roots Manuva track which predates his Big Dada releases, the first music from what would become The Cinematic Orchestra under the name J Swinscoe (then still working in Ninja’s shipping department). The mix of artists were drawn from sub label Ntone as well as Ninja and the outlook was far more electronic and jazz-based. It was a turning point for the label at the time I felt and I think the comp was received with some confusion from fans and critics but it pointed to the future, away from the trip hop label and onto new horizons. By the time the Xen Cuts anniversary album rolled around 2.5 years later it would all make sense and several of the artists featured here for the first time would be making their marks with their own records.

Track list:
Mark B & Blade – Use Your Head
Gus Gus – Polyesterday (Amon Tobin remix)
The Invisible Pair of Hands – Sloppy’s Not Sloppy Any More (The Herbaliser vs Invisible Pair of Hands remix)
Boards of Canada – Aquarius
DJ Vadim – Aural Prostitution
Skylab – ? Pt.2
Portishead – Elysium (Parlour Talk)
Req – I (Linn Mix)
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Kid Koala & Money Mark – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Another blast from the tape drawer past in the form of an early March 98 show where we roll through many of the tunes of the day and try to recall what exactly I played. Kicking the door in with their amazing remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Scraper’, the Psychonauts absolutely load the track up with heaviness, dropping down into a slower tempo at one point and adding all manner of dance floor destruction. Always loved what they did and had a chance to play with them down in Brighton (I think) early on when there were four of them in the crew. Boards of Canada’s ‘Sixtyten’ – not much to be said here, it’s a classic now but this was being played from a white label test pressing before the album was released at the time. Scorn’s ‘Falling’ gets made over by Rob and Sean from Autechre in a finely sliced piece of precision dark techno dub.

From there I’m mixing well above my ability, the 4/4 of Autechre’s moody remix into the lush heavily swung 6/8 of Max Brennan (from the Invisible Soundtracks compilation on Leaf) and then out into more heavy swing of ‘Mrs Chombee…’ (this time on the wrong beat). The tempos might be the same but they sure don’t sit together too nicely – thankfully the mix back out into Cut Chemist’s remix of Liquid Liquid’s ‘Cavern’ isn’t too painful. I’d forgotten how excellent this was, Cut was on a roll at this point, after his mix of Shadow’s ‘Number Song’ and with his Major Force one yet to come.
At this point we dip into something weird and formless that seems to be a mix of Headstone Lane’s ‘Back In The Day’ from the EBV label, the KLF’s UFO remix of the Pet Shop Boys and Req’s ‘I’ before what must have been an ad break interrupts.

Part 2 next week…

Track list:
Unknown – Intro
Liquid Liquid – Scraper (Psychonauts remix)
Boards of Canada – Sixtyten
Scorn – Falling (Autechre FR 13 mix)
Max Brennan – From The Temple To The Nile
The Herbaliser – Mrs Chombee Takes The Plunge (DJ Food remix)
Liquid Liquid – Cavern (Cut Chemist Rocks A Rave In A Missile Silo remix)
Headstone Lane – Back In The Day
Pet Shop Boys – It Must Be Obvious (UFO mix)
Req – I