A very funk and beats-orientated set from 20 years ago starting with the Quantic Soul Orchestra featuring Alice Russell where I’m cutting the Melle Mel line, ‘Don’t push me’ from ‘The Message’ in and out. The Hieroglyphics consisted of Del Tha Funkee Homosapian, Souls of Mischief and more and ‘Let It Roll’ comes from their second album, ‘Full Circle’. The Good Dr Rubberfunk now lives in my hometown of Reigate weirdly and his Bossa For The Devil was always a favourite whilst DPF was on Ninja-affiliated hip hop label Son. DJ Revolution and Sinbad’s turntable face-off is genuinely hilarious in places as well as jaw-dropping technically, a turntablism track which invites multiple listens. In the wake of the ‘sexed-up’ Iraq dossier the country was on the march and unhappy about being dragged into a bogus war alongside the US. I took Color Me Badd’s ‘I Wanna Sex You Up’ and cut up a load of news footage over the top to tell the story, it’s an obvious idea but I’m still pleased with it.

Returning to normality we get a version of ‘The Champ’ by the Skatalites, J Rocc cutting up breaks and then two P Brothers Heavy Bronx joints in succession. For me, The P Brothers perfectly channelled a specific period of 80s hip hop that I love and gave it an extra dose of grit. Never slavishly retro and using many UK MCs, the only others to do it so well were Edan and DJ Format. Pest’s gloriously wonky ‘Already Said’ is still one of those Ninja Tune oddities of the era and then we’re back for more J Rocc and a very slick breaks cut up by Cut Hustlers which may or may not have had something to do with DJ Razorcuts but I’m having trouble finding info on it. It features Statler and Waldorf – the two old men from the theatre box in The Muppets – which is why it leads into DJ Streetsahead’s brilliant 1987 remix of Was (Not Was) where they also feature and was the first time I heard the break from ‘Hot Wheels (The Chase)’ cut up.

Booty Babes’ mash up of Britney over the Massive Attack-sampled ‘Mellow Mellow Right On’ by Lowell will be an ear worm for the rest of the week with 100 Strong’s sensual ‘Brain Busy’ complimenting its laid back vibe perfectly. I added samples and scratches about hitting and crying over the chorus to mirror the vocal, at one point tracking two different scratch patterns, one for each ear – I had more time back then, pre-kids. Aesop Rock’s ‘Freeze’ was a Blockhead-produced cut on Def Jux but then things take a bit of an odd turn with Backini’s electro swing ‘Company B-Boy’ which hasn’t dated too well. I do love that Andrews Sisters sample though, mainly because of its inclusion in Art of Noise’s ‘The Army Now’ but the whole thing goes on far too long. Luckily there’s the bizarre humour of Kid Koala awaiting us at the other end and the low end ‘Caravan’-sampling skank of Galaxian’s ‘Fresh’ to finish but the set drags at the end I felt, could have stopped around the 50 minute mark.

Track list:
Quantic Soul Orchestra – Pushin’ On
Hieroglyphics – Let It Roll
Dr. Rubberfunk – Bossa for the Devil
DPF – Yadda Yadda
DJ Revolution feat. DJ Spinbad – Head to Head
Flexus – I Wanna Flex U Up
Skatalites – Champ
J Rocc – Play This (one)
P Brothers – Ich Nichten Lickten Das Mark Evans
P Brothers feat. Lee Ramsey/Donald D – Rock The House
Pest – Already Said
J Rocc – Kashmere Bonus Beats
Cut Hustlers – On The One
Was (Not Was) – Spy In the House of Love (Streetsahead mix)
Booty Babes – Mellow Me
100 Strong – Brain Busy
Aesop Rock – Freeze
Backini – Company B-Boy
Kid Koala – Stompin’ At The Savoy
Galaxian – Fresh

A slightly Beatles-themed start to this short set from late 2002 gives it its name – kicking off with two then-current mash ups, the mysterious white label 7”, ‘Bad Production’ and Avril Plays The Beatles. The former pairs ‘Come Together’ with Mary J Blige’s ‘Family Affair’ and the latter glitches up ‘Because’ and adds beats – two of the better examples around at the time when the internet was awash with such things. Incidentally I was just watching a video about AI mash ups and I think we may be on the cusp of the next iteration of the mash up although this time round they’ll be ‘original/unreleased’ tracks by artists no longer with us in every style conceivable. The Future Sound of London turn in a suitably Beatles-esque remix of Robert Miles, sounding more like their Amorphous Androgynous alias which isn’t surprising seeing as they had reactivated it in full psychedelic mode earlier in the year.

An at the time unreleased Sixtoo instrumental is up next with dialogue from a DJ Shadow interview about digging over the top as well as a snatch of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’ – which prefigures its usage on my own Raiding The 20th Century mix some two years later. Suktekh’s ‘Privacy’ is a beautiful, brooding Rhodes piece from his ‘Fell’ LP and JG Thirlwell’s Manorexia alias is reactivated for the spooky ‘Canaries In The Mineshaft’. Boards of Canada’s ‘From One Source All Things Depend’ was a bonus track on the Japanese CD of Geogaddi and liberally samples children talking about God from a Tony Schwartz’s The Sound of Children LP. Food was/is a jazz group fronted by Iain Ballamy and ‘Freebonky’ is from their second album, Organic & GM Food which I have to admit that I down to for the gorgeous Dave McKean artwork. The William Burroughs dialogue comes courtesy of Steinski’s ‘Audio Collage 6’ which was on a Cdr of his work he’d given me when I visited him in New York. Finishing up is 80’s Baby, a vaguely horrible concept which seeks to recreate popular songs in a sickly-sweet twinkly lullaby style to play to your child at bedtime. Various different eras were covered and on the 80s edition was a version of Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ which I thought I’d run the original under in the distance. George Carlin rants about cars and driving over the top just to ram the message home.

Track list:
Bad Production – Bad Production
Avril plays The Beatles – Becoz
Robert Miles – Paths (FSOL Comic Mix)
Sixtoo – Untitled
Suktekh – Privacy
Manorexia – Canaries In The Mineshaft
Boards of Canada – From One Source All Things Depend
Food – Freebonky
Steinski – Audio Collage 6
80’s Baby – Cars
Gary Numan – Cars

Back in 2004 when DK and I had our monthly Solid Steel night residency downstair at Ruby Lo in the west end we decided to put on a boat party for the end of summer. I think it was DK’s idea and he wanted to have a door price that included a free BBQ on entry which was to be served from the deck while people came on board. I won’t post the terrible flyer I made at the time but it did contain the line ‘All hands on decks’ which made me laugh. We co-opted our wives to help serve alongside James Mountain (Solid Steel DJ and Ninja employee at the time) and provided a load of burgers, hot dogs and salad for people our of our own pockets. DJs on the night were Dean Smith (on the top deck whilst food was served), James, Matt Black, PC, Harley Harl, DJ Yoda, Diplo (then still relatively unknown but fast rising as a star in his own right), DK and myself.

Harley Harl and James Mountain (Solid Steel)

Matt Black (Coldcut)

DK (Solid Steel)
The boat we booked was on the dock on the North side of the Thames and the owners were a tad shady, so much so that when we started admitting people it was obvious that other people were coming on board without tickets and going to another part of the boat we didn’t know about. When confronted we were told that there was another private party on board and that it would be Ok, no one would cross over but we knew this was BS. Too late, the party had started and the deck was filling up and the weather was great for a late summer evening. The place was packed and there were three rooms, a main one and a more chilled one plus a couple of bars, at one point we gave everyone free lollies too. The set here is mine from the main room, complete with crowd noise and scrappy mixing but if you imagine a cramped top deck cabin with 100 or so sweaty people crammed in then you get the picture.

PC (DJ Food)

DJ Yoda

Yours truly (DJ Food)
I think I was on either before or after Yoda but sadly missed most of his set as I had to sort stuff out with the food side of things. We had a problem with Diplo as he was flying into the UK that afternoon and coming straight to the boat to play and with no contact we were winging it as to whether he’d turn up in time or not. Luckily he did, literally minutes before he was due to play and proceeded to turn out a storming set – phew! DK went to see the boat owners afterwards to sort out the money and we ended up not having to pay for the boat hire as a result of all the nonsense with the other party – they certainly must have made a fortune on the bar that night anyway.

Me and Diplo on the boat, it was sweaty!

Photos by Elisa Parish, Graham (Fraser?) and another unknown photographer.

I’m not going to go through every track as there are many classics here most will know – keep an ear out for the switch up out of ‘Tour de France’ into Roni Size though – that was a moment. I loved this era of DnB, loads of fun, heavy rolling beats, synth bass lines and pop vocal hooks – check the Britney bootleg. I know Pendulum fell off but ‘Another Planet’ will always be a monster tune for me – never failed back in the day. The Carmel of ’Nujazzkiller’ isn’t the British jazz artist but a one-off on the Fluid Ounce label for 2002.

Track list:
Stas – Solid Steel Intro
Double Trouble – Live At The Amphitheatre
Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble
Beastie Boys – Triple Trouble (Graham Coxon mix)
The Chemical Brothers – Leave Home
Boom Bip – Cords Will Be the Death Of Me
Quantic feat. Spanky Wilson – Don’t Joke With A Hungry Man
Awkward – Plug Me In
Gang Starr – Play That Beat ’99
Double D & Steinski – Lesson 1
Steinski – Ain’t No Thing
West Bam – Monkey Say Monkey Do
Think Tank – Hack One
Carmel – Nujazzkiller
Ty – Wait A Minute (acappella)
Brass Incorporated – At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal
The Beatles – Taxman
Beck – New Pollution
Kraftwerk – Tour De France
Roni Size feat. Rahzel – Out Of Breathe
Kayne West – Jesus Walks
DJ Shadow – Walkie Talkie
Rodney P vs Roni Size – Trouble (Roni Size remix)
Britney Spears – Toxic (D n B mix)
Pendulum – Another Planet
Tribe of Issachar – Junglist (DJ Zinc remix)
Mark 1 – Hoovers & Spraycans
Supergrass – Kiss of Life (Tom Tom Club remix)

This set is extracted from a longer recording with PC on the decks before and after me, recorded near the end of 1995. The file comes from a huge caché of shows given to me by Paul Johnston and I’ve yet to fully go through them to see what I have or don’t have on his list. Paul has had a couple of mixes featured on Solid Steel over the years and they are always packed out with hilarious samples and a ton of work. He kindly shared his stash of shows with me so that I could fill in some gaps, thanks Paul. Here’s one he did back in the day – Smoke Filled Adventures

Kicking off with some Alec Empire from his Low On Ice album and a fine piece of twisted filter breakbeat, followed by some excellent unknown acid trip hop – I’d really like to know what this is but it would require a deep dive into the record collection – anyone know? Some vintage Orbital with the opener from their second album appears and then we splice into a break and cello track that again I can’t recall. DJ Food’s’ Spiral’ from the then-current ‘A Recipe For Disaster’ album plays out and I’m trying something with the intro of Mantronix’s ‘King Of the Beats’ and the pitch control over this but thankfully don’t overdo it. Another unidentified snatch of cut up party business is up next and this sounds like something from DJ Smash or the AV8 label from overseas but I can’t find anything after a scour of Discogs. The use of Doug E. Fresh’s “well it started off on 8th Avenue” from his classic ‘The Show’ is the main signifier.

Public Enemy’s excellent ‘You’re Gonna Get Yours (Dub / Terminator X Getaway Version)’ is next and rumour has it that the Terminator didn’t exactly do the cuts on this but it was the Kings of Pressure’s Johnny ‘Juice’ Rosado who was also connected to the Bomb Squad. David Holmes’ ‘Slash The Beats’ has Kooner and Burns of the Sabre of Paradise’s production fingerprints all over it and is a version of the track ’Slash the Seats’ without the acid line and spoken word. Instead I add the acappella to PE’s ‘Bring The Noise’ (starting on the wrong beat!). Air Liquide’s ambient ‘Robot Wars Symphony Part 1 System Engaged’ from their The Increased Difficulty of Concentration double CD is floated over and out of both these before a classic DnB tune that I just can’t pin enters.

Anyone know this? It’s doing my head in and I spent nearly an hour on Discogs looking for it, thought it might be Alex Reece at first, Robin the Fog thought Wax Doctor or DJ Pulse but I couldn’t find anything – please comment if you recognise it. *(Eduard spotted it in the comments below – thanks!) The next track IS Alex Reece by way of a remix of DJ Krush’s ‘Yeah’ on Mo Wax with Cypress Hill’s ‘Scooby Doo’ floated over it, a mix I used to do often back then. Rolling, quite literally, out of this is Autechre’s ‘Rsdio’ and we’re in slow mode so it’s as good a time as any to air DJ Shadow’s ‘In/Flux’, or at least half of it. Up next is a tune I’ve not heard in years but remember so well, Luke Vibert’s near 10 minute remix of Ruby’s ‘Paraffin’. Ruby was Leslie Rankine from the thrash band Silverfish who were always in the indie music press in the early 90s, she then teamed up with Mark Walk and made a vocal trip hop album,’Salt Peter’. Their debut album is excellent and sadly overlooked although several singles were released with remixes by all sorts of contemporary artists and Vibert’s is one of the standouts, all time-stretched vocals and playful twists and turns. The track succeeding this is again lost in the midsts although sounds very familiar, so many records and so many years ago, it’ll come along some day. We play out with Small World’s ‘Dual Tone’ on Hard Hands, a chugging bass banger that got many an airing back in the day.

No mix next week as I’m on holiday, see you in two weeks…

Track list:
Alec Empire – 22.24
Unknown – unknown
Orbital – Time Becomes
Unknown – unknown
DJ Food – Spiral
Unknown – Unknown
Public Enemy – You’re Gonna Get Yours (Dub / Terminator X Getaway Version)
David Holmes – Slash The Beats
Public Enemy – Bring The Noise (acappella)
Air Liquid – Robot Wars Symphony Part 1 System Engaged
Glider State – Atmosphere
DJ Krush – Yeah (Alex Reece remix)
Cypress Hill – Scooby Doo
Autechre – Rsdio
DJ Shadow – In/Flux
Ruby – Paraffin (Wagon Christ remix)
Unknown – Unknown
Small World – Dual Tone

A late August show with Matt Black and I at the controls in which I kick off with three tracks straight from The Sound of MZEE compilation – a German label obsessed with Britcore rap. The two No Remorze tracks are straight out of the Hijack book of hardcore hip hop but with a German slant. Find their first album if you can, amazing record. Hearts of Darkness were the first release on Manchester label The Ruf errr… Label, releasing a couple of 12”s in the mid 90s before the label went full on hip hop. Alex Reece’s classic swinging remix of DJ Krush’s ‘A Whim’ should be familiar to all Mo Wax heads out there but Chronicles of Intense was lost in the mists of time to me and only Matt’s brief back track near the end gave any clue to it. Also lost is the identity of the stumbling breaks-y DnB cut after it that sounds like it’s nearly tripping over its own shoelaces, even more so when I turn it down to 33 rpm. As ever, if any of you recognise it, please leave a comment. UPDATE: Found it! The Committee – Profound Love on Creative Wax (but played here on 33rpm).

Kirk DeGiorgio’s Elegy slides in nicely and I discovered Kirk has not one but two compilations of rare material on his Bandcamp page featuring a whole host of bits and pieces from singles, comps and the like, no doubt excavated during lockdown – nearly 75 tracks in all spanning 1991-2014 – the man’s a genius. BPMF is a US 12” I picked up whilst working in Ambient Soho, really odd four-tracker that I still have somewhere on the Rancho Relaxo label. ‘Untitled #4’ is a bubbling acid thing that grooves away nicely out of Kirk’s track and then into Redcell (aka B12, a version of which also on a companion release to the Elegy track – ART 7.1/B1214.1). ‘Primitive Lites’ was taken from the then-new ‘Time Tourist’ LP and later featured in our Blech mix, still sounds like a futuristic city at night to me. Meat Beat Manifesto’s ‘That Shirt’, from their criminally under-appreciated Satyricon LP, still makes me laugh and exclaim, ‘It’s a Ben Sherman!’ whenever I chance upon one of their fine wares. Autechre’s ‘Second Bad Vilbel’ from the Anvil Vapre EP plays us out, brand new at the time, we didn’t know how good we had it, this was just another single on white label back then. I think it was either for this or the Keynell EP where I was staying at Sean and Rob’s after a gig in Sheffield and they were sampling kitchen utensils for beats and percussion sounds.

Track list:
Coldcut – Solid Steel intro
No Remorze – Interlude
No Remorze – Condemned To Death
Fast Forward – Day Of Infamy (Instrumental)
Hearts of Darkness – Don’t Fight The Featherweight
Coldcut – Solid Steel jingle
DJ Krush – A Whim (Alex Reece remix)
Chronicles of Intense – Prophecy
The Committee – Profound Love
Elegy – /P Switch
BPMF – Untitled #4
Redcell – Infinite Lites (Primitives mix)
Meat Beat Manifesto – That Shirt
Autechre – Second Bad Vilbel

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?