Maintaining the Pressure

Gutterbreakz' UK pressure mix I mentioned a few weeks back has made it into the official archive over at Nicks blog. So for those of you who missed the yousendit link, theres another chance to download it. Couple of observations Nick's made that I might add my 2 centens to:

...Most oldskool mixes I've come across tend to focus on the hardcore milieu from '93 and beyond (in fact there's a new one up at Bloggariddims this week) but I think there's a fascinating period around 1990-91, when British techno first started to have it's own identity. Whilst London had it's proto-junglist rave scene, it was the Northern sound that I really felt drawn towards. It didn't really have a name then, but now it's generally referred to as Bleep & Bass....

Spot on. This is a great era for UK dance music - theres a huge amount of diversity going on, and myself and Slug have tons of tunes from roughly 89-92 all of which fall into the 130bpm bracket, which we have been dying to get into some mixes - everything from the dregs of acid house, proto-junglist breakbeat and sample collage from Reinforced and Boogie Times, early hardcore from labels like Strictly Underground, and Production House, the Belgian Invasion, artists like Unique 3, Ital Rockers, 808 State, LFO, Renegade Soundwave... youd be hard pressed to find a richer seam of scenes.

...But the mixing is a bit wonky in places (I've heard others say that beat matching gets trickier the slower the tempo, and I think I have to agree. As an example, I've also been having fun recently mixing d'n'b from the mid-90s Metalheadz/Moving Shadow/No U-Turn period with far more accurate results)...

Im not sure about the slower tempo/harder to mix meme. It's swings and roundabouts. Slower beats mean you have to wait longer to hear any mistakes - but it also means you have more time 'in between' beats to fix those mistakes. One thing I will say is that mixing slower beats from the early 90's is another story completely. For example (without naming names) some of the artists on Nick's mix habitually used tape loops! Others would have been using Atari ST's with 8 megs of RAM, so that everytime they introduced a new track in their sequencer (over a certain threshold), the entire tune would have lost time! This lack of precision in sequencing makes mixing this stuff a challenge for even the most accomplished DJ (probably why you dont see so many mixes of stuff from this era).

As I said in the last post. More please Nick! :)

Soundclash

This is going to be seriously big! Incestuous review coming your way soon - 'till then click on the labels to preview the tunes.

More info here.

Blogariddims 18 / Rough

1993, as anyone who knows their history of hardcore music will tell you, was a prime year for breakbeat music in the UK. A mix of Shut Up N Dance-inspired breakbeat and sample-heavy rave was elbowing its influence onto the dancefloor and the resulting mash-up of hiphop beats, reggae subs and rave melodies created what, all things considered, has to really be marked out as drum and bass music’s finest hour to date…

Often less sensible of dance music ‘norms’ in terms of its arrangement, hardcore and early Jungle does weird shit all the time – just when you’re getting comfortable, it drop-kicks your ass into some new position. A bastard to mix (as you’ll hear in one or two places), the tunes nonetheless kick like a mule - even by comparison with Jungle in a 94/95 style. The slower tempo (than Jungle and later drum n bass) allowed the pounding kick-drums to occupy more space in the mix (reminds me of early Public Enemy in that respect – by comparison with the later snare-dominated g-funk and RnB styles that became prevalent in hiphop…). Despite the added difficulty of trying to beat-match the sometimes er, hasty drum-splicing and editing deployed on so many of these tunes, the range of breaks deployed in them (from even the most innocuous of producers) is staggering, and thus offers the DJ some serious compensation. Overall, the slower tempo (maybe 140-150bpm? Droid can correct me here…) (goes from about 144 to 158+ - Droid) certainly accommodated a different range of samples in the music – and thus generated a different rhythmic response: somewhere between skating and jogging to my ears today.

You can download the mix below, and Droid has left ample instructions on how to subscribe to the cast over his last few posts, but just in case.

Naphta - Blogariddims 18/Rough (86mb.mp3)

1 Naughty Trax Volume 1 – The Dream [Rugged Vinyl]
2 Egyptian Empire – The Horn Track (Foghorn Mix) [Fffreedom]
3 Skanna – Heaven [Skanna]
4 Metalheads – Saint Angel [Synthetic Hardcore Phonography]
5 Hyper-On Experience – Disturbance (Tango Remix) [Moving Shadow]
6 DJ Hype – I Can’t Understand It [Suburban Base]
7 Wax Doctor & Jack Smooth – Rock To the Groove [Basement]
8 Hyper-On Experience – Disturbance [Moving Shadow]
9 Kev Bird & Wax Doctor – Airspace [Basement]
10 Delirium – Days Of Our Lives (Tek 9 Hour Glass Remix) [Reinforced]
11 Kev Bird – Sub Zero [Basement]
12 DJ Rap & Aston – Vertigo (Q Bass Dark Mix) [Suburban Base]
13 Kaotic Chemistry – Space Cakes [Moving Shadow]
14 Rufige Kru – Terminator II [Reinforced]
15 Kaotic Chemistry – L.S.D. [Moving Shadow]
16 Omni Trio – Feel Good Original In Demand Mix) [Moving Shadow]
17 Sonz Of A Loop De Loop Era – What The…(Session Two) [Suburban Base]
18 New Decade – Rough [Out Of Romford Records]

1 Naughty Trax Volume 1 – The Dream [Rugged Vinyl]
2 Egyptian Empire – The Horn Track (Foghorn Mix) [Fffreedom]

Naughty Naughty’s ‘The Dream’ sets the scene for a ’93 selection: ravers on a mission to burn out somewhere deep in the Jungle. It’s beautiful opening section darkens up pretty quick, offering an Apache workout and some mutant growling bass, each unexpected development carried through with rough swing; you can hear the music as a whole unfolding and opening out, developing from loop-based hardcore rave in this track. Next up, Egyptian Empire’s superbly militant ‘Horn Track’ (not too sure, but I think this is a Mickey Finn remix?), an absolute monster that spawned numerous mutant ‘remixes’ – most recently from Photek in his g-thug guise, but none of them – not even the jungle ones from the Back2Basics cru – came close to these first mixes. Sounds a bit like it was produced in a toilet, but hey! That’s hardcore.

3 Skanna – Heaven [Skanna]
4 Metalheads – Saint Angel [Synthetic Hardcore Phonography]

And into Skanna’s ‘Heaven’… Skanna had a unique sound that peaked with this EP I think.. although he went on to release some later (highly sought-after) anthems in the Bukem atmospheric mould, his combination of the rough with the smooth here really shines, while his heavy reverbs and techstep-style beats suggest Nico-engineered techstep before Ed Rush ever first knocked round to Nico’s with a bag of green. Metalheads aka Goldie next, on the mysterious Hardcore Synthetic Phonography label, with the original mix of ‘Saint Angel’ off the ‘Angel’ EP. A real bargain-bin find this next one – in a cardboard box on the floor of some second-hand goods shop somewhere in London in ’94 on a weekend raving… guy didn’t want me to take it either as I only had a £50 note for a £2 record and he figured I was trying to pass him a dud: a close call! Anyway, this variant on the ‘Angel’ theme really lays down the law with its relentless churning and with its legions of screaming ghouls. A shame really, that a generation of copyists in dnb have been inspired since only to imitate the sounds rather than the attitude and sentiment therein. By the way, I notice on the ever-useful rolldabeats that a remix twelve of these tracks surfaced back in der day, also on the same label and featuring an Internal Affairs remix of ‘Angel..? I’d love to hear it if anyone has it…

5 Hyper-On Experience – Disturbance (Tango Remix) [Moving Shadow]
6 DJ Hype – I Can’t Understand It [Suburban Base]

More darkside riffage (complete with Beavis n Butthead sickly chuckles) from Tango in a remix of Hyper-On E’s ‘Disturbance’ next, offering some nice drumwork over some swampy low-end growling. And on, chopping in the ready-mixed scratching of Hype’s ‘I Can’t Understand It’. Hype was such a ruffneck producer in ‘93 and ’94, dishing up some prime slices of sublimely filthy hardcore with such attitude; his chunky in-yo-face hiphop influence powered up by rave’s freaky energy really produced some classics in a totally unique style... take Hype out of the Suburban Base back catalogue and it starts to feel like… I dunno – Moving Shadow without Omni Trio or something… in other words, Hype was essential and he defined the sound of the label.

7 Wax Doctor & Jack Smooth – Rock To the Groove [Basement]
8 Hyper-On Experience – Disturbance [Moving Shadow]
9 Kev Bird & Wax Doctor – Airspace [Basement]

I‘ll never forgive Jack Smooth for giving out about ‘unmusical’ breakbeat hardcore in an interview in Melody Maker once he’d ascended to the throne of Bukem/Speed-inspired ‘intelligent’ musicality back in ‘95/’96 (he railed against producers playing the ‘wrong notes’). Nonetheless, he made a heap of great tracks in a much more straight-up hardcore functional sense (most released on Basement Recordings) before that, and this is just one of ‘em. Simple ideas laid down with cheeky directness, and the stompy 4-2-the-floor techno beat works a treat.

Now into the original mix of ‘Disturbance’, again from Hyper-On E. A weird pounding slo-mo groove keeps the pace under the frenetic hardcore inclinations… a pivotal track (I reckon) in Moving Shadow’s evolution into ‘drum n bass’ – by removing the kick-drums, playing up the half-speed effect and thus opening up more space for programmed percussion on top.

More Kev Bird and Wax Doctor next with another masterful lesson in straight-up minimal 4-2-the-floor hardcore. I absolutely love the short mini-breakdown in ‘Airspace’: a plateau of quietly shimmering electronics that no producer of such unapologetically-upfront dance music would dare to use today without blowing another 20 megatons of over-compressed noise up in yer face afterwards just to make sure that the dancefloor knows it’s been ‘destroyed’.

10 Delirium – Days Of Our Lives (Tek 9 Hour Glass Remix) [Reinforced]
11 Kev Bird – Sub Zero [Basement]
12 DJ Rap & Aston – Vertigo (Q Bass Dark Mix) [Suburban Base]
13 Kaotic Chemistry – Space Cakes [Moving Shadow]

Anyway… on to some evolving Jungle in Tek 9’s rolling re-rub of Delirium’s doom-rave anthem ‘Days of Our Lives’. Reinforced kinda wrote the blueprint for rocking the ragga with the rave in an early Jungle style and this less-known mix offers further evidence of that. And on to one more outing for Basement Records: this time from Kev Bird on a solo tip with ‘Sub Zero’… again what I’m digging here is what (to me) sounds essentially like techno made with early hiphop production values, which is what Basement specialised in.

Now thundering in with DJ Rap & Astons’ ‘Vertigo’ and a pounding remix from Sub Base supremo Dan Donnelly… the fairy-tale sickness of it is pure darkside; a bit of a bugger to do justice to in the mix (had both tunes hovering on the technics wobbly-light-of-death for this one…), but an absolute corker of a tune which had to be included. And onto Moving Shadow boss Rob Playford in his Kaotic Chemistry guise (alongside collaborators Simon Colbrooke and Sean O’Keeffe aka Deep Blue). Nothing more than wickedly sharp drum programming, cut-up vocal edits, and a bad attitude prove once again that simplicity can be absolutely devastating.

14 Rufige Kru – Terminator II [Reinforced]
15 Kaotic Chemistry – L.S.D. [Moving Shadow]
16 Omni Trio – Feel Good Original In Demand Mix) [Moving Shadow]
17 Sonz Of A Loop De Loop Era – What The…(Session Two) [Suburban Base]

Goldie’s ‘Terminator II’ is always hyped up in drum n bass lore, with few people ever bothering to actually play it out in order to illustrate its true demented genius in effect, but on re-listening and experiencing this untouchable masterpiece of darkside breakbeat, the term ‘operatic’ actually seems appropriate – just in terms of its sheer range of moods, and in the number of ideas it works through: each delivered like a musical body blow. Out of there and back once again with Kaotic Chemistry, inciting us to get out of our minds on ‘L.S.D.’, and to Do It Now… another cracker from the same EP on Moving Shadow (all four tracks are savagely good); again I’m struck by the P.E. flavours of the drums on this one. And from there into Omni Trio’s ‘Feel Good’. One of the first breakbeat tracks to really blow my mind: a roll-out of sweet hooks and drop-outs interspersed with gooey troughs of backwards-beats and off-beat rhythms; this weird joyous / melancholic anthem somehow maintains its insistent poppy mentality throughout. Rolling out now with ‘What The…’ from Danny Breaks aka Sonz Of A Loop De Loop Era on Sub Base. Much caned by me back in the day, this silvery-breaked roll-out from paints an almost classically beautiful picture in hardcore breakbeat, albeit one with no pretensions to anything other than an instinctive musicality.

18 New Decade – Rough [Out Of Romford Records]

Finishing up with another one of my first 12” breakbeat purchases: New Decade’s awesome ‘Rough’ on Out Of Romford – alongside proto-gabba, ambient Jungle and breakbeat rave on the ‘Statue Of Gold’ EP lurks this monster… the only record on this label that I have may well be one it’s finest moments (I believe Out Of Romford ‘evolved‘ into acid trance, but I could be wrong). Touching on an area operated in by The Prodigy at their stripped-down hardcore ruffest, this steam-powered stone-age sounding shit drops heavier and rawer than the last ten years of drum n bass combined…

Which is a perfect note on which to take leave of ’93 for now…. Hope the mix offers something to any interested listeners, whether old skool or new, and once again Big Up to Droid for all the work hosting and organising these mixes…

Peace

Mixalogical linkage

A quick note of warning, its St. Patricks day this weekend and a bank holiday here on Monday (gives us time to sweep the mountains of vomit, beer cans, blood, piss and novelty hats off the streets), so its possible that because of the chaos next weeks Blogariddims will be a day late(!) I'll update you all on Monday either way.

In the meantime, heres a selection of mixes that have been going around for the past 3 weeks or so, a list which expands more and more the longer I put off posting it:

Rave/Hardcore

Gutterbreaks makes another slight return with his UK pressure mix, which can be found here. Very nice selection of early 90's UK Techno/Rave type sounds and a touch of bleep n'bass, including The Scientist's seminal 'The Bee' amongst other classics. Some pretty tight mixing as well.

More of the same please Nick!

Rolldabeats come again with part 2 of their 'Decade in the Mix' series, mixed by Haste. Now I have to say, Phokus and Haste get a lot of respect around here as old school historians due to their brilliant site, and vol 1 of this series was very promising indeed - but - Im slightly disappointed with this one. Its a solid selection and flows nicely, but the mixing isnt really as tight as it could be, and theres a few clangers in there. That said, it was recorded live, and its still waaay better than 99% of the old school mixes youre likely to find online.

Dubstep

Tasty new Vex'd mix posted over at SC by Safetyboy - for those of you who like your dubstep with a bit more variety. Theres another great dubstep mix in a similar vein doing the rounds right now, which Im saving for a slightly more substantial post...

Hip Hop/Reggae

Another Safetyboy find - a selection of DJ Mek (Irish Hip Hop/Scratching legend) mixes. They all have something going for them, but check out the tracklisting on this one:

Radio mix - Broadcast : Friday 5th August '05

D.J. Mek - Look out he's Irish
Ian Brown - F.E.A.R. (unkle remix)
Ice T, Dave Storrs, The Glove - Tibetan Jam
Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt
Sheila B. Devotion - Spacer
Landscape - Einstein a go-go
The Jam - Precious
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Visage - Pleasure boys
Demon Boyz - Dett
Asher Senator - Fast Style Origination
Smiley Culture - Shan a Shan
Papa Face and Bionic Rhona - pon the Street (dub)
Papa Levi - '84-tion
Gregory Isaacs - Mind yu Diss
Shinehead - Know how fe chat
Jah Shaka - Dub Symphony
Rankin' Roger - Mono gone to stereo

The second half of the set is a selection of vintage UK fast chat! Mek doesnt do anything fancy with them - but its a joy to hear the simple scratch techniques he uses to segue and cut between tunes. Eye opening stuff.

BMC's reggae podcasts have been going for quite a while now, featuring a healthy mix of themed foundation mixes, hyped bashment and contemporary roots tunes. Probably one of the most well rounded and frequently updated reggae cast around. Point your mousefingers over here to start the ball rolling.

Matt B's 'Rejoice Jah Jah Children' mix - a sprightly selection of new and old roots sounds. great to hear 'Thief a man' mixed up with its junglist inspiring little brother - though I admit to being a bit peeved that Matt got round to it before me!!

Soundclash

Video and audio of the clash that sparked the most recent scandal in this volatile scene can be found here. Are Soundtroopers Dubs racist? Will Kartel do anything for money? Was Blunt asking for it by trying to counteract Troopers Kartel dubs?. Watch/listen and judge for yourself.

Other good downloads include this Saxon soundclash video from 94, this audio from 'Wha Dat' sound with chatting from Pap San, Brigader, Charlie Chaplin and Redrose. An excerpt from reggae sunsplash '89 featuring Ninjaman and Admiral Bailey, and this live set recorded in Negril in '87 with Tiger and General Trees on the mic.

*Edit* How could I forget this? Easy skanking video business from foundation sound Blackstar alongside various MC's. Footage of the dance is hilariously interspersed with shots of frumpy white people following the well worn JA tourist trails. Great stuff. Get it here.

Im not going to make a habit of linking to soundclashes, cos If I did it would soon become a full-time job! If your into this stuff, just register at DHR and you'll find plenty to keep your ears occupied.

More mix link-ups soon. If your still hungry for some fresh sounds, check out Wayne's recent guide to crucial podcasts, and hopefully your aural appetites will be fully sated...

Blogariddims 17 / Tons of Boxes

Blogariddims 17 hit the streets on Monday with Paul Meme bouncing back from his seeming defeat (but the jury's still out!) at the hands of the vicious John Eden (in the recent virtual soundclash) with a mix of classic dub and roots tunes. After a slow start it looks like reggae/dancehall is becoming a dominant force in this podcast, and with selections of this quality, what's there to complain about? Paul's having trouble with his blog, but you can find his notes here.

This month I've done the 17th mix for the mighty Blogaridims podcast series. It's a load of my favourite dub, roots and dancehall tunes, done "live" on decks and dubbed up using an Access Virus synth as an FX box. I inflicted some serious damage on a few of these tunes with that.

I originally did it back in late 2001 or early 2002, a few months after moving back up to Sheffield from London, and while experiencing withdrawl symptoms from not having seen Shaka for a while. It's a heavy mix - 20 minutes of hard dub followed by an increasing amount of vocals (leavened with some out-there FX), melting into sweet soul reggae and a couple of classics, before dissolving into cold, painful dub.

Stay tuned for more - in just over 10 days time. I you don't know how to get this yet, you really havent being paying attention. Scroll down the page a bit and all your wildest podcast-related dreams will be fulfilled!