There are many music producers who would happily sit back and operate behind the scenes, never revealing their true identity, determined to retain a shadowy persona to let the music speak for itself. This was an automatic given for early DJ Food contributor Patrick Carpenter. Whether intentional or not, using his initials (PC) caused a slight problem.. being mistaken as the computer that Coldcut built their tracks with! Reassuringly, Patrick is more man than machine - so sit back as Strictly Kev guides you through a great Solid Steel show featuring PC from 1999. Parts 3+4 are available to download from bosbos.net, parts 1+2 are streamable via the Ninja Tune site, home to Solid Steel.

Coldcut Solid Steel - PC (DJ Food) 2 hour mix (TX: 09/05/99)

Patrick Carpenter (PC) started working for Coldcut in the early 90’s, as an assistant engineer at Livingstone Studios in North London shortly after they had started their Ninja Tune label. Fresh out of a sound engineering course in Manchester (the same one Future Sound of London’s Brian Dougans attended), he worked in the studio on whatever had to be done and quickly made his mark on both their music and the radio show. By the mid 90’s he had teamed up with Strictly Kev, and they deejayed on four decks all over the world under the DJ Food moniker that had been handed to them by Coldcut.

By the end of the 90’s they were hard at work on 2000’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ album, and in this week’s archive excursion we catch a totally on- fire PC solo for two hours. He occasionally did whole shows on his own so that he could stretch out and take his time rather than cram all he had to say into a 30 minute mix. Beginning with polyrhythmic techno and broken beat, through to Herbie Hancock and ambient world percussion, he quickly moves through downtempo beats, hip hop, jazz and classical strings before arriving at a 30 minute mix of classic era drum n bass in part 3. Finishing off with some mellow soul and funk before dropping latin jazz and looping it into instrumental beats, he teases the music with his Boss delay pedal, occasionally looping sections and jamming with it to form new sections. For ‘Kaleidoscope’ fans there is a curio near the end of part 4 where he plays an early version of ‘Break’ from the album before closing out with the “it’s all over then” sample he later used for 2001’s ‘Now, Listen’ mix.

All this was recorded at the Ahead Of Our Time studios at Ninja HQ, Winchester Wharf in the period between leaving KISS FM (in Feb ‘99) and joining BBC London Live in 2001. At this point mixes would be recorded live in the studio and then streamed via the net out into the void with a few syndications broadcasting abroad. How many people actually heard them is unknown of course but now you get another chance to catch this killer 2 hour set. This is the studio recording, taken straight from the DAT, no chat, just Solid beats (as Matt used to say).

Strictly Kev

[PC 2 Hour Mix - Parts 3+4] (1hr 3mins, 86MB)

Tracklisting

Part 3

1. Pressure Drop - Got To Be For Real (Higher Ground)
2. Source Direct - Snake Style (Source Direct)
3. Photek - The Water Margin (Photek)
4. Tosca - Fuckdub (G Stone)
5. Roni Size - Share The Fall (Talkin’ Loud)
6. Sounds Of Life - Currents (React)
7. A Guy Called Gerald - Finley’s Rainbow (Juice Box)

Part 4

1. Snowboy - Give Me The Sunshine (Big Life)
2. Marvin Gaye - Funky Space Reincarnation (Motown)
3. Joe Bataan - Ordinary Guy (Street Sounds)
4. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Cubano Chant (Columbia)
5. DJ Food - Break [Early Version] (Ninja Tune)
6. Dynamic Syncopation - Bahian B-Boy (Ninja Tune)

Images supplied by Strictly Kev.