As the opening salvo for the official Solid Steel mix CD series, Solid Steel: ‘Now, Listen’ had plenty of expectation riding on it’s shoulders. Embarking the Solid Steel brand on it’s logical progression, DJ Food and DK expanded on the hap-hazard nature of the selections heard on the radio broadcasts with an outstanding grab-bag of tracks that don’t seem to work when you see them on paper, but make them work they did. Capturing the essence of a classic steel show, the CD was universally acclaimed and stands proudly alongside Coldcut’s Journeys By DJ mix as a benchmark standard in how mixes should work (ie not just shovelling mp3s onto your laptop and hoping for the best). Hitting the road in North America, Strictly Kev and DK took Solid Steel out of the studio and out to the people, live and direct. Read on to hear tales of record buying of credit card incinerating proporations. Parts 3+4 (DK and Bonobo) are available to download from bosbos.net, parts 1+2 (Strictly Kev and Four Tet) are streamable via the Ninja Tune site, home to Solid Steel.

‘Now, Listen’ Tour Retrospective - Bonobo, DJ Food, DK & Four Tet (TX: 07/01/2002)

We began the new year in 2002 with a stonker of a show comprising the best vinyl finds of a recent tour to the States and Canada by the four individuals listed above. Food & DK’s Solid Steel: Now, Listen was released in September 2001 and they embarked on a trip Stateside in November, accompanied by Bonobo and Kieran Hebden who, although not on Ninja Tune, had just released his ‘Pause’ LP on Domino and was looking to tour. Everyone hit it off immediately and it soon became obvious that record shopping was the order of the day during downtime. Several spots still linger in the memory - The Princeton Record Exchange, Legend in Ottowa and Bop Street in Seattle. This last store has 2 big rooms, the owner’s private office with the pickings set aside for eBay and a huge basement that runs under the shop and nextdoors’ too, full of thousands of records (see above).

On returning to the UK, we all agreed we should commemorate the occasion with something on the show as soon as possible. The brief was simple: make a 30 minute mix of the best records you bought on the tour and come into the studio to present your section. I kicked things off with a Busta Rhymes/Queen mash up and into a host of funky rock breaks, Beatles and Led Zep cover versions, jazz, spoken word and… Britney Spears. Now there had been a thing for Britney during the tour as ‘Slave For You’ was just out - produced by the Neptunes, on a roll at the time - and three of the four of us bought copies (for the instrumental you understand).

Kieran was up next with his own Solid Steel theme into a Wu Tang/Timbaland blend follwed by John Cage, The Beach Boys and Madlib - well this IS Solid Steel right? Throughout the tour he and DK had a race on to find the most records from the Rare Earth label and the band make two appearances along with his own version of DK’s ‘Let’s Play Drums’ from our mix CD. Two special Four Tet re-edits also feature: Bill Conti’s ‘Reflections’ and Pharaoh Sanders’ ‘Black Unity’, the latter of which he had played every night and had become the anthem of the tour.

DK - of course - begins with an Axelrod production from Cannonball Adderly and journeys through funk, jazz, go-go and rock as only he knows how. He revisits his own ‘Let’s Play Drums’ for a sample-outing and cover versions of The Beatles seemed to be two a penny on this tour with two featuring here along with Stan Kenton’s reimagining of 2001. Alongside Burundi drumming (with subtle Ant overtones) and prog rock heaviness from Deep Purple, Neil Merriweather and Lothar & the Hand People we have a competition to guess the weight of records we shipped back midway through the tour. As we only had a splitter van, not a tour bus for this jaunt, we were forced to ship them back before we took our first domestic flight - also the back of the van was getting dangerously low to the ground. Keen-eared listeners will notice that Lincoln Mayorga’s ‘Peace Train’ crops up for the second time here after appearing in my set, this record was picked up by everyone at some point with Lincoln looking uncannily like Kieran on the cover.

Si Bonobo brings the proceedings to a close without trying to squeeze 20 tracks into 30 minutes beginning with his edit of Quincey Jones’ ‘The Deadly Affair’. Rock was definitely on the shopping list on this trip with the Blue Magoos, Lighthouse and Donovan all featuring as well as Alice Coltrane’s spiritual rendition of ‘A Love Supreme’.

This show was from the days when Solid Steel was broadcast via BBC London and all the segments of the programme where pre-produced before arriving at the studio to present them live. The BBC London studios weren’t exactly set up for rough and ready mixing, containing just the traditional desk with turntables separated either side and CD players in easy reach. As we were broadcasting but not mixing we could take calls (hence the competition), check emails and surf the net to see if anyone was commenting on the show. We decided to keep the chat in for this session as it illuminates the music and this recording is taken from a DAT of the show, recorded live in the studio as it was broadcast.

Strictly Kev

[‘Now, Listen’ Tour Retrospective - Parts 3+4] (58mins, 76MB)

Tracklisting

Part 3 (DK)

  1. Cannonball Adderley - Virgo (Capitol)
  2. Stan Kenton - 2002 - Zaruth Revisited (Creative World)
  3. Ides of March - Vehicle (Warner Brothers)
  4. The Turtles - I’m Chief Kamanawanalea (White Whale)
  5. Rufus Thomas - The Breakdown (Part 2) (Stax)
  6. Joe Farrell - Upon This Rock (CTI)
  7. Spooky Tooth - Waiting for the Wind (A&M)
  8. Lincoln Mayorga - Peace Train (Sheffield)
  9. Jeremy Steig - Howlin’ for Judy (Solid State)
  10. Arcade Funk - Search and Destroy (D.E.T.T.)
  11. Moe Koffman - Rock Moe Koffman (GRT)
  12. Melvin Van Peebles - Come On Write Me (US Navy)
  13. Keef Hartley - Enroute (Deram)
  14. Burundi - Warriors of the Drum (Nonesuch)
  15. Tribe of Issachar - Fever (Congo Natty)
  16. Neil Merryweather - Sunshine Superman (Mercury)
  17. Junior Parker - Taxman (Groove Merchant)
  18. Deep Purple/London Symphony Orchestra - Piano (Capitol)
  19. Lothar & the Hand People - It Comes On Anyhow (Capitol)
  20. Steve Marcus - Tomorrow Never Knows (Vortex)
  21. Leroy Hutson - Love The Feeling (Curtom)

Part 4 (Bonobo)

  1. Quincey Jones - The Deadly Affair (Bonobo edit) (Verve)
  2. Blues Magoos - Slow Down Sundown (ABC)
  3. Lighthouse - The Love of a Woman (GRT)
  4. Kitty Bronx - Solid Feet (Crime Club)
  5. Alice Coltrane - A Love Supreme (Impulse)
  6. Hugh Hopper - The Lonley Sea and the Sky (Compendium records)
  7. Donovan - Get Thy Bearings (Epic)
  8. Badmash & Shri - Signs (Bonobo mix) (Outcaste)

Images supplied by Strictly Kev.

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