“You may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.” A very special outing for the Vintage Solid Steel collection for your listening enjoyment, originally broadcast in 1998 but extended and edited for 2008 by an exacting Strictly Kev who doesn’t know when to say ‘it’s finished!’  Also included via the podcast is ‘Strictly’s How To Be A Jazz Beatnik Hipster’ Parts 1 & 3 (the absence of part 2 is explained within) to add some additional sheen to this highly polished Vintage Steel. You know it’s all good, so what are you waiting for? Words from Strictly and links after the jump.

This week we delve back 10 years in time to the latter end of 1998 for two Strictly Kev sets with one thing in common – hip wordplay dating back to the golden age of cool. The first hour is parts 1 & 3 of ‘Strictly’s How To be A Jazz Beatnik Hipster’ session (sorry – part 2 didn’t make the grade). These were three half hour sets loosely tied together by a newly acquired copy of Del Close & John Brent’s How To Speak Hip album, a record I’d been after since seeing it in the Incredibly Strange Music books. The two comedians play a square who has enlisted a cool ‘cat’ to ’school’ the rest of us on how to speak, look and act hip – ‘with hilarious consequences’. It’s actually very good and excerpts get mixed in with some of the ambient and downtempo flavours of the day including a little Get Carter section and some very electronic jazz in the second half.

The second part is a real treat, the Ken Nordine interview we aired November ‘98, completely re-edited, mixed and extended with new music and speech not included in the original version. I was never happy with the first version, mainly because I didn’t really know what I was doing, it was my first interview and also my first time editing a show in Cubase. I was feeling my way around in the dark for the most part on both the editing and arrangement as well as the interview technique, well we’re stuck with the latter but the former can be improved on.

Also I used a lot of music from other artists as a bed for Ken’s words which was largely unrelated (and probably way too loud in the mix) and – over the last decade – I’ve amassed quite a Nordine collection to draw from to plug the gap. All the music on this new, hour long version is in some way related to Ken’s work, mostly extracted from Fred Katz’s solo albums – his most consistent musical collaborator. Also included are a number of advertising jingles he made, brought to you via the power of eBay and YouTube, that I didn’t have at the time of the original set. The original interview tape is over an hour long and a few parts that didn’t make it the first time round are reinstated.

Ken reminisces about Levi’s Jeans, Colours, Moondog, The Exorcist, DJing, random access memory, engineer Jim Cunningham and being a friend of doormen. The whole meeting was arranged by DK whilst Ken was in the UK to take part in a Laurie Anderson event (playing the voice of God). It was recorded at the Ahead Of Our Time studio in Ninja Tune’s Clink St. HQ by engineer Ali Tod and PC, DK and myself were present. Ken was very gracious to give us his time and was most accommodating, signing copies of his records and even playing us an unreleased Moloko track which sampled several of his old Word Jazz tracks. My only regret is that I didn’t ask more, most of my questions were designed to push buttons that would send him off someplace to reminisce somewhere between the past and the strange present that his mind seems to occupy most of the time.

For visual stimulation whilst listening to this set check the YouTube videos for the three Levi’s commercial that appear at the beginning, ‘The Stranger’ and ‘Evolution’ especially are very psychedelic.

Strictly Kev

Levi’s – Trademark (1977)

Levi’s – The Stranger (1970s)

Levi’s – Evolution (1970s)

Podcast: Strictly’s How To Be A Jazz Beatnik Hipster Session Pts 1+3 (available via Solid Steel Podcast, 29/08/2008 show)

Tracklisting

1. Del Close & John Brent – Field Trip No.1 (Mercury)
2. Andrea Parker – After Dark (K7)
3. Irresistible Force – The Lie-in King (Ninja Tune)
4. Fink – (Ntone)
5. NT – Distances (Dub) (RCA)
6. Arsonists – Geembo’s Theme (Fondle ‘em)
7. UNKLE – Rabbit In Your Headlights (Instrumental) (Mo Wax)
8. Roy Budd – Getting Nowhere In A Hurry (Castle Communications)
9. Stereolab – Get Carter (Warp/Duophonic)
10. Del Close & John Brent – Field Trip No.3 (Mercury)
11. Death – Electronic Realisations 2 (Trope)
12. Tortoise – Wait (Bundy K Brown Remix) (City Slang)
13. Born Under A Rhyming Planet – Spasm Band (Plus 8)
14. Bedouin Ascent – Internal Bleeding (Rising High)
15. Post – Unknown (Private Life) (Mask)
16. Papa Bleu – Luna En La Pampa (Sähkö)
17. Jazz Roux – Proxima Session (Beau Monde)

Download: Ken Nordine – Talking All That Word Jazz Interview (Extended 20 Years of Solid Steel version) (1hr, 83MB) (Original TX: 21/11/98)

Tracklisting

1. Ken Nordine – Outer Space Intro/Solid Steel ID
2. Ken Nordine – ‘The Stranger’ Levi Jeans commercial (Levi’s)
3. Ken Nordine – Scratch (Snail)
4. Ken Nordine – ‘Trademark’ Levi Jeans commercial (Levi’s)
5. Ken Nordine – ‘Evolution’ Levi Jeans commercial (Levi’s)
6. The Fred Katz Orchestra – Foggy Foggy Dew (Warner Brothers)
7. Radio Rebus – Haunted Future (United States Army)
8. Ken Nordine – What Is A Battery? (Autolite)
9. The Fred Katz Orchestra – Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (Warner Brothers)
10. Fred Katz – Zen (Pacific Jazz)
11. Ken Nordine – Outer Space (Dot)
12. Ken Nordine – What Time Is It? (Dot)
13. The Fred Katz Orchestra – Baal (Warner Brothers)
14. Ken Nordine – The Sound Museum (Dot)
15. The Fred Katz Orchestra – Old Paint (Warner Brothers)
16. Ken Nordine – Smerd (Ending) (Snail)
17. Ken Nordine – Yellow (Phillips)
18. Ken Nordine – Flesh (Phillips)
19. Ken Nordine – Sounds In Space Intro (RCA Victor)
20. Ralph Flanagan & his Orchestra – Rag Mop (Stereo Test) (RCA Victor)
21. Ken Nordine – Lemmings (Dot)
22. Ken Nordine Reads Robert Shure – Clock (Phillips)
23. Ken Nordine – What Time Is It? (Dot)
24. Ken Nordine & His Kinsmen – Strollin’ Spooks (Dot)
25. Ken Nordine – I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left (Dot)
26. Ken Nordine – Audio Wallpaper (Snail)

All other incidental music by Fred Katz from various Word Jazz albums.