DK’s choice this time round and he sums up these selections thus: “These are probably my favourite Solid Steel mixes, early days in the show for me and some great ‘moments’ in them….” He obviously liked them because as well as appearing on the 19/10/97, 06/06/99 and 27/06/99 shows they also popped up in his best of the year and best of the millenium (??!!) round ups at the end of ’99. In the first hour PC flirts with breaks, beats and boom bap before switching to bass, bleeps and bushflange (such a great name). Using his delay pedal to great effect he tears the beats apart and breaks it down to a dub workout at one point after some 3 deck mixing. I start out all downtempo and sombre before taking things double time for a quick rush of drum n bass/acid. Then it’s back into Hip Hop territory before some electronic polyrhythmic niceness as only Gescom know how.

Remember this was back in the KISS FM days and everything was one take and on the fly, if the decks wobbled they didn’t fall down. The Blue Note (the club where Ninja had their Stealth residency) was winding down after pressure from local residents but the 333 across the square had been refitted and was now the new Hoxton destination of choice. Although it would never scale the giddy heights of the Blue Note it hosted a few memorable events when Ninja set up their ‘Kungfusion’ night there in ’98. The layout of the place never quite made it the classic venue it could have been, visuals were a nightmare and it always seemed to be a bit dirty or in need of a paint (even after they’d had it refitted a second time). The music here is largely the music of that time, people were just starting to discover that Moog and Library music had a wealth of untapped sample potential and the first compilations were being issued. Drum and Bass was getting darker (and more formulaic) and UK Hip Hop was at last finding it feet and it’s voice.

The second half of this selection was part of a GLR show with Coldcut sitting in for Ross Allen (you can even hear the jingles!) with PC and I providing two mixes to accompany. Patrick’s is all jazz and funk, then turns into a drum n bass n 2 Tone affair. Mine is more sober, playing downtempo hip hop against ambience and electronics. In places you can hear us gearing up for 2001′s ‘Now, Listen’ Solid Steel release (it was actually scheduled for 2000 for the tenth anniversary). The ‘Mirror In The Bathroom/Square Off’ duet appears as does Jeru’s ‘Come Clean’ before that evergreen Steel regular ‘Aquarius’ by Boards of Canada hovers into view.

Finally, the images here are two of my favourite of our 4 deck DJ excursions, the top one was shot at one of the first Stealth nights at the Blue Note by Martin Le Santo Smith. He was running a small fanzine called Phasis and he squeezed between the decks and the back wall of the club and fired off this lone shot. It perfectly captures the way the club was laid out and in front you can see none other than Benji B who was doing work experience at Ninja at the time but later went on to work with Giles Peterson before fronting his own radio show. The second image was shot in Ottawa, Canada on the first US/Canadian tour in ’96 and I seem to remember it was a pretty good show as well. The promoter of the club shot it, again from behind the decks, and sent it to us after the show, signing it Scallen.

Strictly Kev

Part 1
Podcast: Available via Solid Steel Podcast (24/10/2008 show)

PC (TX: 19/10/97)

1. A Tribe Called Quest – If The Papes Come (Jive)
2. Les Baxter – Hogin’ Machine (Dusty Fingers)
3. Jackson 5 – It’s Great To Be Here (Motown)
4. Eric B & Rakim – Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em (MCA)
5. LFO – Them (Warp)
6. Up, Bustle & Out – Aqui No Mas (Ninja Tune)
7. Slowly – On The Loose (Autechre Remix) (Chill Out label)
8. Bushflange – Redokov (Hard Hands)
9. Hardhouse – Yo Chuck (Warlock)
10. David Holmes – Gritty Shaker (Go Beat)

Strictly Kev (TX: 17/05/98)

1. Sam Spence – Sunken Ship version 2 (BBE)
2. The Senators – Psychedelic Senate (Tower)
3. Wolfgang Dauner – Tuning Spread (MPS)
4. Dynamic Syncopation – Stealth (Ninja Tune)
5. Peshay – Miles From Home (Underdog remix) (Mo wax)
6. Caustic Visions – Unknown (Caustic Visions)
7. Mark B & Blade – Use Your Head (instr.) (Jazz Fudge)
8. DJ Shadow vs Depeche Mode – Painkiller (Mo Wax)
9. Just Ice – Turbo Charged (Fresh/Sleeping Bag)
10. Dick Hyman – Kolumbo (Command)
11. Push Button Objects – Non-Existant (Keyed In By Gescom) (Chocolate Industries)

Part 2
Download: Part 2 (56mins, 76MB)

PC (TX: 27/06/99)

1. The Galactic Force Band – Spacedust (Springboard International)
2. Roy Ayers – Brother Green (Polydor)
3. Trouble Funk – The Beat (TF Records)
4. Jungle Brothers – Beyond This World (Warner Bros)
5. Red Snapper – The Last One (DJ Food Remix) (Warp)
6. Courtney Pine – Tryin’ Times (Talkin’ Loud)
7. Ace ‘N Action – Letter To The Better (Prism)
8. The Beat – Mirror In The Bathroom (Go Feet)
9. Mask – Square Off (Dope Dragon)
10. Overseer – Signing On (Soundclash)
11. The Specials – Do Nothing (2 Tone)

Strictly Kev (TX: 06/06/99)

1. E.A.R. -Sputnik (Via Satellite)
2. Yussef Lateef – Lowland Lullaby (Atlantic)
3. Jeru the Damaja – Come Clean (Payday)
4. Mark B – Underworld Connection (Jazz Fudge)
5. This Mortal Coil – Andialu (4AD)
6. Stetsasonic -On Fire (Tommy Boy)
7. Amon Tobin – Like Regular Chickens (Ninja Tune)
8. Boards of Canada – Aquarius (Warp)
9. Skylab – Bite This! (Eye Q)

Strictly Kev

Coldcut, PC – It’s Time For House (TX: 28/02/1993)

Podcast: 1st Hour (available via Solid Steel Podcast, 12/09/2008 show)

1. Unknown – 4 The Hard Way (Unknown)
2. Cabalsuan – Mysterie De Voix Bulgaire (Unknown)
3. Bodelaire – Flower of Evil (Unknown)
4. Dina Bryant – Heat (Unknown)
5. Sergio Mendes – Frantic Samba (A & M)
6. United Future Organisation – Loud Minority (Talkin’ Loud)
7. Jazz Jupiter – Living Brain (Acid Jazz)
8. KT And Hex – Global Chaos (Ninja Tune)
9. Coldcut – Info War (Ninja Tune)
10. Coldcut – Necronomicon (Ninja Tune)
11. Coldcut – Digital Love Opus 1 (Ninja Tune)
12. Coldcut – Tickle (Ninja Tune)
13. Sandoz – Steel Tabanacle (Touch)

Download: Coldcut, PC – It’s Time For House (2nd Hour) (53mins, 73MB)

1. Unknown – Unknown
2. Unknown – Unknown
3. Unknown – Wigsy
4. Curious – Walk Like a Duck
5. DJ Food (Feat. Jupiter Jam) – Total Funkitivity
6. Digital Underground – No Nose Job
7. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Too Grabalicious
8. Jim Brown & Rapper Robert – Unknown
9. People’s Choice – Unknown
10. Unknown – Unknown
11. Led Zeppelin – The Crunge
12. Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady
13. DJ Food/Coldcut – Thermo Nuclear Funk

Download: Coldcut, PC – Solid Wood (2nd Hour) (1hr, 82MB)

Dance music everywhere, infiltrating both the charts and the music of those who had previously dominated the charts. Soul II Soul, Native Tongues, KISS FM, The Stone Roses, the dawn of ambient and rave, popular brand logos bastardised into awful puns…  Plenty or multitrack fun and double copies going on here. Yeah, some of it has dated, but most is bona fide classic material to this day.

The second hour here really is an oddity, the only hour long K Mix, entitled ‘An Hour Of Ambience’. It is part studio jam and part mix with loops, music concrete and effects threaded throughout. At around the 21 minute mark a techno track creeps in which morphs into a jackhammer beat with Tibetan throat singing over it, then on into some Terry Riley-esque minimalism. At one point there’s even a snatch of Gabba before it all falls apart and we arrive at…reggae – ‘Queen of the Minstrels’ by Cornell Campbell – of course!

Matt Black explains the idea behind it all:

“I had become a born again Slacker, into the Church of the SubGenius and Bob Dobbs. They, amongst other hilarious scatological and creative activities, did radio broadcasts which sounded good, known as Media Barrages. I sent off for some tapes and they ended up being strong influences on the Sphinx era Solid Steels. That sample of ‘yo man I’d rather have the Rubber’ is from a Media Barrage phone in section. The various noises, loops, poems and rants were thrown together with as you all too accurately put it ‘complete disregard for the listener’.

A sampler was used to run quite a lot of randomly looped stuff which we could just push into the mix on different channels on the studio mixer. I think it was [recorded at] Clink St., the number kmix71 should enable you to date it as all k mixes were done in order…94 at a guess.

There’s a section with a funky loop that just goes on too long which could be edited down…it gets pretty rocking but theres def a ‘oh fuck what can we do now’ moment. The out of tune-ness of the whole thing is part of its charm i guess.”

This isn’t eclecticism for eclecticism’s sake though, think of it more of a deranged cousin to the KLF’s Chill Out with Lord Buckley replacing Bill Drummond. Tracks are built up and broken back down again, only to return later, synths noodle into the mix, plenty of spoken word is thrown in and it’s all live. No obvious tracks standout but it’s a trip for sure, heaven only knows what people must have thought when casually tuning into this one. There’s a CD skipping in there somewhere but it could well be intentional, what isn’t though is distortion and it’s inherent in the recording in places I’m afraid.

All this weeks selections are sourced from pre-broadcast DATs with no studio chat or adverts but include various Coldcut and KISS FM jingles.

Strictly Kev

2nd Hour – TX: approx 1994

1 Hour Of Ambience K Mix #71 1992 (Coldcut/PC)
(no tracklist available)

Download: Coldcut/PC – 1 Hour Of Ambience (1hr, 83MB)

1st hour – TX: Various Shows 1991-93 (available via Solid Steel Podcast, 01/08/2008 show)

‘Back In The Old School’ – K Mix #20 1991 (Coldcut)

1. Spoonie Gee Meets The Sequence – Monster Jam
2. Flash To The Beat – Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3. The Disco Four – Move With The Groove
4. Treacherous Three – At The Party
5. The Birthday Party – Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

‘Pumped Piper’ – K Mix #2 1990 (Coldcut)

1. Snap – The Power
2. Public Enemy – Bring The Noise (A Cappella)
3. Coldcut – Ride The Pressure/Working Trax
4. De La Soul – Say No Go (Say No Dope Mix)
5. Hack Attack – A Knife, A Fork, A Bottle & A Cork

‘Rap It Up’ – K Mix #19 1991 (PC)

1. A Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It? (Boilerhouse Remix)
2. MC Shan – Time For Us To Defend Ourselves
3. LL Cool J – The Boomin’ System
4. Masta Ace – The Music Man
5. Afros – Kickin Afrolistics
6. X-Clan – Grand Verbalizer

‘Old School Goo Goo’ – K Mix #82 1992 (PC)

1. Trouble Funk – Live in London
2. Trouble Funk – So Early in The Morning
3. Unknown
4. Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – Bustin’ Loose
5. Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – We Need Some Money
6. Trouble Funk – Live in London

Now, I hold no illusions of my DJ skills, I don’t have any – I totally rely on my selections and jamming them together with quick fades, spoken word samples, sound effects or a combination of all of the above. In the liner notes of Mr. Scruff’s retail Solid Steel mix CD, he says, “…it is vital to remember that the most important DJ skill is to play great records in the right order. Many of my favourite DJs don’t even mix.” I hope to hold true to this ‘most important DJ skill’ somewhere along the way – I really wanted to archive these shows, there was just something unique about Solid Steel. You take any genre of music – mash it together with some spoken word and it would take on a life of it’s own. So archiving seemed logical and it’s become quite a collection.

I’ve always been fascinated by the spoken word element in the Solid Steel mixes – so I decided to compile and share a ‘soundbank’ of samples with Matt, Jon, Kev and DK. Well, as often is the case, my obsessive compulsive disorder kicked in and now there are well over 20,000 dialogue samples, all edited and ready to drop into a mix in this soundbank. I’m sure you might recognise some of them in the mixes that air today.

I was quite honored when Strictly Kev asked me to boil down my 6 previous mixes into an hour for the Classic Solid Steel segment this week. I added a new spoken word intro over the old mixes and distilled everything down to an hour of jazz pop, hip hop, funk, soul, reggae covers, 70′s pop and a touch of drum and bass in the middle somewhere. Uptempo stuff for the most part – I insist you eat steel! (See below for podcast information).

One last word on my selection of a bonus “Classic Solid Steel” hour for bosbos.net… I chose a Coldcut mix from August 2001. Matt and Jon must have been gearing up for the Tim Burton ‘Planet of the Apes’ remake at the time, because here we have an hour of ape-related tunes and a heavy dose of samples from the classic films alongside the POTA children’s records. Coldcut and Planet Of The Apes – need I say more?! Enjoy.

Podcast: King Megatrip – I Must Insist You Eat Steel (available via Solid Steel Podcast, 20/06/2008 show)

Tracklisting

1. Beastie Boys – Sabrosa (Grand Royal)
2. Gary Wright – Love Is Alive (Warner Brothers)
3. 3rd Bass – Wordz Of Wizdom (Def Jam)
4. DJ Boom – Feel Good Tonight (Dcide)
5. Blackalicious – Alphabet Aerobics (Mo’Wax)
6. The Hardknox – Fire Like This (Skint)
7. Dinah Washington/Brooks Benton – Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes) (Verve)
8. DJ Shadow – Giving Up The Ghost (Mo’Wax)
9. Accidental Heroes – Beserk (Science Fiction)
10. John Coltrane – Blue Train (Blue Note)
11. Solid Steel 2001 SKIT
12. Billy Stewart – Secret Love (Chess)
13. Lattimore Brown – Yak-A-Poo (Goldmine)
14. Henry C. & The Ivy Leaguers – Country Girl (Action)
15. Bobby Byrd – Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours (Polygram)
16. Patrizia & Jimmy – Trust Your Child (part 1) (Goldmine)
17. Spencer Wiggins – He’s Too Old (Goldwax)
18. The Third Wave – Love Train (Mps)
19. JJ Jackson – But It’s Alright (Calla)
20. Tomorrow’s Children – Bang! Bang! (Federal)
21. Norma Fraser – The First Cut Is The Deepest (Soul Jazz)
22. Toots & The Maytals – (Take Me Home) Country Roads (Trojan)

Download: Coldcut – Planet Of The Apes Special (1hr, 81MB)

Tracklisting

1. Muro – A Head Of The Game (Toy’s Factory)
2. Indopepsychics – Escape (Presto)
3. Super Furry Animals – (A) Touch Sensitive (Epic)
4. Superbad Breaks – Superbad Slow One (Unknown)
5. Brothomstates – Adozenaday (Warp Records)
6. Big Dog – Raise The Alarm (Zomba Records)
7. Adam F Presents Kaos – Smash Sumthin’ (EMI)
8. Excerpts From Planet Of The Apes (Power)
9. Nigo – March Of The Apes (Mo Wax)
10. Two Lone Swordsmen – Tiny Reminder No.3 (Warp)
11. Him – Sea Level (Fat Cat)
12. Lalo Schifrin – Ape Shuffle (Project3)
13. Spencer Jackson Family – Bring Peace Back To The World (Unknown)

King Megatrip’s previous Solid Steel mix playlists (external links):

01 JAN 2001
10 SEP 2001
28 OCT 2002
01 DEC 2003
21 FEB 2005
04 JAN 2008

For more Megatrip goodness check out the King Megatrip blog

Download more King Megatrip mixes here

One of the first things we turned up in the archives were two boxes containing 23 volumes of these mixes, comped by Jon More years earlier from the original ADAT tapes they were made on. Each mix is roughly 15 minutes long and were made each week, if time would allow, to be a part of the show that was a bit more than live blends of the latest releases. Some of these mini classics turn up repeatedly in mixes across the years, sometimes in truncated form, always overlaid with different spoken word samples. Most were mixed by Coldcut and, later on, PC, and each have individual titles like ‘Gameboy Jazz’, ’126 and Counting’ and ‘Constant Electronic Bombardment’ that give a feel for the content of each mix. There were over hundred made and we have all of them with the exception of K Mixes 29-35 because volume 7, which is presumed to contain these, is missing.

The first part of this weeks selection is the first hour from a show dated 13/12/90 which was itself a collection of great K Mixes, some of which we had earmarked to feature anyway. We start with K Mix #6 – ‘Once Upon A Time’, recorded in October or November 1990, a breakneck blend of old school hip hop and funk in a Lesson stylee and one of Matt Black’s personal favourites. Next is K Mix #9 – ‘London Bass Jam 1′ from 26/10/90 which is basically a Public Enemy megamix complete with original JBs samples inserted and blends across PE tracks that sample themselves. K Mix #11 – ‘Run DMC mix’ from 11/09/90 speaks for itself and dives back and forth throughout their career whilst K Mix #7 ‘Do Your Own Thing’ from mid November 1990 mixes classic hip hop with acid jazz beats. We round up the first hour with a special bonus, an audio invite to a Steinski party that was nestling on an early DAT from around the same era. These were sent out on cassette to selected friends and gave all the details for various parties he would hold in NYC and several were played on the show over the years.

For the second hour we’ve selected a batch of K Mixes and compiled a fictional show that would date from ’91 and ’92. We kick things off with K Mix #69 – ‘Beyond This World’ from 1992 with PC at the controls mixing golden era Hip Hop as only he can. K Mix #62 – ‘Kingtronix’ is next and is a tribute to all things Mantronix, followed by K MIx #67 – ‘Teknical Dub’ which starts off all dubby and ends with, you guessed it, Techno. Finally K Mix #42 – ‘God of Rockers’ from 1991 shows us that Coldcut also loved their rave back in the day as Matt Black gets hard on the mixer for this storming finale. Full shows from around this time hardly exist in complete form save for a clutch of video tapes that have several radio broadcasts recorded on them as audio. From the beginning of 1992 this changed and many complete shows are archived on DAT tape and all this weeks selections are sourced from pre-broadcast DATs with no studio chat or adverts.

Strictly Kev

Download: Coldcut – Best Of The K Mixes Pt.1 (2nd Hour) (1hr, 82.6MB)

Tracklisting

‘Beyond This World’ (K Mix #69) (1992)

1. House of Pain – Jump Around
2. Mark the 45 King – 900 Number
3. Eric B & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul (Acappella)
4. Pete Rock & CL Smooth – The Creator
5. Jungle Brothers – Beyond This World (Acappella)

‘Kingtronix’ (K Mix #62) (1992)

1. Mantonix – Bassline
2. Mantonix – King of the Beats
3. Mantonix – Scream
4. Mantonix – Who is It?
5. Mantonix – Join Me Please
6. Mantonix – Listen to The Bass (Get Stupid Fresh)

‘Teknical Dub’ (K Mix #67) (1992)

1. Coldcut (Feat. Lisa Stansfield) – People Hold On (Acappella)
2. Moody Boys – Free

‘God of Rockers’ (K Mix #42) (1991)

1. Unknown – Rockers Lead The Way
2. The Prodigy – Charlie Sez
3. M.N.O. – God of Abraham

We were part of this cull along with other DJs like Ross Allen and Dr Bob Jones and it came out of the blue, one week we were on, the next we had one show left. I found out from another presenter who casually mentioned “sorry to hear about your show”, whilst I was covering for the others solo one time. Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she realised her faux pas and explained that the station had axed all but two of their late night specialist music shows in favour of a more talk based radio station. We had one week’s grace and that was it, but we really made use of that week…

Let’s start with how we came to be on the BBC in the first place: after leaving KISS in Feb ’99 (before we were pushed – big changes were ahead) Solid Steel set up home online, streamed via the Ninja Tune homepage every week, still maintaining it’s 2 hour format, uncertain as to how many people were listening. With DK now firmly in the producers chair, syndications to overseas stations had been instigated and we were looking around for a ‘home’ on a London station. There was a pilot show for GLR on 27/06/99 but the first regular slot was 27/03/2000, the week the station relaunched as BBC London Live. We had a midnight until 2am slot on a Monday night which suited us fine, no playlist, minimal fuss or bother from the powers that be and a proper studio to broadcast from.

The big drawback was that the studio was more geared to CDJing than turntable mixing and the decks there were more of an afterthought than an integral part of the set up. Out went the live mixing and in came the pre-prepared, home studio mixed sets, something that did no end of good for the quality control threshold but which sounds odd at times when listening back as we had to leave instrumental gaps for talking and tracklists in the selection. Another revelation was no adverts other than the occasional station sting for an upcoming event or show – yes! More uninterrupted mixes and less stop/start nonsense.

Initially we took over after Ross Allen’s Destination Out show which was perfect as we caught a lot of his audience but he moved on to two separate nights of the week as his star rose. Generally two of us would present the show live whilst playing that week’s selection of mixes and we also had the means to take calls for competitions where we gave away tickets to shows or CDs in return for answers to ridiculously easy multiple choice questions. The BBC had a full online streaming web presence too so we were beamed live worldwide and, on occasion, we got calls from overseas for the competitions, including one from New Zealand! Being ‘on the BBC’ also afforded us instant credibility when asking for high profile interviews and both David Axelrod and Herbie Hancock were recorded using their facilities.

But all good things must come to a (tr)end and 21/10/2002 was the last show we did at the station, but we weren’t going out without making a statement and Matt, Jon, DK and I were all determined to make it one to remember. I kicked things off with plenty of loaded spoken word and songs aimed at the Beeb – Has It Come To This?, It’s All Over Now, The Show Must Go On, Fool If You Think It’s Over, It’s Just Begun – you get the idea. I must apologise firstly for the cheesiness of some of the tracks (a worrying amount of Queen) but mostly for the tuning on some of the mixes – oh my ears! Matt turned in a storming old school ultimate breaks and beats cut up using the Street Beat compilations in Ableton Live.

Jon waded in with possibly the first BBC jingle and presented a set of mashed up hip hop acappellas, ending with Monty python’s phone in sketch. DK ran through some of the show favourites from the last few years, the tracks getting the most plays from the variety of DJs over the course of our tenure, flagged up some of the high profile jingles we’d recorded and ended appropriately with The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ as the final word. It was sad to go but we had no choice and it wasn’t as painful as the KISS departure because we had the internet support fully set up by this time, still it was great to be part of the BBC for a while.

These recordings are the original studio mixes without our talking, not the live broadcast with the ridiculous competitions, shout outs and studio banter.

Download: Jon More/DK – Last Stand At The BBC (Parts 3+4) (1hr, 81MB)

Tracklisting

PART 3 – Jon More (Coldcut)

1. Caroll Gibbons And The Savoy Hotel Orphans Orchestra – On Air (BBC Records)
2. Adam F – Stand Clear (Instrumental) (EMI)
3. DJ Vadim – The Terrorist (Accapella) (Ninja Tune)
4. Harlem Slangs Vol 1 – Bootleg Mix (Unknown)
5. Mr Scruff – Ug (Ninja Tune)
6. Sweet T & Jazzy Joyce – It’s My Beat (Accapella) (Champion)
7. KRS 1 – Dope Beat (B Boy Records)
8. Jeru The Damaja – Come Clean (Payday)
9. DJ DSL & Kool Keith – Love Sick (G Stone)
10. Bamboo Soul – Summer Strum (Switch)
11. Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Phone In Show (BBC Records)

PART4 – DK

1. Boards Of Canada – Aquarius (Warp)
2. DJ Zinc – Super Sharp Shooters (Ganja Cru)
3. Public Enemy – Public Enemy No 1 (Def Jam)
4. Brentford Allstars – Greedy G (Studio 1)
5. The Barkays – Holy Ghost (Stax)
6. Blue Boy – Remember Me (Pharm)
7. Dennis Coffey – Iceberg Thang (Maverick)
8. David Mcallum – House Of Mirrors (Capitol)
9. The Specials – Ghost Town (2 Tone)

Alien conspiracies! Faces on planets! Unearthed DATs! Yes, it’s all here. A bit of a special broadcast, this one (aren’t they all?) as Coldcut go offworld with the Alien Sphinx. Strictly Kev is your flight director at mission control, take a close read as he guides you through the Solid Sphinx story. ‘Return Of The Alien Sphinx’ is downloadable from bosbos.net, ‘More Than An Alien Sphinx’ streamable via the Ninja Tune site, home to Solid Steel. Blast off in t-minus 3… 2… 1…

Periodically in the early to mid-nineties Solid Steel would give up it’s traditional mix/talk/ad break/mix… format and morph into a Sphinx for two hours. The first time I ever heard of this was when I turned up to do one of the regular Friday pre-records at KISS FM one evening and Matt said that tonight the show was going to be a ‘Solid Sphinx’. What the hell was that I asked? ‘That’ meant minimum chat and no ads, just two hours of straight mixing, usually erring on the ambient and electronic side of things. ‘Great!’ I thought, as the usually 15-20-minute-mix-then-break-for-ads format was restricting – just as you were getting into the flow you had to stop for the commercials.

Ranging in title from Alien Sphinx, Return of Alien Sphinx and More Than An Alien Sphinx (and probably a whole host of others besides), they were sprawling soundscapes inhabiting similar territory to the Orb and FSOL at the time. I always had an inkling that the name came from the supposed Sphinx face that had been ‘discovered’ on Mars but never asked Matt about it until recently:

“Yes, its from the Alien Sphinx ‘Face on Mars’ thang. I was turned onto it by Fortean Times. Just thought it was a wicked concept, though the images of it never convinced me…humans see faces everywhere, we are optimised for it. We first used the name on the full length Video ‘Global Chaos’, a Hex project. Rob Pepperell and I made a 3D character called ‘Alien Sphinx’. I guess the idea morphed into an inscrutable ancient mystery sound trip after that!”

Some background on the Alien Sphinx

1976: The Viking Mars probe caused a sensation when NASA and the public eventually discovered a 1,500 foot high “face” staring out into space from the surface of the Cydonia region on Mars. This image was initially dismissed as a trick of the light by NASA . Other images were discovered which had been taken by the Viking probe at a different sun angle… and the face was still there.

Also present on these photographs were additional anomalies perhaps even more impressive than the face itself. One of the greatest of these, a five sided pyramid nearly two miles wide arranged exactly 1/360th of the martian polar diameter from the face. This pyramid was also pointing to the face. There was also discovered what appeared to be a city complex so oriented that all three structures arranged to form a perfect equilateral triangle.

The face on the Cydonia region of Mars was itself rather strange, apart from being on the surface of Mars to begin with… it seemed to represent a human being, wearing a head dress. This embellishment is strikingly familiar to the headdresses worn by Egyptian and Mayan royalty. There was also a conspicuous absence of facial hair on the effigy, implying that it was either a young man, or a woman. The androgynous Cydonia face has a stylized leonine headdress, and computer enhanced photos of the face show that the darkened side seems to be that of a lion, according to Richard Hoagland.

Well, yes, quite – judge for yourself. Anyway, on to this week’s unearthings -

First up we have an hour extracted from a two hour ‘More Than An Alien Sphinx’ show broadcast on an unknown date in November 1993. This takes in Latino Hip Hop, thunderstorms, Steve Reich, storytelling, The Irresistible Force, cicadas and the Orb on one of their remix excursions. The second hour is a complete one hour ‘Return of Alien Sphinx’ mix that was made specially for a Festival Radio 87.7 FM slot sometime in 1994 and has probably not even been heard by the Solid Steel faithful before. This ploughs similar territory but was recorded in the Ahead of Our Time studio as it features much extra-curricular activity on various synths and delays. In fact, at some points, it sounds like the entire mix is being put through various FX and filters and they stray into music concrete at points, complete with distortion on the original DAT. I had to do a lot of cleaning up on this hour actually, levels were up and down, left and right, there were glitches and bad clicks on some of the vinyl used but I think it was worth it as it’s one of the more ‘out there’ live mixes I’ve heard in a while. Sadly tracklists are not available for either, although we have uncovered a lot going back to the early to mid nineties.

Strictly Kev

[Coldcut - Return Of The Alien Sphinx] (1hr, 84MB)

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.

Welcome to the very first Vintage Solid Steel, brought to you by bosbos.net in conjunction with Ninja Tune‘s ‘Solid Steel’ radio show. Solid Steel has been delivering the broadest beats for 20 years, resulting in a hefty archive to mine for some classic shows to listen to and enjoy. Thanks to the efforts of DJ Food‘s Strictly Kev, our opening salvo is a legendary show dating back to 1991, where Coldcut meets The Orb. Parts 1+2 of the show are available via the Solid Steel podcast, and bosbos.net is offering up parts 3+4 to round things off.

You can expect to see many more Vintage Solid Steels as time goes on, focusing on the best of the best shows that have hit the airwaves over the years, so be sure to check in on a regular basis. We’ll hand over to Strictly Kev as he reminisces back to ’91, filling in the blanks (and hopes you can too!):

In ’91 Coldcut were struggling to get their fledgling Ninja Tune label off the ground after enjoying immense success in the late 80′s with international No.1′s, award winning remixes and hot producer status. After label problems they went back to their roots and kept a low profile whilst maintaining their weekly 2 hour radio show on London’s KISS FM. In ’91 The Orb were just taking off into the big time, their own label problems a few years ahead of them. Their Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld album and its satellite singles had gathered underground kudos and they were recording the follow up: U.F.Orb. Most people would agree that ’92 was the peak year for the Orb, in terms of success, with the second album touching down at No.1 after the first week of release and sold out shows everywhere. On the cusp of the new year – no one can quite remember whether it was Xmas or New Year’s Eve – the two met and this glorious offspring was the result.

I have particularly fond memories of this show as it was the first Solid Steel I actually recorded, mainly because of the Orb connection at the time. I had discovered ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ the year before on the CND compilation Give Peace A Dance and eagerly hoovered up everything I could find. Now the prospect of this great ‘new’ group coupled with old favourites Coldcut was too good to be true. A radio trail with a female voice whispering ‘Coldcut versus the Orb’ had alerted me to it and I set up the tape machine, lay back and blew my mind.

A couple of years later I was put in touch with Matt Black by Mixmaster Morris and invited him to VJ at one of my Telepathic Fish parties. Having listened to the aforementioned mix many times by now, I had always wondered what the opening track was, having never heard or found any details about it anywhere else. I asked him about it and straight away he said “it’s by me, but the others at Ninja aren’t sure about it so it hasn’t come out”. I told him it was totally relevant right now (this was just as the whole ‘trip hop’ fad was about to kick off) and that he should push for it to come out. It ended up being included on the Ninja Tune version of Coldcut’s Philosophy LP and on the bonus disc on the first Ninja Cuts compilation.

This collection of tracks is unique in that there are some early versions of U.F.Orb tracks included that, to the best of my knowledge, still haven’t appeared anywhere else apart from the 14 minute segment that turned up on a lot of Orb bootlegs in the early 90′s. The show also unknowingly turned me on to loads of material I later recognised as having heard here first, such as Eno & Byrne’s My Life in The Bush of Ghosts and The Tape Beatles’ work. Pieces of spoken word like Jesse Jackson’s ‘I Am Somebody’ and the Brother Ahh ‘Love Piece’ preacher sermon were first encountered here and subsequently included on our Now, Listen mix CD in 2001.There are still pieces of the puzzle I’d like to find too: for instance, the incredible acid tracks that play from nine minutes in in part 3 – anyone know what the hell they are? I love the slapdashness of it as well, with Coldcut’s tight mixing contrasting with Alex’s throw-everything-in-and-see-what-sticks approach.

For the first time, I’ve attempted to piece together a tracklist for this monster mix; tracks in italics are spoken word slurped over the top of music to try and make it all easier to understand. If anyone knows any of the missing tracks I’d be very grateful to fill in the blanks. We’ve assembled the complete 2 hours, uncut (including no tape turnover breaks), from the best quality sources we could find. There is no master recording for this show in the Coldcut archives so, unless the good Dr Alex Paterson has a copy or someone is holding one with pristine reception, then this is the best we can do. A couple of sections pop up on the Coldcut DAT archive (Kiss Mix 4 & 15A) but we chose to keep a copy straight from the radio because KISS FM had particularly good compression when shows were broadcast and the DAT recordings sounded very flat in comparison.

Enjoy.

Strictly Kev

[Coldcut Meets The Orb - Parts 3+4] (51mins, 70MB)

Tracklisting

Part 3 (24:21)

1. Coldcut – Greetings Music Lovers… Music Like Shower jingle
2. KT & Hex – Global Chaos (Ninja Tune)
3. ? – Unknown Preacher
4. ? – Techno track
5. Hex – Digital Love Opus No.1 (Ninja Tune)
6. Brother Ahh – Love Piece (Strata East)
7. Public Works – Message… (Staalplaat)
8. ? – Amazing acid track
9. The Space Race dialogue
10. ? – Amazing techno track
11. Public Works – Blue Beautiful Place (Staalplaat)
    
12. Public Works – Different Tool (Staalplaat)
    
13. Public Works – Metro-pulse (Staalplaat)
14. Coldcut – This is the House of Mystery jingle

Part 4 (26:54)

1. K Mix 14: Exocet Dub Chapter 1 – Coldcut mix section
2. Depth Charge – Dead By Dawn intro (Vinyl Solution)
3. Depth Charge – Bounty Killers (Death Is Ma Name) (Vinyl Solution)
4. Pharoah Chapter 1 – Pumpty Pump (Shabienian Arthouse)
5. DJ Food – Victory Strut (Ninja Tune)
6. Pharoah Chapter 1 – Vigilante (Shabienian Arthouse)
7. Depth Charge – Depth Charge (Drum Death) (Vinyl Solution)
8. Tackhead – Mind At The End of the Tether (ON-U Sound)
9. Sparky ‘s Magic Piano – Sparky & The Talking Train (Capitol)
10. The Orb – Towers of Dub (unknown version) (Big Life)
11. ? – sitar/tabla track

Artwork supplied by Strictly Kev.

** Honourable mentions to the SS archival crew – Megatrip, Mr Naga, Pads and Paul. This is just the beginning… we’re just getting started! **