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

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! **