Kraftwerk should require no introduction. You’ve heard either their music or influence, knowingly or unknowingly at some time or another. Their reach has been so emphatically placed into the mindset of so many modern artists, it’s difficult to know where to begin when considering songs influenced by the German visionaries of the future, or just the many cover versions of such classics as ‘Computer Love’, ‘The Man Machine’ or ‘Autobahn’. Thankfully, that’s where Strictly Kev (aka DJ Food) comes in.

A true fan of all things Kraftwerk, Strictly Kev has built a large collection of cover versions over the years which walk a fine line between sublime homage and downright absurdity. Rock, chiptune, classical and many more styles beyond feature in Kev’s Kraftwerk Kover Kollection. Volumes 1-4 have been available from bosbos.net for some time, but with Kev unleashing volume 6 onto an unsuspecting listening public, it was a good time to round them all up into one neat package for your convenience. Start by downloading the brilliant high-res cover artwork (by Kev, of course) and tracklists here, then fill your boots with the krafty mix werk below…

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This one has already done the rounds a few months back, but if you missed it first time round, now’s your chance to get down with this brutal mix courtesy of King Cannibal. After a couple of promising solo 12-inch efforts released on both Combat and Rag & Bone Records, KC signed up to Ninja Tune in late 2008, cementing his position on the label with the universally acclaimed Aragami Style (the B-side, ‘Flower Of Flesh And Blood’ is more than the equal of the title track – don’t sleep). Put together for Solid Steel, Cannibalism 08 takes you into the mindset of KC, twisting and turning across the drum and bass, jungle and downright rude electronic spectrum. Put it on your speakers, and put King Cannibal on your ‘to watch’ list in 2009. Link and tracklisting after the jump.

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Happy New Year! Welcome to bosbos.net, back for 2009 and still delivering all the aural delights your ears can handle. Here’s a stormer from Steel stalwart Strictly Kev, who never disappoints with this sort of thing – the tracklistings listed within definitely reveal yet another winner. As an extra treat for you, we even have all two hours available for download right here – so start the new year as you mean to go on… Happy New Steel! Over to Kev…

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The year is 2000 and Ninja Tune is a decade old. To celebrate, a new compilation of the Ninja Cuts series is in production, featuring tracks from artists past, present and future. Also in the planning is the first volume in a new mix CD series based around Coldcut’s Solid Steel show, to be included with the compilation as a 3rd disc. The original idea was to include several Ninja artists in the mix, all providing a section each, showcasing their particular skill and choice of music. Jason Swinscoe was going to participate, Ollie Teeba contributed, Mr Scruff was asked and Roots Manuva would be the compere. As time progressed and the deadline approached it quickly became apparent that this idea wasn’t going to happen in time and, dipping our toe into the world of licensing for the first time, we realised other labels didn’t necessarily move at the same pace as us.

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This time round we’re back in the mid to late 90’s with PC and Strictly, aka DJ Food as they take an hour each with very different paths. PC’s mix, labelled ‘African Steel’ on the DAT mixes all manner of percussion together, both old and new, traditional and contemporary. Burundi beats and thumb piano collide with downtempo breaks and Photek on 33rpm instead of 45. Many DJ sets are often described with the tired old cliché of ‘taking you on a journey’, this one zips all over the globe and manages to be in several places all at once.

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The clocks just went back, so what do we do here? Send them forward! We’ve pulled out a more recent show to add to the Vintage Steel selections, but recent doesn’t equal bad… far from it. When Coldcut were offered up a 2 hour slot for the BBC Radio 1’s Essential mix in 2006, they not only took the ball and ran with it, they set the ball on fire, pulled out all sorts of bangers to get the listening nation’s Saturday night going, and threw Raj Pannu in to scratch up a storm. Stream the first half direct from Solid Steel, and download the second right here – and be ready to make them your new warm-up sounds for hitting the town!

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DJ Food (PC & Strictly Kev): Solid Steel 97-99

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.

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Solid Steel – The Herbie Hancock Interview (TX: 01/04/2002)

To say DK and I were excited about this meeting would be an understatement of galactic proportions only equalled by the size of Herbie’s afro in the seventies. From our first encounter with him via ‘Rockit’ (along with virtually every B-Boy-to-be outside of the States in the 80’s) to his jazz, electronic, funk and disco eras we would later discover, this was a very big deal.

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“It’s time for house!” an old jingle would loudly proclaim and this entry starts off with just that. Not many people think of Coldcut or Solid Steel and put House music in the same bag, but there was a time when they were actually quite good buddies. Many early shows and K mixes contain plenty of House, mostly sounding horribly dated now (along with the early jungle excursions). This show is a perfect example of legal KISS FM era Solid Steel, no fancy theme or special guest, just Matt Black and PC doing what they do best – mixing music. They run the gamut from House to Techno, Ambient to Hip Hop, classic Rock and Reggae. They finish with what I think is an unreleased DJ Food track too, although there may be a reason why it remained unreleased.

Strictly Kev

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This week we take a more organic stance on proceedings with a little known treasure nicknamed Solid Wood by PC who, with Jon More, decided to present an entire show from a less electronic viewpoint. Jazz, African, Indian, classical, roots and world – or should that be ‘other world’ – music, all feature heavily instead of the more usual sonic palette of machine-made music. ‘The other side of the other side of Solid Steel’ as PC states at one juncture and it’s hard to disagree as this sounds almost alien compared to present day Steels.

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