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

Download: BosBos - Seasonal Sounds Series #01 - Summer ‘08 (1hr, 192Kbps MP3, 83MB)

Tracklisting

01. Introduction
02. The Whispers ~ Cruisin’ In
03. SASS ~ Much Too Much
04. Yelle ~ Ce Jeu
05. Mr. Flash ~ Eagle Eyez
06. Buju Banton ~ Driver A
07. Group Home ~ Supa Star
08. Sade ~ Kiss Of Life
09. Junko Mabuki ~ Wake Mo Naku
10. Garnegy & Maties ~ Commentaires
11. Etienne De Crécy ~ Relax
12. Midnight Star ~ Midas Touch
13. Uffie ~ First Love
14. Janet Jackson ~ The Pleasure Principle (Eli Edit)
15. Cut Copy ~ Far Away
16. New Young Pony Club ~ The Get Go
17. Fin.

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

Download: J. Rocc - Syndromes 2 (1hr, 79MB)

Tracklisting

1. Phil Ranelin - Vibes From The Tribe (Tribe)
2. Archie Whitewater - Cross Country (Cadet)
3. Junior Mance - Tin Tin Deo (Jazzland)
4. Michael Jackson - Ain’t No Sunshine (Motown)
5. Bill Withers - Can We Pretend (Sussex)
6. The Electric Prunes - Holy Are You (Reprise)
7. Dennis Coffey - Whole Lot Of Love (Sussex)
8. Lou Donaldson - You’re Welcome, Stop On By (Blue Note)
9. Monk Higgins - One Man Band (Plays All Alone) (Buddah)
10. Dorothy Ashby - Come Live With Me (Cadet)
11. Cecil Holmes - I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More (Buddah)
12. Les McCann - Benjamin (Pacific Jazz)
13. Ramsey Lewis - Julia (Cadet)
14. Ahmad Jamal - The World Is A Ghetto (20th Century)
15. Lou Donaldson - Ode To Billy Joe (Blue Note)
16. Bill Deal - Tuck’s Theme (Heritage)

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)

About to tour North American with Coldcut in 2000, I wanted to put together a promo CD that I could give away on the tour and thus took three sections from some of my favourite Solid Steel shows that year and put them together on 2 CDs. Among the usual DK mix of old and new, are Yush 2K - Fade Away (which made the short list for Now, Listen), The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds given an excellent remix by Danny Tenaglia, Big Dada Allstars with their Planet Rock homage “Showtime”, Little Richard and Love on the breaks and beats. On the reggae front, Merciless, Cutty Ranks, Sean Paul, Burning Spear and King Tubby all make an appearance, Club favourites of the time were Solomon Funk, Re-Return of the Original Artform and Ozomatli (both getting the Cut Chemist lick) and 7 inch pressure from Eddie Warner and the Backyard Heavies.

Solid Steel only had a basic logo at that time and, needing some packaging, I enrolled the skills of Strictly Kev to design the artwork for the double CD. The started point was an Audio Obstacle Course Stereo test record we both had and the design became a template for the real series that followed. Dubbed as the first “unofficial” Solid Steel mix CD, with it’s own catalogue no. SSDK01, the two CDs came housed in a double plastic wallet with printed colour insert and were only sold at shows on Coldcut’s ‘Let Us Replay’ tour.

Download: DK - Solid Steel SSDK01 CD2 (58mins, 79MB)

Tracklisting

1. Major Force - Re-Return Of The Original Artform (Cut Chemist Remix) (Mo Wax)
2. Hi-C - I Don’t Know (Sleeping Bag)
3. Solomon Funk - Rock Me Again (Howlin’ Records)
4. Organized Konfusion - Open Your Eyes (Hollywood Basic)
5. Herbie Hancock - Chameleon (Columbia)
6. Shawn Lee - Disappearance Of The Man (We Love You)
7. Lee Michaels - Tell Me How Do You Feel (A&M)
8. Ozomatli - Cut Chemist Suite (Almo Sounds)
9. Trouble Funk - Hey Fellas (Sugar Hill)
10. Lola - Wax The Van (Jump Street)
11. Cedar - Golden (Cookin’)
12. Eddie Warner - Devil’s Anvil (Jazzman)
13. Backyard Heavies - Expo ‘83 (Scepter Records)
14. Love - Doggone (Blue Thumb)
15. Funkmaster Flex - Safe Sex, No Freaks (Wreck Records)
16. Jill Scott - Love Rain (Accapella) (Hidden Beach)
17. Sean Paul - Infiltrate (2 Hard Recordings)
18. Burning Spear - Slavery Days (Mango Records)
19. King Tubby - Keep On Dubbing (Clocktower Records)

Play that beat, Mr DJ! Yet another classic unearthed from the Solid Steel vaults/crates/someplace dark. Strictly Kev and DK take you on a lesson (1,2,3, etc etc etc) in hip hop history as they get together with Double Dee and Steinski for a memorable interview that, even if you think you know your lessons, are sure to be even more clued up by listening in. Rather than stick with a dry format, Kev has patched in all the classic beats, cuts and samples to keep everything flowing nicely. It’s not so much like listening to an interview, more like snatching pieces of a conversation between like-minded types in the back room of the record store where every anecdote will prick your ears up. Part 1 is streamable now from Ninja Tune on the 11/04/2008 show, part 2 downloadable below (in 2 parts, see below for the details). Let’s hand it over to Kev!

‘Now We Come To The Payoff’ - Double Dee & Steinski Special TX: 26/08/02

Back in the spring of 2002 I visited New York for ten days on a kind of research meets shopping meets work trip. My main reason was to go through the archives and gather material at Sesame Street for a (now shelved) compilation of old material for possible release on Ninja Tune. The other reason was to hang out with Steinski and make a tune for his forthcoming record. Unfortunately his work rate is about the same as mine - neither of our ‘forthcoming records’ is actually here yet and all we managed to create was a 16 bar chorus for a song while I was there (woohoo!).

The first two days of the visit coincided with DK being in the city on business as well and we had wanted to pin down Steinski for an interview so that we could do a special on him prior to the ‘release’ of his forthcoming Nothing To Fear mix. This had originally been made for Solid Steel and had become the monster that we now know, taking nearly 18 months to complete all told. Even better news came in the form of Stein persuading Douglas ‘Double Dee’ DiFranco to be present at the interview, something they hadn’t done since the 80’s. We intended to cover their career, from the Tommy Boy contest win and the Lessons through Steve’s solo years and their rediscovery and return in the late 90’s to a new generation of heads.

All four of us met for sushi beforehand near Douglas’ studio and broke the ice, I had known Stein for about 4 years but had never met Douglas. He graciously let us record the session in the studio where he worked on various jobs for ads and film and we settled in for a two hour history lesson. We covered virtually everything including the aborted ‘Lesson 4′ sessions that Stein had casually mentioned a few days before (unknown to virtually everyone until then). Douglas miraculously produced his tape of Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Crunge’, cut into 4/4 time - which he’d done to make the beat for the opening of ‘Lesson 3′ - except this was the whole song, he hadn’t stopped when the vocal came in.

After the interview Stein dug up old cassette tapes he had made as party invites back in the 80’s, largely unheard music from his time back in ‘adland’ in the 90’s and various artefacts like the original Tommy Boy competition letter that started them on their way. Back in the UK I assembled all this alongside the tracks we talked about, the original breaks they had sampled and the various other Lesson homages into a two hour show that I am proud to call one of my finest moments on radio. The total material went over the two hour radio slot so we streamed the longer version of the mix over the net. Part 2 of this upload has all the extra material in it, over 12 minutes.

A few things that happened around this mix:

During the interview we mentioned the duo’s remix of Dimitri From Paris’ ‘Une Very Stylish Fille’ which they were both very dismissive of. Back home I tried in vain to find my copy and eventually had to leave the section out because I had no sound to sync it with. Later on, after the show had aired, I found my copy.

I took the various takes of the uncompleted ‘Lesson 4′ that Steve gave to me and comped them into a ‘what could have been’ version specially for the show. This was later bootlegged on the second ‘Ultimate Lessons’ compilation from the Real Audio stream that the show was broadcast on at the time. It was credited to Solid Steele…

This was the first time most people heard excerpts from Stein’s ‘Nothing To Fear’ mix - originally scheduled to be the third Solid Steel mix in the series on Ninja Tune. Due to licensing problems (some things never change, huh?) not all the tracks could be licensed and Steve was unwilling to pull it apart and redo sections (understandably, given the time it had taken). It appeared anyway when someone stole the master tape and bootlegged it, we like to think of it as Solid Steel two and a half.

The beginning of Part 2 here features a 45 second radio ad I put together that played on BBC London Live in the week before the show, including ‘professional voice overs’. As we recorded the interview there were numerous fluffs and outtakes which I comped together afterwards for the four of us to hear. These can be heard, for the first time publicly, after a short pause at the end of Part 2.

There were around 10 special CDs made, complete with artwork, some with the short Radio version and some with the Extended version + outtakes. The artwork is featured here, again for the first time.

Steve and I never finished our track which was intended to be, I believe, a kind of psychedelic funk gospel thing with a preacher shouting out old time dances in the chorus…

For more info on the dynamic duo head over to Steinski’s blog, a mixture of music, politics, copyright commentary and other such ephemera. Forthcoming is a 2 CD retrospective of their work on Illegal Art and a live CD of their opening set in NYC on the Hard Sell tour.

Strictly Kev

• steinski.com
• steinski.com/blog/coming_soon
• illegalart.net

Download: Strictly Kev - ‘The Return, Stein’s Solo Years and ‘Nothing To Fear’ - Double Dee & Steinski (1hr 16min)

[PART 1][PART 2] *use winrar to expand the files*

Tracklisting

1. Afrika Bambaataa + Jazzy 5 - Jazzy Sensation (The Jazz Mix) (Tommy Boy)
2. The Kryptic Krew - Jazzy Sensation (Manhattan Version) (Tommy Boy)
3. Double Dee & Steinski - Voicemail (Sugarhill Suite) (Sugarhill)
4. Tony Touch - He’s the Greatest DJ (Double Dee & Steinski remix) (Tommy Boy)
5. Steinski & Mass Media/DJ ET - The Motorcade Sped On (Tommy Boy)
6. Steinski & Mass Media - We’ll Be Right Back (Main/Dub) (4th & B’Way)
7. Steinski & Mass Media/DJ ‘Sugar’ Kane - Let’s Play It Cool (Club Mix) (4th & B’Way)
8. Steinski & Mass Media - It’s Up To You (D.O.V/Ninja Tune)
9. Producers For Bob - Everything’s Disappeared (Warehouse Mix) (Ninja Tune)
10. Coldcut - I’m Wild About That Thing (The Lost Sex Tapes: Position 1) (Ninja Tune)
11. Various - The Xen To One Ratio (Ninja Tune)
12. Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On (CDR)
13. Foxy Brown - Hot Spot (Terrible Love) (CDR)
14. Nelly - Country Grammar (Hydro) (CDR)
15. Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On (Reprise) (CDR)
16. Diana Ross - Muscles (CDR)
17. Martin Brew/MC Enuff - Hit The Disco (CDR)
18. De La Soul - The Art of Getting Jumped (CDR)
19. The JB’s Express - I Like it Like That (CDR)
20. Jon Martyn - Solid Air (The Junk Mood) (CDR)

War is bad. Perhaps the only good thing about war is how it inspires people to rise up and make their voices heard, however much some of our nations’ politicans choose to ignore them. Musicians often step into the breach, being in an enviable position to reach people on a wider scale. Strictly Kev covers off plenty of tracks in ‘War Is Stupid’, a perfectly titled mix encompassing the thoughts of artists compelled enough to put their feelings (in this case, about the Iraq conflict) into their music. Part 1 is streamable now from Ninja Tune on the 28/03/2008 show, part 2 downloadable below. Words from Kev after the jump.

2003 wasn’t a great year in terms of feeling proud to be British as the UK joined the US in ‘The War On Terror’, despite the biggest public protest the country had ever seen. On the five year anniversary it’s disheartening to think that the largest coverage of the war in the papers was for Prince Harry’s return from ’service’, but public opinion was more angst than apathy five years ago. What does this have to do with Solid Steel though? Music never changed anything in the world of politics did it? and most attempts to marry the two come across as heavy handed and preachy, right? That’s up for debate but it’ sure is a great release and here’s a selection of songs and soundbites that express the frustration I felt during the first months of that year.

A month before the war in Iraq kicked off I put together an hour of war-themed tracks for the show, entitled ‘War Is Not The Answer’. Some are commentary on previous wars, some poke fun, some are there purely because they have a war-related title but all relate to the central theme. Jockey Slut liked it so much that they put it in their Office Listening list the next month. Solid Steel has not been as politically conscious as it once was when Coldcut helmed it on a regular basis and these shows go some way to redressing that balance.

Two months later, still frustrated by the events unfolding, I produced another mix - ‘War Is Stupid’ - this time featuring recent tracks, mash ups and commentary gathered from the web. Many artists reacted to the events by putting together music (DJ Shadow, Zack De La Rocha, Saul Williams, Chris Morris) or mixes (DJ Spooky, Z-Trip, IDC) and the quality was outstanding. Also there was a surprising amount of music from the time of the invasion of Kuwait, headed by Bush Senior, that sounded like aural déjá vu.

Some of the pairings of music and spoken word create little moods that are amongst my favourite collages. Sigue Sigue Sputnick segueing into Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ which, in turn, rides into Consolidated’s ‘We Gotta Have Peace’ which soon samples his “War Is not the answer” line. A voice asks, “Just how would you describe war as a musical?” over War’s ‘Four Cornered Room’, to which they reply “Zum, zuum, zooom” and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’’s Holly Johnson fades in singing, “Oh no, there’s got to be a better way” from their cover of Edwin Starr’s ‘War’. The brutal assault of Time Zone’s ‘World Destruction’ gets switched down to the wrong speed and is immediately overlaid with Zach De La Rocha and DJ Shadow’s ‘March of Death’ to which Bambaataa continues to add backing “Uhh!”s. There are a load more but I digress… all the music and speech is here for a reason, either to shout it’s message or create a suitable mood, not to compete with the latest trend or act as promo.

These mixes were both put together on decks and then overdubbed and edited in the computer from the time that the show resided at BBC London Live. I also performed a version of the second set at Autechre’s All Tomorrow’s Parties gig in Camber Sands, arriving late and flustered, virtually going straight on stage and throwing records left right and centre. There was plenty of anti-war propaganda art going on as well and I’ve included a ‘best of’ selection of images I found at the time to illustrate this post.

Strictly Kev

Download: Strictly Kev - War Is Stupid (1hr, 83MB)

Tracklisting

1. Time Zone - World Destruction (Industrial Remix) (Celluloid)
2. Zack De La Rocha/DJ Shadow - March Of Death (MP3)
3. Trouble Funk - Drop The Bomb (Sugarhill)
4. Organised Konfusion - Prisoners Of War (Hollywood Basic)
5. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Satanic Reverses (4th & B’way)
6. The The - Sweet Bird Of Truth (Some Bizarre)
7. Kurtis Blow - America (Dub/Original) (Mercury)
8. Coldcut feat. Sweet Toothed Sonny - Acid Drops (Bomb The Mix) (Record Mirror)
9. Unknown - The Duke Of Hazzards (Unknown)
10. Bill Hicks - The War (MP3)
11. The The - Heartland (Some Bizarre)
12. IDC - Safe From Us (MP3)
13. Saul Williams - Made You Look (Freestyle) (MP3)
14. Organised Konfusion - Drop Bombs (Hollywood Basic)
15. Tackhead - Mind At The End Of The Tether (On-U Sound)
16. S’Express - Coma 2 (AM/OK) (Rhythm King)
17. The KLF - America No More (KLF Communications)
18. Jello Biafra - Die For Oil Sucker (MP3)
19. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Winter Of The Long Hot Summer (4th & B’way)
20. Roberta Flack - Compared To What? (Atlantic)
21. Timmy Thomas - Why Can’t We Live Together? (Polydor)
22. Whingy Manone - Stop The War (MP3)

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)

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.