COMPETITION TIME

Analogue Bye Bye returns with a rare competition to mark Epic’s remastered reissue of seven Sly & The Family Stone albums. They came out last year with 5 or so bonus tracks on each LP, but Amazon just had them on sale at less than a fiver each! In my overexcited state my purchasing finger was – like Sly himself in the very funny clip above – totally out of control and apparently I bought two of “Theres a Riot Goin’ On“.  So theres an obvious competition prize.

Leave a comment or email to win my spare copy of one of the all time classics (including 4 bonus tracks). The winner will be decided by a fair but totally random method which I’m yet to make up.

Here’s a selection of some of the absolutly incredible music to be found on all seven LP’s. Essential purchases, especially at such bargain prices (the original boxset was 65 quid!).

Sly & The Family Stone – “Dance To The Medley” (MP3)
Sly & The Family Stone – “Time” (MP3)
Sly & The Family Stone – “Positive (Instrumental)” (MP3)

COLDCUT SOLID STEEL

Another rumage through my box of old Solid Steel’s finds shows from the first two months of ‘92.  Theres no faking the funk with Fred Wesley, The Brides Of Funkenstein, Funkadelic and one of my all-time favourite Bootsy Collins tracks.  Fantastically titled, “Munchies for your love” is packed with Bootsy’s trademark bass, chanted backing vocals, all topped off with Mr Collins in full on lothrio mode “hot for your chocolate love!”

Coldcut are in the mix for “Toast N Jam” a reggae/ragga selection featuring fu-snickens, Apache Indian, and Shabba. There are two more mixes in February 92’s show, “Hi Tech Skank” features KT & Hex along with Criminal Minds, while “Future Be-Bop” goes for the funky hip trip hop with DJ Food and Jungle Brothers who’ve always “Got It Like That“.

Lisa Stansfield was doing credible white soul two decades before Winehouse first picked up a crack pipe. As part of Blue Zone tracks like “Big Thing” became Warehouse party favourites, leading Coldcut to sign her up for their pop smash “People Hold On“.  “Time To Make You Mine“, taken from her debut solo album, was treated to a dubbed out blissful remake courtesy of The Orb’s Alex Paterson.

I’ve also included Megauploads of two previously posted shows (I think? I lost track to be honest).  Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego Trippin” (lyrics) is a glorious slice of Afrocentric poetry, with Nikki proclaiming:
“On a trip north I caught a cold and blew my nose
giving oil to the Arab world
I am so hip – even my errors are correct”

Finally its the original version of “Television” by industrial punks The Beatnigs, as reworked by The Disposable Heroes Of HipHopcrisy (featured in an earlier Analogue Bye Bye).

Bootsy Collins – “Munchies For Your Love” (MP3)
Nikki Giovanni – “Ego Trippin” (MP3)
The Beatnigs – “Television (Remix)” (MP3)
Lisa Stansfield – “Time To Make You Mine (The Orb remix)” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel ??/01/92 (Tape 7)” (MP3) 1hr 50
Coldcut – “Solid Steel ??/02/92 (Tape 10)“ (MP3) 1hr 51
Coldcut – “Solid Steel 08/02/92 (Tape ” (MP3 – Megaupload click, dont right click) 1hr 50
Coldcut – “Solid Steel ??/02/92 (Tape 9)” (MP3 – Megaupload click, dont right click) 1hr 13

Check out the Solid Steel site for new shows, and Bosbos.net for more official trips into the archive (every post so far is a classic).

25 years ago this month Greg Wilson became the first UK DJ to mix Live on national TV when he demonstrated his skills on the 1’s and 2’s to a rather flummoxed looking Jools Holland.

Jools: “Don’t you think the scratching thing… might annoy the people who spent all that time making the records?”

Visit Greg’s site for tonnes of fascinating historical goodness, and myspace for proof aplenty of his equally stellar future.

SOLID STEEL

Coldcut’s legendary Solid Steel radio showis a relative whippersnapper at only 20 years old this year, but they’re marking the occasion by releasing classic shows from the archive. Bosbos.net is the place to go for official shows dating all the way back to the pirate radio days of ‘88.

On this site I’ll be continuing with the irregular MP3’s of old shows that have proven surprisingly popular for something I thought was a tad self indulgent when I started putting them up early last year. As always apologies for the questionable audio quality, the haphazard pause button editing, and the all too frequent points where Id either nod off or forget to flip the tape over!

Coldcut – “Solid Steel 08/02/92” (MP3)

Jazzy Joint – “Give A Little Love” (MP3)
Rebel MC – “Rich Ah Getting Richer” (MP3)
Acen – “Close Your Eyes (Here Come the Sun mix)” (MP3)

This edition from early February ‘92 starts off in typical “broadest beats” style with The Sex Pistols rubbing shoulders with the Rebel MC. There’s a Coldcut Nervous Records Mastermix featuring Jazzy Joints “People Hold On” sampling “Give A Little Love“, which Jon jokingly threatens to get the lawyers on.

With Bobby Konders, Tito Puente, Shut Up And Dance and a 2nd mix titled “Nervous System” its pretty much a typically untypical show. Acen’s rave classic “Close Your Eyes” continues the cheeky sampling theme with huge slurps from George Harrison. It landed them in court at the time, and Coldcut see the funny side saying “In America they put you in the electric chair for sampling like that!“.

Redefining the word “weekly” its been two months since the last of the promised weekly trawls through my analogue past. I should probably bin the piles of dusty VHS’s but when the first one you put in comes up with some vintage punk funk go-go goodness from The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, I just can’t do it.

The Word was essential “back from the pub” viewing in the 90’s, with its winning combination of granny snogging, shabba ranks baiting, and debut tv appearances from the likes of Oasis and Nirvana. As Terry Christian introduces the Disposables, Michael Franti launches into a tirade about the producers of the show cutting an anti-homophobia poem he was to read to make room for a piece on breast enlargement. Pulling his shirt off to reveal “FUCK HOMOPHOBIA” scrawled on his chest, he and fellow Hero, Rono Tse then launch into an absolutely storming version of The Dead Kennedy’s “California Uber Ales“.

The Late Show was BBC2’s late night high brow arts programme, most famous for the power cut they suffered during a Stone Roses performance (YouTube)  prompting Ian Brown to mutter on air about “Fucking amateurs“. It did however feature some classic live music, in this case from the Disposables again with “Famous & Dandy (Like Amos & Andy)“. Its worth watching for the posh presenters description of the band, not to mention her jumper and specs.

TONY WILSON
Tony Wilson’s death was marked by websites, and music fans across the globe, but I thought I’d post the Newsnight  from that evening.  Richard Madeley in particular has some great anecdotes, along with Paul Morley and Peter Saville.  I hastily edited the piece looking back at Tony’s life, and its a hell of a task to fit even a 10th of everything he did into a few short minutes. A true legend!

COLDCUT SOLID STEEL

Another vintage show from the box of old Solid Steels, and a request that if anyone has a copy of the opening track, Shazam’s “We Are The Terrible Two” I’d love an MP3 (please ). Featuring in this show from January 92 are The Orb, 69, Rakim, Fela Kuti and my own personal favourite a rarely heard dub version of the Longsy D produced “Searchin‘” by China Black (I’ll dig my vinyl copy out soon). All that and a hip hop mastermix from the hosts, including Chubb Rock, Gangstar, Stetsasonic, the Jungle Brothers and more.

Supercat – “Nuff man dead” (MP3)

Eric B & Rakim – “Know the ledge” (MP3)

Masters At Work – “Blood Vibes” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel Jan 1992(Tape6)” (MP3) - (1hr 20mins)

Solid Steel is still going strong: Podcast here

I’m Valencia bound to the Benicassim festival for a dose of sun stroke, alcohol poisoning, and hopefully fine music.

Normal service may resume on my return, but first another crusty old edition of Coldcut’s Solid Steel radio show.

Back roughly 15 years for the classic Junior Reid sampling “Blood Vibes” from the Masters At Work, some shameless self publicity with Ninjatune’s Raggadelic Roots, and an old school Reggae ending courtesy of Marley, The Wailing Souls and Aswad. Crammed in between, a Coldcut R&S megamix, and a bit of lefty politics, “Privatise The Air” from Gary Clail and the Barmy Army, that’s as relevant in Gordon’s Britain as it was back in 1992.

Wailing Souls – “Mr Fire Core Man” (MP3)

Gary Clail & Barmy Army – “Privatise The Air” (MP3)

Human Resource – “Dominator” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel ??/01/92” (Tape 5) ( (MP3) – running time 1min 29″

Solid Steel is still going strong: Podcast here

The first show (14th Nov 91) has Jon stumbling over how to pronounce Fu-Schnickens, Acid Jazz from the Subterraneans, 3 garage cuts, along with two Coldcut mastermixes. “Funk Box Funk Up” mashes up the early roots of hip hop, while “Future Beat Bop” mixes up some Jungle Brothers with break beats from the likes of DJ Food. There’s also “Asemi Gusta Me” by Kemo Baio, obviously the Ibiza hit of the year which Matt pulls mid way through declaring “it sounded pretty good out there… but its terrible”.

Subterraneans – “Taurus Woman” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel 14/11/91” (MP3)

Next up a show from mid December 91 featuring a superb “Quite A Bit Dope” megamix from Coldcut, including Masters At Work, PE, and The Quanzai Posse. There’s an early bit of Carl Craig in his 69 guise, and a tasty bit of Nu Groove from The Barnyard Orchestra.

69 – “Ladies & Gentlemen” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel 15/12/91” (MP3)

Solid Steel is still going strong: Podcast here
Look out for a review and pics of Jarvis Cocker’s frankly mental Disney tribute in the next few days (night shift permitting!)

Analogue Bye Bye – A weekly dip into the piles of old vhs’s, tapes and vinyl taking over my flat before they’re sent to the great format heaven in the sky (otherwise known as landfill). The only problem being I haven’t managed to put stuff up weekly yet, and the postmen keeps arriving with fresh vinyl despite my best efforts not to click BUY. Anyway on with the music.

Along with Coldcut, Bomb The Bass & The Beatmasters, S-Express were one of the heavy weights of the 1988/89 period when dance music first stormed the UK charts. In what seemed like an instant the leaden over produced sound of 80’s guitar bands were overwhelmed by kids with samplers and over active imaginations (oh and maybe a little chemical help too).

Sampling and cheap recording technology meant that every release could plunder a different style or genre, so Coldcut’s second hit “Stop This Crazy Thing” fused go-go with reggae, the Beatmasters came correct with Hip House, and Bomb The Bass flipped from the sampladelic joys of “Beat Dis” to UK Soul re-workings of Aretha Franklin.

In keeping with this spirit of anything goes eclecticism, S-Express main man Mark Moore called in avante-garde composer Philip Glass to remix their third single “Hey Music Lover“. Glass had raved about the post modern delights of S-Express on BBC2’s The Late Show, and Mark subsequently took the composer to an acid house club where legend has it Glass stood for a few hours head down listening intently before declaring “OK I think I’ve got the general idea“.

The track I’m posting is not the “Glass Cut” itself but the “Miller Mash Glass Smash” in which William Orbit fused together elements of the Philip Glass, Kurt Munkasci and Daniel Miller remixes. Its a demented 5 minutes 25″ of synth stabs, burbling bass lines, choral fragments and orchestra samples that blew my mind along with my speakers the first time I put it on. Minimalism meets the sampler with fantastic effect.

S-Express’s debut album “Original Soundtrack” remains a bit of a classic of the era, and “Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes” is one of my favourite cuts. Its a warped disco house love story featuring MC Merlin as the big bragging rapper who has the money and the attitude but by the end is broken declaring “I feel so empty..last night on the sofa I cried man, I cried, for the first time in ten years I cried… I cried over you girl” Backing this up are the strident vocals of Billie Ray Martin, the chanteuse from the brilliant Electribe 101 (who I really must return to in a later post). Merlin breaks down as the chorus chants “Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes” and Billie roars about “South Africa burning“… it should be a total mess of ideas and concepts… actually it kind of is, but what a glorious mess!

S-Express – “Hey Music Lover (Miller Mash Glass Smash” (MP3)

S-Express – “Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes” (MP3)

SOLID STEEL ARCHIVE

Dusting off another old Solid Steel tape takes us back to October 1991, and yet again a great show (was it ever anything less)? There’s hip-hop from Anttex, De La Soul and the World Famous Supreme Team, reggae from Sister Carol, and two mixes from Coldcut themselves (the second featuring Doc Scott & The Black Dog). The broadest beats as ever!

Coldcut – “Solid Steel 19/10/91” (MP3) (1hr 31min)

Solid Steel is still going strong: Podcast here

Finally I’m back with another root through my old tape boxes, and racks of vinyl in search of a few long lost classics. This week its a Steve Stein aka Steinski Special.

The influence of Steinski can be seen throughout the last 20 years of music, from De La Soul and Coldcut, right up to more recent artists like The Avalanches and DJ Shadow. When Stein and his friend Double Dee entered a contest to remix “Play That Beat, Mr. D.J.” by G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid in 1983, little did they know they would A: win and B: the resulting record “Lesson 1 – The Payoff mix” would still be talked about in hallowed tones some 24 years later!

What makes Steinski’s work stand out from the plethora of sample based musicians that followed him is the sheer breadth of music, speech, and humour he manages to cram into his records. Groucho Marx sits happily alongside James Brown, early Hip-Hop, Blondie and Hernando’s Hideaway.

It wasn’t until 1987 that Steinski actually officially released anything, making use of his day job in advertising to get around copyright issues, he created a “cut and paste” record without any actual samples. Everything on “We’ll Be Right Back” was recorded specially, and in some cases dirtied up to sound more genuine. It drove anoraks and train spotters mad trying to figure where he’d got those samples from!

Recently he set up his own site/blog posting everything from political comment, vaudeville comedy, and best of all some new mixes. There are two mixes available, both of which are brilliant, and to get them all you have to do is email Steinski himself at infoATsteinski.com (change the AT to @) and he’ll send you a link. He does actually write back, so its worth just dropping him a line anyway.

I’m going to post one of the mixes “Live from the Basement 7.2” so grab it while you can, and mail Steve for the other one. Everyone makes mixes these days but not everyone creates a horse race that doubles as a satire on marital relations just to kick it off. Pure genius as always. Stonking Tina Turner cuts, a big band version of the “900 Number”, and the Jungle Brothers, its everything you expect from Stein, i.e.: the totally unexpected!

Steinski – “Live from the Basement 7.2” (MP3) – Recommended!!!

Read: 1986 Village Voice article on Steinski

BOB’S MEDIA ECOLOGY

In 1992 Steinski & Coldcut both produced remixes for a Producers For Bob album, featuring the post-modern religion “Church of the sub genius“. Led by the pipe smoking Bob Dobbs (who may have died in 1984), the church is centred on the idea of slackness, i.e. freedom, independence, and original thinking. Not surprisingly its humorous take on religion coupled with motto’s like “Fuck ‘Em If They Can’t Take A Joke” makes the Sub genius’s very popular with students especially.

The MP3 featured is Steinski’s Main mix of “Everything’s Disappeared“, but its well worth tracking down the Ninjatune 12″ or the album for more mixes by Coldcut & Negitivland, not to mention the thoughts of Bob himself.

“You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half of ‘em are even dumber than THAT.”

Producers For Bob – “Everything’s Disappeared (Steinski’s Main mix)” (MP3)

Church of The Sub Genius : Website / Wiki

SOLID STEEL ARCHIVE

My first dip into my crusty old collection of Solid Steel’s seemed to go down well, so here’s another featuring Steinski from early 1992 (I think).
Steve talks about music being his hobby, how he made Motorcade and We’ll Be right back, and he also plays a couple of live jams from “The Worlds Greatest Soul Dance” parties he used to throw in New York. There’s a rough mix of the original Gulf War satire “Its Up To You” that was eventually released on Ninjatune, and a Coldcut / Steinski studio jam called “Television“.

Coldcut – “Solid Steel 15 (Steinski Special ‘92)” (MP3) (1hr 25min) – sorry the audio quality is terrible!

Steinski – “It’s Up To You (Ruff mix)” (MP3)
Coldcut & Steinski – “Television” (MP3) – including Matt Black forgetting to turn the fader up at the start
The Mass Media Orchestra – “Live” (MP3)

Steinski’s Blog for more mixes, MP3’s and goodness.
Solid Steel is still going strong: Podcast here

Admitting your weaknesses is the first step to defeating them, or so say the self help books. My problem is Analogue… I just can’t let it go.

A thousand or more vinyl, piles of VHS’s, stacks of Minidiscs (Thanks to Ian for correctly spotting they’re not analogue), and two large boxes of badly labelled cassettes. They are my cultural history, the story of my musical education, but they’re are also very dusty, and a point comes where I either open Walthamstow’s very first museum of defunct audiovisual formats or with a tear in my eye they go to the landfill!

And so to this new weekly feature, a bye bye to my analogue as I reclaim my flat from the unsightly teetering piles of my history. The unkind among you could label the feature “My Old Crap… Your Hard Drive”, but hopefully I’ll operate a bit of quality control, and unearth a few lost classics along the way. The focus of this blog remains firmly on new music, but I’ll be having a weekly shameless wallow in the past too

JUSTIFIED AND ANCIENT

When they weren’t busy torching a million pounds or machine gunning the audience at the Brits, the KLF (and their various alter-ego’s) created music as idiosyncratic and unexpected as their non musical exploits.

As something of a JAM’s collector I thought I knew most of the versions of “What Time Is Love?”, but a tape of Italian house versions given to me by a work mate during a hideous summer working in McDonald’s was always a puzzle.

Of course today digging it out with the power of the internet I’d discovered what it was within 5 minutes. “What Time Is Love?” was so popular across Europe that it spawned at least 18 different cover versions, and The KLF rather than bemoan this, decided instead to gather a few of the best together and release them as “The What Time Is Love Story”. As always with the KLF doubt surround this story with some people claiming that all the versions were actually recorded by the KLF themselves.

JAMS LP4 – The “What Time Is Love?” Story

1. The KLF — “What Time Is Love?” (Original)
2. Dr. Felix — “Relax Your Body” (MP3)
3. K.L.F.S. — “What Time Is Love?” (Italian Mix)
4. Liaisons D. — “Heartbeat” (MP3)
5. Neon — “No Limit (Dance Mix 4′58)”
6. The KLF — “What Time Is Love?” (Live at the Land of Oz) (MP3)

While Im at it I cant resist sharing the brilliant Brass Band version taken from “Acid Brass“ an album of brass band cover versions of Acid house classics. The album is worth buying for the “Voodoo Ray” cover alone.

Acid Brass – “What Time Is Love?“ (MP3)

3 FEET HIGH & RISING

I did have a freshly converted VHS to share, but then I stumbled across this De La Soul press kit/MTV feature from 1989 on YouTube, and frankly a bit of vintage daisy age beats everything! Watch and enjoy while I hunt in the loft to see if I can still fit into my “This Is My De La Soul T-shirt” Tshirt.

SOLID STEEL ARCHIVE

Coldcut’s legendary Solid Steel show introduced me to so much of the music I love today, from Fela Kuti to Mark E Smith, they always lived up to their “the broadest beats in london” tagline. I’ve been listening and taping from the KissFM pirate era right up until BBC London pulled the show a few years ago (although its still available online and on radio across the world).
Its probably a bit of a minority interest but I’m going to post an old show every week… well that’s if I can work out any details (I was never any good at marking up my recordings). I’ll also pick out a highlight from the show or top track.
Listening takes me back to the excitement of trying (and often failing) to stay awake till the 1am-3am slot, and the magical musical treasures that tumbled from the speakers each and every week.

Th highlight of this show from sometime in 1991/92 (help?) was a Coldcut remix of “Strobelite Honey” by The Black Sheep, which as far as Im aware never got released. On a later show Matt Black said “record company bullshit” stopped it coming out.

Black Sheep – “Strobelite Honey (Coldcut remix)” (MP3)

Coldcut – “Solid Steel show” (unknown date sometime in 1991/92???) (MP3)
feat. Criminal Minds “Baptised by Dub“, The Orb, Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopcrisy “Television” & Public Enemy “Shut ‘Em Down“.