Analogue Bye Bye *1

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“.