I was still playing a lot of disco around Berlin then. And still being mostly informed by formative club experiences and digging finds of my youth. I was actually doing a lot in the there and now too, but if you had so many great memories and experiences, why not use them. Also I was 37 when I recorded this mix, and I never expected to still be playing records in clubs at that age. But instead of retiring I just kept going and granted myself the occasional look back. Also a lot of what I listened to many years ago was now in a revival/reissue loop already, so I never felt guilty.
Jeff Young – My Night Time Syncbeat – Music Hot Gossip – Soul Warfare Secession – Touch Altered Images – I Could Be Happy Thompson Twins – Lies Sharpe & Numan – Change Your Mind 400 Blows – Let The Music Play ABC – Be Near Me Cabaret Voltaire – Dream Ticket DAF – Brothers Clock DVA – The Act Gino Soccio – Turn It Around Frankie Valli – Let It Be Whatever It Is Sparks – Madonna Paul Haig – Running Away The Colourfield – Running Away Scritti Politti – Absolute Sly & Robbie – Make ‘Em Move
Da Real Deal – Space And Time Electrik Bugg – Untitled Octave One – Eniac Alien FM – Art Of Illusion Musicology – Obsessed John Arnold – Universal Mind Heaven 17 – Song With No Name The Connection Machine – Bitflower LFO – Simon From Sydney No Movement No Sound No Memories – Acetate Andy Stott – Replace Dan Curtin – Spliffed Doctor Rockit – Tape Measure Photek – Raenon Carmel – I’m Not Afraid Of You Sensorama – Echtzeit John Carpenter – Street Thunder
I’ve met a fine Englishman on the Discogs message boards named Craig Birmingham aka EvilJack who had excellent taste in music. We corresponded regularly and he asked me to contribute a mix for his blog Special Needs, now defunct as most blogs. Sadly we lost touch over the years but looking back he was one of those fine persons you obsessed together with over music and then get to know better personally, a phenomenon I encountered often on Discogs then, and later in other places. This was before social media went big, mind. But likeminded souls often find their way to each other, no matter how.
John Carpenter – Walking Out Link – Amenity In Sync – Subway Route Hey O Hansen – Moon Robot DJs – Remote Control Brian Harris – Chemistry Unknown DJ – Basstronic Vitamin B – A Headache Terrace – Seventh City Pod – Vanguard Loosefingers – What Is House?
Guest mix for Red Bull Music Academy Radio. I knew people working there and had mixed feelings about contributing, as I was mainly writing for de:bug, which remained independent and limited in terms of budget throughout, whereas the sponsoring of RBMA offered whole other possibilities of content. In short, I was a bit envious of that but would not admit it, and stuck to prejudice. But to be fair, they really made good use of the money. And of course I thought having a mix there would make me instantly famous. It didn’t.
Yoko Ono – It Happened (Edit) Andy Stott – Long Drive Precession – Sandcastle (Mike Huckaby Remix) Isolée – Bleu (Dixon Edit) Dolby A – Klang Voom Voom – Oggi Mute – Basics As One – The Electric Hymn Smoke City – Aguas De Marco (Restless Soul Instrumental) Carl Craig – Butterfly Foremost Poets – Reasons To Be Dismal (Instrumental) Romanthony – Make This Love Right (A Parte Ante) Material – Memories
My first appearance at the seminal Betalounge, live at its premises in Hamburg. I was scheduled to play an old school house/disco night in town so I played what I prepared for that. The location was a place were people were usually hanging out in the afternoon before they hit the nightlife, but I had the whole place dancing at some point. I was particularly honoured that many friends and other DJs showed up, including Vienna’s hip hop legend DSL, whom I always really admired.
You really cannot underestimate the impact of the Betalounge. Operating from San Francisco and Hamburg they were the Boiler Room of those days. Just check their vast archive and you will know what I mean.
Telly Savalas – Looking Back At Thirty David Bowie – Changes Bomb The Bass – Winter In July Marden Hill – Bardot Go-Betweens – Bachelor Kisses Cocteau Twins – Cherry Coloured Funk Elvis Presley – Bridge Over Troubled Water Aphrodite’s Child – Break Terry Callier – Love Theme From Spartacus Rance Allen Group – Ain’t No Need Of Crying Barry White – Let The Music Play Ultra Naté – Funny (How Things Change) Roxy Music – A Really Good Time It’s Immaterial – Homecoming Carole King – Home Again Carly Simon – Coming Around Again Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love Madness – One Better Day
Walker Brothers – I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore Sammy Davis Jr – Love Is Just A Meaningless Word The Fun Boy Three – Alone Soft Cell – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye Issac Hayes – Ike’s Rap II / Help Me Love Everything But The Girl – Fascination Julian Cope – Me Singing Pretty Things – Trust Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding Chapter & The Verse – Lorraine (Memphis Listen To Her) Was (Not Was) – Zaz Turned Blue Richard Ashcroft – Check The Meaning Glenn Gregory – Wichita Lineman Mr. Fingers – Survivor Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods Beach Boys – Disney Girls The Free Design – Memories
Michael, a music enthusiast I got to know on the Discogs message board, had a now defunct blog called Silence is a Rhythm too and asked me if I could provide a mix with something I did not usually publish. So I came up with the idea to do three mixes that contain sad or melancholic songs. The mixes are structured so that they start out really depressing than get a bit less depressing, and end in something vaguely conciliatory. Jan Rikus Hillmann, the art director of de:bug magazine, told me they were world class, which caught me so off guard that I still remember it.
Tuxedomoon – The Cage Lee Hazlewood – The Night Before The Prisoners – Mourn My Health R. Dean Taylor – Sunday Morning Coming Down Yazoo – Winter Kills Simon And Garfunkel – So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright Pet Shop Boys – Your Funny Uncle Paddy McAloon – Sleeping Rough Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 – Pradizer Adeus (To Say Goodbye) Liza Minnelli – For No One Kissing The Pink – All For You Coldcut – Autumn Leaves Rose Royce – Love Don’t Live Here Anymore Jesus Loves You – I Specialize In Loneliness Dee C. Lee – See The Day Human League – Louise The Colourfield – Sorry Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – I’m Glad Matt Monro – And We Were Lovers The Zombies – I Remember When I Loved Her The Carpenters – Rainy Days And Mondays / Goodbye To Love
Some fine folks in the Ruhr area ran a website called Deep Groove, which indeed was a hub for all kinds of deep grooves, and included a lively message board and a good guest mix section. When they asked me for a mix I decided to give them a disco treat. I remember that the mix was pretty popular then, and I am also still really happy with it. It is a good snapshot of the kind of disco I played around Berlin’s disco circuit at the time, which after years of hibernation was growing stronger and stronger. If I may say so, the intro is really something. Mad skills!
Oh, and if you wonder about the title, I nicked it from a George Michael documentary I saw with my friend Stefan Goldmann that year. I liked some early Wham! stuff but I was never too much into his solo career. The only place showing it was a small gay cinema in Berlin-Schöneberg and Stefan persuaded me to join, because he really liked the song Freeek, which I did not like at all. After the film my opinion on George Michael really changed though, and I still have a lot of respect for him. But my favourite moment in the documentary were two elder female fans who were asked what they liked about him. “He’s the boo in my boogie!”, one replied. I could relate to that.
Sinnamon – I Need You Now (Acapella) René & Angela – I Love You More (Mr. K Edit) Brenda Taylor – You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too (Greg Wilson Edit) The Staple Singers – Slippery People Dan Hartman – We Are The Young The System – You Are In My System The The – Giant It’s Immaterial – Space (He Called From The Kitchen…) Thelma Houston – You Used To Hold Me So Tight Cameo – Back And Forth (Dub Mix) ABC – The Night You Murdered Love (The Whole Story) Sleeque – One For The Money Surface – Falling In Love (Special Extended Danny Krivit Extended Re-Edit) Evelyn King – I’m In Love Montana Orchestra – Sal Sold My Beats Donny Hathaway – String Segue Arnie’s Love – I’m Out Of Your Love Michael Wycoff – Looking Up To You Tafuri – What Am I Gonna Do About Your Love? (Silk On Steel – Extended Mix) Tony Silvester & The New Ingredient – Verry White The 5th Dimension – Magic In My Life
Ich gebe zu, Hip House war nicht gerade ein Ausbund an lyrischer Tiefe, doch wenigstens seine Partytauglichkeit ist absolut zu Unrecht in Verleugnung geraten. Bei dieser Platte jedoch passierte eine verblüffende Harmonie von Wumms und Hirn. KC Flightt, der Hip House-New Jersey-Repräsentant, nimmt die Perspektive des Besuchers aus dem Weltraum ein, der seine bissigen Beobachtungen der weißen („Group A“) und schwarzen („Group B“) menschlichen Spezies im urbanen Lebensraum in sein Logbuch notiert. Das erinnert an „Cities“ von den Talking Heads, doch es ist deren „Once In A Lifetime“ das hier als Sample über eine Acidline sinniert, die brummt wie eine Motte im Wandschrank, die über Nacht auf dreißigfache Größe mutiert ist. David Byrne hatte im Videoclip einen Gastauftritt. „And who got the pay? Well, eventually Group A.”
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