So we watched all the documentaries about the lovey dovey OSOL ’67. We lit the incense, we sat in, we hallucinated, we free loved. We paid our yippietastic dues and questioned authority. But as we are forever the druff types, we also spared a thought for the losers of the movement. The young, the clueless, the outcasts. The teenage rampagers who only had some cheap lysergic kool aid, wrecked amps and a stained garage. But do they had visions, and righteous anger. Paisley shirts and miniskirts, and black boots stomping over the suburbs. If you thought you could shake your shimmy, reconsider. We got the Rebel Yell, the Super Fuzz, the prose to crunch the system and the daze and confusion of a whole generation.
And now it’s time to… Kick Out The Jams, Motherfuckers!!!
The Stoics – Hate The Haunted – 1-2-5 The Fallen Angels – Bad Woman Velvet Illusions – Velvet Illusions The Music Machine – Wrong The Remains – Don’t Look Back The Squires – Going All The Way Velvet Illusions – Acid Head The Painted Ship – Frustration Caretakers Of Deception – Cuttin’ Grass The Electras – Action Woman Outcasts – 1523 Blair The Fugs – Frenzy White Light – William The Omens – Searching Teddy & His Patches – Suzy Creamcheese The United States Of America – The Garden Of Earthly Delights Unrelated Segments – Where You Gonna Go Keith Kessler – Don’t Crowd Me Vejtables – Shadows The Music Machine – Come On In The Jades Of Fort Worth – Don’t Bring Me Down Minds Eye – Help I’m Lost The Bees – Voices Green And Purple The Balloon Farm – A Question Of Temperature The Velvet Underground – Radio Ad The Fugs – Turn On/Tune In/Drop Out The Conception Corporation – Acid Rescue Service Wendell Austin – L.S.D.
2007 was the year D*ruffalo was born. It was a semi-anonymous collective and a webzine established to feature aspects of club and pop culture we loved and to terrorize anybody responsible for aspects of club and pop culture we did not love at all. It started on MySpace, of all places, and later we published on our own webspace druffmix.com, which ran on the server of the Innervisions label, until we made too much fun of them as well and they pulled the plug. So D*ruffalo is defunct, but you can still find traces via Wayback Machine or Instagram. Here are the people responsible for all the madness:
From left to right: Editor 5 (Sebastian Gaiser aka Icasol), Editor 6 (Holger Klein aka DJ Groover Klein), Editor 1 (me), Editor 2 (Michael Kummermehr aka King Kummi), Editor 4 (Marc Schaller aka Schalli) and lying down (Sebastian Dresel aka DJ Seebase)
Here is the inaugural manifesto:
“the high life versus the lowlives! hello this is the editorial executive team of DRUFFALO, the pravda which is born to lead not to read. Some say we are cut-and-paste-punks with no html skills, others say we are a group of directional dressers running black ops from the shadows of glamour, the most clued up, edgiest, strongest and smartest lame ass crusties in town…towns in fact. we love ibiza raves, 80s synthie pop, salsoul, punk and rockabilly. we love northern soul dos and reggae soundclashs, hip hop backrooms and rock’n’roll bars.we are acid house and football. we love beer and champagne, apc and stone island. ok people say we are gay nuyorican amateur football casuals riding scooters in dior homme suits and red wayfarers (optional bjorn borg tops and adidas rom) who love to listen to new wave and dance to disco – so what? actually we are a secret cabal of ueberhipsters with a serious attention deficiency syndrome who during daytime disguise as nerds. as a very smart man from across the river danube has wisely put it: Un ballo nuovo porta ritmo nei fiancho della cittá Ci vendiamo, trovimo, chiediamo che cosa si fa Ma non cercate die volori, e magari sensation La notte e’nostra fin al mattino abbiamo illusion no E’la fine del viaggino, ce’ sempre un domani e Ci sono dimensioni, con illusioni e sensazioni. Give me more … Young romans – there is a night before each day and that price is still to pay Never stop this old erosion phantastic voyage……. and if you have something to say (or believe so) please send your snippets and artifacts to us. if you want to be a member of the shadow society ™, do not contact us, we will contact you. watch this space for more-”
As soon as we started annoying people left and right we also founded a DJ team which was no less notorious. It was call the D*ruffalo Hit Squad, later described as:
“The D*RUFFALO HIT SQUAD is the official political arm of D*ruffalo – The Daily Excess Magazine (R.I.P.) that still goes public from time to time to wreck havoc on international dance floors.
“We drink. You dance!”
We also published the Druffmixes. A lot of them were done by me, and I will feature those here, with the original artworks by the D*ruffalo Graphic Squad (King Kummi) and liner notes.
The The – Flesh And Bones David Van Tieghem – Night Of The Cold Noses Steve Winwood – While You See A Chance Sun Yama – Subterranean Homesick Blues Dee D. Jackson – Galaxy Police Connie – Experience Paul Haig – Time The Colourfield – Take Ian Dury – Wake Up And Make Love With Me Antena – Be Pop Blue Rondo – Samba No Pé 400 Blows – Movin’ Michael McDonald – Sweet Freedom Bryan Ferry – Kiss And Tell Robert Palmer – The Silver Gun Visage – Move Up A Certain Ratio – Wild Party The Associates – Love Hangover Bette Midler – My Knight In Black Leather Duncan Brown – The Wild Places Squeeze – Last Time Forever
I recorded this as a guest mix for the website of my dear friend Michael Joyce aka Truly-Madly, who was then a true aficionado of all things deep. He became a famous DJ much later than me, but once he did (and he is probably more famous than I ever was by now) he seemed to have deleted the mix from his website to cover up traces of my influence throughout his career. Story of my life.
Ok, kidding. Love ya, Trudy!
Picture is my old friend Jan Carter Boche (left) and me leaving one of our favourite kebap shops in our hometown Kiel. We never did eat anything anything there, but they had cheap and cold beer. I loved that “Escape” shirt, bought in London sometime in the early 90s. I instantly wore it to the next fish and chips shop right after I purchased it, and the elderly woman behind the counter asked me if her food was so bad that I wanted to run away. Not THAT bad.
Sensory Elements Vol 1 – Explain It Infra-Red – Love Honey Funtopia Feat. Jimi Polo – Do You Wanna Know? Beautiful People – I Got The Rhythm (Club Mix) Underground Inc. – Magie Noire (Rick Lenoir Mix) Ronald Burrell – Quiet Song Jovonn – It’s Gonna Be Right (Be Smoove Dub) Debbie Gibson – One Step Ahead (Masters At Work Mix) Ecstasy Boys – Seven Steps To Heaven Language – Tranquility Bass Liquid Variety – The Best Part Of The Trip (The Best Part) Boo Williams – Home Town Chicago Glenn Underground – May Datroit Tribute – Rain (Dub) Stardust – Love Will Find A Way (Sweet Embrace Mix) Aphrodisiac – Just Before The Dawn (Exclusive Remould)
I do not remember too well how this mix came into being. Most probably I needed some relief from playing sets mainly meant for dancing purposes. The vibe is nocturnal, in parts even a bit disturbing. The title of the mix is taken from the monologue of the killer in the movie “Klute”, also used in the Clock DVA track included here. For some reason I am absolutely neither the paranoid type nor do I believe in conspiracies. But I love culture that deals with paranoia and conspiracies.
Howard Shore – Welcome To Videodrome Clock DVA – Sonology Of Sex Ennio Morricone – The Thing: Humanity Part 2 (Excerpt) Talking Heads – Drugs Aphrodite’s Child – The Wakening Beast Clock DVA – The Connection Machine Brian Eno & David Byrne – Mea Culpa (Mr. K Edit) Jerry Goldsmith – The Piper Dreams Lalo Schifrin – Amityville Frenzy Cerrone – Strip-Tease Suzy Q – Makes You Blind Alan Parsons Project – Lucifer Lalo Schifrin – Scorpio’s Theme MC 900 Ft Jesus – Falling Elevators Grace Jones – Walking In The Rain (Remixed Version) Suicide – Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne Associates – Matter Of Gender Yello – The Evening’s Young Buzzcocks – Radio Nine Soft Cell – Kitchen Sink Drama
Second appearance at Betalounge in Hamburg. At that time I was still celebrating by rekindled love for disco, mostly with Hunee, whom I got to know in a record store, of all places. We were some kind of go-to tag team when a floor required some vintage gems and we had tons of fun. Playing a set of that kind in Hamburg was a bit like carrying owls to Athens, though. After all I learnt most of what I knew about disco in that city and its clubs, and there were really many DJs and collectors there who were hard to impress with this playlist. Anyway, I had to try, and paying dues and so on.
A mix I contributed to the great website deeprhythms, run by Tomi Rotonen since 2001. That is quite the achievement and I hope it will go on for many years to come. Cheers Tomi!
Here are the liner notes:
And we’re back with another fine guest mix – this time by Finn Johannsen, familiar to those who frequently visit discogs and it’s board. I asked Finn for a mix and what a treat he provided us with! It’s not house – just great, great music, perfect for the summer, brings back a lot of memories. In his own words: “What led me to record ‘After Season’ was actually the old-fashioned desire to give something personal to my loved one on a lazy weekend when we both again forgot about the day we came together. We both didn’t really mind forgetting about it, as it had happened more often than not for some reason, but still we were getting a bit sentimental over the time we spent together and all we could share. I guess we all made tapes for our loved ones at some point for lack of better words and I felt this was a perfect occasion to revive that. Other than that I was getting a bit irritated by the recent flood of ‘balearic’ sets, many of which seemed more intent of displaying obscure beautiful mellow music than what was really played there from the late 80’s on. Being involved with club music back then meant you were automatically exposed to this style even if I was never really intentionally looking out for downtempo records. Still, I had some personal favourites then which I regularly revisited, so I wanted to assemble some classics of the deeper variety that always moved me, ranging from melancholia to bliss, with an admittedly large does of strings. Some of these, like Chris Rea and Electribe 101, are confirmed balearic classics, others like Marshall Jefferson’s mix of Dusty Springfield or Plaid’s take on Deee-Lite may not be so obvious and again others like the remix of Salt ‘n’ Pepa are just included because I have this opinion that the production talents of Blacksmith should never ever vanish from sight. You may, however, just take it for what I hope it would turn out to be, a pleasant set of fine tunes.”
Dusty Springfield – Nothing Has Been Proved (Instrumental) Massive Attack – Safe From Harm (Instrumental) The Beauty Room – Don’t You Know Deee-Lite – Try Me On (Plaid Remix) Reborn – Right To Be (Rocker HiFi Remix) Innocence – Senza Voce The Family Stand – Ghetto Heaven (The Remix) Soul Family Sensation – I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (Symphony) Quartz – It’s Too Late (Overnight Mix) Electribe 101 – Talking With Myself (Next Big Thing Mix) Swing Out Sister – Notgonnachange (Mix Of Drama) Chris Rea – Josephine (La Version Francaise) Salt ‘N’ Pepa – Expression (Brixton Dub Mix) The Wiseguys – The Real Vibes Dream Warriors & Gang Starr – I Lost My Ignorance (Tim Bran Remix) Shanice – I Love Your Smile (Driza Bone Dub Remix)
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
Recent Comments