00:00:00 1 YMO vs. The Orb – Tong Poo (House Of Bright Colours Mix) 00:10:43 2 Robbie Williams – I Started A Joke (I Started An Orb Mix) 00:14:45 3 Wendy & Lisa – Staring At The Sun (Blinding Mix) 00:23:11 4 Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun (Higher Than The Kite Mix) 00:31:57 5 The Orb – Towers of Dub 00:46:34 6 Pop Will Eat Itself – Home (Home Sweet Home Orb Remix) 00:55:23 7 The Orb – Montagne d’or (Der gute Berg) 01:04:51 8 Lisa Stansfield – Time To Make You Mine (In My Dreams Mix) 01:14:47 9 The Orb – Plateau 01:27:46 10 The Orb – Supernova At The End Of the Universe 01:38:58 11 The Orb – Backside of the Moon (Under Water Deep Space) 01:44:23 12 Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Music For A Found Harmonium (Pandaharmoniumorb Mix) 01:53:54 13 Can – Halleluwa (Halleluwa Orbus 2) 01:56:58 14 Haruomi Hosono – Laughter Meditation (The Orb) 02:05:25 15 Jam On The Mutha – Hotel California (Orbitally Ambient Mix) 02:14:00 16 Killing Joke – Requiem ( A Floating Leaf Always Reaches The Sea Mix) 02:21:23 17 The Orb – Valley 02:27:25 18 Fortran 5 – Groove (The Herbal Supper Mix) 02:35:02 19 Miranda Sex Garden – Gush Forth My Tears (The First Steppes Mix) 02:39:44 20 The Orb – O.O.B.E. 02:52:08 21 The Art Of Noise – Art Of Love (Youth & Orb Mix) 02:57:02 22 The Orb – Star 6 & 7 8 9 03:04:30 23 The Orb – Outlands 03:11:52 24 Erasure – Ship of Fools (Orbital Southsea Isles of Holy Beats mix) 03:19:20 25 Zoë – Moonsister (Lunar Dub 1) 03:26:04 26 The Orb – Perpetual Dawn (Solar Flare Extended Mix) 03:32:43 27 The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds 03:39:18 28 System 7 – Davy Jones’ Locker (ft. Alex Paterson) 03:47:43 29 The Orb – Earth (Gaia) 03:56:40 30 Dave Stewart – Lily Was Here (Space Centre Medical Hum) 04:04:23 31 Sun Electric – O’Locco (Orbital Therapy, Part 1)
00:00:00 1 The Orb – Pomme Fritz (Meat ‘N Veg) 00:08:56 2 The Orb – Spanish Castles in Space (Castles In Goa Mix) 00:17:09 3 The Orb – Once More (FT Explore Satan Mix) 00:20:45 4 The Orb – Majestic 00:33:15 5 Pato Banton – Beams of Light (Depths Of An Ocean Lovemix) 00:38:23 6 Delkom – Superjack (Orbital Infusion 2000) 00:44:51 7 The Orb – Into The Fourth Dimension: Essenes Beyond Control 00:51:17 8 Paradise X – Too Much (Start & Depart From Paradise Mix) 00:56:53 9 The Orb – Blue Room 01:16:07 10 Time Unlimited – Men Of Wadodem (Orbital Mix) Ultra Records 01:18:35 11 鈴木慶一 – Satellite Serenade (Trans Asian Express mix) 01:30:44 12 Marathon – Movin (Ambientappella Live Mix) 01:40:12 13 The KLF – 3am Eternal (Blue Danube Orbital Mix) 01:46:43 14 Depeche Mode – Happiest Girl (Orbital mix) 01:54:29 15 Zodiac Youth – Fast Forward The Future (Bucket & Bong Mix) 02:01:18 16 West India Company – O Je Suis Seul (Orient Express Mix) 02:08:18 17 Fortran 5 – Love Baby (Electropathy Mix) 02:13:31 18 Tangerine Dream – Towards The Evening Star (Mandarin Cream Mix) 02:22:38 19 System 7 – Sunburst (Orb Remix) 02:30:03 20 Wir – So Slow (The Orb In Atlas Mix) 02:36:16 21 System 7 – Miracle (Orb Remix) 02:41:58 22 The Orb – Close Encounters 02:52:01 23 Meat Beat Manifesto – Radio Babylon (Beach Blanket Bimboland Mix) 03:03:57 24 The Orb – Peace In The Middle East (Sea Of Tranquility Mix) 03:09:59 25 The Orb – Oxbow Lakes 03:18:27 26 The Orb – U.F.Orb 03:22:46 27 The Orb – Assassin (Radio 7″ Edit) 03:26:02 28 The Orb – A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From the Centre of the Ultraworld (Orbital Dance Mix) 03:34:09 29 System 7 – A Cool Dry Place 03:41:42 30 Gary Numan – Jo The Waiter (Bon Apétit Mix) 03:51:00 31 Maurizio – Ploy (An Island Of Mud Mix) 04:02:46 32 Mystic Knights – Ragga-Nam-Poiser (Waves Of God By The Orb) 04:06:09 33 Readymade – Ambient State 04:07:02 34 The Orb – White River Junction 04:17:00 35 The Grid – Crystal Clear (Crystal Clear Water Revival Mix) 04:23:51 36 Front 242 – Crapage (The Turd Mix By The Orb)
Another year, another mix project! This is something I wanted to do for a long time: a series of mixes that build a retrospective of UK breakbeat music from 1989 to 1999.
The series has to start in 1989. This was the year where breakbeats began to seep into the club soundtrack on a wider scale, and you could notice there was something different and new going on. It was a transitional year. The acid house boom had just waned a bit, but it had provided so much fun and change, it simply could not all be a fad, and a lot of DJs and producers where trying keep the momentum up with fresh ideas. The still nascent house sound absorbed a lot of other influences, like hip hop, techno and dub and particularly in the UK it set a sound in motion that was was both using the clues from the US and continental scene and its own pioneering achievements and its roots in sound system culture.
As you can hear, the beats were still comparatively slow to what was soon to emerge, and mostly derived from fast paced hip hop and electro. But you can also hear that this year provided blueprints and prototypes that are still being referenced, early rave signals, different usages of low and high frequencies, yet unused sample material, and generally new grooves.
00:00:00 1 Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not the Man I Used to Be 00:04:16 2 De La Soul – Say No Go (House of Love Mix) 00:09:26 3 Stereo Mc’s – Bring It On 00:13:52 4 MC Buzz B – The Sequal 00:18:47 5 M.C. Mell’o – Bizzie Rhymin’ 00:24:38 6 MC Tunes vs. 808 State – Dance Yourself To Death 00:28:54 7 A Guy Called Gerald – FX (Elevation Mix) 00:35:38 8 N.A.D. – Spheres 00:40:33 9 A.R. Kane – Love From Outer Space 00:45:30 10 The Black Dog – The Weight (Liposuction Mix) 00:49:58 11 Baby Ford – Children Of The Revolution (Full 12” Version) 00:56:23 12 Quartz – Meltdown (Original Mix) 01:01:23 13 Candy Flip – Evolution 01:06:42 14 Jesus Loves You – After the Love (Ten Glorious Years mix) 01:14:02 15 The Moody Boys – Funky Zulu (Your So Fresh) (Refreshing Extended Mix) 01:19:19 16 Renegade Soundwave – Ozone Breakdown 01:24:59 17 Renegade Soundwave – Ozone Breakdown (90 Uprising Mix) 01:29:36 18 The Dynamic Guv’nors Present: Jazzy Jason – Faster Than Fast (Hip House Ver.) 01:35:11 19 The Dynamic Guv’nors Present: Jazzy Jason – Make The Floor Burn (Bonus Dub) 01:36:59 20 No Smoke – Koro-Koro 01:40:43 21 Bang The Party – Bang Bang You’re Mine (Full Instrumental Remix) 01:47:25 22 Melancholy Man – Jealous Guy (Dub Mix) 01:52:43 23 Richie Rich – Set Yourself Free 01:56:22 24 Humanoid – Tonight 02:01:08 25 808 State – Magical Dream (Instrumental) 02:05:57 26 808 State – Magical Dream
00:00:00 1 Silver Bullet – Bring Forth The Guillotine (Darksidemix) 00:05:26 2 Silver Bullet – Bring Forth The Guillotine (DJ Beats Mix) 00:10:48 3 Unique 3 – The Theme (Unique Mix) 00:17:05 4 T.D.P. – Ladies (Lets Go) Club Mix 00:22:58 5 Adventures of Stevie V – Dirty Cash (Money Talks) (Dime & Dollar mix) (12″ edit) 00:28:02 6 Nemesis – After The Storm 00:31:56 7 Baby Ford – The World Is In Love 00:36:33 8 A Guy Called Gerald – Specific Hate 00:43:38 9 Impedance – Tainted Love (Underground Mix) 00:46:40 10 Renegade Soundwave – The Phantom 00:50:30 11 Renegade Soundwave – The Phantom (Remix) 00:54:55 12 Kiss AMC – A Bit Of.. (12” Mix) 00:59:41 13 DJ Mink – Hey! Hey! Can U Relate (Hard Rap feat. The K.I.D & Carruthers) 01:04:08 14 Stereo Mc’s – On 33 01:08:37 15 Addis Posse – Let The Warriors Dance (Funky Funky Drum Drum Mix) 01:13:48 16 SL Troopers – Movement 01:17:37 17 MC Martay & D.J. D.B.M. – Beyond Control 01:22:57 18 Jamaica Mean Time Featuring D. – I’m Not Doing It Again (Bombay Mix) 01:26:38 19 Baby Ford – Let’s Talk It Over 01:31:29 20 No Smoke – Africa 01:35:56 21 Needlework – What I Need 01:41:05 22 808 State – Pacific State 01:46:57 23 The Black Dog – Age Of Slack 01:52:56 24 Nightmares On Wax – Dextrous 01:56:08 25 Ten City – Devotion (The Voice Of Paradise Mix) 02:00:50 26 Renegade Soundwave – Probably A Robbery (12 Gauge Turbo) 02:05:42 27 Stereo Mc’s – Toe To Toe 02:10:27 28 The Beatmasters – Ska Train (12″ Mix) 02:14:38 29 Longsy D’s House Sound – This Is Ska (Skacid & Dub Mix) 02:24:12 30 Merlin – Bust Da Move 02:27:32 31 Ester B – Pleasure Of The Music (Remix) 02:32:41 32 Nexus 21 – Real Love 02:37:39 33 Sweet Exorcist – Testone 02:44:13 34 Mad Musician – Jazz Out 02:49:19 35 N.A.D. – Distant Drums
00:00:00 1 Jamaica Mean Time Featuring D. – Rock To Dis (Hip Hop Mix) (feat. DJ Maxi Jazz) 00:06:06 2 The Beatmasters – Don’t Stop The Beat 00:12:41 3 Humanoid – Stakker Humanoid (Snowman Mix) 00:16:31 4 Meat Beat Manifesto – Radio Babylon (Originally Recorded 89) 00:22:31 5 Meat Beat Manifesto – I Got the Fear (Part 1) 00:28:06 6 The Mixbuster Featuring Liaison II – Dance Floor Justice (Dance Floor Justice Inst.) 00:33:17 7 The Mixbuster Featuring Liaison II – Dance Floor Justice (Club Vocal) 00:38:30 8 Jazzy Jason Presents The Mixtress – People Of The Universe 00:43:51 9 Baby Ford – Wigan 00:49:54 10 808 State – Fire Cracker 00:53:39 11 The Orb – A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Bucket & Spade Mix) 00:57:52 12 The Black Dog – Tactile 01:02:49 13 Yin Yang – Oh-One (Oh-Too Mix) 01:07:55 14 Exocet – Sweet Talk 01:11:09 15 Forgemasters – Track With No Name 01:15:34 16 Nightmares On Wax – Let It Roll 01:18:38 17 MC Untouchable – Cold House 3D Mix (D’s Devastating Dubbb) 01:20:51 18 Silver Bullet – 20 Seconds To Comply (The Omen Mix) 01:26:28 19 Silver Bullet – 20 Seconds To Comply (The Final Conflict) 01:32:08 20 Nexus 21 – Still Life Keeps Moving (Mental Dub Mix) 01:37:07 21 The Black Dog – Virtual 01:46:03 22 Bizarre Inc – To the Rhythm 01:50:35 23 Meat Beat Manifesto – Strap Down (Part 1) 01:55:40 24 Nexus 21 – Detroit B Boy 01:58:39 25 Cookie Crew – Got To Keep On (12inch Version) 02:03:12 26 Bisca – Learn (Suspiria Mix) 02:08:40 27 Mad Musician – Braek Out
In discussion with Fantastikoi Hxoi on “The White Room” by The KLF (1991).
What introduced you to the KLF? Were you already familiar with their previous incarnations as Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu or The Timelords, or did it start with their period from KLF onwards?
Well, I was something like twelve years old when “The White Room” broke internationally. I remember the “Last Train To Trancentral”video coming on after Paula Abdul on TV. I was like “ok, this is different”. It was a bit spooky to my young mind to be honest, all that faux-ritualistic imagery – and the music was equally gripping. Some years later I discovered The Orb and re-discovered the KLF and all their previous incarnations. Slowly I started to realise what they were really about.
Considering that “What Time Is Love?” was already released in 1988, would you say that The KLF introduced rave to dance music with all the according signals, stadium noises and such, or did they pick up on developments that were already there? Did they actually relate to a timeline in dance music?
As far as I can tell, they are one of the first underground rave acts that brought this kind of music (or elements of it) to the mainstream, complete with conceptual visual imagery and a certain philosophy. And ‘mainstream’ of course, is not 20.000 punters in a field in the UK. It’s a 12-year-old in Greece, on telly.Read the rest of this entry »
I picked this because of the extraordinary lyrics, which reappeared eventually in the house scene. Kerri Chandler did a version of it. And there are some rhythm patterns that you use as well. It was also a hit in the gay house scene. There are many house tracks based on this tune.
Personally, I really like Nina Simone a lot. I think there have been a lot of really bad remixes done of this track. For example, the Masters of Work remake added a really cheesy synth pad over her, so it’s really been bastardized a lot. But I think that’s part of the whole schmaltz of the gay house scene as well. That it has this way of reducing things to a cheap standard.
I think there’s a way in which it’s complicated to play music that verges more on gospel than soul in the club environment. And I think that’s something that Nina herself would like in a weird way. She identified herself less as a jazz musician, and more as a folk musician. And felt that she was channeled in the jazz corner by the industry. In her biography, she talks about being—if anything—a folk musician. That kind of cross-categorization is really interesting to me. And there’s also this idea of “How could her music get worked into a DJ set?”
Especially with this contrast between the euphoria of her live performances that is associated with her work, and her audience’s reactions to her work. She’ll play something like “Mississippi Goddamn,” this sad, tragic song. And the audience is like, “I love this song!” They’re cheering like idiots.
I think the same goes for this song. The way that she sings this song is not cheerful at all. That contrast struck me in that gay house context as well. It’s not the same sort of material that you ordinarily associate with it.
For sure, that’s something that I identify with in my own music. I often produce it from a perspective that people don’t sympathize with particularly. Or they approach it from an angle that is different from where I produce it from. They want to turn it into something, despite the complaints, that is energizing for a party. For me, I’m totally not concerned with this type of energy.
I really have a respect for her. I can empathize with this idea of immigration, of leaving the United States. It was under different circumstances, of course, but as an American who emigrated to Japan I feel a kind of simpatico with her.
Would you basically say that this streak in your work, where you reference things like this, is that you try to remain faithful to the original vibe of the material?
No. I don’t believe there is an original, or that there is something to be faithful to. I don’t believe in faith at all, in any form. I think this is important to clarify. That doesn’t mean just being kind of aloof or naïve about the connotations either. It’s about thinking about them in a way that allows for complications or recontextualizations as opposed to simply doing an homage or a tribute. Nina Simone has had enough tributes, you know? It’s OK if we don’t tribute always.
Gary Numan – Cry, The Clock Said (Beggars Banquet) 1981
Your Rubato series where you do piano renditions of Kraftwerk, Devo and Gary Numan. It struck me that all three of these acts have this weird relationship between technology and humanity. Was that your purpose with it?
Yes, of course. The purpose of the series was to investigate the techno pop icons that were the seminal acts of my childhood. And to think about how it polluted or influenced or channeled my own productions, as well as my own politics. And, of course, techno pop is very phallo-centric, Mensch Machine, so I wanted to also complicate the homo eroticism of this musical world that almost exclusively prevents the entry of women. Which makes it either a misogynistic or gay space. Or both. Or neither.
So all of the piano was composed on the computer, which I felt kept the technological association with these original artists and what I feel their vision was for using technology, but also to have the result be this neo-romantic piano solo that wasn’t a Muzak version, but going towards an avant-garde piano that—unless you were a big fan—you might not be able to pick out the melodies.
Sexuality this genre seems really warped in a way. As you said, like with Kraftwerk. The only time that they explicitly dealt with sexuality was on Electric Café on “Sex Object,” which is a really weird track.
Yeah. They had it in Computer World , they also had “Computer Love,” though. But it’s always about either the machine or the woman is the object. Always objectified. “Sex Object” has a very weird elementary school approach to gender.
Everybody likes to think of Kraftwerk as being very much in control of their image, but if you look at their catalogue, it’s a total mess. You have this Krautrock stuff. The Ralf und Florian album, that was cut from the catalogue for a long time because it didn’t fit in. They are much more eclectic than they want people to think.
I think their concept is also much more open than many people think. They left some leeway.
I think a lot of it is due to the record company. I’m coming at Kraftwerk as an American, and which records were distributed to us there may have been different than what was sold in Europe. So things like the first ones with the pylons were never seen until I was in New York. And they were, like, a million dollars. It was Autobahn , Trans Europe Express , Radioactivity , Computer World , Mensch Machine and that was it. If you could track down the Tour de France EP, it was a miracle.
How would you place Gary Numan in this? He also played with these ideas, but it always had a bit of a tragic note to it.
I think that the Dance album… Remember when you interviewed me about the Dazzle Ships album, and I talked about it being a kind of crisis moment when an artist is trying to figure out their own artistic direction, and they’re faced with the pressures of the major labels that they’re signed in and locked into. Dance was right around the same time, and I think it was Gary Numan’s crisis with the industry. When you look at it in relation to the kind of progress of the sound of his work—and at that time he did have a very linear channeling of what he was doing—this was the album that was the peak of this weird electronic Latin percussion thing. He had people from Japan working with him. His next album, Bezerker, was this more industrial thing. It was samplers and all this sort of stuff. For me, though, Dance was the height of this certain kind of sound that he had control over, but also dealing at the same time with pressure from the label.
Image-wise, what he did up to Dance certainly served him better than what he did after. I remember this sleeve of Warriors … Maybe the image that he portrayed earlier wasn’t exactly original, but it served his voice quite well. And his persona.
For me, the conflict of something like the Warriors cover, where he’s standing in this S&M gear, all leathered up with a baseball bat as though he’s some kind of bad ass road warrior guy, is that he has this posture that is totally faggy and limp. And the bleached hair. And then he’s not queer-identified. He’s straight-identified. He plays with gender in his lyrics, but he makes it clear in his interviews that he’s not. For me, it’s this contradiction between the kind of costume play that you could find in a gay club, but for me it was also a mismatch…like the leather bottom.
It also has to do with being a nerd that is really into science fiction. He also has this nerd component. His lyrics are all about Philip K. Dick and Blade Runner . He was totally into that stuff. And I think that’s also what drew me to him. And it also made me repress the impact that he had on me. By the time you reach 18 or so, it’s too tragic to say that you’re a Gary Numan fan. People react in this horrible way. But he, more than Devo or Kraftwerk, was really influencing me.
I used to plagiarize his lyrics and enter them into the school district contest and get ribbons for it. And when my father was upset with me about music and things, it was my Gary Numan records that he would lock away in the closet so that I couldn’t get at them. There was a lot of battle around Gary Numan in my adolescent life.
I think that’s why the “Cry, The Clock Said” has such a special connection for Comatonse. Because the first EP was basically a dub remix of this song. Read the rest of this entry »
Hofuku Sochi im Live-Modus-Video-Audio-Mix im Hamburger Angelklub, und der Titel ist Programm. Wo die Krautrock-Elektroniker den Weltraum erforschten, kehren Stachy und Co. vor der eigenen Küste und tauchen weit runter. Der Sound ist jedoch durchaus vergleichbar. Es rumort und wabert, romantisiert drehen Bleep-Spiralen ihre Runden, später rücken ziemlich funktionstüchtige Dub-Basslines ein und es wird die Party forciert. Der freundlichste Ambient seit The Orb, mit entprechend lustig-anachronistischer Bildspur voller Cyberplankton und Sinuskurven, die an die seligen Zeiten erinnern, als X-Mix auf VHS der heiße Scheiß war. Dafür gehört ihnen die Calypso anvertraut und sie sollen solange auf große Erkundungsfahrt gehen, wie sie es für nötig erachten.
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