Jess & Crabbe - Tribute Series Vol.1 (2001)

Kinda mashup in style, but a bit more effort has gone into these than lots of other re-edits of classics. Even so, I'm no fan of the b-sides, which are tributes to The Prodigy and 70s reggae act Aswad.

A-side is great though, solid peak time party stuff. It fuses Kevin Saunderson's acid house remix of "Heat It Up", and Marc Kinchen's "1st Bass" (which also sampled Heat It Up's 'It's like that' chant). For those of you who don't already know, the main melody for "1st Bass" is taken from the 1987 Konami computer game, Metal Gear. Kinchen took just one little sound as a sample, and replayed it as a tune. You can hear the original here, at 26 seconds in or so. Goes to show what a little bit of inspiration can do.
Jess & Crabbe either got hold of an acapella or made their own - I've searched the net and only come up with a little grab of the girls rapping - if anyone knows of the full deal I'd love a copy.

Discogs
A1   First Bass [tribute to WPGR feat. Kevin Saunderson & Separate Minds]
B1   Can't Tekkit [tribute to Aswad]
B2   Ruff Inna Jungle [tribute to The Prodigy]

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...dmca deleted.


Funny, my first dmca-notice is for a release that is essentially 3 mashups and so a compilation of other people's efforts, not their own. Not only that, but as far as I can tell from Beatport & Juno, this release is no longer available.

2 great mixes from the turn of the century

First of all, one from Mr Dave Angel, who I've had the pleasure of seeing live a couple of times and is a damn fine DJ. From 1998, we have him in fine form over 2 cds. What I like most about Dave is that he plays his records fast, changing a groovy house tune into a pumping bit of tech funk [It's always been my opinion that a DJ's record box is full of tunes to be worked together - the DJ is their boss, not the other way around. All this nonsense about respecting the purity of the author's intent and playing a track at or near the original tempo and only blending in with other tunes a little bit at the start and end is a load of crap. Play the bits you want to play, save the bits that don't work now for another time. Play the fucking record at whatever the speed you want to work the dancefloor (within reason of course - don't want to go all chipmunk gabba). And, obviously, if you get too smart and fuck with your tracks too much and get your dancefloor pissed off you should rightly expect to cop a very public glassing, kicking, beating, or similar].

But I digress.

"39 Flavours Of Tech Funk" is just that - 39 tracks of different structure and feel, but combined to form a singular energy; he doesn't play too deep or too banging. It's party music to dance your arse off to.
Each CD has a different personality (I prefer the second mix). Of all the flavours of tech funk you can imagine, the only types missing here are those of the TB303 acid variety. It's one of the few techno mixes I can think of that is pretty much acid free. Not that it makes the release any weaker.

Discogs

Dave Angel: 39 Flavours Of Tech Funk (1998)

CD 1 _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire
CD 2 _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire







Next up, something from the very well dressed Mr Justin Robertson. Have only heard him DJ once, and he wasn't very impressive (but in his defence he had just come off a 22 hour flight and was jet lagged as all fuck). I was never really that into any of his artist projects - do really like "Packet Of Peace" though - and wasn't really aware that he was a good techno DJ until I heard this mix. Frankly, it's one of the best of the period and probably up there with the best there is. Valentino Kanzyani did a similar styled mix around the same time in "Rock The Discotheque", featuring some of the same tracks as Justin Robertson's "Imprint". But where Imprint is a superbly crafted piece of blinding-techno-dance-floor-heaven, Valentino's mix is not very well programmed and sloppy in its execution (even featuring wildly drifting mixes). If I had made that mix I wouldn't have given it out to my mates let alone press up a few thousand copies and put it into shops with my name on the cover.

Discogs

Justin Robertson: Imprint (2001)

CD Rip _ 256kbps MP3 ...mediafire

A really fuckn good New Order remix

What can I say? THE greatest electronic band of all time!

Even better than Kraftwerk or Underworld - and that's some seriously stiff competition. Don't bother to argue though, it's purely subjective.

Pretty much the entire New Order and Joy Division back catalogue can be found here, but as far I can see they don't have this up.

5-8-6 was recorded for the 1982 opening of Manchester's Hacienda, apparently it originally came in at 22 minutes, but thankfully they shortened it for the album release.

These 2001 Peter Black remixes keep it sparse and deep, and the fantastic dub dispenses with the vocal altogether to accentuate the grinding bassline. Perfect 5am munt music.

Apart from Shep Pettibone and Arthur Baker (who helped define their sound back in the early 80s), very few remixers have done New Order real justice. But Peter Black gets them, and gets them good.
It's amusing that all three of these guys are American and isolated from the English Acid House scene, but get it more than anyone who was part of it.

Discogs

A1 5-8-6 (Peter Black Remix)
B1 5-8-6 (Peter Black Dub)

Vinyl Rip _ 320kbps MP3 ...mediafire