Mix 2 - In the jungle (2002)

An old mix I did featuring some classic d&b tracks.

Mixed live and recorded on mini-disc in 2002.



Tracklist:

Mungo's Hifi - Ing
Krust - Poison (V)
Busta Rhymes - Wooha (accapella)
Roni Size - Dayz (V)
D Kay & Epsilon feat. Stamina MC - Barcelona (BC Recordings)
? (Soul:R)
Kosheen - Hide U (MOKSHA)
MIST vs Marky & XRS - Sunshine (Soul:R)
Un-Cut - Midnite (Marcus Intalex remix) (M Records)

Future classic #2: Hey Boy, Hey Girl (Soulwax remix) - Chemical Brothers

It has been circulating on the net for a couple of weeks, but the first white labels of the Soulwax remix of the Chemicals anthem start popping up! Normally it should be released as the b-side to Midnight Madness (a future classic?).
Their Rolling Stones remix was a bit too tame, according to me. Maybe the fact that a record company attaché was constantly looking over their shoulder had something to do with that. Anyway, this remix is a true return to form. As always, all the good ingredients of the original are cut up, re-edited and sprinkled over those trademark Soulwax beats. It's so good, the original might disappear for a long time.

PS If you get the chance, do check out Part of the weekend never dies. What a trip!

Future classic #1: Enfants (Luciano edit) - Villalobos

Today I got a white label copy of the new Sei Es Drum (Ricardo Villalobos' label!) release. It features two Luciano re-edits which are AWESOME!
First up is his re-edit of Villalobos' Enfants track, which combines the chants and the beats to devastating effect. (There's also an olin-refix circulating on the internet!)
Track two is Nana Vasconcelos' Brazil turned into a minimal tech-house cracker. Minimal, deep and warm: a seldom seen combination.

If you're into this, also check Luciano's mindblowing Fabric mix.

Classic Mix #2: Moving House Live at FOOD by DJ Geoffroy

By 1999, the technohype of the mid 90's had died out in Belgium. I distinctly remember parties boasting a "NO TECHNO"-slogan on their flyers. Maybe they had a point: techno had slowly evolved into a sturdy minimalism. The start of it all had been Richie Hawtin's Concept series in 1996. Every month, a new 12" was released with two tracks that were made up of little more than beats and clicks. And eventhough Hawtin seemed to pull off this stunt somehow, it also made sure the world was flooded with boring minimal tracks.

The perfect antidote was the house music scène which had found a new breath outside of America. New producers like Bugz in the Attic, Phil Asher, Isolee, Fred Everything and the amazing Erot were releasing tracks which blew away the American competition.

In Belgium, these new house tracks were played at the Food Club by Geoffroy, a DJ who has always had an impeccable taste for new music. All of his Moving House copmpilations were excellent, but the Live at Food mix really blew me away. It starts off with Isolee's quirky all-time classic Beau Mot Plage, which is followed by a still unreleased Bugz in the Attic track (Stop), classics by Chez Damier, Swirl People, Phuture Retro and Erot (especially his mixes have stood the test of time). The mixing is impeccable and beautiful. Geoffroy manages to layer tracks in such a way that they seem to have been made for each other.

PS Geoffroy is now also a producer. Check his output under his Mugwump monniker. Especially Boutade on Ewan pearson's Misericord label is fucking awesome. Also check his Hi-Phen label and the Suicide label which he runs for NEWS.

Classic Mix #1: DJ Connection mixed by DJ Pierre

In 1996, after having released three other trance & hardcore mixes under the DJ Connection flag, the NEWS label released Belgian DJ Pierre's first mix cd. Pierre has been the resident DJ at Fuse, Brussels' famous technoclub, since 1994. I still remember the first time I heard Pierre play at one of the first I Love Techno-parties at Vooruit in Ghent in '95. In the middle of his set he dropped the beatless Carl Craig remix of Dave Angel's Airborne, which made the place go bazerk.

Over the years, Pierre's mix for DJ Connection turned out to be a timeless piece of art. It all starts of with a mesmerising Bandulu track (Phaze In-version; a track I looked for for years) and slowly sucks you deeper and deeper into a trancelike state with true classics like Compass's Gliding, Wishmountain's (= Herbert) bizarre yet obsessing Radio, Octave One's Empower, the future funk of Juan Atkins' remix of Beltram's Instant and Man Made's (= The Advent) techno anthem Spacewreck. The cherry on the pie to is the last track, Green Velvet's I'm losing my mind, a track which was first released on the Flash remixes double ep. The track became so popular that it got a new title (The Stalker)and a seperate re-release on the Belgian Yeti-label.

Twelve years after my first listen to this cd, I still play it regularly because of its slow but seamless mixing and its excellent tracklist. A true classic!

For more info: http://www.discogs.com/release/78748

PS Compass's Gliding can be found on the Cabinet Records compilation on Richie Hawtin's Plus 8 records. Essential stuff!

Buried Treasure #8 - Sci-Clone - Everywhere I go (remix)

I first heard this track on a Bailey mixtape like about a year before it was released. I kept bugging the record shop assistants for this one, but they didn't know what it was either.
When it was finally released on the mighty Metalheadz imprint, interest was quite low because it was a melodic tune and didn't fit the hardcore Renegade Hardware/Hardleaders sound of the day. It was selected by the mighty Kemistry (RIP) and Storm for their DJ Kicks mix.
In many ways, this tune outlast most of the fodder which was released back then. And I can still listen to it every day.

Buried treasure #7 - Acid Rock - Rhythm Device (re-edit)

A song which seems to have been forgotten over the years is Acid Rock by Rhythm Device (Frank Dewulf). It was a revolutionary record because it introduced a harder rock sound in dance music. Basically, you can compare it to what the Chemical Brothers did a decade ago and what Soulwax are doing now.
Frank Dewulf - one of Soulwax's heroes by the way - released a string of classic tracks under the B-Sides monniker for Music Man way back in the days.

Anyway, if you go looking for this record, there are two versions: the original in a yellow sleeve and the remix in a red sleeve. Both are equally good, although I prefer the breakbeat in the remix version. I used both versions to come up with my own re-edit.

Flashback #2: Another new beat mix

This is another mix on a new beat/new wave tip. It starts of with Snowy Red's Euroshima, another classic new wave/new beat crossover, and a number of electro classics like The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight & Man Parrish's Hip Hop Don't Stop, takes in some later new beat classics like Space 3000 (an early R&S release) and 808 State's mindblowing Cubik, some modern electro sounds like Soulwax's Lovelight remix and the Subs, to end with Maurice Fulton's The Fly. Enjoy...



Tracklist

Euroshima - Snowy Red (ESSENTIAL!)
The Dominatrix sleeps tonight - The Dominatrix (edit) (New York no wave CLASSIC!)
Coitus Interruptus - Fad Gadget (CLASSIC!)
Enjoy the Silence (12" mix - edit) - Depeche Mode (CLASSIC!)
Fade to grey - Visage (CLASSIC!)
Hip Hop Don't Stop - Man Parrish (CLASSIC!)
Pump up the volume - MARRS (one of the first house hits across the globe)
Space 3000 - The Project (an early R&S release by label boss Renaat Vandepaepeliere and CJ Bolland)
Join in the Chant (edit) - Nitzer Ebb (recently remixed by Blackstrobe, but the original still rocks the hardest)
Your only friend - Phortune (haunting chicago house by DJ Pierre)
Love can't turn around (Boys Noize acapella)
TV Treated - Neon Judgement (a couple of years ago Eskimo released two of the Judgement's seminal hits, backed by remixes)
Cubik (original) - 808 State (together with Frank Dewulf's Acid Rock it introduced a harder rock sound in dance music; later on they rereleased a disappointing remix, so everyone was searching for the gold sleeved Extended Pleasure of Dance EP)
Zdarlight (Paranoid Asteroid mix) - Digitalism
Kiss my trance - The Subs (one of my favourite electro groups at the moment; it's kitschy but it works)
Lovelight (Soulwax remix) - Robbie Williams (another classic Soulwax remix)
Cactus Rhythm (edit) - Plexus (a killer tune; I've probably listened to this one a zillion times when I was a teenager)
Flat Beat - Mr Oizo (simple but still effective after all these years)
The Fly - Syclops (originally released on Tirk, but now rereleased on the DFA label - amazing)