An important announcement

2011-06-03T15:33:00.004+01:00

After 3 years and with the launch of the website this will be the final post on this particular blog. However, transmissions have already resumed on the new Grampian Mountains blog. If you could please amend your RSS feed or subscription details appropriately as updates will be far more regular.

This page will stay online as an archive but there will no more posts from here on in. Thank you for listening.

A DJ mix: 5 select favourites

2011-04-07T13:10:00.120+01:00

A slight shift from the usual here, but I've wanted to do this for some time now. You see, records, clubs, radio and mixes have had quite a considerable impact on my life in a lot of ways which in some cases has led to me getting the chance to see, hear and do alot of things I never expected I would get to.

I love reading detailed lists of a particular person's favourite things, the stories that go with them along with related scans of various battered objects, letters and photos. So, I thought it appropriate at this point in time to document and share 5 mixes that are hugely influential and important to me (plus an honourable mention, the process of picking these was too hard to leave one out). Normal transmissions will resume shortly, enjoy…

Audio Bullys Vs. Hexstatic - Radio 1: One World Fight Club (broadcast 14th March 2003)  

Thinking back now, this mix changed a lot of things for me in terms of what I was starting to listen to after hearing it, and might have actually been the first thing I heard that made me want to have a crack at mixing. I was only 16 and remember recording it from my PC through my Hi-Fi and onto 2 x 60-minute TDK cassettes (which I had to specially request from the Woolworths in Brechin, the next town along from the village I grew up in). At the time BBC's 'listen again' feature streamed using Realplayer on a 56k connection, so I'd have to tell my parents and sister not to use the phone or touch the internet for the next 2 hours.

Looking online, there's barely any information about it but I still have the full tracklist printed off and tucked up inside each of the cassette cases. The mix itself was basically Robin from Hexstatic and Tom from Audio Bullys going back-to-back for the entire 2 hours, playing classic hip-hop, old funk & soul, 90's dance, awkward mashups, a little 80's pop as well as a small interview each. The beatmatching was a little loose and levels were all over the place but it felt honest and real.  

P2P downloading software such as KaZaA and Napster was at a peak then so it was great to be able to pick and choose tracks and artists to explore further with ease.   I've caned this over the years but a short while back I did manage to source an mp3 of the entire show, of which I am making available here.

Andy Votel - Music To Watch Girls Cry  !   (2002)

This is an extraordinary CD by an extraordinary gentleman in the business. As well as running Twisted Nerve, Andy Votel also controls a highly respected and exceedingly good record label called Finders Keepers, excelling in re-issuing rare and unheard folk, psych, jazz and avant-garde music. The mix covers all of that and more, blended together immaculately with alot of it staying in key as well as in time. There used to be a tracklist on the B-Music website (a sub-label of Finders Keepers) but it's since been taken down.

  I picked up a rare-as-hens-teeth promo copy of this at a Badly Drawn Boy concert at the Barrowlands in Glasgow way back in 2002. I seem to remember him being kitted out in some sort of all-in-one bear costume behind the decks, very curious. Should you get the opportunity to hear this, it'll take you a good few listens to get your head round, but it's absolutely worth it. Cracking job Mr. Votel. 

Autechre - Live Webcast   (broadcast 10th April 2005)

Autechre don't do things by the book, they never have. Broadcasting a live all-night mix via their website to promote a new album is still one of the best and most enjoyable PR ideas I can think of. They've done this a handful of times now but this was the original and - in my opinion - best of the lot.  

Their 8th studio album, 'Untilted' had just dropped on Warp and they were to broadcast via www.autechre.ws from 8pm onwards. They went on all the way through until just past 4am, playing a wide range of music from what is obviously a massive and very interesting bank of influences. I remember listening to the whole thing live too, bar a 1-hour chunk in the middle so I could nip downstairs to catch Lost. In the weeks following the broadcast, an almost complete tracklist was constructed via posts from various members of a well-known electronic music forum. This was the first introduction for me to artists such as Locust, Bernard Parmegiani, Coil & In Sync's staggering 'Storm' track in particular. 

Better then this huge wealth of new and exciting music I was being exposed to though, were the small test tones and strange drones Autechre ran at the beginning and intermittently throughout the mix. Christ knows what they were up to but I'd love to see a picture of their studio from the time this was broadcast. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Autechre live until 2008, but it was definitely worth the wait…

Rob Hall - Boomkat Selected Mixtapes Volume 1: DJ Set Recorded Live At Aoyama Club, Tokyo (2003)

 God knows how I got hold of this CD in time. It's well and truly sold out now, but I reckon it must have been released around 2004, although the mix was recorded in 2000. Boomkat no longer run this mixtape series, but I'm led to believe that most of the series was pretty much essential listening.  

At the time, Rob Hall was heavily involved with the highly influential Skam Records, based in Manchester. The first time I got to see him play out was actually warming up for and DJ'ing after Autechre at the 2008 show mentioned above. This was held at the Art School in Glasgow, and he wasn't half bloody banging it. I remember leaving before the end and the noise of the building shaking from outside was unbelievable and quite frankly frightening. I think I remember my friend Andrew telling me it was actually louder during soundcheck when he passed earlier on in the evening!  

Anyway, this mix bangs just as hard as that night. I would constantly blast it out the speakers in my Mum's Ford Mondeo estate whilst battering down country roads at 3am to and from the summer Waiter job I had at the time. There's no tracklist but it's a pretty straight-up techno mix featuring Kraftwerk, Derrick May, Thomas Bangalter and a strange remix of Captain Rapp's 'Bad Times' amongst others. I've never been to Aoyama Club in Tokyo, but I reckon this mix would comfortably bring down the house in both a giant warehouse or a small, sweaty basement club.   

Actress - FACT Mix 63   (2009)

The final and most recent of these select mixes is by Actress, head of Werk Discs and a fantastic producer himself. This one brings this list full circle in that, without any need for immaculate and perfectly EQ'd mixing, Actress presents an incredibly versatile and honest mix that boasts one hugely important skill; track selection, which makes listening a lot of fun. How many mixes have you heard which feature Boards Of Canada, Cat Stevens, old instrumental dub 45s, the Pac-Man theme and a track that one of the designers at a studio I worked for when this came out described as the 'Loyd Grossman rap'.  

Actress' 'Splazsh' LP is an incredible piece of work and you can still download this mix here.

…and a deserved honourable mention: 
DJ Crook - K-HEL Presents... It's A Lie!  (2003)

Decibel Devils, a small collective of creative individuals from Sacramento, California were a massive influence on me during my mid to late teens. This was originally entitled 'Moodswing at Last Call, Sorry You Heard That' and only streamable via their site, with jpeg artwork that I recomposed and printed off to fit the cassette inlay. It's a short downtempo collection of tracks immaculately thought out, with some very out there spoken word samples to tie the whole thing together. Download it here.