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I did this last September somewhere else I posted, which has now DIED, but I'm always WILLING to ramble on about tunes no-one else has heard of ANYWHERE:
Now this was a hard b*stard, on one hand I'm happy with the list, on the other I'm not. I think I should have done one dance, one non-thump list. I've got lots of good essentials but I think of lots of stuff that could have gone in thats not, plenty of fine chill/electronica, Blue States, Kid Koala, Ninja, Mo'Wax, everything ... then I also think of all the good thunking dance thats not in there from Danny Tenaglia, Green Velvet, Futureshock, plus everything that sounds absolutely amazing when in the context of a mix. So anyway, a FAIR representation of what I like, but don't take this to mean that its the ENTIRE spectrum of my sound, its not. Also going to bang up a top 20 albums too!
200) Nirvana - Plateau
Accompanied lots of being driven round Essex countryside during school lunchbreaks. Nice and simple, love the guitar and main chorus. Memories of past.
199) Angelo Badalamenti - Dance Of The Dream Man
Or its many variations on the album. I just love Twin Peaks. But one memory that stayed with me from seeing it as a kid was this wonderful sleazy music. Can't get enough of it ...
198) Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl
My personal favourite off Rooty. Lots of nice single material on this album and in general it was a more 'for the public' and not 'for the dancefloor' album for me. The production on this is amazing though, the wibbly bassline, the reverses on the beats and the way the little jangly bell in the background pitches up and down. Jaxx put alot of effort into their tracks, and probably more than you realise. All the tricks used one here. Plus I'd rather hear THIS than any urban/ukgarage sh!te anyday.
197) The Streets - Its Too Late
...unless its this urban/ukgarage sh!te! Plenty of good material to choose from. Easily dismissed as some cockney geezer talking over garage breaks, but on examination ... its more like the kind of observation films like Human Traffic have on life. Lots of sharp humour on his tracks. But I've decided to choose one that sticks out as a bit different. Rather than the observing of the sh!te-ness of everyday life, w@nkrs who get p!ssed and start fights ... this is a sweet little story, if a little sad of a bloke who gets left by his girlie because he's a touch dozy like. The nice orchestral samples add to the 'tragic love story' theme of it all.
196) Basement Jaxx - Same Old Show
Remedy. Full of anthems everywhere. Everyone knows RendezVu, Red Alert ... its all caned to bits. This was always my favourite track off the album, samples an old ska track, has an awkward 6/8 time signature (which makes mixing it interesting) but is fooking wicked. A simple ska groove worked over Jaxx beats, looping up and up and up. Grand novel breakdown too.
195) Foo Fighters - All My Life
Now I love this, from the most moment I heard it. Something that REALLY moves you. Not in the 'oh thats touching' way, but the 'oh I have to jerk my body about' way. Love the structure of it, holding back with some menace before tearing away with some real screaming! Class.
194) Rozzo - The Way (original / Phunkdiggerz Moody Remix)
An old techno track that popped up on UK techno label Bush ages ago. Simple effective military drums lead to moody synth chord progression and a dirty stabby bassline. My bro's mate had the double pack this was on and I ... nicked this vinyl off him because I loved it so much :o! Ended up getting signed to Plasic City a few years later. Now, I usually beware of ANYTHING that is spelt Phunk or uses a z instead of an s. They did a normal mix which basically thumped it up with a funkier bassline which just didn't sit right, but did the 'Moody' remix ... which was a piece of class. Doesn't really sound anything like the original but works an atmospheric groove. A bouncy house beat is laid over a very moody little break beat. Peaks to a wonderful breakdown, almost ambient with its Floyd style guitars but kept moving along with the jazz break loop in the background before kicking back in. Nicely done!
193) De'Lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Mixes)
The classic really. At a time where there was SO much vocal sh!te about, a iffyish garage track by Blaze is given a re-working by new boys to the scene, Deep Dish. Their epic electronic groove with haunting organ, echoed vocals and rubbing, grinding drums, stole across dancefloors and into the top 10. Fantastic track. Caned to bits? Maybe, but everyone knows it, plus the Dubfire Needs To Score version has a massive beatless section when it kicks in for added anthem singalong value ... makes it all worthwhile when those beats start working.
192) Medicine8 - Ape Don't Kill Ape
Formally called Medicine, these guys have their own house sound, raw and gritty with nods to acid house past and a slight punk attitude. Basically what the Audio Bullys should have been. This track uses alot of similar sounds as to what Circulation use, but ends up being the track that I wish Circulation's were. Rougher beats, sparkier hooks than anything they have done. Nice little robotic vocal chanting "I've got my head up high" over heavenly synths and plucky bass, which then switches and jumps to bass lead breaks. Simple and sorted.
191) Hot Lizard - The Theme
Charles Webster, master of the deep house groove, knocked this one up. A melacholic electronic house number with driving urgency. Typical moody DJ material.
190) Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Now this seems to polarize opinion. LOTS of people hate it, its an utter Marmite. I personally love it. Beats and bass with a bit of french flair, simple as that. Plus it was the theme to 'that' advert series.
189) D Product - Faithless
Now I love drum and bass, admittedly, not the field I'm well versed in it, there can be alot of filler out there. This track does it for me though, could be the industrial mood, anticipation for when the bass drops, or perhaps its the impossibly wibbly bassline itself. I think its all of that. Its something I've whacked on many a time to relieve some frustration.
188) Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag
Brilliant! I first heard this getting a lift out to a house party I was playing at back at school. It just made you sit right up. Broke the mould of the D&B scene at the time. None of the rudebwoy Incredible junglist nonsense. Jazz breakbeat fusion, great double bass action ... builds and kicks in all the right places from the trip hop intro to the full on track after the first break. Sorted.
187) SWAG - Drum Hydraulics
SWAG, years ahead of their time way back when, now sound a bit ... bland nowadays compared to what they used to knock out. In the days when Junior was Junior Boys Own and kicking out Chemical Brothers tracks, they had a subsidary called Jus' Trax. Swag popped up pushing out a brand of dark dark house music that was just plain rocking. The 'Version' tracks. I'm not sure what this one was but it made it onto their Collected Works 1995 LP. Mechanical whirrings, dark echoing bass noises, acid touches. Nothing sounded like it. Made it onto the first ever Fabric album which was nice. Pity they don't sound like this anymore.
186) Tiefschwarz - Never (Alternative Club Mix)
Now before I disappeared down the path of moody, I was a big US Garage fan. I loved Masters At Work and all things funky and vocal. Its just that everything became a bit watered down, the spark disappeared somewhere along the way, and lo US Garage become dullness to my ears and I started to get dark and twisted. Much JOY last year when up on Derrick Carters Classic label popped up Tiefschwarz's Ral9005 album. The press said it was good, I gave it a try. Now from the title, it sounded like it was going to be a piece of german acid techno experimentalism. What it actually turned out to be was an album full of GOOD solid grooving funky house music. I hadn't heard anything this good in ages and it made me think back to the glory days. Rather than plump for tracks like the lovely instrumental Water, vocal lead Never is my one. This is the album version. House music done how its meant to be done.
185) Funki Porchini - Going Down
I got onto Funki Porchini mainly because he sounds VERY much like my fave Twin Peaks sleaze music. I don't really know how to describe this ... watery, trip hop number. Something soothing to slip into before you go to sleep. Beats filter up and down and around your head as you're hypnotised....
184) Francesco Farfa - Tribe And Trance (Voyager Remix)
Plain dancefloor groover here. Many a journey to work with Sangers would John Digweed's Global Underground Hong Kong be the accompanying soundtrack. I remember everytime this came on I was like "what the fook is this tune?!". Absolutely crazy "ba-ba-boo! boo! boo!" echo noise going round it, furious tech drums and dischordant growling bassline .... nice nice nice drops where everything cuts back to the "boo! boo! boo!" noise and you get the sound of what sounds like a train passing by hit you. Grand! Peak time monster, still searching for on vinyl.
183) John Beltran - Caboclo (Get F**ked Mix)
The Get F**ked crew take control here. Old skool Todd Terry style drum noises and programming come out, sounds like its going to be a dark little number, halfway just changes completely to wonderful floating synths and gorgeous sax solo. Everything kicks back in and you realise the importance of the contrast between light and dark.
182) Dave Brennan - Drink Deep
Recent purchase and representing my chosen house sound of the moment. Yes, a nice bit of tech house. This one is on Mr C's (yes, The Shamen) End Recordings label (also home to Layo & Bushwacka in their pre XL days!). Huge bass, comes across like deep rave almost. Has these wonderful Northern Exposure trippy noises floating in and out of it all the time. Hypnotic one to get lost in, love to be on a dancefloor when this one is played. Also features my man of the moment James Zabiela on remix.
181) Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Isn't it wonderful? Could be the absolutely wicked video that goes with it, but you should all know this now. I love all the 'generic urban video x' choreography to Aphex's mad splintered beats. Although sometimes I feel like I'm rating the track AND video at the same time ... I just can't imagine it without the vid.
180) Squarepusher - Come On My Selecta!
Another 'top vid' one! Chris Cunningham has a way of translating the music into something visual on screen. This is just a great fun track with sense of humour, crazy n bass music.
179) Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
Allegedly a pisstake of Firestarter. Third in the series of Chris Cunningham on top video form. Extra marks go to the 'granny screaming' incident. I want your soul, I will eat your soul, come to daddy, aargh.
178) Deep Dish - Sushi
My fave DJ's ever. A track of their own (which is fooking rare nowadays) from their only artist album. I wish they would do a new one since their sound ramped up a bit after this album. Trademark punch Dish percussion, the strange strange clappy noise (which does it for me), moody DJ material again bringing their Iranian roots into this one with the eastern flavour that flows through it.
177) Marcel - On The Beach (Chaser Remix)
A chillout one for me, I keep meaning to make a chillout mix, and this would have to feature. The remix is a take on the slightly disco original, swaping soft disco drums for a nice break. Sea noises, distant piano. An On The Beach moment indeed.
176) Luke Vibert - Stern Facials
Luke has a kinda comic hip hop sound, also tends to delve into stupid n bass music. This is a nice uplifting (but not in the obvious grab you by the balls way, it soothes you and makes you smile) track. If you're partial to a bit of the DJ Shadow, Coldcut, Mo'wax output, you can't go wrong with this. Chilled 70's funk via space and some seagulls.
175) Peace Division - Feel My Drums
Ok, there was a point where if you'd heard one Peace Division, you'd heard them all. Alot of good (the recent Beats In Peacez series, DJ material, part 1 esp!), some duff (Xpress2 Lazy remix). This one of their own will represent all for me. Nasty technoid number, unsettling bass squeal, Peace Division long subtle build and tribal drums, and just plain evil "FEEL MY DRUMS!" vocal.
174) Oil - The Future
Off Pagan records, home of good northern house! I was down at The End one night, I'd just bought this on promo and Deep Dish dropped it THAT night. I was well chuffed. Like progressive house mixed with Nuphonic's soulful discohouse revival sound. Starts off murky, then goes groovy and then takes you high up into space! Great track. Fitting that it then made it to feature on Deep Dish's Yoshiesque 2.
173) Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
All hip hop is balls. Just some guys going on about biatches, money and people taking their sweaters off because its a bit warm. Well fook that generalisation I say. Roots Manuva could be the finest thing to hip hop ever. But most likeyl due to being from London, will never be heard of by the masses stateside. He does have a Mobo to his name tho. Has a very London/Jamaican hybrid sound going on ... great programming skills also, very evident on this track. Grand dubby track, love the "Witness the fitness! The prophet, he liveth! One hope, one quest!" main line. Zero 7 also took the dub version of this to stick on their Another Late Night mix.
172) PMT - Gyromancer
The breaks sound. Possibly one of the best breaks tracks you can get. Breaks heads loved it, house heads loved it. House tempo breakbeat, nasty drum and bassish bassline, moody and dark overall. Can't really say much more!
171) Manic Street Preachers - Ocean Spray (Kinobe Remix)
Yes the Manics have invaded my life. Kind of. fook knows what the original sounds like to be honest, this is a piece of downtempo genius! Sit down, smoke up put this on and chill the fook out. Kinobe also were responsible for the Kronenberg (I think) advert tune, you know, the woman has some Kroney and people keep staring at it and having accidents. This is much better than that though! Possibly even better than anything off their first album too! Heavenly chill material. Not heard enough to break it down, but I know what I like when I hear it. And this is good.
170) Deep Dish - Summers Over
More Dish, in both original and remix form (both by Dish), its a great track. Summer is indeed over if you hear this, no happy disco loops, no cheery vocals. Like a wave of mood coming at you. Nice variation from the usual house beat though, really pounds at you! Melancholic whines, nice 'tick tick tick tick tick' hi hats.
169) Southern Comforter - Another Late Thursday (Spincycle Remix)
Yes MORE dancefloor material. And do forgive me if I use the words 'bass lead' again. But this is it plain and simple. Banging beats and a furious menace of a bass hum. The kind of intensity of bass that would make you throw up if it came out of the speakers at Fabric. Peak time material ... this is what you have going when you're operating at full speed!
168) Dr Octagon - I'm Destructive
I like this since it uses (what I found was a well used hip hop break) a drum loop which Masters At Work used in their 1st Kenlou track. Chunky, nice grunging guitars and Kool Keith rambling on about vomiting in your breakfast and spitting in your salad and stuff. Yes.
167) Royksopp - Sparks
I overlooked this completely when I got Melody AM. Wish I hadn't. Love the beat programming on this, stoned and lurching. Soothing little track. Bonus is, just managed to pick up the vinyl and its got a remix by Murk which happens to be just about the ONLY good thing I've ever heard them do.
166) Gorillaz - 19-2000
Seems like people don't like the 'slow' version, I thing the remix version is pure butt. Loses the funk completely in a kinda Big Beat cop out. Cruising music. La la la la la la la la!
165) Bjork - 5 Years
I don't know enough of Post to know what I like about it, anyway Homogenic is more consistant and better so ner. This is my fave track I would say, love the gritty 'fooked up sample' drum noises. Triumphant sounding too in a mechanical electronic way! Love the blend of orchestral and electrical on this album.
164) Underground Resistance/DJ Rolando - Knights Of The Jaguar
Original Detroit techno PEOPLE. Or something. Legendary apparently too although this is the only thing I've heard. Everyone was going mad to sign this when it popped up on UR. Became the essential Ibiza tune, latin flair, urgent pacy little track. fooker to mix with though. No cheese too. Extra marks to UR for marking all their records with a "if you find this in a chain record store DO NOT BUY it, they are taking money away from the independants" tag.
163) Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Epic orchestra breakbeat! Imagine the orchestral parts of Unfinished Symphony, Lonely Soul, Bittersweet Symphony set to furious breaks! Great end of night track, classic.
162) Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Llhasa
First up from goa trance act Banco De Gaia. Title track from the album which made it onto Sasha & Digweeds Northern Exposure. Themed around a train journey through asia. Asian wailing, train noises. Oh and when I say trance, its not the furious DJ Sammy tripe. Its not even fast. Good little concept album too, takes you through a variety of moods.
161) Banco De Gaia - Kincajou
...such as this one. Just after a bizarre Asian/Dub hybrid, you suddenly find yourself listening to a £5 casio keyboard playing preselected 'disco' loop, some person introducing someone desperately trying to play things like an added bassdrum and awful cliche rave noise over the top before he suggests 'lets try a new rhythm'. Complete change, lovely breaks kick in utilising some nice live drums and bongos, a wall of synths in the background rising and falling. Hypnotic.
160) Mainline - Narcotic/Innerspace
One off John Digweed's Bedrock label. Now I found it hard to find good stuff on Bedrock, alot of it was murky prog guff that was trying TOO hard to be moody, murky and serious. This is a little gem though. James Holden works hypnotic trance synths against ambient echo noodlings and driving drums. Nothing cheesy about it though. No awful screaming bint, no blatantly obvious breakdown with drum fill to come back in. No synchopated stab bassline. A work of quality.
159) Nick Holder - Inside Your Soul (Lexicon Avenue Mix)
Nick Holder, fine crafter of deep, funky filtered house music with a nice percussive edge ... nice summer material. NRK went a different direction when they got Lexicon Avenue in to remix this jobbie. At a time when prog was just hitting big, this baby came out. A remedy to all those horrible Gatecrasher trance anthem nastinessesseses. Deep, flirting between house and trance and firmly in electronica. Nice vocal too.
158) Weekend World - The Word/The Word (Dub)
Like James Holden, Weekend World can work trancish sounds but with added deepness and quality. This popped up on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi label a while back. What got me about this was the simple drum programming, standard 909 beats, nothing special but somehow just have sooooo much bounce in them when put against the very deep, watery backing of the track. Another track very Circulation in sound. The Dub is grand too, working the beats and bass more in an evil warping progressive manner.
157) Stephane K & John Creamer - I Love You (Hybrid's Claustraphobic Remix)
Hybrid again, and about as far away from the orchestral Finished Symphony you can get. Hybrid take Creamer & K's tribal dull-a-thon and turn it into a breakbeat monster. Derranged high pitched squeal noise! Furious breaks! Nasty nasty electronic stabs and a long long long burbling break with a filthy vocal over the top of it and the most intense "wheeooorrrnnnnnnnnn!" whine as it all falls apart before kicking in for the final stretch. More full pelt material! Dark and nasty, very very nasty!
156) Fabrice Lig presents Soul Designer - Sweet Harmonies
Piece of quality tech house, that fast, but very chilled and soothing. Sweet indeed. Soft keys, soft beats and a nice acid wibbling noise. Summery, not at all moody smile material. Nice.
155) UNKLE - UNKLE Main Theme
Now UNKLE is easily not the best thing Shadow has put his name too. It just tries too hard in places (Lonely Soul, I'm pointing at you) ... so it falls that my favourite piece of the track is the one with no celebrity collaboration. Shadow working a nice guitar groove over some choice sci-fi samples and the like. Atmosphere! Still ... awaiting UNKLE album 2, and apparently Layo & Bushwacka!, Peace Division, FC Kahuna are on board so it should be NICE.
154) Bushwacka! - Feel It
...so then lets talk about Mr Bushwacka! then? Top star in the breaks scene, great productions (aside from when Tim Deluxe shoved the HORRIBLE vocal over Love Story). Comes from the glory days of rave, and you can hear the old rave chord progressions in alot of his tracks, but with style! Builds in three stages: ready, GO! and SPAZZOUT! Everything is a build to the first break when you get the full force of the breaks and grand bass invasion, then final secion which breaks down to fanfaring synth and bass stabs! Favourite of UNKLE unsurprisingly
153) Filter Tip - On Heat / In Season
Quality progressive house full stop. In Season is a deep number, working a bit like Slams Lifetimes, the On Heat track is the one I get excitied about. Lulls you into the false sense of security that its another chunky prog stomper before halfway through lifting you high with amazing strings. Nice.
152) Behrouz - What We Do In Life (Echoes In Eternity)
Another track from a Deep Dish label. What I originally liked about this was the way Deep Dish mix it in on Yoshiesque 2. You've got the very early house-ish sounds of Marscarter going on, but then (and very simply) you start getting this harder edged beat coming in, Dish-style clappy drums and the basslines switch over to a new sound. Great live piano solo thing going on in this one too. And it does indeed echo.
151) Pharcyde - Drop
One that gets a vote for the vid too. I wish I could have put some tracks off Bizarre Ride 2 but I can't remember what they are. Love this though, reversed in every way. Trippy little track. Apparently they recorded the album this is off on mushrooms!
Now this was a hard b*stard, on one hand I'm happy with the list, on the other I'm not. I think I should have done one dance, one non-thump list. I've got lots of good essentials but I think of lots of stuff that could have gone in thats not, plenty of fine chill/electronica, Blue States, Kid Koala, Ninja, Mo'Wax, everything ... then I also think of all the good thunking dance thats not in there from Danny Tenaglia, Green Velvet, Futureshock, plus everything that sounds absolutely amazing when in the context of a mix. So anyway, a FAIR representation of what I like, but don't take this to mean that its the ENTIRE spectrum of my sound, its not. Also going to bang up a top 20 albums too!
200) Nirvana - Plateau
Accompanied lots of being driven round Essex countryside during school lunchbreaks. Nice and simple, love the guitar and main chorus. Memories of past.
199) Angelo Badalamenti - Dance Of The Dream Man
Or its many variations on the album. I just love Twin Peaks. But one memory that stayed with me from seeing it as a kid was this wonderful sleazy music. Can't get enough of it ...
198) Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl
My personal favourite off Rooty. Lots of nice single material on this album and in general it was a more 'for the public' and not 'for the dancefloor' album for me. The production on this is amazing though, the wibbly bassline, the reverses on the beats and the way the little jangly bell in the background pitches up and down. Jaxx put alot of effort into their tracks, and probably more than you realise. All the tricks used one here. Plus I'd rather hear THIS than any urban/ukgarage sh!te anyday.
197) The Streets - Its Too Late
...unless its this urban/ukgarage sh!te! Plenty of good material to choose from. Easily dismissed as some cockney geezer talking over garage breaks, but on examination ... its more like the kind of observation films like Human Traffic have on life. Lots of sharp humour on his tracks. But I've decided to choose one that sticks out as a bit different. Rather than the observing of the sh!te-ness of everyday life, w@nkrs who get p!ssed and start fights ... this is a sweet little story, if a little sad of a bloke who gets left by his girlie because he's a touch dozy like. The nice orchestral samples add to the 'tragic love story' theme of it all.
196) Basement Jaxx - Same Old Show
Remedy. Full of anthems everywhere. Everyone knows RendezVu, Red Alert ... its all caned to bits. This was always my favourite track off the album, samples an old ska track, has an awkward 6/8 time signature (which makes mixing it interesting) but is fooking wicked. A simple ska groove worked over Jaxx beats, looping up and up and up. Grand novel breakdown too.
195) Foo Fighters - All My Life
Now I love this, from the most moment I heard it. Something that REALLY moves you. Not in the 'oh thats touching' way, but the 'oh I have to jerk my body about' way. Love the structure of it, holding back with some menace before tearing away with some real screaming! Class.
194) Rozzo - The Way (original / Phunkdiggerz Moody Remix)
An old techno track that popped up on UK techno label Bush ages ago. Simple effective military drums lead to moody synth chord progression and a dirty stabby bassline. My bro's mate had the double pack this was on and I ... nicked this vinyl off him because I loved it so much :o! Ended up getting signed to Plasic City a few years later. Now, I usually beware of ANYTHING that is spelt Phunk or uses a z instead of an s. They did a normal mix which basically thumped it up with a funkier bassline which just didn't sit right, but did the 'Moody' remix ... which was a piece of class. Doesn't really sound anything like the original but works an atmospheric groove. A bouncy house beat is laid over a very moody little break beat. Peaks to a wonderful breakdown, almost ambient with its Floyd style guitars but kept moving along with the jazz break loop in the background before kicking back in. Nicely done!
193) De'Lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Mixes)
The classic really. At a time where there was SO much vocal sh!te about, a iffyish garage track by Blaze is given a re-working by new boys to the scene, Deep Dish. Their epic electronic groove with haunting organ, echoed vocals and rubbing, grinding drums, stole across dancefloors and into the top 10. Fantastic track. Caned to bits? Maybe, but everyone knows it, plus the Dubfire Needs To Score version has a massive beatless section when it kicks in for added anthem singalong value ... makes it all worthwhile when those beats start working.
192) Medicine8 - Ape Don't Kill Ape
Formally called Medicine, these guys have their own house sound, raw and gritty with nods to acid house past and a slight punk attitude. Basically what the Audio Bullys should have been. This track uses alot of similar sounds as to what Circulation use, but ends up being the track that I wish Circulation's were. Rougher beats, sparkier hooks than anything they have done. Nice little robotic vocal chanting "I've got my head up high" over heavenly synths and plucky bass, which then switches and jumps to bass lead breaks. Simple and sorted.
191) Hot Lizard - The Theme
Charles Webster, master of the deep house groove, knocked this one up. A melacholic electronic house number with driving urgency. Typical moody DJ material.
190) Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Now this seems to polarize opinion. LOTS of people hate it, its an utter Marmite. I personally love it. Beats and bass with a bit of french flair, simple as that. Plus it was the theme to 'that' advert series.
189) D Product - Faithless
Now I love drum and bass, admittedly, not the field I'm well versed in it, there can be alot of filler out there. This track does it for me though, could be the industrial mood, anticipation for when the bass drops, or perhaps its the impossibly wibbly bassline itself. I think its all of that. Its something I've whacked on many a time to relieve some frustration.
188) Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag
Brilliant! I first heard this getting a lift out to a house party I was playing at back at school. It just made you sit right up. Broke the mould of the D&B scene at the time. None of the rudebwoy Incredible junglist nonsense. Jazz breakbeat fusion, great double bass action ... builds and kicks in all the right places from the trip hop intro to the full on track after the first break. Sorted.
187) SWAG - Drum Hydraulics
SWAG, years ahead of their time way back when, now sound a bit ... bland nowadays compared to what they used to knock out. In the days when Junior was Junior Boys Own and kicking out Chemical Brothers tracks, they had a subsidary called Jus' Trax. Swag popped up pushing out a brand of dark dark house music that was just plain rocking. The 'Version' tracks. I'm not sure what this one was but it made it onto their Collected Works 1995 LP. Mechanical whirrings, dark echoing bass noises, acid touches. Nothing sounded like it. Made it onto the first ever Fabric album which was nice. Pity they don't sound like this anymore.
186) Tiefschwarz - Never (Alternative Club Mix)
Now before I disappeared down the path of moody, I was a big US Garage fan. I loved Masters At Work and all things funky and vocal. Its just that everything became a bit watered down, the spark disappeared somewhere along the way, and lo US Garage become dullness to my ears and I started to get dark and twisted. Much JOY last year when up on Derrick Carters Classic label popped up Tiefschwarz's Ral9005 album. The press said it was good, I gave it a try. Now from the title, it sounded like it was going to be a piece of german acid techno experimentalism. What it actually turned out to be was an album full of GOOD solid grooving funky house music. I hadn't heard anything this good in ages and it made me think back to the glory days. Rather than plump for tracks like the lovely instrumental Water, vocal lead Never is my one. This is the album version. House music done how its meant to be done.
185) Funki Porchini - Going Down
I got onto Funki Porchini mainly because he sounds VERY much like my fave Twin Peaks sleaze music. I don't really know how to describe this ... watery, trip hop number. Something soothing to slip into before you go to sleep. Beats filter up and down and around your head as you're hypnotised....
184) Francesco Farfa - Tribe And Trance (Voyager Remix)
Plain dancefloor groover here. Many a journey to work with Sangers would John Digweed's Global Underground Hong Kong be the accompanying soundtrack. I remember everytime this came on I was like "what the fook is this tune?!". Absolutely crazy "ba-ba-boo! boo! boo!" echo noise going round it, furious tech drums and dischordant growling bassline .... nice nice nice drops where everything cuts back to the "boo! boo! boo!" noise and you get the sound of what sounds like a train passing by hit you. Grand! Peak time monster, still searching for on vinyl.
183) John Beltran - Caboclo (Get F**ked Mix)
The Get F**ked crew take control here. Old skool Todd Terry style drum noises and programming come out, sounds like its going to be a dark little number, halfway just changes completely to wonderful floating synths and gorgeous sax solo. Everything kicks back in and you realise the importance of the contrast between light and dark.
182) Dave Brennan - Drink Deep
Recent purchase and representing my chosen house sound of the moment. Yes, a nice bit of tech house. This one is on Mr C's (yes, The Shamen) End Recordings label (also home to Layo & Bushwacka in their pre XL days!). Huge bass, comes across like deep rave almost. Has these wonderful Northern Exposure trippy noises floating in and out of it all the time. Hypnotic one to get lost in, love to be on a dancefloor when this one is played. Also features my man of the moment James Zabiela on remix.
181) Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Isn't it wonderful? Could be the absolutely wicked video that goes with it, but you should all know this now. I love all the 'generic urban video x' choreography to Aphex's mad splintered beats. Although sometimes I feel like I'm rating the track AND video at the same time ... I just can't imagine it without the vid.
180) Squarepusher - Come On My Selecta!
Another 'top vid' one! Chris Cunningham has a way of translating the music into something visual on screen. This is just a great fun track with sense of humour, crazy n bass music.
179) Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
Allegedly a pisstake of Firestarter. Third in the series of Chris Cunningham on top video form. Extra marks go to the 'granny screaming' incident. I want your soul, I will eat your soul, come to daddy, aargh.
178) Deep Dish - Sushi
My fave DJ's ever. A track of their own (which is fooking rare nowadays) from their only artist album. I wish they would do a new one since their sound ramped up a bit after this album. Trademark punch Dish percussion, the strange strange clappy noise (which does it for me), moody DJ material again bringing their Iranian roots into this one with the eastern flavour that flows through it.
177) Marcel - On The Beach (Chaser Remix)
A chillout one for me, I keep meaning to make a chillout mix, and this would have to feature. The remix is a take on the slightly disco original, swaping soft disco drums for a nice break. Sea noises, distant piano. An On The Beach moment indeed.
176) Luke Vibert - Stern Facials
Luke has a kinda comic hip hop sound, also tends to delve into stupid n bass music. This is a nice uplifting (but not in the obvious grab you by the balls way, it soothes you and makes you smile) track. If you're partial to a bit of the DJ Shadow, Coldcut, Mo'wax output, you can't go wrong with this. Chilled 70's funk via space and some seagulls.
175) Peace Division - Feel My Drums
Ok, there was a point where if you'd heard one Peace Division, you'd heard them all. Alot of good (the recent Beats In Peacez series, DJ material, part 1 esp!), some duff (Xpress2 Lazy remix). This one of their own will represent all for me. Nasty technoid number, unsettling bass squeal, Peace Division long subtle build and tribal drums, and just plain evil "FEEL MY DRUMS!" vocal.
174) Oil - The Future
Off Pagan records, home of good northern house! I was down at The End one night, I'd just bought this on promo and Deep Dish dropped it THAT night. I was well chuffed. Like progressive house mixed with Nuphonic's soulful discohouse revival sound. Starts off murky, then goes groovy and then takes you high up into space! Great track. Fitting that it then made it to feature on Deep Dish's Yoshiesque 2.
173) Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
All hip hop is balls. Just some guys going on about biatches, money and people taking their sweaters off because its a bit warm. Well fook that generalisation I say. Roots Manuva could be the finest thing to hip hop ever. But most likeyl due to being from London, will never be heard of by the masses stateside. He does have a Mobo to his name tho. Has a very London/Jamaican hybrid sound going on ... great programming skills also, very evident on this track. Grand dubby track, love the "Witness the fitness! The prophet, he liveth! One hope, one quest!" main line. Zero 7 also took the dub version of this to stick on their Another Late Night mix.
172) PMT - Gyromancer
The breaks sound. Possibly one of the best breaks tracks you can get. Breaks heads loved it, house heads loved it. House tempo breakbeat, nasty drum and bassish bassline, moody and dark overall. Can't really say much more!
171) Manic Street Preachers - Ocean Spray (Kinobe Remix)
Yes the Manics have invaded my life. Kind of. fook knows what the original sounds like to be honest, this is a piece of downtempo genius! Sit down, smoke up put this on and chill the fook out. Kinobe also were responsible for the Kronenberg (I think) advert tune, you know, the woman has some Kroney and people keep staring at it and having accidents. This is much better than that though! Possibly even better than anything off their first album too! Heavenly chill material. Not heard enough to break it down, but I know what I like when I hear it. And this is good.
170) Deep Dish - Summers Over
More Dish, in both original and remix form (both by Dish), its a great track. Summer is indeed over if you hear this, no happy disco loops, no cheery vocals. Like a wave of mood coming at you. Nice variation from the usual house beat though, really pounds at you! Melancholic whines, nice 'tick tick tick tick tick' hi hats.
169) Southern Comforter - Another Late Thursday (Spincycle Remix)
Yes MORE dancefloor material. And do forgive me if I use the words 'bass lead' again. But this is it plain and simple. Banging beats and a furious menace of a bass hum. The kind of intensity of bass that would make you throw up if it came out of the speakers at Fabric. Peak time material ... this is what you have going when you're operating at full speed!
168) Dr Octagon - I'm Destructive
I like this since it uses (what I found was a well used hip hop break) a drum loop which Masters At Work used in their 1st Kenlou track. Chunky, nice grunging guitars and Kool Keith rambling on about vomiting in your breakfast and spitting in your salad and stuff. Yes.
167) Royksopp - Sparks
I overlooked this completely when I got Melody AM. Wish I hadn't. Love the beat programming on this, stoned and lurching. Soothing little track. Bonus is, just managed to pick up the vinyl and its got a remix by Murk which happens to be just about the ONLY good thing I've ever heard them do.
166) Gorillaz - 19-2000
Seems like people don't like the 'slow' version, I thing the remix version is pure butt. Loses the funk completely in a kinda Big Beat cop out. Cruising music. La la la la la la la la!
165) Bjork - 5 Years
I don't know enough of Post to know what I like about it, anyway Homogenic is more consistant and better so ner. This is my fave track I would say, love the gritty 'fooked up sample' drum noises. Triumphant sounding too in a mechanical electronic way! Love the blend of orchestral and electrical on this album.
164) Underground Resistance/DJ Rolando - Knights Of The Jaguar
Original Detroit techno PEOPLE. Or something. Legendary apparently too although this is the only thing I've heard. Everyone was going mad to sign this when it popped up on UR. Became the essential Ibiza tune, latin flair, urgent pacy little track. fooker to mix with though. No cheese too. Extra marks to UR for marking all their records with a "if you find this in a chain record store DO NOT BUY it, they are taking money away from the independants" tag.
163) Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Epic orchestra breakbeat! Imagine the orchestral parts of Unfinished Symphony, Lonely Soul, Bittersweet Symphony set to furious breaks! Great end of night track, classic.
162) Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Llhasa
First up from goa trance act Banco De Gaia. Title track from the album which made it onto Sasha & Digweeds Northern Exposure. Themed around a train journey through asia. Asian wailing, train noises. Oh and when I say trance, its not the furious DJ Sammy tripe. Its not even fast. Good little concept album too, takes you through a variety of moods.
161) Banco De Gaia - Kincajou
...such as this one. Just after a bizarre Asian/Dub hybrid, you suddenly find yourself listening to a £5 casio keyboard playing preselected 'disco' loop, some person introducing someone desperately trying to play things like an added bassdrum and awful cliche rave noise over the top before he suggests 'lets try a new rhythm'. Complete change, lovely breaks kick in utilising some nice live drums and bongos, a wall of synths in the background rising and falling. Hypnotic.
160) Mainline - Narcotic/Innerspace
One off John Digweed's Bedrock label. Now I found it hard to find good stuff on Bedrock, alot of it was murky prog guff that was trying TOO hard to be moody, murky and serious. This is a little gem though. James Holden works hypnotic trance synths against ambient echo noodlings and driving drums. Nothing cheesy about it though. No awful screaming bint, no blatantly obvious breakdown with drum fill to come back in. No synchopated stab bassline. A work of quality.
159) Nick Holder - Inside Your Soul (Lexicon Avenue Mix)
Nick Holder, fine crafter of deep, funky filtered house music with a nice percussive edge ... nice summer material. NRK went a different direction when they got Lexicon Avenue in to remix this jobbie. At a time when prog was just hitting big, this baby came out. A remedy to all those horrible Gatecrasher trance anthem nastinessesseses. Deep, flirting between house and trance and firmly in electronica. Nice vocal too.
158) Weekend World - The Word/The Word (Dub)
Like James Holden, Weekend World can work trancish sounds but with added deepness and quality. This popped up on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi label a while back. What got me about this was the simple drum programming, standard 909 beats, nothing special but somehow just have sooooo much bounce in them when put against the very deep, watery backing of the track. Another track very Circulation in sound. The Dub is grand too, working the beats and bass more in an evil warping progressive manner.
157) Stephane K & John Creamer - I Love You (Hybrid's Claustraphobic Remix)
Hybrid again, and about as far away from the orchestral Finished Symphony you can get. Hybrid take Creamer & K's tribal dull-a-thon and turn it into a breakbeat monster. Derranged high pitched squeal noise! Furious breaks! Nasty nasty electronic stabs and a long long long burbling break with a filthy vocal over the top of it and the most intense "wheeooorrrnnnnnnnnn!" whine as it all falls apart before kicking in for the final stretch. More full pelt material! Dark and nasty, very very nasty!
156) Fabrice Lig presents Soul Designer - Sweet Harmonies
Piece of quality tech house, that fast, but very chilled and soothing. Sweet indeed. Soft keys, soft beats and a nice acid wibbling noise. Summery, not at all moody smile material. Nice.
155) UNKLE - UNKLE Main Theme
Now UNKLE is easily not the best thing Shadow has put his name too. It just tries too hard in places (Lonely Soul, I'm pointing at you) ... so it falls that my favourite piece of the track is the one with no celebrity collaboration. Shadow working a nice guitar groove over some choice sci-fi samples and the like. Atmosphere! Still ... awaiting UNKLE album 2, and apparently Layo & Bushwacka!, Peace Division, FC Kahuna are on board so it should be NICE.
154) Bushwacka! - Feel It
...so then lets talk about Mr Bushwacka! then? Top star in the breaks scene, great productions (aside from when Tim Deluxe shoved the HORRIBLE vocal over Love Story). Comes from the glory days of rave, and you can hear the old rave chord progressions in alot of his tracks, but with style! Builds in three stages: ready, GO! and SPAZZOUT! Everything is a build to the first break when you get the full force of the breaks and grand bass invasion, then final secion which breaks down to fanfaring synth and bass stabs! Favourite of UNKLE unsurprisingly
153) Filter Tip - On Heat / In Season
Quality progressive house full stop. In Season is a deep number, working a bit like Slams Lifetimes, the On Heat track is the one I get excitied about. Lulls you into the false sense of security that its another chunky prog stomper before halfway through lifting you high with amazing strings. Nice.
152) Behrouz - What We Do In Life (Echoes In Eternity)
Another track from a Deep Dish label. What I originally liked about this was the way Deep Dish mix it in on Yoshiesque 2. You've got the very early house-ish sounds of Marscarter going on, but then (and very simply) you start getting this harder edged beat coming in, Dish-style clappy drums and the basslines switch over to a new sound. Great live piano solo thing going on in this one too. And it does indeed echo.
151) Pharcyde - Drop
One that gets a vote for the vid too. I wish I could have put some tracks off Bizarre Ride 2 but I can't remember what they are. Love this though, reversed in every way. Trippy little track. Apparently they recorded the album this is off on mushrooms!
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50) DJ Krush - Song 1
About 5 seconds of this is in a Hewlett Packard advert. More chilled hip hop, instrumental, eastern flutes and soft piano. Check it out, and you'll probably know it.
49) Fila Brazillia - Throwing Down A Shape
I wish I had a selection of the more amusingly titled Fila tracks, Here Comes Pissy Willy, Harmonicas Are sh!te, Dave Yang and Steve Yin T-swish T-swish etc etc, but I'm not putting stuff in JUST for the name! This track starts off initially with moody electro, but quickly shifts to a more pleasant chilled guitar driven track. Good shift of mood.
48) Plaid - New Bass Hippo
Bounce track! Experimental electronic bossanova with a chirpy bassline and enthusiastic piano. Makes me feel happy.
47) Plaid - Zamami
Whereas this is a more low key, soft number with jazzy drums and moody choral synths. An eastern vibe runs through this one too.
46) UNKLE - Coffeehouse Conversation/Sassafrass (Plaid Remix)
Now I listen to these two remixes one after another since they are essentially a variation on a theme. My happy music, for some reason makes me feel cheery. No idea what Lavelle's originals sound like, but these are wicked. More obviously hip hoppy than usual Plaid, chirpy but uses some nice classical techniques from the baroque era in places, lots of ornamentals. Cute. Plus I like the way that Sassafrass builds in the style of a Canon, introducing new elements with each pass.
45) Photek - Lost Blue Heaven
Drum and bass master Photek did a shocker when he made a house/downtempo album. And it was bloody good too. This is one of the down tempo tracks, oozes ambient mood to start with, before taking off one an asian vibe. Can't sum this one up with words. Suck it and see.
44) Gus Gus - Desire
My fave off Attention, great vocal echoing through this, has hints of Orbital at their best with the electroish sound and synths. Are you neglecting, your primal desires?
43) Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea
The big up rave classic! Breakbeat perfection. Sasha fave from way back, eerie vocal, space noises and a top break to boot! Got re-release with loads of mixes not long back, and FSOL themselves did the 'Translations' album which was full of nice variations of the track. Classic.
42) Plaid - Ralome
Nice marriage of live and electronic. No beats involved! Gentle track based around gorgeous guitar. For some reason makes me think of Clannad. Don't know why.
41) Fila Brazillia - A Zed And Two L's
Great Fila track from the early days, starts of nicely chilled and downtempo, eases you in with xylophone, then introduces bass and the beats float in, some tribal chanting floats in, then a lovely synth line comes in before it all breaks down, lots of flange on the synth, the tempo kicks up and were in floaty breakbeat territory! Great transition ... heads back to the downtemponess to finish off.
40) Boards Of Canada - Gyroscope
AND HERE THEY ARE. BUM BUM BUM! Boards. Of. Canada. Strange reversing synth, clanging drums, some kid in the background saying weird stuff "7.... 9 ... 3 ... 4 .. 5 .... 6". Gryoscope sounds like an appropriate title, hypnotic swirl of noise.
39) Slam feat Dot Allison - Visions
Great electro track from Slam, electro's Dot Allison provides the vocals, what does it for me is the bassline that warps in and away at you. If you're going to do electro music, do it like this. Again, another track way way way before the entire electroclash bandwagon.
38) Leftfield - Swords
Similar in mood to Visions, another fine fine female led electro track, with a nod more towards the dubby side of things. Once again, way way way before the entire rah rah rah of electroclash.
37) Global Communications - 14:31
14 minutes 31 of ambience this time! Not dark and swirly like 9:39, kept pace by a ticking clock in the background, and lifted to more joyous regions by the wonderful synths and chorus. Ambient at its best.
36) Boards Of Canada - Aquarius (Version 3)
This is the Peel Session version, not a hell of alot different from the original, just some added vocals here and there ... nothing too obtrusive. Starts off like a nice downtempo Ninja Tune style track (in fact the track is a fave on Ninja's Solid Steel sessions) punctuated by someone shouting ORANGE! before heading off into a lovely uplifting psychedelic area with a woman counting up to sixtyten. Funky and lovely.
35) Mr Scruff - Get A Move On
A bloody amazing grooving deep house track, sampling the 20's! Just bloody amazing, download. One to dance to. In a large manner. Overall chipper but its deeper than it first appears. Lovely shifts in bass. Great chunking beats too, very Masters At Work.
34) Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling (Peel Session)
A chunking breakbeat number, mechanical and basic to begin with with clunking gritty beats, an eerie chorus floating in the background ... more elements get introduced, seagulls, gentle keys, melacholic ... near the end it shifts up a gear and gives a much wider sound. Watery and all encompassing.
33) Brothomstates - MDRMX
Clicky computer noises start this one off, you think you're going to head off into a Chiastic Slide but then some lovely Aphex Selected Works style electronica moves in ... just as you're getting ambient some random Autechre whirrings start clunking away, nothing too obtrusive but gradually get more frantic as the track grows to its close. Bliss.
32) Orbital - The Girl With The Sun In Her Head
The absolutely WICKED introduction to In Sides! Extactic and thoroughly optimistic. Starts off with mood, like a slow moving helicopter, echoing noises. Then comes the big synths/choral effects, live breaks kick in, a grooving b-line and this amazing pitch bending lead noise. One of the best kick butt intro's to an album.
31) Autechre - Tewe
From Chiastic SLIDE. Machine whirrings, scattered beats, eastern mood. A simple hypnotic track. But effective. I can get lost in the frantic beat programming and subtle synths.
30) Boards Of Canada - Dawn Chorus
Extatic track. Slow lurching beats, samples that sound like they're taken from a warped cassette recording from decades past. The wailing woman. Ah, dramatic. If I could write music, I'd want to be Boards Of Canada.
29) Brothomstates - Brothomstates Ipxen
Interesting track! Manages to go deep house, Aphex before embarking on a bit of an Autechre beat spazz out and arriving and nice Plaid breakbeat electronica at the end. Tour De Odd. I'd love to get my hands on some re-editing software and remix this into a full DJ version.
28) Plaid - Dead Sea
A simple spine chilling track made of choral synths and strings, reminiscent of Mass music. Melacholic and depressing with its opening of strings, before lifting you higher with a shift in mood and tempo when the chorus is added. Conjures up images of ghost ships and pirates for some reason....
27) Portishead - Numb
Nice nice nice! Love the excellent beat programming on this one, the nice ride cymbal, plus the earth shattering bass. My fave Portishead.
26) Ulrich Schnauss - Nobody's Home
Took me a LONG time to get hold of the Far Away Trains Passing By album, but it was worth it. Happy chipper chill out music, this one being the most initially appealing. Bouncy beats, happy synths, chirpy guitars all with a lovely melody with just a hint of sadness in it.
25)The Orb - Into The Fourth Dimention
I don't know what it is about this track, I think its to do with the way Perpetual Dawn disintergrates into a load of mad spacey noises, the happy vibe is broken by brooding synths and a spoken passage about Voyager. The way that the operatic choir breaks through this helps ... and then the way tribal beats kick in finally accompanied by the violin solo. I just like it. But as I said before, you really have to hear the entire album all in one go to really get the full impact.
24) DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Parts 1 & 4)
I love this! I remember just drifting off to sleep a bit caned a long time ago when I bought this. Part 1 closes the album off and I was just drifting away when Transmission 3 rudely boomed in and made me shat myself. Anyway, I've lumped these together because they're both wicked. Part 4, is an exercise in master sampling, lovely beats, sleazing bass and Shadow scratching sensual sax over the top. Part 1 is a whole lighter affair, chipper synths, spashing drums, classy.
23) Brothomstates - Kava
Another one with a Chaistic intro of clickings and static, before really chunking along pots and pans come in, very much like early Orbital. Gentle melody over the top, but what really sets it off is the incessant bassdrum noise that kicks in halfway through. Electrobreakbeat from the future!
22) Orbital - Are We Here?
And talking of Orbital, this is a 15 minutes exercise in class. Frantic breakbeat number, moody and apocolyptic when it changes mood with sirens and lovely vocal. 8 mins in and its all change again for a lovely light hearted mood, optimistic synths come to the fore, the breaks stay but are less frantic, more organised. Are we here? What does god say?
21) Boards Of Canada - Music Is Math
Halfway through and it sounds like a pretty good intro to Geogaddi. Just good solid BoC doing their atmospheric thing. Its the way it breaks down at the end with echoing drums, vocals and various noises that do it for me. Shiver material.
20) Autechre - Foil
The non-Girls Aloud version. Very early Autechre. Oozes mood and menace at you. Low synth humming noise, phased and flanged drums echoing up and down in the background, shifts in the hum and walls of echo just add to the atmosphere. Music for rainy days to reflect the mood. Quite similar to Piezo from the same album (echoey drums journey), but I like the downtempo mood stylings of this, great way to have started me off on the Autechre journey. Piezo is deffo worth a check, I only remember this now while listening through some sh!te, but I'm no way retyping this list. At all.
19) Adam Beyer - Ignition Key
I was well chufty I picked his album up, swedish techno DJ. The title track comes across as Plaid meets tech-house. Obviously well happy. Tech beats, Plaid sounds. Dramatic ... trying to figure a way to drop this one day. End of night natch.
18) Ulrich Schnauss - Between Us and Them
More Ulrich, gently beginning with echoing faint guitars, more and more gets added to the track as time passes, keys, more keys! Then some nice beats and a nice warm bassline, subtle changes in chord structure. Happy soul lifting music.
17) DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
The DJ Shadow pop track if there was ever one. From the hooky watery keys to the clunking beats to the voice in the background which you just can't quite make out what its saying. Lovely. Wraps you up in lovely sound and soothes you.
16) Boards Of Canada - 1969
I could have put so much Geogaddi on here, The Beach At Redpoint is a sinister little track, You Could Feel The Sky harkens back to the chunking Music... material, but I've gone for this since its one that I noticed first. A kinda trip hop number. Strange effected vocal, twinkling synths, plus the "its 1969 in the sunshine, its 1969 in the sunshine" vocal.
15) DJ Shadow - Six Days
THE best Shadow I've heard, great repeating sample in the background, the military drums that patter away in the background halfway through, and the strange vocals! Would love to have know where he gets his stuff from. Tomorrow never comes until its too late.
14) The Orb - Spanish Castles In Space
The closer to disc 1. Piano washing gently in the background, double bass walking gently over the track, guitar providing the main theme. Pure chill.
13) Ulrich Schnauss - Molfsee
Brilliant track! Apparently its meant to be a rip off of Boards Of Canada's Everything You Do Is A Balloon. I don't hear this though, and its MUCH better. Finishing off the rather optimistic album with something wonderfully melacholic! Wintery. Anyone who likes BoC has to give this a try, even just to introduce you to the world of Ulrich.
12) Underworld - Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love
The opener of Second Toughest In The Infants (and the rather fab Everything, Everything Live DVD ... an essential purchase to see a dance superband strut their essential stuff! Best live DVD I've seen full stop). Its actually three tracks, but blended together as one. Relentlessly tech Juanita has Karl's stream of consciousness vocodered over the top, builds and builds ... adding more synths as time goes on, fluttering over the top, echoing bits of guitar from Karl. The BREAKS and changes into Kiteless, losing the synths and getting stuck into some plain gritty beats and bass action. The synths float back as you kick into To Dream Of Love, just the synths and Karl taking to the fore. Beats kick back in for the finale and the synths take you away. Nice tour de force. Epic way to start an album.
11) Plaid - Lillith
Great track with Bjork on vocals, actually better than anything I've heard her do, much better than the slightly messy collaboration Plaid had with Nicolette on the same album. accordian and wonderfully programmed trip hop beats. Pizzacato strings. Hard to tell where Bjork ends and Plaid begins on this.
10) Autechre - Cipater
I remember hearing this as the backing to some mad short film on Channel 4. I was captivated by it, the way everything on screen was timed up to the clunking and chunking. Perfect. All done from the perspective of someone filming everyday life with a camcorder but with nice electrical fookups and sh!te happening on screen. This is so precise, so mechanical. Sounds like an assembly line. Makes me think of a harsher more futuristic Timber.
9) Boards Of Canada - Sixtyten
Rum hum a drum boom boom bass drum beats throughout this, strange little sample snippets get scratched in here and there, and BBC Radiophonic Workshop synths sit over the top. Dark track. Love it.
8) Underworld - Banstyle/Sappy's Curry
Track 2 of Second Toughest, and another epic mash up. More subtle. Banstyle is a lovely mellow intelligent drum and bass track with little wibbly noises, Karl Hyde gently singing over the top. The tracks changeover as more dramatic moody synths are introduced, the beats drop and is replaced by guitar strumming away .... finally comes back in as a downtempo melacholic track with a slightly sadder sounding Karl. That light & dark parallel again.
7) Plaid - Eyen
Lovely atmospheric start to an album! Guitar fades in, bass and beats, it sounds like a live number until near the end the attack on the bass ramps up and becomes really harsh, the track leaves you with the bass and beats squelching away before disappearing into feedback.
6) Boards Of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
Good thing to come after Sixtyten, a nice light melody set over gritty beats. Wonderful beats. Not even Portishead got this gritty. Simple oh so simple but lovely.
5) Lamb - Cottonwool (Fila Brazillia Remix)
Epic dramatic remix, don't know what the original is like but this rocks. Lamb taken on a wicked, urgent breaks journey. Moody. The best Fila remix ever.
4) Orbital - Sad But True
Think Alison Goldfrapp is on vocal duty here. Lovely bouncy breaks, at the same speed as my walking speed. Far too many times trekking around Chelmsford with this on. On the way home from a nightshift at the post office I got sidetracked by just the joy of listening to Orbital and ended up in a field waving at trains. Stone cold sober too!
3) Underworld - Dark And Long (Dark Train)
Sasha fave, from the scene in Trainspotting when Renton is going cold turkey and the baby is crawling along the ceiling at him. Progressive classic. Got a kind of Blue Monday 'oooooooooh' choral sound in it. Like a train, like a train, like a train. My #1 choice end of night tune for my sets.
2) Boards Of Canada - An Eagle In Your Mind
I always got told the BoC sounded like Plaid but I never actually got round to listening to them. My housemate lent me Music.... last year, from a few seconds into this track, the opener, I was hooked. I now have the back catalogue! Great little electronic track that skitters around electronic beats. Melancholic synths. Shifts a gear up at the end by swapping the skittery beats with some straight up hip hop ones. A great builder of a track. Perfection.
1) Underworld - Pearls Girl
No doubt on this one. Infinately better than Born Slippy and just as relentless. Starts off which shivering moody synth, twisted up vocal snippet warps in, this menacing helicopter sound and the fashoom! tearing away breakbeat, grittier than Prodigy at their peak. But that helicopter sound floating around your head. Karl eventually comes in ranting on about just about anything that comes into his head. Its when all the fury cuts out towards the end into the eerie synths before coming back for one more go that you know its a beauty. Sorted! Another one thats a corker on the Live DVD. Peak Underworld.
About 5 seconds of this is in a Hewlett Packard advert. More chilled hip hop, instrumental, eastern flutes and soft piano. Check it out, and you'll probably know it.
49) Fila Brazillia - Throwing Down A Shape
I wish I had a selection of the more amusingly titled Fila tracks, Here Comes Pissy Willy, Harmonicas Are sh!te, Dave Yang and Steve Yin T-swish T-swish etc etc, but I'm not putting stuff in JUST for the name! This track starts off initially with moody electro, but quickly shifts to a more pleasant chilled guitar driven track. Good shift of mood.
48) Plaid - New Bass Hippo
Bounce track! Experimental electronic bossanova with a chirpy bassline and enthusiastic piano. Makes me feel happy.
47) Plaid - Zamami
Whereas this is a more low key, soft number with jazzy drums and moody choral synths. An eastern vibe runs through this one too.
46) UNKLE - Coffeehouse Conversation/Sassafrass (Plaid Remix)
Now I listen to these two remixes one after another since they are essentially a variation on a theme. My happy music, for some reason makes me feel cheery. No idea what Lavelle's originals sound like, but these are wicked. More obviously hip hoppy than usual Plaid, chirpy but uses some nice classical techniques from the baroque era in places, lots of ornamentals. Cute. Plus I like the way that Sassafrass builds in the style of a Canon, introducing new elements with each pass.
45) Photek - Lost Blue Heaven
Drum and bass master Photek did a shocker when he made a house/downtempo album. And it was bloody good too. This is one of the down tempo tracks, oozes ambient mood to start with, before taking off one an asian vibe. Can't sum this one up with words. Suck it and see.
44) Gus Gus - Desire
My fave off Attention, great vocal echoing through this, has hints of Orbital at their best with the electroish sound and synths. Are you neglecting, your primal desires?
43) Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea
The big up rave classic! Breakbeat perfection. Sasha fave from way back, eerie vocal, space noises and a top break to boot! Got re-release with loads of mixes not long back, and FSOL themselves did the 'Translations' album which was full of nice variations of the track. Classic.
42) Plaid - Ralome
Nice marriage of live and electronic. No beats involved! Gentle track based around gorgeous guitar. For some reason makes me think of Clannad. Don't know why.
41) Fila Brazillia - A Zed And Two L's
Great Fila track from the early days, starts of nicely chilled and downtempo, eases you in with xylophone, then introduces bass and the beats float in, some tribal chanting floats in, then a lovely synth line comes in before it all breaks down, lots of flange on the synth, the tempo kicks up and were in floaty breakbeat territory! Great transition ... heads back to the downtemponess to finish off.
40) Boards Of Canada - Gyroscope
AND HERE THEY ARE. BUM BUM BUM! Boards. Of. Canada. Strange reversing synth, clanging drums, some kid in the background saying weird stuff "7.... 9 ... 3 ... 4 .. 5 .... 6". Gryoscope sounds like an appropriate title, hypnotic swirl of noise.
39) Slam feat Dot Allison - Visions
Great electro track from Slam, electro's Dot Allison provides the vocals, what does it for me is the bassline that warps in and away at you. If you're going to do electro music, do it like this. Again, another track way way way before the entire electroclash bandwagon.
38) Leftfield - Swords
Similar in mood to Visions, another fine fine female led electro track, with a nod more towards the dubby side of things. Once again, way way way before the entire rah rah rah of electroclash.
37) Global Communications - 14:31
14 minutes 31 of ambience this time! Not dark and swirly like 9:39, kept pace by a ticking clock in the background, and lifted to more joyous regions by the wonderful synths and chorus. Ambient at its best.
36) Boards Of Canada - Aquarius (Version 3)
This is the Peel Session version, not a hell of alot different from the original, just some added vocals here and there ... nothing too obtrusive. Starts off like a nice downtempo Ninja Tune style track (in fact the track is a fave on Ninja's Solid Steel sessions) punctuated by someone shouting ORANGE! before heading off into a lovely uplifting psychedelic area with a woman counting up to sixtyten. Funky and lovely.
35) Mr Scruff - Get A Move On
A bloody amazing grooving deep house track, sampling the 20's! Just bloody amazing, download. One to dance to. In a large manner. Overall chipper but its deeper than it first appears. Lovely shifts in bass. Great chunking beats too, very Masters At Work.
34) Boards Of Canada - Happy Cycling (Peel Session)
A chunking breakbeat number, mechanical and basic to begin with with clunking gritty beats, an eerie chorus floating in the background ... more elements get introduced, seagulls, gentle keys, melacholic ... near the end it shifts up a gear and gives a much wider sound. Watery and all encompassing.
33) Brothomstates - MDRMX
Clicky computer noises start this one off, you think you're going to head off into a Chiastic Slide but then some lovely Aphex Selected Works style electronica moves in ... just as you're getting ambient some random Autechre whirrings start clunking away, nothing too obtrusive but gradually get more frantic as the track grows to its close. Bliss.
32) Orbital - The Girl With The Sun In Her Head
The absolutely WICKED introduction to In Sides! Extactic and thoroughly optimistic. Starts off with mood, like a slow moving helicopter, echoing noises. Then comes the big synths/choral effects, live breaks kick in, a grooving b-line and this amazing pitch bending lead noise. One of the best kick butt intro's to an album.
31) Autechre - Tewe
From Chiastic SLIDE. Machine whirrings, scattered beats, eastern mood. A simple hypnotic track. But effective. I can get lost in the frantic beat programming and subtle synths.
30) Boards Of Canada - Dawn Chorus
Extatic track. Slow lurching beats, samples that sound like they're taken from a warped cassette recording from decades past. The wailing woman. Ah, dramatic. If I could write music, I'd want to be Boards Of Canada.
29) Brothomstates - Brothomstates Ipxen
Interesting track! Manages to go deep house, Aphex before embarking on a bit of an Autechre beat spazz out and arriving and nice Plaid breakbeat electronica at the end. Tour De Odd. I'd love to get my hands on some re-editing software and remix this into a full DJ version.
28) Plaid - Dead Sea
A simple spine chilling track made of choral synths and strings, reminiscent of Mass music. Melacholic and depressing with its opening of strings, before lifting you higher with a shift in mood and tempo when the chorus is added. Conjures up images of ghost ships and pirates for some reason....
27) Portishead - Numb
Nice nice nice! Love the excellent beat programming on this one, the nice ride cymbal, plus the earth shattering bass. My fave Portishead.
26) Ulrich Schnauss - Nobody's Home
Took me a LONG time to get hold of the Far Away Trains Passing By album, but it was worth it. Happy chipper chill out music, this one being the most initially appealing. Bouncy beats, happy synths, chirpy guitars all with a lovely melody with just a hint of sadness in it.
25)The Orb - Into The Fourth Dimention
I don't know what it is about this track, I think its to do with the way Perpetual Dawn disintergrates into a load of mad spacey noises, the happy vibe is broken by brooding synths and a spoken passage about Voyager. The way that the operatic choir breaks through this helps ... and then the way tribal beats kick in finally accompanied by the violin solo. I just like it. But as I said before, you really have to hear the entire album all in one go to really get the full impact.
24) DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Parts 1 & 4)
I love this! I remember just drifting off to sleep a bit caned a long time ago when I bought this. Part 1 closes the album off and I was just drifting away when Transmission 3 rudely boomed in and made me shat myself. Anyway, I've lumped these together because they're both wicked. Part 4, is an exercise in master sampling, lovely beats, sleazing bass and Shadow scratching sensual sax over the top. Part 1 is a whole lighter affair, chipper synths, spashing drums, classy.
23) Brothomstates - Kava
Another one with a Chaistic intro of clickings and static, before really chunking along pots and pans come in, very much like early Orbital. Gentle melody over the top, but what really sets it off is the incessant bassdrum noise that kicks in halfway through. Electrobreakbeat from the future!
22) Orbital - Are We Here?
And talking of Orbital, this is a 15 minutes exercise in class. Frantic breakbeat number, moody and apocolyptic when it changes mood with sirens and lovely vocal. 8 mins in and its all change again for a lovely light hearted mood, optimistic synths come to the fore, the breaks stay but are less frantic, more organised. Are we here? What does god say?
21) Boards Of Canada - Music Is Math
Halfway through and it sounds like a pretty good intro to Geogaddi. Just good solid BoC doing their atmospheric thing. Its the way it breaks down at the end with echoing drums, vocals and various noises that do it for me. Shiver material.
20) Autechre - Foil
The non-Girls Aloud version. Very early Autechre. Oozes mood and menace at you. Low synth humming noise, phased and flanged drums echoing up and down in the background, shifts in the hum and walls of echo just add to the atmosphere. Music for rainy days to reflect the mood. Quite similar to Piezo from the same album (echoey drums journey), but I like the downtempo mood stylings of this, great way to have started me off on the Autechre journey. Piezo is deffo worth a check, I only remember this now while listening through some sh!te, but I'm no way retyping this list. At all.
19) Adam Beyer - Ignition Key
I was well chufty I picked his album up, swedish techno DJ. The title track comes across as Plaid meets tech-house. Obviously well happy. Tech beats, Plaid sounds. Dramatic ... trying to figure a way to drop this one day. End of night natch.
18) Ulrich Schnauss - Between Us and Them
More Ulrich, gently beginning with echoing faint guitars, more and more gets added to the track as time passes, keys, more keys! Then some nice beats and a nice warm bassline, subtle changes in chord structure. Happy soul lifting music.
17) DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
The DJ Shadow pop track if there was ever one. From the hooky watery keys to the clunking beats to the voice in the background which you just can't quite make out what its saying. Lovely. Wraps you up in lovely sound and soothes you.
16) Boards Of Canada - 1969
I could have put so much Geogaddi on here, The Beach At Redpoint is a sinister little track, You Could Feel The Sky harkens back to the chunking Music... material, but I've gone for this since its one that I noticed first. A kinda trip hop number. Strange effected vocal, twinkling synths, plus the "its 1969 in the sunshine, its 1969 in the sunshine" vocal.
15) DJ Shadow - Six Days
THE best Shadow I've heard, great repeating sample in the background, the military drums that patter away in the background halfway through, and the strange vocals! Would love to have know where he gets his stuff from. Tomorrow never comes until its too late.
14) The Orb - Spanish Castles In Space
The closer to disc 1. Piano washing gently in the background, double bass walking gently over the track, guitar providing the main theme. Pure chill.
13) Ulrich Schnauss - Molfsee
Brilliant track! Apparently its meant to be a rip off of Boards Of Canada's Everything You Do Is A Balloon. I don't hear this though, and its MUCH better. Finishing off the rather optimistic album with something wonderfully melacholic! Wintery. Anyone who likes BoC has to give this a try, even just to introduce you to the world of Ulrich.
12) Underworld - Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love
The opener of Second Toughest In The Infants (and the rather fab Everything, Everything Live DVD ... an essential purchase to see a dance superband strut their essential stuff! Best live DVD I've seen full stop). Its actually three tracks, but blended together as one. Relentlessly tech Juanita has Karl's stream of consciousness vocodered over the top, builds and builds ... adding more synths as time goes on, fluttering over the top, echoing bits of guitar from Karl. The BREAKS and changes into Kiteless, losing the synths and getting stuck into some plain gritty beats and bass action. The synths float back as you kick into To Dream Of Love, just the synths and Karl taking to the fore. Beats kick back in for the finale and the synths take you away. Nice tour de force. Epic way to start an album.
11) Plaid - Lillith
Great track with Bjork on vocals, actually better than anything I've heard her do, much better than the slightly messy collaboration Plaid had with Nicolette on the same album. accordian and wonderfully programmed trip hop beats. Pizzacato strings. Hard to tell where Bjork ends and Plaid begins on this.
10) Autechre - Cipater
I remember hearing this as the backing to some mad short film on Channel 4. I was captivated by it, the way everything on screen was timed up to the clunking and chunking. Perfect. All done from the perspective of someone filming everyday life with a camcorder but with nice electrical fookups and sh!te happening on screen. This is so precise, so mechanical. Sounds like an assembly line. Makes me think of a harsher more futuristic Timber.
9) Boards Of Canada - Sixtyten
Rum hum a drum boom boom bass drum beats throughout this, strange little sample snippets get scratched in here and there, and BBC Radiophonic Workshop synths sit over the top. Dark track. Love it.
8) Underworld - Banstyle/Sappy's Curry
Track 2 of Second Toughest, and another epic mash up. More subtle. Banstyle is a lovely mellow intelligent drum and bass track with little wibbly noises, Karl Hyde gently singing over the top. The tracks changeover as more dramatic moody synths are introduced, the beats drop and is replaced by guitar strumming away .... finally comes back in as a downtempo melacholic track with a slightly sadder sounding Karl. That light & dark parallel again.
7) Plaid - Eyen
Lovely atmospheric start to an album! Guitar fades in, bass and beats, it sounds like a live number until near the end the attack on the bass ramps up and becomes really harsh, the track leaves you with the bass and beats squelching away before disappearing into feedback.
6) Boards Of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
Good thing to come after Sixtyten, a nice light melody set over gritty beats. Wonderful beats. Not even Portishead got this gritty. Simple oh so simple but lovely.
5) Lamb - Cottonwool (Fila Brazillia Remix)
Epic dramatic remix, don't know what the original is like but this rocks. Lamb taken on a wicked, urgent breaks journey. Moody. The best Fila remix ever.
4) Orbital - Sad But True
Think Alison Goldfrapp is on vocal duty here. Lovely bouncy breaks, at the same speed as my walking speed. Far too many times trekking around Chelmsford with this on. On the way home from a nightshift at the post office I got sidetracked by just the joy of listening to Orbital and ended up in a field waving at trains. Stone cold sober too!
3) Underworld - Dark And Long (Dark Train)
Sasha fave, from the scene in Trainspotting when Renton is going cold turkey and the baby is crawling along the ceiling at him. Progressive classic. Got a kind of Blue Monday 'oooooooooh' choral sound in it. Like a train, like a train, like a train. My #1 choice end of night tune for my sets.
2) Boards Of Canada - An Eagle In Your Mind
I always got told the BoC sounded like Plaid but I never actually got round to listening to them. My housemate lent me Music.... last year, from a few seconds into this track, the opener, I was hooked. I now have the back catalogue! Great little electronic track that skitters around electronic beats. Melancholic synths. Shifts a gear up at the end by swapping the skittery beats with some straight up hip hop ones. A great builder of a track. Perfection.
1) Underworld - Pearls Girl
No doubt on this one. Infinately better than Born Slippy and just as relentless. Starts off which shivering moody synth, twisted up vocal snippet warps in, this menacing helicopter sound and the fashoom! tearing away breakbeat, grittier than Prodigy at their peak. But that helicopter sound floating around your head. Karl eventually comes in ranting on about just about anything that comes into his head. Its when all the fury cuts out towards the end into the eerie synths before coming back for one more go that you know its a beauty. Sorted! Another one thats a corker on the Live DVD. Peak Underworld.
100) Roots Manuva - Movements
The opener of his debut, moody hip hop, less Jamaican influenced and straight up than Witness. Good chunky beats, oozes mood, Manuva gruffly rambling over the top of it. Great start. Nice to hear someone rap about experiences in London over the entire album than something you just can't relate to in America. Odd stuff he comes out with though "I slap the bacon out of your mouth, dance upon your sarnie..."
99) Fila Brazillia - Ridden Pony
More Fila, from the slightly smoother A Touch Of Cloth album, overall less spark than Powerclown, but still nice. Lures you into a false sense of security with downtempo noodlings with a great 60's style hammonds etc, before tearing away at twice the tempo with big bright horns. Great to see them do stuff like this live with a 6 piece funk setup. The main geezers are really talented too. I saw them live at Fabric and one guy would be playing away on the guitar, set that down, get a flute, then head to the clarinet. Great stuff. Alright DJ's too.
98) Massive Attack - Teardrop
Overrated I think was slanted at this? I don't really get to hear about the hype game, I try to turn my ears away from it and like a track for its own merits. Fresh since its one of the few moments of light in Mezzanine's echoing dark menace. Nice vid. Plus I like the vocals. I can't stand all this Christina Aguilariiaamoomar nonsense of belting things out at HIGH velocity to show that she can use her voice. Something like this, sweetly and subtly sung has ten times the impact and full force wailing.
97) FC Kahuna - Hayling
FC Kahuna were once known as the budget Chemical Brothers, you got them in if you couldn't afford the Chems. They've come a long way since the early days, sporting a gritty house/electro sound which is like no other (check the evil Growler and its spazzout breakdown). Here though, they enlist a Gus Gus singer for a wonderful piece of downtempo. Beeps and blips among chilled beats and synths. Lovely vocal. Much nicer than the messy Machine Says Yes. Soothing.
96) Royksopp - Eple
Best Royksopp without a doubt. Its EVERYWHERE now, but its a bold bright and happy tune. Chipper keys with a nice 'vinyl being sped forward' effect on it, plus a grand psychedelic breakdown. Ice.
95) D*Note - Garden Of Earthly Delights (Xpress 2 Remixes)
Much much MUCH pre-Lazy Xpress2, I bought this on vinyl for my bro, I wish I had it now. Its really hard to get hold of. Used to be a Back To Basics end of night tune as the lights came on. The proper full on Xpress 2 remix is a nice gentle vocal house track, mixing the jazzy keys of D*Note against bumping house beats and sub-bass. I want this.
94) Amon Tobin - Searchers
In a similar vein to El Wraith, love the orchestral arrangement going from mood and menace and soaring high. If you though Mezzanine was dark, this just keeps it a bit darker.
93) Coldcut - Timber
I loved this when it came out. The premise was that all the samples in this tune were provided by Greenpeace (general tree being cut down noises etc) along with an accompanying video clip, Coldcut then pieced together this together to make a tune, with each sample triggering its corresponding video clip. One to see in action. Off their very politically motivated Let Us Play. Check it just to hear a track made out of Greenpeace noises! Name checked in Shadow's Endtroducing as pioneers of hip hop, they invented sampling practically, as well as producing Yazz and Art Of Noise (erm), also their Ninja Tune label was responsible for discovering one of All Saints in what they call the Ninja Dark Year. Enlist in the Ninja philosophy, check Xen Cuts, buy some Ninja Skins, and you MUST check the Coldcut 70 Minutes Of Madness mix ... it is one of the best DJ mixes of all time. Before its re-release it was going for £70 a copy. Like a PROPER version of 2 Many DJ's.
92) Portishead - Strangers
Dummy was a wicked album, love the nod to old 70's sounds, the wide range of moods Beth Gibbons could conjure up with her voice, and Andy Smith's ability to scratch tunes with vinyl. Love the 'engaged phone' thing going on, coupled with Portiheads ability to find the most scratchy hip hop break ever, then the lovely first break, coming across like a desperate woman busking in a lonely subway. Kicks back in with PURPOSE too! Grand.
91) Radiohead - Just
Shockingly, I haven't heard any Kid A. Well I've heard The National Anthem live on Jools Holland, and frankly that was corking. Plus it was nice to see Yorke go all Autechre at Glasto this year at points. Anyway, coupled with a moving video and soaring guitars, this found a home in my head. Great track. Now, what does the bloke say. Lie down...
90) Autechre - Eutow
And here they are. WAS going to have something from the Peel Sessions in here. But didn't. As you can see. This comes from Tri Repatae++, its something that flaunts synth led glory in your face. Then it goes all bendy and shoves some nice crispy electro beats in YO face. I like. Wheeeeeeoooooowwwwn! The nicest Autechre album to listen to I reckon ... fights off competition from C/Pach and Gnit to represent Tri Repatae++
89) Brothomstates - -
My electronic discovery of the moment. Thanks to the Sprite advert. Brothomstates manages to sound like ALL the Warp artists under one roof. This is another track that comes across as very Plaid, shuffling beats, plinking keys ...
88) Dusted - Always Remember To Honour And Respect Your Mother (Deep Dish Loves Ya Mother Remix)
Deep Dish at the height of their remixing swing post Junk Science, pre 'we'll go and remix Janet and Madonna and Justin and lets produce the new P Diddy track' ... Dusted is a side project of Faithless, more chilled I think. I don't care, I've not listened to the original. Deep Dish hit big room anthem form here. Operatic vocal, bouncing sub-bass, rising church organ (almost De'lacy-ish but much much more polish). A piece of quality. This sums up the entire remix output at the time.
87) The Black Dog - Psychosin (Peel Session)
Pre-Plaid noodlings. Acid line echoes around the slight eastern vibe of this one. Music you can't sum up with words.
86) The Youngsters - Break Them Up
Great track, from Laurent Garnier's F Comm label (home to St Germain). Slam in style, takes the Detroit sound and puts it out there with punch. Atmospheric to the max, one of the highlights of the Deep Dish Toronto mix for me. Another on my 'to get' list.
85) Gus Gus - Call Of The Wild
Sends shivers up my spine this one! Gus Gus should be big, they write fantastic pop/dance minus all cheese elements. 9 piece Icelandic outfit that originally started out like the Sugarcubes, but where they went punk, Gus Gus went dance. Favourites of Sasha/Digweed too. This is one of the deeper moments from the recent Attention album, The keys at the beginning hooked me, then the introduction of well effected military drumming. Kicks in and the way the chord progression changes subtly and the attack on the synths is rammed up is lovely. Takes half the track for the vocals and piano to kick in. Very well done! Not quite pop material, but tippy top track off the album.
84) Radiohead - Street Spirit
This reminds me of something I've heard from the 80's and I don't know what it is. It kills me each time because it almost calls it up from the recesses of my mind, but never quite. But I remember it was something I liked, and I like this. My top Radiohead.
83) Layo & Bushwacka! - Deep South
Off the last album, Low Life (which had moments of excellence, THIS and Dead Man Walking, and some right not very good downtempo moments ... Night Works the recent one is MUCH more consistant). This is the best Layo & Bushwacka! you can get. Blues orientated breaks, deep as you like, one you can chill too or dance too. The new L&B single coming out Shining Through (Its Up To You - having this bit tagged on the end has me in FEAR that another dodgy vocal has been tagged onto it) was meant to be the new Deep South. Nothing comes close to the original though.
82) White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
WICKED. Love the video, love the thrashing away. Rock music should be raw, thrashy and full of energy like THIS. Lighthearded and energetic.
81) Sasha/Emerson - Scorchio
The unthinkable happened, Darren Emerson splits from Underworld to concentrate on superstar DJ-dom and his Underwater record label (home to Gus Gus and Tim Deluxe). This is the first thing he did after leaving Underworld, teaming up with Uber DJ Sasha. It had EVERYBODY clambering over themselves to get white labels, promos ... ANYTHING of this. It became an Ibiza anthem with the trademark Underworld toughness married with Sasha's prog house melodies. Great. Fooking great.
80) Deep Dish - Future Of The Future (Stay Gold)
Deep Dish's own epic, and the best thing they've done by themselves. Enlisting Everything But The Girl, Stay Gold became Future Of The Future. Uplifting electronic, pots and pans banging tune. Mad oh so better by having Tracey Thorn singing over it. A track of two halves again, light to start with but changes into a dark pots and pans affair towards the end. Awaiting a NEW Deep Dish album one day....
79) Felix Da Housecat - What Does It Feel Like? (Royksopp Return The Sun Remix)
Mr electroclash, well to pigeonhole anyway, Felix has been doing it for ages in the first place, his City Rockers mix and own album show a much more interesting electro sound. This track was a bright little ska-ish number with Miss Kittin on vocals. Royksopp provide the touch of gold though. Slowing it down, stripping it into a simple house and bass track, before soaring away at the end. The best thing I've heard from Royksopp.
78) 16b - Secrets
16b has a unique tech house sound, and puts out plenty of quality. This is from the old old days though, way in the past. Deep house done panache! Deep as you like. Nothing sounded like it at the time, and nothing does still.
77) Massive Attack - Protection
More Everything But The Girl action here. Top class action, all you see is people banging on about Mezzanine, a re-wind back to this is needed.
76) Luke Slater - Love (Loved)
Techno! A great track I searched for for absolutely AGES. Has definate nod towards some trance but is sophisticated. thumps along to the first breakdown and then loses the beats and hits you with the synths ... keeps the break going on for ages, vocodered Slater over the top, hits in with hihats and then THUMPS with tough beats. Keep things deeper.
75) Funk D'Void - Diabla (Heavenly Version)
From Slam's Soma label. End of the night material. Strong strong strong uplifting synth strings, don't care about ANY other version of this. This is the one.
74) Keiichi Suzuki - Satellite Serenade
The opener off Sasha & Digweed's Northern Exposure 1. Think Alex Paterson of The Orb had something to do with this as well. Wonderful ambient track, just ambient synths, bubbling water, jangling bells and a lovely guitar solo. 5 mins in, kicks in with beats, bass and a nice acid line. Best way to start one of the all time greatest mix albums.
73) DJ Food - Freedom (Fila Brazillia Mix)
Off the Brazillification remixes album, lots to choose from too, Radiohead, Moloko rah rah rah, Coldcut's DJ Food project gets the nod here. Bumping downtempo track with nods the the D&B original, great sparky beat programming, tribal chants, mood changes. Atmosphere incarnate.
72) Underworld - Cups (Salt City Orchestra Vertical Bacon)
One of my favourites off Beacoup Fish and the opening track gets upstaged in remix form. Originally a gritty little house track with Karl Hyde softly singing over the top, before ramping up the tempo at the end and going dramtic and technoid. Salt City Orchestra take Karl into cosmic choral disco territory. Outstanding track.
71) Shakespear Sister - Black Sky (Dub Extravaganza Part 2)
DJ only promo from 92 had this on it. Underworld take on Shakespears Sister, and come up with a dark and brooding progressive classic. Breathes atmosphere at you. Builds and builds and builds at you. Great.
70) Leftfield - Song Of Life (album/original Hard Hands version)
Another progressive classic from the same era, love the original ... all the hallmarks of classic prog. The album version that later popped up on Leftism was a more polished take on it, melding together Cut For Life dubbyness before heading into a more banging take on the original. Tippy top Leftfield.
69) Deltron 3030 - 3030
Pre-Gorillaz Dan The Automator/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. Epic old sci-fi strings meet hawaiian guitars with Del rambling about Deltron Zero in the year 3030 in a stream of consciousness stylee. The entire album sounds like a sonic comic book. Sorted!
68) Plaid - Dang Spot
Sounds a bit like thrashy cheese 80's electropop, bops along all cheery with lively drums. Makes me boing on my seat.
67) Aphex Twin - IZ-US
STOP MAKING THAT BIG FACE! More from Come To Daddy, chill beats and Aphex's fragile melodies again. Love the change in moods. Shows that electronica doesn't have to be an intricate collection of frantic beeps and noises to be good.
66) Plaid - Chirpy
Old Plaid. From yonder days of electronic. And you can tell, old sounds, all the machinery of the rave era ... then why does this come across as so polished? Don't know why, slick slick production, chirpy yet melacholic. Also gives me boing.
65) Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Having done the big up rave album and big tune Papua New Guinea, Lifeforms came out. The actual track Lifeforms has the rave sound going on but married with the ambient house sound that the likes of The Orb were doing. Deep rave anyone? Dunno. The urgency of the track, mood and classic noises hit my buzz buttons. Check the entire album for a lesson in ambient experimentalism from the early days, esp Cascade.
64) Global Communication - 9:39
Tom Middletons ambient project from days of YORE. 9 minutes 39 seconds of swirling ambience. Moody, and spacial.
63) Plaid - Angry Dolphin
Plaid doing intelligent drum and bass before anyone else had even considered it. Drum and bass ideal, intelligent styling ... well done!
62) Gregory Fleckner - Juicy Jazz Girls (Plaid Remix)
More Plaid! Strange off beat little track thats stuck in my head. Unique Plaid rhythms, with bits of track that seem to be floating in and out almost randomly out of time with everything else thats going on. Sounds like an artificially intelligent computers first experiment as improvisational jazz.
61) Cabbageboy - Rhythm And Blues Angus Steakhouse
Whats that place called? Looks like a. Rhythm and Blue Angus Steeeakhouse. Comes across as DJ Shadow with humour. Big bold breakbeat, warping bassline and some northern geezer complaining about the price of stuff and things.
60) Underworld - Jumbo
Lovely bouncy number, happy Underworld. Pacey without being thumping. Finishes off with goreous synths, a track that builds so lovely. Very sweet.
59) The Orb - O.O.B.E. (Live)
The Live version from Orb Live 93. The original is nice enough but I like this better, strips it down, makes it darker. Slow, deep bassdrum penetrates the ambience of flutes, the sound of people playing pool, and Orbs choice samples. Long building and lovely. Trippy stuff.
58) Dr Octagon - Blue Flowers
Best track off the album, in both original and revisited version, I think its the choice sample used for the backing and Kool Keiths off beat MCing. He used to be a top old skool hip hop MC, came up with the line "catch my picture, smack my b!tch up", before admitting himself to a mental institution. He made this album when he came out. Dan The Automator on controls. Strange! In the valley of orange tomatoes I see blue flowers ... its raining yellow...
57) Plaid - Rakimou
Great track off their debut album, violin, accordian and haunting vocals.
56) Leftfield - Phat Planet
Guiness, horses, leather man, large dirty breaks. The end.
55) Brothomstates - Adozenaday
The tune from the Sprite advert. Infected my head so I had to go buy it. Goes on to introduce some nice gritty beats before changing mood halfway through into something more orhcestral and sad sounding. I just like it. Bonus is that its on an EP with a track called Jak Got Stuck In Canada And This Sounds Like ... which amuses me.
54) Coldcut - More Beats And Pieces
FUN! Starts off sounding like someone has wired up an amp wrongly with occasional bits of scratching "HONEY! HONEY I GOT RHYTHM!" before kicking into old skool hip hop beats. What happens here is a mad mish mash of random samples, scratching from classic hip hop to Peter And The Wolf. Fooking fun!
53) Gus Gus - David
I've still got last night in my body. Fantastic catchy little track, grand vocal. The track which stands out to say that Gus Gus should be noticed. Fans include Madonna, Bjork and Massive Attack. They must be doing something right. Dancefloor greatness.
52) FC Kahuna - Nothing Is Wrong
Hahaha, wonderful, nasty aggressive warping bassline, nice 'I didn't come to party, I didn't come at all, I only came here to stop myself from bouncing off the walls". Aggressive, especially when all the wailing noises start to kick in. And they can do it live.... nice. THIS should have been the release track, not Machine Says Yes (even though that had lovely mixes)
51) Future Sound Of London - Her Face Forms In The Summertime
Off the slightly odd Dead Cities album, a concept album based around a man who collects his own dead skin cells and snorts them. FSOL have been on acid alot, you can tell. Soft soft ambient guitar starts this off, before being penetrated by detuned double bass and a filtering trippy drum loop, chilling chill.
The opener of his debut, moody hip hop, less Jamaican influenced and straight up than Witness. Good chunky beats, oozes mood, Manuva gruffly rambling over the top of it. Great start. Nice to hear someone rap about experiences in London over the entire album than something you just can't relate to in America. Odd stuff he comes out with though "I slap the bacon out of your mouth, dance upon your sarnie..."
99) Fila Brazillia - Ridden Pony
More Fila, from the slightly smoother A Touch Of Cloth album, overall less spark than Powerclown, but still nice. Lures you into a false sense of security with downtempo noodlings with a great 60's style hammonds etc, before tearing away at twice the tempo with big bright horns. Great to see them do stuff like this live with a 6 piece funk setup. The main geezers are really talented too. I saw them live at Fabric and one guy would be playing away on the guitar, set that down, get a flute, then head to the clarinet. Great stuff. Alright DJ's too.
98) Massive Attack - Teardrop
Overrated I think was slanted at this? I don't really get to hear about the hype game, I try to turn my ears away from it and like a track for its own merits. Fresh since its one of the few moments of light in Mezzanine's echoing dark menace. Nice vid. Plus I like the vocals. I can't stand all this Christina Aguilariiaamoomar nonsense of belting things out at HIGH velocity to show that she can use her voice. Something like this, sweetly and subtly sung has ten times the impact and full force wailing.
97) FC Kahuna - Hayling
FC Kahuna were once known as the budget Chemical Brothers, you got them in if you couldn't afford the Chems. They've come a long way since the early days, sporting a gritty house/electro sound which is like no other (check the evil Growler and its spazzout breakdown). Here though, they enlist a Gus Gus singer for a wonderful piece of downtempo. Beeps and blips among chilled beats and synths. Lovely vocal. Much nicer than the messy Machine Says Yes. Soothing.
96) Royksopp - Eple
Best Royksopp without a doubt. Its EVERYWHERE now, but its a bold bright and happy tune. Chipper keys with a nice 'vinyl being sped forward' effect on it, plus a grand psychedelic breakdown. Ice.
95) D*Note - Garden Of Earthly Delights (Xpress 2 Remixes)
Much much MUCH pre-Lazy Xpress2, I bought this on vinyl for my bro, I wish I had it now. Its really hard to get hold of. Used to be a Back To Basics end of night tune as the lights came on. The proper full on Xpress 2 remix is a nice gentle vocal house track, mixing the jazzy keys of D*Note against bumping house beats and sub-bass. I want this.
94) Amon Tobin - Searchers
In a similar vein to El Wraith, love the orchestral arrangement going from mood and menace and soaring high. If you though Mezzanine was dark, this just keeps it a bit darker.
93) Coldcut - Timber
I loved this when it came out. The premise was that all the samples in this tune were provided by Greenpeace (general tree being cut down noises etc) along with an accompanying video clip, Coldcut then pieced together this together to make a tune, with each sample triggering its corresponding video clip. One to see in action. Off their very politically motivated Let Us Play. Check it just to hear a track made out of Greenpeace noises! Name checked in Shadow's Endtroducing as pioneers of hip hop, they invented sampling practically, as well as producing Yazz and Art Of Noise (erm), also their Ninja Tune label was responsible for discovering one of All Saints in what they call the Ninja Dark Year. Enlist in the Ninja philosophy, check Xen Cuts, buy some Ninja Skins, and you MUST check the Coldcut 70 Minutes Of Madness mix ... it is one of the best DJ mixes of all time. Before its re-release it was going for £70 a copy. Like a PROPER version of 2 Many DJ's.
92) Portishead - Strangers
Dummy was a wicked album, love the nod to old 70's sounds, the wide range of moods Beth Gibbons could conjure up with her voice, and Andy Smith's ability to scratch tunes with vinyl. Love the 'engaged phone' thing going on, coupled with Portiheads ability to find the most scratchy hip hop break ever, then the lovely first break, coming across like a desperate woman busking in a lonely subway. Kicks back in with PURPOSE too! Grand.
91) Radiohead - Just
Shockingly, I haven't heard any Kid A. Well I've heard The National Anthem live on Jools Holland, and frankly that was corking. Plus it was nice to see Yorke go all Autechre at Glasto this year at points. Anyway, coupled with a moving video and soaring guitars, this found a home in my head. Great track. Now, what does the bloke say. Lie down...
90) Autechre - Eutow
And here they are. WAS going to have something from the Peel Sessions in here. But didn't. As you can see. This comes from Tri Repatae++, its something that flaunts synth led glory in your face. Then it goes all bendy and shoves some nice crispy electro beats in YO face. I like. Wheeeeeeoooooowwwwn! The nicest Autechre album to listen to I reckon ... fights off competition from C/Pach and Gnit to represent Tri Repatae++
89) Brothomstates - -
My electronic discovery of the moment. Thanks to the Sprite advert. Brothomstates manages to sound like ALL the Warp artists under one roof. This is another track that comes across as very Plaid, shuffling beats, plinking keys ...
88) Dusted - Always Remember To Honour And Respect Your Mother (Deep Dish Loves Ya Mother Remix)
Deep Dish at the height of their remixing swing post Junk Science, pre 'we'll go and remix Janet and Madonna and Justin and lets produce the new P Diddy track' ... Dusted is a side project of Faithless, more chilled I think. I don't care, I've not listened to the original. Deep Dish hit big room anthem form here. Operatic vocal, bouncing sub-bass, rising church organ (almost De'lacy-ish but much much more polish). A piece of quality. This sums up the entire remix output at the time.
87) The Black Dog - Psychosin (Peel Session)
Pre-Plaid noodlings. Acid line echoes around the slight eastern vibe of this one. Music you can't sum up with words.
86) The Youngsters - Break Them Up
Great track, from Laurent Garnier's F Comm label (home to St Germain). Slam in style, takes the Detroit sound and puts it out there with punch. Atmospheric to the max, one of the highlights of the Deep Dish Toronto mix for me. Another on my 'to get' list.
85) Gus Gus - Call Of The Wild
Sends shivers up my spine this one! Gus Gus should be big, they write fantastic pop/dance minus all cheese elements. 9 piece Icelandic outfit that originally started out like the Sugarcubes, but where they went punk, Gus Gus went dance. Favourites of Sasha/Digweed too. This is one of the deeper moments from the recent Attention album, The keys at the beginning hooked me, then the introduction of well effected military drumming. Kicks in and the way the chord progression changes subtly and the attack on the synths is rammed up is lovely. Takes half the track for the vocals and piano to kick in. Very well done! Not quite pop material, but tippy top track off the album.
84) Radiohead - Street Spirit
This reminds me of something I've heard from the 80's and I don't know what it is. It kills me each time because it almost calls it up from the recesses of my mind, but never quite. But I remember it was something I liked, and I like this. My top Radiohead.
83) Layo & Bushwacka! - Deep South
Off the last album, Low Life (which had moments of excellence, THIS and Dead Man Walking, and some right not very good downtempo moments ... Night Works the recent one is MUCH more consistant). This is the best Layo & Bushwacka! you can get. Blues orientated breaks, deep as you like, one you can chill too or dance too. The new L&B single coming out Shining Through (Its Up To You - having this bit tagged on the end has me in FEAR that another dodgy vocal has been tagged onto it) was meant to be the new Deep South. Nothing comes close to the original though.
82) White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
WICKED. Love the video, love the thrashing away. Rock music should be raw, thrashy and full of energy like THIS. Lighthearded and energetic.
81) Sasha/Emerson - Scorchio
The unthinkable happened, Darren Emerson splits from Underworld to concentrate on superstar DJ-dom and his Underwater record label (home to Gus Gus and Tim Deluxe). This is the first thing he did after leaving Underworld, teaming up with Uber DJ Sasha. It had EVERYBODY clambering over themselves to get white labels, promos ... ANYTHING of this. It became an Ibiza anthem with the trademark Underworld toughness married with Sasha's prog house melodies. Great. Fooking great.
80) Deep Dish - Future Of The Future (Stay Gold)
Deep Dish's own epic, and the best thing they've done by themselves. Enlisting Everything But The Girl, Stay Gold became Future Of The Future. Uplifting electronic, pots and pans banging tune. Mad oh so better by having Tracey Thorn singing over it. A track of two halves again, light to start with but changes into a dark pots and pans affair towards the end. Awaiting a NEW Deep Dish album one day....
79) Felix Da Housecat - What Does It Feel Like? (Royksopp Return The Sun Remix)
Mr electroclash, well to pigeonhole anyway, Felix has been doing it for ages in the first place, his City Rockers mix and own album show a much more interesting electro sound. This track was a bright little ska-ish number with Miss Kittin on vocals. Royksopp provide the touch of gold though. Slowing it down, stripping it into a simple house and bass track, before soaring away at the end. The best thing I've heard from Royksopp.
78) 16b - Secrets
16b has a unique tech house sound, and puts out plenty of quality. This is from the old old days though, way in the past. Deep house done panache! Deep as you like. Nothing sounded like it at the time, and nothing does still.
77) Massive Attack - Protection
More Everything But The Girl action here. Top class action, all you see is people banging on about Mezzanine, a re-wind back to this is needed.
76) Luke Slater - Love (Loved)
Techno! A great track I searched for for absolutely AGES. Has definate nod towards some trance but is sophisticated. thumps along to the first breakdown and then loses the beats and hits you with the synths ... keeps the break going on for ages, vocodered Slater over the top, hits in with hihats and then THUMPS with tough beats. Keep things deeper.
75) Funk D'Void - Diabla (Heavenly Version)
From Slam's Soma label. End of the night material. Strong strong strong uplifting synth strings, don't care about ANY other version of this. This is the one.
74) Keiichi Suzuki - Satellite Serenade
The opener off Sasha & Digweed's Northern Exposure 1. Think Alex Paterson of The Orb had something to do with this as well. Wonderful ambient track, just ambient synths, bubbling water, jangling bells and a lovely guitar solo. 5 mins in, kicks in with beats, bass and a nice acid line. Best way to start one of the all time greatest mix albums.
73) DJ Food - Freedom (Fila Brazillia Mix)
Off the Brazillification remixes album, lots to choose from too, Radiohead, Moloko rah rah rah, Coldcut's DJ Food project gets the nod here. Bumping downtempo track with nods the the D&B original, great sparky beat programming, tribal chants, mood changes. Atmosphere incarnate.
72) Underworld - Cups (Salt City Orchestra Vertical Bacon)
One of my favourites off Beacoup Fish and the opening track gets upstaged in remix form. Originally a gritty little house track with Karl Hyde softly singing over the top, before ramping up the tempo at the end and going dramtic and technoid. Salt City Orchestra take Karl into cosmic choral disco territory. Outstanding track.
71) Shakespear Sister - Black Sky (Dub Extravaganza Part 2)
DJ only promo from 92 had this on it. Underworld take on Shakespears Sister, and come up with a dark and brooding progressive classic. Breathes atmosphere at you. Builds and builds and builds at you. Great.
70) Leftfield - Song Of Life (album/original Hard Hands version)
Another progressive classic from the same era, love the original ... all the hallmarks of classic prog. The album version that later popped up on Leftism was a more polished take on it, melding together Cut For Life dubbyness before heading into a more banging take on the original. Tippy top Leftfield.
69) Deltron 3030 - 3030
Pre-Gorillaz Dan The Automator/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. Epic old sci-fi strings meet hawaiian guitars with Del rambling about Deltron Zero in the year 3030 in a stream of consciousness stylee. The entire album sounds like a sonic comic book. Sorted!
68) Plaid - Dang Spot
Sounds a bit like thrashy cheese 80's electropop, bops along all cheery with lively drums. Makes me boing on my seat.
67) Aphex Twin - IZ-US
STOP MAKING THAT BIG FACE! More from Come To Daddy, chill beats and Aphex's fragile melodies again. Love the change in moods. Shows that electronica doesn't have to be an intricate collection of frantic beeps and noises to be good.
66) Plaid - Chirpy
Old Plaid. From yonder days of electronic. And you can tell, old sounds, all the machinery of the rave era ... then why does this come across as so polished? Don't know why, slick slick production, chirpy yet melacholic. Also gives me boing.
65) Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Having done the big up rave album and big tune Papua New Guinea, Lifeforms came out. The actual track Lifeforms has the rave sound going on but married with the ambient house sound that the likes of The Orb were doing. Deep rave anyone? Dunno. The urgency of the track, mood and classic noises hit my buzz buttons. Check the entire album for a lesson in ambient experimentalism from the early days, esp Cascade.
64) Global Communication - 9:39
Tom Middletons ambient project from days of YORE. 9 minutes 39 seconds of swirling ambience. Moody, and spacial.
63) Plaid - Angry Dolphin
Plaid doing intelligent drum and bass before anyone else had even considered it. Drum and bass ideal, intelligent styling ... well done!
62) Gregory Fleckner - Juicy Jazz Girls (Plaid Remix)
More Plaid! Strange off beat little track thats stuck in my head. Unique Plaid rhythms, with bits of track that seem to be floating in and out almost randomly out of time with everything else thats going on. Sounds like an artificially intelligent computers first experiment as improvisational jazz.
61) Cabbageboy - Rhythm And Blues Angus Steakhouse
Whats that place called? Looks like a. Rhythm and Blue Angus Steeeakhouse. Comes across as DJ Shadow with humour. Big bold breakbeat, warping bassline and some northern geezer complaining about the price of stuff and things.
60) Underworld - Jumbo
Lovely bouncy number, happy Underworld. Pacey without being thumping. Finishes off with goreous synths, a track that builds so lovely. Very sweet.
59) The Orb - O.O.B.E. (Live)
The Live version from Orb Live 93. The original is nice enough but I like this better, strips it down, makes it darker. Slow, deep bassdrum penetrates the ambience of flutes, the sound of people playing pool, and Orbs choice samples. Long building and lovely. Trippy stuff.
58) Dr Octagon - Blue Flowers
Best track off the album, in both original and revisited version, I think its the choice sample used for the backing and Kool Keiths off beat MCing. He used to be a top old skool hip hop MC, came up with the line "catch my picture, smack my b!tch up", before admitting himself to a mental institution. He made this album when he came out. Dan The Automator on controls. Strange! In the valley of orange tomatoes I see blue flowers ... its raining yellow...
57) Plaid - Rakimou
Great track off their debut album, violin, accordian and haunting vocals.
56) Leftfield - Phat Planet
Guiness, horses, leather man, large dirty breaks. The end.
55) Brothomstates - Adozenaday
The tune from the Sprite advert. Infected my head so I had to go buy it. Goes on to introduce some nice gritty beats before changing mood halfway through into something more orhcestral and sad sounding. I just like it. Bonus is that its on an EP with a track called Jak Got Stuck In Canada And This Sounds Like ... which amuses me.
54) Coldcut - More Beats And Pieces
FUN! Starts off sounding like someone has wired up an amp wrongly with occasional bits of scratching "HONEY! HONEY I GOT RHYTHM!" before kicking into old skool hip hop beats. What happens here is a mad mish mash of random samples, scratching from classic hip hop to Peter And The Wolf. Fooking fun!
53) Gus Gus - David
I've still got last night in my body. Fantastic catchy little track, grand vocal. The track which stands out to say that Gus Gus should be noticed. Fans include Madonna, Bjork and Massive Attack. They must be doing something right. Dancefloor greatness.
52) FC Kahuna - Nothing Is Wrong
Hahaha, wonderful, nasty aggressive warping bassline, nice 'I didn't come to party, I didn't come at all, I only came here to stop myself from bouncing off the walls". Aggressive, especially when all the wailing noises start to kick in. And they can do it live.... nice. THIS should have been the release track, not Machine Says Yes (even though that had lovely mixes)
51) Future Sound Of London - Her Face Forms In The Summertime
Off the slightly odd Dead Cities album, a concept album based around a man who collects his own dead skin cells and snorts them. FSOL have been on acid alot, you can tell. Soft soft ambient guitar starts this off, before being penetrated by detuned double bass and a filtering trippy drum loop, chilling chill.
150) PQM - The Flying Song
Now I WAS going to have The Roots - Silent Treatment (DO check this though!) but with Pharcyde holding up the good vibe hip hop side of things, I've plumped for one MORE from the Deep Dish stable. Now Terry Farley reviewed it as the worst vocal track he'd heard all year. But he does have a tendecy to speak butt. When it was released it was the ONLY decent vocal track I'd heard in ages. Out at the time of progressive being in full swing bigness, vocals weren't important. This was a breath of fresh air, a nice light track with pleasent jangly guitar and bouncy bass and beats. But I just loved the vocal. A nice simple sweetly sung "I'm! Flying! You've got me so high! I think ... I'm flying!". Works well! Best in its original Main Pass mix or the Deepheads Mix.
149) Mr Scruff - So Long
Mr Scruff is ace, on the whole I prefer the first album. Good vibes all the way round, smiley happy party music. Good hip hop groove worked here, nice xylophones and all enveloping bassline.
148) Morgan King - I'm Free (William Orbit Mix)
Much much pre-Madonna/Pink/Blur or whatever Orbit here. I'm desperately searching for this deleted trance epic. Sounds NOTHING like the version which got on Northern Exposure. BANGS along plain and simple. What does it is when halfway through it goes all electro-wibbly-madness, and one of the times when binty going "hooooo-yeah!" is acceptable. The Widge finds this trance acceptable. Better than Ray Of Light for my ears too!
147) Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Is the manga epic saga thats going on in their videos ever going to finish? Dunno. I actually think this DP album is a much better listen than Homework. Typical Punk disco grooving until the fantastic guitar break bit. Grand!
146) AJ Sound - Basemental
This is what I want to hear middle of the night when I'm clubbing. Another of those rare/cannot find tunes for me. Tribal number, with burbling acidic bassline, simple eerie synth and thats about it! Simple, but fooking well done. NO trace of this track whatsoever apart from its appearence on Danny Howells Nocturnal Frequencies 2. Where it has tormented me ever since.
145) Sub Sub - Past
Ibiza beach chilling tune. As the cliche no doubt goes. Most likely been the back ground to Wish You Were Here or to some advert by now, but this little baleric guitar led number is one to chill you away, and is superb when someone like Jose Padilla mixes it with...
144) D*Note - D*Votion
...on some long forgotten Musik cover tape. This is a uplifting vocal number, feel good. Both idea for when you're sat in the garden with some sun!
143) Blue Effect - Skybound
Did I say UK Garage was butt? I think it is. This floats onto Tom Middleton's Sound Of The Cosmos with blatant, oi oi I'm 2 step ra ra ra. I would tear it to pieces if it actually wasn't a wonderful number that personifies the cosmos sound perfectly. Sorry, instance 2 when a "hooooeeee-yeah!" is acceptable! Great though, aside from the 2 step break, thats all it has in common with something So Solid moop. Plus when it breaks down with all the cosmos sound and kicks back in with the guitar solo ... you're in heaven. Great track ... wish I could fit it into more DJ sets.
142) Si Begg - River
I don't know why, but this reminds me of Beatles meets Coldcut. Si Begg has enough names, SI Futures / Cabbageboy. This tends to lean towards the Cabbageboy sound more. Quite an epic number, orchestra in places, like the way the vocal progresses throughout the entire track. Well worth checking, you don't hear something that sounds this different everyday. You can't pin this sound down!
141) Primal Scream - Give Back But Don't Give Up (Portishead Remix)
Which Primal Scream to put in, I think I've left Trainspotting out of this list which is a tragedy. My fave! Andrew "Lord Of Techno" Weatherall and founder of Junior Boys Own (swag swag swag) comes back into the frame after he worked the magic touch on screamadelica on that one. Love it! Here though, I've gone for the Portishead remix of Give Back But Don't Give Up. Dunno the original, but this is well done Portishead. They were always master of the trip hop groove, no-one sounds like them. They turn this into a spbutt trippy affair.
140) DifferentGear - A Little Bit Paranoid
This comes from the label which Sunglasses At Night came from and the place which kicked off the entire Electroclash rah rah rah, Felix Da Housecat's City Rockers. This track was a bit different for them. A normal house track! Well I say normal, DifferentGear go for the death disco. I rarely sit up and take notice of vocals, but I love the growling bloke on here, rambling on about how he knows some woman inside out, the place where it all cuts out with "but you don't know me", and then fires off again! "you don't know anything about me, you don' t know what it takes to make me break into a sweat, you don't even know my brand of cigarette, but you claim to love me ... ain't seen evidence of that yet" ... great track! Dark and paranoid. Wocked.
139) Xpress2 - I Want You Back (Original & Medicine 8 Remix)
Now pleased as I was to see Xpress 2 hit the big time after being about for AGES (another Junior Boys Own act, one of the first, pre-Chemical Brothers) in many different guise, Lazy I got bored of after a while. When I got the album, it was full of good solid house tracks, like a summary of house music to day. I Want You Back stood right out. Simple tribal number, a gruff spoken male vocal. I like the way it takes it time to kick in. A nice track to start a mixtape with. Xpress2 has also been subjected to rather fabby remixes series thanks to Mr Fatboy Slim, Medicine8 do a BLINDING electronic slant on this. A wobbly burbler no less.
138) Massive Attack - Blue Lines
I've always liked the drum loop thats used as the sample in this. Everything thats said tends to pass over my head, I just get lost in the nice little organ and the shuffly beat. Well apart from "skip dip dadda! to get the anti matter!"
137) Royksopp - Remind Me
I was never keen on Poor Leno (apart from in remix form). I think this is a nicer vocal track from the album. Very broken and stabby, simple. The vocal makes it a winner, the actual sound of the geezers voice is just plain nice! Alright remixes to this one too!
136) The Logic Box - Morph Cross
BACK into tech house territory! And another off Terry Francis' Fabric mix. Great deep little bouncy beats, bouncing low low low bass. Simple programming on this one too, but thats what I love about it. Got a hell of alot of bounce to it, I'd groove my butt off to this over a big system. Also like the deep trippy second half. the only thing that makes this track EVEN better is when I mash it up with the Hybrid remix of I Love You I mentioned earlier! ;)
135) Tiga & Zyntherius vs Blue Monday - Blue Sunglasses (Tom Middleton's Cosmos Re-edit)
Yes we all know it, the pop/electroclash hit. So little is needed to be said. It IS good, nuff said, what was better was when Tom Middleton mashed it up with Blue Monday on Sound Of The Cosmos. So good, City Rockers had to release it by itself as a limited edition!
134) Graylock - CTM (Steve Rachmad Longcut)
Right I don't care, I like basslines. fook all this sh!te about big nasty synths eurodance sh!te. I want something like this. Something that commands you dance along or else its going to make more bassy rumbles at you and clappy noises. Dark as it is, the second half of the track goes really light and nice with rising synths. NICE synths. Reminds me of a track from a computer game I had on my Amiga500 way back. Jaguar XJ220. I liked that game. I like this.
133) Amon Tobin - Back From Space
Good way to kick off an album this! Announces itself with a large BANG! The orchestral chords remind me of the more inspired Prodigy moments (like the wonderful Skylined!). Furious soundtracky futuristic beats. Should be a soundtrack to something big! Not what I was expecting to come from the usually chilled Ninja Tune, but wicked nonetheless!
132) DJ Food - Ageing Young Rebel
Now it seems there are two versions of this. Jazzed up 20's influenced album version. The version I like best is off the Xen Cuts Ninja Tune compilation. Pops up on disc 2. Much more subtle but still got the jazz influence. Makes you think of old black and white detective movie. Great spoken story over the top about someone who wants to be different, while remaining the same. One to check, but look for the Xen Cuts version!
131) Slam - Lifetimes
Scottish techno/house giants are Slam. Run the label Soma, responsible for originally signing Daft Punk up to it, home to the likes of Silicone Soul, had UNKLE guest on the Alien Radio album. This is a powerful Detroit influence track, set against classic soulful house vocals. Can't sum up the mood of this one, you have to hear it in action to see what I mean by powerful. Its that driving "PAAAAARRRP!" noise.
130) Kings Of Convenience - Winning A Battle, Losing The War (Andy Votel Mix)
According to Amazon, they're likened to Simon And Garfunkle. Unusually, even though their album was good, the remixes album Versus was even better. Here Andy Votel just takes the foundation of the original acoustic track and adds some extra instruments before building to gentle drums. "Even though I'll never need her, even though she's only given me pain, I'll be on my knees to feed her, spend the day to make her smile again..."
129) Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
GREAT video, and from what is one of the best Chem albums since the original I reckon! I love the way on the video, each noise has a visual representation and as the track progresses, the train journey progresses too. You have to see and hear it to know what I'm on about for this. Spunky little house track with added bounce and BIG guitar loop! Punchy too.
128) Zero 7 - Lo
Got this off a Layo & Bushwacka! mix. Different from the easy listening styles of their album, starts off with Bond-esque strings before heading into dub territory. Better in listening than in my describing. Besides, its Zero 7, you know it'll be quality.
127) Skylab - River Of Bass
#1 is an interesting album of moods, very trippy, classic trip hop apparently, but not just a stream of Portishead-alike noises as you'd expect. I can't remember the name of the 2nd track off this so, the opening track is in its place. Takes an eternity to comes in, but this menacing bassline builds up quietly before being right there at you, then treads very horizontal trip hop beats ground. Good opener to the album, made better by the contrast the light 2nd track is to this, mixes together well.
126) UNKLE - Rabbit In Your Headlights
I didn't like this at first, thought it was too unsettled, but has grown on me more and more. Its what I hope Kid A sounds like. Thom Yorke just sounds right sat against Shadow's moody backing don't you think?
125) Sean Cusick & Medway - Neutrix
Cusick is a producer I've noticed of recent, here he teams up with progsters Medway to work a spacial house track, subtle warping bass, lovely chilling breakdown,nothing dramatic though. Just got this so thats all I have to say. But I like it!
124) The Orb - Towers Of Dub
Love The Orb! Great at flowing albums that almost tell a story. This one's off the second album they did and is a big dub journey! Orb humour is evident in the barking dogs and someone repeatedly saying "Hello! I'm Brad!"
123) Primal Scream - Trainspotting
Oh I HAVE got Trainspotting in here. GOOD. I've described it already, and I'm sure there are MANY other wicked Primal tracks such as Loaded, Star and whatever, but from hearing this on Trainspotting in the Renton/Sickboy/Dogshooting scene ... I always liked it. Liked it first, then discovered it was Primal. All of Vanishing Point is good anyway. Sch-o, do you have the beast in your sights?
122) Second Hand Satellites - Multiple Mirrors (Orbit 1.3/1.4)
More Sean Cusick. John Digweed fave. Maybe because it samples his own rather dull Beautiful Strange and makes it GOOD. Deep electro business, definately in Orbit. Also a bit of a Fabric track since it pops up on Tyrant 2. Deep as you like material. One for the heads.
121) Brett Johnson - Stucco Homes
MORE Fabric/Tyrant material here! This is wicked, taking 80's house beats but working a dirty little bumping groove over the top with all sorts of beeping noises. Topped off by wicked trippy vocal over the top. "Iron. Filings. In. The. Water. Electric. Eyes. Watch. The others. Making. Homes. From cola. Cans. Sardines. Seashells. Dreams. Of sand. How did I get here? What is this place? There is no care in my reflection, I can't see my face". Top tech stylings! Fabric Fabric Fabric!
120) Foremost Poets - Moonraker (King Unique Remix / various Int. DJ Gigalo's mixes)
"Please do not be alarmed, the DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot test of the entire system, somehow while the party was in progress an unidentified frequency has been existing in the system for some time, and while many of you have been made to brainwashed to comprehend, this frequency is and has become a threat to our society as we know it. This frequency has been used by a secret society in conjunction with Lucifer to lure and prey on innocent partygoers...." grand and well used sample this. This is the original form of it, comes from the International DJ Gigalo's stable, which was the mummy of the electroclash sound way before it even started. This track was fooking huge, I've gone spastic to it at Bedrock/Fabric everywhere. King Unique got hold of it recently when it was signed to Junior and just standardised the beats and housed it up a little bit more (essential since the original was a fooker to mix with!). There was also a remix of this on one of the Int DJ Gigalo releases that was fooking amazing too. A grand wiiiiide track. A menacing message. Big system sounds. Also was sampled on Vigi & Flip's Freak Frequency which caused my to go spare in the main room @ Fabric when Craig Richards dropped it. I was looking for my mates at the time and this took control of my body and made me go dance my funky little butt off.
119) Amon Tobin - Night Life
Earlier Tobin this. Starts off as low downtempo sleaze lounge music ... again with a kinda Twin Peaks sound and Tobin's trademark soundtracky feel. Fades away into some atmospheric beatless bits, a change, like something is happening in a movie which is sinister, before coming back all sparkling as a 1920's jazz/drum and bass hybrid! Not seriously noodly, has some humour in the cheeky little samples and chopped up drum and bass beats. Lovely flowing track. ba-ba-BA-BA-BOO-BOO-BA!-BAAA!
118) Furry Phreaks - Soothe (Chicane Mixes)
A grand remix project from the GOOD days of Ministry Of Sound when they still had the Open night and label. Chicane get to grips with a Charles Webster track, and come out with 3 remixes way better than any butt they did with Bryan Adams. Its best form is on Northern Exposure 2, where Sasha & Digweed mash up the best 2 remixes, the chilled Cafe Del Mar-ish (NOT the trance track!) vocal version, before heading into the downtempo house speed jazzy drum & bass breaks of the Cyanide Ride version. Nice.
117) Massive Attack - Sly
Love the epic wide orchestral sound on this, and the lo-fi beats. Think its Nicolette on vocals here too, would have been nowhere as good without her on board. Great track full stop, shiver up spine material.
116) Orbital - Out There Somewhere? (Parts 1 & 2)
30 minute long electro glory. The first part is dark, moody, offsetting standard electro beats against classic melancholic rave chord progressions, atmospheric synths and vocals give the soundtracky feel, dramatic. It goes a bit wibbly at the end before kicking into part 2. Entire mood of the track shifts to something lighter more hopeful, the electro theme continues but uplifting choral synths and lovely live flute lifts it high, the synths just build and build and build. Great structure over both parts, the collage of dark and light again.
115) The Orb - Fluffy Little Clouds
The classic Orb track. Everyone should know this "they were red, yellow, purple ... the sky always used have little fluffy clouds". Classic 'trance' track from back in 92. The entire album needs to be heard in full though to get the experience of the journey from Earth, past the moon, to the heart of the Ultraworld. Lots of nods to the prog rock influence. Its over 10 years old, but it never sounds dated to my ears. Always smile material. Great for reading to as well!
114) DJ Krush - Kemuri
The Japanese DJ Shadow, much higher output than him too with a wide variety of sounds on offer, from comatose jazzy beats, to almost Autechre-ish electronic sounds floating through the more recent album of his. This is one from the glory days. Eastern influence runs through this track, Krush's spacey scratching, and humming bassline. If he teamed up with Shadow, it would be amazing I'm sure. Also a Mo'Wax artist. Best thing of his to check is the Holonic album, a megamix of his earlier tracks with him at the controls. Smoking music indeed.
113) Blaze - Lovelee Dae (Beloved Vocal Mix)
Fooking classy vocal house track. Blaze leave the usually soulful house sound alone for this and head into something more electronic and melancholic, set against uplifting "Its a lovelee dae, and the sun is shining, everywhere I go, I see children smiling" vocals. The Beloved hold of the track, give it a kick of urgency and dramatises the backing while staying very faithful to the original.
112) Nu Yorican Soul - The Nervous Track
Without this track, there would be no DJ Widge. Ministry Of Sound Sessions 2 Paul Oakenfold is dropped in my hands by my bro. At the time I was just about getting into music and was big big big on the Prodigy. This blew me away though. I'd never heard tunes blended together before, it was madness and immediately appealing to my ears. Oakey has the gospel epic The But For The Grace Of God (Fire Island cover of Blaze) playing away in Roger Sanchez remix form. It starts to fade into beats towards the end, and all of a sudden, you get this wonderful jazzy break floating in. Ride cymbal working all over the shop, drums thrashing away, horn stabs, bongos a GO GO. It always sent shivers up my spine. then I wanted to be a DJ. Masters At Work on the best form ever.
111) Holden & Thompson - Nothing
James Holden on finest form. Fact.
110) Kings Of Convenience - Weight Of My Words (Four Tet Remix)
More from Kings Of Convenience, Four Tet take charge this time. Light guitar driven summer track. Beer, talking to the ladies, listening to the trip hop material.
109) Groove Armarda - At The River
Aside from the basic 1st album, and chill out cheese of the 3rd album (and If Everybody Looked The Same!), I like Groove Armarda. This is a piece of chill class. Hopefully well known by all. The most recent Groove Armarda album is a joy as well, good gritty downtempo (as opposed to the half buttd stuff on Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub or whatever its called), and some THUNKING house music on there. This one will be timeless though, something about the simplicity of Vertigo I liked, and all the nice deep house on there too.
108) Cabbageboy - I! : Cabbage
Si Begg again, strutting it on Ninja Tune's N Tone electronic sister label. Think it uses a whistle sample from an old old lesser known Western film that a mate of mine knew once. Yes. Anyway, its electronic chill trip hop, got some choice samples in there which are kinda strung together to make random noises and sentences! Very Shadow-esque but more electronic.
107) Fila Brazillia - Feathery Legs
Want this on vinyl! My favourite funky funk band. Starts off with what sounds like the english bits from a "learn to speak x" language tape strung together to sound like a bloke picking up woman in a bar. Gets flowing with a nice funk beat, grooving bassline. Kicks it really when a way into it, the break is replaced by a nice house beat kick, little 'yeah! whoo! whoo! whoo!" crowd noises in the background and uplifting synth. Off the album Powerclown, top album of funk chill noises ... said to be the British Air, but far superior I say, well the last album I haven't heard, but you can't go wrong with Brazilification, Maim That Tune or Powerclown.
106) Brooks - Pink Cigarettes
Starts off Deep Dish's Renaissance Ibiza. BEST start to a mix I've heard. Reversed keys, floating in dreamlike, Dish add some female vocals to spice up the atmosphere. More shiver up spine moments. From the Nottingham DiY scene.
105) Pilote - Turtle (Bonobo Mix)
Was used in a One2One advert where this baba is on the other side of a fence to lots of other baba's and it wants to go play with them, but they're on the wrong tariff or something. Eventually gets round this by using a spade to dig under fence and play with the kids. Symbolises a cross network tariff. Anyway, the tune is a lovely downtempo number. Strange whistle noise and CLAP CLAP thing going on, jazzy, double bass. You get this idea. You'd know it if you heard it.
104) SWAG - Version 1
Cor blimey, Version 1. Did it really come out in 95, should have been THIS year. Thunderous tech house. Big drums, rumbling bass, insessant stab noise and this spine shattering "whoo-whoo-whoo-WHOO-WHOO-WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" noise that keeps it thoroughly banging along. House from the dark side. Still gets dropped by big DJ's today. Oh I wish they hadn't gone all noodly deep house nowadays...
103) Amon Tobin - El Wraith
Tobin displaying those soundtracky moments. Lurching beats almost lost in a sea of atmospheric rumble, space sinister noises, but broken by gentle xylophone and orchestral strings. Definately movie material.
102) Aphex Twin - Flim
Off the Come To Daddy EP, and one of the more gentler tracks, light intelligent drum and bass breaks with fragile melodies over the top. Compare this to Come To Daddy and see the radical difference.
101) White Stripes - Well Its True We Love One Another
The track that stuck in my mind off the album. I love the duet idea behind it. Nice cup of tea.
Now I WAS going to have The Roots - Silent Treatment (DO check this though!) but with Pharcyde holding up the good vibe hip hop side of things, I've plumped for one MORE from the Deep Dish stable. Now Terry Farley reviewed it as the worst vocal track he'd heard all year. But he does have a tendecy to speak butt. When it was released it was the ONLY decent vocal track I'd heard in ages. Out at the time of progressive being in full swing bigness, vocals weren't important. This was a breath of fresh air, a nice light track with pleasent jangly guitar and bouncy bass and beats. But I just loved the vocal. A nice simple sweetly sung "I'm! Flying! You've got me so high! I think ... I'm flying!". Works well! Best in its original Main Pass mix or the Deepheads Mix.
149) Mr Scruff - So Long
Mr Scruff is ace, on the whole I prefer the first album. Good vibes all the way round, smiley happy party music. Good hip hop groove worked here, nice xylophones and all enveloping bassline.
148) Morgan King - I'm Free (William Orbit Mix)
Much much pre-Madonna/Pink/Blur or whatever Orbit here. I'm desperately searching for this deleted trance epic. Sounds NOTHING like the version which got on Northern Exposure. BANGS along plain and simple. What does it is when halfway through it goes all electro-wibbly-madness, and one of the times when binty going "hooooo-yeah!" is acceptable. The Widge finds this trance acceptable. Better than Ray Of Light for my ears too!
147) Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Is the manga epic saga thats going on in their videos ever going to finish? Dunno. I actually think this DP album is a much better listen than Homework. Typical Punk disco grooving until the fantastic guitar break bit. Grand!
146) AJ Sound - Basemental
This is what I want to hear middle of the night when I'm clubbing. Another of those rare/cannot find tunes for me. Tribal number, with burbling acidic bassline, simple eerie synth and thats about it! Simple, but fooking well done. NO trace of this track whatsoever apart from its appearence on Danny Howells Nocturnal Frequencies 2. Where it has tormented me ever since.
145) Sub Sub - Past
Ibiza beach chilling tune. As the cliche no doubt goes. Most likely been the back ground to Wish You Were Here or to some advert by now, but this little baleric guitar led number is one to chill you away, and is superb when someone like Jose Padilla mixes it with...
144) D*Note - D*Votion
...on some long forgotten Musik cover tape. This is a uplifting vocal number, feel good. Both idea for when you're sat in the garden with some sun!
143) Blue Effect - Skybound
Did I say UK Garage was butt? I think it is. This floats onto Tom Middleton's Sound Of The Cosmos with blatant, oi oi I'm 2 step ra ra ra. I would tear it to pieces if it actually wasn't a wonderful number that personifies the cosmos sound perfectly. Sorry, instance 2 when a "hooooeeee-yeah!" is acceptable! Great though, aside from the 2 step break, thats all it has in common with something So Solid moop. Plus when it breaks down with all the cosmos sound and kicks back in with the guitar solo ... you're in heaven. Great track ... wish I could fit it into more DJ sets.
142) Si Begg - River
I don't know why, but this reminds me of Beatles meets Coldcut. Si Begg has enough names, SI Futures / Cabbageboy. This tends to lean towards the Cabbageboy sound more. Quite an epic number, orchestra in places, like the way the vocal progresses throughout the entire track. Well worth checking, you don't hear something that sounds this different everyday. You can't pin this sound down!
141) Primal Scream - Give Back But Don't Give Up (Portishead Remix)
Which Primal Scream to put in, I think I've left Trainspotting out of this list which is a tragedy. My fave! Andrew "Lord Of Techno" Weatherall and founder of Junior Boys Own (swag swag swag) comes back into the frame after he worked the magic touch on screamadelica on that one. Love it! Here though, I've gone for the Portishead remix of Give Back But Don't Give Up. Dunno the original, but this is well done Portishead. They were always master of the trip hop groove, no-one sounds like them. They turn this into a spbutt trippy affair.
140) DifferentGear - A Little Bit Paranoid
This comes from the label which Sunglasses At Night came from and the place which kicked off the entire Electroclash rah rah rah, Felix Da Housecat's City Rockers. This track was a bit different for them. A normal house track! Well I say normal, DifferentGear go for the death disco. I rarely sit up and take notice of vocals, but I love the growling bloke on here, rambling on about how he knows some woman inside out, the place where it all cuts out with "but you don't know me", and then fires off again! "you don't know anything about me, you don' t know what it takes to make me break into a sweat, you don't even know my brand of cigarette, but you claim to love me ... ain't seen evidence of that yet" ... great track! Dark and paranoid. Wocked.
139) Xpress2 - I Want You Back (Original & Medicine 8 Remix)
Now pleased as I was to see Xpress 2 hit the big time after being about for AGES (another Junior Boys Own act, one of the first, pre-Chemical Brothers) in many different guise, Lazy I got bored of after a while. When I got the album, it was full of good solid house tracks, like a summary of house music to day. I Want You Back stood right out. Simple tribal number, a gruff spoken male vocal. I like the way it takes it time to kick in. A nice track to start a mixtape with. Xpress2 has also been subjected to rather fabby remixes series thanks to Mr Fatboy Slim, Medicine8 do a BLINDING electronic slant on this. A wobbly burbler no less.
138) Massive Attack - Blue Lines
I've always liked the drum loop thats used as the sample in this. Everything thats said tends to pass over my head, I just get lost in the nice little organ and the shuffly beat. Well apart from "skip dip dadda! to get the anti matter!"
137) Royksopp - Remind Me
I was never keen on Poor Leno (apart from in remix form). I think this is a nicer vocal track from the album. Very broken and stabby, simple. The vocal makes it a winner, the actual sound of the geezers voice is just plain nice! Alright remixes to this one too!
136) The Logic Box - Morph Cross
BACK into tech house territory! And another off Terry Francis' Fabric mix. Great deep little bouncy beats, bouncing low low low bass. Simple programming on this one too, but thats what I love about it. Got a hell of alot of bounce to it, I'd groove my butt off to this over a big system. Also like the deep trippy second half. the only thing that makes this track EVEN better is when I mash it up with the Hybrid remix of I Love You I mentioned earlier! ;)
135) Tiga & Zyntherius vs Blue Monday - Blue Sunglasses (Tom Middleton's Cosmos Re-edit)
Yes we all know it, the pop/electroclash hit. So little is needed to be said. It IS good, nuff said, what was better was when Tom Middleton mashed it up with Blue Monday on Sound Of The Cosmos. So good, City Rockers had to release it by itself as a limited edition!
134) Graylock - CTM (Steve Rachmad Longcut)
Right I don't care, I like basslines. fook all this sh!te about big nasty synths eurodance sh!te. I want something like this. Something that commands you dance along or else its going to make more bassy rumbles at you and clappy noises. Dark as it is, the second half of the track goes really light and nice with rising synths. NICE synths. Reminds me of a track from a computer game I had on my Amiga500 way back. Jaguar XJ220. I liked that game. I like this.
133) Amon Tobin - Back From Space
Good way to kick off an album this! Announces itself with a large BANG! The orchestral chords remind me of the more inspired Prodigy moments (like the wonderful Skylined!). Furious soundtracky futuristic beats. Should be a soundtrack to something big! Not what I was expecting to come from the usually chilled Ninja Tune, but wicked nonetheless!
132) DJ Food - Ageing Young Rebel
Now it seems there are two versions of this. Jazzed up 20's influenced album version. The version I like best is off the Xen Cuts Ninja Tune compilation. Pops up on disc 2. Much more subtle but still got the jazz influence. Makes you think of old black and white detective movie. Great spoken story over the top about someone who wants to be different, while remaining the same. One to check, but look for the Xen Cuts version!
131) Slam - Lifetimes
Scottish techno/house giants are Slam. Run the label Soma, responsible for originally signing Daft Punk up to it, home to the likes of Silicone Soul, had UNKLE guest on the Alien Radio album. This is a powerful Detroit influence track, set against classic soulful house vocals. Can't sum up the mood of this one, you have to hear it in action to see what I mean by powerful. Its that driving "PAAAAARRRP!" noise.
130) Kings Of Convenience - Winning A Battle, Losing The War (Andy Votel Mix)
According to Amazon, they're likened to Simon And Garfunkle. Unusually, even though their album was good, the remixes album Versus was even better. Here Andy Votel just takes the foundation of the original acoustic track and adds some extra instruments before building to gentle drums. "Even though I'll never need her, even though she's only given me pain, I'll be on my knees to feed her, spend the day to make her smile again..."
129) Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
GREAT video, and from what is one of the best Chem albums since the original I reckon! I love the way on the video, each noise has a visual representation and as the track progresses, the train journey progresses too. You have to see and hear it to know what I'm on about for this. Spunky little house track with added bounce and BIG guitar loop! Punchy too.
128) Zero 7 - Lo
Got this off a Layo & Bushwacka! mix. Different from the easy listening styles of their album, starts off with Bond-esque strings before heading into dub territory. Better in listening than in my describing. Besides, its Zero 7, you know it'll be quality.
127) Skylab - River Of Bass
#1 is an interesting album of moods, very trippy, classic trip hop apparently, but not just a stream of Portishead-alike noises as you'd expect. I can't remember the name of the 2nd track off this so, the opening track is in its place. Takes an eternity to comes in, but this menacing bassline builds up quietly before being right there at you, then treads very horizontal trip hop beats ground. Good opener to the album, made better by the contrast the light 2nd track is to this, mixes together well.
126) UNKLE - Rabbit In Your Headlights
I didn't like this at first, thought it was too unsettled, but has grown on me more and more. Its what I hope Kid A sounds like. Thom Yorke just sounds right sat against Shadow's moody backing don't you think?
125) Sean Cusick & Medway - Neutrix
Cusick is a producer I've noticed of recent, here he teams up with progsters Medway to work a spacial house track, subtle warping bass, lovely chilling breakdown,nothing dramatic though. Just got this so thats all I have to say. But I like it!
124) The Orb - Towers Of Dub
Love The Orb! Great at flowing albums that almost tell a story. This one's off the second album they did and is a big dub journey! Orb humour is evident in the barking dogs and someone repeatedly saying "Hello! I'm Brad!"
123) Primal Scream - Trainspotting
Oh I HAVE got Trainspotting in here. GOOD. I've described it already, and I'm sure there are MANY other wicked Primal tracks such as Loaded, Star and whatever, but from hearing this on Trainspotting in the Renton/Sickboy/Dogshooting scene ... I always liked it. Liked it first, then discovered it was Primal. All of Vanishing Point is good anyway. Sch-o, do you have the beast in your sights?
122) Second Hand Satellites - Multiple Mirrors (Orbit 1.3/1.4)
More Sean Cusick. John Digweed fave. Maybe because it samples his own rather dull Beautiful Strange and makes it GOOD. Deep electro business, definately in Orbit. Also a bit of a Fabric track since it pops up on Tyrant 2. Deep as you like material. One for the heads.
121) Brett Johnson - Stucco Homes
MORE Fabric/Tyrant material here! This is wicked, taking 80's house beats but working a dirty little bumping groove over the top with all sorts of beeping noises. Topped off by wicked trippy vocal over the top. "Iron. Filings. In. The. Water. Electric. Eyes. Watch. The others. Making. Homes. From cola. Cans. Sardines. Seashells. Dreams. Of sand. How did I get here? What is this place? There is no care in my reflection, I can't see my face". Top tech stylings! Fabric Fabric Fabric!
120) Foremost Poets - Moonraker (King Unique Remix / various Int. DJ Gigalo's mixes)
"Please do not be alarmed, the DJ booth is conducting a troubleshoot test of the entire system, somehow while the party was in progress an unidentified frequency has been existing in the system for some time, and while many of you have been made to brainwashed to comprehend, this frequency is and has become a threat to our society as we know it. This frequency has been used by a secret society in conjunction with Lucifer to lure and prey on innocent partygoers...." grand and well used sample this. This is the original form of it, comes from the International DJ Gigalo's stable, which was the mummy of the electroclash sound way before it even started. This track was fooking huge, I've gone spastic to it at Bedrock/Fabric everywhere. King Unique got hold of it recently when it was signed to Junior and just standardised the beats and housed it up a little bit more (essential since the original was a fooker to mix with!). There was also a remix of this on one of the Int DJ Gigalo releases that was fooking amazing too. A grand wiiiiide track. A menacing message. Big system sounds. Also was sampled on Vigi & Flip's Freak Frequency which caused my to go spare in the main room @ Fabric when Craig Richards dropped it. I was looking for my mates at the time and this took control of my body and made me go dance my funky little butt off.
119) Amon Tobin - Night Life
Earlier Tobin this. Starts off as low downtempo sleaze lounge music ... again with a kinda Twin Peaks sound and Tobin's trademark soundtracky feel. Fades away into some atmospheric beatless bits, a change, like something is happening in a movie which is sinister, before coming back all sparkling as a 1920's jazz/drum and bass hybrid! Not seriously noodly, has some humour in the cheeky little samples and chopped up drum and bass beats. Lovely flowing track. ba-ba-BA-BA-BOO-BOO-BA!-BAAA!
118) Furry Phreaks - Soothe (Chicane Mixes)
A grand remix project from the GOOD days of Ministry Of Sound when they still had the Open night and label. Chicane get to grips with a Charles Webster track, and come out with 3 remixes way better than any butt they did with Bryan Adams. Its best form is on Northern Exposure 2, where Sasha & Digweed mash up the best 2 remixes, the chilled Cafe Del Mar-ish (NOT the trance track!) vocal version, before heading into the downtempo house speed jazzy drum & bass breaks of the Cyanide Ride version. Nice.
117) Massive Attack - Sly
Love the epic wide orchestral sound on this, and the lo-fi beats. Think its Nicolette on vocals here too, would have been nowhere as good without her on board. Great track full stop, shiver up spine material.
116) Orbital - Out There Somewhere? (Parts 1 & 2)
30 minute long electro glory. The first part is dark, moody, offsetting standard electro beats against classic melancholic rave chord progressions, atmospheric synths and vocals give the soundtracky feel, dramatic. It goes a bit wibbly at the end before kicking into part 2. Entire mood of the track shifts to something lighter more hopeful, the electro theme continues but uplifting choral synths and lovely live flute lifts it high, the synths just build and build and build. Great structure over both parts, the collage of dark and light again.
115) The Orb - Fluffy Little Clouds
The classic Orb track. Everyone should know this "they were red, yellow, purple ... the sky always used have little fluffy clouds". Classic 'trance' track from back in 92. The entire album needs to be heard in full though to get the experience of the journey from Earth, past the moon, to the heart of the Ultraworld. Lots of nods to the prog rock influence. Its over 10 years old, but it never sounds dated to my ears. Always smile material. Great for reading to as well!
114) DJ Krush - Kemuri
The Japanese DJ Shadow, much higher output than him too with a wide variety of sounds on offer, from comatose jazzy beats, to almost Autechre-ish electronic sounds floating through the more recent album of his. This is one from the glory days. Eastern influence runs through this track, Krush's spacey scratching, and humming bassline. If he teamed up with Shadow, it would be amazing I'm sure. Also a Mo'Wax artist. Best thing of his to check is the Holonic album, a megamix of his earlier tracks with him at the controls. Smoking music indeed.
113) Blaze - Lovelee Dae (Beloved Vocal Mix)
Fooking classy vocal house track. Blaze leave the usually soulful house sound alone for this and head into something more electronic and melancholic, set against uplifting "Its a lovelee dae, and the sun is shining, everywhere I go, I see children smiling" vocals. The Beloved hold of the track, give it a kick of urgency and dramatises the backing while staying very faithful to the original.
112) Nu Yorican Soul - The Nervous Track
Without this track, there would be no DJ Widge. Ministry Of Sound Sessions 2 Paul Oakenfold is dropped in my hands by my bro. At the time I was just about getting into music and was big big big on the Prodigy. This blew me away though. I'd never heard tunes blended together before, it was madness and immediately appealing to my ears. Oakey has the gospel epic The But For The Grace Of God (Fire Island cover of Blaze) playing away in Roger Sanchez remix form. It starts to fade into beats towards the end, and all of a sudden, you get this wonderful jazzy break floating in. Ride cymbal working all over the shop, drums thrashing away, horn stabs, bongos a GO GO. It always sent shivers up my spine. then I wanted to be a DJ. Masters At Work on the best form ever.
111) Holden & Thompson - Nothing
James Holden on finest form. Fact.
110) Kings Of Convenience - Weight Of My Words (Four Tet Remix)
More from Kings Of Convenience, Four Tet take charge this time. Light guitar driven summer track. Beer, talking to the ladies, listening to the trip hop material.
109) Groove Armarda - At The River
Aside from the basic 1st album, and chill out cheese of the 3rd album (and If Everybody Looked The Same!), I like Groove Armarda. This is a piece of chill class. Hopefully well known by all. The most recent Groove Armarda album is a joy as well, good gritty downtempo (as opposed to the half buttd stuff on Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub or whatever its called), and some THUNKING house music on there. This one will be timeless though, something about the simplicity of Vertigo I liked, and all the nice deep house on there too.
108) Cabbageboy - I! : Cabbage
Si Begg again, strutting it on Ninja Tune's N Tone electronic sister label. Think it uses a whistle sample from an old old lesser known Western film that a mate of mine knew once. Yes. Anyway, its electronic chill trip hop, got some choice samples in there which are kinda strung together to make random noises and sentences! Very Shadow-esque but more electronic.
107) Fila Brazillia - Feathery Legs
Want this on vinyl! My favourite funky funk band. Starts off with what sounds like the english bits from a "learn to speak x" language tape strung together to sound like a bloke picking up woman in a bar. Gets flowing with a nice funk beat, grooving bassline. Kicks it really when a way into it, the break is replaced by a nice house beat kick, little 'yeah! whoo! whoo! whoo!" crowd noises in the background and uplifting synth. Off the album Powerclown, top album of funk chill noises ... said to be the British Air, but far superior I say, well the last album I haven't heard, but you can't go wrong with Brazilification, Maim That Tune or Powerclown.
106) Brooks - Pink Cigarettes
Starts off Deep Dish's Renaissance Ibiza. BEST start to a mix I've heard. Reversed keys, floating in dreamlike, Dish add some female vocals to spice up the atmosphere. More shiver up spine moments. From the Nottingham DiY scene.
105) Pilote - Turtle (Bonobo Mix)
Was used in a One2One advert where this baba is on the other side of a fence to lots of other baba's and it wants to go play with them, but they're on the wrong tariff or something. Eventually gets round this by using a spade to dig under fence and play with the kids. Symbolises a cross network tariff. Anyway, the tune is a lovely downtempo number. Strange whistle noise and CLAP CLAP thing going on, jazzy, double bass. You get this idea. You'd know it if you heard it.
104) SWAG - Version 1
Cor blimey, Version 1. Did it really come out in 95, should have been THIS year. Thunderous tech house. Big drums, rumbling bass, insessant stab noise and this spine shattering "whoo-whoo-whoo-WHOO-WHOO-WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" noise that keeps it thoroughly banging along. House from the dark side. Still gets dropped by big DJ's today. Oh I wish they hadn't gone all noodly deep house nowadays...
103) Amon Tobin - El Wraith
Tobin displaying those soundtracky moments. Lurching beats almost lost in a sea of atmospheric rumble, space sinister noises, but broken by gentle xylophone and orchestral strings. Definately movie material.
102) Aphex Twin - Flim
Off the Come To Daddy EP, and one of the more gentler tracks, light intelligent drum and bass breaks with fragile melodies over the top. Compare this to Come To Daddy and see the radical difference.
101) White Stripes - Well Its True We Love One Another
The track that stuck in my mind off the album. I love the duet idea behind it. Nice cup of tea.
I did this last September somewhere else I posted, which has now DIED, but I'm always WILLING to ramble on about tunes no-one else has heard of ANYWHERE:
Now this was a hard b*stard, on one hand I'm happy with the list, on the other I'm not. I think I should have done one dance, one non-thump list. I've got lots of good essentials but I think of lots of stuff that could have gone in thats not, plenty of fine chill/electronica, Blue States, Kid Koala, Ninja, Mo'Wax, everything ... then I also think of all the good thunking dance thats not in there from Danny Tenaglia, Green Velvet, Futureshock, plus everything that sounds absolutely amazing when in the context of a mix. So anyway, a FAIR representation of what I like, but don't take this to mean that its the ENTIRE spectrum of my sound, its not. Also going to bang up a top 20 albums too!
200) Nirvana - Plateau
Accompanied lots of being driven round Essex countryside during school lunchbreaks. Nice and simple, love the guitar and main chorus. Memories of past.
199) Angelo Badalamenti - Dance Of The Dream Man
Or its many variations on the album. I just love Twin Peaks. But one memory that stayed with me from seeing it as a kid was this wonderful sleazy music. Can't get enough of it ...
198) Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl
My personal favourite off Rooty. Lots of nice single material on this album and in general it was a more 'for the public' and not 'for the dancefloor' album for me. The production on this is amazing though, the wibbly bassline, the reverses on the beats and the way the little jangly bell in the background pitches up and down. Jaxx put alot of effort into their tracks, and probably more than you realise. All the tricks used one here. Plus I'd rather hear THIS than any urban/ukgarage sh!te anyday.
197) The Streets - Its Too Late
...unless its this urban/ukgarage sh!te! Plenty of good material to choose from. Easily dismissed as some cockney geezer talking over garage breaks, but on examination ... its more like the kind of observation films like Human Traffic have on life. Lots of sharp humour on his tracks. But I've decided to choose one that sticks out as a bit different. Rather than the observing of the sh!te-ness of everyday life, w@nkrs who get p!ssed and start fights ... this is a sweet little story, if a little sad of a bloke who gets left by his girlie because he's a touch dozy like. The nice orchestral samples add to the 'tragic love story' theme of it all.
196) Basement Jaxx - Same Old Show
Remedy. Full of anthems everywhere. Everyone knows RendezVu, Red Alert ... its all caned to bits. This was always my favourite track off the album, samples an old ska track, has an awkward 6/8 time signature (which makes mixing it interesting) but is fooking wicked. A simple ska groove worked over Jaxx beats, looping up and up and up. Grand novel breakdown too.
195) Foo Fighters - All My Life
Now I love this, from the most moment I heard it. Something that REALLY moves you. Not in the 'oh thats touching' way, but the 'oh I have to jerk my body about' way. Love the structure of it, holding back with some menace before tearing away with some real screaming! Class.
194) Rozzo - The Way (original / Phunkdiggerz Moody Remix)
An old techno track that popped up on UK techno label Bush ages ago. Simple effective military drums lead to moody synth chord progression and a dirty stabby bassline. My bro's mate had the double pack this was on and I ... nicked this vinyl off him because I loved it so much :o! Ended up getting signed to Plasic City a few years later. Now, I usually beware of ANYTHING that is spelt Phunk or uses a z instead of an s. They did a normal mix which basically thumped it up with a funkier bassline which just didn't sit right, but did the 'Moody' remix ... which was a piece of class. Doesn't really sound anything like the original but works an atmospheric groove. A bouncy house beat is laid over a very moody little break beat. Peaks to a wonderful breakdown, almost ambient with its Floyd style guitars but kept moving along with the jazz break loop in the background before kicking back in. Nicely done!
193) De'Lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Mixes)
The classic really. At a time where there was SO much vocal sh!te about, a iffyish garage track by Blaze is given a re-working by new boys to the scene, Deep Dish. Their epic electronic groove with haunting organ, echoed vocals and rubbing, grinding drums, stole across dancefloors and into the top 10. Fantastic track. Caned to bits? Maybe, but everyone knows it, plus the Dubfire Needs To Score version has a massive beatless section when it kicks in for added anthem singalong value ... makes it all worthwhile when those beats start working.
192) Medicine8 - Ape Don't Kill Ape
Formally called Medicine, these guys have their own house sound, raw and gritty with nods to acid house past and a slight punk attitude. Basically what the Audio Bullys should have been. This track uses alot of similar sounds as to what Circulation use, but ends up being the track that I wish Circulation's were. Rougher beats, sparkier hooks than anything they have done. Nice little robotic vocal chanting "I've got my head up high" over heavenly synths and plucky bass, which then switches and jumps to bass lead breaks. Simple and sorted.
191) Hot Lizard - The Theme
Charles Webster, master of the deep house groove, knocked this one up. A melacholic electronic house number with driving urgency. Typical moody DJ material.
190) Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Now this seems to polarize opinion. LOTS of people hate it, its an utter Marmite. I personally love it. Beats and bass with a bit of french flair, simple as that. Plus it was the theme to 'that' advert series.
189) D Product - Faithless
Now I love drum and bass, admittedly, not the field I'm well versed in it, there can be alot of filler out there. This track does it for me though, could be the industrial mood, anticipation for when the bass drops, or perhaps its the impossibly wibbly bassline itself. I think its all of that. Its something I've whacked on many a time to relieve some frustration.
188) Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag
Brilliant! I first heard this getting a lift out to a house party I was playing at back at school. It just made you sit right up. Broke the mould of the D&B scene at the time. None of the rudebwoy Incredible junglist nonsense. Jazz breakbeat fusion, great double bass action ... builds and kicks in all the right places from the trip hop intro to the full on track after the first break. Sorted.
187) SWAG - Drum Hydraulics
SWAG, years ahead of their time way back when, now sound a bit ... bland nowadays compared to what they used to knock out. In the days when Junior was Junior Boys Own and kicking out Chemical Brothers tracks, they had a subsidary called Jus' Trax. Swag popped up pushing out a brand of dark dark house music that was just plain rocking. The 'Version' tracks. I'm not sure what this one was but it made it onto their Collected Works 1995 LP. Mechanical whirrings, dark echoing bass noises, acid touches. Nothing sounded like it. Made it onto the first ever Fabric album which was nice. Pity they don't sound like this anymore.
186) Tiefschwarz - Never (Alternative Club Mix)
Now before I disappeared down the path of moody, I was a big US Garage fan. I loved Masters At Work and all things funky and vocal. Its just that everything became a bit watered down, the spark disappeared somewhere along the way, and lo US Garage become dullness to my ears and I started to get dark and twisted. Much JOY last year when up on Derrick Carters Classic label popped up Tiefschwarz's Ral9005 album. The press said it was good, I gave it a try. Now from the title, it sounded like it was going to be a piece of german acid techno experimentalism. What it actually turned out to be was an album full of GOOD solid grooving funky house music. I hadn't heard anything this good in ages and it made me think back to the glory days. Rather than plump for tracks like the lovely instrumental Water, vocal lead Never is my one. This is the album version. House music done how its meant to be done.
185) Funki Porchini - Going Down
I got onto Funki Porchini mainly because he sounds VERY much like my fave Twin Peaks sleaze music. I don't really know how to describe this ... watery, trip hop number. Something soothing to slip into before you go to sleep. Beats filter up and down and around your head as you're hypnotised....
184) Francesco Farfa - Tribe And Trance (Voyager Remix)
Plain dancefloor groover here. Many a journey to work with Sangers would John Digweed's Global Underground Hong Kong be the accompanying soundtrack. I remember everytime this came on I was like "what the fook is this tune?!". Absolutely crazy "ba-ba-boo! boo! boo!" echo noise going round it, furious tech drums and dischordant growling bassline .... nice nice nice drops where everything cuts back to the "boo! boo! boo!" noise and you get the sound of what sounds like a train passing by hit you. Grand! Peak time monster, still searching for on vinyl.
183) John Beltran - Caboclo (Get F**ked Mix)
The Get F**ked crew take control here. Old skool Todd Terry style drum noises and programming come out, sounds like its going to be a dark little number, halfway just changes completely to wonderful floating synths and gorgeous sax solo. Everything kicks back in and you realise the importance of the contrast between light and dark.
182) Dave Brennan - Drink Deep
Recent purchase and representing my chosen house sound of the moment. Yes, a nice bit of tech house. This one is on Mr C's (yes, The Shamen) End Recordings label (also home to Layo & Bushwacka in their pre XL days!). Huge bass, comes across like deep rave almost. Has these wonderful Northern Exposure trippy noises floating in and out of it all the time. Hypnotic one to get lost in, love to be on a dancefloor when this one is played. Also features my man of the moment James Zabiela on remix.
181) Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Isn't it wonderful? Could be the absolutely wicked video that goes with it, but you should all know this now. I love all the 'generic urban video x' choreography to Aphex's mad splintered beats. Although sometimes I feel like I'm rating the track AND video at the same time ... I just can't imagine it without the vid.
180) Squarepusher - Come On My Selecta!
Another 'top vid' one! Chris Cunningham has a way of translating the music into something visual on screen. This is just a great fun track with sense of humour, crazy n bass music.
179) Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
Allegedly a pisstake of Firestarter. Third in the series of Chris Cunningham on top video form. Extra marks go to the 'granny screaming' incident. I want your soul, I will eat your soul, come to daddy, aargh.
178) Deep Dish - Sushi
My fave DJ's ever. A track of their own (which is fooking rare nowadays) from their only artist album. I wish they would do a new one since their sound ramped up a bit after this album. Trademark punch Dish percussion, the strange strange clappy noise (which does it for me), moody DJ material again bringing their Iranian roots into this one with the eastern flavour that flows through it.
177) Marcel - On The Beach (Chaser Remix)
A chillout one for me, I keep meaning to make a chillout mix, and this would have to feature. The remix is a take on the slightly disco original, swaping soft disco drums for a nice break. Sea noises, distant piano. An On The Beach moment indeed.
176) Luke Vibert - Stern Facials
Luke has a kinda comic hip hop sound, also tends to delve into stupid n bass music. This is a nice uplifting (but not in the obvious grab you by the balls way, it soothes you and makes you smile) track. If you're partial to a bit of the DJ Shadow, Coldcut, Mo'wax output, you can't go wrong with this. Chilled 70's funk via space and some seagulls.
175) Peace Division - Feel My Drums
Ok, there was a point where if you'd heard one Peace Division, you'd heard them all. Alot of good (the recent Beats In Peacez series, DJ material, part 1 esp!), some duff (Xpress2 Lazy remix). This one of their own will represent all for me. Nasty technoid number, unsettling bass squeal, Peace Division long subtle build and tribal drums, and just plain evil "FEEL MY DRUMS!" vocal.
174) Oil - The Future
Off Pagan records, home of good northern house! I was down at The End one night, I'd just bought this on promo and Deep Dish dropped it THAT night. I was well chuffed. Like progressive house mixed with Nuphonic's soulful discohouse revival sound. Starts off murky, then goes groovy and then takes you high up into space! Great track. Fitting that it then made it to feature on Deep Dish's Yoshiesque 2.
173) Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
All hip hop is balls. Just some guys going on about biatches, money and people taking their sweaters off because its a bit warm. Well fook that generalisation I say. Roots Manuva could be the finest thing to hip hop ever. But most likeyl due to being from London, will never be heard of by the masses stateside. He does have a Mobo to his name tho. Has a very London/Jamaican hybrid sound going on ... great programming skills also, very evident on this track. Grand dubby track, love the "Witness the fitness! The prophet, he liveth! One hope, one quest!" main line. Zero 7 also took the dub version of this to stick on their Another Late Night mix.
172) PMT - Gyromancer
The breaks sound. Possibly one of the best breaks tracks you can get. Breaks heads loved it, house heads loved it. House tempo breakbeat, nasty drum and bassish bassline, moody and dark overall. Can't really say much more!
171) Manic Street Preachers - Ocean Spray (Kinobe Remix)
Yes the Manics have invaded my life. Kind of. fook knows what the original sounds like to be honest, this is a piece of downtempo genius! Sit down, smoke up put this on and chill the fook out. Kinobe also were responsible for the Kronenberg (I think) advert tune, you know, the woman has some Kroney and people keep staring at it and having accidents. This is much better than that though! Possibly even better than anything off their first album too! Heavenly chill material. Not heard enough to break it down, but I know what I like when I hear it. And this is good.
170) Deep Dish - Summers Over
More Dish, in both original and remix form (both by Dish), its a great track. Summer is indeed over if you hear this, no happy disco loops, no cheery vocals. Like a wave of mood coming at you. Nice variation from the usual house beat though, really pounds at you! Melancholic whines, nice 'tick tick tick tick tick' hi hats.
169) Southern Comforter - Another Late Thursday (Spincycle Remix)
Yes MORE dancefloor material. And do forgive me if I use the words 'bass lead' again. But this is it plain and simple. Banging beats and a furious menace of a bass hum. The kind of intensity of bass that would make you throw up if it came out of the speakers at Fabric. Peak time material ... this is what you have going when you're operating at full speed!
168) Dr Octagon - I'm Destructive
I like this since it uses (what I found was a well used hip hop break) a drum loop which Masters At Work used in their 1st Kenlou track. Chunky, nice grunging guitars and Kool Keith rambling on about vomiting in your breakfast and spitting in your salad and stuff. Yes.
167) Royksopp - Sparks
I overlooked this completely when I got Melody AM. Wish I hadn't. Love the beat programming on this, stoned and lurching. Soothing little track. Bonus is, just managed to pick up the vinyl and its got a remix by Murk which happens to be just about the ONLY good thing I've ever heard them do.
166) Gorillaz - 19-2000
Seems like people don't like the 'slow' version, I thing the remix version is pure butt. Loses the funk completely in a kinda Big Beat cop out. Cruising music. La la la la la la la la!
165) Bjork - 5 Years
I don't know enough of Post to know what I like about it, anyway Homogenic is more consistant and better so ner. This is my fave track I would say, love the gritty 'fooked up sample' drum noises. Triumphant sounding too in a mechanical electronic way! Love the blend of orchestral and electrical on this album.
164) Underground Resistance/DJ Rolando - Knights Of The Jaguar
Original Detroit techno PEOPLE. Or something. Legendary apparently too although this is the only thing I've heard. Everyone was going mad to sign this when it popped up on UR. Became the essential Ibiza tune, latin flair, urgent pacy little track. fooker to mix with though. No cheese too. Extra marks to UR for marking all their records with a "if you find this in a chain record store DO NOT BUY it, they are taking money away from the independants" tag.
163) Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Epic orchestra breakbeat! Imagine the orchestral parts of Unfinished Symphony, Lonely Soul, Bittersweet Symphony set to furious breaks! Great end of night track, classic.
162) Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Llhasa
First up from goa trance act Banco De Gaia. Title track from the album which made it onto Sasha & Digweeds Northern Exposure. Themed around a train journey through asia. Asian wailing, train noises. Oh and when I say trance, its not the furious DJ Sammy tripe. Its not even fast. Good little concept album too, takes you through a variety of moods.
161) Banco De Gaia - Kincajou
...such as this one. Just after a bizarre Asian/Dub hybrid, you suddenly find yourself listening to a £5 casio keyboard playing preselected 'disco' loop, some person introducing someone desperately trying to play things like an added bassdrum and awful cliche rave noise over the top before he suggests 'lets try a new rhythm'. Complete change, lovely breaks kick in utilising some nice live drums and bongos, a wall of synths in the background rising and falling. Hypnotic.
160) Mainline - Narcotic/Innerspace
One off John Digweed's Bedrock label. Now I found it hard to find good stuff on Bedrock, alot of it was murky prog guff that was trying TOO hard to be moody, murky and serious. This is a little gem though. James Holden works hypnotic trance synths against ambient echo noodlings and driving drums. Nothing cheesy about it though. No awful screaming bint, no blatantly obvious breakdown with drum fill to come back in. No synchopated stab bassline. A work of quality.
159) Nick Holder - Inside Your Soul (Lexicon Avenue Mix)
Nick Holder, fine crafter of deep, funky filtered house music with a nice percussive edge ... nice summer material. NRK went a different direction when they got Lexicon Avenue in to remix this jobbie. At a time when prog was just hitting big, this baby came out. A remedy to all those horrible Gatecrasher trance anthem nastinessesseses. Deep, flirting between house and trance and firmly in electronica. Nice vocal too.
158) Weekend World - The Word/The Word (Dub)
Like James Holden, Weekend World can work trancish sounds but with added deepness and quality. This popped up on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi label a while back. What got me about this was the simple drum programming, standard 909 beats, nothing special but somehow just have sooooo much bounce in them when put against the very deep, watery backing of the track. Another track very Circulation in sound. The Dub is grand too, working the beats and bass more in an evil warping progressive manner.
157) Stephane K & John Creamer - I Love You (Hybrid's Claustraphobic Remix)
Hybrid again, and about as far away from the orchestral Finished Symphony you can get. Hybrid take Creamer & K's tribal dull-a-thon and turn it into a breakbeat monster. Derranged high pitched squeal noise! Furious breaks! Nasty nasty electronic stabs and a long long long burbling break with a filthy vocal over the top of it and the most intense "wheeooorrrnnnnnnnnn!" whine as it all falls apart before kicking in for the final stretch. More full pelt material! Dark and nasty, very very nasty!
156) Fabrice Lig presents Soul Designer - Sweet Harmonies
Piece of quality tech house, that fast, but very chilled and soothing. Sweet indeed. Soft keys, soft beats and a nice acid wibbling noise. Summery, not at all moody smile material. Nice.
155) UNKLE - UNKLE Main Theme
Now UNKLE is easily not the best thing Shadow has put his name too. It just tries too hard in places (Lonely Soul, I'm pointing at you) ... so it falls that my favourite piece of the track is the one with no celebrity collaboration. Shadow working a nice guitar groove over some choice sci-fi samples and the like. Atmosphere! Still ... awaiting UNKLE album 2, and apparently Layo & Bushwacka!, Peace Division, FC Kahuna are on board so it should be NICE.
154) Bushwacka! - Feel It
...so then lets talk about Mr Bushwacka! then? Top star in the breaks scene, great productions (aside from when Tim Deluxe shoved the HORRIBLE vocal over Love Story). Comes from the glory days of rave, and you can hear the old rave chord progressions in alot of his tracks, but with style! Builds in three stages: ready, GO! and SPAZZOUT! Everything is a build to the first break when you get the full force of the breaks and grand bass invasion, then final secion which breaks down to fanfaring synth and bass stabs! Favourite of UNKLE unsurprisingly
153) Filter Tip - On Heat / In Season
Quality progressive house full stop. In Season is a deep number, working a bit like Slams Lifetimes, the On Heat track is the one I get excitied about. Lulls you into the false sense of security that its another chunky prog stomper before halfway through lifting you high with amazing strings. Nice.
152) Behrouz - What We Do In Life (Echoes In Eternity)
Another track from a Deep Dish label. What I originally liked about this was the way Deep Dish mix it in on Yoshiesque 2. You've got the very early house-ish sounds of Marscarter going on, but then (and very simply) you start getting this harder edged beat coming in, Dish-style clappy drums and the basslines switch over to a new sound. Great live piano solo thing going on in this one too. And it does indeed echo.
151) Pharcyde - Drop
One that gets a vote for the vid too. I wish I could have put some tracks off Bizarre Ride 2 but I can't remember what they are. Love this though, reversed in every way. Trippy little track. Apparently they recorded the album this is off on mushrooms!
Now this was a hard b*stard, on one hand I'm happy with the list, on the other I'm not. I think I should have done one dance, one non-thump list. I've got lots of good essentials but I think of lots of stuff that could have gone in thats not, plenty of fine chill/electronica, Blue States, Kid Koala, Ninja, Mo'Wax, everything ... then I also think of all the good thunking dance thats not in there from Danny Tenaglia, Green Velvet, Futureshock, plus everything that sounds absolutely amazing when in the context of a mix. So anyway, a FAIR representation of what I like, but don't take this to mean that its the ENTIRE spectrum of my sound, its not. Also going to bang up a top 20 albums too!
200) Nirvana - Plateau
Accompanied lots of being driven round Essex countryside during school lunchbreaks. Nice and simple, love the guitar and main chorus. Memories of past.
199) Angelo Badalamenti - Dance Of The Dream Man
Or its many variations on the album. I just love Twin Peaks. But one memory that stayed with me from seeing it as a kid was this wonderful sleazy music. Can't get enough of it ...
198) Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl
My personal favourite off Rooty. Lots of nice single material on this album and in general it was a more 'for the public' and not 'for the dancefloor' album for me. The production on this is amazing though, the wibbly bassline, the reverses on the beats and the way the little jangly bell in the background pitches up and down. Jaxx put alot of effort into their tracks, and probably more than you realise. All the tricks used one here. Plus I'd rather hear THIS than any urban/ukgarage sh!te anyday.
197) The Streets - Its Too Late
...unless its this urban/ukgarage sh!te! Plenty of good material to choose from. Easily dismissed as some cockney geezer talking over garage breaks, but on examination ... its more like the kind of observation films like Human Traffic have on life. Lots of sharp humour on his tracks. But I've decided to choose one that sticks out as a bit different. Rather than the observing of the sh!te-ness of everyday life, w@nkrs who get p!ssed and start fights ... this is a sweet little story, if a little sad of a bloke who gets left by his girlie because he's a touch dozy like. The nice orchestral samples add to the 'tragic love story' theme of it all.
196) Basement Jaxx - Same Old Show
Remedy. Full of anthems everywhere. Everyone knows RendezVu, Red Alert ... its all caned to bits. This was always my favourite track off the album, samples an old ska track, has an awkward 6/8 time signature (which makes mixing it interesting) but is fooking wicked. A simple ska groove worked over Jaxx beats, looping up and up and up. Grand novel breakdown too.
195) Foo Fighters - All My Life
Now I love this, from the most moment I heard it. Something that REALLY moves you. Not in the 'oh thats touching' way, but the 'oh I have to jerk my body about' way. Love the structure of it, holding back with some menace before tearing away with some real screaming! Class.
194) Rozzo - The Way (original / Phunkdiggerz Moody Remix)
An old techno track that popped up on UK techno label Bush ages ago. Simple effective military drums lead to moody synth chord progression and a dirty stabby bassline. My bro's mate had the double pack this was on and I ... nicked this vinyl off him because I loved it so much :o! Ended up getting signed to Plasic City a few years later. Now, I usually beware of ANYTHING that is spelt Phunk or uses a z instead of an s. They did a normal mix which basically thumped it up with a funkier bassline which just didn't sit right, but did the 'Moody' remix ... which was a piece of class. Doesn't really sound anything like the original but works an atmospheric groove. A bouncy house beat is laid over a very moody little break beat. Peaks to a wonderful breakdown, almost ambient with its Floyd style guitars but kept moving along with the jazz break loop in the background before kicking back in. Nicely done!
193) De'Lacy - Hideaway (Deep Dish Mixes)
The classic really. At a time where there was SO much vocal sh!te about, a iffyish garage track by Blaze is given a re-working by new boys to the scene, Deep Dish. Their epic electronic groove with haunting organ, echoed vocals and rubbing, grinding drums, stole across dancefloors and into the top 10. Fantastic track. Caned to bits? Maybe, but everyone knows it, plus the Dubfire Needs To Score version has a massive beatless section when it kicks in for added anthem singalong value ... makes it all worthwhile when those beats start working.
192) Medicine8 - Ape Don't Kill Ape
Formally called Medicine, these guys have their own house sound, raw and gritty with nods to acid house past and a slight punk attitude. Basically what the Audio Bullys should have been. This track uses alot of similar sounds as to what Circulation use, but ends up being the track that I wish Circulation's were. Rougher beats, sparkier hooks than anything they have done. Nice little robotic vocal chanting "I've got my head up high" over heavenly synths and plucky bass, which then switches and jumps to bass lead breaks. Simple and sorted.
191) Hot Lizard - The Theme
Charles Webster, master of the deep house groove, knocked this one up. A melacholic electronic house number with driving urgency. Typical moody DJ material.
190) Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Now this seems to polarize opinion. LOTS of people hate it, its an utter Marmite. I personally love it. Beats and bass with a bit of french flair, simple as that. Plus it was the theme to 'that' advert series.
189) D Product - Faithless
Now I love drum and bass, admittedly, not the field I'm well versed in it, there can be alot of filler out there. This track does it for me though, could be the industrial mood, anticipation for when the bass drops, or perhaps its the impossibly wibbly bassline itself. I think its all of that. Its something I've whacked on many a time to relieve some frustration.
188) Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag
Brilliant! I first heard this getting a lift out to a house party I was playing at back at school. It just made you sit right up. Broke the mould of the D&B scene at the time. None of the rudebwoy Incredible junglist nonsense. Jazz breakbeat fusion, great double bass action ... builds and kicks in all the right places from the trip hop intro to the full on track after the first break. Sorted.
187) SWAG - Drum Hydraulics
SWAG, years ahead of their time way back when, now sound a bit ... bland nowadays compared to what they used to knock out. In the days when Junior was Junior Boys Own and kicking out Chemical Brothers tracks, they had a subsidary called Jus' Trax. Swag popped up pushing out a brand of dark dark house music that was just plain rocking. The 'Version' tracks. I'm not sure what this one was but it made it onto their Collected Works 1995 LP. Mechanical whirrings, dark echoing bass noises, acid touches. Nothing sounded like it. Made it onto the first ever Fabric album which was nice. Pity they don't sound like this anymore.
186) Tiefschwarz - Never (Alternative Club Mix)
Now before I disappeared down the path of moody, I was a big US Garage fan. I loved Masters At Work and all things funky and vocal. Its just that everything became a bit watered down, the spark disappeared somewhere along the way, and lo US Garage become dullness to my ears and I started to get dark and twisted. Much JOY last year when up on Derrick Carters Classic label popped up Tiefschwarz's Ral9005 album. The press said it was good, I gave it a try. Now from the title, it sounded like it was going to be a piece of german acid techno experimentalism. What it actually turned out to be was an album full of GOOD solid grooving funky house music. I hadn't heard anything this good in ages and it made me think back to the glory days. Rather than plump for tracks like the lovely instrumental Water, vocal lead Never is my one. This is the album version. House music done how its meant to be done.
185) Funki Porchini - Going Down
I got onto Funki Porchini mainly because he sounds VERY much like my fave Twin Peaks sleaze music. I don't really know how to describe this ... watery, trip hop number. Something soothing to slip into before you go to sleep. Beats filter up and down and around your head as you're hypnotised....
184) Francesco Farfa - Tribe And Trance (Voyager Remix)
Plain dancefloor groover here. Many a journey to work with Sangers would John Digweed's Global Underground Hong Kong be the accompanying soundtrack. I remember everytime this came on I was like "what the fook is this tune?!". Absolutely crazy "ba-ba-boo! boo! boo!" echo noise going round it, furious tech drums and dischordant growling bassline .... nice nice nice drops where everything cuts back to the "boo! boo! boo!" noise and you get the sound of what sounds like a train passing by hit you. Grand! Peak time monster, still searching for on vinyl.
183) John Beltran - Caboclo (Get F**ked Mix)
The Get F**ked crew take control here. Old skool Todd Terry style drum noises and programming come out, sounds like its going to be a dark little number, halfway just changes completely to wonderful floating synths and gorgeous sax solo. Everything kicks back in and you realise the importance of the contrast between light and dark.
182) Dave Brennan - Drink Deep
Recent purchase and representing my chosen house sound of the moment. Yes, a nice bit of tech house. This one is on Mr C's (yes, The Shamen) End Recordings label (also home to Layo & Bushwacka in their pre XL days!). Huge bass, comes across like deep rave almost. Has these wonderful Northern Exposure trippy noises floating in and out of it all the time. Hypnotic one to get lost in, love to be on a dancefloor when this one is played. Also features my man of the moment James Zabiela on remix.
181) Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Isn't it wonderful? Could be the absolutely wicked video that goes with it, but you should all know this now. I love all the 'generic urban video x' choreography to Aphex's mad splintered beats. Although sometimes I feel like I'm rating the track AND video at the same time ... I just can't imagine it without the vid.
180) Squarepusher - Come On My Selecta!
Another 'top vid' one! Chris Cunningham has a way of translating the music into something visual on screen. This is just a great fun track with sense of humour, crazy n bass music.
179) Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
Allegedly a pisstake of Firestarter. Third in the series of Chris Cunningham on top video form. Extra marks go to the 'granny screaming' incident. I want your soul, I will eat your soul, come to daddy, aargh.
178) Deep Dish - Sushi
My fave DJ's ever. A track of their own (which is fooking rare nowadays) from their only artist album. I wish they would do a new one since their sound ramped up a bit after this album. Trademark punch Dish percussion, the strange strange clappy noise (which does it for me), moody DJ material again bringing their Iranian roots into this one with the eastern flavour that flows through it.
177) Marcel - On The Beach (Chaser Remix)
A chillout one for me, I keep meaning to make a chillout mix, and this would have to feature. The remix is a take on the slightly disco original, swaping soft disco drums for a nice break. Sea noises, distant piano. An On The Beach moment indeed.
176) Luke Vibert - Stern Facials
Luke has a kinda comic hip hop sound, also tends to delve into stupid n bass music. This is a nice uplifting (but not in the obvious grab you by the balls way, it soothes you and makes you smile) track. If you're partial to a bit of the DJ Shadow, Coldcut, Mo'wax output, you can't go wrong with this. Chilled 70's funk via space and some seagulls.
175) Peace Division - Feel My Drums
Ok, there was a point where if you'd heard one Peace Division, you'd heard them all. Alot of good (the recent Beats In Peacez series, DJ material, part 1 esp!), some duff (Xpress2 Lazy remix). This one of their own will represent all for me. Nasty technoid number, unsettling bass squeal, Peace Division long subtle build and tribal drums, and just plain evil "FEEL MY DRUMS!" vocal.
174) Oil - The Future
Off Pagan records, home of good northern house! I was down at The End one night, I'd just bought this on promo and Deep Dish dropped it THAT night. I was well chuffed. Like progressive house mixed with Nuphonic's soulful discohouse revival sound. Starts off murky, then goes groovy and then takes you high up into space! Great track. Fitting that it then made it to feature on Deep Dish's Yoshiesque 2.
173) Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
All hip hop is balls. Just some guys going on about biatches, money and people taking their sweaters off because its a bit warm. Well fook that generalisation I say. Roots Manuva could be the finest thing to hip hop ever. But most likeyl due to being from London, will never be heard of by the masses stateside. He does have a Mobo to his name tho. Has a very London/Jamaican hybrid sound going on ... great programming skills also, very evident on this track. Grand dubby track, love the "Witness the fitness! The prophet, he liveth! One hope, one quest!" main line. Zero 7 also took the dub version of this to stick on their Another Late Night mix.
172) PMT - Gyromancer
The breaks sound. Possibly one of the best breaks tracks you can get. Breaks heads loved it, house heads loved it. House tempo breakbeat, nasty drum and bassish bassline, moody and dark overall. Can't really say much more!
171) Manic Street Preachers - Ocean Spray (Kinobe Remix)
Yes the Manics have invaded my life. Kind of. fook knows what the original sounds like to be honest, this is a piece of downtempo genius! Sit down, smoke up put this on and chill the fook out. Kinobe also were responsible for the Kronenberg (I think) advert tune, you know, the woman has some Kroney and people keep staring at it and having accidents. This is much better than that though! Possibly even better than anything off their first album too! Heavenly chill material. Not heard enough to break it down, but I know what I like when I hear it. And this is good.
170) Deep Dish - Summers Over
More Dish, in both original and remix form (both by Dish), its a great track. Summer is indeed over if you hear this, no happy disco loops, no cheery vocals. Like a wave of mood coming at you. Nice variation from the usual house beat though, really pounds at you! Melancholic whines, nice 'tick tick tick tick tick' hi hats.
169) Southern Comforter - Another Late Thursday (Spincycle Remix)
Yes MORE dancefloor material. And do forgive me if I use the words 'bass lead' again. But this is it plain and simple. Banging beats and a furious menace of a bass hum. The kind of intensity of bass that would make you throw up if it came out of the speakers at Fabric. Peak time material ... this is what you have going when you're operating at full speed!
168) Dr Octagon - I'm Destructive
I like this since it uses (what I found was a well used hip hop break) a drum loop which Masters At Work used in their 1st Kenlou track. Chunky, nice grunging guitars and Kool Keith rambling on about vomiting in your breakfast and spitting in your salad and stuff. Yes.
167) Royksopp - Sparks
I overlooked this completely when I got Melody AM. Wish I hadn't. Love the beat programming on this, stoned and lurching. Soothing little track. Bonus is, just managed to pick up the vinyl and its got a remix by Murk which happens to be just about the ONLY good thing I've ever heard them do.
166) Gorillaz - 19-2000
Seems like people don't like the 'slow' version, I thing the remix version is pure butt. Loses the funk completely in a kinda Big Beat cop out. Cruising music. La la la la la la la la!
165) Bjork - 5 Years
I don't know enough of Post to know what I like about it, anyway Homogenic is more consistant and better so ner. This is my fave track I would say, love the gritty 'fooked up sample' drum noises. Triumphant sounding too in a mechanical electronic way! Love the blend of orchestral and electrical on this album.
164) Underground Resistance/DJ Rolando - Knights Of The Jaguar
Original Detroit techno PEOPLE. Or something. Legendary apparently too although this is the only thing I've heard. Everyone was going mad to sign this when it popped up on UR. Became the essential Ibiza tune, latin flair, urgent pacy little track. fooker to mix with though. No cheese too. Extra marks to UR for marking all their records with a "if you find this in a chain record store DO NOT BUY it, they are taking money away from the independants" tag.
163) Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Epic orchestra breakbeat! Imagine the orchestral parts of Unfinished Symphony, Lonely Soul, Bittersweet Symphony set to furious breaks! Great end of night track, classic.
162) Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Llhasa
First up from goa trance act Banco De Gaia. Title track from the album which made it onto Sasha & Digweeds Northern Exposure. Themed around a train journey through asia. Asian wailing, train noises. Oh and when I say trance, its not the furious DJ Sammy tripe. Its not even fast. Good little concept album too, takes you through a variety of moods.
161) Banco De Gaia - Kincajou
...such as this one. Just after a bizarre Asian/Dub hybrid, you suddenly find yourself listening to a £5 casio keyboard playing preselected 'disco' loop, some person introducing someone desperately trying to play things like an added bassdrum and awful cliche rave noise over the top before he suggests 'lets try a new rhythm'. Complete change, lovely breaks kick in utilising some nice live drums and bongos, a wall of synths in the background rising and falling. Hypnotic.
160) Mainline - Narcotic/Innerspace
One off John Digweed's Bedrock label. Now I found it hard to find good stuff on Bedrock, alot of it was murky prog guff that was trying TOO hard to be moody, murky and serious. This is a little gem though. James Holden works hypnotic trance synths against ambient echo noodlings and driving drums. Nothing cheesy about it though. No awful screaming bint, no blatantly obvious breakdown with drum fill to come back in. No synchopated stab bassline. A work of quality.
159) Nick Holder - Inside Your Soul (Lexicon Avenue Mix)
Nick Holder, fine crafter of deep, funky filtered house music with a nice percussive edge ... nice summer material. NRK went a different direction when they got Lexicon Avenue in to remix this jobbie. At a time when prog was just hitting big, this baby came out. A remedy to all those horrible Gatecrasher trance anthem nastinessesseses. Deep, flirting between house and trance and firmly in electronica. Nice vocal too.
158) Weekend World - The Word/The Word (Dub)
Like James Holden, Weekend World can work trancish sounds but with added deepness and quality. This popped up on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi label a while back. What got me about this was the simple drum programming, standard 909 beats, nothing special but somehow just have sooooo much bounce in them when put against the very deep, watery backing of the track. Another track very Circulation in sound. The Dub is grand too, working the beats and bass more in an evil warping progressive manner.
157) Stephane K & John Creamer - I Love You (Hybrid's Claustraphobic Remix)
Hybrid again, and about as far away from the orchestral Finished Symphony you can get. Hybrid take Creamer & K's tribal dull-a-thon and turn it into a breakbeat monster. Derranged high pitched squeal noise! Furious breaks! Nasty nasty electronic stabs and a long long long burbling break with a filthy vocal over the top of it and the most intense "wheeooorrrnnnnnnnnn!" whine as it all falls apart before kicking in for the final stretch. More full pelt material! Dark and nasty, very very nasty!
156) Fabrice Lig presents Soul Designer - Sweet Harmonies
Piece of quality tech house, that fast, but very chilled and soothing. Sweet indeed. Soft keys, soft beats and a nice acid wibbling noise. Summery, not at all moody smile material. Nice.
155) UNKLE - UNKLE Main Theme
Now UNKLE is easily not the best thing Shadow has put his name too. It just tries too hard in places (Lonely Soul, I'm pointing at you) ... so it falls that my favourite piece of the track is the one with no celebrity collaboration. Shadow working a nice guitar groove over some choice sci-fi samples and the like. Atmosphere! Still ... awaiting UNKLE album 2, and apparently Layo & Bushwacka!, Peace Division, FC Kahuna are on board so it should be NICE.
154) Bushwacka! - Feel It
...so then lets talk about Mr Bushwacka! then? Top star in the breaks scene, great productions (aside from when Tim Deluxe shoved the HORRIBLE vocal over Love Story). Comes from the glory days of rave, and you can hear the old rave chord progressions in alot of his tracks, but with style! Builds in three stages: ready, GO! and SPAZZOUT! Everything is a build to the first break when you get the full force of the breaks and grand bass invasion, then final secion which breaks down to fanfaring synth and bass stabs! Favourite of UNKLE unsurprisingly
153) Filter Tip - On Heat / In Season
Quality progressive house full stop. In Season is a deep number, working a bit like Slams Lifetimes, the On Heat track is the one I get excitied about. Lulls you into the false sense of security that its another chunky prog stomper before halfway through lifting you high with amazing strings. Nice.
152) Behrouz - What We Do In Life (Echoes In Eternity)
Another track from a Deep Dish label. What I originally liked about this was the way Deep Dish mix it in on Yoshiesque 2. You've got the very early house-ish sounds of Marscarter going on, but then (and very simply) you start getting this harder edged beat coming in, Dish-style clappy drums and the basslines switch over to a new sound. Great live piano solo thing going on in this one too. And it does indeed echo.
151) Pharcyde - Drop
One that gets a vote for the vid too. I wish I could have put some tracks off Bizarre Ride 2 but I can't remember what they are. Love this though, reversed in every way. Trippy little track. Apparently they recorded the album this is off on mushrooms!
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