Digger’s Diary – Manchester 24/03/2012

Having been blessed with a giant ball of yellow fire shining directly on Manchester’s fat, smoky, head, I decided to get myself to Gigg Lane in Bury to take in the atmosphere of a game of association football. Specifically FC United of Manchester (Google it!) versus Matlock.  The result was the right one and the game itself electrifying, but I’ll spare you the details, seeing as you don’t come here to read about that kind of thing.

I found myself in town beforehand with an hour to spare took the rare opportunity to rifle through the bargain bins outside the legendary Empire Exchange on Newton St.

This has been around for…ever? and sells records, thousands of old copies of magazines, football programmes, curios, memorabilia, VHSs, DVDs, CDs, MDs and YMCAs. And a massive load of porn in the back room.

I scurried through the little crate outside, the sun beating a tan into my pale, Saxon hide, only stopping to brush off the advances of two men trying to sell me a stolen phone. What I came out with, for my £1 spend was nothing short of a treasure trove.

#1 Tina Charles – Rendezvous b/w When You Got Love

Kind of generic poppy soul pre-disco from 1976. It’s not blowing me away. This one scores 4 sunny smiles out of 10.

#2 Lol Creme and Kevin Godley – 5 O’clock in the Morning b/w The Flood

A side is a real 10CC-esque piece about working life. If you don’t already know, Godley and Creme were the creative force behind 10CC. Lots of harmonic vocal blasts, haunting solo bits and key changes. Sometimes you get the feeling that they pull their production tricks out of the bag because they can, rather than because they should. The B is a weird instrumental featuring what sounds like a dripping tap but which I suspect is them playing with a synth and a sequencer. It goes round the houses before kicking into a rocking rhythm about 30 seconds before the run-out groove. There’s sample fodder in this for sure.

the version on the 7″ isn’t exactly like that; it’s a bit shorter.

#3 Pussycat – Mississippi b/w Do It

I was expecting (optimistically) some kind of chilled lounge, exotica, funk or something based on those names but I got pop country weirdness. Did not like.

#4 Steve Miller Band – Rock ‘n’ Me b/w The Window

I found it! I’ve been after this The Window forever but it doesn’t come up on eBay so often. The A side isn’t that great but the flip is *insane*. Ridiculously sample-able bassline intro, Zappa-esque bridgey thing (sounds just like part of Florentine Pogen) and a redonculous vocal performance by Steven himself.

All-in-all a very well-spent quid, I feel. Keep an eye-out for one, all or none of these in my upcoming “forty five 45s” mix (release scheduled January 2018).

Brick – Dazz: variations on a theme

I picked up this classic funk joint this week to play out at the weekend (more of which tomorrow, or check my Tweeder feed!).

I just love that three-hit drum intro. D-d-dum. I like to cut that in a bit using my entry level scratch skills. This has been sampled a fair bit in hip hop, including in two of my alltymefaves. Cinderfella Dana Dane

This one slows down the sample quite a lot and treats it somehow to boost and cut certain parts. I’ve also heard it’s a straight interpolation.

The second flip is from No Vaseline by O’Shea Jackson Icebert Cubington. Ah how I long for hard hitting battle records. And how much of a killer opening line is this? I think Cube is one of the best at delivering an opening line.

“It was once said by a man who couldn’t quit…”

“Here’s a little something ’bout a n!gg@ like me/Never should have been let out the penetentiary.”

“I heard payback’s a mutherfuck!ng n!gg@…”

Any other favourite Brick flips?

Prisencolinensinainciusol (What does It Mean?)

This is some mad ass Italian funk that sounds like English but…isn’t? Or it might be?

RChecka – Modern Dylan

I’ve recently had the pleasure of getting to know one R Checka – a long-time DJ and all round niceguy. He also came up with the ingenious “Periodic Table of Hip-Hop Elements” and runs a fantastic hip hop blog connected to it. Just recently he came out with his Modern Dylan mixtape; a high-concept Beck mix. Seeing as he’s got quite a way with words, I’ll let the man himself explain:

Beck has been one of my favorite indefinable artists since 94, my hazy college years. I’ve religiously bought every album and single I could get my hands on since that time. Anything that had his name on it really, his bluesy funky style always struck a chord with me. This is probably the third best of beck mixtape I have created (the first one I made was on cassette tape) and it may not be the last. I call it Modern Dylan, because like Bob, Beck is a story-teller, so in a lot of ways he’s my generation’s Dylan. Coincidentally Beck even toured with Dylan interestingly enough.

I used to be a club DJ for years, and I got very sick of Loser after playing it for countless years. It was at a point, the only Beck song I didn’t like. That was too bad, because it’s a good song, but I was sick of playing it every Saturday night. When I made this mix, I felt obligated to play it, but I knew I could spice it up a little bit without detracting from the original so I decided to remix it. Not to mention that made it easier to mix in the process. I didn’t have any a Capella to work with, so I called the remix what it is, “Rchecks Extended Overlap”. I overlapped on top of the original recording looping the first 2 guitar bars at times. I extended the intro and outro using that guitar loop. Hopefully I did the original justice, nothing worse than a bad remix of a track that people consider a one-hit-wonder song.

All songs on this mixed compilation are from my personal collection of Beck’s original CDs, LPs, EPs, 12”, and 7” recordings. This uploaded mix is the modside (modern). The second side dylside is his slower, more serious country and folk music, not nearly as palatable for a lot of people unfortunately. That side will remain on CD format only for friends and family. However, for serious Beck fans that contact me via email and live within the continental US, I’ll gladly send a hard copy of both discs at no cost. My email can be obtained here. Hope you can dig it. Most importantly, I hope this mix can help you appreciate Beck’s music more.

Direct instant download
http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/dit7nv
Mixcrate page
http://www.mixcrate….ka-Modern-Dylan

Enjoy!

Sly and the Family Stone – Family Affair

Back to my old dad’s car tape. This tune was a slick, funky standout on a tape otherwise whiter than an Apple Store Christmas party. The thumping kick you hear is actually a programmable drum machine, making this the first number one to utilise one. Huh. I like how it hides quite well within the mix. Apparently Sly redubbed the recording so much the tape wore out, which gives the track its trademark swampy sound.

Two breaks mixes from a DMC champ

It is my privilege and pleasure to be able to bring you two short but extremely potent breaks mixes from two-time UK DMC team champ and general award-winning DJ Loop Skywalker. Loop has over 25 years of battle experience under his belt and a is a fantastic role model to all young DJs. He is also the very lucky recipient of one of my old mixers which I donated to form the control panel on a magic sex fembot he’s building. These little doozies feature some of rap’s classicest breaks and samples, blended with the turntable wizardry of Master Loop.

Ones to watch – THEESatisfaction

I liked hearing the new single from these two singer/rapper/producers today. Who the hell are they? You might know but I predictably didn’t. Their label, Sub Pop sez:

THEESatisfaction are Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White. Stas was born and raised in Tacoma, Cat in Seattle and Hawaii. The pair live/laugh/love/dance and create in Seattle, WA. They write, produce and perform their own material, funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip. They met by what was clearly cosmic happenstance at the University of Washington and haven’t stopped the flow since.

Their new single, Queens, can be heard here (I couldn’t get the bloody widget to embed), but check out their Bandcamp for two mixtapes (in my day they were called EPs, son) full of fitness.

Bob Dylan’s funky crackers

On the latest episode of Re: Collections by Mum’s Old Vinyl (featuring Cantebury phsychers Syd Arthur) there is a track chosen which I haven’t heard, despite it being by one of my favourite bands,specifically The Band.

Quick potted history for those who don’t know. The Band were originally Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band, then became Bob Dylan’s backing band before releasing a few *incredible* albums in the 70s and appearing the Scorcese rockumentary The Last Waltz. Their appeal for me lies in the fact that they were all oustandingly capable musicians, having honed their skills on the road for years before finding greater commercial success.

They’re often thought of as a roots or folk band, and a lot of the more recent alt. county stuff takes its cues from them, but to coin a phrase my dear friend Matt Nice would use, a lot of their output is pure “white boy funk”. The above fits into that description nicely, having a bit more kick and bite to the groove than Marvin Gaye’s original. Garth Hudson’s swirling organ (arf!) gives their music that gospel-influenced sound and Levon Helm has the voice of a blues singer rather than a country singer. Check out the tracks Ophelia, Up On Cripple Creek, and Ring Your Bell (all on Spotify) for more in this vein. Not bad for a band who wanted to be called The Crackers!

Drums I could dance to for days

THUMP! The primal beat of the drum rings out across the savanna. THUMP! It goes again. Compelling the body to move to its powerful rhythm. THUMP! Like the human heart, the drums counts out the pace at which we live our lives. B-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D WOOOOOOOAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH. A terrible death metal band rehearse in a studio near your house and pollute your precious ears with blast beats.

My good friend, faithful roadie, drum and bass caliph and aspiring Charlie Brown impersonator Cambian has just finished another of his celebrated mixes which contains “more drums”. Once I’d managed to work out what he meant, it got me thinking about how much I love just a drumbeat. I’ve already mentioned my thoughts about putting together a pure drums/vox hip-hop mix because when they’re done well they can carry a song.

I only discovered this track within the last year – Ripple’s A Funky Song. The break at 02:34 has been sampled lots of times in hip hop and with good reason. I ended up playing this out at the weekend and the funkiest part, the bit where you can’t help but move is the break.

Maybe you could get two copies of the record and play on of them so it’s just the break part then quickly play the other record on a second turntable then while that’s playing spin the first record back to the start and play that again after the second break and OMIGODIJUSTHADTHEBESTIDEAEVERTHISISGONNABEHUGE

DJ Prince – a northern soul

I’ve just found out about a guy called DJ Prince. He seems to be a big deal in his native Norway but this is the first I’ve heard of him – no surprises there then. His SoundCloud has some great reworks and mashups so I’ve helped myself. It’s pretty dancefloor friendly and some of it is straight out clubcheese so have a root around and see what takes your fancy.

Thanks Mr. Prince!