The lovely people at teshno have decided we’re worth hearing about and have put up an interview with a recent mix. I think we were supposed to send through some photos of ourselves but I guess if you read the interview you’ll find out just how poor we are at promoting ourselves. Sorry teshno – please accept our public apology… and our thanks for caring about who we are and what we do.
btw if you’re into techno type music and stuff, teshno deserves a bookmark on yer browsa bruv… blap!
We’re back! It’s been a lengthy (if not unannounced and altogether unplanned) hiatus for the blog but after a few months of actual music making we’ve come crawling back for a rather exciting (for us) announcement.
Our first song was released today via the adorably titled Trendy Mullet Recordings. It’s called “Roadblocks” and if you go to Beatport.com you can purchase it along with a quartet of lovingly crafted remixes and re-edits.
On remixing duties are The Quirk Burglars, otherwise known as the proprietors of the Trendy Mullet empire, Marcus Aurelius of Soul Fuel Recordings and Toka Project, who is one half of gloriously boompty house duo The Inland Knights. Also on board is our original (der!) and a mix friendly edit of the original for those who like to play their records on top of one another.
There are audio samples on Beatport, but if you prefer to hear a whole track before purchasing it (a wise move), then the Soundcloud player below will help.
First things first – Happy belated New Year and Christmas everyone. This blog’s been eerily silent for what seems like (and probably is) months now and for those who check it regularly I apologise. Blame it on a long overdue visit to our homeland (Sydney) over the festive period. We’ve been living in Europe and the UK for nearly three years now without a visit home. It was a much needed recharging of batteries and reconnection with friends. So there.
The upside of said hiatus is that I was able to bring back a soulful and funky treat for your ear-holes in the form of DJ Spinna’s wonderful compilation “Strange Games & Things” released on the mighty BBE records in 2001. It has since been re-packaged and re-released but I thought it necessary to post up the original as it contains a wealth of classic soul and boogie tracks some of which have been omitted from the re-issue, no doubt due to legal wrangling and licensing bollocks.
I used to rinse this CD when I worked at Hum on Miller, a tiny CD store in North Sydney until I finally had the cash to buy it for myself. The battered price tag on my copy says $44.95, a lot of money for a CD release, even if it is a triple CD in deluxe faux vinyl packaging. You’d be pretty hard pressed to find labels releasing CD’s in this kind packaging nowadays.
I’ve decided to leave out the third disc containing the DJ mix by Spinna as, although it’s a great mix, it’s easy to track down elsewhere and my mediafire account is fast filling up. On the other hand I’ve uploaded them as 320kbps mp3’s, so they should be suitably punchy for DJ play.
So here it is –
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DJ Spinna – Strange Games & Things – CD1
1. Strange Games and Things – Love Unlimited Orchestra
2. If I Can’t Stop You – Johnny Bristol
3. Mademoiselle – Foxy
4. You Can’t Run Away – The Bar-Kays
5. Reasons – Minnie Ripperton
6. Bring Your Sweet Loving Back – Starpoint
7. Hollywood Dreaming – Father’s Children
8. Hunk Of Heaven – Lemuria
9. Elevate Your Mind – Linda Williams
10. 90% of Me Is You – Gwen McCrae
11. Another Day – Al Goodman
12. Girl You Need a Change of Mind – Eddie Kendrick
password – tittybum
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DJ Spinna – Strange Games & Things – CD2
1. Can’t Hide Love – Creative Source
2. Easy Money – Dee Dee Sharp
3. Heart’s Desire – Don Blackman
4. Life Is Just a Moment, Pts. 1 & 2 – Roy Ayers
5. Magic Ride – Bobby Lyle
6. Keep It Up – Milton Wright, Jr.
7. Secret Rendezvous – René & Angela
8. California Dreamin’ – José Feliciano
9. Wind Parade – Donald Byrd
10. Passion Play – The Sugarhill Gang
11. Lucky Fellow – Leroy Hutson
12. Mary Jane – Rick James
13. How Could You Break My Heart? – Bobby Womack, Bobby Womack
14. Save Their Souls – Bohannon
15. It’s a Desperate Situation – Marvin Gaye
password – bumtitty
As we said in our first post – we love mixtapes. There’s magic in the best ones. A story that winds through often disparate territory, connecting and revealing influences in both the DJ who mixes and the artists being mixed.
Now despite the fact that we posted Bankwell Vol.1 nearly a month ago, our original intention was to have a sort-of annotated tracklisting to accompany the mix, giving us a chance to write about the tracks and maybe reveal a little of how we mashed all of ’em together in the first place.
So given that the tracklisting is quite long and in the interest of keeping these posts short and sweet, we’re gonna take it about three or four tracks at a time and try to tell everyone a little about the who, why and how…
Defunkt, Cameras and Rocks, Welcome
Introductions are important. Just listen to any hip hop mixtape and you’ll hear that the effort put into making the intro generally results in it trumping the rest of the tape for entertainment value. Almost to the point where it seems a shame to continue on with the actual mix.
Examples include…
DJ Babu – Comprehension
DJ M-Boogie – Laid In Full
DJ Melo-D – Beat Junkies Volume 3
Grandmaster Roc Raida – Crossfaderz
Psychonauts – Time Machine
And any DJ Rectangle…especially this…and this…
(N.B – If by any chance you’re reading this and have a copy of Top Rawmen “My Sides Better, Naw Mine Is” by DJ’s Mike C & Nando, please post it up and hit us with the link)
Now you’ll notice we didn’t do any scratching in this mix. Ableton hasn’t yet developed a function which allows you to scratch (though their recent involvement with Serato could prove otherwise). However we still don’t take the business of introductions lightly. We didn’t want to blow our wads too quickly with huge basslines or beats – we just needed something that builds, intrigues and makes you want to listen on.
Some of you may know Doctor Rockit by his more widely known pseudonym Matthew Herbert. Nowadays he can mostly be heard/read from through his website where he makes highly politicised musique concrete utilising found sound and a strict manifesto for creating pure “sound” music (no drum machines!!). Seriously, check out his blog for a project involving only sounds recorded during the life cycle of a pig.
Cameras and Rocks is a far cry from such projects. Essentially it’s a nice little building synth pattern giving way to a clicky house groove that makes perfect bedding for the multi-layered hoo-ha’s of Defunkt.
I’m not gonna act like I’m the hugest fan of Defunkt and their blend of funk, punk and disco. We discovered the song via the excellently curated series New York Noise on Soul Jazz Records and it’s acapella intro hit us immediately as prime intro fodder.
The lyrics are pretty straightforward. Dance. Party. Get Down. Something I think we can all aspire to and most importantly it sets the tone rather nicely for the next half hour.
The inclusion of Art Blakey’s introductory announcement is a straight-up cue from hip hop mixtapes the world over. Splicing a little thematically appopriate dialogue to say what would frankly sound pretty corny coming from the worldly portal of my own mouth.
And there it is. We’ve been introduced.
Bankwell 