I’m not going to blather on about you-know-what, nor bullshit you with this will help lighten the mood in the current situation as these are tough times, man. Just a regular blog post, with tunes from my regular folders, with my regular crap mixing. No changes here amigos – continuous mix link at the top, tune descriptions below. Incidentally, I have about 27, 359 more sets lined up ready to mix as I’m in the same boat you are. Hope you like yer amens. Oh, and the artwork: something I rustled up a few months back and thought it was too lame to add to file artwork; what the hell, aye?
DJ Swipez – Blog #7 Continuous Mix
4 Hero – Mr. Kirks Nightmare (Photek Remix)
You know within half a second of the intro that this is Photek with those insanely filtered pads and when that break drops, you definitely know; super crisp tight amen slices. Man, this artist is just so precise.
Orca – 4AM Remix
A blind download off Soulseek recently, the only info I had on it was that it was 1996. Sounds a bit too primitive for me for that year, sounds more 94ish. I have the remixes from 1993 on Lucky Spin and it’s neither of those. Best remix of the lot in my opinion that actually compliments the vocal sample rather than making it sound like a cheese-rave anfum.
Heavyweight – Oh Gosh
An alias of DJ Ruffkut, this has some intelligent drum editing with spliced amens at the end of every bar yet doesn’t complicate things as the original kick drum booms. The label this is on, Rogue Trooper, is highly underrated as there’s amen smashers all round and I had a couple of these releases myself on vinyl.
Remarc & Lewi Cifer – Ricky
Christ I get transported back 26 years every time I hear this one: me and the lads I used to go out raving with, we used to listen to tape packs in the week and this tune blew us away – we loved the Boyz In The Hood sample. Talk about the millennial zombies glued to their phones these days without any social skills; I remember walking up a main road out of town with my mate, both of us with our Walkmans on (if you don’t know what a Walkman is, please press Alt + F4) when my mate tapped me on my shoulder. I was annoyed I had to press STOP on my hardware – pressing any buttons wore the precious batteries out – and actually have a conversation, but he just said, “Ricky!” where I replied, “What happened to Ricky?” and my mate, with his broadest Brummie accent and nonchalant tone said, “I dunno, he just got shot.” Ahhhhh, them were the days.
Dem 2 Ruff – Nice Tune (Tim Reaper Remix)
I could have bought the original of this in Don Christie’s in 1994, yet the only info on it as it was a white label with the words scribbled in black marker on the centre of the vinyl: Nice Tune. My English teacher Mrs. Stilliard who I really fancied admonished me 3 years previous that the word ‘nice’ was unimaginative and a lazy adjective with relation to some rubbish work I handed in and I’ve never liked or used the word since (probably about 316 times in this blog), so thought that anything labelled ‘Nice Tune’ was bound to be, well, cack. Anyway, I still wish I would have asked Shock C to spin this on the deck for me. Beautiful bit of amen tweaking from the Grandmaster of Amenology, Tim Reaper.
The Man With No Name – Within Me
The second release from MC Duke’s label Hard Disk, there’s funnily enough no information on the artist – probably MC Duke himself. For a 1993 tune, it still contains Hardcore elements yet the programming is excellent – more like 1994 but still gives off a Jungley vibe.
Darren H & Punisher – Gonna Be Alright
Another strong release from Headless, a label that criminally didn’t dish much stuff out that I happen to love, you can tell this artist from the thunderous amens that are chopped yet melded back together to give a nice ’95 flavour (not flava). Expect the usual time-stretched vocals, melodic viciously-tinged pads and soaring vocal scats… Mmmm.
Danny C – Thunder
I admittedly had trouble mixing this one as the downward pitch-slid synth hits at the intro really threw me. After that 30 seconds of silliness, the amens come in, engineered to a very satisfying staccato effect. Personally, I think this must be difficult to achieve as although you’re deliberately slicing the famous break, you can do it too much so that it sounds like a proper break intro or you just want it to roll man, instead of teasing you. I have enough tunes where this isn’t pulled off and the end result is frustrating. Anyway, some well home-made strings come in nicely (there’s that word again) but the tune kinda drops off after that.
ST Files – ST Files Part 2
Pronounced Ess-Tee Files rather than Saint as the artist confirmed on one of Fabio’s radio shows once, this chap knocks out pure quality. There’s care and attention to the drum looping with a lovely beefy bass, although it can get a bit repetitive which is the cue to mix it out after about halfway through the track.
New Jack Pimps – Water Jelly (Amen Lick)
There’s at least two funk/soul string samples used here, one from Barry White, the other from his backing orchestra. With an amen plopped over the top you’d think it would sound ridiculous, but it just works, and not half! Add in that Sesame Street snare with some clever drum work, it sounds at a ferocious pace. I wish there was more of this kind of sound BITD, rather than lazy sax horns/flutes just thrown on breaks because I reckon Liquid DnB got the dynamics of this kind of tune just right, albeit a decade too late. Pleased to recently find out that one half of the band is Mikee B, a true legend of the scene, and a lovely bloke I’ve been lucky enough to meet and talk to at length.
Cool Breeze – Cool Groove
Following on from the previous tune, I wanted another funky soul-brother feeling with fast amens – trust me, this tune delivers. There’s some lush hats sprinkled all over it too which would have dropped in a Bukem set perfectly if he turned his attention back to a more slightly bad boy sound after his, erm… rebirth(?).
Spaceman – 21st Century
I’d say an experimental tune overall with those ravey stab hits maybe three years overaged, but then the sophisticated break – I can’t remember what the name of it is – overlays with a touch amen. Then a catchy arcade video game riff (I’m in my mid-forties, it’ll come to me eventually) with a slightly annoying filtered amen before what I call the chunk drops. Not a regular play from me, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be a bit different.
Red Light – Selekta
Standard release from these artists, and that’s not a cruel slur – the articulately produced crunchy amens are accompanied by their usual distorted bouncy basslines which during my moodier youth I would have described as ‘too loud’. No way, bring it on! The intro sample lets the tune down for me, something that could locally be described as “saft”.
DJ Taktix – Attention (Untitled *2 AA)
I can’t put this any better myself, so here’s a line ripped straight from ‘Cogs: “Untitled *2 is an uncredited remix of “The Way“. It keeps the Regina Belle “Good Lovin” vocal samples, but loses the Top Buzz vocals.”
Physics – Physics E.P. (AA)
I found this somewhat accidentally by scooting through someone’s files on Soulseek (sounds seedy, but it is allowed) about three days ago and I wanted to play it near the end of the set with vinyl scratch and pop and all. A rather lengthy 2 minute intro with strings and piano that to my ear sound not quite in key or finalised. Ignore that though; the Reese B-Line and stuttering and triggered crashing amens make up for it. If you would have asked me blindfolded to identify the artist, I probably would have as it’s a very distinctive sound from the brilliant Crazy Tings that I lovingly owned on vinyl. Someone suggested it may even be Tech Itch which I initially guffawed at but can see the resemblance due to the filtered breaks. It’s defo MC Phyzix though – the innovated intro is too similar to another one of his tracks, Meridan.
Gang Related & Mask – Dictation (Michael Caine Remix)
I adore the original with the 2001: A Space Odyssey lifted strings (N.B. for the nerds – the orchestral piece is actually Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30) which I thought would never get used in a Jungle tune, but the Dope Dragon stable pulled it off… even if it was rinsed to death back in good ‘ole 1996. I first heard this remix as an intro to a set from the Size himself on Grooverider & Fabio’s One In The Jungle Show and I remember thinking that I just had to have it right there and then. I had to wait over a year though and eventually got it on CD that was technically no good to me at the time. This mix has the same rising strings rearranged with the label’s typical hats and amen taking an age to kick in, but man it’s worth it after that worked-up sub bass gets your juices flowing. This is the superior mix for me and when I finally had it on CD I wondered how I could mix it with vinyl in 1998 as I had just two turntables and a mixer at the time – I couldn’t afford the Denon CD mixers; the Pioneer CDJs were still six years off and when realising I technically couldn’t mix the two different platforms together without taking a loan akin to a mortgage, I promised myself I’d mix it last in a set one day. It took me 22 years, but I got there.
Stay safe everyone.
Jungle Forever 