Here’s a couple of videos with a space theme. The first is the Portsmouth Sinfonia masacring Wagner’s Thus Spake Zarathustra (the music from the opening credits of 2001). The second is a recording of space shuttle launch STS-124 from the sonic perspective of a solid rocket booster. The result is a strange, hypnotic noise/music, which is slightly marred by glitches but still completely worth a go.
This is another one coming sort-of-by-request, as a recent thread about, “trip hop”, elsewhere on the internets bumped these mixes to the top of the archive pile. But before I get in to the detail I have to apologise for a few mixes on these tapes where I seem to think I can scratch, and hesitantly (thankfully fairly quietly) try to do so. It’s hideous. Never again, I promise.
The first (in two 30-minute segments) is a recording that was played on Noise on 15 February 1997.
2020 note: all mixes taken down for now to re-post at higher bitrate on Mixcloud in due course. If you’re at all keen for me to do this, please let me know and I will try and get anything specific you want to hear moved over ASAP.
Side A
F.S.O.L – Her Face Forms in Summertime [Virgin]Fila Brazillia – Bulls Dozing [SSR]
Clatterbox – Easy Does It [Clear]
Midnight Funk Association – Code [Mo Wax]
Autechre – 902 Quarter [Warp]
Sun Electric – Stimpak [Apollo]
Side B
Funky Porcini – Long Road [Ninja Tune]DJ Vadim – Headz Still Ain’t ready [Ninja Tune]
DJ Wally – Space People [Samz Jointz]
Pronoia – E ‘Rotisi (Interrogative Mix) [Groove Attack Productions]
Jaziac Sunflowers – Dazed and Confused [Black On Black Records]
Luke Vibert – Sharp A2 [Mo Wax]
I also found a similar mix, for which I have no date, and I can only assume it was from the same time period, as The Herbaliser album came out in March 1997. It’s one 45-minute segment.
The Herbaliser – Another Mother [Ninja Tune]
David Caron – Easy Afternoon [Eevo Lute Muzique]
Tek 9 – Phat Like A… [SSR]
DJ Wally – Ridiculous Sound [Home Entertainment]
Aloof – Wish You Were Here (David Holmes Instrumental) [EastWest]
DJ Cam – Innervisions [Columbia]
Snooze – The Chase (Fila Brazillia Remix) [SSR]
18 Wheeler – Stay (Dr. Rockit Remix) [Creation Records]
Snooze – The Snooze Theme [SSR]
The Wiseguys – Casino “Sans Pareil” [Wall of Sound]
Impulse – One-Six-Four-Seven (Numbers Rammed Down My Ear Mix By Autechre) [Studio !K7]
A few words on my old radio show, so you know what I’m talking about when I refer to this stuff.
KRUI, 89.7 FM, is the University of Iowa’s student radio station where I hosted the weekly dance music show from Autumn 1992 – Spring 1997. For the first year it was called X-Static Radio, then Noise until Vince Woolums and Scott Stone took over as Noise Radio in the Summer of 1997 when I moved to Seattle for a bit.
I was extremely grateful to be able to continue the tradition of quality dance music on KRUI, pioneered by The Acid Club House, The Foundry and Dance Trax, which were all hugely influential on my musical development. Vince and I would schedule our lives around these shows when we were in high school. I’d often drive around in the car for three hours just so I could ensure uninterrupted signal, as my basement bedroom on the outskirts of town didn’t cut it.
This was my first experience as a DJ. I mostly bought CDs (quality dance music vinyl in Iowa City at the time was rather hard to come by) and pitch adjustable CD players didn’t hit the market until 1994, so most of the material is not beat-matched. I bought Denon CD players and a 3-channel, global 3-band EQ DJ mixer in 1994. I believe my first 1200 came in early 1995, so even the mixes in 1997 were towards the infancy of my beat mixing.
Towards the end of my time at KRUI I would often pre-record mixes to tape and play them on the air, as I was tired of not being able to mix properly in the studio (the decks were pre-1200, with the +/-6 dials that were nearly impossible to hold a mix on and radio mixers do some funny things with compressing low signals). I only explain this last bit so you understand why you won’t hear me talking on those mixes.
Apologies for the funky dynamics imposed by the fancy radio station mixer, but an archive it is. My part’s not mixed. It’s sort of a review of the non-house/non-techno stuff I used to play on my radio show by virtue of the fact that I only brought CDs (lots of ambience, trance-before-it-was-a-bad-word and industrial things, with a couple of hip hop bits for good measure). As you can see below, Dan kicks things off with a load of older drum n’ bass, and my set starts in the 51st minute. It felt like a bit of trip down memory lane for me to be live on the terrestrial radio again, playing the same material I used to. It was fun!
Part I
Mix by host Dan Bean (01:00:00-01:51:17)
War – Slippin Into Darkness [United Artists]
More Rockers – You’re Gonna (Make Me) Roni Size & DJ Krust Remix) [More Rockers]
Solo feat. J. T. – Pressure [Mo Wax]
Lemon D – I Can’t Stop [V]
Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roachclip [Sussex]
Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes [Atlantic]
Madvillain – America’s Most Blunted [Stones Throw]
Bobby Demo – More Bounce (Rap) [Amherst]
Arne Weinberg – Oblivion (Duplex Remix) [Arne Weinberg]
The Nova Dream Sequence – Dream 7 [Compost]
Mix by Tristan Watkins (01:51:18-03:59:59)
Big Black – Kerosene [Touch N’ Go]
Doubting Thomas – The Run [Netwerk]
Part II
De La Soul – I.C. Y’all [Tommy Boy]
A Tribe Called Quest – Baby Phife’s Return [Jive]
Nine Inch Nails – March of the Fuckheads [Island]
Front 242 – Don’t Crash [Wax Trax]
David Byrne – Ava (Nu Wage) [Island]
Wagon Christ – Aerhaart; Ahead [Rising High]
Move D – Xing Jordan / Seven [Source]
Mappa Mundi – Trance Fusion [USA Import Music]
The Ambush – Terra [Harthouse]
Sun Electric – Sarotti [R&S]
Part III
Tylervision – The Last Human [Silent]
Full Moon Scientists – Fatwah Boogi (Acid Raintrancer Mix) [Hard Hands]
A Small, Good Thing – Ostrichism [em:t]
Depeche Mode – It Doesn’t Matter Two [Mute]
Pelican Daughters – Auarascape [Silent]
Skinny Puppy – Love [Netwerk]
Autechre – Arch Carrier [Warp]
P-Eye-Eye – Lost at Sea [em:t]
Schizophrenia – Schizophrenia [Tresor]
The Sabres of Paradise – Edge 6 [Warp]
Daft Punk – Veridis Quo [Virgin]