soundcloud twitter instagram youtube vimeo hearthis.at

Saturday 29 December 2007

Mixed Messages

Well, it's time for probably my last post of the year, and I thought what better way to see out the year than with a multi-artist mega mash!

I actually began working on this track back in June, knocking up the intro in a matter of minutes, but I hit a brick wall, in that I couldn't find a vocal worthy of slipping over the awesome Unfinished Sympathy (one of the best tracks of the 90s without doubt). 6 months later and I went back to the project to see if anything had changed, having amassed another 500 or so acapellas to my collection (I've come across some awesome Motown vocals - watch this space!).

"The Message" is one of those vocals that has probably been done to death in the world of mash-up, but it still remains one of the greatest and most powerful raps out there, it's story of life living in the ghetto being one of the most moving rhymes ever committed to vinyl (hence it's well deserved place in the Rolling Stone top 100 Greatest Songs of all time). Placed in context with the also overused "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., it creates an even more powerful and moving story.

Drop in some emotive piano from one of UNKLE's finest moments and backing vocals from the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, with a dash of the Pussy Cat Dolls and hopefully you have a party banger with a message.

Thanks again to everyone for the support in 2007, and I'll see you all next year!!!

Mixed Messages

UNKLE vs. Martin Luther King, Jr. vs. Pussycat Dolls vs. Massive Attack vs. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five vs. Aretha Franklin

(In a State (Album Version) vs. I Have a Dream vs. In a State (Edit: Music for a Film Version) vs. Don't Cha vs. Unfinished Symapthy vs. The Message vs. Who's Zoomin' Who?)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bxmpm9znpy1

Last Resort ZShare Link Here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/6001817ecf5ef7/


Dedicated to the lovely Gemma Kennedy, who I promised a track to in return for listening to me CD! This one's for you hon! Looking forward to more dancing in the New Year :D

Sunday 23 December 2007

Happy Holidays!!!


No tune for you today folks (one or two imminent though!) but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for tuning in to Radio Colatron and making this first year of my making mash-ups so much fun and so worthwhile. I may have lost innumerable hours of sleep in the process of searching for the perfect tune, and I may have broken several copyright laws along the way (!!) but considering this started as a bit of fun, here in my living room in Birmingham, UK, it's now something that I really enjoy and look forward to hearing from you all how much people enjoy what I'm doing. Here's hoping 2008 is even more succesful for me, and that I continue to improve.

In the meantime, you all have a wonderful festive period and holiday. Catch you all soon,

Happy Holidays,
Andy

Sunday 16 December 2007

Illegal No-Ones

It's funny how things work out. This is now the second track I've made pitching the wonderful, beautiful and talented Alicia Keys against the 90s legend Ian Brown (the first being a personal fave of mine, "U F.E.A.R. My Name" somewhere down below on this page), but it wasn't meant to be this way...

I started off playing with this instrumental last week (BEEEEEEG shout out to my mate Fag for the heads up on the instrumental) and thought I had the most fantastic match ever, in dropping Christina's "Hurt" over the top. The intro worked beautifully, the various breathey vocal parts dropping in to place wonderfully against the impending danger of the string stabs. I'd even got the artwork all planned in my head. It was to be, the perfect track. But I just couldn't get the chorus to fit. It was too fast, too loud, too much like hard work! Gutted, but not put off, I started thinking, divas and big voices. I pitched every 'pella I had of every big, sweet souful voice against the track, but nothing quite fitted. At one point, I had 5 'pellas in the project in Acid. I even tried to weave the vocals in and out of each other to create a battle of the vocals. But it didn't feel right.

Then I went back to one of my fave vocals in Aaliyah's "Try Again" and with a bit of tweaking, it worked brilliantly. In fact, you'll find it down below as a bonus treat; but I always try to do something new and I'd already used this vocal in "U R Still A Dudu" which I am happy with, and so I wanted to try something new.

Alicia Key's "No-One " has been in my top ten tracks of the last few weeks, and I had been deperate to do something with it, searching high and low for somthing suitable. I'd even begged my usual sources for an instrumental of John Lennon's "Instant Karma" as it was around the right BPM - you'd be amazed how hard it is to find a non-hip-hop/soul track at around 89.9bpm, and I was determined not to use the Fugees with this vocal.

Anyway, in desperation, I tried the Alicia vocal against the Ian Brown track, thinking how ironic it would be if it worked and I ended up with another chilled out Alicia boot. Of course, it worked!
There's no beats in this one so it more likely to head for your chill-out compilations, or be used in a breakdown during a set (I arsed around in Ableton last night for hours creating my own beats but nothing really floated my boat), but I love the cinematic feel to it. And in the end, I managed to drop a sample from Try Again throughout the track, AND get some snippets of Christina in there to finish with, so it all ended up good in the hood.

I gotta get me some tickets for Alicia next Easter at the NIA....I love this girl so much....

Illegal No-Ones

Ian Brown vs. Alicia Keys (feat. Christina Aguilera)
(Illegal Attacks (Orchestral Mix) vs. No-One)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9wxxrbmqxnm

Last Resort ZShare Link Here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/56797784da34cf/



And here is the bonus track, the simple A+B track

Try Illegal Attacks

Ian Brown vs. Aaliyah
(Illegal Attacks (Orchestral Mix) vs. Try Again)

Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5fmeh9znix3

Monday 10 December 2007

I Saw a Bouncing Ball

Well, I threatened it and here it is, purely because the next 'new' tune I'm working on is giving me a headache with the chorus sections (but trust me, once it comes together, hopefully by this weekend, it will be well worth the wait - how do you say 'Orchestral Pop'?). My experiment with experimental music.

This one came together a good 3 or 4 months ago one night when I was pratting around with piano based ballads, looking for something that would possibly close a full length mix (and as those in the know, know, I did indeed use this to close the Part IV mix) - I'd had the visionary Bat For Lashes album for a while on the PC and hadn't really got around to listening to it. However, I'm known for dropping unheard tracks in to my compilation CDs for the car, and this was one such track.

I first came across Bat For Lashes on TV (last year?) when I saw the other-worldly Natasha Khan at the South By Southwest festival from Austin, TX. I was actually watching it to see the magnificent Scott Matthews perform (another artist I can claim to have seen before they 'made it') but Bat For Lashes were also featured strongly on the programme and I was blown away. The combination of the visual and auditory poetry I was seeing/hearing was a heady brew and put me instantly in mind of a Kate Bush/Jeff Buckley combo. I loved it.

So here I was stumbling around with the track with its tricky time signature, looking for a beat I could maybe skip in over the top. Well, if it's tricky time sigs you're after, look no further than the electronic genius of Richard D. James. Most of you know I love Aphex Twin, so as quick scan of me CDs and Bucephalus Bouncing Ball stood out like a sore thumb. Would it work? I didn't care. The Shiraz told me it would ;-)

Amazingly, at least to my ear, it's crazy drum n' ball rhythm really compliments the Bat lyrics. To me, it puts me in mind of an naively, inquisitive girl looking at the apocalypse through the eyes of an innocent. But then I do suffer from Nuclear Nightmares.

Whether I'm right or wrong, it does close out a set mighty well. The Ambient Apocalypse Anthem. I'm drinking again.

Now with amended intro including a recorded sample obtained from Freesound, created by the incredible Acclivity - he really does record some mindblowing stuff and make it available freely for use. I recommend any masher to find him out and check his work.

I Saw a Bouncing Ball

Bat For Lashes vs. Aphex Twin
(I Saw a Light vs. Bucephalus Bouncing Ball)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5nymble3ntu

Last Resort ZShare Link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/55256892a15863/

Saturday 8 December 2007

Shootin' From the Heart

At last - some new material. I was going to post a few tracks from the Part IV mix to keep you all going, but a part of me felt guilty, I had to make some new stuff (although I will probably get "I Saw A Bouncing Ball" up on here shortly, if only because rhythmically, it's so mental!).

So here we go. Leicester's finest, the producers of the best rock from the last 3 years or so, hook up and dance with the Princess of Pop, Kylie.

As soon as I heard 2 Hearts a few weeks back, it's potential to be a glam rock extravaganza shone immediately through the slightly weedy pianos. A couple of tracks sprang immediately to mind - Goldfrapp's 'Ooh La La' and Oasis' mighty lapdancing anthem, 'Force of Nature'. However, finding instrumentals of said tracks was nigh on impossible (and I really didn't have the time to make my own). Still, one track seemed to keep getting played on my car stereo - mash-up icon Go Home Productions' 'Bus Stop Runner' clashing Kasabian against various heroes of glam. It clicked. I love Kasabian (one of my fave live bands) and I particularly love "Shoot The Runner" and I knew straight away where I could source the instrumental from.

Big big thanks go to Mick "Slipknot" Ford (son of Tony "Harrison" Ford (It's an outrage!)) for the supply of Kasabian. Cheers dude (and I want those other instrumentals you promised!).

Surprisingly, the Kylie vocal wasn't as easy to work with as expected. And trying to make a Kasabian 'pella to float the vocals back in throughout the track wasn't as easy as expected. But I got there in the end. And the results (IMHO) rock. And who knew that 2 Hearts is a cover of the track by electro band Kish Mauve?! One to search out me thinks.

True story, I once watched the Hours in Leicester, at the Charlotte, whilst stood next to Serge. I then found out, a chap I work with, is from the same village as Serge. And then a few months later, I appear in some artwork with Serge. Lol. Even if you all hate the track, I'm chuffed with it if only because it's my favourite piece of Colatron related artwork to date.

Shootin' From the Heart

Kasabian vs. Kylie Minogue
(Shoot the Runner vs. 2 Hearts)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bywmjq0zgze

Last Resort ZShare Link Here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5455005154874a/

I'm a King and she's my Queen, bitch!

EDIT: Great news Colafreaks - a top chap by the name of EvilKeg has taken this track and decided to blast it out over the airwaves/digital streams of Brap FM, down in Brighton this Wednesday coming (12th December) - this excites Colatron greatly and is great exposure for his hard work (lol), along with all the top work me good buddy Scott does over at http://ramdomthoughts.co.uk/. If you get chance, tune in and support me new friends over at http://www.brap.fm/. Tell 'em Colatron sent ya.

Sunday 25 November 2007

Do You Really Like Hardcore?

Here's the first of a few additional track to be released from the Part IV mix (see below for the goods!), and once again, I'm taking it back to the oldskool. This is also, incidentally, my fave track from the whole mix.

This one came about as a complete surprise/fluke for me. I'd been working on a trilogy of Hardcore mashes, which resulted in the previous "Ms. Nelly's Nightmare" and "Congress of a Clown", and I had a few ideas as to what would make up the last track, but I'd sat on it for ages. I had 3 or 4 tracks to mash togehter, but none of them were really doing it for me (although, at least one of them will be finished off in a month or so once I get a bit of spare time), until one night at 3:30am after a night at the pub, it suddenly came to me.

I had been searching for the tracklistings to a wicked tape I had years ago, one of the fabby Mixmag Live tapes mixed by Slipmatt & Lime, the legends from the early 90s, responsible for SL2's "On A Ragga Tip" and "Way In My Brain" and "DJs Take Control". It was a pretty hardcore mix, consisting mainly of Belgian techno with sparse sprinklings of piano and breaks, but I loved it (I'll have to dig it out from the loft next time I'm over at me Mamma Colatron's house), but one track stood out for me at the time - Outlander's "Vamp" released on the legendary R&S Records. At the time, it was a cacaphony of drums and bass, with a variation on the infamous 'hoover' stab providing the melody. Awesome stuff.

Anyway, I found the track and desperately wanted to use it. It was at the aforementioned 3:30am slot when I drag and dropped the Pied Piper vocal in to Acid over the top for a laugh. And laugh I did. It was perfect! A little tempo change here and there and the syncopation of the vocals to the music was spot on, as if the two had been written for each other even though they are seperated by a decade. It finished off the old skool section of the Part IV mix perfectly.

Ironically, the track that made it into Part IV was unfinshed and edited 'on the fly', so here is the complete vision for the track, along with new intro and outro, featuring my two favourite MCs from back in the day, Everson Allen of the Ratpack and MC Mad P of Top Buzz fame. For completeness, the samples used are from:

Altern8 - Activ8
Ratpack - live at Pandemonium, Club Andromeda (May '93)
Altern8 - Infiltrate 202
Top Buzz - live at Fantazia, The Showcase (November '92)


The next probem is, I'm enjoying this hardcore revival so much, the trilogy has now been extended, indefinitely!!! 'Ave it....

Do You Really Like Hardcore?

Outlander vs. DJ Pied Piper & The Master of Ceremonies
(Vamp vs. Do You Really Like It?)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?djveno3bzo2

Last Resort ZShare Link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/51610242f70501/


Mad P sums it up best
"You see we? We come from mash it up!"

Friday 23 November 2007

Part IV



I've been promising it for what seems like forever....and it's finally here. It's been on release only via an exclusive on Ramdomthoughts.co.uk and it appears to have gone done really well, but now it's time for it's Brian Blessed filled goodness to be unleashed on the world.

If I may, and I'm sure they won't mind, I'll quote a couple of mini-reviews from Scott and Bobby

"It's absolutely f**king fantastic basically"

"I can't fault it at all"


-Scott Johnson - http://ramdomthoughts.co.uk/

"Well, what can I say.......I'm absolutley gobsmacked mate. It's nothing short of amazing. I want to avoid all the cliche's but it's hard to. It's a real tour de force, a journey, a visual fim/story."

-Bobby Martini - http://bobbymartini.blogspot.com/ and http://www.bobbymartini.co.uk/

Haha! Success at last!

The first step in this mix took place roughly around the middle of August. I was messing around on with Acid Pro as always, and I thought back to stuff I could use. I have the Turin Brakes edition on the Late Night Tales compilation CDs, and I thought back to the curious 4th part of a 4 part story included at the end of the CD, as read by Brian Blessed. Its surreal, completely out of place, and it made very little sense, but the words "Welcome to the final part, of this 4 part story" rang in my head. I had messed around previously, making 3 previous full length "mixes" which whilst having stand out moments, never really worked for me, having no flow or theme running through them. And after chatting with Bobby via the gift of Facebook, I discovered that his fabulous full length mixes were all constructed in Acid so the capabilites of doing a proper mix were all there.

Immediately I began chipping away at Brian's spoken word, adding atmospheric strings and the obligatory George Bush samples. Fantastic. Sounded like the start of a movie or something.

It was around this time I also came across the debut Skinnyman album, "Council Estate of the Mind" after seeing him on a documentary about UK urban music. I had previously heard his amazing track "I'll Be Surprised" (still in my top 20 songs) on a Scratch Perverts mix CD so I knew his quality, but the album blew me away, especially for featuring heavily, dialogue from gritty Brit film "Made In Britain" by Alan Clarke. The samples just worked so well with the theme of the album. I had to purloin them for myself. Chopped them up. Inserted tactfully. They worked beautifully contrasting with Brian's vocal. "I'm not signing any contracts". Damn straight. I know too many folks in the music business been screwed over. This was perfect! 1min 20secs laid down and after, it just sounded like the perfect intro to a full length mix, and the theme of having Brian narrate throughout the mix really appealed to me, and so that was that. I just had to have one last go, and this time really mean it.

Check out the White City story over here - http://http//www.patrickneate.com/page.asp?p=wc1

Check out Made In Britain over here - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084287/

Now as some of you know, I have a completely un-structured way of working on these things. I generally make the tracks as I go along, depending on what source files I have to play with at the time, and a bonus of this is, that the ones I make that I can't use, release them on here anyway! It's a process though that has its drawbacks. Do I make it housey, trance, hip-hop, indie? My tastes are too eclectic to restrict myself to one style though, which becomes a nightmare for beat-matching, and keeping the flow going (I spent roughly 3 weeks working out how to get back from the reggae interlude to something a little more upbeat). As luck would have it however, I've been going through a phase of getting back to my musical roots, which was classic old-school rave and drum n' bass. As a result, I had a load of tracks begging to be used, and kept the flow going, all the time the dialogue from Brian and Made In Britain weaving in and out to match the pace of the music.

I finally finished this a couple of weeks back, and the response as highlighted above from the quotes has been phenomenal to me. As mentioned elsewhere on the web, I started on this journey around 8 months ago or so, as a hobby, a pastime to keep me doing something on a weekend when skint and bored from staying in. I started off crap, heck, I'm still crap relative to many other people (check my links on the left), but I think I am actually starting to get a little bit better, bit by bit, and with support from various other folk (you all know who you are), I am actually really glad I got in to all this and now live for a Friday night when I sit down and mess around with this wonderful genre. So this mix is the culmination of the last 8 months hard slog and practice. The perfect end to the year for me. So a big big thanks to those in the know for all your kind words, advice and support. This mix is for you chaps.

Enough blabbing. On with the tracklistings:-

1. Intro - Part IV
Brian Blessed vs. George W. Bush vs. Moulin Rouge (OST) vs. Made In Britain

2. Colatron - Work It the Fuck Out
Skinnyman vs. Beyonce
(Fuck Da Hook vs. Work It Out)

3.Colatron - Red Hot Work Out
Jurassic 5 feat. the Daptones vs. Beyonce
(Red Hot (Up Above) vs. Work It Out)

4.A brief interlude - Still being Smart
Miscellaneous Piano vs. Made In Britain

4.Colatron - Shhit Shack
Fedde Le Grande vs. B-52s vs. Wildchild vs. DJ Supreme vs. Afrika Bambaataa
(Take No Ssh... vs. Love Shack vs. Renegade Master vs. Tha Wildstyle vs. Get Up and Dance)

5.Kleerup (feat. Robyn) - With Every Heartbeat

6.Colatron - X-Hale Slowly
Aphex Twin vs. Kylie Minogue
(Xtal vs. Slow)

7.Easy Star All*Stars - Exit (Music For a Film)

8.The Upsetters - One Step Dub

9.Madness - One Step Beyond

10.Madness - One Step Beyond (Italian Version)

11.Colatron - Killa Katie
Killa Kela vs. Kate Nash vs. The Streets
(Crop Circles feat. Lee-Ra vs. Foundations vs. Don't Mug Yourself)

12.Bloc Party - The Prayer (acapella)

13.Colatron - The Preacher
Leftfield vs. Bloc Party
(Phat Planet (Lethal & Imaginary Forces remix) vs. The Prayer)

14.Colatron - The Second Coming
Italian Love Songs vs. Muse vs. Bad Boys vs. RJD2 vs. Aphex Twin vs. Greg Nice
(Italian Love Songs. vs. Intro vs. Veronica vs. Salud vs. Avril 14th vs. 3 mintues)

15.Colatron - Ms. Nelly's Nightmare
4-Hero vs. Nelly Furtado
(Mr. Kirk's Nightmare vs. Say It Right)

16.Colatron - Do You Really Like Hardcore?
Outlander vs. Pied Piper
(Vamp vs. Do You Really Like It?)

17.Colatron - The Congress of a Clown
Congress vs. Smokey Robinson
(40 Miles vs. Tears of a Clown)

18.TC - Flatline

19.Moby - Feeling So Real

20.Colatron - Teardrop[s]
Newton Faulkner vs. Massive Attack
(Teardrop vs. Teardrop)

21.Colatron - Beautiful Acoustic Blues
Buena Vista Social Club vs. Christina Aguilera
(Acoustic Blues Slide vs. Beautiful)

22.Colatron - My Cheated Heart Goes Bang
Stone Roses vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
(She Bangs the Drum (Elephant remix) vs. Cheated Hearts)

23.Colatron - I Saw a Bouncing Ball
Bat For Lashes vs. Aphex Twin
(I Saw a Light vs. Bucepahlus Bouncing Ball)

24.Outro - And there was nothing but darkness
Brian Blessed


I was going to write a little explanation of each track, detailing why each one was made or chosen for this mix, but I'd be here all night and I'm sure you just want to get to the music. If you really need to know about a track or selection, drop me a comment and I'll respond accordingly. But I will apologise in advance for "Beautiful Acoustic Blues" - I was hammered is all I can say. Still, two of the tracks in here made the Anti-Hit List so can't all be bad!

Now kick off the shoes, sit back in your armchair, turn up the volume and enjoy. I'm off for a glass of champers.

Part IV - 71min 55secs - 132Mb (256kbps)

Download page here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/2671439-139

Direct Download here:
http://http://s08.divshare.com/launch.php?f=2671439&s=139

Proper artwork too! It's a double cover, so if you don't like my mush, have Brian's instead!

Cover (double version)



Front Cover (single version)



Inlay Cover (Single version)



Rear + Tracklistings



Gordon's Aliveeeee?????? x x x

Saturday 17 November 2007

Hidden Dub

Well, I'm still on the ragga tip, but this one was made a LONG time before Smile Freely ever came to light.

This track was originally meant to be a part of the "Part IV" mix (to be posted here next week, keep 'em peeled) hence the bleed of the rasta vocal at the start of the track, it was to be mixed in with the original Easy Star track, but I went for a track from the Radiodread album instead and so this got pushed to the wayside. However, I do really like it, so I thought I'd share with you all, plus I loved messing around with a picture of Bjork for the artwork.

It should be noted, I can't take full credit for the idea behind this one, as it was inspired by an excellent mash that Coldcut played in their now legendary Essential mix a few years back on Radio One, but as should now be obvious, I love reggae, and I just had to have a go at it myself.

Easy Star All*Stars are a loose collective of musicians based around 4 core artists who are known for reggae re-workings of seminal classic albums, their most famous being the cover of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of The Moon". I first heard the album a couple of years back in a bar, and then a short time later as the warm up tape for Ian Brown at a gig, and I just fell in love with it. I'm also a HUGE Pink Floyd fan, so the meeting of two seemingly radically different genres was something I had to own. Dub Side of the Moon is seriously, one of the greatest albums I have bought in the last 10 years, and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone who loves music and more importantly, creative music.

Bjork needs no introduction to anyone, me thinks

Enjoy

Hidden Dub

Easy Star All*Stars vs. Bjork
(Step It Pon the Rastaman Scene vs. Hidden Place)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?evbdym3ouzd

Last Resort ZShare Link Here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/497222411ab474/

PS. Some of you may have noticed, I've been trying to update the look of the website. Well, I've had all sorts of games getting the banner to work, stats counter, GIFs etc. The Banner still isn't working for me, hence the crappy standard one, but fear not as I have the boys from Neteffekt working on a new web design as we speak, so all being well, over the coming weeks, you should notice a definite better look and feel to the website. These are exciting days to be Colatron! Laters y'all

Sunday 11 November 2007

A hint of things to come



Well, the end of another week but luckily for me, this has been a week off from work, very much needed, and the week of my 29th birthday (yep, only look about 22 so I can put it on the good clean living I do) so it's been full of crazy good fun.

The main highlight of the week however has been the completion of the now near-infamously delayed "Part IV" mix. It's rendered, it has artwork, and it kicks a**! I've previewed it to me good friends Scott Johnson and Bobby Martini and I've had nothing but glowing feedback so I'm really chuffed how it's come together. In fact, Scott has asked if he can use it as an exclusive on his forthcoming show 81 on the Ramdom Thoughts podcast. High praise indeed and a wonderful way for me to complete what has been an exciting year in terms of learning how to do this, and getting progressively better at it. I should take this point to thank Bobby and Scott for all of their encouragement and kind advice they have given me this year. Without them, this page wouldn't exist, and I would have given up a long time ago.

Check it out over at:
http://ramdomthoughts.co.uk/

It should hopefully be online within the next 10 days or so.

The second highlight of the week was hooking up with me good friend Angel for a joint b'day celebration and she discussing which acapellas she is going to try and record for me. I'm really excited at the prospect of working with a 'real voice' as opposed to knocking about with someone else's ripped from a CD; and if this wasn't enough, I was chatting to my old friend Zenda last night, ex- of Soni Quella, ex- of Elmira Landmine, currently of Duplicate Banana and he told me about how he and Steve are recording as we speak, and would love to give me the masters to either mash up or remix accordingly. Full steam ahead, these are exciting days.

The third highlight of the week, was giving out to my real world friends, my second "album" The Second Coming - a compilation of tracks, many of which have not been heard here yet. They have again gone down well with my friends, many of whom came out with the good old "I had no idea this is what you do" line that I'm sure so many of us have heard before. Quite a few of these tracks have made it on to the Part IV mix and I will be posting them up on here over the forthcoming weeks leading up to Xmas (although if I come with anything new in the meantime, it'll still be on here too).

As a taster to what there is, I'm posting this track - the intro I made to the Second Coming album, which also features on Part IV mix. If anything, it sounds like one of my promos, inserting an abundance of samples in to around a minute's worth of music, but the fact it has Aphex Twin's "Avril 14th" in there is reason to post it alone.

The Second Coming

Download Page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bmwnhgljyzx

This short track contains the following elements:
Italian Love Songs- strings
Muse - Intro
Bad Boys - Veronica
RJD2 - Salud
Aphex Twin - Avril 14th
Greg Nice - 3 Minutes

Probably useless to most of you out there but if there are any Colatron completists, you'll need this for the collection, lol.

Also, as some of you may have noticed, the old Blogspot URL is no more, the new URL being colatron.com. The beauty of working in telecoms is having access to ISPs/domain hosting etc. so after a little crash course in DNS management (5 minutes on Wikipedia!) I took the plunge and registered my own domain name. It's a little bit easier to remember, plus the old blogspot address still forwards on to here anyway (as you would have found out anyway). As a result though, my old promo I recorded for Scott over at Ramdom Thoughts is now out of date, and so I've put this new one together. If any one else out there has a podcast or even just a website and wants to use this to promote my little corner of t'interweb, then please by all means download this and showcase away.

colatron.com Promo

Download page:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5ydxdlyxfgf

Again, for those who like to know these kind of things, the samples used are:
Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says
Slick Rick, Beatnuts & Method Man - Brooklyn Bomb
Ador - The Renegade Master
The Voice of Colatron
The Streets - Don't Mug Yourself
Kate Nash - Foundations
Martin Luther King
Click Tha Super Latin - Air Force Crew Theme
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
Made In Britain - dialogue
Fat Boy Slim - Slash Dot Dash
Pied Piper - Do You Really Like It
Coca Cola Ad

Sample-tastic again, and a big thanks to Angel for the inspiration for using the Beatnuts track - it does indeed poop on the J-Lo version from a great height.

Keep 'em peeled folks, normal service will resume shortly.

Andy

Monday 5 November 2007

Smile Freely

Here's the promised second posting of the weekend folks, and it's reggae-tastic.

Not too much to say about this one, as it's a fairly simple A+B mash (again!), but it has quite an interesting history.

A couple of weeks back, I went to the wonderful Brownie's wedding to the equally wonderful Mel, up in Doncaster. The journey consisted of myself, Rusty and Joe "T-Bone" Turner, the supplier of wonderful compilation CDs of reggae and dub to me. Most people who know me, I love all genres of reggae from Trojan Lovers through to dancehall, but I have to take my hat off to Joey, his collection of reggae is literally unsurpassed. So I always look forward to the next CD he makes for me.



We salute you Joey, sir

Anyway, it just so happened that he had made a CD for me this day and for the journey. Containing old school gems from the Upsetters and Max Romeo (the man is awesome live....War In A Babylon remains my fave live song I saw last year) and many others, one track stuck out in particular - The Soul Brothers "Free Soul". A lovely piano led instrumental, it's refrain sounded somewhat familiar and it was only when Joey pointed out "Do you not think that sounds like Lily Allen's Smile?" that I realised. In fact, in a nudge nudge wink wink kind of way, Joey virtually implied the piano line was 'lifted' from this tune for use in Smile. Whilst not being identical, there was certainly a heck of a lot of similarities.

So the challenge was on to test the theory out. Unfortunately, the CD has spent the last 2 weeks or so in my car, so I only just got around to trying it out on the PC. One drag and drop later though in to Acid, and it was obvious this track would work. No key change required, minimal tempo change asked for, just a heck of a lot of vocal chopping was needed to fit it to the beat.

So Joey, this one's deidicated to you blue. I'd say light up a blunt and relax but you don't smoke :D

Hope you enjoy this simple little summer tune, much needed tonight, on a night of cold foggy darkness

Smile Freely

The Soul Brothers vs. Lily Allen
(Free Soul vs. Smile)



Download Page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1yxglctd1ua

Last Resort ZShare link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/46770262f79360/

PS. I'd be interested to know which tune people prefer with Lily; this one or my earlier mash with Deceptikon ("Sometimes I Smile"). I can't make my mind up at all

UPDATE!!!
I sent this track to Joey last night to get his verdict on it, and it transpires that it is indeed 'plagiarised' in Lily's version, the Soul Brothers being sampled heavily for it. Check out the link below for more info

http://www.musiclikedirt.com/2006/09/27/lily-allen-alright-steal/

Saturday 3 November 2007

My Cheated Heart Goes Bang

It's that time of week again when I get to upload the latest delvings into my mind up here on t'internet and this week I've been particularly busy, mash-up wise, desperately finishing off tracks left and right to get out "The Second Coming" album for a few mate's parties.

This should be the first of two planned posts this weekend, the second hopefully coming on line tomorrow all being well, and as long as I can put the odd finishing touch to it.

So first up is this little slice of ambient breakbeat with a tinge of indie goodness.

Originally, I planned to use the Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocal with an old-school hardcore track and I'd spent a good couple of weeks toying around with it, but earlier this week, I was perusing through some of the old tracks on my hard-drive and came across the Stone Roses remix album from a few years ago. It's a bit of a hit n' miss record with some amazing versions of the classic tracks from the greatest band to come out of Manchester (and a couple of not-so-amazing remixes) but there was one track that always stuck out in my mind from the album - the Elephant remix of "She Bangs the Drums". A complete departure from the original track, a great big slab of ambient synths, a hint of the original vocal, before heading in to a fizzing breakbeat, finishing with a choice guitar line, it's a wonderful example of what a remix should be.

Of course, anything instrumental on my PC, gets tested out against various acapellas, and on the second or third trial these two met, and clicked for me.

I also tried a hint of the Klaxons in there to make it an indie knees-up, but it got a little too busy so I stripped them back out.

The only problem I've had with this one is the art's a bit crap! Could not find a decent picture of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for love nor money. Still, hopefully doesn't detract from the track too much. Download and enjoy

My Cheated Heart Goes Bang

The Stone Roses vs. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
(She Bangs the Drums (Elephant remix) vs. Cheated Hearts)




Download page here:
Last resort ZShare link here:


Sunday 28 October 2007

Lose My Know How

Well, the clocks have gone back, it's getting ruddy cold, and I have been a busy boy as always. Been chipping away at the full length mix, and actually made some progress on it, now being up to 30 minutes in to it so I'm getting excited it may be out this side of Xmas! (I have a week off work coming up in a week so I'll no doubt spend it in front of the PC working away on this little beauty. I've actually managed some 'mixing' on it too!)

I'm feeling a bit ropey today after a party at Dougie's last night, my body racked with pain after playing drunken Wii. It's amazing how good you can be at 'bowling' on absinthe. Still, the pain isn't enough to stop me from posting up this little treasure.

It took me all of 10 minutes to whip this one out last night before heading to the party, so apologies for it's simplicity, but as noted in a previous post, sometimes, the simplicity of an A+B mash can be so much more effective than spending a month chopping up a vocal, for 20 seconds of effects. The whole reason I got in to this, was due to some of the classic A+B boots I heard from the likes of 2 Many DJs, all those years back (I still love their Axel F vs. Do You Really Like It).

So this required one split of vocal, pasted to 2 seperate tracks with the instrumental running on the first track, as there were two tempo changes needed on the vocal; one literally by +1.1bpm and the other by +1.3bmp. And that was that!

"Know How" fuelled the sounds of my nights out at Ramshackle, back in the Sanctuary and the Birmingham Academy, so it was a pleasure to do something with it. And anything Destiny's Child is always fun to drop over stuff, as they seem to suit just about any style of music.

So apologies again for it's simplicity but I'm sure someone will be able to drop this in a mix somewhere. I know I will be.

Lose My Know How

Young MC vs. Destiny's Child
(Know How vs. Lose My Breath)



Download page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?60cbjgtedyy

Last resort ZShare Link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/45127707c02d7c/

Monday 15 October 2007

The Congress of a Clown

Remember when Mash-ups were fun? When people didn't worry about mashing the most obscure world music techno-funk jazz excursion with a Peruvian goat herder's chant (something I am as guilty as anyone of)? Thats what I'm aiming for here.

Part two in a trilogy (or maybe even a 4 part depending on how creative I'm feeling) of hardcore old-skool mashes, this was a lot of lot of fun to make.

The legendary piano-led rave tune - 40 Miles - was a belter back in the day. One of my earliest memories of hardcore, and virtually guaranteed to pump up a crowd. It was based upon the 1988 house classic, "Better Days" by Jimi Polo, and often known as the piano riff that launched a thousand records!

Smokey Robinson should need no introduction to anyone, but the haunting "Tears of a Clown" was and still is, one of my all-time favourite Motown records (how do you choose one as the best? Impossible).

Put them together, chuck in the genre defining Afrika Bambaataa, and you have what I hope is a good time giving, hands in the air, floor filler. It makes me smile anyway.

Oh, and yep, I did pitch the vocals up there. Gives it an authentic old-skool rave vibe me thinks!

Don't forget the white gloves and Vicks. Dedicated to Scott J. Keep ravin' bro.

The Congress of a Clown

Congress vs. Smokey Robinson vs. Afrika Bambaataa
(40 Miles vs. The Tears of a Clown vs. Just Get Up and Dance)



Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?0hkz25mm2py

Last resort ZShare Link Here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/422161877f2663/

Friday 5 October 2007

Teardrop[s]

Another weekend, another tune.

Not to much to say about this one, as it was fairly obvious from the start. I came across the beautiful Newton Faulkner cover of the classic Teardrop a few months ago, and I was determined to drop it in to a mix somehow (the much-delayed vol. 4), but I was determined to spice it up a bit.

Well, the obvious thing was to drop in the original version by Massive Attack. Easier said than done. My homemade acapella of the Elizabeth Fraser haunting vocal was so far out of key with Newton, it had to be pitched all the way up to chipmunk levels, and I had to add a HUGE amount of echo/reverb to make it usable, but I like the end result.

I also sampled Massive Attack's beat and looped it and the faded-in guitar line over the top of Newton's percussive slap on the acoustic guitar which gives it a nice tension. That plus I seperated out the bass drum and the snare hit, and distorted the hell out of both, to give a booming bass effect.

So for such a short track, there was a heck of a lot of work involved. I hope you like the end results. This ended up being my 2nd exclusive for the most excellent Ramdom Thought podcast, for my good friend Scott Johnson

(http://ramdomthoughts.co.uk/)

Plus I love the artwork for this. Defo finding my identity in this respect!



Download page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dxzmxtb0exm

Last resort ZShare link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/40395411db7c28/

PS: On a side note, I had my good friend Angel over last night who records as Jaime Summerz. Uber-talented R&B/Soul singer but primarily works as a rapper. Well, I showed her what I did for a hobby here in the nerve centre (my living room!) and she was loving it! For a beautiful talented girl signed to a NY label deal to actually demand a copy of my Erykah Badu mash (which she sang along to so beautifully), well it's given me renewed vigour and faith in what I do, so watch this space and hopefully there will be a whole lot more Colatron coming this way.

And if I can get an exclusive vocal from her on a mash, my god I will do everything I can to get it here for you. You gotta hear her!

Have a great weekend y'all

PPS: Wow, once again I've made the Anti-Hit list, this time clocking in at the lofty position of #3! Cheers to DJ Schmolli for pointing this out, and thanks to John Sakamoto for putting me in there. Read the mini-review over at

http://www.thestar.com/article/265940

Saturday 29 September 2007

The Preacher

Hi all,

It's been another busy old month in the life and Andy, and as such, the life of Colatron has taken a back seat. Silly amounts of work and account managing large designer retail outlets (they give me a nervous breakdown twice a month), amazingly late nights on a school night meeting and greeting new friends, losing old ones, all amounts to a tired Andy (I'm sleeping a minimum 12 hours per day on a weekend).

As a result, my musical output has dropped considerably this month plus the ideas well had dried up.

But after the feedback I received on Ms. Nelly's Nightmare, it dawned on me how much I miss the old skool sound. I regularly listen to my old mix tapes anyway and comilation CDs, but it has been superceded by mash-up mixes and jangly acoustic singer-songwriters as of late.

So for inspiration, I dug deep in to my old tapes. Looking for anything with a beat I could use. This proved to be very successful, but those mashes aren't quite ready yet, so keep 'em peeled in the forthcoming weeks. There are some really old skool dark tracks coming up.

But this one retains the spirit of the old skool, reminding me of the darkcore days of '93-'95. I had a cool 'pella that Lee Spoons of 10000 Spoons fame sorted me out, of Bloc Party's 'The Prayer'. A wicked band I've seen a couple of times now, probably one of the only bands from the last 3 years or so I've actually taken notice of, daring to be a little different to the moppy haired, skinny jeans wearing teenage angst that seems to be the fad at the mo.

The track has a cool sub-drum n' bass vibe, which Lee Spoons demonstrated so abley on his amazing "The Man Don't Give Two Forks" mix, so I wanted to have a go. Now anyone who has tried mashing D'n'B will tell you, it's a nightmare finding the right beat, but I think I lucked out on my first go.

I was in the car the start of this week, listening to the awesome Essential Mix that UNKLE did for Radio 1 years ago, which has the awesome ending of Leftfield's "Phat Planet" mixed with the Doors "The End" (if anyone has a 'pella of the Doors, I'm begging ya for it!) and the idea struck me that maybe Phat Planet would work with The Prayer; I love it's throbbing bass and the track was the backing to one of my fave adverts ever - the Jonathon Glazer-directed Guiness ad featuring the surfers and the crashing waves that become black horses.

One quick search later and I lucked out even more finding a brilliant d'n'b remix of the original, which was just obviously the perfect fit. To spice things up, I thought, "what if I had some actually prayer on the track?". This proved a little harder, as finding a decent recording of people in prayer is nigh on impossible, even more so finding a none guitar based version of the Lords Prayer! Still, a few sermons downloaded, a bit of church congregation and some aramaic preaching later, and I had the samples I wanted.

I did very little to the tracks involved in terms of sound effects apart from the odd bit of reverb here and there and a little noise reduction, but the Bloc Party 'pella did need a lot of pitching up to fit in key.

So here it is, my first mash to technically feature the 'vs. Christianity' moniker, although I've dropped this for fear of appearing pretentious :D

The Preacher

Leftfield vs. Bloc Party
(Phat Planet (Lethal & Imaginary Forces Rmx) vs. the Prayer)



Download page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?62jmyit3lxp

Last resort ZShare link here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/391655225104b1/

Thursday 6 September 2007

Ms. Nelly's Nightmare

Well, not one to jump on the bandwagon, I've been noticing a little bit of a resurgence in the "old skool" over at GYBO recently, thanks to the genius of the NME labelling anything in skinny jeans and day-glo t-shirts as "Nu Rave". What an awful label for anything! You can always rely on the old NME to go down the boozer on a quiet day, chuck a few cut-out random bits of paper with various adjectives written on in a cap and pull out the next big style they're going to push....

Anyway, as mentioned, there has been a crest of excellent boots recently making the most of the musical legacy that I grew up on and got me in to music in the first place. The old skool. I can stil remember the excitement of heading in to the city centre on a Saturday to the legendary Depot, or Circle Records to pick up the latest Fantazia flyers, Dreamscape, Perception...etc. The legendary Institute was at it's peak (I ironically live around the corner from there now, with it's god awful student nights), the Hummingbird was sharing debut nights with Nirvana, alongside the likes of Ratty, Ratpack, Ellis Dee....etc. (I'll never forgive me friend Rachel's dad (and also my mum's ex-neighbour) Paul for closing the place down! As nice a bloke as he was...). My first tapes.... the awesome Top Buzz with MC Mad P (still my fave to this day), the legendary New Years Eve parties, The Book of Love, Micky Finn, Tribal Gathering (my first festival all those years back). Aaaahh.....the best music ever. Period.

So the mighty Dunproofin has chucked out a couple, notably his excellent Felix boot with the Gossip

http://dunproofin.blogspot.com/

and a cheeky Slipmatt boot (one of my fave moments from Helter Skelter was when Ellis Dee dropped that tune)

And the brilliant 10000 Spoons knocked out the (I wish I'd thought of it myself) Liquid Killers

http://10000spoons.blogspot.com/

featuring one of the all-time greats, Liquid's "Sweet Harmony".

I had the itch - what to mash. I literally had 100s of tracks to choose from. Do I go with Italian Piano, raging breakbeat, darkcore d'n'b? I settled for an old skool classic, the infamous 4Hero's "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" with it's apocalyptic warning of ectasy overdose. One drop in of a vocal later (yep, another Nelly F boot!), and the track wrote itself (with a little tweaking of bpm). I didn't even add that many effects, it just seemed to fit together so well (there is a little bit of filter on the bass and vocal toward the end).

And the artwork wrote itself too. Hehe

A simple track with a heavy vibe. To be included on my forthcoming proper attempt at a full-length mix. Pull on your white gloves, pass round the Swan Vestas and overdose on Vicks. 'Ave it!

Ms. Nelly's Nightmare

4Hero vs. Nelly Furtado
(Mr. Kirk's Nightmare vs. Say It Right)



Download page here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9uvmsnmrywn

Last resort ZShare link here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/34976006c017e2/

Friday 31 August 2007

No Thrills Attached

Evening all.

Well it's been hard to resist uploading this one since it's inception about 2 weeks ago, but a promise is a promise is a guarantee with Andy. Yep - an exclusive it was made as and an exclusive it remained until now when it is available for all.

This one had a bit of background to it. It came about as a result of a pure fluke. I have a 12 CD multichanger in the car (my pride and joy!) and I generally go through the full 12 every week with the amount of driving I tend to do. Anyway, a few weeks back, I was struggling to think of CDs I really wanted to hear and was going through the CD cabinet that hasn't been opened in like 12 months or something. In there, I saw the fourth Prodigy album, "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned". Now I was a huge Prodigy fan back in the day, and my collection of Prodigy singles is my pride and joy. Admittedly though, the last few years has seen them change their direction, which is great, but I was so not keen on the last few tracks coming out. Anyway, I bought the album eons ago, and I think I've listened to it maybe twice. Hmmm....time to give it another chance. Well, the singles from the album still do it for me, but I thought the rest of the album was ok but nothing amazing. But then track 11 kicked in. "The Way It Is". I'd forgotten all about it. From the first few bars, I recognised the Thriller bassline, twisted out of recognition. The angular beats and synth distorting the bassline out of recognition, before kicking back in. I was smitten straight away with the track, and pretty much there and then I thought, I gotta make a Michael Jackson mash with this.

An hour or two later after getting in, and with very little joy in finding a Thriller 'pella, I experimented with the Jacko 'pellas I did have (about 7 or 8). A drag and drop later, and Bad was cued up, virtually fitting like a dream straight away, with very little tempo change required.

But strange things happen and somehow this ended up sitting on the desktop for some time, and my enthusiasm waning, I moved on to experiment with other things (along with Killa Katie - see below).

But then 2 weeks or so later, after I'd put this to the back of my mind, Scott Johnson of the awesome Ramdom Thoughts podcast dropped me a line asking if I had time, to put together an exclusive for the show. I was honoured! Made me feel I was finally starting to get somewhere. But what track to make? Well, with a half finsished tune sitting there, I revisited it. I chopped up the vocal a little, and moved it around to try and vary it up, but something was missing.

In the meantime, I was pratting around looking for Thriller pictures on t'interweb to make the cover (a little prematurely, admittedly) - I can't tell you how many times I watched that Thriller video whilst working on this project, but I'll never get tired of it. Not getting much joy with decent pics, I decided to get on SLSK to see what I could find Thriller related. Well, what a treat. The original demo acapella of the Vincent Price rap from Thriller with the missing second verse!

Immediately, I was back on track with this - I was in love with the idea of getting this done properly and finished. The Vincent vocal begins with a cool little snippet of producer getting the show on the road, and intros from Michael and Vincent. Brill. Chop those up and drop them around the place a bit. The silky smooth, legendary voice of Vincent fitted so well over those jagged beats it was a no brainer. A few samples of the obligatory Michael "Wooos" and "Shamone" later, with some widdly sweeping phase on the vocals and some of the beats and there it was. I don't know what it is but I can't stop listening to this track.

Hell, I even came up with a decent title for it for once.

I sent it to Scott and he gave me such great feedback, featuring it on the excellent show #70 as an exclusive. It was so hard to not post this early though, that's how proud of it I am.

So for whacking a random CD I hadn't really thought of in to my car, I've come up with probably my 2nd fave track I've made (Killa Katie is still my fave....download it if you haven't already!) and I hope a danceloor filler/thriller

Big thanks to Scott, for making me pull my finger out and do this properly. And also, big thanks to John Sakamoto of The Star in Toronto for making my week by including Killa Katie in his anti-hit list top 10 - finally, the recognition I craved! check out the mini-review at

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/249256

Fingers crossed, a lot more material heading this way soon - keep 'em peeled

No Thrills Attached

The Prodigy vs. Michael Jackson vs. Vincent Price
(The Way It Is vs. Bad vs. Thriller)



Download page here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9gvj0tmm1um

And if all else fails, get your thrills here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/3412183b2f5bd9/

Saturday 18 August 2007

Killa Katie

Another busy week in terms of production from me - fortunately I've had a lovely lazy week off from the office and as such have managed to complete a couple of the 5 or 6 projects that have been sat on my PC for a while now.

The first of which I can't tell you too much about, as it's an exclusive track I created for Scott Johnson over at the excellent Ramdom Thoughts podcast which will be played on show #70 next weekend (24th August), and I will then put up for download on the 31st. All I will say is that it's some dark electro funk from a well known band, spliced with some powerful pop, and I love it. Seriously, if you get chance (and you should check him out anyway as his shows are awesome) head over to

http://www.ramdomthoughts.co.uk/

and check it out.

The second track I've bashed out this week is this, and I have to say, I'm am STOKED with it.

I've been long toying with the idea of doing a Kate Nash track ever since I first heard Foundations. For me it's in the top 5 tunes released this year so far, with it's simple 4 chords, catchy handclap beat and uplifting piano. And of course, it's Mockney-esque pronunciation of the words Bitter and Fitter (Harrow's a bit far from the East End me thinks). But as far as I am aware, no-one else has produced anything with her vocals on the scene, so the dilemma was, where to grab the 'pella?

Well, why beat around the bush. I made me own instead on Audition! It didn't come out too badly at all on the verse parts, although the chorus seemed to mixed in with the piano riff, and as such a few artifacts remain, but I like their sound so I won't quibble.

So what to mix it with? Well, it was obvious to me that the rhythm follows a simple skipping drum n' bass-esque pattern. Of course, this is another genre I grew up on in the 90s so I fortunately have a large collection of d'n'b tracks to choose from. Saying that, I tried quite a few out agains the vocal but I found the end results a little too dark. By coincidence though, I'd got hold of the awesome Killa Kella debut album the other day - "The Permanent Marker". I've been listening to quite a bit of human beatbox lately (since making the Deceptikon/Lily Allen boot earlier this year!), and this chap really is the business

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killa_Kela

And so I found the perfect track with a d'n'b rhythm, but with the added bonus of it being performed live by a human.

One last element needed was the addition of some vocals fom the Streets eponymous "Don't Mug Yourself". Not only does this create a bit of a dynamic tension between Kate and Mike ("Oi oi oi"), but it almosts fits together as a bit of narrative story, Kate moaning about the night before, with Mike talking to his mate about the night before too. Or I could be making that bit up, hehe, but either way it's a battle of the Mockneys. With some bass rumbling filters applied in the last few bars.

Anyway, this track is dedicated to my lovely friend Katie - she's always been a big Streets fan, and is partial to the odd bit of beatbox too, so I've named it after her, and made her the cover star too. Hope you enjoy it hon.

Killa Katie

Killa Kela vs. Kate Nash vs. the Streets
Crop Circles (Splinter remix) vs. Foundations vs. Don't Mug Yourself)



Download page here
http://www.mediafire.com/?dbvi5iyxx3o

And if all else fails - give it a shot here
http://www.zshare.net/audio/3199620252e5da/

Saturday 4 August 2007

U F.E.A.R. My Name

This is sheer lunacy. I've been awake now for nigh on 24 hours, I've worked a 10 hour day, I've been to the pub and got drunk, I'm sure it was dark when I got in, but here I am still awake making mash-up.

I got in from the pub tonight (or is it yesterday) at about 10:45pm and was straight on my PC to send Lee Spoons of 10000 Spoons fame an instrumental of Ian Brown's classic F.E.A.R., one of the best tracks of the last 10 years. Howver, on searching my PC I realised I only had the UNKLE remix of it. Not being one to let people down, I had a go at making my own instrumental from a B-Side version of the song from the single, which amazingly came out really well.

After sending both versions to Lee, I was suddenly gripped with this silly desire to use the track straight away, and so an acapella of the irresistable Alicia Keys popped straight in to my booze-addled head. A little drag and drop later and it fitted nigh on perfectly, and was in key! Well, that was it. I set to creating this track I now present to you. However, the tempo kept changing throughout the vocal in relation to the instrumental. Not a problem he thinks setting to chopping it up. 3 hours later, I suddenly get the bright idea to add the UNKLE remix too, to make it in to an epic soundscape of ambient strings descending in to pulse-racing techno breakbeat. 1 hour later and he's got the tracks all cued up, with an added snippet of Ian Brown vocal kindly supplied by Lee, and rendered ready to add the effects in Audition. A bit of echo and reverb on the vocals I snipped a bit too close, and here is the final result. I couldn't head to bed, as this has to be my fave track I've made so far, if only because I love the Ian Brown track so much. 7 hours of hard work for this. I could have made another 5 minutes for this track but I really am shattered, and I have to be at a party tomorrow night.

As I look out the living room window, I see blue skies; my head is pounding and heavy, I have the shakes and a feel exhausted, but it's all worth it for this one track. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

U F.E.A.R. My Name

Ian Brown vs. Alicia Keys vs. UNKLE
(F.E.A.R. vs. U Don't Know My Name vs. F.E.A.R. (UNKLE remix))



MP3 Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ebf01ojblyr




Be sure to check out the Ramdom Thoughts podcast nest weekend for show #68. There will be an exclusive Bobby Martini full length mix showcased which won't be available for download until the 10th August. Hear it there first, it's going to be big

http://http//ramdom.wordpress.com/

Thursday 2 August 2007

Black Eyed Eric (Colatron Wants Your Soul)

Well, as the lyrics go, "It's been a long time"

What a month July has been. Highs and lows....lots of lows. Stag parties, weddings, drinking, assaults with a piece of salmon, torrential flooding, assaults on hotel doors with water colour paintings, more drinking, work, work, work, and unfortunately, a death. It's been one long month, and the amount of work I have been doing recently has been ridiculous, hence the lack of updates so many apologies to my listeners.

This track has been sat on my desktop for around a month now and finding the time to actually concentrate and finish it off properly has been nigh on impossible but last night I knuckled down and worked through the night to get it out

Been playing around with the Eric B & Rakim vocal for ages and couldn't find anything to match it to, and then one day after listening to the mighty Loo & Placido it clicked. Now this ain't no "Black Beatles" - to try and top that would be foolhardy, but I am pleased with the outcome. Think party choon. Think added bass. Think Colatron

I've been constructing the songs in Acid Pro still, but have been using Adobe Audition lately to add the effects and filters, and I think the results are much better. That plus my new bass shaking speakers (17W woofer in my tiny flat? You gotta feel for the neighbours) for the PC just made me want to add the additional bass drum to certain sections of the instrumental. Apologies if it drowns out your speakers, but it sounds perfect on mine.

A few random samples from The Running Man (this was originally gonna be a tribute to Damon Killian, top villain with all the best lines in the classic Arnie movie), a smooth vocal from Lil' Flip straight from Beyonce's "Naughty Girl", a snippet of InDeep's "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" and a bizarre ending top off the track.

The ending is my little apology to all my friends from MySpace and Facebook that I've neglected the last 4 weeks. I decided to give them a little Auto Attendant-style message straight from Colatron Inc. (a bit of an in-joke for those in the know - me working in Telecoms) explaining that they may not get through to me. I think it works and I'll probably end up using it for something else too such as a promo.

Anyhow, enough rant, on with the track:-

Black Eyed Eric (Colatron Wants Your Soul)

Black Eyed Peas vs. Eric B & Rakim
(Let's Get Retarded vs. I Know You Got Soul)



MP3 Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8hxfbj3wbhm

Be warned - it does chew up the bass!

Dedicated to Chris - I know you had soul

Sunday 15 July 2007

Writer's Block

The clue's in the title!

Once again, been a busy boy at work this week, and so my creative process has been somewhat thrown, to the point where I have what some may call "Writer's Block". Which ironically is the name of the track that this is based on.

I've been in the doldrums creatively this week, to the point where I had no ideas for tunes or artwork, or even to go back to the projects I have on the go currently.

I hate going back over ground already trod, but when I finally found an instrumental I was enthusiastic to use, only one track was in my head to match it - Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence'. I'd already made a track using the 'pella, posted down below, but using it with this one gives the vocal a new feeling, almost puts me in mind of old school Balearic guitar beat bliss. I couldn't even think of a decent title though!

That said, I've had a game and a half pitching the vocals on this - I hope I've got it right, it sounds good to my ear, but it could be slightly out - it needs fresh ears to confirm.

I've also gotten completely bored of my one usual trick of adding a wee bit of stereo-echo to everything, so I've been playing with the FX in Audition instead, which pleasantly surprised me as being really good and very easy to use! Still took me ages to decide on something suitable to this though.

Something was missing though - a quick flick through the obligatory rap 'pellas later and Skee-Lo was perfect.

Here's the final product. Even had a play with the usual colatron-style graphics! Not my fave piece of work, but it's got the creativity flowing again hopefully - in fact, I've made my own instrumental for my next project, which if I can get the right vocal to fit, could be awesome...roll on next weekend...

Writer's Block

Just Jack vs. Depeche Mode vs. Skee Lo
(Writer's Block vs. Enjoy the Silence vs. I Wish)



MP3 Here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?3whyxzbmmhp

Monday 9 July 2007

U R Still A Dudu

Just time folks before I head to bed, to post another tune for the weekend, and IMHO it's a perfect tune to end the weekend with, a chilled out slice of r n' b.

I've been toying around all weekend with a few new instrumentals and 'pellas sitting on my PC and at this present moment in time I have about 5 or 6 projects on the go, via Acid Pro. But as always, I blew all of them out as this one came to mind. It's so annoying, I have certain mixes I want to finish but they always seem to get pushed aside as soon as something else fits as a result of playing about.

Anyhow, this one took me maybe 2 and a half hours from getting in from the pub in Moseley - it's semi-inspired by the stereo in the top boozer "The Fighting Cocks" (not the best name for a pub, I admit) where every track they played tonight was so blissfully chilled out, I had to have a go at making a weekend comedown track.

So straight away, I know where I'm headed for - an old CD I picked up about 8 years ago whilst at Uni - Smokedown, this awesome chilled out leftfield compilation I picked up back when I was spending £50 a week minimum on CDs (ironically when I had less money than now) featuring some real way out there electronica. One track jumped out straight away as having a decent easy beat to match a vocal to - Kushti's "U R Still Ahead" - it has a nice mellow vibe too (goes without saying, there's at least another 4 or 5 tracks on there that will be making it on to Acid at some point).

But what vocal to mash it with? Well, from my previous post for "Sometimes I Smile", I was determined to get a foreign language 'pella in the mix, and Tarkan's "Dudu" was top of my list. Tarkan for those who don't know was the dude who came up with the orginal version of Holly Valance's "Kiss Kiss" - a top top track, considering it's pop and I normally hate pop (probably something to do with Holly being cute, the reason I like it :D) - read more about him here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarkan

He really is a talented guy, and considering I don't understand Turkish, I can still appreciate a great vocal when I hear it.

But the track needed something else....the silky smooth vocals of the much missed Aaliyah. Now there was a talented girl who left us in tragic circumstances. Still, she left a great legacy of records (and they are ALWAYS played on Freeview channel 'The Hits' which is a good thing) and this was possibly my fave of them all.

Chuck in a subtle sample (you'll probably never hear it, it's that low in the mix) and a hint of my next track I'm working on (featuring Japanese pop megastar Otsuka Ai) and you have a lovely blissed out track, perfect for a sunny summer's day (let's hope it gets rid of this infernal rain here in the UK).

By the way, I normally put a bit of thought in to the covers for my tracks, trying to relate them to the music, no matter how tenuous the link, but in this case, I went for an image I Photoshopped yesterday for my Facebook profile that I just love (and not in a vain way!) - it's my best bit o' image manipulation yet, so I apologise to those who may like to find a meaning in my covers. And apologies for the crap name for this track too, but I'm half cut, and it's getting late, and one of out top clients is in the office in 7 hours so I should really think about bed.

I'll leave it with ya!

U R Still A Dudu

Kushti vs. Tarkan vs. Aaliyah
(U R Still Ahead vs. Dudu vs. Try Again)



MP3 Here
http://www.mediafire.com/?cjr1ttmpyyt

Thursday 5 July 2007

Perfect Slow Music

The track that very nearly wasn't...

This one caused me a just a few legends of GYBO a few headaches! It's been a hell of a week, what with the shocking situation of hero wrestler Chris Benoit apparently slaughtering his family and then committing suicide (this guy was a hero of mine...I'm still struggling to get my head around it), the crazy terrorist attacks in the UK, the company I work for virtually doubling in size over night (and yet the work tripled....how does that work?), a hectic stag weekend down in rainy Cornwall, Newquay (more of which later), the smoking ban coming in in England, a blinding gig by The Hours in Leicester on Tuesday followed by some celebrity stalking of the man known as Serge from Kasabian (never did get that photo...dang-it), and my good friend Kirsty's 21st b'day party tomorrow night. Suffering from burn-out at the relatively young age of 28.

Anyhow, the stag do....I gotta thank the lads, and Arkie and Davo in particular for a cracking weekend. There's something quintessentially British about camping in a tent with a load of boozed up lads, in the pouring rain all in the name of love/marriage. Plus then there's crashing a go-kart at 50mph in to a wall of tyres and being shot in the throat by a paintball (I still carry the scars) at less than 20 foot, and if I ever eat another over-barbecued sausage with scotch egg chaser again, it'll be too soon.

But it was a fun time, and led to the creation of this track. Being a rather civilised stag party, I was taken aback by the randomness of some of the groups we saw out and about, and I was taken back to my youth by the pounding poppy techno played in clubs/bars such as The Central and Sailors. I used to love this stuff, and the sight of Brownie's dancing made me realise, I had to make a track that could be played in such a place.

Fast forward to Sunday evening... maybe 8 hours sleep in 3 days and I wasn't going to bed any time soon.

One track sitting on my PC stood out and I just so happened to have the 'pella and the instrumental...hear the cogs turning? Two other 'pellas that fit the bill perfectly and I was on a roll (inspired also by listening to a shed-load of Mark Ronson over the weekend, in particular his mash-tastic boot of Kylie's 'Slow').

My track was finished in probably less than 5 hours, and then the problem came up... a software glitch meant that I couldn't render the track. I kept getting some god-awful corruption 2 minutes in to the MP3. How annoying was that. Probably my tidiest work, and I couldn't share it.

A quick post on GYBO however, and a few days later, and finally I found a shortcut around the issue, slicing the track in to loops, and stitching back together in Adobe Audition 2.0, with the addition of a little intro. I'd like to give a beeeeg thanks to all the guys on GYBO who helped out, especially McSleazy, Riko, Essexboy, Ian Fondue and in particular 10000 Spoons. Good work chaps.

Anyway, on with the show...

Perfect Slow Music

Mason vs. Princess Superstar vs. Kylie Minogue vs. Madonna
(Perfect (Exceeder) vs. Slow vs. Music)



MP3 Here (new link as I've tweaked the timing on the Madge vocal)
http://www.mediafire.com/?0omfsmyz2de

PS. I've bit the bullet and sold my soul and signed up to Facebook - have a look for me (or alternatively message me) and join the Circle

Saturday 23 June 2007

Sometimes I Smile

I think it's safe to say, I am now officially a weekend Bootlegger, only finding time to make tracks on a Friday night.

Anyway, another new track for ya, ironically half inspired by watching highlights from Glastonbury on TV last night (gutted - all of my friends are there, and for the first time in 6 or 7 years, there's no festivals for me this year) with Lily Allen appearing on stage today, and a wonderful performance by beatbox maestro Shlomo on the show, helping me remember I had this track on my PC.

The track in question is Deceptikon's "Sometimes You Here It Coming". A top chilled out track I came across on a random blog a few months back, it's another one I'd been dying to use for ages, but never having anything suitable to mix with it.

Then watching the world stage acts on Glasto last night, it struck me.... an acapella I have by (presumably) Turkish superstar Turkan - "Dudu". It worked a treat, without having to me to chop, or add filters or anything. 10 seconds work for a top mash. However, the 'pella was short by maybe 2 minutes, and I hate having to find filler material - if the track you're working with can't fill a mash, scrap it.

Back to the drawing board and the obvious was looking me in the face, Lily Allen's "Smile". Those in the know, know that Lily is an "Andy Bird" - the kind of girl I'd love to go out; she swears, smokes and wears dresses with trainers - everything I love and more. So it's only right I use her amazing vocal with an amazing track. I hope you find the results enjoyable.

Kept it simple, adding a slight bit of echo, and a leslie rotospeaker filter, mainly to hide some dodgy artifacts from some beat-stretching - easy! And I didn't even have to chop it up for the breaks - perfect timing on Mr. Deceptikon's part.

And sorry if this blog reads weird but I'm still watching Glasto whilst typing and I'm not really concentrating. Plus, the final irony, as I'm posting this, Lily has just come on the TV....sigh....I wish she were my girlfriend....

Sometimes I Smile

Deceptikon vs. Lily Allen
(Sometimes You Here It Coming vs. Smile)




Edited - 25/6/07
After a little bit of feedback on the boards, some of the guys feel that the timing was off in the original version of this track, so I've had a can of beer, pointed my finger in the air a lot counting the beats, and added a wee dash of Nat King Cole with some filters applied, in the hope that this works better for them.

Give it a go and see if it makes any difference,

Cheers, a tired Andy
http://www.mediafire.com/?f7g2gymxtfx

Sunday 17 June 2007

Keep Their Heads This Way

Here's one I've been itching to make for a while.

A couple of years back, I bought the awesome Fabric Live 22, mixed live by the amazing Scratch Perverts (interesting fact - the first group/band I ever saw live whilst at Uni, at the legendary Faversham - never looked back!), and the standout track at the time (bearing in mind virtually every track on the CD is a standout moment) had to be Dilated Peoples feat. Kanye West - "This Way" with it's funky samba-esque piano and gospel choir.

Well, a couple of weeks back I came across the 'pella for this sublime track. Instantly, I was wracked with a need to make a track out of it, but which instrumental to use?! I tried every hip-hop beat I had, but none seemed to fit. Then as luck would have it, I also stumbled across the instrumental of one of my fave hip-hop tracks, Dr. Dre's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" with it's infectious "Ring-Ding-Dong" refrain.

Result - the two fitted at the beginning, but the vocal part from the choir would just not fit. However, a bit of cut and paste and some tempo changes later, and here we go. A few of you may spot a couple of choice samples in there also - the intro from UNKLE's "Back and Forth" (the legendary Original Ozzy version which I'll do something with one day), and Kanye West's "Gold Digger" and "Wake Up Mr. West", and not forgetting Saint Germain's "Rose Rouge". I was going to have a bit of Run DMC's "Walk This Way" also but unfortunately my DJ-ing skills aren't that good!

The only other problem I had was how to finish it, as eventually the Dre instrumental just wouldn't fit, so what better way to end than to bring back the original, which works really well for me, as the emotive pianos finsh off the track perfectly.

So sit back, pour a gin n' juice and enjoy.

Keep Their Heads This Way

Dr. Dre vs. Dilated Peoples (feat. Kanye West)
(Keep Their Heads Ringin' vs. This Way)



MP3 Here
http://www.mediafire.com/?csuxswng2x4

Saturday 16 June 2007

Hot Gossip

Another weekend and another mash-up to post. This time I've gone with a couple of oldies but goldies.

I've been making a couple of compilation CDs for friends, and the ontrack that constantly appears on them has to be Hot Chip's "Over and Over" - nigh on 6 minutes of tight funky rhythm, that never fails to get me on the dance floor. Well I found myself with an instrumental version of it and immediately my mind turned to Fedde Le Grand's "Take No Shhh", if only so I could make a track and call it "Hot Shit!". Well I played and puzzled and it just wasn't happening, so bereft of ideas, I did a massive acapella search.

The results of which turned up "Hollaback Girl" by the lovely Gwen Stefani. Immediately I could hear similarities, and with a couple of clicks on the mouse, my ideas were confirmed, it fitted!

A bit of chopping up and reversals later, and I had the basis of my track, but I was missing something. Fortunately, Lady Fate was smiling on me, and at about 11:30pm last night I stumbled across a great forum for acapellas and instrumentals
http://www.lazyrecords.co.uk/forum/index.php
which whilst not my usual source for material, proved to be rich, full of stuff I'd been looking for, for a long time. One of the first tracks I found on there was a studio acapella of the mighty Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control" - another track which has been caned on the recent compilations I've been making. The choice was obvious.

So cutting up Beth's vocals (she's an amazing singer - you really should hear the acapella with no backing beneath it, raw power!) and applying a little chorus effect to crisp things up, I had the finished article.

Then at 2:00am, I realised that I hadn't added the mysterious letters being spealt out that Hot Chip had on the original (K.I.S.S.I.N.G S.E.X.I.N.G. C.A.S.I.O. P.O.K.E. Y.O.U. M.E. ??!!), so a couple of 'Voice of Colatraon' generations later and I had my suitably mysterious letters to finish the track with.

3:30am I made it to bed, and I didn't crawl out of the Pit of Colatron until 2:30 this afternoon, but well worth wasting a day over.

As I say, oldies but goldies and great for dancing the night away to.

Right, I have 4 different versions of Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy" to go work on, see you in a week!

Hot Gossip

Hot Chip vs. the Gossip vs. Gwen Stefani
(Over and Over vs. Standing in the Way of Control vs. Hollaback Girl)



MP3 Here
http://www.mediafire.com/?13wuzvzp0a2

Saturday 9 June 2007

Miscellanea

Here's some little curios for you.

Having had a couple of my tracks played on the excellent Ramdom Thoughts podcast, the host Scott Johnson asked me to put together a jingle for myself, and then later, a promo for his show.

Here's the results - they are pretty similar with just a few changes to the samples and structure, but I really like them and are probably my fave things produced. There are two other versions of the Ramdom Thoughts promos in existence too, using Gorillaz and the wonderful UNKLE remix of the Queens of the Stone Age, which I may finish off one day.

Probably of no use to anyone, but hey, in the words of the old Wrigley's Chewing gum commercials, "Great to taste, even better to share!". If any podcasters or radio hosts read this, then please, play the Ramdom Thoughts promo on your show and give Scott the publilcity he deserves...

Colatron Radio Jingle
http://www.mediafire.com/?0f3omtz5u2i

Ramdom Thoughts podcast promo
http://www.mediafire.com/?42v0lmmwz2h

Simon Says Give! (Bollywood Riddim)

Here's the second of the 2 updates folks.

Caning the instrumentals and acapellas this last week, I've been listening to loads of Nelly Furtado. The new style and image is incredible, and as most people know, she is my ideal Smartie's Angel, so I've been dying to use something of hers.

Also, I've just recently dowloaded the fabulous Bost & Bim mixtape (read about it and follow the link to download here, over at GYBO http://www.gybo-v3.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=26722) which takes songs you wouldn't expect to hear in a reggae style and applies a "Riddim", in many cases completely changing the feel of the vocal. So I went on the search for riddims.

What I came up with is this. I tried to keep the Timbaland and Timberlake vocals in there at first, but had real timing issues, so in the end I scrapped them and tried some raps out instead. I finally settled on Pharoahe Monch (much inspired by my lovely friend Angel aka Jaime Summerz - check her out if you can find her on MySpace - she's gonna be huge, the little cutie she is...). Still a few timing issues on there, maybe, but the overall effect works for me. See what you think.

Simon Says Give! (Bollywood Riddim)

Nelly Furtado vs. Pharoahe Monch
(Give It To Me vs. Simon Says)



MP3 Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5hqcdmneymv

Welcome to the Borderline (Colatron Dub)

Blimey - that was a while wasn't it since the last post?

So, I've been suffering pretty much the bootlegger's version of 'Writer's Block' recently. After finishing off the Sycophant vol. 3, where I was literally firing off 2 or 3 tracks a day in a creative frenzy, the last 2 or 3 weeks I've been really struggling. And that's not for lack of ideas.

I've had a download frenzy, literally laying my hands on 100s of acapellas and instrumentals, some of which I am DYING to use (Dilated Peoples feat. Kanye West - This Way; one of my fave vocals ever and d'ya think I can mix it with anything?!!) but nothing was working out properly for me, to the point where I refused to boot up the PC, as I was getting so frustrated.

However, this Wedensday spun around and I managed to come up with this. It's managed to turn things around for me, and I seem to be getting back to normal in terms of finding things that fit.

Plus, it's my first attempt at recreating the dub vibe I've always loved on the legendary Trojan Records, and more recently the bonus dub tracks on the awesome Easy Star All*Star albums (Dub Side of the Moon, is possibly one of the only records to ever surpass the original IMHO).

The Damien Marley track though, gave me nightmares trying to find a proper vocal to work with it! Probably why I bottled it and went for a stripped down vocal instead...hehe....

Welcome to the Borderline (Colatron Dub)

Damien Marley vs. Pinchers
(Welcome to Jamrock vs. Borderline)



MP3 Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9m5zhj3e5wj