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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