Guest Mix #10 – Solid State
This guest mix is a little different. Usually, the guest mixes are made for Cosmic Boogie, and Cosmic Boogie alone. That’s why I put them up. This one wasn’t though – it was made for more sinister purposes outlined below, but its been one of my favourite mixes of the last year or so, so when our friend Solid State from Society in Sheffield said it was no longer available from the Internet…I thought it could have a home here. It might not be ours in property, but its ours in spirit. Arrr. Over to you Mr State…
This mix took shape in Dec 07 after Ichi One asked me to do a mix for the Home Cookin’ site to help promote the Hot Coins EP that was forthcoming on Society Recs. Because of the records I wanted to include in the mix, the final version (my third – or was it fourth? – attempt) incorporates a wide variety of musical moods and eras and was pretty challenging to nail down – I remember the first attempts pretty much resembled a random hotchpotch of old and new records!
Ichi’s HomeCookin’ mixes all are notable for his effortless beatmatching that never seems to hinder his musical ‘story-telling’ ability, so I tried to emulate that here – the mix is really about ‘keeping a flow’ like an HC mix… And from a technical point of view, with all-original vinyl (no quantized edits) that’s sometimes easier said than done.
I used the BPM counter on my old Casio drum machine to help me out, so I knew where I could beat-match tracks. Probably for this reason, after 2 or 3 takes there ended up being definite ‘sections’ to the mix: no mixing at all for the first 3 tracks, then a boogie-bass inclined section keeping a steady 107-110 BPM up to Coppa, Supermax and Mock and Toof , where things take a turn for the weirder… Then I used a sly prod of the tempo slider during a drum break on Ytre Rymden Dansskola to set up the faster, discoid section of the mix, so you dont really notice exact the moment when, all of a sudden, you’re in House Music territory.
Hotcoins is followed by some vintage electronic disco tracks, a nod to Ichi One with his and Justin’s awesome Jinichi edit, and finally Voyage, Kabbala and Osibisa take the disco onto more ‘Afro’ territory before I run out of tape!
By the end, you’ve touched quite a lot of musical bases but hopefully the ride is never jarring and I got the flow I was after – The mix got a great reception so I was chuffed when Cosmic Boogie agreed to help me rescue it from cyber obscurity – Enjoy!
Full Tracklisting
David Bowie / Right
Raydio / More than One Way…
Mona Rae / Do Me
Empire / Freakman
Diva Gray and Hawks / Magic Carpet Ride
General Caine / I’m The Man’ Edit
Coppa / Society Ho’s
Supermax / In The Middle Of the Night
Mock and Toof / K-Choppers
Ytre Rymden / Dansskola Magdala
Hot Coins / NG Style
Gino Soccio / Whodunnit
Barbara Norris / It’s Heavy
Forrrce / Keep On Dubbin
Jinichi / Love Me Longer
Bits and Pieces / Work That Body Inst
Voyage / Ketchak Fantasy
Kabbala / Asho Waro
Osibisa / Jumbo
