Soundhog - musical composition, reappropriation and reproduction.

Ace Of Wands theme tune ('Tarot' by Andrew Bown) - sH Extended Edit

2012-01-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit too young to remember Thames Television's 'spooky' early '70s kids drama 'Ace Of Wands' the first time around (no, really) but I've always loved the theme tune. The work of one Andrew 'Andy' Bown, once a member of '60s heartthrobs The Herd, and future keyboard player for 'The Quo'. He was in a band called Judas Jump at the time of this track, and the sonic qualities of it are very similar to JJ's output, but it's better than anything on their only LP, IMHO (with the exception of the opening cut, perhaps).

Originally a snatch over 2 minutes long, I've somehow managed to almost double it's length (and stuck in a tiny bit of flanging, just for the hell of it). Original 7"s of this are normally well out of my price range, but if anyone's got one going spare..

Andrew Bown - Tarot (Ace Of Wands Theme - Soundhog's Extended Edit) by soundhog

NEU! NEW! NOUVEAU! : Mix90 #6 - "What Would You Do...?"

2012-01-01T05:12:00.000-08:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download from Mediafire

Created & released: December 2011

Tracklisting:

Side 1:
The Assembled Multitude - Overture from 'Tommy'

The Bootles - I'll Let You Hold My Hand

The Shadows - Fourth Street

The Roulettes - Jackpot

Curley Moore & The Cool Ones - Funky Yeah

The Grumbleweeds - Never Before

Gruff Rhys - Patterns Of Power

The Ventures - Mod East

Shonen Knife - Twist Barbie (Moog Cookbook remix)

David Steel & Jesse Rae (ft. Bernie Worrell) - I Feel Liberal : Alright!

Raymond Scott - Portofino #1

Francis Monkman - Current Affairs

Loose Capacitor - Theme from 'Robin's Nest'

Munetaka Inoue & His Sharp Five - Haru No Umi

Side 2:
Van Morrison - Have A Danish

Arzachel - Queen's St. Gang (Soul Thing)

The Soft Machine - As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still

Steve Hillage - Electrick Gypsies

Honey Cone - Sunday Morning People

Rick Jones - Gulliver's Theme

Jim Ford - Dr. Handy's Dandy Candy

The Hunters - The Russian Spy & I

Roger Glover & Friends - Behind The Smile

The School - The One Who Left Me

Endaf Emlyn - Goodbye 'Cherry Lil'

Johnny Silvo - The Paper Song

Kevin Godley - To Fly Away

Jackie Lee - Theme from 'White Horses'

Ron Geesin - Mr. Peugeot's Trot

George Martin & His Orchestra - King's Road Raspberry Parade

The Monkees - Carlisle Wheeling

The Appletree Theatre - What A Way To Go

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Hey, New Year's Eve! Party time! Wahey! Well, not at Chez Soundhog, obviously... so I've put this together for anyone else who isn't out celebrating one arbitrary number changing into another. I bet 2012's gonna be crap. Anyway...

If you've heard any of the other Mix90s, you should have an idea of what to expect. If not, I hope you'll find it an enjoyable experience. Everything in here is great, as far as I'm concerned. Well, there's one track which perhaps isn't, but I put it in anyway, just for the bloody hell of it and for the comedy value. See if you can spot it. Elsewhere there's beat, funk, psych, TV themes, a bit of prog, electronic genius, some hippy nonsense with extra hippies, library music, contractual obligation recordings, Japanese surfadelia, and bits of a 1963 birthday party in Brighton. All chosen and sequenced with a lot more care and attention than you might think, or than anyone else would smother on such a thing. There's method in the madness, you know.

Now, you'd not rather be dancing in a fountain while drunk, would you? Eh? Oh...

Old records and a few pints = THIS

2011-12-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: (download tbc)

Created & released: December 2011

Tracklisting:

Family - Winter
Crazy Elephant - Pam
The Jaggerz - The Rapper
John Barry - Rodeo
Rachel Sweet - B-A-B-Y
The Pathfinders - To Love Somebody
The Five Stairsteps & Cubie - Stay Close To Me
Lulu - The Boat That I Row
David Bowie & The Lower Third - Can't Help Thinking About Me
Cat Stevens - Bitterblue
The Flamin' Groovies - Feel A Whole Lot Better
The Everly Brothers - Love Is Strange
The Open Mind - Cast A Spell
Chicago - 26 Or 6 To 4
The Greatest Little Soul Band In The Land - Something For My People
Etta James - Tell Mama
The Bar Kays - Knucklehead
Phil Upchurch - The Way I Feel
The Shadows Of Knight - Shake
Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus - Quick Joey Small
Ohio Express - Try It
The Monkees - I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
Jacques Dutronc - La Fille Du Père Noël
Os Mutrantes - A Minha Menina
The Dakotas - The Cruel Sea
Y Niwl - Tri
Jerry Keller - Here Comes Summer

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I just realised, I neglected to post this on here, even though it's been on the internet for a couple of weeks. So I'll rectify that. This me and a friend, playing records on record players, fuelled by Guinness and a desire to see what was going to come next. There's no tricky mixing, no uber-raers, no scratching (well, not that kind of scratching, anyway) or any of that shite. Just an hour and a bit of really brilliant music, with each record getting played because it felt like it was the right record to play. There's all sorts in here, although it's got quite a bit of a '60s slant with a fair smattering of soul and a good dollop of Buddah bubblegum. If that sounds like your 'bag', you might like to listen. Well, that's the hope.

In the next programme, we will look at 'reggae'...

2011-11-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

Something you probably missed. In fact I'd go so far as to wager you definitely missed. Robert Popper & Peter Serafinowicz's music for series one of 'Look Around You' was done under the moniker 'Gelg'. Very lovely all of it was, too. But all very short. So, here's my favourite snippet, made longer. It's still short, but not as short as it was... Obviously, for full effect this should be playing on an Akai reel to reel player, with some coloured disco lights shining on it.

Gelg - Reggae (Soundhog Extended Edit) by soundhog

Allez Allez mix. Again...

2011-10-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: August 2011.

Yeah, I know this has been up not long ago, but it turns out that the Allez Allez duo are going their seperate ways and their website is going to vanish very soon. Probably my fault. So, I thought I might as well upload it somewhere else to preserve it for future generations. Yeah, right... Anyway, Mixcloud and download links are above, should you not have heard it already. By my calculations, I'm about 6,789,999,800 listens short of the world's population... this could be an uphill struggle. Shame, as it's quite good.

Tracklisting:

Paul McCartney - Darkroom
Throbbing Gristle - Persuasion (Motor Remix)
Atomic Rooster - The Rock
Meat Beat Manifesto - Guns N' Lovers
10cc - The Worst Band In The World
Serge Gainsbourg - Danger
Tricky - Suffocated Love
Yes - South Side Of The Sky
Manassas - Isn't It About Time?
Reverend Ether - Eighteen Sixty Two B.P.
Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Living Sin
Nasty Habits - Shadow Boxing
The Normal - Warm Leatherette
Cabaret Voltaire - Digital Rasta
Argent - Hold Your Head Up
Frog - Witch Hunt
Add N To (X) - Invasion Of The Polaroid People
Beach Surgeon/Dave Prescott - Mouth Like Homicide
Mandingo - Mandingo
Die Verboten - Live In Eivissa
Edgar Broughton Band - There's No Vibrations, But Wait
MRR-ADM - Untitled 3
Soft Machine - Bone
The Beatles - Helter Skelter (Soundhog Remix)
Paddy Kingsland - Sequence
Frank Zappa - Creationism
Agitation Free - Rucksturz

Mix90 #5 - "...Be Unapproachable..." - NEU! NOUVEAU! NEW!

2011-09-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: September 2011.

After nearly three and a half years, I've decided (for some reason) to do another Mix90 compilation tape. Despite the pathetic amount of listens my other recent uploads have gained, I figured it was worth doing. No, I don't understand that way of thinking either. Anyway...

There's all sorts in here: some great pop music you may not be familiar with, some nice bits of electronic library music, some obscure TV theme and testcard tunes, early '70s rock, a little bit of soul and funk and other lovelies. I've also thrown in a few old radio/TV ads, snips of presentation and other odd little bits and bobs from my ridiculously haphazard archive of sonic stuff. Some of it has been recovered from seriously knackered old audio and video tapes, so I make no apologies for the lack of 'high fidelity' in parts. I also make no apologies for the fact that Neil Innes appears twice.

Listen online in mushy Mixcloud quality, or download two spanking 320kbps mp3 files. Either way is fine with me.

Tracklisting:

Judas Jump - John Brown's Body
The Zipps - Chicks & Kicks
The Move - Beautiful Daughter
Keith Mansfield - Team Work
Bonzo Dog Band - You Done My Brain In
Mr Bloe - 71-75 New Oxford Street
The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds - Taurus
The Horn The Hunt - Old Town Cow
The Models - Bend Me, Shape Me
Colin Blunstone - Andorra
Deirdre Wilson Tabac - Get Back
Denton & Cook - Quiller (sH edit)
Jan Hammer Group - Don't You Know
Anthony More - Industrial Drums

Jonsey - Ricochet
Nucleus - Song For The Bearded Lady
Certain Lions & Tigers - El Soul Condor
Voices Of East Harlem - Wanted Dead Or Alive
Richard Schneider Jr. - Samba Trip
Theme - Paint Along With Nancy
Claude Denjan - Kiss This
Jeff Britton & The Spitfires - Rub Out
Neil Innes - Hard To Get
Peter Howell - The Shock Of The New
The Advisory Circle - Modern Through Movement
Blossom Dearie - I Like London In The Rain
Pat Prilly - Sky Rocket
Cliff Hammer & His Golden Spinnet - Dancing On A Saturday Night
Herman's Hermits - It's Alright Now
Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra (ft. Sam Browne) - Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You)

Record to a low noise C90 compact cassette for best effect, and keep Dolby noise reduction switched off.

New mix! No, seriously... @ http://allez-allez.co.uk

2011-08-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

I asked the chaps at Allez-Allez if they'd like me to do something for their blog. They said 'yes', so I did. And it took ages to do. But it's done, and it's online. You can download it in zingy 320kbps mp3 quality from their website, http://allez-allez.co.uk ... It's an odd one, quite dark in tone which was probably reflecting my general mood when making it. A good head-nodder, though. If you like it, let me know, let them know and perhaps let other people know. Who knows, I might do another one at some point. Oi, stop laughing.

Tracklisting:

Paul McCartney - Darkroom
Throbbing Gristle - Persuasion (Motor Remix)
Atomic Rooster - The Rock
Meat Beat Manifesto - Guns N' Lovers
10cc - The Worst Band In The World
Serge Gainsbourg - Danger
Tricky - Suffocated Love
Yes - South Side Of The Sky
Manassas - Isn't It About Time?
Reverend Ether - Eighteen Sixty Two B.P.
Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Living Sin
Nasty Habits - Shadow Boxing
The Normal - Warm Leatherette
Cabaret Voltaire - Digital Rasta
Argent - Hold Your Head Up
Frog - Witch Hunt
Add N To (X) - Invasion Of The Polaroid People
Beach Surgeon/Dave Prescott - Mouth Like Homicide
Mandingo - Mandingo
Die Verboten - Live In Eivissa
Edgar Broughton Band - There's No Vibrations, But Wait
MRR-ADM - Untitled 3
Soft Machine - Bone
The Beatles - Helter Skelter (Soundhog Remix)
Paddy Kingsland - Sequence
Frank Zappa - Creationism
Agitation Free - Rucksturz

Liqud Radio Mix (2003)

2011-08-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: 2003

Tracklisting:
Uncanny Alliance - I Got My Education

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Indian Ropeman

Missy Elliott - For My People

Landscape - Einstein A Go-Go

Danni Minogue - I Begin To Wonder

Goldfrapp - Train (Ewan Pearson 4/4 Instrumental)

Whitney Houston - It's Not Right But It's Okay

Dee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart

Spirit - Fresh Garbage

Basement Jaxx - Do Your Thing

Jaydee - Plastic Dreams

Shannon - Let The Music Play

M*A*R*Y - 73 Club

Rocker's Revenge - Walking On Sunshine

Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Bennett - The Name Of The Game

Beyonce Knowles - Work It Out

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More old shit. This was done in mid 2003, for someone I used to get on with, when he used to guest on a programme that used to be broadcast on a radio station that used to exist. This was a mix made out of several unfinished ideas, rather than something meticulously worked out, and just poppy dancey fluff really, but a reminder of a time when all this was up for grabs... I should've grabbed it, eh?

Helter Skelter - Soundhog Remix

2011-05-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Mop-tops material always seems to bring out the worst in those with negligible talent to start with, for some reason. I didn't realise that the various tracks from the 'Rock Band' game had been doing the rounds, until I started to notice a trickle, then a flood of utterly shit remixes and m@$hups featuring The Fab Four starting to pollute various areas of the internet. So, I tried to make something worthwhile instead. One for those who like very loud drums... and lots of them. I ended up with a right headache after working on this for two nights...

Frank Sidebottom's alter ego does the ZX81 / 7" single interface thing...

2011-04-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Something which isn't mine (at all), but I did put the component parts together after doing a load of work. Here's a video, and below I'll tell you all about it...

In 1983, Chris Sievey (soon to find fame as Frank Sidebottom, and formerly of The Freshies) released a 7" single on his own Random Records label. The A-side was the song 'Camouflage'. Chris had recently started programming on the Sinclair ZX81 home computer, as so many of us did at the time, and included three of his programs on Side-B of the 7", as audio data recordings - exactly as they would sound when saved onto a cassette for storage. Apparently the single got reissued on EMI soon after, but I've never seen a copy. Anyway...

Two of the programs were versions of a game called Flying Train, for the 1K and 16K machine respectively. (Note: contrary to what's been written several times on the internetover the years , the ZX Spectrum version of Flying Train was never pressed onto vinyl. Sievey distributed this on cassette, probably for the reasons alluded to below, and would chuck in a copy of the single as well...)

The third file was an animated (albeit very basic, and BASIC) pop video for the song on Side-A. I'd seen this demonstrated on TV some time after its release, possibly on Whistle Test, alongside Pete Shelley's XL-1 which came out in 1983 as well. I never tracked a copy of the record down at the time. Nearly 30 years later, I found an unplayed 7" on eBay (the seller seems to have a few of them, in fact, at the time of writing), so set to work.

Quite a few people experimented with cutting computer data tones into vinyl, or even flexidiscs, in the early 1980s. The success rate of loading any of these was pretty bloody dismal, and there are letters/articles bemoaning that fact in several of the computer magazines of the day. One scratch, mark or even a bad mastering/cutting job at the pressing plant would scupper everything. In this case, even though the record was effectively new, it still needed a good clean (using PVA glue, my weapon of choice) to remove some muck lodged in the groove before I could get a good enough recording of the data with no odd noises, pops or clicks. I then had to filter off the unwanted frequencies at either end, fiddle with the levels and blah blah blah.

The program had to be run on an emulator on the PC, as my ZX81's 16K RAM pack went missing in the last ice age. The visuals didn't sync up with the music at all, probably as a result of the emulator not being 100% accurate, so I chopped, stretched and edited it all over to (hopefully) fit properly, as Mr. Sievey had intended. It may not be the most sophisticated bit of computer animation you'll see today, but this was visionary stuff nonetheless... You know it is. It really is.

Historia De La Musica Rock (2002 to 2004)

2011-03-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I might as well upload this I suppose... This is a collection of some of the 'bastard pop bootleg things' I used to do in the first half of the last decade. I did my initial ones sometime in 2001 (so, happy 10th anniversary to me, eh? Puh...) but none of them were 'good' enough to make it in here. In fact, when I put this compilation together back in 2007, I was already struggling to find 20 tracks out of the 100 or so I'd done by that point which I could still listen to without cringing. Today, that number is much, much smaller... but compared to the m@$hup crap that people churn out these days, they're all gold standard. The Depeche Mode remix at the end might be my favourite thing I've ever done, actually. I don't look anything like I do in the 'cover' photo anymore, by the way, and that Mercedes is long gone as well... shame, it was rather ace. Anyway, it's here and all free and that, so if you fancy hearing what my idea of what the 'bootleg scene' was/should have been about, click below...

Tracklisting: 52 Scrubs (Live At The Ruthin Enormodome), The Without Me Song, The Doves Are Mine, A Day In Tracy's Life, Black Freak, (Are You Gonna Be My) Dirrty Girrl?, An Egyptian Trick, One Phat Breeda, Charly's Anthem, I Feel You Really Caught Me On Edge, Bad Grey Rocker Girls, Double Freak, Slow (Remix), Hot Shots, Crazy Dick, Ein Atomkitten In Einem Kraftwerk, Shansun, Tainted Beyonce, Thinking Of No-One, Enjoy The Silence (Float Mix)

Link: Download (Mediafire)

.ZIP file, 122mb. All tracks in mp3 format at 192kbps CBR.

Edwyn Collins + Goldfrapp + video = OMG VIDM@$Hez!!

2011-02-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

Even though the actual track didn't exactly get much of a reaction, which I should have expected, I've wasted even more of what little remains of my life by putting the below visual accompaniment together. So...

Imagine Goldfrapp & Edwyn Collins were making records in early 1969 (they weren't).

Imagine they made one together - vocals from her, music by him and his band (they didn't).

Imagine she went on the BBC1 pop programme 'Beatscene' - which never existed - to promote it (she didn't).

Imagine the 2" 405 line VT master was wiped, like most of the BBC's 1960s pop music coverage, and the only surviving copy was on a 16mm telerecording (it wasn't).

Imagine it was dug up by BBC2 for their 1991 retrospective series 'Sounds Of The Sixties' (it wasn't).

Imagine the show was repeated by BBC Four in the early 2000s (it wasn't... well, it was but it wasn't, y' know).

Well, it might have looked and sounded something like this:

Now, if I'd only badly sync'd up some live Beatles footage to some dance track or other instead, I'd be an internet sensation. Ah well. Sod it. I'll never learn...

*mp3 download* http://www.mediafire.com/?8e8yta58wz3y62r

Theme from 'Quiller' - Soundhog Extended Edit

2011-02-19T03:49:00.000-08:00

Another previously unreleased 'gem' from the vaults. Richard Denton & Martin Cook were responsible for some of the most memorable BBC TV theme tunes in the '70s and early '80s... think The Great Egg Race, Tomorrow's World etc. And there's this, the theme for a 1975 adaptation of Elleston Trevor's Quiller thrillers. Originally a shade under 3 minutes long, I've done my trademark stretchy-out type stuff on an absolute masterpiece of brassy '70s synthy spy funk. Edited quite well, I think. You could pass it around if you like it... maybe blog about it, if you do such things? I dunno... it'd be nice to get heard for a change.

Remember when this used to be fun?

2011-02-05T04:07:00.000-08:00

I should really put a quick note here, informing you that the old Freelance Hairdresser tracks of mine are online again, thanks to Soundcloud. Pop here now and listen to the products of a time when I actually had a sense of humour left. Many of these things became more notorious than my 'serious' work, much to my chagrin... I should'a stuck them out as Soundhog tracks, that's what I should'a done. An example:

One song to the tune of another...

2011-01-20T06:58:00.000-08:00

Something I did last summer, and promptly forgot about until now. Goldfrapp and Edwyn Collins combine forces to create a '60s pop smash that never existed. This is not a m@$hup - it's far too good for that nasty little label, thank you very much.

Alternate download link, now that Soundcloud is maxed out: http://www.mediafire.com/?8e8yta58wz3y62r

Mix90 - #1, #3 and #4 re-released.

2011-01-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be nice to reupload the other three episodes in the short-lived (but it's six hours worth of stuff) Mix90 series, which I did a few years ago for some reason or other. Originally I'd intended to do some sort of, ahem, 'podcast' - i.e. more like a radio show - but despite having notched up something like 20 hours of talking on the actual BBC type radio about music and records over the last few years, I'm still not very good at it and I just can't stand the sound of my own voice. I'm not the only one, either. Ha ha. So, they're strictly me-less.

Each is a 2x45 minute rampage through my record, tape and mp3 collection, taking in all the things which make me glad that my ears still just about work. Krautrock, TV themes, psychedelia, library music, easy listening, avant garde, freakbeat, moogy blues, post punk, electronic weirdness, prog, beat, and good old fashioned pop music, with more besides. If you don't like any of those sorts of things (which is unthinkable to my mind but it does happen, and I've got the e-mails to prove it) then you'd best stop reading now, and go looking for some m@$hup crap or something elsewhere.

However if you do like those sort of things, or are just willfully open minded, I don't think you'll find many duffers in here. This is the sort of music which doesn't send me diving for the radio/TV 'off' button, doesn't force me into leaving a shop without buying what I went in there for when it comes blaring over the PA system, and doesn't send me into a mad shouty rage directed at the nearest unfortunate human, even if they weren't personally responsible for the assault on my hearing. There's way too much noise in the world these days. Music should be something to be enjoyed, not endured.

There's no clever digital stretchy-wankery involved here, just some deft edits, interesting juxtapositions and tunes that go nicely with one other. There are also some little curios - old adverts, bits of TV continuity, pirate radio broadcasts and other aural oddities - dotted around and about, as an added bonus of sorts. It's all part of what makes me the person I am. Yeah, well...

I won't type out the tracklistings here as you can see them on the inlay cards beneath (click on the images for bigger versions if you can't read them). There were also supposed to be extensive typed 'sleevenotes' about each track featured, rather than me bumbling on for ages in front of a microphone, but I only did this for mixes #2 and #3, spending bloody hours on them. By the time #4 rolled around, the lack of any response to what I was doing ensured I couldn't be arsed anymore. You'll find the text files in the download .zips of those mixes. Don't take everything I write as gospel, though. I don't quite know everything, so some details may be incorrect... but that doesn't bother most people who spout off about various subjects on the internet, so sod it.

The Mixcloud versions do sound pretty rotten I'm afraid, due to the low quality mp3s I had to transcode them into to get under the 100mb limit, but they should be ok for background listening. The mp3 downloads are 192kbps, so a much nicer experience all 'round. Your choice, should you choose to listen at all. You'll find #2 here, by the way, if you've not already got it and fancy the complete set. Right, without further ado, let's party.

Mix90 #1

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: October 2007.

Mix90 #3

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: December 2007.

Mix90 #4

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: February 2008.

Quick note: People that I'm not...

2011-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

I've had a couple of people asking if I really like X, or really said Y on various parts of the internet. Well, it would seem that my 'nom de plume', after 10 years of me being the only one using it, has suddenly become slightly popular. So, I just thought I should make it clear that I am not:

'Soundhog' on Twitter.
'Soundhog' on Last FM (a fan of The Wildhearts - like, duh.)
'Soundhog' on Rap Vault (forum)
'Soundhog' on 'Back To The Old Skool' (forum)
'Soundhog' of 'Smithmonger & Soundhog' (Discogs: take note.)

Nor am I an 'app' for a mobile phone which tells you what horrible record you're being subjected to in the local pub, a silencer for a gun, or indeed a club for Harley Davidson owners.

If any more turn up I'll amend the list accordingly. Ok? Good. As you were.

The Soundhog Didn't Quite Make It In Time For Christmas 2010 Party Mix

2010-12-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: December 2010

Tracklisting:
Ben Rymer - La Trinciarice
D-Train - You're The One For Me (Paul Hardcastle Remix)
Gramme - Rough News
Patti Jo - Make Me Believe In You (Tom Moulton Remix)
Faust - T-Electronique (Ware Remix)
The Ragga Twins Feat. Junior Reid - Shine Eye
The Phenomenal Handclap Band - 15 To 20 (Soundhog Remix)
Mother's Finest - Dis Go Dis Way, Dis Go Dat Way
Hot Chip - One Life Stand (Carl Craig Pcp Remix)
Flash & The Pan - Waiting For A Train
Ledernacken - Ich Will Dich Essen
Sweet Exorcist - Testone
Lone - Moon Beam Harp
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Bjørke & Barfod - Superbacon
Rheingold - Dreiklangs Dimensionen
Lcd Soundsystem - You Wanted A Hit
Saint Etienne - She's The One (Richard X Remix)
Depeche Mode - Further Excerpts From My Secret Garden
The Adaptor - Benetti
The Human League - Night People
Teamy - Megasnake #6
Shy Fx - Raver (Breakage Pattern Moschino Remix)
Stereolab - Silver Sands (Emperor Machine Remix)
The Fall - Bury Parts 2 & 4
Frank Sidebottom - Anarchy In Timperley

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The original idea for this was to do a quick DJ-style mix of some of the music I'd really liked in 2010, as some sort of a 'internet gift' gesture to all the lunatics who still give half a shit about what I do (or don't do, more accurately). That idea didn't last long, as I soon realised new music in 2010 had almost completley passed me by. So I've thrown a few recent tunes in with a load of old ones, stirred it up overnight, shoved it into a limiter for 10 minutes and here's the result.

This is not 'Radio Soundhog Vol. 8', as that will never exist. This is probably the nearest thing I've done to a "regular dance music mix", so apologies to those expecting intricate cut and paste shizzle, but that's not to say that some bits aren't put together in a way that nobody else could. Or would want to? I've no idea. There are also nods to some people who left the planet in 2010 who meant a lot to me. Play it loud, play it drunk, but don't let the pips get stuck in your ears.

/ ben sH - 26/12/2010

Human League remix thing...

2010-12-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

...of their new record. 'Released' the other day, to no interest whatsoever, as per fucking usual. It's very long, and probably too slow, at 120bpm, to get the drug-addled kids of 2010 throwing shapes on the dancefloors of the world. I'm very out of touch, and frankly I prefer it that way. It also features a chorus of singing synthesizer ducks, and Phil Oakey doing an impression of a Dalek doing an impression of Phil Oakey. I really know how to sell stuff, eh?

Mix90 #2 - "...I Do What I Do, Indeed I Do..."

2010-10-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created & released: November 2007.

Tracklisting:
Steve Miller Band - Good Morning
Lighthouse - Love Of A Woman
Spooky Tooth - Waiting For The Wind
Family - The Weaver's Answer
Egg - A Visit To Newport Hospital
Touch - Down At Circe's Place
East Of Eden - Northern Hemisphere
The Sorrows - Take A Heart
Ambrose Slade - Knocking Nails Into My House
Cat Stevens - Granny
Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind
Buffalo Springfield - Rock & Roll Woman
Bonzo Dog Band - What Do You Do
Godley & Creme - dialogue excerpt from 'Consequences'
The Fairytale - Guess I Was Dreaming
White Noise - Your Hidden Dreams
Manfred Mann Chapter III - One Way Glass (Soundhog Extended-Edit)
Frank McDonald & Chris Rae - Power Surge
Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good (acoustic)
Georg 'Jojje' Wadenius - Kalles klätterträd
The Shadows - The War Lord
The Moody Blues - Go Now
Vince Guaraldi - It's Your Dog, Charlie Brown
Stereolab - Ping Pong
The United States Of America - The American Metaphysical Circus
Kling Klang - Radium
The Soft Machine - We Did It Again
Touch - Down At Circes Place
The Electric Light Orchestra - First Movement
Mary Hopkin - Earth Song
Sleeve notes >>>

Record to a low noise C90 compact cassette for best effect, and keep
Dolby noise reduction switched off.

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Track notes, Side 1:

Steve Miller Band - Good Morning

Some people call him the Space Cowboy. Some people call him The Gangster Of Love. Some people call him the bloke who did that "Abracadabra" record. Let's get going with the opening track from Steve Miller's fifth album, entitled (ooh!) Number 5. Miller was given his first guitar lessons by the legendary Les Paul, and formed The Steve Miller Blues Band in the late '60s, with his school friend Boz Scaggs in its ranks. The first few albums were a bit of an unsatisfying experience, bogged down in studio trickery and the typical San Franciscan acid flourishes of the time. Number 5, released in 1970, started the upturn with stronger writing and more direct (but never dull) production. Three years later "The Joker" would see Miller's career enter a new phase.

Lighthouse - Love Of A Woman

Lighthouse were Canada's answer to the late '60s "brass rock" trend, epitomised by the likes of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. The band first came together in Toronto in 1968/1969 and lasted until 1976, during which an unbelievable number of musicians had passed through the group... over 20 horn players for a start. "Love Of A Woman" opens their eponymous 1969 first album, and is as good a track as most in its field (although I personally can only handle so much). They reformed in the '80s for a short while, and I believe they still have a devout following in their home country.

Spooky Tooth - Waiting For The Wind

Spooky Tooth's roots go back to 1963, when a local R&B band "The VIPs" came together. After a few ears they changed their name to "Art", got signed to the rapidly evolving Island label, and released one of the first genuine UK psychedelic albums "Supernatural Fairy Tales". Soon after, with the addition of American Gary Wright on addtional vocals and keyboards, the band mutated into Spooky Tooth.

Their first album pushed a bit further than 'straight' psych, but 1969's "Spooky Two", from which this track is taken, completed the transformation into grinding riff heavyweights. After a less than wholly successful collaboration with French electronic composer Pierre Henry, the band split. They were back together soon enough, but the line up was constantly hanging, and by their final album in 1974 only Gary Wright was left from the original fivesome. Wright would later have a huge FM radio hit with "Dreamweaver".

Family - The Weaver's Answer

Another R&B band who changed with the tides in the late '60s, Family originally hailed from Leicester, where they had once been local heroes "The Farinas". A bit of an acquired taste perhaps, mostly due to Roger Chapman's distinctive vocal style, but the band were well respected in the 'underground' scene and made quite a few impressions on the UK charts. Again, their first album was full on head-spinning psychedelia for the most part, and by the second album "Entertainment" had branched out into more 'progressive' directions.

"The Weaver's Answer" kicks the album off, and pretty much became the band's signature song. Writer, harmonica and sax player Jim King was asked to leave soon after (bass player Ric Gretch also jumped ship, joining the ill-fated supergroup Blind Faith) and the music changed again. The had a few single hits, and subsequent albums did well enough, but they never really recaptured the eclectic spark of the first two LPs. They finally called it a day in 1973.

Egg - A Visit To Newport Hospital

Egg were one of the most unusual sounding bands to come out of the 1969-1972 era. Originally a four-piece, featuring Steve Hillage on guitar, but when he left the band at the start of 1969 the remaining three decided to carry on, changing their name in the process. The four did reunite later that year, and recorded an album as 'Arzachel' using pseudonyms. Egg recorded three albums between 1969 and 1972, although the final of these didn't see the light of day until 1974.

With a total lack of electric guitar, heavily multitracked keyboard parts and a bewlindering array of constantly changing time signatures, they were hardly commercial material - in fact their record label were reluctant to put out the second album "The Polite Force" after poor sales of the first (although Decca's rubbish promotional activities didn't really help). "A Visit To Newport Hospital" is the first track on that album, part ultra-sludge-riff, part dazzling melody, with lyrics that recount the early days of the band. Unfortunately I've had to cut the track down so much (it's over eight minutes long) I've had to lose all the vocal sections, so you'd better seek out the album to get the full picture!

Keyboard player and vocalist Dave Stewart later joined Hatfield & The North, and would have a No.1 UK hit a few years later with a version of "It's My Party", alongside Barbera Gaskin (who was a backing singer in the Hatfields...) The two still record together, providing music for many of Victor Lewis-Smith's TV and radio productions, and Stewart was responsible for producing 'Neil's Heavy Concept Album', starring Nigel Planer as his Young Ones character in a lovely send up ofpast-their-sell-by-date hippie-isms.

Touch - Down At Circe's Place

Touch only recorded one album, which saw the light of day in 1969. The band were brainchild of Don Gallucci, who had been the keyboard player responsible for driving The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" into every home in America in 1964, and his next band 'Don & The Good Times' decided to record 'the ultimate recorded psychedelic experience'. They spent most of 1968 holed up in a run down mansionhouse, working on their epic. But by the end of the project the money had run out, they were burning the furniture and fittings to keep warm, and the album had missed its moment in the cosmic scheme of things. Nobody noticed it, let alone bought it, and Galucci moved into production for Elektra, the second Stooges album "Fun House" probably being his best known achievement in that role..

The Touch album actually turned out to be a bit of a flawed masterpiece, with "Down At Circe's Place" the most striking track on it. This first part is brilliantly bombastic, but we're only just getting started...

East Of Eden - Northern Hemisphere

Bristol based, but with members from all over the country, East Of Eden were one of the "head's favourites" in the late '60s and early '70s. Combining many influences, with studio experimentation and Dave Arbus' wild violin playing, they were a tricky group to pin down. Their sole hit in 1970 was "Jig-A-Jig", which was a fairly straight instrumental fiddly-diddly number, but carried off with great style and a fantastic break in the middle which I'm amazed hasn't been sampled to death(my 2004 Rinse Mix features a rare instance of me doing 'turntablism stuff' with two 7" copies, by the way...) Arbus contributed his fiddling to The Who's evergreen "Baba O'Riley" in 1971, but EastOf Eden were finished by the mid '70s.

The Sorrows - Take A Heart

If you're after a definition of what was coined 'freakbeat' in the 1980s, this isn't a bad place to look. Coventry's Sorrows played R&B with an aggressive, distorted edge - too much for the R&B and pop record buying crowds of the time, even with the likes of The Pretty Things tearing up the scene - and "Take A Heart" manages to translate all of that onto vinyl. Vocalist Don Fardon would have chart success a few years later with the singles "Indian Reservation" and "Belfast Boy".

Ambrose Slade - Knocking Nails Into My House

Long before Slade became one of the biggest, and most underrated, bands of the 1970s glam explosion and beyond, they were a hard-nosed Wolverhampton R&B combo known as The N'Betweens. Relying heavily on covers, the changed their name to Ambrose Slade, signed to Fontana Records in 1968, and delivered them album "Beginnings" the following year. Many tracks suffer from over (or under) ambitiousproduction, such as the almost-classic opening instrumental "Genesis", but some tracks worked well. These included versions of The Mothers Of Invention's "Ain't Got No Heart", and this track.

Penned by future Move and ELO frontman (and fellow West-Midlander) Jeff Lynne, and originally recorded by his band of the time "The Idle Race", it's a great bubblegum psych song. Should have been a hit. Twice. Chas Chandler (ex-Animals bassist and Hendrix manager) was watching. The Ambrose would soon be ditched, the long hair shaved off (for a while) and Slade went back to basics, resulting in a total domination of Top Of The Pops between 1971 and 1974, and *that* bloody Christmas song.

Cat Stevens - Granny

In modern times he's an envoy for Allah. In the 1970s he was a thought provoking singer songwriting megastar, his bearded image hanging on the bedroom wall of almost every 18-23 year old girl in the country. In 1966, he was a self-assured pop genius. Classic songs seemed to fall from his pen effortlessly - Matthew & Son, I Love My Dog, I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun, The First Cut Is The Deepest... er... The Laughing Apple? Well, nobody's perfect. With the production and arranging skills of Mike Hurst (one time member of The Springfields), top notch Decca studios and session players, he couldn't fail.

Unfortunately the relentless treadmill of the pop industry, and the partying that goes with it, quickly took it's toll on the young Steven Georgiou. He contracted tuberculosis, and spent many reflective months in hospital. The Cat Stevens that emerged was a much changed person, both personally and musically, and ironically became a yet bigger success. However, his earlier work still shines brightly when it gets the chance. 'Granny', from his first album, is as good an example as any.

Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind

An instant convert to the call of the 1962 blues scene, Dana found herself romantically attached for a short time to some bloke called Bob Dylan, during his first visit to the UK. Through this, she got closer to folk music, struck up a friendship with Donovan and started recording. By 1966 she was making accomplished records in both genres, and this Donovan-penned, Jimmy Page produced track is an absolute stormer. She would later appear on the West End stage in Jesus ChristSuperstar, sing backing vocals for David Bowie's most defining albums, and is still a top attraction in blues clubs across the country.

Buffalo Springfield - Rock & Roll Woman

One of the most pivotal groups from the West Coast music scene in the mid 1960s. Featuring Stephen Stills and Neil Young, they had a short and fractious existence (just over two years in total), and the band was already in tatters by the time their second album "Again" came out at the end of 1967. A sprawling and disparate collection of songs, with every band member pulling in seemingly opposite directions, in fact Young's two tracks on the LP were recorded without the rest of the band's input. Even so, the album has many high points, of which this is one.

Bonzo Dog Band - What Do You Do

Forming in 1962 at art school, and taking their inspiration from early 20th century British lunacy, horn gramophones and straw boaters, the Bonzos were one of the most original, distinctive and downright brilliant groups the world has ever seen. Their early recordings were covers of discarded 78 RPM shellac discs, one of the many remnants from the era of the British Empire, which were easy to come by in post-war junk shops. This combination of trad-jazz and silly behaviour formed the basis for their own compositions and the resulting album "Gorilla" in 1967, but they soonstarted jetting off into other territories.

By 1969 the fun had worn thin, and the album "Keynsham" has a strange bleakness about it. The humour is often dark, the sounds often aching. It's a fascinating and rewarding listen from start to finish, and Neil Innes' "What Do You Do" should touch the soul of anyone actually in possession of one. The surviving members of the band recently got back together, with help from some celebrity admirers (including Stephen Fry, which says it all as far as I'm concerned) and they've still "got it". Seek out everything they ever did. That's not a suggestion, it's an order.

Godley & Creme - dialogue excerpt from 'Consequences'

I can't even begin to describe Consequences here. Suffice to say it's a a triple concept album that tells the story of nature's fight back against mankind. G&C spent two years locked in a studio with a massive supply of dope (not a lazy TEH DRUGS!! observation, Kevin Godley is on record as saying so), surrounded by piles of tape loops and other gadgetry, and the godlike genius Peter Cook plays Mr. Blint.

The Fairytale - Guess I Was Dreaming

Another short lived band form the class of '67, The Fairytale hailed from Warrington, Lancashire. They managed to release two singles over the course of August and September of that year, both accomplished slices of psychedelic pop (with this track, the first A side of the two) featuring some wonderfully doomy piano to pepper the trip with a dark edge. Neither single was a hit, and when the stark black and white realities of 1968 began to club the previous year's technicolour dreams into a bloody red pulp, the band disappeared.

White Noise - Your Hidden Dreams

Take two employees of the BBC's legendary Radiophonic Workshop, add one American visionary, a jazz drummer, some inexperienced vocalists, a couple of hundred miles of 1/4" recording tape, some bespoke electronics, a few dozen razor blades and £2000 of Island Records' money. What do you get? Possibly the biggest sonic headfuck of 1969, that's what. The RW's Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson were already moonlighting on other projects away from their day jobs, and when they met up with classical musician and physicist David Vorhaus, things got really serious.

Many hours work followed, chopping up and processing both electronic and organic sounds using magnetic tape, and reassembling these elements into (almost) conventional music. They took the masters to Chris Blackwell at Island, hoping for perhaps a 7" single release. Blackwell threw them a cheque and told them to make a full LP. The threesome went into overdrive, taking their experimentation as far as possible. The results ranged from twisted three minute pop songs to a ten minute stereophonic epic about a motorcycle crash and a girl being visited by the ghost of the rider. After a year, Island got worried, and insisted the album was finished and delivered to them yesterday, so the remaining time on the vinyl was filled up with a quickly assembled, yet unbelievably intense, sonic picture of "An Electric Storm" in hell - which also gave the LP its title.

Not exactly a chart stormer on initial release, this is an album that has spread by word of mouth over the almost-40 years since its first release. Superficially some tracks sound amateurish (mainly due to the vocals), and 'Here Come The Fleas' is downright comedic. But tracks such as The Visitation, An Electric Storm and Your Hidden Dreams are a different matter entirely. The work involved in producing the tracks almost beggars belief today. Every note you hear on this bassline is a separate, small length of recording tape (eight inches at the most, probably), carefully measured and stuck with sticky tape onto the previous one. And that's just the bassline. No wonder it took a year. But sometimes, the extra effort involved in working with such "outmoded" technology produced results far beyond the scope of what most of us could accomplish with all the digital wonderment of today. It all boils down to ideas and talent...

Manfred Mann Chapter III - One Way Glass (Soundhog Extended-Edit)

After six years of being pop chart stars, the band that keyboard player Manfred Mann gave his name o had had enough. The members scattered to various projects during 1969, with Mann and his longest musical collaborator Mike Hugg (vibes, drums) getting on board the 'progressive' bus and forming Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Two albums resulted, released in 1969 and 1970 respectively.

They were not huge sellers, and Mann latter commented that it was a deliberate over-reaction to everything they'd done before, but the better deals that were forged in this "new era" of pop music meant that they could continue with their chosen paths. Chapter Three disbanded in 1971, and Mann went on to greater success with various incarnations of this "Earth Band". One Way Glass is taken from the first Chapter Three album, and I've taken the liberty of extending it's awesome bass/drum groove by a minute or two and adding some little effects here and there. It's what I do...

Frank McDonald & Chris Rae - Power Surge

Hopefully this should be instantly recogniseable (in style, at least) to any fan of 'gritty' 1970s TV dramas like The Sweeney. A short but perfectly formed slice of heavy library music from the coffers of the legendary De Wolfe label. The drums continue as...

Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good (acoustic)

...plays. I'm expecting some people are baulking at the very idea of Nik Kershaw, but you'd be idiots or uneducated snobs to do so. Stripped of its '80s production (although frankly that's not even necessary), 'Wouldn't It Be Good' reveals itself as a pop song of the highest order in this version from 1999. Kershaw has been releasing some top notch albums over the past few years which haven't had a sniff of the recognition they deserved, while Kershaw did his very best to avoid having to peddle on the ironic 1980s nostalgia scene doing the rounds. Ok, so 'The Riddle' is pretty annoying (and means fuck all, as we all suspected and Nik recently confirmed) but just shut up and let this tune play - it's bloody great.

Georg 'Jojje' Wadenius - Kalles klätterträd

Wadenius first came to prominence in his native Sweden in the late 1960s, writing a clutch of children's songs while also being a constantly in-demand session uitarist. He moved to the USA in the early '70s, joining Blood, Sweat & Tears (that's the second time they've been mentioned... oof!) and later becoming part of the house band on post-Python comedy show Saturday Night Live, while remaining as in-demand as ever as a session-er well into the early 1990s. He now runs his own studio in Oslo.

'Kalles klätterträd' may not mean much to that many people outside of Sweden, it's the theme tune to a 1969 children's animated cartoon series of the same name. However, that cartoon series was actually shown in the UK in the late 1970s, with an English voiceover by ex-Goodie Graeme Garden, and retitled "Charlie's Climbing Tree". Well, I always remembered it, and I always remembered its terrific theme tune. So here it is. I just wish it was longer.

The Shadows - The War Lord

It comes as a surprise to many to find out just what a big deal The Shadows were in the pre-Beatles days of the early 1960s. After starting life as Cliff Richard's band (originally called The Drifters, name changed for obvious reasons) they struck out as a group in their own right with the 1960 smash 45 "Apache". For the next couple of years or so, they were not only Britain's foremost instrumental group, they were Britain's foremost group "period", as an American person might say. Foot Tapper, Shindig, FBI, Kon-Tiki, Man Of Mystery, Dance On... top notch guitar twang-a-thons, every single one of 'em. The band suffered changes in the rhythm section on a few occasions, but the core duo of hank and Bruce kept it together.

As Merseybeat started to destroy everything in it's way in 1963, The Shads started singing on a few numbers, and although their power was dented somewhat, they managed to hit the top 20 singles chart with a pretty good regularity. However by the end of '65 things were changing too much, and although they continued as a popular band until 1968 the end was inevitable, and they split up at the end of the year on their 10th anniversary - although the band minus Bruce Welch did record one album and undertake a Japanese tour under the Shadows name in '69, but this was purely for financial purposes and not considered a successful artistic venture.

The band reformed and split in various capacities during the '70s to the '90s, at times recording some worthwhile tracks, and other times pissing on their legacy from a great height. In the '80s they left EMI for the Polydor label, but EMI wouldn't relinquish their back catalogue. This resulted in the band re-recording a good chunk of their '60s output for repackaging purposes - they probably did their best, but the results sound shit, digital and lifeless compared to the real
deal. Proof (as if it were needed) comes in this track from 1965, in proper loud mono, which turned out to be their last top 20 hit of the decade - showing the band could get as heavy and powerful as anyone else at the time, jingle bells notwithstanding.

The Moody Blues - Go Now

Talking of Birmingham, here's the first single from that city's first R&B/pop/rock band to really hit big nationally (and internationally). The original Moody Blues were an outright R&B band, featuring future Wings member Denny Laine on vocals and guitar. They missed with their first single, but their second went all the way to the top. "Go Now" is a cover version, the original version being recorded by American singer Bessie Banks earlier in 1964, and possibly holds the title of the most distorted recording of the era. Not ideal for hi-fi listening perhaps, but it sounds pretty good when you listen to an original 7" on a period 'portable' record player and crank it right up.

After this major success, things didn't really work out. Subsequent singles failed to chart, the debut album didn't do that well, and the band lost members like TNT Carriers lose confidential government data CDs today. That'll date these notes... Anyway, the core of the band recruited new members and battled on, but by the end of '66 they were reduced to playing chicken-in-a-basket cabaret clubs. However they still owed Decca one album on their contract, and a fair bit of cash. A plan to quickly cut a pop version of Dvorak's 'New World Symphony' was jettisoned in favour of some new material they'd been working on, a Mellotron keyboard gave the single "Nights In White Satin" a certain something, and The Moody Blues quickly became one of the biggest groups of the late '60s and '70s. Funny how things work out sometimes.

Vince Guaraldi - It's Your Dog, Charlie Brown

Vince Guaraldi was already a popular and well respected jazz musician in 1963, when he got a call from Bill Melendez asking if he'd consider scoring an upcoming documentary featuring Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" characters. Guaraldi obliged, and although that 1963 film never made it to air at the time (now out on DVD) the relationship was cemented. Starting with 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' in 1965, and continuing right up to 'It's Arbor Day' in 1976, Guaraldi delivered the perfect soundtrack to each animated special.

Originally the works were strictly acoustic jazz, but in the early '70s he expanded his choice of instruments to include electric guitar and piano, with some scores featuring a serious funk influence (such as the criminally unavailable soundtracks to 'There's No Time For Love' and 'It's A Mystery'). Guaraldi's premature death in 1976 brought an abrupt halt to things, he died a few hours after completing the 'Arbor Day' soundtrack, aged 47. The animations continued, but the soundtracks supplied by later composers such as Ed Bogas were absolute crap - corny and kiddie, the very things that Guaraldi's work wasn't.

This track is from a 1968 album, "Oh Good Grief" which Guaraldi recorded for the Warner Brothers/Seven Arts label. The original soundtracks to a few of the animations were issued by the Fantasy label previous to this release, but here Vince re-recorded many pieces, taking a more uptempo approach and utilising some extra instruments, such as electric harpsichord as can be heard here. The title is a bit weird, the cartoon is actually called "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown", but it says "It's" on the record label so that's what I'm calling it here.

Stereolab - Ping Pong

One of the most under-appreciated bands in the UK over the last 17 years, probably because they've always just 'been there', putting out a constant stream of music with no fuss or fanfare. Formed in 1990 by Tim Gane and his partner Lætitia Sadier after his former band McCarthy split, Stereolab took McCarthy's left wing text lyrics and welded them to a different sound. Originally this sound was heavily influenced by the one-chord motorik side of the early '70s German alternative music scene - Kraftwerk, Faust, Neu! and Harmonia - but would soon develop an almost unrivaled sense of melody. With the addition of the late Mary Hansen on backing vocals, and Sean o'Hagan from The High Llamas contributing orchestral arrangements, Stereolab turned into something quite unique... and they remain so. (edit - of course, they've goen on an indefinite hiatus since I wrote this originally)

This, and also their total understanding of the way a music product should be something that people want to own, has seen their (relatively) small, but enthusiastic, fanbase keep them going to this day, while countless other acts have been chewed up and spat out of the industry machine. 219 copies on one sided orange vinyl 10", with a sticker sheet, in a unique wallpaper sleeve housed in a poly bag? Yes, please. Ping Pong is from 1994's Mars Audaic Quintet album, and is a perfect representation of where they were at the time.

The United States Of America - The American Metaphysical Circus

One of the most 'underground' albums you could ever hope to hear. The USA were the invention of Joseph Byrd, a jazz player and experimental composer. Byrd gathered together a group of similarly inclined musicians, and formed possibly the most unique act of 1967. Far out-weirding the likes of The Mothers and the VU, their sound featured fretless distorted bass, a violin played through a ring-modulator, much tape manipulation, Dorothy Moskowitz's haunting vocals, and a selection of songs which aimed an experimental, satirical dart at American society (although this satire can sometimes be hard to pinpoint - perhaps you had to be there at the time). Scarily, Ed Bogas (whose later work I comprehensively 'dissed' earlier) played on the album and became a full member of the band for a short while later. He did music for some Commodore 64 games in the 1980s as well. It was crap. Er, getting back on track...

The resulting album was quite a critical success when it finally saw the light of day in March 1968, but sales didn't follow and the band broke up soon after. The album sold 'quite' well in the UK, mainly as a result of one (totally unrepresentative) track being included on the CBS budget sampler album "The Rock Machine Turns You On". But like the White Noise album, it was the kind of record that spread by word of mouth and home-recorded cassettes throughout the '70s and '80s. In the '90s, bands like Broadcast would emerge whose sound owes everything to The USA. 'The American Metaphysical Circus' opens the album, and sets the tone for the following half hour admirably.

Kling Klang - Radium

Words cannot express how much I love this band. Originally a three piece, then a five piece, currently four (it seems), they specialise in a kind of Krautrock influenced music, where any cosmic trips are shot out of the sky with a riff-gun and then hammered into the ground with monophonic anaolgue synthesizers played through fuzz pedals. Early tracks were made with Casiotones and Yahama Portasounds, later they acquired a Jen SX1000, Roland SH-101, a couple of guitars and a human drummer.

After releasing a couple of tracks on split 7" singles, and Mogwai's Rock label put out the "Superposition" 12" EP (from where Radium originally comes), the band fell apart. The members went back to their "day jobs" in bands such as Part Chimp, Mugstar and a.P.A.t.T. and it looked to be all over. Happily they're back, with a CD released of their recordings so far ("The Esthetik Of Destruction"), and playing a few gigs during 2007 with a good smattering of new material. Fingers crossed that these new tunes will be put down on tape before the band decide to vanish for another 3 years... (2010 edit - wishful thinking indeed. Don't mention the Germans.)

The Soft Machine - We Did It Again

The area around Canterbury, in Kent, produced something of a microcosm music scene in the 1960s. A collection of local musicians were influenced by Robert Wyatt, who had in turn been influenced by the jazz record collection of the Australian Daevid Allen, who took up lodgings at his parent's house in the early 1960. This jazz basis was mixed with folk and pop, and resulted in a band called The Wilde Flowers. A large collection of musicians drifted in and out of the band in the early to mid 1960s, and this roundabout of talent would end up forming both Soft Machine and Caravan, who in turn would generate yet more bands in a similar style.

Soft Machine were the first to take off, featuring Wyatt, Allen, keyboard player Mike Ratledge and bassist/vocalist Kevin Ayers. They quickly became part of the 1966 underground scene in London, playing venues such as the Roundhouse alongside a formative Pink Floyd. A single on Polydor was released in 1967, but after a short series of gigs in Europe, Allen found his re-entry to the UK blocked as an 'undesireable', and he ended up relocating to Paris. The remaining trio signed up with Chas Chandler, and ended up supporting Jimi Hendrix on several tours as well as a chance to record their debut album in New York. "We Did it Again" is taken from that first album, and in concert the band were known to sometimes stretch the track out to nearly half an hour...

The band was proving successful, but the showbiz lifestyle was too much for Ayers, and he left the band in late 1968. He remained friends with the band, who soon regrouped with Hugh Hopper taking over bass duties. Soft Machine then headed full-steam into jazz-rock territory, producing a couple of definitive works in that field in 1970 and 1971, with Ayers embarking on an errectic but rewarding career as a solo artist.

Touch - Down At Circe's Place

I've already given you the story and the first part of the track. Here's the pay off. I first encountered this when I was about 16 years old, and frankly I nearly shat myself on that initial
hearing. Never was the term "freak out" so applicable. What made it even worse, is that I first
heard it on a 1969 Decca sampler album, "Wowie Zowie - The World Of Progressive Music". On that album they messed up the master tape, so that about 15 seconds after the final gong hit faded away, instead of the gentle tones of John Mayall coming in to soothe the atmosphere, the last 25 seconds or so of the track suddenly cut back in without warning at full volume. Obviously for years I (and many others, no doubt) thought that was how it was meant to be... indeed, perhaps it was better that way...

The Electric Light Orchestra - First Movement

Jeff Lynne gets mentioned twice? My word... The Move had been the brightest stars of the '60s
Birmingham music scene, regularly assaulting the charts with classics such as 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow' and 'Fire Brigade' between 1966 and 1969. At the turn of the decade, the band had suffered badly and was reduced to singer/writer/guitarist Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan. Lynne's band The Idle Race had recently split, and Wood offered him the chance to join The Move. For two years the new Move recorded some brilliantly skewed pop music (get hold of the excellent album 'Message From The Country' for proof), but all the while they were planning something different. This kicked off when Wood found himself in possession of a cheap cello, and he started "playing Jimi Hendrix riffs" on it.

The early ELO was far removed from the international sensation (and dirty word, amongst poseurs and fascist music bores) it became in later years. We all know that Paul Weller ripped off "10538 Overture" wholesale for one of his album tracks in the mid 1990s, but if "First Movement" wasn't achieved without a huge dose of Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" then I'm a mash-up lover. Which I'm not. The twin leadership of Lynne and Wood wasn't to last, and Wood went off to indulge in Phil Spectorisms (and *that other* bloody Christmas song) with Wizzard, while Lynne found his winning pop streak and ELO became absolutely massive.

Mary Hopkin - Earth Song

Born in the Swansea valley in 1950, it could be argued that Mary Hopkin's career never reached its "full potential", probably as a result of her beind portrayed as too damned nice. She learned
guitar at an early age, and had put out some Welsh language recordings on the tiny Cambrian label by the time she appeared on revered/reviled ITV talent show "Opportunity Knocks" in 1968. Legend has it that '60s model icon Twiggy was watching the show, and phoned up Paul McCartney, suggesting she might be suitable material for The Beatles' soon to be launched 'Apple' record label.

McCartney phoned up a disbelieving Hopkin at her home, and soon she was signed up to Apple, despite the objections of her father, who stipulated certain clauses in her contract to 'protect her'. Her career got off to a good start, the memory of 'Op-Knox' still clear in the public's minds and the kudos of the Fab association meant that her first single 'Those Were The Days' was a massive hit. Her first album contained lots of pop-folk numbers, with acoustic backings from McCartney and Donovan. However as 1969 and 1970 progressed, she found herself being given increasingly twee-songs to record, and Apple cultivated a clean-cut image for her which she not only found it difficult to shake off, but she actively grew to hate. She was at the centre of the music world and all its delights, yet she wasn't even allowed to drink a glass of beer in case someone took a photo of her doing so.

McCartney's interest dwindled as The Beatles imploded, and Hopkin still found herself being pushed into uncomfortable situations (such as being the UK representative in 1970s Eurovision Song Contest). Apple itself was in bad shape by this point, the companies original utopian model resulted in various chancers and hippyshits bleeding the coffers dry in a very short space of time. Hopkin recorded a final album for the label in 1971, and 'Earth Song, Ocean Song' is very nearly a masterpiece. With backing musicians featuring Danny Thompson and Ralph McTell, and songs written by Gallagher & Lyle and Cat Stevens amongst others, the album stands up easily against any work by 'more credible' artists of the day, but not enough people took it seriously. She soon married producer Tony Visconti, and withdrew from the music business for a while in 1972. She has recorded occasionally in subsequent years for various labels, both solo and in collaboration with others, while keeping firmly out of the public eye.

------------------------

I hope you enjoy the selection, and if anything particularly catches your ear, please seek out and
buy the full releases if you can. Many of the artists in this mix have either taken their music
into their own hands, or had it reissued on small specialist labels who deserve support.

cheers

/ ben sH - 21/11/07

Marvin vs Mansun. Again. Without pictures, this time.

2010-10-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

After being asked by, ooh, about three people, I've made a standalone audio version of that section of RsH7. Some would say I'm milking it, some would say it's 'utterly painful' (and then bravely delete the comment, nice one 'CCC'), most wouldn't give a shit. Anyway, if you feel the need, here it is. ~~You should be able to download it as well, by clicking that downward pointing arrow thing, so you can load it into your mobile phone and annoy people at bus stops.~~ Now way past it's allotted 100 downloads, I've reupped it to Mediafire [here]...

Soundhog - Take It Easy, Marvin - [Mansun vs Marvin Gaye] by soundhog

T'ra.

Marvin Gaye vs Mansun - RsH7 Video Preview

2010-08-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Radio Soundhog Volume 7 as a full 60 minute video? Might happen, might not. If it does, here's an idea of what to expect...

Could this be the only Marvin Gaye m@$h*p on YouTube that's actually in tune? Very likely. Have a search around if you don't believe me, paying particular attention to one involving Madcon's awful cover of 'Beggin' along with '...Grapevine'. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wince, you'll hopefully have some idea of why I detest m@$h*ps and their talentless creators so much.

Mansun. Fu*kin' ace, they were.

Radio Soundhog Volume 2 - The XFM Superchunk

2010-07-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created: October 2003. Released: November 2003

Tracklisting:
Kenny Everett - sound FX
Monty Python - The World Of Sound
Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
Christina Aguilera - Dirrty
Finitribe - 101
Obie Trice - Got Some Teeth
Area Code 615 - Stone Fox Chase
Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
Primal Scream - Loaded
Liberty X - Got To Have Your Love
Donovan - Barabajagl
Elizabeth Knight - excerpt from 'How To Give Yourself A Stereo Checkout'
John Baker (BBC Radiophonic Workshop) - New Worlds
Martin Rushent - excerpt from 1985 'Micro File' interview
Renegade Soundwave - Biting My Nails
Freeland - We Want Your Soul
Q-Tip - Breathe & Stop
Soundhog - Untitled Piece #2
Missy Elliot - Pass That Dutch
Soundhog - Double Ditch
Tronik House - Uptempo (Reese Mix)
Stars On 45 - Stars On 45
SL2 - DJs Take Control (DJ Seduction Remix)
Graffiti - What Is The Problem
Patrick Allen - 'All My Loving' voiceover
The Pink Floyd - Interstellar Overdrive
Ini Kamoze - Here Comes The Hotstepper
The White Noise - An Electric Storm In Hell
Peter Howell (BBC Radiophonic Workshop) - Dr Who Theme
Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
Basement Jaxx - Romeo
Peaches - F**k The Pain Away
Human Resource - Dominator
The Human League - Sound Of The Crowd
The Trammps - Disco Inferno
Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
Dave and Ansil Collins - Double Barrel
Adina Howard - Freak Like Me

-----------------

November 2003. Done for Eddy Temple-Morris' XFM London show "The Remix". The sound of me throwing everything into the pot. Half an hour of full-on editing madness with The Pink Floyd, Chicago, Primal Scream, Finitribe, Dave & Ansel Collins, Area Code 615 and more. Of course, it went straight over everyone's heads...

"The Remix" was (and maybe still is, I'm not sure) the main port of call for anyone who was into the bootleg/bastard pop scene in those early days from 2000 to 2003-ish. Today, every 'superstar m*sh*p maker' has their own website, MySpace or whatever where they upload their wares for anyone who cares enough to download their 'art'. Back at the start of the 21st century, it was all very different. Bootlegs in general existed on white label vinyl or short runs of CD-Rs, hiding away in the racks of the Rough Trade shop or being passed to up and coming DJs like Kurtis Rush or The Fucking DeWaele Brothers. To hear them, you either had to go to Cartel Communique's "King Of The Boots" night in London, grab the odd shakily encoded mp3 from Daniel Sheldon's 'Boom Selection' blog, or listen to "The Remix".

By mid 2003, I'd already got sick of the whole affair and decided to pack it in (not for the first time, eh?) as already I sensed that I was either doing something totally wrong or I was wasn't pandering to the idiot public enough - everything I heard that was meant to be brilliant turned out to be shit. Nothing changes, really. Anyway, James Hyman (who was at the time co-presenting The Remix with show originator Eddy Temple-Morris) suggested I do a 'Superchunk' mix for them. Well, it would have been rude not to. Most of the properly famous DJs/producers of the era had done one. I'd considered most of them to be fairly rubbish.

I really went to town on this, even more so than on the BBC mix of the previous year. And again, maybe I was being too clever-clever by constructing a mix that ducked and dived all over the place, with elements that only about seventeen people in the country would recognise. But it got a pretty good reaction from the people I wanted it to appeal to, and I still like to listen to it occasionally. By the time it went out, James and Eddy's working relationship was in shreds and as a result Eddy had no idea who I was or why I was there when I turned up at the radio station, with CD in hand! Still, the worn sofa was very comfy and I had a pleasant evening "hanging out" like a pop star... well, sort of...

The version here isn't the exact one that went out on air - it's an earlier edit that was a bit too long for the strict 30 minute radio slot - but I prefer it, as it gives the Liberty X section more room (which happens to be one of my favourite parts) as well as a few other differences. Again, my love of audio buffoonery was put to use, with sections from a Monty Python album (note the fart noise used to cover a tricky edit in 'Bootylicious'), a 1960s Decca stereo demonstration record (not the usual 'Journey Into Stereo Sound' though), an almost ironic sample of legendary Human League/Buzzcocks/Raybeats/Then Jericho producer Martin Rushent, and a genuine cassette tape 'disaster' as a way out of the increasing disco inferno.

Radio Soundhog - Volume 4 - The Offshore Tapes

2010-07-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created: June 2004. Released: June 2004

Tracklisting:
Smash@Mash - Bootystition
EMF - Unbelieveable
Kelis - Trick Me
Lemon Jelly - Rock
Beastie Boys - Check It Out
Nightmares On Wax - I'm For Real
Soundhog - I Feel You Really Caught Me On Edge ('04 Mix)
John Martyn - I'd Rather Be The Devil (Soundhog Re-Edit)
Blackstrobe - Italian Fireflies
Kid Unknown - Nightmare
Prince Po - Hold Dat
Sweet Exorcist - Trick Jack
The Prodigy - Girls
Boney M - Night Flight To Venus
Kelis - Milkshake
An Der Beat - !Knuf
Chicks On Speed - Wordy Rappinghood
Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
Playgroup - Front To Back
Whitey - Leave Them All Behind
Sparks - Tryouts For The Human Race
*CENSORED* - *CENSORED* [Soundhog Remix]
Tiga - Pleasure From The Bass [Joakim Remix]
Lionel Vinyl - Dire Bass (Soundhog version)
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
Soulwax - N.Y. Excuse
SCO Network - Toxic Rhythm
Outkast - Hey Ya
Hexstatic - Nancy's Boots
A-Ha - Take On Me
AC/DC - Back In Black
Nelly Furtado - Turn Out The Light
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

It's funny how life works out, sometimes. One moment I'm sitting at home, buggering about with other people's records for my own amusement. The next, I'm getting emails from people all over Europe asking me if I'm a DJ and, if so, would I like to go over there (wherever that was) to play for them. I'd have been stupid to say no to both questions. Before 2004, I'd played a grand total of one 'proper' DJ set, and that was just playing tracks off a couple of portable CD players. I'd never used any proper DJ equipment, never done anything before people who didn't sort of know me, never been paid obscene money for playing other people's records. However, I've always been the type of person who doesn't know what he can't do, so...

2004 saw me play sets in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and the UK. Everything from basements to large clubs, ultra-trendy south London bars to the biggest outdoor festival in Scotland. By the middle of the year, I seemed to be getting pretty good at this DJing business... a few nights stick in the memory as being particularly wonderful, most notably my first visit to Budapest and a couple of nights in the notoriously stuck-up Boujis club in Kensington, where the place just went absolutely mental for three hours. All of a sudden, I seemed to have become a 'DJ', without even trying to be one.

Radio Soundhog Volume 4 was intended as a promotional mix, but I was told: "it's too long, it needs to be 30 minutes maximum". Well, there's no way I could have done that, my sets were already becoming incredibly eclectic affairs and I wanted people to hear exactly what I was up to. There are a few tracks by other people in here - ones I can still listen to today as well as being floorfillers at the time. Roughly two-thirds of the set is from actual live recordings, augmented with some new ideas and twiddly bits, and all knitted together in one evening sitting at the PC. There's too much Kelis in it, but I didn't notice that until Dan Sheldon pointed it out. Oops. Most of the music within this mix is very dated now, veering perilously close to bootlegs for bootlegs' sake, but it's an aural snapshot of a brief and happy time in my life. It couldn't last... and it bloody well didn't...

The "radio" device in the title was finally used to proper effect here, as I used some archive recordings of the pirate station Radio Nordsee International to pepper the mix into some sort of "concept"... RNI was active in the early '70s, about three years after UK law had been changed to outlaw the pirate stations. The station had a particularly rough lifetime - not only were they one of the few stations who had their signals jammed by the government but they also suffered some frightening physical moments as a result of underground 'business troubles'. Clips used in the mix are from when an attempt was made, by people 'working' for a rival station, to destroy the ship by starting fires in the engine room in 1971. It's a fascinating story from start to finish, and I strongly recommend reading up on it, both at rni220.nl and Dave's Den...

Radio Soundhog - Volume 5 - 33 Problems

2010-04-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created: January 2005. Released: January 2005

Tracklisting:
David Holmes - Rip Rip
Terranova feat. Ari Up- Mongril
Demis Rousoss - Oh My Friends, You've Been Untrue To Me
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks
Jay-Z - 99 Problems
Renegade Soundwave - Traitor
Bad Company- Feel Like Making Love
Sheer Taft - Cascades
The Commodores- Assembly Line
Dynamix II - Give The DJ A Break
Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
Destiny's Child- Lose My Breath
Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
Colosseum - The Kettle
Indeep - Last Night A Dj Saved My Life
808 State - Magical Dream
Joe Budden - Pump It Up
Together - Hardcore Uproar
C'hantal - The Realm
Slade - I Won't Let It 'appen Again
Alter Ego - Rocker
Visage - Fade To Grey
The Prodigy - Girls
Michael Jackson - Bad
LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Super Discount - Fast Track
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody
The Scorpions - Is There Anybody There
Liquid Liquid - Bellhead
Vitalic - Fanfares
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Depeche Mode - Something To Do (Black Strobe Mix)
The Prodigy - Your Love
Aphex Twin - Digeredoo
Soulwax - NY Excuse (Fast Version)
The Faces - Too Bad
Venetian Snares - Twelve
A House - I Am The Grestest
Spike Milligan - Theme from 'Q5'

I can't remember a great deal about the making of this mix. It was put together over three evenings at the start of January 2005 from what I recall. Those evenings saw me in a really bad mood for various reasons and a lot of it came out here. An odd way of relieving one's tensions perhaps, but it made me feel a bit better for a few days. The copious amounts of red wine I was guzzling during the process helped a bit as well, and probably account for the pretty ludicrous ending to the mix (as well as the decision to put The Scorpions into there, I assume!)

From a technical point of view, this was the first project I put together in Ableton Live (version 4 I think it was) which is now my sonic weapon of choice. The 'warp' function for straightening out tempo fluctuations in samples was a godsend, and allowed me to use yet more diverse material without having to spend hours chopping it up into tiny parts, stretching/shrinking them, and stitching it all back together again. I couldn't use anything else now, but you only get out what you put in of course. And I put in a hell of a lot.

The smashed Beetle on the cover photo is also quite significant - not only had 2004 seen me in a car accident which destroyed my 1956 Beetle and did a fair bit of damage to my face as it went through the windscreen, but my long time love affair with the 'scene' surrounding the vehicles ended in yet more bitterness and resentment after getting too 'involved'. The closer you get to the centre of something, the more shit you discover at the core, I find... (the hundreds of 'flies' buzzing around don't help either). 'Scenes' are A Bad Thing, in music or any other walk of life - be warned. Anyway...

There are many parts of this mix that still bring a smirk to my face... I'm particularly fond of the part where things get really intense, as Mario Savio's 1964 speech to student activists at Berkeley gives even more anger to Vitalic's awesome 'Fanfares'. 'Your Love' coming in over Blackstrobe's DM remix. The opening of Cabaret Voltaire's seminal 'Nag Nag Nag' being stretched over one of Soulwax's finest tunes. Getting my favourite dance tune in history on there ('Hardcore Uproar')... The use of the A House tune is, of course, totally ironic. Honestly. Play this mix as loud as you possibly can.

Radio Soundhog Volume 6 - Don't Call It A Comeback

2010-04-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created: April > November 2005. Released: December 2005

Tracklisting:
Vince Guaraldi Trio ‘O Tannenbaum’
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera ‘Intro’
Jonathon Weston ‘Jam For World In Action’
Excerpt From The Film 'Network'
Toni Arthur & Lionel Morton ‘The Party Is About To Begin’
Traffic ‘You Can All Join In’
Rob Swift ‘Dope On Plastic’
Rick Jones ‘Bang On A Drum’
Can ‘Halleluwah’
The Beatles ‘Baby, You're A Rich Man’
Black Sabbath ‘Beyond The Wall Of Sleep’
Stevie Wonder ‘You Haven't Done Nothing’
Peter Gabriel ‘Sledgehammer’
Uptown ‘Dope On Plastic’
Steve Miller ‘Take The Money And Run’
Ultramagnetic MCs ‘Poppa Large’
Marsha Hunt's 22 ‘(Oh No, Not) The Beast Day’
808 State ‘Ancodia’
Assagai ‘Telephone Girl’
Traffic Sound ‘Yesterday's Game'
Gramme ‘Like U’
Kool And The Gang ‘Chocolate Buttermilk’
Spencer Davis Group ‘I'm A Man’
Candi Staton ‘I Know’
Franz Ferdinand ‘The Fallen (Justice Edit)’
Ron Geesin ‘A World Of Too Much Sound’
Hardnoise ‘Untitled’
Switch ‘A Bit Patchy’
AC/DC ‘Highway To Hell’
Bad News ‘Introducing The Band’
ELO ‘Don't Bring Me Down’
The Supremes ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’
Shame 69 ‘No Business’
Tomas Andersson ‘Washing Up’
Ultravox ‘Astradyne’
Tommy James And The Shondells ‘Mony Mony’
Whitey ‘Y.U.H.2.B.M.2’
Depeche Mode ‘Pleasure Little Treasure’
Orchestral Manouvers In The Dark ‘Messages’
The Kinks ‘All Day And All Of The Night’
Flyscreen ‘Popsong Singalong’
The Glitter Band ‘Rock & Roll Part 2’
Deep Purple ‘No One Came’

2005 turned out to be a really quiet year, both for DJ dates and output. Things hadn't started off any better than the end of 2004, and after finishing "33 Problems" I wasn't really in the mood to do much. But you snooze, you lose... well, you lose even more I suppose. I started work on what became RsH 6 in the spring, planning on making something very breakbeat driven and a lot more technical that RsH 5. The section from Traffic's "You Can All Join In" to Uptown's "Dope On Plastic" was knocked off in a couple of days. I then got bored and didn't touch it again.

Thanks to my friend and fellow Curdler-sufferer Mike Wheatley though, things changed. Mike had suggested to James Hyman in October that he should get me to do something else for his XFM show. James asked, and I agreed. I was going to start from scratch, but in the end I took the 10 minutes worth I'd done 6 months previously and built the rest of the mix around it. This process took something like six weeks. The main problem was that I would spend so long fiddling about with the smallest details - it got to the point where 6 hours of Ableton time resulted in about 20 to 30 seconds worth of finished audio per night. I'd spend ages moving the pan position of a sample, or putting in tiny reversed bits, or whatever. By the time the thing had got to about 45 minutes worth, I just couldn't do any more - so the final 10 minutes or so were just "put something in and let it play"... 45 mins does seem to be the "natural span" of my mixes these days. It must be some subliminal desire to make it fit on one side of a C90.

It eventually went out on Xmas Eve, 2005... (well, a couple of hours into Xmas Day, actually) ...so most people were either asleep or drunk when it was on. Still, it could have been worse and gone out on New Year's Eve or something. I think it's a good piece of work, and I was particularly happy with the section from "I'm A Man" to "Astradyne". As usual, most people wouldn't realise just how much fiddly effort went into making it all work, but sod it... I'll wait for the 20th anniversary deluxe remaster.

Radio Soundhog - Volume 7 - "The Game's Over"

2010-04-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download (Mediafire)

Created: March 2006 > December 2009. Released: December 2009

Tracklisting (not in order of appearance):
Add N To (X) - Metal Fingers In My Body
Adina Howard - (Freak) And You Know It
Amerie - One Thing
Aphrodite's Child - Air
Bad Bascombe - Black Grass
Banbarra - Shack Up
The Bar-Kays - Son Of Shaft
The Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
Black Heat - Love The Life You Live
Black Sabbath - The Wizard
Broadcast - Phantom
Can - I Want More
Capricorn - I Need Love
Coke Escovedo - I Wouldn't Change A Thing
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up
Delia & Gavin - Relevee
Depth Charge - Number 9
The Doors - Peace Frog
D.O.S.E. - Crack Man In Bat Den Sex Shock
Faust - Läuft...Heißt das es läuft oder es kommt bald...Läuft
Four Tet - As Serious As Your Life
Freedom - Toe Grabber
Fuzzy Haskins - The Fuzz & Da Boog
Gang Of Four - I Found That Essence Rare
Giorgio - Utopia
The Go Team! - Grip Like A Vice
Graham Central Station - The Jam
Half Man Half Biscuit - Irk The Purists
Harry Stoneham & Johnny Eyden - Coming Home, Baby
The Human League - Love
The Jackson Sisters - I Believe In Miracles
Jeans Team - Keine Melodien
The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun
John Baker - Structures
Johnny Scott - Race The Devil
Juicy Lucy - Who Do You Love?
LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous
Liquid Liquid - Optimo
Mansun - Take It Easy, Chicken
Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Mc Duke - I'm Riffin'
Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution
The Meters - Here Comes The Meterman
Mr Oizo - Positif
My Bloody Valentine - Soon
New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Big
Orcop - Tyrant Human King
Pepe Deluxe - Salami Fever
Rage Against The Machine - Renegades Of Funk
Rusty Bryant - Fire Eater
Sharon Phillips - Want 2 Need 2
Simple Minds - Theme For Great Cities
Sound Experience - Boogie Woogie
Tears For Fears - Shout
Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
Wilson Pickett - Get Me Back On Time, Engine #9
The Zombies - Time Of The Season
ZZT - The Worm

Plus guest contributions from:

George Martin
Stephen Fry
Kenny Everett
Dr Jack Van Impe
Jon Pertwee

How can anyone spend three and a half years putting together a simple mix of old records?

Well, it's not quite that simple, as I hope you'd expect from my previous stuff. The amount of time I actually spent working on RsH7 since April 2006 could be compressed down into a few weeks, perhaps. I probably spent twenty times as long staring at blank sections of an Ableton project, wondering what the hell to do next. This would usually turn out to be deleting whatever I'd done previously. People forget about you when you go quiet, if indeed they knew about you at all. I withdrew from the battered remains of the bootleg scene as it got swallowed up by the m@$h up monster. I stopped looking at certain internet forums for the sake of my blood pressure. Often there would be gaps of three, four or five months in between opening and closing the mix project (usually with no results anyway). I reeled in horror as a Kid Rock record hit the charts which featured a combination of tracks I'd put into the mix a few months previously. Tunes which were box fresh when I decided to work with them turned into golden oldies. One thought would continually buzz around my head as I looked at the screen: "What's the bloody point?"

I've still not answered that question.

Two and a half years later, I managed to get an hour's worth of audio together, which was broadcast on a friend's radio show (to no reaction, save for a select few mates) just before Xmas 2008. I wasn't happy with it, but I'd had a deadline and it was finished off in a drunken rush the in the early hours of d-day. A further 10 months passed before I could stand to revisit the thing, replace the bits that had nagged me and get it to the state it's in now, which still isn't perfect and I know I'll regret bits of it as soon as it gets into the wild. Ah, well. Too bloody late now, eh?

**Dull technical bollocks alert**

The mix contains 4,130 individual samples/clips spread over seven audio tracks, with a large number of effects and EQs running in real time. All audio manipulation is done within Ableton Live 5 with nothing (apart from a few snippets of speech and the odd cymbal sample) prepared 'offline', if that's the right term to use. Every track is chopped up and processed as required within the single project file. The upshot of this is nearly 3.5gb of audio 'raw material' to deal with. My computer is over 8 years old, with a 1.4GHz P4 processor and 512mb of RAM. To say it was "struggling to cope" with all of this activity is quite an understatement. By the final stages, any modification to any part of the project (moving a sample, changing a volume setting, altering an effect's automation etc.) would result in four or five minutes worth of hard disk churning, and very often a total system crash. As for processor usage, don't even go there. I doubt any of this ridiculous detail will be apparent in the final result, but perhaps that's a good thing. They always say a good edit is one that nobody hears. How apt...

So, here it is, then. My last will and testament, and all that. I'm way beyond being objective about the result. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I didn't. The game's very much over.

Welcome to the all new cheapskate site.

2010-04-20T17:36:00.000-07:00

Good evening. T.A.F.K.A.S. here.

So, I'm in the process of flicking the 'off' switch on my proper website after four years' worth of steadily declining interest, and replacing it with this low budget version. I'll be posting up some of the better material from the archive over the coming days/weeks, which will be hosted on Mixcloud for listening to, YouTube for looking at, and probably some file hosting site (complete with adverts for pills to make your willy/tits get bigger or something) for the download versions. Not ideal, I agree, but it's this or nothing.

I'd better start knocking this into shape, then... gimmie that hammer.

/ ben sH

2001-2009

2010-01-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

News on my imminent death to follow, unless a miracle happens.