#uschi classen

[randomvarious]

1990s Breakbeat Playlist

Well, it's Mother's Day here in America, so be sure to show mom how much you love and appreciate her by giving her this 90s breakbeat playlist as a very special gift! 🥰 This week I've added a couple tunes from Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism, a 1996 sampler that was put out by Ninja Tune, one of the greatest electronic labels to ever specialize in breakbeat, breaks, downtempo, trip hop, hip hop, and more.

And the first add happens to come from the legendary founding duo of Ninja Tune itself, Coldcut, who deliver pure, totally frenzied, retro-futurist, Cold War-styled havoc and panic in a song called "Atomic Moog 2000." This uptempo, psychedelically funky sweatfest first appeared on Flexistentialism in 1996 before appearing the following year on the Atomic Moog 2000 12-inch, and it's also *not* to be confused with an entirely different version of the song that was included on Coldcut's first Ninja Tune album, Let Us Play!, in 1997. Strap in for this one, folks, 'cuz it's a pretty fuckin' wild ride! Around 77K Spotify plays.

And immediately following that one is something a bit jazz-loungier called "Do You Believe in Love?" by Ashley Beedle presents the Uschi Classen Band. The last update I made for this playlist back in November of last year included a Beedle tune too—his phenomenal "Sun Barrio Break Mix" of Takada's "Ola-Le"—and now he's back with another one, with this one-off song he did with fellow Londoner Uschi Classen. True-blue hip hop junkies might notice the tone-setting sample at the beginning of this one too: Smokey Robinson's "Theme From Big Time," which was then used the following year by Company Flow for their underground cult classic, "8 Steps to Perfection." And I'm thinking El-P probably got the idea to use that sample from this very Beedle/Classen tune itself, because "Do You Believe in Love?" appears to be the first song that ever sampled Smokey's "Big Time" theme in the first place. Currently at around 73K plays.

Coldcut - "Atomic Moog 2000" Ashley Beedle Presents the Uschi Classen Band - "Do You Believe in Love?"

But in addition to those two gems, I've got a couple more on the YouTube version of this playlist too, both of which can't be found on Spotify. First among these is another one from the guys from Coldcut, specifically their alias/side project, DJ Food, which still exists, but doesn't contain either member anymore. In 1992, DJ Food released the third volume in their something-along-the-lines-of-a-DJ-tools-series, Jazz Brakes, and on there is a sweet and funky, hand-drum-and-flute-laced groove called "Ninja Walk," which would also then appear on the triple-vinyl version of Flexistentialism some years later too. This one's nearing 57K plays on YouTube.

And then for something that has nothing to do with Flexistentialism at all, we have a remix of alternative multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano's "Lovesick" that was done by London's Underdog in 1997. The official version of this remix is of way more of a trip hop bent than it is breakbeat, but the version that I'm supplying you all with this week is the one that appeared on Parisian Kid Loco's fantastic DJ-Kicks mix in 1999. This one appears to be blended with the beat from the preceding song in that mix, whose official version I can't even find on YouTube, called "Culture Consumers," by a short-lived duo called Tongue. Like much of the rest of that mix, this song makes for some truly heady and totally stoned trippery, but it also comes with some pretty dissonant guitar noise too! Currently around 72K YouTube plays.

DJ Food - "Ninja Walk" Lisa Germano - "Lovesick (Underdog Rmx)"

And this playlist is on YouTube Music too.

So with this update, the Spotify version of this playlist is now at 16 songs that total 90 minutes, but over on YouTube, we've got 36 songs that clock in at 198 minutes! So if you want a lot more 90s breakbeat goodies that are a bit rarer and harder to find, you should definitely give that YouTube one a look!

More breakbeat next week 😎.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[fadedgilt]

[thebonesofhoudini]

Did this techno/deep house/tech house mix on Thanksgiving and forgot to post it so here it is. Mixed on the Pioneer DDJ-SB3 with Serato Pro

Tracklist

m5 - Celestial Highways Uschi Classen - Now Illuminate (Green Fridge Rub) Yura Moorush - Pkdt Fred Everything - Spread The Word Encause - Weightless Laughing Man - Moments The Mountain People - Mountain020.3 (Brooklyn Dub) Dragutesku - Hipnotic Brian Harden - Simon's Revenge G-Man - K.6 Terrence Dixon - Minimalism (Ben Klock Remix) Norm Talley - Powder Morgan Geist - Sands Francois K. - Moov (Long Version)

[angelloverde]

"Mo Soul" Player Playlist 3 January

1. The Soul Session - Quantraversa       2. Alex Puddu - The Dirty Games Of Dr.Love       3. Courtney Pine - Rules (feat. Omar)       4. Remi feat. Jordan Rakei - Lose Sleep   5. Poppy Ajudha - Love Falls Down       6. Rosalia De Souza - Carolina Carol Bela   7. Chico Hamilton - El Toro (Mark de Clive Lowe Remix)       8. Henri Texier - Les La-Bas (Bonobo Remix)     9. Modrum feat. Daily Mirror - Godskin   10. Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Dr Follow's Dance   11. Herbie Hancock - The Spook Who Sat By The Door   12. Kaidi Tatham - The Extrovert City     13. Taylor McFerrin - Broken Vibes   14. The Ashley Beedle Presents Uschi Classen Band - Do You Believe In Love? 15. Root Soul - Sky High ft. Mark de Clive-Lowe

If you really want to enjoy music and help musicians and bands, buy their lp’s or cd’s and don’t download mp3 formats. There is nothing like good quality sound!!!

(Angel Lo Verde / Mo Soul)

[dj-zenn]

A Song A Day #108 - So many of the DJs and producers of House Music that I love have a deep personal connection with Disco. Ashley Beedle, British Soul Boy and producer extraordinaire is one of them. East Village Loft Society is just one of his many projects and personas. Uschi Classen, a regular collaborator of Ashley’s plays the keyboards here as she does on countless other recordings of his.

This was first released in 1993. I think I picked up my copy in 1995, maybe 1994. This was ground zero for me for my explorations into the disco underground. On the back cover this record is “dedicated to the New York City disco underground.” Below this dedication are listed 11 underground NYC discos and clubs from the seventies and eighties. At the time, I only recognized the Paradise Garage and the Funhouse. 

Even more significant was the blurry tiny black & white photo on the front with the name Walter Gibbons underneath. I was intrigued. Who was he? I later discovered that back in the early- to mid- seventies he was the resident DJ at Galaxy 21, an afterhours club, and one of those discos listed on the back. His technical skills far surpassed any other DJs from that era. Independent of the earliest Hip-Hop DJs like Kool Herc, he discovered the technique of extending the instrumental break of records by mixing the end of the break from one copy into the beginning of the same break on another copy. A section that lasted seconds he now extended to a minute or more in length.

These were the early days of the Web so information like this was not yet available at my fingertips. I acquired my information and knowledge incrementally by reading magazines and books. Even these sources were limited at the time. Now anyone can dig just about as deep as they want into the music and history of the era. They will learn that along with being one of the most important DJs of that or any other era he was also the first DJ to move into the booth and remix and re-edit records for the dancefloor.

This record and this version in particular brings me a great deal of joy. I recall Maya Angelou’s reading of Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton’s inauguration but I don’t recall being struck as strongly by it as I was when I first listened to this mix of I Wanna...Sunshine which samples in full her reading including the applause as she finished. Not only have I listened to this song over and over I have also watched over and over on YouTube Maya Angelou read her poem. I don’t think any work of poetry has ever resonated with me so deeply.

KNOW HOPE

[koltrane-and-sons]

Uschi Classen- Dizzy Heights (2003)

Broken Beat

[discofunksoulandthensome]

Black Science Orchestra - Philadelphia / JBO 1994

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Out Patients 2000 Future Jazz / Broken Beat / Drum n Bass

Checked out this sweet turn-of-the-millennium electronic comp over the past couple days called Out Patients, the first installment in a three-volume series that was put out on UK label Hospital Records. Originally launched in 1996, Hospital was founded by London Elektricity, a duo who, sometime in the early 2000s, decided to downsize to just one member, Tony Colman, so the former member, Chris Goss, could devote more time and energy to running Hospital himself.

Now, if you know anything about either Hospital or LE beyond what I've just told you, then you know that what they're both primarily known for is their drum n bass output. In fact, in their first four years of existence, that's all Hospital pretty much ever released. However, in 2000, with the launching of this little, cleverly titled Out Patients series—songs that largely laid outside of Hospital's own sonic radius—they decided to venture a little out of their comfort zone.

So, ultimately, what we have here are a bunch of groovy electronic lounge-type vibes that largely come in the form of future jazz and broken beat—a pair of oft-intertwined electronic genres that were both surging at around the same exact time. Broken beat was this wonderful, broadly-defined music that saw fundamentals of drum n bass taken to a sharper, more complicated and unorthodox abstraction, and its rhythms would be integrated into future jazz, a type of jazz-infused electronic music that succeeds the late 80s-to-mid-90s UK phenomenon of acid jazz, and hearkens back to the halcyon days of free-flowing jazz fusion from the 70s and 80s too; also known as nu jazz.

And even though this is just an exclusive dozen tracks from a label that'd never really put out this type of material before, Hospital was still able to get a few notable names to contribute to this release here: veteran Uschi Classen, who in addition to her own solo material, had also been in a bunch of groups, like Ashley Beedle's Black Science Orchestra and the Ballistic Brothers; dnb trio Aquasky; and Mr. Scruff, whose biggest claim to fame is this very popular electro swing tune—one of the only decent ones that's ever been made—and if you're an American of a certain age, you might remember it from an old ad campaign for Lincoln's full lineup of vehicles too.

Here's one of those ads with Michael Clarke Duncan!

But, to me, the best song on this release has to be "Action," by Japan's Yukihiro Fukutomi. Fukutomi himself was his own entity too by the time this song had been included on this very comp, but the vast majority of his music had only ever been released in Japan; so when he appeared on Out Patients, it was likely the first time that many people outside of Japan had ever heard him before. And those people were probably fuckin' dazzled, because the combination of constantly shifting broken beat drum rhythm and Fukutomi's whiny old school keyboard improv here is simply diabolical 😈. Get lost in this super craggy shit!

And something that also needs pointing out here is that even though most of this comp isn't drum n bass, there are still a couple dnb tunes on here anyway. And as someone who really loves it when people just *straight-up rap* over drum n bass beats, I can't leave this post without mentioning MC Mello and London Elektricity's bouncy "Melloizdaman." This is just such a cool and fun tune, overall, and I especially love how LE add this warm coat of ambient synth to their double bass-infused beat after the first verse. Usually rappers need to rap over steady beats in order to maintain their own timing and flow, and while LE don't mess with the rhythm itself here, they're still able to enhance their tune further with this added synth in order to keep it sounding fresh. Really great stuff 🤩.

So a pretty dope set of early 2000s tunes from Hospital Records here. Mostly not the kind of electronic music that they're typically known for releasing, but they included some nice, previously unheard tracks on this album nonetheless 👍.

And if you want the type of stuff that Hospital *is* known for, check out this post I did a few months ago on Plastic Surgery 2, a double-disc comp and DJ mix that featured them on the 2-step liquid funk trend, a more mass-appealing strain of drum n bass that grew to be very popular in the UK in the mid-to-late 2000s that they themselves were on the forefront of.

Highlights:

Liane Carroll - "The Trap" Uschi Classen - "Tocatta (The Indigo Blue Mix)" Aquasky - "Another Day" Skitz + Julie Dexter - "Be...." Landslide - "Golden Cavalier" London Elektricity - "Incurable" Space Clique - "Exit #1: Luna Park" MC Mello vs. London Elektricity - "Melloizdaman" Yukihiro Fukutomi - "Action" Marcus Intalex & S.T. Files - "Taking Over Me"

[randomvarious]

London Breakbeat Playlist

Alright, folks, I think this is probably gonna be my last breakbeat playlist post for a good while, so ya better all savor it! Introducing a nice and diverse crop of breakbeat tunes that were made and/or remixed by people who, at the time, hailed from the world's most musically vibrant metropolis: London. I've had a YouTube version of this playlist going for a good while, which I'll get to in a little bit, but now the time's finally come for me to start building a Spotify one too, now that I've rooted through enough of my own collection to actually formulate one.

Some names you may or may not be familiar with on here are the Future Sound of London, Coldcut, Ashley Beedle, and Si Begg, all of whom are electronic and dance music legends in their own right. And Beedle gets two tracks on this playlist: the jazz-loungey "Do You Believe in Love?," which he made with Uschi Classen, and appears on Coldcut-owned label Ninja Tune's 1996 Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism comp, as well as his Latin "Sun Barrio Break Mix" of Tokyo-based musician Takada's "Ola-Le," which you can find on one of my favorite mixes of all time, Dimitri From Paris' Monsieur Dimitri's Deluxe House of Funk, which came out in 1997. "Do You Believe in Love?" has over 73.1K plays on Spotify, but the "Ola-Le" remix only has 8.4K, which is criminally low, considering just how phenomenal of a song it really is.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible:

The Future Sound of London - "Expander (remix)" Tim 'Love' Lee - "One Word" Fluid - "The Man With Three Heads" Coldcut - "Atomic Moog 2000" Ashley Beedle Presents The Uschi Classen Band - "Do You Believe in Love?" Spacer - "It's a Nano World" Takada - "Ola-Le (Ashley Beedle's Sun Barrio Break Mix)" Transmutator - "My Beautiful Friend (Children of Dub Mix)" Shur-i-ken - "Niomi's Dream" Si Begg - "Muchacha"

But in addition to all those songs, the YouTube version of this playlist also has a few more tracks on it that can't be found on Spotify; like one from a worldbeat group called Loop Guru, who, in 1995, put out their third album, Amrita (…All These and the Japanese Soup Warriors), which included a song on it called “Diwana.” Loop Guru are one of those acts who take Eastern music—in their case, Indonesian gamelan and traditional Indian—and fit it within a Western electronic framework of sorts. And for this particular tune, they executed that formula by fusing together a load of Eastern sounds with a punchy drum break beneath it all, and it ended up yielding a pretty damn transcendent dance tune 😌. The song’s also been titled as “Olwana” as well, and across its multiple uploads on YouTube, it has about 9,200 plays, which again, is very low.

And another excellent, not-on-Spotify stunner is Genaside II's "The Genaside Will Not Be Televised," which adapts famed New York street poet Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" for a British public, transforming it into a totally cinematic and dystopian slapper of London underground greatness 😊; currently at a little over 10.4K plays.

Plaid - "Scoobs in Columbia" DJ Food - "Ninja Walk" Loop Guru - "Olwana" Lisa Germano - "Lovesick (Underdog Rmx) [as heard on DJ-Kicks by Kid Loco] Sons of Mecha [VR Boy & DJ Erb] - "Rocweiller" Genaside II - "The Genaside Will Not Be Televised"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with the kickoff of the Spotify version of this playlist, we have ten songs that amount to almost an hour, but over on YouTube, we have 16 songs that run for 88 minutes. So if you want some really tremendous bangers that are harder to find, you should really give the YouTube one a listen.

And for those who want something a little more specific or shorter, I've got a London breakbeat playlist that solely deals with the 90s too:

1990s London Breakbeat: YouTube / YouTube Music

Next week, trip hop!

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[randomvarious]

1996 London Playlist

God, you folks really have no idea how much I love making these location-year playlists 🥰. I mean, I love doing the genre-specific ones too, of course, but my name is random fuckin' various, for Christ's sake; I love it when shit's eclectic, which is what these location-year playlists allow me to do!

And no metropolis on this entire planet, as far as I can tell, is more eclectic and vibrant than London. That place seemingly has nearly everything, and when it comes to the very broad and expansive world of electronic music, specifically, I don't think that there's a single place that has more of it than they do.

So here's the start of a super dope look back at London in 1996—all electronic for now. Everything on here involved a Londoner in some way, as either producer or remixer, and as far as the genres go, we've got drill n' bass, deep house/house, breakbeat, trip hop/instrumental hip hop, drum n bass, downtempo, and IDM.

And that IDM track, by the way, I just learned was finally added to Spotify a month ago. If you've never heard of Freeform before, that guy is a *very* underrated IDM artist in my eyes, and while his tune, "Dice," which originally appeared on a comp called Alt. Frequencies, isn't my absolute favorite of his, it's still a total banger. And as of right now, it's sitting at under 1,000 plays, so make Spotify give this man some much deserved money! 🤑

Now, last week, I posted an update to my 1990s breakbeat playlist, and with that update came a song by Ashley Beedle presents The Uschi Classen Band called "Do You Believe in Love?" which, if you're a true-blue hip hop junkie, has a very recognizable sample in it: Smokey Robinson's "Theme From Big Time," which was also used by Company Flow for their underground cult-classic "8 Steps to Perfection." That Beedle/Classen song is on this playlist too, but I've got a couple more for the hip hop heads this week as well: legendary Luke Vibert's "Get Your Head Down," which uses U-God's famous "hip hop will rock and shock the nation" line from Wu-Tang Clan's "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'," and London Funk Allstars' "Junkies Bad Trip," whose lifted funky guitar riff from James Brown's "Blind Man Can See It" was used in Das EFX's huge 1992 hit, "They Want EFX." Surprisingly, "Get Your Head Down" has over 1.1 million plays (!), and "Junkies Bad Trip" has over 250K.

And to open up this whole shebang, we've got some signature madness from the one and only Squarepusher, whose remix of DJ Food's "Scratch Yer Hed" really finds its footing once he finally pairs his stuttering drill n bass concoction with some chilly pads in the second half 😌. Over 144,000 plays.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible:

DJ Food - "Scratch Yer Hed (Squarepusher Mix)" Faze Action - "In the Trees (Original Disco Mix)" Coldcut - "Atomic Moog 2000" Ashley Beedle presents The Uschi Classen Band - "Do You Believe in Love?" Luke Vibert - "Get Your Head Down" London Funk Allstars - "Junkies Bad Trip" Fluid - "Dust Dancing" Fluid - "Spitting Sand" Spacer - "It's a Nano World" Freeform - "Dice" Sir Raymond Mang - "Number One"

Now, everything that's on the Spotify playlist is on the YouTube version of it too, but the YouTube one also has a few extras on it that can't be found on Spotify at all. And speaking of the one who Pushes Squares, I've got another one from him, under his government name, Tom Jenkinson, called "Vogon & I," which is a crazy piece of zappy, head-nod-inducing trip hop-IDM that currently only has a smidge over 860 plays, which is unbelievable considering the fact that it's by fucking SQUAREPUSHER!

And you might be wondering, hey, where the fuck is the techno?! Don't worry! I've got you covered with the terrific Darren Price remix of Underworld's super famous "Born Slippy" and Holy Ghost's highly rhythmic acid-dank basement track, "MK Ultra." The "Born Slippy" remix has almost 353,000 plays across a whole bunch of uploads, but "MK Ultra" only has a little more than 600.

Underworld - "Born Slippy (Darren Price Mix)" Holy Ghost - "MK Ultra" Tom Jenkinson - "Vogon & I"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with the maiden voyage for this playlist, we have 11 songs on Spotify that end up totaling 74 minutes, but over on YouTube, we're at 14 songs that total 89 minutes. So if you want an obscure Squarepusher track as well as a couple great bits of techno, go check out the YouTube one!

And I know that I said last week that I'd have another breakbeat playlist for this week, and I didn't, so while you have no reason to ever trust me again, I'm still going to say it anyway: more breakbeat next week! 😎

And here's some more 90s London playlists for you all:

1995 London: YouTube / YouTube Music 1997 London: Spotify / YouTube / YouTube Music 1998 London: YouTube / YouTube Music 1999 London: YouTube / YouTube Music

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[thebonesofhoudini]

Uschi Classen feat. Nicole - Reach Out (Expression Dub) (Paper Recordings [PAP 040], 1999)

[thebonesofhoudini]

Black Science Orchestra- New Jersey Deep (1994)

classic.

[angelloverde]

"Mo Soul" Player Playlist 12 December

1. The Soul Session - Quantraversa       2. Alex Puddu - The Dirty Games Of Dr.Love       3. Courtney Pine - Rules (feat. Omar)       4. Remi feat. Jordan Rakei - Lose Sleep   5. Poppy Ajudha - Love Falls Down       6. Rosalia De Souza - Carolina Carol Bela   7. Chico Hamilton - El Toro (Mark de Clive Lowe Remix)       8. Henri Texier - Les La-Bas (Bonobo Remix)     9. Modrum feat. Daily Mirror - Godskin   10. Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Dr Follow's Dance   11. Herbie Hancock - The Spook Who Sat By The Door   12. Kaidi Tatham - The Extrovert City     13. Taylor McFerrin - Broken Vibes   14. The Ashley Beedle Presents Uschi Classen Band - Do You Believe In Love? 15. Root Soul - Sky High ft. Mark de Clive-Lowe

If you really want to enjoy music and help musicians and bands, buy their lp’s or cd’s and don’t download mp3 formats. There is nothing like good quality sound!!!

(Angel Lo Verde / Mo Soul)