Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth

New album by Mount Kimbie. Enjoying this a lot. Great melodic dusty tracks. Only heard first side so far, a bit epic at times but some great grooves especially 'Made to Stray'. Proper UK styles. 

Dillinja - The Angels Fell (Metalheadz)

Really excellent Jungle by Dillinja. This is proper creative stuff and flows so nicely. You could probably bracket this as IDM if it was by Luke Vibert but its Dillinja so it's Drum and Bass. See how stupid these categories are!? I'm guessing he used an AKAI MPC and made a lot of live track mutes. Thats what it sounds like but I'm bound to be wrong! I love the organic-ness of the breaks too. It's just got a rolling way about it like I remember when I was in a jungle room. Not all compressed and quantised like it is today. That stuff just blows :-(

The track here is Brutal Bass last one on B-side but they're all great!
 

Da Posse - In The Heat Of The Night (Acid Mix 1988)

What a tune!! Heard this on an old mix from Cylob website www.durftal.com
This is absolutely blinding acid from back then in Chicago. Love the use of the Roland 727 which makes the beat in this track similar to another favourite, Risque III - Essence of a dream
There is another mix but its nowhere near as freaky as this one cos it doesn't have the mad high pitched Acid riff.

Introduction

This blog is going to be a personal commentary on my ever-growing record collection. I will be listing my latest purchases and writing a bit about why I bought it. It is primarily a personal diary for my own records to remember my thoughts and feelings on my record collection.
Vinyl Passion!

Vinyl Passion

I’m an 80s child and back then there were no CDs, Cassette tapes were only played in the car and MP3 was like the future: unknown. Times change. Records were the only way I knew to play music. When I was about 3 or 4 I learned how to put on a record and my parents had a few that I loved. The Police: Regatta De Blanc, Planxty: Cold Blow And The Rainy Night and Thin Lizzy: Thunder And Lightnening. I still have those same records after I rifled through my parents old LPs.

When I started to get into rave music around 93-94 the only way to hear it was continuous dj mixes on really dodgy cassettes. I was so amazed by this music cos it never seemed to end, like normal songs. It was just constant drums, weird sounds and high pitch singing at a fixed tempo. There was never any distinguishable end or beginning and I was baffled by this. I thought, “Who made this? And how?” I remember having a tape of Ellis Dee and thinking is he just up there doing all this live like some kind of magician? Then I realized what was going on. The dj was mixing tracks on Vinyl! I knew straight away that I wanted to do that. The track I remember from back then I since found to be DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer – Ruff.

I also had a Grooverider tape from the edge which started with Kemistry by Metal Heads. That was amazing to me and was so quiet on the tape. It just sounded like a secret music that was underground somewhere and wasn't to be heard by anyone.

Definitely the moment that really made me fall in love with electronic music was in summer ’93 and I bought the ‘Universe, Big Love’ Techno tape pack from ‘Free Spirit’, a clothing shop in my local town Swindon. I paid £9.99 – bargain. I got home and put on the first tape, Colin Dale and it was just beautiful melodic but pounding techno. I had no idea at the time what it was but later in life re-visited this and discovered what the tracks were! Beginning with a very rare record which I now have a copy of, Laurent Garnier - Wake Up Remix (For House Music Lovers). Then Dave Angel - Quarter Pounder, and then Radiation - Meltdown (Jimmy Crash South Of Brooklyn Dub) It goes on and on, and is a perfect reflection of that summer for me.

I bought some records in the hope that soon I would get my own turntables and in the mean time I remember learning how to adjust the pitch on our record deck and sync my records with tapes. I would turn this tiny little knob inside the record player to get the speed right or ‘match the beats’ as we said back then. It was so small and you weren’t meant to touch it, it was like underneath the unit out of reach. I thought I was so cool being able to mix records! It is really all about being able to distinguish one track from another and paying attention to detail. When I hear a track now I hear every part of it. Drums, every little subtlety I try to compartmentalize. This is all out of training my mind to be able to mix.

I started my own record collection about here. I think my first records were hardcore rave tunes by guys like DJ Brisk and Ramos. We loved the Happy Hardcore, it was so positive and energetic! Since then I have explored all avenues of electronic music from house, trance, jungle, IDM (stupid phrase) garage and lately dubstep. All these categories are part of a broader category, that of interesting music. That’s to say I was interested in it at some point. Trends come and go. The next big thing is waiting out there to be discovered.

Records for me are like a physical representation of the music they hold, that’s why I feel better just knowing I have my records even if they are just sat on a shelf. I suppose it’s a bit like a comfort thing. Knowing that its there and not just a file on a computer. Also I’ve always been a collector and I like the idea of collecting memories. Each record holds its own story especially the old ones from when vinyl was used in clubs. I wonder where some of them have been which dj owned them and what have they done to people? I actually bought a record from Billy Daniel Bunter that was the very same one that he played at a rave I was at in ’96. It’s a hard trance record called Feel My Desire by Code 28. It was special hearing it at the time and I remember it was on the tape pack and I loved that tune! Its epic knowing that I own something now that meant so much back then. And the very copy that Bunter had!! Awesome.

But vinyl also has a quality all of its own. Something not digital. In this age of cyberspace and clouds and screens its so nice to have all the little organic imperfections and pops and crackles that a record has. I’m no expert on the actual quality of the sound but I believe they have a depth and richness too that is unique.

Lately I have been mostly interested in going back to the ‘old skool’ and buying all the records I wish I’d been around to pick up at the time. Old acid house and techno as well as early jungle is my passion at the moment. So, my collection is mainly nostalgia and modern albums or singles I really like. I have so many old tunes stored in my memory that I want to add, just a case of finding them!