Test Pressing Podcast

I love these old tapes of Phil live at the Café Del Mar. This one comes from nearly twenty years ago and shows the lineage that young Phil has. I ran into him yesterday, well we went and drank Guinness in the new Test Pressing HQ, and got a couple of mixes from him for the site. He's mid new album and also working on a new 12" with Quinn a.k.a Bing Ji Ling (http://testpressing.org/2013/01/230-bing-ji-ling-buena-onda-desde-la-costa-de-oaxaca/), so more news on those when we have them. This goes off on a New Age vibe which is sounding more perfect than ever for now. The word balearic is much overused these days but alongside Leo Mas and a number of others Phil is a walking version of it. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/236-PHIL-MISON.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/236_Live_At_The_Cafe_Del_Mar.mp3)

This one`s Pop. B-sides, LP tracks, near misses and also rans. A load of old records, and a handful of new ones. Some of the Pop tat I found and hoarded last year, excitedly chucked together after first hearing Leo Mas`Amnesia Summer 1987 25th Anniversary mix ( https://soundcloud.com/leo-mas), and now the series of definitive Ibizian warm up sets (http://testpressing.org/?s=leo+mas+amnesia+early+night) that Leo has kindly produced for us. For all the obscure and expensive Post Punk and ambience purchases I might covert, it`s this Pop music that I`ve obsessed over for almost 25 years. From the racks of Croydon`s Beanos and 101 to the 300 Yen bins of Tokyo`s Recofan and Disk Union. Of course, when Leo plays old Pop records, he is an originator sharing history, for if he and Alfredo never went searching for new vinyl together in Milan, then we probably wouldn`t have a Balearic Beat, while when I play old Pop records it`s just an enthusiast with a touch of OCD / the librarian (depending on how polite you`re being) playing old Pop records. A lot of what we are about at Test Pressing is Pop. In comparison it might be a bit like reading an autobiography, all be it well written, of someone who isn`t famous. Nonetheless, indulge me please `cos there`s plenty more where this came from and party-goers at Bonobo in Harajuku (http://www.facebook.com/events/524042024284015) on Saturday can expect to hear a similar selection early doors, of Cod Reggae, Indie Raga, acoustic post-ecstasy ballads, Faux Jazz, clumsy but enthusiastic Texas Sassafras celebrations, Rock and Roll belly dance Burundi, Red Wedge bookworm Latin, Shoe-Gaze Disco, 21st Century Tom Tom Clubs, Italo Coltrane covers, New Beat Glam Rock, and 4AD Frontline updates, with the odd almost forgotten 80s House classic thrown in. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/234-DR-ROB.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/234_Dr_Rob_Pop.mp3) And Ingrid, Congratulations!

Leo Mas is back with 1987. Have to say I am really loving this series as you can hear that original balearic style coming together. Am really into the Mark Stewart track on here towards the end that uses Saties 'Gymnopédies'. Apparently it's an early Smith and Mighty involvement. Time to go back through their early days soon. Anyway 1987, the party rolls on... (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/233-LEO-MAS.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/233_Amnesia_1987_Early_Night_Music.mp3)

Based on the chart put together by Danny “Happy” Rampling to accompany Paul “Oakey Cokey” Oakenfold`s “Bermondsey Goes Baleric” (sic) piece that describes a night out in Ibiza in 1987 as it moves from the Café Del Mar to Lola`s, to Pasha, to Amnesia, and finally, to Glory`s. If Phuture is the sound of being lost alone in the smoke and the strobes, then “Jesus On The Payroll” was a fuck you call of unity for the disaffected and the damaged. People who lived outside the law. People who had taken sanctuary inside this thing. Cyndi Lauper is Ziggy`s for sure. “Someday” still breaks my heart. U2 is coming to terms with abandon, and one of it`s consequences, infidelity. Living in a rented cupboard in South Norwood. The only way is up. “Quote Of The Year: Poncho-wearing clubber outside Theatre Of Madness club, central London, Monday night, 4 A.M: I don`t mind telling you, matey, I`m right on one and I feel like I`m on holiday.” (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BOY-S-OWN-SPRING-1988-2.jpg) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/231_Boys_Own_Spring_88_Get_On_One_Matey.mp3) “Boy`s Own. The Complete Fanzines 1986-92” is published by DJhistory.com and can be purchased directly here (http://www.djhistory.com/books).

When I working in house music a while back I remember talking with Clive from Flying about where he first heard house music and he said Dom Moir. He said he ran into Dom in Covent Garden when everyone was into bombing and wildstlye and that Dom took his headphones off gave them to Clive and said 'here you go, thats the future'. Point is, when it comes to house, and what was to become acid house, Dom was an early adopter. From there he worked in some of London's best record shops and DJ'd across town. For the Shoom reunion the other week Danny Rampling asked Dom on board to play some music and apparently he played some of the best music of the night so we asked him to mix the same records so we could put it up and here it is. Basically its three hours of good old party soundtrack from chuggy balearic beats to quality house. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/232-DOM-MOIR.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/232_Shoom_25.mp3)

Bing Ji Ling is one of the mellowest people we know. Anyway, he's been down Mexico way hanging out and doing what he does and while there he put together this mix of songs from 2012 that meant something to him. Some are new, some old. Musicwise he's got new music coming later in the year via Tummy Touch and also a new Paqua on Claremont 56 and a few other odds and ends throughout the year (though he didn't ask me to say that). I think this photo (one of his) says a lot about how mellow he is... Right on for 2013. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1.jpg) (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/230-BING-JI-LING.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/230_BING_JI_LING.mp3)

Something happened in London between the summer of 1987 and the spring of 1988. I`m not going to pretend I was there. I was still studying in Leeds, with any money spent on vinyl divided between Hip Hop like Boogie Down Productions & EPMD, Wedding Present 12s and Prince long players, whilst a growing Tom Waits obsession was fed with visits to the University Record Library (what a marvelous thing that was, the record library). My only clues to what was going on back home were cryptic phone-calls from my younger sister (usually needing cash) and the copy of ID (#59) that featured photos of Nancy Noise and hirsute chaps in ponchos. Something happened and, musically, Go-Go, the Jackson Five`s ecstatic break from Bambaataa`s “Death Mix” and James Brown produced rarities gave way to Todd Terry and Tyree Cooper mixed with Euro Pop like George Kranz and the mighty Mandy Smith (and that guitar), and early UK House experiments from Dave Lee and Tony Thorpe. Chris Coco taking his cues from Coldcut. House was no longer clearing the capital`s dancefloors. Stuff like Beats Workin` I came to shun as I acquired “the knowledge” and a copy of “Rhythm From Zaire” from Oscar in Trax, but listening now it has a kind of naïve charm, a reminder again of the enthusiasm of a time when club flyers and memberships were hand-drawn. I have to admit that I played Jim & Gene`s “Shake” the last time I DJed, and that was December 2012, not 1988. If, for me, Mandy Smith is The Trip, and the view from the top of the Astoria looking down at a balcony full of dancers in aisles, dancers on tables, then William Pitt`s “City Lights” is Bonnies in Catford. It`s a record I couldn`t live without (two copies yet), but it`s not one I care to play so often. It was the soundtrack to a thousand conspiratorial grins and handshakes as the lights came up, but it always made me feel kinda lonely. The soundtrack to the end of the night and all that might accompany it. Off lost somewhere, in my head, emotions all upside themselves. A would be Morrisey, still ill. But I must have listened to Mr Pitt at least 30 times over the last two weeks, struggling to accurately put down the feelings and memories it inspires. I`ll keep those secrets close. Airing some things only serves to dilute them. I was gonna say it`s a record that`s probably never gonna be in the box, but what I think it really needs is playing loud and a healthy crowd strong sing-a-long. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BOY-S-OWN-SPRING-1988.jpg) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/228_Boys_Own_Spring_1988.mp3) “Boy`s Own. The Complete Fanzines 1986-92” is published by DJhistory.com and can be purchased directly here (http://www.djhistory.com/books).

Leo Mas is back on Test Pressing with the follow up to his mix of and 1985 of warm up music, with yes, 1986. As we said before Leo was the DJ at Amnesia in Ibiza alongside Alfredo during the years of 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990 (without Alfredo as he was at Pacha then). Was speaking to someone on Twitter the other day (well modern) and they were saying when you went to Amnesia in those times you paid what you could, or thought was about right, to get it in. That fits with how it is in my head. Anyway, on with 1986 with 1987 to follow soon. Great to hear The Smiths and The The on here alongside Sade and It's Immaterial hanging out at Ed's (genius) Funky Diner. Leo showing how to warm up a bunch of pan Europeans who love alternative music and want to see the night lights. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/227-LEO-MAS.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/227_Amnesia_198SEX_Early_Night_Music.mp3)

Misha Hollenbach works with Thomas Bullock on the Cave Slave project. He's done us the first mix of the year on a mellow psyche tip. Here's what he said... "Following the torches as they dip and sway in the darkness, they climb mountain paths with heads thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum. In this state of ekstasis they abandon themselves, dancing wildly, and at that moment of intense rapture became identified with the Gods themselves.  They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs. Fire does not burn them. The snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks." To see more from the chaps you can watch the live Just Jam mix below... (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/3.jpg) The have released an album with LN-CC - AWI4000 conceived by MISHA HOLLENBACH AND THOMAS BULLOCK CAVE SLAVE project. Personel: Misha Hollenbach, Thomas Bullock, Nathan Gray, Rohan BellTowers. DVD version with Jonny Nash (Land of Light / Sombrero Galaxy), Merick Adams & Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Psychedlic freakout. You can find more about the album here (http://www.ln-cc.com/invt/mus0400411col) and the film that accompanies it here (http://www.ln-cc.com/invt/mus0400412col). If you want to get lost further in their world of mong psyche trip business then click in here (http://www.ln-cc.com/en/restofworld/mixes/thomas-bullock+misha-hollenbach/invt/mix040030col/). (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/226-MISHA-HOLLENBACH.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/226_Whilst_We_Were_Sleeping.mp3)

I put this together after receiving a handful of Apiento (& Co.) demos, excitedly basing a “mix” around them, frothing on about “defining a Test Pressing sound”. Then Apiento said, “Hey, hold up! They`re only demos mate” so I had to drop `em out (I`ve kept one). What I was left with is a selection that is neither all out “Judith Chalmers” horizontal nor “Klarting”. Almost dance music. As far as “defining a Test Pressing sound” is concerned I reckon that`s gonna take some more thought, since such a mix / selection would need to reference every genre of music that fed into London club culture, and fed into the melting pot that was Acid House. The Balearic Beat in my head. The best illustration might be Leo Mas` ”Amnesia `85 / Early Night Music” (http://testpressing.org/2012/11/216-leo-mas-amnesia-85-early-night-warm-up-music/) but ideally it would both celebrate the past and promote the new. That`s the real challenge, to find the new. In this, by my own admission, failed attempt I have tried, as I believe is the custom with on-line “mixes”, to favour the unfamiliar. I have balanced the old and new tracks, but the selection here is maybe too Electronic, with too few vocals and certainly not enough Pop. I will aim to redress this with another shot once festivities have ceased and a fresh year of opportunity and possibility has begun. Have a good one. Much love. Dr Rob. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/225-DR-ROB.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/225_Dr_Rob.mp3) Part 2 of this session of record playing and bottle emptying can be heard here (http://samurai.fm/rightrightright) on Samurai.FM.

A mix here from Yozo Kumitake to celebrate 15 years open for Koenji`s EAD Records ( http://testpressing.org/2010/09/mix-tokyo-tracks-008-haruomi-hosono-–-hotel-malabar-upper-floor-moving-triangle), which has got to be some kind of achievement in the light of the changes the business of selling second-hand records has undergone in the last 10 years. I think I`ve said this before but when I first visited EAD it was firmly in the grip of The Loft and all things New York, but now, 6 years on we are travelling more spiritual climes. This mix takes in records from Brasil, France, Gabon, Bolivia, Russia, a dash of UK Roots and of course, Japan. Some would break the bank, if you could find them, some as cheap as chips. With an “Originals” compilation of Japanese artists for Claremont 56 in the bag, photo-shoot wrapped, and scheduled for release in March 2013, a more modest and nicer chap you couldn`t hope to meet. Here`s to another 15! (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/224-YOZO.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/224_EAD_Records_15th_Anniversary.mp3)

This one was pretty hard to pull together, but we know what`s coming. An epiphany of sorts. In the issue of Boy`s Own published in Spring `87 there were no “Charts” as such, just a couple of notes in the margins: Uncle Andrew`s 5 Geetar Greats, 5 Shake `N` Finger Pop recommendations from Norman Jay. Country and feedback. Funk and Disco. Interviews with Big Audio Dynamite and Voice Of The Beehive. The issue from Summer `87 adds a list of 15 “Perfect Ten Singles”: The Smiths, The Triffids, “Golden Age” US Hip Hop and a few new UK mutants thereof. It`s worth noting that House has all but disappeared from the fanzines, apart from Farley commenting on the floor-clearing effect of the music in London`s clubs (alongside lamenting popularity ruining Rare Groove and predicting a Disco revival for 1988). (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/BOY-S-OWN-1987.jpg) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/223_Boys_Own_1987.mp3) “Boy`s Own. The Complete Fanzines 1986-92” is published by DJhistory.com and can be purchased directly here (http://www.djhistory.com/books). POSTSCRIPT / The first time I heard Led Zeppelin`s “Dazed & Confused” Giles Peterson was playing it. I think he might have “mixed” it into Phuture`s “Acid Tracks”.

We like to break up the mellow balearic kosmiche disco business with a bit of house every now and then and here comes Damon Martin of London's Disco Bloodbath to show us what its all about.. We asked Damo what the mix is about and he told us "This is a mix of the kind of stuff that I'm playing out at the moment. It's ended up being mostly of a house persuasion but that's not really by design. Most of it is new stuff from this year but there are a few of classics thrown in along with a couple of forthcoming bits on the Disco Bloodbath label." Check the Crooked Man mix on the Disco Bloodbath label (http://soundcloud.com/the-greg-foat-group) as its a bit of a banger. And you can stay up to date here (http://www.discobloodbath.co.uk) on all other Bloodbath business. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/222-DAMON-MARTIN.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/222_Autumn_Winter_2012.mp3)

I guess this is “Part Two”, taking off where “We Can Be Heroes” (http://www.unbound.co.uk/books/we-can-be-heroes) left off. Where the suburban kids, those knocked back from Le Beat Route, the “foot Soldiers”, and Acid House changed everything. Forever. I didn`t discover “Boy`s Own” until 1989, when a work mate`s brother lent me a copy (he also lent me his Nightwriters in return for a loan of my 12 of Willie Hutch`s “Brother`s Gonna Work It Out”. Oh, the trust / naivety of the times). Twenty-three years later I still find myself somewhat baffled by the behavior the fanzine induced in me. It became a bible, a sacred document. The text poured over time and time again, like Madonna`s Kabbalist script, as if by merely holding it I would “know”. Index finger running down lists of records, titles mouthed silently. In time I grew to be a tad resentful, because I knew I was being an arse. Owning the fanzines, the records, the ephemera, does not mean you were there. It`s a Red Badge of nothing. One should be content with one`s own memories, not go stealing Farley`s. How did a fanzine produced by a group of friends, largely taking the piss, became a rule-book for Acid House and clubbing (in the capital at least)? I am sure they weren`t looking to recruit an army of sheep. I came to think that the need to prove / pretend you were there at the “start” was down to the drug (helped hugely in this view by Matthew Collin and John Godfrey`s “Altered State” (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=matthew+collin+altered+state)), a side effect, and maybe, in part it was. Memorabilia, snow-storms and key chains, for those first few impossible highs. Like Robby Krieger damaged in the wake of Morrison`s excesses, a lot of us went a long way out, some of us never quite made it back. It would be nice to have something to show for it. But when Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton published the collected “Boy`s Own” fanzines in 2009, in my relative sobriety, one thing was very clear, and obvious, the enthusiasm. Goodness knows the writing`s not Proust, or even Lester Bangs, but they got off their bums and did something. Chronicled something that they cared about, and looking at the fanzines again tonight, it took a lot of fucking effort. It wasn`t posting a Youtube clip or Soundcloud link, it was interviewing, typing, photocopying, stapling, going round the shops and distributing, putting an opinion out there rather than a regurgitated press release. And maybe that`s what the obsession boils down to, enthusiasm, on the part of both the authors and the readers, that and the simple desire to map and understand a life-changing event. The aim here isn`t quite the same as that with the “mixes” we put together to accompany Graham Smith and Chris Sullivan`s book. We`re not really trying to provide a soundtrack to you reading the fanzines, what we are trying to do, year by year, (where possible) issue by issue, since Boy`s Own, Weatherall and Farley, took Alfredo`s Balearic Beat baton and ran with it, is to chart a course of musical change. I`m not sure it`s fair to call the selections from the fanzines that went on sale in `86 and `87 playlists, as they are cross-genre top tens, not necessarily aimed at the dancefloor, from Messrs. Eckel, Farley, Mayes and Weatherall, but they provide an essential starting point. A prologue. In `86 there was Def Jam, Go-Go, Rare Groove, Industrial, remixes from Zeus B. Held and the Latin Rascals, Pop based on drum machines and samples, New Order, and even some House. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/BOY-S-OWN-1986.jpg) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/221_Boys_Own_1986.mp3) “Boy`s Own. The Complete Fanzines 1986-92” is published by DJhistory.com and can be purchased directly here (http://www.djhistory.com/books). POSTSCRIPT / In `86 there was also R.E.M., Martin Stephenson & The Dainties, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads,

Long time DJ and producer Timm Sure comes with the good for our next mix. Alongside co-producer Ampo they are pretty busy people - running the IIB record label and helping out on the support team for the Aficionado label as well as creating new releases on Tokyo's Ene, a new one for their own IIB and a release on Porn Wax. There's talk of a Conan Moccasin remix soon as well as a new Magic Wand and work on the new Coyote LP. Busy busy busy. Tim pulled out the goods and got a mix together for us kicking off with the brilliant Barry Reynold's tune 'Till The Doctor Get's Back'. (http://testpressing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/220-COYOTE.png) Download (http://testpressing.org/audio/220_Musica_De_Contrabando.mp3)