Gotta Work



1. Fat Joe - Make It Rain (Remix) ft. Lil' Wayne, R. Kelly, Baby, T.I., Ace Mac & Rick Ross

2. Asian Dub Foundation - Free Satpal Ram

3, Killdahype - G-Boys

4. Amerie - Gotta Work

5. Lil' Mama - Lipgloss

6. Yelle - Je Veux Te Voir

7. Dizzee Rascal - Pussyole

8. Mark Ronson - Toxic ft. Ol' Dirty Bastard

9. Fabolous - Right Now + Later On

10. Girls Aloud - No Good Advice (Parental Advisory)

11. *NSYNC - Bye Bye Bye

12. Busta Rhymes - As I Come Back

13. Unklejam - Love Ya

14. The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It (Fake Blood Mix)

15. M.I.A. - XR2 (Tigerstyle Remix)

16. SebAstian - Head Off (Faex Remix)

17. Cee-Lo Green - Passion Fruit ft. Pharrell

18. Killdahype - Revolution (Original Mix)

19. Backstreet Boys - The Call (The Neptunes Remix) ft. Clipse

One of the first gigs I remember going to was the previously mentioned Asian Dub Foundation show I went to with George at The Garage in Glasgow in 2000. It was on their Community Music tour. It was a hell of a show, promoting a hell of an album. The band came out on stage and got themselves set up and as they launched into the first song of the night, Real Great Britain, every member of the band and every person in the audience jumped into the air in unison. This made it look like the floor had briefly dropped out from underneath us before rushing back up to meet us and then fell away again as we all leapt a second time together. It was startling and completely exhilarating.

The track here is from the earlier, sophomore album Rafi's Revenge which is also great. I haven't thought about the band much in recent years but hearing Free Satpal Ram is like catching up with an old friend. One that is overtly political, outspoken and angry. This old pal hasn't lost its edge. Its a political protest song demanding the release of a man imprisoned after being convicted of murder. Satpal Ram allegedly killed a man in self-defence during a fight in a restaurant in Birmingham in 1986. His mistreatment in every step of the judicial process was a matter of some controversy. This song is a furious call for justice and it bangs. Hard.

It's good to be reminded of forgotten gems like this and reminded of old favourites that you haven't heard for a while. Gotta Work is packed with these kinds of reminders for me. Unlike the other mixes I've talked about so far, this one doesn't really recall any specific times or people or places from my life. This one is really just about the music... man.

The only clues as to the timeframe that I'd have made it in are a handful of tracks that were very much of their moment. They shone brightly (for me at least) for a short spell before slinking off into the mists of passing time. I'm guessing early to mid 2007. I'd say that the title track, Amerie's quite sublimely funky RnB anthem about striving to achieve your goals and getting through the hard days, Gotta Work, would have just leaked when I burnt it to this CD-R. It still sounds amazing and I can't quite believe how underrated it is. Produced by One Up doing a mighty fine Rich Harrison impression it's all big blaring horns (sampled from Erma Franklin's cover of Hold On, I'm Comin'), clattering but snappy funk drums, break downs and a massive chorus. Its almost Crazy In Love/1 Thing good. Why did it not get appreciated? I honestly don't understand why it isn't still getting regular spins at RnB clubs everywhere. Maybe it is, just not at the ones I've been to. Maybe I'm just old and out of touch.

Anyway I hadn't forgotten that one but it was great to hear it again. Same goes for the opener, Fat Joe's ridiculous posse cut remix of Make It Rain. The dramatic Scott Storch beat is blessed by almost everyone involved bringing their A game. 

Kels hits a near all time high with the first verse. It's hilarious and brilliant and wrong on a multi- levelled basis. Everything you hope for and expect from an R. Kelly guestspot. The perfect logic of his 'I order one bottle, then I fuck with one model/Then I order more bottles, now I got more models' makes me chuckle every single time. Wayne was on a tear at this point and his contribution here was sub-par for him but at that time Mixtape Weezy at his worst was still way better than most at their best. Then a big shock with a Baby verse that isn't total shit which makes me think Wayne probably wrote it too. 

T.I. slays with his rapid fire young hustler tales and then the wild card of the bunch Ace Mac shows up, an unknown young latino rapper who more than holds his own in a room full of established heavyweights. Tip and Ace Mizzy both have similar kinds of flows on their respective 8 bars and it really suits the beat. Complicated, tricky and fast. They don't have much to say besides how much money and how many women they have but they do it a way that sounds glorious.

To close out the remix are two literal heavyweights; Rick Ross does his thing and that is rarely a bad thing. He keeps the momentum going and delivers some nice memorable rhymes. Solid. Fat Joe on the other hand is a real weak link on his own song. His verse lacks any real flow or cadence and is lazily tacked on the end. The momentum created by the quality prior to this verse means that it doesn't completely derail the proceedings. The fact that I still know the lyrics inside out tells you how often I listened to this tune back then. Epic stuff.

Long unplayed but ultimately unforgettable is Bye Bye Bye. Written and produced by the Swedish pop geniuses at Cheiron Studios it remains one of the best boyband songs of all time. British group 5ive must be gutted they passed on it. The production couldn't be more late 90's, I'm not mad at that. I'm also not mad at JC and Justin doing the majority of the heavy lifting on vocals (as they often did). The rest chip in though to make the harmonies soar.

It couldn't really be a compilation made by me since 1999 if it didn't feature at least one Neptunes production. This one has three. Their third appearance on this one comes right at the end with the appearance of another late 90's/early 2000's boyband. The original version of The Call is excellent, penned by the Swedish pop god Max Martin it was always going to be, but Pharrell and Chad took it and made it super weird and minimal and it is phenomenal. The Backstreet Boys sing verses about an ill-fated cellphone call, a dying battery and infidelity over a repeating vocal approximation of a ringtone, a deep baseline, typically snappy drums, a electronic synth bubbling that peeks in and out and a barely there guitar strum on the chorus. Added to this are a couple of guest verses by Pusha T and Malice of Clipse, the latter of which brilliantly/hilariously namechecks every member of the band.

The first Neptunes production on the tape is another one I remember well. It appears on Busta Rhymes' 2001 record Genesis and it uses a couplet from Busta's verse on A Tribe Called Quest's Scenario as a hook. As I Come Back is the kind of beat that makes your face screw up.and typifies what The Neptunes did so well and so prolifically between 1999 and 2004. Again, minimal and spacey, using weird sounds, in this case the bizarre pitched up, chipmunk-y sounding synth part, and always tailored to perfectly fit the artist. Busta goes wild and aggressive, roaring and growling his way across the lively instrumental, easily matching its energy.

When looking at the track listing I didn't at first recognise the second of the Virginia duo's beats; Cee-Lo Green's Passion Fruit with its Pharrell feature. As soon as it started though I realised that it is an early demo version of the track The Art Of Noise which appeared on Cee-Lo's Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine album. The final version is one of my absolute favourite Neptunes tracks, a funky, upbeat soul number and the demo doesn't vary much except for a little sample at the intro and the vocals for the chorus are missing. Pharrell's live drums on the beat are sweet and Cee-Lo does his thing; 'And god can truly work a miracle/Look at me isn't it obvious that I'm one'.

Elsewhere on the disc is Lil' Mama's Lipgloss which is not a Neptunes beat but does a quite convincing imitation of one. It is basically a High School Musical version of Grindin' by Clipse; over a sparse drums and claps only backing track Mama rhymes about her popularity at school and of course how poppin' her lipgloss is. She never lived up to the early promise of this ambitious and fun debut single unfortunately.

Also slightly indebted to The Neps but more to Prince and Funkadelic are Unklejam; a soul-funk trio who came and went in a brief timespan. Love Ya was catchy enough that the tune was easily recalled when I thought about it. Lyrically the thing is weak but the production and melodies and hooks still sound strong. Their album was really forgettable and it's not surprising that they didn't have longevity.

Built around the much used Yeah! Woo! Break, Dizzee Rascal's threatening Wiley diss track Pussyole (Old Skool) I had totally forgotten about until I saw its name on the disc. This is one of the last times Dizzee sounded this dangerous. I miss that Dizzee. This song is great, menacing but you want to dance.

Only two other of the tracks here were songs that I either just hadn't heard for a while or had forgotten they existed but upon seeing their titles they came instantly back to me. First Girls Aloud and their classic single No Good Advice. They really did have some belters these girls, Xenomania made sure of that. The version on this disc is the slightly sweary Parental Advisory one. The song isn't particularly enhance by the bad language to be honest.

The other one that had slipped my mind and which I couldn't even summon what it sounded like until the first few notes played was Mark Ronson's Ol' Dirty Bastard assisted cover of Britney's Toxic. I mean, I could have guessed what it was gonna sound like even if I hadn't heard it before in all honestly. 'It's probably gonna have horns on it. Lots of horns.' Big Baby Jesus references his classic Grammy moment in his verse, a verse that wasn't recorded for this song but ended up fitting it quite well. This all could have gone much worse than it ended up being.

All that remains from this disc are a handful of tracks that I had no idea what they were or what they would sound like even when the names of the acts were familiar. Killdahype for example; I would have bet that they would be some kinda Ed Banger-ish electro act, which they were, but I even as I listened to them I couldn't be sure I'd ever heard them before. I must have dug them at the time though as they have two tracks here. The second track Revolution is a slightly above average example of post-Daft Punk electro-house circa 2007. It has some personality and changes often enough to stay interesting. The earlier appearance by them however is more fun; G-Boys is a propulsive, driving tune that sounds like it should be from a 16-bit blast em up, side-scrolling, space adventure video game like Super R-Type or Metro if or something. The beat goes through a number of changes and there is a real progression and development in the tune. I'm really happy to have it back in my life.

Similarly, the heavy and abrasive Faex remix of of SebastiAn's Heads Off is dope. From that era of Ed Banger Records I find the more jagged without being too extreme stuff has held up the best and this one rides that line perfectly. And French electro-rapper Yelle is fun too, from the slightly brighter and more colourful side of that kind of electronic music from France at the time. Her verses sound good, I don't really know what she's saying but it sounds good. Maybe she has other good tunes. I should investigate.

The other two remixes left here fare less well. Tigerstyle don't do anything particularly interesting with an M.I.A. track that wasn't of particular note in the first place. It's fine, just nothing special. Same goes for a Fake Blood mix of Any Way You Choose To Give It by whoever The Black Ghosts were. There are much better examples of these kinds of remixes from that time but also much worse ones. Much much worse.

Much much much worse.

Finally we get to Fabolous and his Timbaland produced cut Right Now + Later On which is decent. I like it but am not in the least bit surprised that it faded from my memory, neither Tim nor Fab are nearly as inspired as they can be.

Like fleeting affairs or one night stands most of these songs were short moments in my life, some lasted longer than others, some had more resonance than others and some had slipped my mind entirely. I don't regret any of them and some of them it was really good to catch up with again. A few of them even good enough to start our thing up again.

Mole's Mega Mix '04

1. The Advantage - Megaman 3 - Dr. Wiley Stage
2. Annie - Me +1
3. Art Brut - Formed A Band
4. Cyndi Lauper - She Bop
5. Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath
6. Demon Vs. Lady Fury - Gash (remix)
7. Fabolous - Breath
8. Terror Squad - Lean Back (remix) ft. Ma$e, Eminem and Lil' Jon
9. Gravy Train!!!! - Burger Baby
10. Gravy Train!!!! - Mouthfulla Caps
11. Joanna Newsome - The Sprout And The Bean
12. Lady Sovereign - Sad Arse Stripah
13. Lady Sovereign - Ch-Ching (Cheque 1, 2)
14. LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Clap-a-pella mix)
15. LCD Soundsystem  - Yeah (Stupid Mix)
16. Munk - Kick Out The Chairs ft. James Murphy
17. Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot ft. Pharrell Williams
18. TV On The Radio - Mr. Grieves
19. Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love
20. Joanna Newsome - Cassiopeia

Do you remember where you were when you first heard Drop It Like It's Hot? I do. It really was a moment when I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. It shouldn't have made sense as a song but it did. So much. Its composition sounded like a work of complete madness but its catchiness was undeniable.

I was in George's new small basement flat on West Nicolson Street September 2004, where we made this mix together. If I had to guess the exact date I'd probably say it was Sunday the 12th. He'd lived with me and Luke on Gilmore Place for a few years prior but he had moved out not long before that evening. I guess the relentless mess of that party flat had gotten to him. I was round visiting, seeing the place and having a little drink and catch up. The conversation turned quickly to music. It always did. It was either gonna be that or films or books.

There are about 3 people that I can think of who have had a profound influence in how I consume and experience music. George is on that list. He constantly exposed me to records (and films and books for that matter) that I might never have otherwise come to and would get as enthused as I was when I brought stuff I knew he'd like to his attention too. It was a support system for music nerds. He, however was always a much bigger nerd than I. Encyclopedic knowledge of culture and art. 

One evening after being at the cinema or seeing a band or something, this would've been around March/April 1999, we were walking home from town excitedly discussing what music we had been enjoying. George suggested we go back to his to drink some whiskey and listen to some tunes, his mum was away so we could turn the music up loud. Sounded good. So we went back. I was saying that I'd become a bit obsessed with Mogwai's recently released Come On Die Young album and G asked if I'd heard their first album; Young Team. I hadn't and he had a copy. So he put on Like Herod and we sat on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed that was in his little room and sipped our whiskey. We had to hunch a little as there wasn't a huge amount of space between bunks. I was telling him some story, he looked like he was way more interested in the story than it was interesting and I barely registered the mischievous grin on his face as he slowly turned the volume up on the stereo as I spoke. In my head I thought he was really enjoying my tale so I kept going and going and then 02.57 happened and I jumped out of my skin. So hard that I smashed my head on the underside of the top bunk. That lurch from quiet to loud still gets me, how George didn't even flinch I will never understand and I will never forget how hard he laughed. The bastard. Once I got over the initial shock and pain I saw the funny side too. It was a mean prank but a really good one.

That same night I believe he introduced me to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and to Will Oldham and his many guises. He was always giving me so much. It always felt like a personal triumph whenever I was the one doing the enlightening. It wasn't often but it did happen.

Anyway, back to September '04, we were doing the usual talking about what we'd been listening to recently and were downloading stuff to play to each other. This compilation is what came together from the evening. Looking at the list now I can still tell what tracks were the ones he showed me, which ones I downloaded and which were the ones we found together. 

The Advantage was definitely an act that he showed me. He knew that the very idea of this band was right up my street. A band who's modus operandi was to cover every song from every Nintendo Entertainment System game ever released. Sold! They're still together but their last few records have been live recordings and b-side reissues. Their first record preceded the whole Chiptune revival movement by about 8 years, they basically invented the genre but favoured old fashioned guitars and drums over electronic sounds. They were the proto-Anamanaguchi.

Gimmicky bands and ideas like this were the kind of thing that George would find amusing initially but would become tired of real fast. But he knew well enough that this existing at all would delight me and it did. Hearing this again reminded me of how good their version of Cyndi Lauper's Goonies R Good Enough from The Goonies II game was.

Swedish pop music has a strong lineage from ABBA to Roxette to Ace Of Base to Max Martin, and Annie is definitely an under-celebrated part of that. Of course that's probably because she's from Norway, but whatever, Scandi-pop is Scandi-pop. She's had a few minor hits but so much of her output deserved to be massive. Her brand of pop was intensely colourful, ultra bright, super catchy and pneumatically bouncy. And so much fun. We would have downloaded this after having read about her, the music press and blogs at the time got briefly very excited about her. Me + 1 is a hell of a tune and a bit of a shocker that it wasn't a single. G and me were both fans of her first album Anniemal which also would've probably been the first time I'd become aware of producer Richard X for his work on the first half of the record. I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me was a slight return for Annie in 2008 but it never really happened for her, which was a shame as her second album Don't Stop was excellent too.

Formed A Band is 100% an NME recommendation. This was exactly the kind of record that the writers of the New Musical Express in 2004 would pissed their pants over. I feel like this era was very much the start of the very steep decline of that magazine that has continued to today. Sad to think how good it once was. Remember they put Godspeed You Black Emperor! on the cover? Kelis too. And At The Drive - In. And The Strokes. Aphex Twin. So Solid Crew! And they used to write in-depth pieces on these bands and artists. Fuck, I used to love that paper.

That's not to say that Art Brut are in any way to blame for this decline. Formed A Band is really actually quite a fun tune. Written literally moments after the band was formed (allegedly), it's scuzzy and funny and kind of charming. The lyrics are hilarious with their bold ambitions; to make "Israel and Palestine get along" and that they're gonna play Top Of The Pops for "8 weeks in a row" and that they're gonna make sure "everyone knows everything is gonna be okay". These goals are yet to be achieved but that band is still together so there is still time.

I mentioned Cyndi Lauper's Goonies R Good Enough earlier and I guess seeing her on the TV in The Goonies when I was a kid would've probably been when I became a fan of hers. Years later I was given a copy of her best of compilation Twelve Deadly Cyns...And Then Some on cassette for a birthday or Christmas and I nearly wore that tape out. On this evening George had just downloaded her debut solo LP She's So Unusual and was really enjoying it, I hadn't heard it for years but immediately demanded he put She Bop on. We danced like fools. It is a perfect pop gem about female masturbation. There are some really good songs about female masturbation.

Exactly how we came across it I'm not sure but the new Destiny's Child single Lose My Breath had just premiered, on AOL I think, and George and I got super hyped at the news. It'd been a few years since the Survivor LP had been released so we were excited as hell to hear new material from them.

Years previously, I remember one peculiarly hot day in Edinburgh in the summer of 2000, we were walking into town to buy some CD'S and George announced he was planning on picking up a copy of The Writing's On The Wall. This was a record I knew quite well but refused to admit enjoying. I knew it because my sister, Annika was a fan. I, on the other hand, was into 'real' music, y'know,  with guitars and stuff? Like Oasis. What a little twit. I used to give Annika a hard time for liking all that 'crap RnB nonsense. They can't even play any instruments'. Tell you what instrument I was; a trumpet.

So I was somewhat confused with this guy whose taste in music up to this point I had considered to be very cool; lots of metal and rock and gangsta rap. I could get on board with that stuff. Why then, would he want to buy an RnB record? Even a cheesy pop record like a Britney album or something, I could vaguely understand. What didn't I get? He explained to me how he thought the album had 4 of his favourite singles of the last year on it. His enthusiastic explanations of what he liked about each one completely changed the way I thought about them. My perspective was shifted. Permenantly. To the extent that now RnB records take up a large amount of my listening time and is a genre that houses some of my favourite ever albums.

When we hit play on Lose My Breath I remember us saying how much we couldn't wait to hear it in a club. I think we even burnt a copy to CD and took it to the Thursday night regular spot; The Snatch Club at The Liquid Rooms and got a friend who was DJing to play it. It is still is a banger even if it hasn't aged as well as some of their earlier singles. Fun fact about it; Jay-Z wrote the hook for it before he'd even been played the beat.

Grime is something I can legitimately claim to have turned George on to. He would have got to it by himself eventually but I was there first. Not that it was a competition or anything. But I was there first. Definitely. *strong arm emoji *. I'd bought a copy of Dizzee Rascal's I Luv U on the day it was released and after having played it on repeat all that day I was out for a drink with G in the evening and was telling him how amazing it was. We were living together at the time and when we got home drunk and high from the club we banged it on in my tiny box room. Really loud. Many times in a row. We were so gassed. It sounded so exciting and new. And after that we tracked down as much other Grime stuff as we could. He always had better sources than I had so more often than not he'd bring me the most amazing new songs and artists from the genre.

The Demon Vs. Lady Fury track on this comp is one that he was excited to share with me. An aggressive and angry sounding instrumental is matched by the equally aggressive and angry MC's spitting their bars of misogyny and misandry in a grueling gender battle. The content of these kinds of lyrics is always problematic but when the delivery is as impassioned and skilled as this it is incredibly thrilling. I don't actually remember hearing anything else by either artist but I'm intrigued enough to seek some other tracks out now.

MTV Base kept me in the loop with regards to what was going on in mainstream rap at that time. Many hours were spent slouched on the sofa in Gilmore Place watching videos by Usher and Cam'Ron and Busta and 50 Cent and the like. I don't remember it specifically but I'm fairly sure I caught the video for the Just Blaze produced facemelter Breathe by Fabolous one afternoon while lazing around. I would've definitely sat up to attention upon hearing that beat. It still packs a hell of a punch and Fab rhymes and flows on it better than he ever had or has since. I can probably still rap it top to bottom. Has to be one of my top 5 Just Blaze beats. It's so hard and so dramatic and so catchy and so danceable.

So yeah, it would have been one of my suggestions.  As would Lean Back by Fat Joe's Terror Squad which I'm sure would've been discovered the same way as Breathe. I can't be sure how we came across the remix included here but at that time Lil' Jon was omnipresent. It is a weird line up to appear on a track together and it kinda works but the original version of this song is infinitely better, with Remy Ma's verse being particularly hard. This mix is just a nice curio. 

Gravy Train!!! are a George inclusion. I remember he'd been listening to a lot of their stuff around that time and was psyched to play me some of their songs. I really liked the 2 included here. When I read the tracklist I remembered the band and had an idea what they sounded like but couldn't remember the songs, as soon as I hit play I was like 'oh yeah, I remember this song'.

Burger Baby has the weird House of Horrors-type of kitch-y scream on the chorus that is pretty fun over the lo-fi Casio keyboard beat and with the stupid lyrics about being in love with a hamburger. It also had a really fun animated video. And even more mental is Mouthfulla Caps which is just a big, ol' mess. But a really fun mess. It's basically a bunch of badly sung interpolations and re-appropriated lyrics from CeCe Peniston and Foreigner and is about asking how exactly one raps with a mouthful of caps.

This evening was also the first time I heard Joanna Newsome. I was completely oblivious to her existence but George was already obsessed. I remember him describing her as 'a harp player with a voice like Lisa Simpson but who looks like, basically, my dream girl' or something like that. I was intrigued. He played me a few tracks from her first album The Milk-Eyed Mender and after initially being unsure about her voice I too fell in love with her. The Sprout And The Bean is lush and pretty. Just her, her harp and some backing vocals. She can really play that thing. As always with her, the lyrics have depth and room for many interpretations. If it is about abortion then it must surely be the most beautiful song ever on the subject.

A thing that happened around this part of '04 that is wholly inexplicable is this; Jentina. What was that all about? If she had just been a singularity that would've been weird enough but the subsequent beef between her and rising Grime MC Lady Sovereign made things even more outlandish. Full disclosure; when Bad Ass Strippa first dropped I was on board. I thought 'pretty white gypsy girl who raps? This should be interesting' and convinced myself not only that the single wasn't that bad but that it was actually good. My delusion is embarrassing. At any rate, quite why Lady Sovereign decided to take it upon herself to take shots at this aspiring pop sensation is unclear. What is clear is how savage a takedown she delivered.

Sov we had already heard earlier in the year on the awesome remix of Fit But You Know It by The Streets where she appeared with and upstaged other rising grime MC's Kano, Donae'o and Tinchy Stryder. She absolutely bodied that track. We were impressed, so I guess G had been keeping an ear out for her and it was with glee that he played me Sad Arse Stripah. She spat her 'nightmare', career-ending verses with ferocious vitriol. This is what Sov sounded like in her early years. It was astonishing and exciting. Chi-Ching (Cheque 1, 2) had the same energy and vibrance. G and I went to see her live a year or so later in Edinburgh on the same night that we'd seen Dizzee Rascal in Glasgow a few hours earlier and I remember she really sounded like the future and made Dizzee sound past it. And then she went on Celebrity Big Brother and collaborated with The Ordinary Boys and it all went to shit. Real pity.

Speaking of losing your edge, George and I were already fans of James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem limited output up to this point. Give It Up was still on heavy rotation for me and I was glad to hear new stuff by them. George played me a few versions of their latest tune Yeah. The Clap-a-pella mix seems to have disappeared from the internet but is exactly what it sounds like; a short 2 minute version of the song with just their voices, hand claps and little else to it. I love this version. He also played me the Pretentious mix which doesn't appear on the mix. It's 11 minutes long so I guess I opted to include the then monikered Stupid mix which later was dubbed the Crass mix which was only 9 minutes long to save space. It is the superior version to be fair. It's more immediate and varied as it builds steadily to it's house-y/techno-y conclusion. The MC5 referencing track by a band called Munk and featuring LCD's main man was also another sweet find by George. I never heard anything else by these guys but this song was great.

A lovely acapella cover of the Pixies song Mr. Grieves by TV On The Radio was a rarity George had discovered. Again, we were both already fans but as always George was diving deeper into their releases and finding hidden gems that he was more than happy to share with me. And I think the inclusion here of Tom Tom Club's much covered and sampled classic Genius Of Love would have come at the tail end of the night, when nice and drunk on red wine, we were just putting 'on our classics and we'll 'av a little dance, shall we?'. Presumably Annie's Chewing Gum which samples from it would've reminded us of how much of a tune it was. The compilation closes out with a further moment of gorgeous Joanna Newsome dreaminess with the wondrous Cassiopeia.

12 years later and I still love this collection. It really takes me back to that night. And the most enduring memory I have from that night is the epiphanic moment George and I shared when we first heard that new Snoop Dogg and The Neptunes collaboration. A further reminder of how amazing music can be. I'd heard there was a new Snoop track featuring Pharrell floating around from my friend Georgia. I think she asked me in a club if I'd heard it and I was like 'you mean Beautiful?' and she was like 'no, stupid! Its called Drop It Like It's Hot'. So a few nights later I told George we had to find it and he tracked it down fairly quickly. When it started we just stared at each other. Was this really a track built around someone clicking their tongue, a base drum, the sound of a spray can and someone saying 'Snoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop'? And then that synth stab. Oh my god. It was unusual too that Pharrell took the first verse as the featured artist. Probably still his best verse ever. The whole thing was so eccentric and funky. Snoop slays on it too.

When it finished George and I burst out laughing. We were blown away. We started it again. I can't be sure how many times we played it that night, but it was a lot. I can't quite believe it was 12 years ago either. It still sounds like it was sent from the future. And the video, when it came out weeks later, wow. I was already a Neptunes fanboy but this cemented it.

I love how excited we both got. We had many moments like that. Too many to count but not enough that I don't miss having them now. George lost his battle with complications related to non-Hodgkins lymphoma on the 29th of March 2014. It had been a long struggle and he had fought so hard but he needed to rest. He needed peace. And so he left us. But for those he left behind, he left us with so much. He gave me more than he will ever know or understand. He was a friend like none I'd ever had before and one the likes of I'll never have again. But I still have these memories. These moments. And when a simple song or film or photo or CD can bring them alive in my mind so easily I know just how important they were.

The last message he sent me was about the first gig we went to together which was Asian Dub Foundation at The Garage in Glasgow and also him asking me to bring him a copy of Super Furry Animal's MWNG (I did). Right up to the end we communicated and related to each other through art and specifically music. And so it is still with regularity that after hearing a new record or seeing a new film or going to a gallery that I wonder what he would have made of it. And I wish I could ask him because I could never guess. He surprised me constantly and challenged me in all the best ways. He was a very beautiful and special man who enriched my life immeasurably.

To George; I will never stop missing having you around. I still think about you every day. I love you, pal. Rest easy.

That's What They Always Say

1. Fake Shark - Real Zombie - Designer Drugs
2. Hadouken! - Dance Lesson
3. Xerox Teens - My Favorite Hat
4. Bolt Action Five - Girl Howl
5. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow
6. Stop Die Resuscitate - Hello
7. Pull Tiger Tail - Animator
8. New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream
9. Fake Shark - Real Zombie - Shame On You Scabs
10. Hadouken! - Superstar
11. Punk Bunny - 076 Slut (Remix)
12. Danananaykroyd - Totally Bone!
13. Dresden Dolls - Backstabber
14. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
15. Matters Of State - Fraud In The 80's
16. The Deftones - Pink Cellephone ft. Annie Hardy
17. Pull Tiger Tail - Mr. 100 Percent
18. Hadouken! - Tune In
19. Untitled
20. Bolt Action Fiver - Spring Heel Jack
21. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (Nightmoves Remix)

Myspace dayz.

As far as I can recall Myspace would have been my first real experience of social media. As I'm sure it will have been for many. I never had Bebo and sometimes lurked various forums but wasn't a big contributor. But Myspace was something different. For me it was where I learned the rules and etiquette of digital interaction and where I first saw its value. 

In the beginning it was like the Wild West on there. Anything goes. That freedom was really exciting to this noob.  You could change the design of your page, the colours and add pictures. You could post blogs. Post photos. Post links. Start discussions. You could create an online persona that could be used as an avatar. You could talk to people you wouldn't normally be able to. People anywhere in the world. You could be provocative with out having to answer for it. Anonymity. And importantly you could choose how to soundtrack the whole thing.

Any artist could have their own page and upload tracks and then you could add one to your profile. You could change it as many times as you liked. Suddenly there was a platform where new artists could connect with a wide audience immediately. They could share songs with the world before they'd even played a single show. The whole process was flipped upside down and back to front. And it was horrible. And amazing. And great. And the worst. It was exciting and it was excruciating. Music executives must have been pretty startled to have so much of their power fall from their grasps in an instant. Again.

These were also the Mediafire dayz. The zShare dayz. The second evolution in the filesharing era. Napter and then Audiogalaxy and Soulseek and Limewire and the rest opened the floodgates. As soon as a song or album was available somewhere it was available everywhere. And for free. Completely illegally of course. Myspace was the Wild West, this was the high seas and piracy was rife. These new filesharing sites simplified things further. Name the music you wanted and you could more or less type it into Google followed by the words zShare or Mediafire and you'd find the mp3 of the song or a zip file of the album. Too easy.

Between all these sites it was all way too easy. For a music fan it was like being given the keys to the biggest record store on the planet and being told 'go ahead, take whatever you want, I'll grab a van and give you a hand'. From classic records to new demos by young artists, it was all in there. So much stuff and so much of it not good. In fact so much of it was terrible. With the capability to share without the filters of live audiences and record labels and producers everyone from the supremely talented to the tragically deluded were free to unleash their 'art' on the general populace. 

But that was part of the fun. You'd spend hours wading through garbage and then you'd hit upon something really special. When that happened if felt earned and personal. Your own little discovery. The digital version of digging in the crates.

The other week a friend asked me if the fact that I couldn't remember most of the tracks on a compilation I made less than 10 years ago says more about the disposable nature of music at that time or about how bad my taste was at that time. I told him I thought it was a bit of both. The massive explosion in availability and exposure to new music as it was happening made me get perhaps a little too excited too soon. Premature you could say. I was young, give me a break. Every new band or artist could potentially be the next greatest thing. But very few of these acts ended up holding my attention very long. I could easily be seduced by the idea of a band and convince myself that they were good for a short time before sobering up and realising that they were not.

Of all the acts on this mix I think only a few are still going with any kind of audience. Obviously The Deftones were big long before I made this mix in 2006 and continue to be, this song though is not their finest hour, just a curiosity being that it features Giant Drag's Annie Hardy on vocals. Gossip, a band that I for some reason always thought were called The Gossip, had released a couple of records prior but this was their big moment (however their Aaliyah cover is the best thing they ever recorded), they're still going but not as visibly as they once were. Klaxons have quietly worked away under the radar, largely forgotten. Same goes inexplicably for Hadouken! who as I've stated before are as terrible now as the ever were. I think New Young Pony Club are still about. As for the rest I have no idea and frankly have no inclination to find out. Most of the songs on here are fine at best or utterly forgettable or unlistenable at worst. Some of the tracks are untraceable online and that is a blessing to be quite honest. I may have the only copies in existence. I will guard them with my life. Don't want them falling into the wrong hands.

But ah, the Myspazz dayz eh?

Clay Shirky says that "Communication tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring". I think that was what was happening here. We got shown the vast possibilities and it was too much. We didn't know what to do with it so we did EVERYTHING. Oversharing and overindulging.  Dr. Ian Malcolm said it best when he said, and I'm paraphrasing, "you were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop to think if you should". I think we've moved past this stage in the social media landscape and have gotten to a better place. Some of us have anyway. Some platforms are still used idiotically by morons but that's always gonna happen. Okay, scratch that maybe it hasn't gotten better but at least we've all calmed down a bit in the way we share and experience music, its a little more measured and level-headed now. Right?

Until Beyoncè releases a new song that is. Then everyone loses their shit. Me especially.

Who Da Boss?

1. Jay-Z - Hola Hovito
2. Clipse - Stuntin' Y'all
3. Slim Thug - Like A Boss
4. Nikka Costa - Like A Feather
5. Timbaland - Give It To Me ft. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake
6. The Vivians - Dr. Doctor Dr. Doctor
7. Justin Timberlake - My Love ft. T.I.
8. Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
9. Lyrics Born - Bad Dreams
10. Mr. Vegas - Heads High
11. Rage - Run To You
12. Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
13. Twisted Sister - I wanna Rock
14. Spank Rock - Backyard Betty

Malcy, Blair and myself. 2 days. 1 van. Thousands of copies of The Skinny music magazine. And 4 records. August 2006. What a time to be alive.

I was unemployed, back living at my dad's, on the dole. A disgrace. Malcy I think was also unemployed but may have been making a living playing poker at that point. Also a disgrace.  Blair was, I think, doing some work at The Skinny and was maybe working part time at The Southern. A shining example.

The people at the magazine had asked Blair if he knew anyone who would be up for getting a van with him and delivering the new issue to various establishments over the next few days for a small fee. Naturally he thought of us. He asked. We agreed.

Sophomore solo records from both Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake had just leaked. Possibly the day before. Already Platinum by Houston rapper Slim Thug was still in heavy rotation a year after it's release. And Chamillionaire was enjoying a lot of radio airplay with his hit single Ridin' Dirty ft. Krayzie Bone. Those tunes soundracked our stop n' drop tour of Edinburgh for those 48 hours.

Malcy tolerated Blair and I getting giddy as we got to know FutureSex/LoveSounds. My initial disappointment at the lack of any input from The Neptunes on the project dissipated quickly as it became clear that JT and Timbaland had crafted something quite special for this record. The odd influences of southern rap, Prince, Coldplay and (obviously) Michael Jackson can be heard all over the record. What Goes Around.../...Comes Around an early favourite but it's My Love that has really endured. The video is one of my favorite pop videos of all time. The camera moves, the framing, the choreography, the lighting, the styling, the editing. It's fucking beautiful. Director Paul Hunter smashed it.

Anyway, B'Day got a few spins but no one else was as excited about it as I was. I still think it's her best album. It's concise, flab free, has killer production (including 2 brilliant Neptunes joints), vocals typically on point, some of her best hooks and short on syrupy ballads. What's not to like? But that isn't really relevant here. Neither is Ridin' Dirty. A completely irrelevant total jam.

 
Already Platinum was more or less disowned by Slim Thug when the involvment of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo on more than half of the tracks production didn't translate into massive sales. Regardless the dirty south gangsta rap of the record was hard. Obviously it's even more heavily indepted to the southern rap of the likes of UGK and Three 6 Mafia and the chopped and screwed stylings of DJ Screw than the JT one, but it was given that Neptunes pop sheen here. Mostly it is awesome. And exactly what was required on this mini (van) odyssey. Like the absolute goofballs we are, by the third play through when Click Clack came on we each had mime guns of different models to pretend to reload each time the sound effect appeared during the songs chorus. Passing cars chuckled at our nonsense.

It's crazy that just seeing My Love and Like A Boss on the same tracklisting instantly reminds me of these 2 days. Either track separately would make me think of other moments or people but the association between the 2 takes me straight back to that van like a time machine. It could have been almost any track from each album too and the effect would've been the same.

My Love and Like A Boss though, each produced by some of hip hop and pops most important ever producers, couldn't be more different. My Love with it's stuttering, swirling synths, human beatboxing, a dragged out cymbal shimmer and some kind of weird maniacal, mechanical giggle, Timbaland uses a lot of different sounds but puts a lot of space between them. It ends up sounding minimal despite how much is going on in it. It feels like a cold embrace. Like A Boss on the other hand is all bombast. Chad Hugo's obnoxious tuba, the marching band beat, an even more obnoxious lady screaming about how much of a boss Thugga is in the background of the chorus and the stabbing synthesized strings. Like the rest of the album there is a really aggressive air around it. The Neptunes do menace and it's a blast.

Coincidentally an earlier song on this compilation makes me think of a moment with Blair as well. Opener Hola Hovito, another Timbaland production from one of Jay-Z's (and hip hop's) best ever albums, reminds me of a discussion we had in probably about 2002. Blair wasn't sold on Jigga as an artist, what he'd heard hadn't impressed him, so I lent him The Blueprint in an effort to convert him. It worked but he told me that it was only after hearing Hola Hovito that he was convinced.

It's likely that I didn't put this particular mix CD together until probably November 2006, by which time I was working at The Southern and World Famous had already gone walkies down to London which would explain the reappearance of both The Vivians - Dr. Doctor Dr, Doctor and Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko. It would also explain why the version of Timabaland's Give It To Me ft. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake is the early demo version that leaked online around that time.

Most of the rest of this mix is fairly cohesive with the exception of 2 tracks. I suppose I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister has some loose kinship with the glam punk rock of The Vivians, Run To You by Rage by comparison is a real curveball. A mid-ninties dance-pop cover of a Bryan Adams song seems like a really random choice. I Wanna Rock can at least be explained by the fact I was playing a lot of Vice City at the time. I have no idea where the Rage came from. Belter though.

Elsewhere Nikka Costa appears with her Mark Ronson produced 2001 single Like A Feather. I still feel like even though it was a hit and used in many ads and TV shows, this really is an under - celebrated ditty. I remember it would occasionally get dropped through in the back room at Motherfunk when it was at The Honeycomb. Probably by Spectrum. The ascending/decending bass line, the hand claps in the chorus, the strange distortion on her massive voice, nice jangly guitars, ?uestlove on the sticks. It's really great. Roughly half of her debut album and the same of her sophomore effort are excellent. The rest is fairly disposable.

Stuntin' Y'all is taken from the Re-Up Gang mixtape We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 1 and is another Neptunes production. Pusha and Malice of Clipse ride a beat made up of a bright sounding glockenspiel and a  propulsive synth line, as though it comes as natural to them as breathing. The brothers explain in detail how slinging crack supports their shine. The dark and the light. There is a nice and atmospheric middle-eight which helps to illustrate this dichotomy. Pharrell's ad-libbed 'Oooooh's at the back of the incredibly catchy chorus act as the songs real hook though. Wonderful and under-appreciated stuff

Spank Rock's Backyard Betty is still filthy, electro-rap fun and Roots Manuva's Witness (One Hope) is still an absolute classic (what a video too). But Lyrics Born is a name that takes me back to my late teens to early twenties self when I was all about backpack, conscious hip-hop and definitely not into any of that 'mainstream, commercial shit'. I was first aware of his name when he appeared on the Quannum Spectrum album in '99 around which time Jurassic 5 and Dilated Peoples would also have been in getting a lot of spins. Bad Dreams is taken from his 2003 album Later That Day and still sounds like the not quite as good younger brother of the sublime I Changed My Mind from the aforementioned Quannum album.

It's interesting that on this compilation it is immediately followed by a song that takes me back to the very next step of my relationship or evolution with hip-hop and rap music. Heads High by Mr. Vegas transports me to the now dead and gone club Establishment on Semple Street where drinks were 50p on a Thursday and £1 on the weekends. Bumpin' and grindin' to bangers like this completely changed my perspective on all that 'mainstream, commercial shit'. I realised that rap and hip-hop could also soundtrack a party and be about fun and drinking and sex and didn't always have to be a sermon. I realised that there was plenty of space for both kinds of rap to exist and sometimes it was even okay for them to overlap. I could listen to the label mates on Stones Throw in my bedroom and the latest Nelly record in the club. And that was okay. Before that time I turned my nose up at anything that wasn't hippy-hip-hop like A Tribe Called Quest or politically charged like Public Enemy or hard gangsta rap like Wu-Tang Clan or somewhere in between like NaS. I was a bit of a snob about it basically and it felt good to grow up and embrace the fun.

Years later that development allowed me to have a blast with my mates in a van while jamming to the last Slim Thug record. What a time indeed.

Real Boss N*ggas Do Real Boss Things

1. Mickey Avalon - My Dick ft. Dirt Nasty & Andre Legacy
2. 50 Cent - Amusement Park
3. Mark Ronson - Stop Me (Kissy Sell Out Remix)
4. Kate Nash - Dickhead
5. R. Kelly - Rise Up
6. Foxy Brown - Candy ft. Kelis
7. Fergie - Glamorous (Space Cowboy Remix)
8. Miss Odd Kid - Weed, Wine + Wankers (Sluttt Remix)
9. Hands Of God - Cryptonites
10. Alvy Singers - Melmac
11. Armand Van Helden - NYC Beat
12. Cashmere - Rainbow Bitches
13. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (GnB Remix)
14. Surkin - And You Too (DJ Slugo remix)
15. Fuzzz - The Monk
16. Onira - Xiao Xiao
17. Shitdisco - OK (Acid Girls Remix)
18. SebastiAn - Ross Ross Ross

'Real boss n*ggas do real boss things' is a lyric from T.I.'s verse on the superb Make It Rain (Remix). That song does not appear on this compilation so as to what may have possessed me to name the disc that, I cannot speak. It was a long time ago. Mid 2007 roughly. R, Kelly makes an appearance here as he does on Make It Rain, maybe that was it. Tenuous. There is literally no other connection to that verse or song that I can see. Maybe it's in the music? Or maybe I was just listening to it when I was trying to think of what to name the mix. That seems more likely. I guess I'll find out...

See, unlike the World Famous CD-R, I don't remember two thirds or more of this mix looking at the tracklist. I'm a little worried it's going to be horrible. At least it has Candy by Foxy Brown and Kelis in there, that's a good old school Neptunes beat for sure. I also still have a lot of time for NYC Beat and the rest of Armand Van Helden's Ghettoblaster record. It remains a summer staple round my way. And Mickey Avalon's ridiculous My Dick is still good for a giggle. As for the rest, I recognize a lot of the names and some of the song titles, some I vaguely remember liking but not much else about them. I'm gonna hit play now...

'My dick don't need no introduction/Your dick don't even function', I may be incredibly childish but 8 years later and I still laugh my ass off as Mickey, Dirt and Andre trade bars about how awesome their dicks are. Especially when they name drop Macauley Culkin and reference the Munchkins and the refrain where the claim to have 'dicks like Jesus', whatever that means. This is another track that I'd often play at The Scottish Hobo Society and usually it went down a treat. I can still remember pretty much every punchline, on the other hand Amusement Park by 50 Cent I'd forgotten even existed. Apparently it was a single, had a video and everything. Who on earth thought that was a good idea? It is extraordinary in only how spectacularly unmemorable it is.

Now, next up is a Kissy Sell Out remix of a Mark Ronson cover I don't remember of a Smiths song I don't really like. And I'll tell you what; it's okay. Kissy Sell Out make me think of Palms Out Sounds, a now defunct music blog that was dedicated to sharing all the newest electro remixes with the world. The only place I could possibly have come across such a remix. For some reason that site is tied in my brain to my old pal Nick Stewart, owner of Sneaky Pete's club in Edinburgh and DJ around town. I guess we used to discuss their posts whenever he was in The Southern for his coffee. I miss the Sunday Remix zips too.

A very weird demo-ish sounding version of Kate Nash's track Dickhead has shown up next. Not sure where it came from. It's really minimal, just some piano and vocals. It's not very good, but then I'd say the same for pretty much anything she did, final studio version or otherwise. Anyway, it's followed up by R. Kelly's tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. It's not his finest moment but still it has an epic sub-I Believe I Can Fly feel to it.

Finding Kelis on the hook was not an uncommon thing when it came to Neptunes produced tracks between 1999 and 2005. This one; Candy by a typically fierce Foxy Brown came out in 2001. I don't think I heard it until probably around 2003/4 when my Neptunes obsession really kicked into gear and I was discovering a whole host of obscure tracks they were responsible for via theneptunes.org fan forum. Again, not one of their best works but it still knocks and obviously it was back in rotation when I made this mix.

At track number 7 is a remix of Fergie's Glamorous single by Space Cowboy? Me either. It sounds like a lot of post-Fatboy Slim remixes often did. It's not terrible. Neither is his remix of Gaga's Just Dance.

When I put Miss Odd Kidd - Weed Wine Wankers into YouTube the top hit was for the Sluttt Bust In UR Face Remix that is on this disc. I guess this is the definitive version of this song. It's a bit annoying if I'm honest. The other songs I've found by her are annoying too. Didn't need reminding of her, she's shit.

At least Hand Of Gods - Cryptonite is... *sigh*... This is shit too. I cross my fingers and skip to the next one; Alvy Singers - Melmac. Funny thing about this is that I guess I must have downloaded this while looking for songs by an old friend of mine, Voe. He was once in a band called The Alvy Singers, which is a great name for a band. For those that don't recognize it; Alvy Singer was the name of Woody Allen's protagonist in Annie Hall. Anyway Voe was once in a band of that name and I do own a 7-inch by them though I'm not sure where it can be located now. I'd lost touch with old Voe by this point and was interested to see if any of his material had made it on to the web. It hadn't. This song is by some other guy or band or whatever. It sounds kinda chiptune-y. It's quite nice actually. Like it could be from a Zelda game or something. Weirdly, when I Shazam'd it to make sure I had the right track name it came back with a different answers each time I did it, which was 8, so I guess it's some kind of Girl Talk-type of mash up thing or it just sounds really like these other songs at different points in its running time. In case you're interested the 8 Shazam results were 1) The Edwin Davids Jazz Band - The Theme From Alf (obviously this is where the tracks title came from) 2) Chriss Ortega - Love Is Here (Mario Ochoa Remix) 3) Gods Tower - The Eerie 4) Claudio Colombo - Sonata K. 423 In C Major 5) Big Skapinsky - Open Your Eyes 6) Oelki - Galileo 7) The Bethels - Tranquility and 8) Giacomo Tosi - Flurry. But I'm sure no one gives a shit.

Absolute belter NYC Beat is up next. It's got Daisy Lowe in the video. I was so in love with Daisy back then. Ghettoblaster, the Armand Van Helden album this is from really is killer, filled with summer jams like I Want Your Soul with it's dope old-school video directed by Vashtie Kola and Touch Your Toes which features Fat Joe of all people.

Unfortunately it's followed on this mix by some horrible number called Rainbow Bitches by someone called Cashmere. At least that's what I think it's called. This is another track that I can't seem to find any trace of online. Regardless, it sucks. Really bad. It sounds like something Noel Fielding's character in Nathan Barley would drop just as you wake up from the worst nightmare you ever had. I tried to Shazam this one too and Shazam wanted nothing to do with it. Which is fair enough. Why I thought it was worth including in any mix instead of being instantly deleted is beyond me. Yuck.

Slightly better, but not much is the Guns N Bombs remix of Gravity's Rainbow by Klaxons. It starts off fine, just your typical electro remix of a Klaxon's song of which there were approximately 3 billion being posted every day in 2007, but at 6.18 minutes it is just way too long. I'd lost interest by the third minute and by the fifth it was really starting to annoy me. Next!

The next 4 tracks continue on the Palms Out Sounds path that the disc has very much wandered down and gotten lost. First is the Surkin track And You Too as remixed by DJ Slugo and it is really boring with it's monotonous beat and repeated lyric about strippers. Fuzzz - The Monk is a little less bland or irritating but just like the last few tracks makes me think of something that'd get thrown on early at White Heat or The Goulag Beat or at I Fly Spitfires or Dogtooth or one of the many other Indie-Electro nights that were rife at the time in Edinburgh, before the fashionably late cool crew had shown up and the DJ didn't want to waste their 'good' remixes. It's got a few playful synth lines and a decent beat. Inoffensive stuff. Similarly the guitar part at the start of Onira's Xiao Xiao is fun and stays fun when it get's all chopped up goes full dancey-indie-electro. It's jagged and abrasive but it has personality. I quite like it still. And then there is Shitdisco. Shitdisco were everywhere with their dance-punk jams in Scotland in the mid to late 2000's. An Acid Girl remix of their OK tune is really in keeping with the aesthetic that this mix has conformed to. True to it's title and lyrics it's ok.

The last track on this one is by SebastiAn at what would have been very near the peak interest point of French electronic music label Ed Banger Records popularity in Scotland. For me this really was a fun time in music but it hasn't aged that well for me. It was like a second wave after the fun of the electroclash scene popularised by International DeeJay Gigolo Records. Big, silly, over the top, colourful, cartoony dance numbers. There are still a bunch of records from the Ed Banger era that I love, Ross Ross Ross though is not one I have any particularly deep affection for. It still has miles more joy and vitality and character than the previous 4 songs on this mix though.

A great compilation this was not, it sounds a bit thrown together, with a few songs that really just seem to be there to make up the numbers. I think that is the reason I couldn't remember most of the tracks on it. I must have played it only a few times. Somehow I have still managed to ramble on about it for about 1700 words. The next one will be better, I hope.

At least now the reason for the discs title is still clear as mud.

World Famous

1. Dragonette - I Get Around
2. Giant Drag - Wicked Game
3. Hadouken! - That Boy That Girl
4. JC Chasez - Until Yesterday
5. Klaxons - Atlantis To Interzone
6. Klaxons - Magick
7. Modest Mouse - Float On
8. Neon Plastix - Neon Invasion
9. Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
10. Blood Arm - Suspicious Character
11. The Streets - Pranging Out ft. Pete Doherty
12. The Horrors - Count In Fives
13. The Vivians - Dr. Doctor Dr. Doctor
14. The Yard - Hey Man
15. Xerox Teens - Darlin'
16. Hot Chip - Over and Over
17.Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back (Linus Loves Remix)
18. Dragonette - I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)

Late 2006/early 2007; Anna's youngest sister Checkie was living in London. We'd met briefly in passing. She knew my sister and I think we might have been friends on Myspace. Anna was my boss and also the older sister of my good friend Georgia. At some point I'd made this compilation of random stuff I'd been listening to at the time to play in Anna's bar, The Southern on South Clerk Street in Edinburgh. The Southern had long been a biker bar most famous for the night Nirvana played an intimate gig there, but it's popularity had dwindled. Anna and her then partner Warren had taken it over and transformed it from a dingy, smelly, dark bar for hairy metalheads and Southside undesirables into a really rather nice and unconsciously hip hub for a young emerging new Edinburgh club scene. Anna had been kind enough to give me a job pouring the drinks in the place and occasionally DJing (I use this term in the loosest way possible).  A random untitled compilation I made ended up in Anna's car somehow and when Checkie was back for a visit she decided to take it back with her down to London where it became something of a hit with her and her flatmates (or so I heard).

Months later (maybe a year) Checkie moved back to Auld Reekie and the CD ended up back in rotation at The Southern where she had started working with us. With the original having migrated south, I'd made an alternative but quite similar mix as a replacement for the bar. By this time Kieron, one of the bar managers had ironically titled the original mixtape 'Mike's Compilation 'Known Nation Wide''. World Famous I decided would be the official title of this replacement.

Cut to almost 10 years later and now I'm living in London. As are Kieron and Georgia , Checkie is now in Glasgow, Anna is still in Edinburgh but her life is a world away from what it was then, same goes for Warren and The Southern has changed hands and is almost unrecognizable again.

This weekend, on a visit back to the homeland I came across a CD wallet at my dad's flat filled with mix CD's that I used when DJing (still a very loose description of what I was doing) around that time. It was something of a time capsule seeing the tracks and CD titles within. Each one took me back to specific moments or places or reminded me of forgotten stories and as I waxed reminiscent it was suggested that I should maybe write these stories, memories and thoughts down somewhere. So here it is.

World Famous or Mike's Compilation 'Known Nation Wide' is the first CD in the wallet. The songs on this mix are as eclectic as on pretty much every CD in the wallet, but it is a bit heavier on the Indie-Electro than the later more Rap leaning mixes. It also features a couple of Edinburgh local band rarities from the era. Listening to this back now, some of it still holds up for me, others not so well. Some of it may have been better left forgotten. But the opener, I Get Around by Canadian electro-pop outfit Dragonette still charms me. Fun synth lines and a stompy beat soundtrack Martina Sorbara's story of an unwise hook-up and bad decisions made while partying, I could relate at the time. And still can a little now. I played it out quite a lot at The Scottish Hobo Society at The Bongo Club. From what I remember their LP's were pretty uninspiring but I liked this song enough to both open the mix and to close out with a remix of the same song.

The other electro and indie numbers on here fair less well by being not very memorable. Both the Neon Plastix and Shiny Toy Guns tracks are fine but sound a lot like a lot of other bands from the same era but not quite as good and while I remembered the name of the band Xerox Teens (later XX Teens) I'd forgotten the song even as it was still playing. Quite shite. Suspicious Character by The Blood Arm sounds like a haircut you thought made you look amazing when you had it but looking back you actually look like a bit of a tit, but Hot Chip's Over and Over would still get me dancing if I somehow accidentally wandered into an NME Indie Disco in Camden. It's a tune, I just wouldn't chose to listen to it anymore. Modest Mouse were for me always a deeply mediocre band and listening to Float On here just makes me wish I was listening to a different version of the song that I'm sure will pop up on a later mix.

I still have a soft spot for the Klaxons brand of so called Nu-Rave though. I recently revisited their first couple of records and still quite enjoyed them. Atlantis To Interzone doesn't instill quite the same excitement in me as it once did but that may have had something to do with the cheap Glasgow eccies I was gubbing at the time. Those were good nights. And Magick always makes me think of it's awesomely mental video.

Count In Fives is an interesting relic when you consider what The Horrors became (meaning; a much better band). The early stuff is still kinda fun to listen to. And the Chris Cunningham video for Sheena Is A Parasite remains incredible.

Annie from Giant Drag's vocals on their cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game are cute and it's a nice version of the song. I like how she always claimed she'd had an affair with the 'much older' Chris when she was 8 and he stole her song. I saw them live once supporting The Cribs at The Queens Hall in Edinburgh and they were great, I only got about 3 songs into The Cribs set though before leaving. Good grief they were (are?) a shitty band.

Speaking of shitty bands; Hadouken!. That Boy That Girl. What utter, utter pish. And I fucking LOVED this song when it came out. I really can't explain that. At all. Deary me. All of the day-glo rave mashed up with indie guitars and half shouted, half rapped lyrics that seemed so rad in 2006 sound unbearable now. Unbearable and embarrassing. Apparently they're still going. I dread to think.

So to the 2 Edinburgh based bands that made the mix. First of all The Vivians. Ah, The Vivians. I saw this band live about 20 times. Had a blast every time. They were mates, so it wasn't like I was paying to see them at every show. Just so we're clear. I don't want you to think I was some kinda Vivians superfan or anything. But yeah, some excellent nights out featured this band playing at one point or another. Like the time they inspired a stage invasion at one of the busiest night The Southern ever saw. Or the time they played a guerrilla gig in the Innocent Tunnel under Arthur's Seat and got shut down by the cops about 4 songs in. Dr. Doctor Dr. Doctor was their perfect pop moment. If they ever reformed I'd be up for seeing them live one more time.

Also based in Edinburgh was The Yard a grungy 3 piece with a girl on drums who also performed backing vocals. Me and my mate Blair saw them once when they played the same bill as his band Charly's Boat. We were both blown away and ended up seeing them a few more times around town. They were super tight with a bunch of real catchy songs, but Hey Man was the stand out. It has a hook that I still sing to myself on occasion now. They disappeared not long after and I can't seem to find any trace of them left online. Gotta love bands with unGoogleable names and song titles. Finding the recording on this CD really made my day.

Another track I'm thankful to have back in my life is the Pete Doherty remix of The Streets' Pranging Out. Pete delivering loosely rapped verses about being in the grips of drug addiction is breathtakingly stark and honest and Mike Skinners original beat is atmospheric and grim and beautiful.

Linus Loves managed a rather dull electronic remix of Justin Timberlake's SexyBack, the original of which I'm not that into itself anymore. Timberlake shows up elsewhere on the mix to better effect though; this time with his former *NSYNC bandmate J.C. Chasez. Timberlake's role here is as co-writer and producer on a melancholic pop ballad masterclass about lies and infidelity and pregnancy and the bitter end of a relationship. Until Yesterday was supposed to be the first single from Chasez's sophomore record but it never appeared. Shame really. It was a killer start. And I can vividly remember singing along to it, loudly, while cleaning up The Southern bar after hours, with friends.

It's amazing how a song can really transport you back in time. To a specific place, or feeling, or person. This mix takes me back to all of those things and although most of the songs on here I don't particularly care for anymore, those memories are precious as diamonds. Just a bunch of poor quality MP3's on a cheap CD-R really, but to me it's a time machine. It's messages from the past. It's kind of magical.