Radio: Phil Mison And Citizen Kane on Beats In Space

As you may know Phil Mison is friend and part of the Test Pressing firm so it’d be rude not to mention that he, alongside Citizen Kane, was the guest on Tim Sweeney’s always good Beats In Space radio show last week. Dig in here if you missed it. As you may know his new Cantoma album is coming in May with a twelve released just before with mixes by our man Lexx and the Idjut Boys. On the subject of Lexx look out for his new releases coming soon. We’ll speak with Phil about the album nearer the release date but until then enjoy the show.

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Jon Marsh (The Beloved) On The Best Ecstasy Records…

Stolen wholesale from the DJ History thread about the best ecstasy records, here’s Jon Marsh talking about ‘The Sun Rising’.

“too many memories.

thank you for referencing ‘sun rising’ here – my part was written at 6am after going to a ramplings party called ‘joy’ in southwark street, 1989.
i suppose therefore a comedown (in a good way) song, but that’s part of ecstasy too.
for me perhaps the best bit, wiith the right company.

i would never have written it without the preceding transcendent ecstasy experience.

drugs are not for everyone but you cannot negate their relevance to the music of the last 25 years … you would lose 50% of all recorded music if you did that.
(by association/influence/empathy). really…

for the record i think anyone’s fave ecstasy track is a permanent echo of incredible times and moments.
for me ‘let the music use you’ nightwriters @ shoom
‘land of the living’ kristine w @ sound factory
‘give you’ djaimin – tony humphries in a warehouse party…

sometimes you really do just have to be there…. x”

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Producers Series #4: Dennis Bovell

Number 4 in the Producers Series brings you the genius of Dennis Bovell. Great selection by Dr Rob.

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Mix: Psychemagik – High On You

New mix for you from Psychemagik, two producer/DJs who cover all bases from balearic to folk, electro synth jams to heavy funk, lush orchestral soul through to psychedelic hip hop and beyond. Their next release is on the ‘History Clock’ label, an exotic cosmic disco floorfiller entitled ‘Persian Rub’ backed on the flip by a deep disco funk freakout ‘Tokyo Takedown’. Also check out their obscure disco edits on the new ‘Discotheque Wreckers’ label if you wanna hear some deep undiscovered gems. Then there’s their re-edit of ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac that’s currently doing the rounds with those in the know. You can take a listen to more of their work at their Soundcloud page. Check.

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Mixmag: Johnny Walker On Ibiza (March 1993)

I know we’ve all heard the story a million times but Johnny Walker nails the true Ibiza balearic vibe in this piece from Mixmag in March 1993.

Thanks to Matthew J.

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Back In The Pirate Days: Kiss 94 Newsletter – July/August 1988

Before going legal the pirate radio station Kiss was going under the name Kiss 94 FM. This newsletter comes from deep in the Ninja Tune vaults and was sent out to members of the mailing list (of 3500) to inform on the DJs, parties, merchandise and more. Kiss had such a ridiculous line up back in those days – Jay Strongman, Norman Jay, Rampling, Richie Rich, Mannasseh, Coldcut, Trouble, Jazzie B, Colin’s Favor & Dale and Patrick Forge – all playing the best in underground dance.

Interesting to read the thoughts on who was breaking the signal of the station then, ‘The reason for the breaks in transmission are many. It’s hard to pinpoint precisely who is breaking the transmission, we know the D.T.I are responsible for most of the busts, but we have reason to believe that ‘outside forces’ are also at work’. Danny Rampling was Danny Ramplin and known for his ‘lively presentation!’. Does this mean whispering “balearic” across the airwaves of London? Anyway, more to follow.

Thanks to Strictly Kev.

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Free Track: Ali Love ‘Love Harder’ (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)

We don’t normally bother posting things like this but some of you might like this free remix by Prins Thomas of Ali Love’s ‘Love Harder’ which is available here.
Yours,
The Test Pressing Information Service.

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Last Call For ‘Still Bill’

Quick reminder that the Bill Withers documentary ‘Still Bill’, which we have heard is amazing, is having a charity showing tomorrow, the 21st February, at the Prince Charles Cinema near Leicester Square at 1pm – tickets available here. Ta.

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Photography: Boy’s Own Party – Bognor, February 1991

This one goes out to Sir Steve of Hall. Love up.

Photos courtesy of Phil Mison (on the right in the photo above).

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Test Pressing Hits The Daily Note

Nice mention of us in the RBMA Daily Note paper which as we said is distributed to some 80,00 people across town. That’s 80,000 people reading about sound systems, Carl Craig, bits of kit, Matmos and loads of other stuff. Can we keep this one going one the RBMA ships out of town?

If you have missed them then dig in here and download the PDFs as there is loads of interest. Fair play to the team over there as it’s hands down the best free paper we’ve seen for the musically minded.

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Producers Series #3: Andrew Weatherall

Number three in our producers series focuses on some of the early work of Andrew Weatherall. There will be a further edition focusing on Weatherall’s early years at a later date as there is too much to cover in one sitting.

So program three – it’s a mix of genres and noises blended together that some how join up and make sense. Funk breaks on indie records that sounded like nothing else at the time. Indie go-go. Weatherall broke down the doors and learnt his way around a studio pretty quickly whilst also being the freshest DJ in town at the time.

Weatherall has always been a magpie. He knows whats good and at this point in his career he was putting it all together in a way that hadn’t been done before. All the grooves, noises and samples that he had catalogued in his minds up to that point being used and spun out in different directions. We should also send a nod out to Hugo Nicholson (the engineer on many of these records) as without a doubt he played a large role in making this music sound the way it does.

Point is this music still sounds amazing twenty years on. My favourites are probably the twisted digital dance of FInitribe and the demented dub of Galliano’s ‘Skunk Funk’ – Weatherall making the track into the record the title intially suggested.

To me this was balearic in London, our London, in a way we understood. It took all the things we were into those summers, from Soul II Soul to Teenage Fanclub (well our mate Colin liked them), and made it all join up in dance records that we couldn’t wait to get our hands on. So ten tracks and, as the like to say, all killer no filler.

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Interview: Steve Reich (Maker Of Harmonic Invention) At The Red Bull Music Academy

So today we got invited to the Red Bull Music Academy to hear Steve Reich (pronounced Risch) talk. Hearing Reich talk about his life and work is very inspiring. He starts with his initial tape experiments with loops and phasing whilst working as a cab driver, and in turn a postman (due to crashing the cab), moves through his 1970 trip to Ghana and then plays two phases from his seminal ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ (to avoid discussing it). It was, to say the least, a very informative two hours and to hear him play ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ on the RBMA’s ridiculously big Genelec speakers was pretty special. Along with many others I would have been quite happy to hear the whole 56 minutes of the piece.

His love of John Coltrane is discussed (Reich apparently saw Coltrane over 50 times), with his favourite Coltrane album being ‘Africa/Brass’. Reich describes this as a piece of ‘incredible melodic invention’ with Coltrane ‘screaming noise’ in the piece. He described the clear influences on his work as being its, ‘rhythmic complexity, timbral variety and harmonic invention’. In the same breath he also mentions Jr Walkers ‘Shotgun’ which was released at the same time, and the fact that there was clearly something in the air.

Reich goes on to explain canons, a form of music that repeats and moves, that can be used as a framework for whatever form you like, or in Reich’s words, ‘Coke or Red Bull – it’s your choice’. Forthcoming work from Reich will be a piece based around 9/11 which I am sure will replicate the power of his award winning ‘Different Trains’.

So to round off here are the top three points we took from the talk…

1) It’s your job as a musician not to put yourself in a box. Its your job to make the piece.

2) If it’s burning a hole in you, go and do it.

3) The big thing to do is decide do I need to go through this before you embark on the something very time consuming, and if you do, more power to you.

In just under two hours we got a clear understanding of why Reich’s music sounds the way it does. Check the interview at the RBMA website when you get a chance.

Thanks to the Red Bull Music Academy.

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Today We Are RBMA

So the Red Bull Music Academy are in London. We’ve just arrived and it seems to be, well, pretty crazy really. Sat in the room with the team that create the Daily Note (the RBMA newspaper) it’s all go. 80,00 issues a day get pumped across London and very good it is too. Recent highlights in the paper have included the history of the soundsystem (‘Wake The Town Tell The People’), minimalism (todays interviewee and the reason we are here – Steve Reich), a piece on independent record shops and Richard from Beyond The Wizards Sleeve with a great article on psychedelia.

Anyway, we’ll report back after the Reich lecture.

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Ikons Play Space Rock – Fuck Yeah…

A heads up on the forthcoming album from Ikons – a 7 man collective from Sweden – 6 musicians and one artist in residence. The album has has mixed by Dan from Studio and Alex Palmestal of Pistol Disco.

From the opening bars of ‘Slow Light’, the instrumental album opener, it reminds us of the Warriors soundtrack which is obviously no bad thing – all swirling synths, rolling basslines and affected guitars. The tracks develop with minimal looped vocals and driving guitars added to the mix and remind of a more uptempo Studio. Apparently they have a pretty tidy live show (think the exploding plastic inevitable) and should be over at some point this year.

If you like a bit of noise in your cosmic then you might like this. Also comes with super nice artwork. Check it.

Ikons is released via Service on April 19th. Available on CD and 180g vinyl.

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Just Because 009

We lost a good one in Alexander McQueen. Pure out and out genius from 1999 and he was a big music head to boot.


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Mix: Jan Hammered – Wino Junko

Jan’s back and we are more than happy to have him.

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The Face: Ecstasy (October 1985)

Peter Nasmyth reports on ‘E’ for The Face in October 1985, taking in stories about The Ranch, a gay club in Dallas, where you could apparently get the drug over the counter for $20 plus $1.23 sales tax. If you had a coupon you got $5 off. It then got banned. Which leads you to think – surely banning something is the best way to tell a nation of people about something? Anyway, the hug drug was about to get known…

Thanks to Matthew J.
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Photography: Horace Andy’s Studio / Miss Thing

We are happy to have Andy M on board writing for us on his life in Jamaica as I’ve always loved the island and the music. A few years back we got to go on a trip to JA and ended up in some pretty interesting places. I’ll try and post a few more pictures but to start here’s Horace Andy’s studio (super nice chap who sat there singing for us with his mates and girl all sat about the place) and Miss Thing flexing. Mellow times.




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Design: Art History Poster

If you like music there is a fair chance you are a follower of design. I am guessing that other people probably have an interest so will start posting bits and bobs up around the music stuff. It all joins up. First up is this history of art poster.



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Producers Series #2: Brian Eno

No 2 in our producers series focuses on the work of Brian Eno. Tim H has compiled and has chosen to use primarily productions of his own music. Next up in the series – Andy Weatherall’s early years.

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