Category: 2010

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2000 2010 ARC(ANE) downloads releases

Body Conscious

ARCN03 was released around October 2000. Titled “Body Conscious”, it is one of the releases from my back catalogue that I’m most fond of. It follows on neatly from ARCN02, “Storyteller”, and may be the best example of the dark, disorientating techno that the ARC(ANE) label was created to put out.

The first track was recorded in September 1997. “Shiver” is largely sample based. Short vocal snippets and a sampled stab filter up and down, perhaps under my control or that of a random LFO. Most of the sounds, including the sampled and reversed hi-hat, are filtered through the Lexicon Vortex, a wacky rack mount effects processor which I think is great, and which played a crucial part in the formation of my “sound”, if such a thing ever existed. Once I found a setting I was happy with (a stereo delay with a bit of modulation) that patch was saved, and I used the same effect to one degree or another on almost every track I subsequently recorded.

“Partly Due To”, recorded in January 1999, is a murky, uneasy sounding track, with stuttering and echoing vocal sounds. I always liked the idea of dancers hearing voices in the darkness of a club, and never quite figuring out where they were coming from or what they were saying. This track is a particularly unsettling example of that idea, but having made that point I don’t remember ever hearing this track played out by anyone, including myself.

“Through You We” is probably the most easily “playable” track on the record from a DJ perspective. The kick and shaker sounds provide a steady rhythm over which two or three spooky synth patterns cycle up and down in tone and timbre. Simple but effective, this was nice and easy to play out yet dark and disorientating enough to get some interesting reactions (seeing people fall over was usually the aim). I seem to have lost a master CD containing the original recording of this and other tracks, but it must have been recorded in either 1999 or 2000.

The last track is titled “Start The End”, recorded in April 1999. This kicks off with a deep pulse and some sticky sounding high frequency snaps. The main feature of this track is a dramatic sounding looped sample which fades up slowly and bends in pitch here and there to create an uneasy feeling. I’ve no memory of where the sample came from. Although rhythm is provided by the sticky sounds and hi-hats, the kick drum doesn’t appear until the final quarter of the track, shortly before the whole thing fades out.

Files are in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files taken from the original DAT recordings.

download lossless FLAC version of Body Conscious

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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2000 2010 ARC downloads releases

Walking Wounded

The next in the series was originally released on ARC as ARC03 in September 2000, and is titled “Walking Wounded”, a phrase I heard in a news report. I liked the way the two words went together.

The track kicks off with “Is Not Beauty”, which is an abstract piece recorded in November 1998. I wouldn’t call this a noise track, but it does have some noise elements in it (although in recent years I’ve listened to a fair bit of noise, back then I don’t think I was even aware that such a genre of music existed). I think that it’s my favourite track on the release.

As is the case with ARC02 (“This Weak Flesh”) I think the techno tracks on this release are not my best and have perhaps dated more than others. The second track, “Ayaar ver.2”, is in that category. As the title suggests, it’s the second version of a previously recorded track. Or perhaps it just used the same sample, I don’t remember. With the percussion and vocal samples, it has a vibe influenced by the prevalence of those sounds in techno at the time (it was recorded in May 2000). In retrospect I’d prefer to have kept that sort of thing off of my ARCart releases, keeping it for the MIST material that came out on Cosmic Records. This is the track I like least on the record. Typically though, it was the most popular track with other people.

“Circular Heaven ver.2” is another track made from significant parts of another, earlier track. The original version was recorded some time between 1996-1998. This version was made a day or two before the record was cut, and I remember feeling a sense of urgency about getting a track finished that would fit onto the record. ARCart releases were compiled of tracks that were made across quite a few years. The age didn’t matter, it was more important that the tracks seemed good enough and that they fit together to create a cohesive release. This recording allowed me to take something that I really liked from a track which wasn’t quite up to standard, and beef it up into something simpler, with more impact. I love the vocal sample; It comes from a pop song, reversed and put through some chorus, or flange, or both.

The final track, “Enclosed In The”, was recorded in November 1998. It appears immediately before “Is Not Beauty” on the original DAT, so may have been recorded any time from a few minutes to a few weeks prior to that track. When I recorded a retrospective mix of my own tracks in 2008, I came across this track with some confusion, as I barely remembered it at all. I think it’s made up of some drum machine and synth loops which I sampled and then looped, adding some snare and hi-hat from the TR-606, and an additional sample put through filters quite randomly without any manual control after the breakdown, which I think contains an odd number of beats.

Files are in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files taken from the original DAT recordings.

download lossless FLAC version of Walking Wounded

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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2010 downloads releases

Tommy Gillard – “Epiphanies”

In 2001 the Exist label came into existence courtesy of the Exist CD compilation. I seem to remember that at the time a number of ideas existed, both music and non-music related, for how Oliver would continue the label. As far as I’m aware, though, no other physical releases ever appeared, as other projects took over.

One of the projects which never saw the light of day was a piece of music by Tommy Gillard entitled “Epiphanies”. I’m glad, with Tommy’s permission, to now make this piece available as an mp3 file.

“Epiphanies” was actually made up of a number of recordings going back as far as 1995. In Tommy’s own words:

I made it with DAT, CD player, and (I seem to remember) a (detuned) radio! All through my [studio] mixer. I think I added loops from the [Roland] JD-800 [synth] as well. I think I had to make up some sounds and phrases, as well as the recordings, so I could mix between more sources.

Download “Epiphanies” (mp3, 169Mb)

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2000 2010 ARC downloads releases

This Weak Flesh

ARC02, titled “This Weak Flesh”, was released around August 2000. The fourth ARCart release and the second on the ARC label, it has a bit more of a straight ahead techno feel to it. It’s not my favourite release, although it was one of the more successful releases on the label.

“Got To Get Down” is just a 30 second intro that I put together from a sample from a disco track…I think. The sample appeared again later on ARCN05 in the track “Got To Get Down Again”.

The bulk of the first side of the record was given over to the title track, “This Weak Flesh”. Although it could have been sequenced on anything due to its simple structure, I’m pretty sure this was made with the Notron. The main synth sound came from the EMU Audity 2000 I think. I don’t dislike this track, but it does sound a bit too structured and simple to me now. Not that I think simple tracks are bad per se, just that this is perhaps a bit too clichéd. It also contains a very lazy sample on my part. One of the sounds looped up in the background of the track is a sample from another techno track released the same year, recorded by Claude Young. Bad form on my part, and just laziness, really. My set up never facilitated a particularly useful method of recording samples so I probably pulled this one off a CD that was lying around. I know that CY was aware of it at the time (he’d have heard it on the promo I sent him) and he kindly chose to never bring it up with me in person. I don’t make music these days but if I did….or if I had developed the same attitudes around sampling which I hold now, this track would never have been made….or at least would have been different. Even though the sample arguably isn’t the most significant feature of the track, I can’t listen to it now without that thought nagging at me. That said, the feature which makes this track – the long, haunting synth sound which builds during the breakdown – caught the ear of Johan Bacto and that fact later helped to facilitate the Hardcell remix on ARCN04.

“Right To Left” is another track that I have mixed feelings about, 10 years after release. I always feel as if I don’t like it much, until I hear it and find I’m actually quite into it. I guess the use of what sound a bit like “standard” Detroit techno type stabs puts me off at first, but then I enjoy the groove of the track and the way it develops. I also like the fact that there are one or two “happy accidents” in the track, created by me moving the tuning control for that synth stab the wrong way or too far during the recording.

By far my favourite track on this record at this stage is the last track, “He’s Got A Knife”. Many assumed that the vocal sample in the track was repeating the words in the title, but that’s not correct. The vocal sample is very very short, maybe a quarter of one beat long. If it were to say anything it would only be “SA!”. The rest of the phrase isn’t vocal at all, but a mash up of the distorted drum samples and the short vocal stab which come together to create a loop which could under some conditions be heard as a voice saying “he’s got a knife”. I like the breakdown in this track, the sudden way in which the beat jumps back in, and the harsh oppressive feel of the track as it repeats over and over. This track was recorded by looping up the kick drum/vocal/distorted drum pattern as a single sample (you can hear that it is all one sample right at the end when I filter it down to nothing) over which are a couple of hi-hat and snare sounds from the TR-606 and that wibbly JD-800 synth sound that appears in the breakdown.

Files are in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files taken from the original DAT recordings.

download a lossless FLAC version of This Weak Flesh

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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2000 2010 ARC(ANE) downloads releases

Storyteller

The third ARCart release was also the second ARC(ANE) release. It came out in June 2000 with the catalogue number ARCN02, and is titled “Storyteller”. I think it was the first release I put out through Prime Distribution on a P&D basis. I believe that stands for production and distribution, but in any case it meant that I didn’t have to pay for the cut, artwork and pressing up front with my own money – Prime paid and took those expenses out of the sales revenue from the release.

The first track, “The Nowhere Express”, was recorded in April 1999. At about seven minutes in duration, it’s the longest track released on either ARCart label. The bassline is a looped section from something playing on the radio at whatever time I happened to make the track. This is overlaid with sounds from the Roland JD-800 that are heavily processed and filtered. I was manually tweaking the fine tuning knob for the tone settings up and down half a semitone or so throughout the track to create the barely noticeable pitch shift. It’s quite a chaotic sounding and noisy track for me but I like its hypnotic trancey vibe. It even has a couple of breakdowns.

“Divine Confusion” was recorded in March 2000, on the same day as and immediately before I recorded “Got To Get Down Again” which contains some of the same sounds and which will feature in a future post for ARCN05. The rich nature of the vocal sample meant that it was virtually impossible to cut it for vinyl without it distorting, so this is the first time it’s available with a pristine sound. It nearly wasn’t – when mastering these files I was dismayed to find the original recording (on an HHB so-called professional audio CDR, recorded on an HHB professional audio CD recorder) had degraded massively, along with quite a few other original recordings on a number of master CDRs that have effectively become unplayable and lost. By sheer luck I found a copy of this track somewhere on a DAT that I must have used to bounce the audio to a compiled master for the cut.

“Shift It”, recorded in February 1999, is a rare example of me using the Roland TB-303 in a released track. It’s a full sounding but very basic track, with a 3/4 bass throb under the beat, and a simple 303 pattern that pitch shifts up and down in semitones. There is also some subtle manual tweaking of the tuning knob. The 303 sounds like it has some chorus or flange on it to make it a bit edgy, and lots of stereo delay from the saved setting on my Lexicon Vortex which featured on pretty much every track I made for years.

The title track, “Storyteller”, is also the oldest on the release, recorded in December 1998. It’s more mechanical sounding than the other tracks on the record due to the incessant snare pattern. The only sounds which vary in this track are the delayed vocal samples and a high pitched synth pattern that (of course) moves up and down in tone.

All of these tracks were sequenced using the Alesis MMT-8, except “Divine Confusion” which used the Notron (I have the metallic blue Mark 2 model which is not currently pictured on that Wikipedia page).

Files are in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files which are taken from the original DAT recordings.

download lossless FLAC version of Storyteller

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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2000 2010 ARC(ANE) downloads releases

Elegant Manoeuvres

The first release on ARC’s sister label ARC(ANE) came out in February 2000, was titled “Elegant Manoeuvres” and had the catalogue number ARCN01. All the tracks were at least 2 years old when released. It was distributed by Prime Distribution which had agreed to take on my labels following the dismal performance of Metropolis described in the previous post. By that time I’d had another release on the Chicago based High Octane label, which was arranged by DJ Rush who acted in a sort of A&R capacity for them.

The differences between ARC and ARC(ANE) were always quite subtle, but were probably most audible on this and the two subsequent “Elegant Manoeuvres” releases. They had more of a groove to them, I think, and were more house-influenced even if they didn’t sound much like house.

The first track, “Passenger”, is quite pacy at about 140 or 142bpm. It was recorded in late 1997, immediately after the track “Ambrosia” which was released some years later on ARCN07. It uses the same sample or synth loop as its main riff, but it’s sequenced differently. Derrick May played it once at a Lost party in Vauxhall. At the end of the night I approached him to say thanks for playing it. He asked me which track I meant, and I mentioned the title. He said “I only have white labels”. So I described the logo which would have been stamped on the copy I posted to the Transmat office in Detroit. He said “oh yeaaaah….I thought you brought the hi-hats in a bit late”. Cheeky bastard. I told him it would make more sense if he played more of the track. “oooh, yeah!”. Anyway, it was nice to hear him play the record, it certainly buffed my ego a bit. I once heard Kevin Saunderson play another of my tracks at a much later Lost party…and I didn’t like the way he used it at all. In fact I rarely enjoyed the way other people played my records, but I was always interested to observe from the dancefloor how a crowd would react to the tracks. I doubt I’ll ever hear the other member of the Belleville Three do the same but two out of three isn’t bad.

I seem to remember having problems with the bass sound distorting in the next track, “Hunk”. This track was recorded in January 1998. The sound that echoes throughout is, I think, a sampled TR-909 snare that was messed with and put through loads of effects. I’ve never played this track in a set or heard anyone else play it. It’s not particularly exciting to me now, and not one of my favourites of all the tracks I released, but I’d be interested to hear it on a big system one day.

“Picnic Cut” was recorded in July 1998. The main riff was a sample from a track that Tommy Gillard and I made together in January 1996 called “Life’s No Picnic” (that track can be downloaded here if anyone is interested). I used the dysfunctional time stretch function on the Roland S-760 to mash it up a bit and processed it through the sampler’s rough sounding filter while messing with a few simple percussion sounds. I like this track a lot, it was always my favourite track on the record.

Recorded in late 1997, the title of the last track, “Break The Laws” came from the vocal sample used, although I don’t think that’s what’s actually being said. Like “Hunk”, I never played this track in a set. I like the chunky beat it has, the shuffled sampled closed hi-hat and the low synths that appear a couple of times. I’m less sure about the two sections where the sequence of the vocal sample changes.

All of these tracks were sequenced using the Alesis MMT-8.

Files are in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files taken from the original DAT recordings.

download the lossless FLAC version of Elegant Manoeuvres

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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1999 2010 ARC downloads releases

Joyrage

This is the first of a series of posts offering free digital versions of old ARCart releases, previously only available on vinyl, and in which I will waffle on a bit about the original releases.

“Joyrage”, the first ARCart release came out on ARC in May 1999. It was my third vinyl release, coming after “Watch As We Now Drift” on Meta, and “Beyond The Pale” on Kne’Deep. Those two previous releases helped provide some momentum and recognition from distributors. Not enough, though, for Prime Distribution, the main movers in the UK when the label was originally conceived and proposed.

I first set up distribution through a new London based organisation called Metropolis Distribution. They were, ummm…not very good. Nice guys, mostly, just useless at distributing records and even worse at paying labels for the few records they did manage to sell. Eventually they went out of business and I never did get paid what I was owed. It wasn’t enough to live on considering their poor sales performance but it would have bought a few very nice meals.

Before Metropolis collapsed I managed to get the unsold stock of this release sent to Prime, with whom I’d launched ARC(ANE) some months later. It sat in their warehouse for a while but when Prime offered up the bulk of the unsold stock of “Joyrage” (which was probably about 75% of what was pressed) they sold within a month.

The catalogue number differs slightly in format from all the other releases. ARC.MD.01 – this was partly down to a suggestion from Metropolis that I regret following, and possibly an error by the graphic designer, or by me, that compiled the artwork. It still irritates me for various reasons.

I’m still quite into the tracks on here. They’re all fairly simple affairs, especially on side A. I think that “Tinitus” (incorrect spelling, I know) was one of the first tracks I made after acquiring a compressor, hence the very low kick drum. The high pitched hissing sound is a sampled TR-808 snare playing forwards and then reversing on itself, filtered through the mixing desk with added delay. This was a possible contender when Oliver and I were reviewing tracks for the Meta release, but as it wasn’t used for that I put it out myself.

“White Lies” is as simple as it gets, just a relentless pounding loop, really, reminiscent of how it would often feel at 4am on the dancefloor at Lost during a punishing mid-90s Jeff Mills set (which was of course one of the major influences on all the techno we were making).

At this point in time my favourite track on the record is “Onslaught II”. I like the snare hit and the slightly woozy processed vocal samples that make up the main sounds of the track (all the non-percussive sounds are vocal samples). It’s the only track on the EP that has a hint of the slightly seasick wavering pitch effect which I later tried to inject into most of the music I made.

“21 Number 4”, titled in honour of my friend Tommy’s 21st birthday, also has a vocal sample stab throughout. This is layered with a filtered synth patch from the Roland JD800. The sequenced distorted percussive sound that fades up after a short while was programmed randomly using the Alesis MMT-8 sequencer, which is all I used to sequence tracks until later buying a Latronic Notron step sequencer.

As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve uploaded the files in lossless FLAC format, compressed from WAV files taken from the original DAT recordings.

download lossless FLAC version of Joyrage

Please get in touch if you have any problems downloading, unzipping, or playing the files.

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2010 ARC ARC(ANE) releases

ARCart releases in digital format

Several years ago I updated a page on the ARCart website announcing that mp3 versions of all the ARC and ARC(ANE) releases would be made available. Some years later I removed that text as I realised I’d still not got round to fulfilling that promise and, like my vague ideas of ever making music again, might never actually get round to it.

Well, at least on one of these points I’ve finally managed to make good on my word. Over the coming weeks I’ll be making available digital versions of every ARCart vinyl release. The intention at this stage is to make them available in FLAC format, compressed from WAV files created from the original digital recordings made on Digital Audio Tape and in some cases, CDr.

The files will be posted in the order they were originally released. I expect I’ll write a bit about each one as well, giving some background information as well as sharing my opinions on how I feel about them all these years later.

I don’t know if anyone is really that interested at this stage, but it will at least serve the purpose of creating an archive that will sit alongside the bits of vinyl still floating around in various collections, bargain bins and landfill sites. And it will give me something to write about on this ever-sluggish blog.

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2010 downloads mixes

let’s get this party slanted (spannered.org)

I did a mix for spannered.org. It’s sort of ambient-ish in a downlifting, throw-ya-hands-in-the-meatgrinder kind of way.

Tracklist:

Lustmord – ‘Primordial Atom’ (Soleilmoon)
Simon Fisher Turner – ‘Hymn For Thatcher’ (Mute)
Brunnen – ‘Tippoo’s Tiger’ (Beta-lactam Ring)
Chris Carter – ‘Chakutut’ (Conspiracy International)
Autechre – ‘Paralel Suns’ (Warp)
Column One – ‘Re-Worked Transmission’ (Stateart)
Black Sun Productions – ‘The Skunk’ (Old Europa Café)
Max Waters – ‘Stars And Scribble’ (Blasé)
Andrew Liles – ‘Auto Manipulator – 4th Degree (A Lesson To Be Learnt)’ (Lumberton Trading Company)
Black Dice – ‘Endless Happiness’ (DFA)
The Jackofficers – ‘An Hawaiian Christmas Song’ (Naked Brain)
Aerial Service Area – ‘ETI Encoding’ (Fax +49-69/450464)
Pemalas – ‘Tones’ (Experimental Seafood)
The Silverman – ‘Nature Of Illusion’ (Beta-lactam Ring)
Danny Kreutzfeldt – ‘Chasm’ (Databloem)
Satori – ‘Paralysis’ (Dogma Chase)
Sun Electric – ‘Newambi’ (R&S)
James Plotkin, Mick Harris – ‘Collapse’ (Asphodel)

The Spannered website is no longer maintained. Download the mix “Let’s get this party slanted” here

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2004 2010 downloads mixes

an old set recorded in Brno, 2004

A recording of my set at the Foundation party in Brno, Czech Republic in 2004. In two hectic, messy, high tempo sections. I think a few minutes must have been cut off in the middle as it jumps about 20bpm between the end of the first and the start of the second. Sound quality isn’t brilliant as the decks were feeding back a bit in places. Also the ending is cut off somewhat abruptly.

Here’s the tracklist:

Part 1

Susumu Yokota – ‘Fairy Link’ (Leaf)
Lift Syndrome – ’13’ (Rodz-Konez)
The Advent – ‘The Living’ (Internal)
Caustic Window – ‘Astroblaster’ (Rephlex)
Cybordelics – ‘Adventures Of Dama’ (Harthouse)
Universal Indicator – ‘Green’ (Rephlex)
Like A Tim – ‘Space Punk’ (DJAX)
Universal Indicator – ‘Green’ (Rephlex)
Mescalinum United – ‘We Have Arrived (Aphex Twin TTQ Mix)’ (R&S)
Like A Tim – ‘Dangle’ (DJAX)
Unknown Structure – ‘Repitcher’ (Sapho)
DJ Rush – ‘Smooth Ride’ (Trax)
Drexciya – ‘Digital Tsunami’ (Tresor)
Fast – ‘Exit Wound’ (Reverb)
Autechre – ‘Djarum’ (Warp)
Nick Rapaccioli – ‘Skima’ (Vertical Form)
Drexciya – ‘Aqua Jujidsu’ (Submerge)
Storm – ‘Carbon Fury’ (DJAX)
Richard Bartz – ‘Mad Butcher’ (Disko B)
Gas – ‘Pop’ (Mille Plateaux)
D’Arcangelo – ‘Diagram VII (80’s Mix)’ (Rephlex)

Part 2

The Vision – ‘K-Force’ (Tresor)
Clementine – ‘Breaking Point’ (DJAX)
Bola – ‘Horizophon’ (Skam)
Ed Rush – ‘The Raven’ (FFRR)
The Black Dog – ‘Chesh’ (Warp)
Monolake – ‘Frost’ (Monolake / Imbalance Computer Music)
Ceephax Acid Crew – ‘Seasick Acid’ (Breakin’)
Audiosex – ‘untitled’ (Aural Audio)
Vinyl Countdown – ‘Erasure’ (Edge)
C-Tank – ‘Hardtrance Over Flow’ (Overdrive)
Like A Tim – ‘Wildstyle’ (DJAX)
Andre Holland – ‘Unabomber’ (UR)
Gas – ‘Pop’ (Mille Plateaux)
Caustic Window – ‘The Garden Of Linmiri’ (Rephlex)
The Subjects v. Jeff Mills – ‘Beyond…’ (ULR One)
Caustic Window – ‘Joyrex J4’ (Rephlex)
DJ Funk – ‘Booty Perk U Later’ (Projex)
Bitstream – ‘Speed Of Light’ (Pylon)

Download a zip file containing both parts of the Brno set as mp3 files