Drumtrip Sessions #04 – J Rolla

Check out this simulacrum of a mid-90s pirate tape made by J Rolla for Drumtrip (came out last year, but Droid just pointed me towards it) which consists of choice tracks from the time + MC snippets from some of his own fave pirate tapes....



Here's what J Rolla says by way of explanation:

this set is based around tunes from the 93-94 era (with one from 92 thrown in that was way ahead of its time) that were big pirate radio favourites of mine, tunes that instantly make me think of a particular station, DJ/MC, tape, time or place the second I hear that breakdown.... 

I have spliced in little sections of some of my old recordings (mainly Kool FM ones) that I happen to have ripped and saved on my computer – I tried not to go overboard with this, but did include some slightly longer memorable clips, like the infamous “Duffer Paul” reload, Kool FM NYE 94 into 95, which friends and me creased up over many times.

A lot of these tunes are not heard so much these days compared to the bigger anthems (many of which owe their success to stations like Kool and Rush), some are a bit rough around the edges and some were overshadowed by a monster of an anthem on the flipside (Renegade’s Something I Feel for example).

....Shouts/credits for the clips used: 

Demolition Crew, DJ Kane, MC Det, Cogee, DJ Ash, Eastman, Trace, Rymetyme, Navigator, Mampi Swift, Kool FM, Eruption FM, and all producers in the tracklisting.

More info here

Tracklist

01: DJ Kane – Lost [No U-Turn]
02: Sound Of The Future – The Warning (Remix) [Formation]
03: DJ Mayhem – M-Power [Basement]
04: DJ LD – Parazone Part 3 [Planet Earth]
05: Gappa G & Hypa Hyper – Roach Is Burning [Ruff Kut]
06: B.V. – Vision [World Bass]
07: 4 horsemen Of The Apocalypse – We Are The Future [Tone Def]
08: The Whitehouse Crew – Anonymous [Subliminal]
09: The Quiet Storm – Everybody Over There [Emphasis]
10: Dopeski & Jakes – Mutant Ideology [Face]
11: Ment 4 Bass – Strings Free [Liquid Wax]
12: Double H Productions – Ultra Jungle [Hard Disk]
13: Body Snatch – The Strength (Mental Rapids) [Big City]
14: Majistrate – Big Tings [Intalektive]
15: On Remand – Controllin’ (Tango Remix) [Underworld Vinyl]
16: Underground Software – He’s Gone! [Reinforced]
17: The Joker – The Joker [Skanna]
18: DJ Nut Nut – Forbidden Planet [Virtual Motion]
19: Renegade – Something I Feel [Moving Shadow]
20: Roni Size & DJ Die – The Calling
21: Pugwash & Probe – Army Of Darkness [i-d]
22: DJ Crystl – Deep Space [Dee Jay]
23: Smith Inc – Palomino (Give It To Me) [Absolute Zero]
24: FBD Project – Breakin Up [Bang-in Tunes]
25: The J.B. – Simpin [Back 2 Basics]


Drumtrip, of course, is the blog whose slogan is "Where it's 1994 every day" !


For some reason I hardly ever go back to pirate tapes after 1993 -- despite having huge numbers of 1994 ones (the year we moved back to the UK) and a lot from 95 to 97 made on trips back to London or sent by kind friends. They don't have quite the same memor-E rush effect, perhaps 'cos the music got less nutt-E, the MCing less disorderly,the whole culture more professional. Also from end of '93 onwards I got more and more CD comps and mixtapes that I made myself of stuff I'd got on vinyl - so the tapes made off pirate then weren't played so often as the 92-93 ones, because I wasn't so dependent on them, just had them for that week's usage and to nab the prereleases and dubplates around....