Mix Of The Month

Hi! Please introduce yourself - what's your connection to Northampton's dance music scene?

 Hi, I’m Acid88 I’ve been playing music in and around town since the mid 90’s on and off.  I started off playing happy hardcore in 96 when I got my first decks, an old belt-drive disco console with a volume fader for each channel and pitch control but it had no markings so you had to guess how much you were pitching up a record.  My first gig was at free party on junction 16 where I played a mixture of happy hardcore and gabba, I Can’t remember how that went down, all I remember from that night was dust swirling up everywhere and not being able to see much and the next day not being able to open my eyes as they were so full of dirt, my record box still has the dirt engrained in its lining 30 years later. So that was my first gig, more recently I have been playing, jungle, DnB, oldskool hardcore and acid house at various nights around town.  

 

In between all of that I’ve put on my Bass Quake nights at the Lab, which is currently on a bit of a break while I search for some inspiration for something different to make the night stand out.  Theres so many DnB, and jungle nights happening at the moment things have saturated quite a bit and the crowds have spread out between the various nights so getting a good crowd in has become much harder than it was.  Plus I’m an aspie so networking isn’t my strong point and promoting a night is hard enough when you’re not a total hermit like me lol!!  

 

But over the years as Bass Quake and before that as Music in Motion a night that was put on by a collective of Dj’s Master Mash, Johnny Hijack, Myself, Ayva, and Liam that helped finance some of our headliners.  Over the years we’ve had some wicked Dj’s come and play for us, Ellis Dee, Pilgrim, Vibes, Vinyl Vera, Glen Aston, T-Cuts, Anna Key as well as local legends Mikey (Principal), Connor AON, Karl Heedless, Betti and loads more
 

Other than D’jing and being a bit of a reluctant promoter I have in the past done some live shows playing live acid house sets on hardware drum machines and synths. That stopped when I got divorced several years ago and sold all my synth but recently I’ve been getting  back into that side of things again and I’m looking to do more production this year with the possibility of doing some live shows again as well as perhaps putting some more tunes back out on wax.

Tell us about your mix

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#    Title & Label    Artist
1    The Loon – Karma Recordings    Acid88
2    Something New Pt.2 – Ram Reloaded    Andy C
3    Storm Trooper – Basement Records    DJ Mayhem
4    Livin In Darkness (Swankout Legacy Vocal Mix) ft MAD P Basement Records    Top Buzz
5    Open Your Mind (Madcap Remix) – Knite Force    Foul Play
6    Chuck e smokin a blunt – Vinyl Fanatiks    
7    Dark Soldier (original mix) – Dread Recordings    Ray Keith
8    Dred Bass – Moving Shadow    VARIOUS
9    Pete Cannon _ Wicked Men – N4 Dubs    N4 Records
10    Tom & Jerry Maximum Style Serail Killaz Remix Rip – Tom & Jerry     Tom & Jerry
11    Survival – Warehouse Wax Dubs    VINYL JUNKIE & SANXION
12    Dub Box (Original Mix)    Kenny Ken, Eccleton Jarrett, Voltage, Dan-I, Hurrian
13    Souldrop – Future Retro London    Sonar's Ghost
14    5ives – Over/Shadow    Sully
15    Purpose – Suburban Arcitecture    Suburban Architecture
16    Distant Response (Drumskull Remix) – New Town Dubs    Suburban Architecture
17    THE OPEN SOUL E.P. - 03 Open Soul – Deep Jungle    Kid Chameleon
18    Hikari Ame – Tuf Stuf Records    Arkyn
19    May Contain Traces Ruture Retro London    Fixate & Tim Reaper
20    DJ Chris Carr - Jungle Junkie (Brainstorm Cru Remix)  - Dub Cru    Dj Chris Carr
21    Guinness Track (Peshay remix) - ADR    Afterdark
22    Rebels (Studio Master DAT Source) – Splash Recordings    Splash Collective
23    01 Lunar Eclipse Feat. Strategy – 1985 Music    Visages

So this mix, when you asked me to do a mix for the website I really wanted to showcase the musical styles I play out the most as well as some of my favourite tracks from when I first started going out raving in early 95.  Starting off with one of my own tracks that got released a couple of years ago on DJ Ande’s Karma Recordings this was my first Vinyl release and was on an EP with DJ Ande and Aphrodite so I was blown away being on there with some proper legends in the scene, The track itself was mad over lockdown on the MPC and the finished off in FL Studio, It was first played out on Jay Cunnings Hardcore show and after it played I was inundated with feedback and some offers to release the tune, but things just didn’t happen at that time and it was 2 years later when DJ Ande approached me to release it on Karma and a few months later it was out, definitely a dream come true moment.  

 

The next 2 tracks are definitely highlights of my teenage years listening to tapes copied from mates, swapping tapes, and all that good stuff that used to happen pre internet.. These 2 tunes, in fact, the next 3 are all tunes I associate with one of my favourite acts, Top Buzz.  That dark 92-93 style was proper futuristic and dark, and like nothing else I’d ever heard, so this part of the mix is a bit of a tribute to them, Jason (RIP) and Patrick AKA Mad P.  

Track 3 is like I mentioned above, and this legacy mix by Swankout just shows the influence Top Buzz still has today. Love this mix with MAD P’s lyrics. 

 

The Madcap remix of Foul Play Open Your Mind, absolutely fantastic mix, Madcap has done some amazing remixes and this is up there for me with his remix of Burnin Up by Nookie, it was a close one deciding which to play, but this edged it. 

The next part of the mix represents my years going out raving for the first time. All 3 of these tunes you used to go off every time, and I still listen to them today. Hearing all of these tunes still gives me goose bumps all these years later and takes me back to those early days raving at V7 Saxon Street.  

 

Now I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Ragga jungle ever since hearing Code Red by Conquering Lion back in '94. It was such a fresh sound back then, and those lyrics and ragga samples set it apart from the hardcore sound that had come before it.  There were so many tunes I could have played here, but I went for some newer stuff because I didn’t want this to be all about nostalgia. I love the old stuff from the 90’s, but I’m also about showcasing new music too, so this was the perfect opportunity to play some of my favourite new tracks. 

 

Tracks 13 – 20 represent the current style that I love. It’s jungle, but it's newer, fresher, has some different influences, there's definitely some Aphex Twin and Ventian snares type breakcore stuff in the way the breaks are being chopped, the melodies, but it's still jungle, it still has that same vibe.  This again really represents the stuff I enjoy playing out the most, it's forward thinking, its melodic, tough, with a side of heavy bass.  I always try to play something different in my sets, and this style of jungle is definitely underrepresented in town at the moment.  I want to give a shout-out to Richard Carter, AKA Brain Storm Cru (One of the original members of Brainstorm Crew on Formation Records), for all the support over the past few years, if you haven’t heard any of his self-released stuff on DUB Cru, go check them out. 

 

The final 3 tracks again are personal favourites Magic in You and Rebels played out by the likes of Peshay, Bukem, GrooveRider definitely influenced my formative years and still remain favourites.  And the final tune, when I first heard it, I was blown away. It's one of those tunes that I can’t believe it wasn’t much bigger than it actually was it certainly deserved to be in my eyes. 

How do you think the dance music scene in Northampton could be improved/added to?

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Certainly 2 things more venues with late licences, there’s a real shortage of options out there, The Lab which in its self is an amazing venue and there’s nothing else like it, so I will always support the venue is limited because of it’s limited to a few late licences a year, I can see why its smack bang in the middle of a residential area so I get it, but I’d love to be able to do some later nights in there.  I’d love to see someone take up the old House of Dapper again, that was a great little venue, it’s such a shame it's no longer there. 

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I think the other improvement would be for promoters to talk to each other and coordinate better. The number of times you book a venue, start promoting a night, then a couple of weeks later another similar night goes up on the same night, and the crowd gets split between the 2, I’m totally guilty of this too, so when I do start up again, I will try to follow my own advice.  In the same vein, more collaboration between promoters I think, would work well to stop the over-saturation of nights and enrich the nights that are put on with bigger crowds. 

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Desert island discs! What are your top three tracks you could live with forever?

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1 Acen - Trip II the Moon Pt 3

The first is a no brainer for me it was one of the first rave tunes I heard back in 93 when I first got into rave music, it was on a tape I think made by one of the 6th formers at our school and the tape had some absolute belters on it, Liquid -Phog, The Good 2 bad and Hugly – Jungle, Glide – Alright.  The tape has long gone probably chewed up in a tape player years ago, but the memories of those tunes and that mix is still with me all these years late.  

2. Peshay - Piano Tune

I first heard this on the Peshay tape from Dreamscape 11, I remember rushing out on the Saturday over to Spin-a-Disc to pick this up the weekend it was released.  This tape pack was different to the previous ones I’d listened to Dreamscape 11 was jungle heavy the hardcore sound was being overtaken by this new music, the squeaky vocals were being replaced by shimmering pads, more soulful sultry sounds, raga vocals and this Piano Tune by Peshay, this track shood head and shoulders above anything else on that tape pack, the piano chords and the breaks, that whole tune is perfection. 

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3. Madvillain – Rhinestone Cowboy.  

So my first and second tracks were easy, no debate there at all.  This one was more tricky, there are so many other jungle tunes that I’d love to be stranded with on a desert island, honourable mentions to Tom and Jerry – Maximum Style, Nookie – Only You, Dj Mayhem – Storm Trooper.  But I wanted to delve into my other influences, Would it be something by Tricky, The Cure, Aphex Twin, or even Close Your Mouth, it's Christmas by The Free Design (I’m a bit of a Christmas record nerd) I even considered Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney because I bloody love that synth (I know not a cool choice).  So, back onto my actual choice. Rhinestone Cowboy was released on the Madvillainy Album, which is a collaboration between Madlib, one of my all-time favourite Hip-Hop producers, and MF Doom, my all-time favourite rapper.  The whole album is off the charts, and every track is special in its own way, but this one I absolutely love the sample choice, the lyrics, and the delivery. This has been on constant repeat since I picked it back in 2004. I can’t think of a more perfect Hip-Hop track. 

 

Parting thoughts - what's coming up that you want everyone to be aware of?

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Not much gig-wise, I believe there's something happening on the 2nd of May at Radlands Skatepark in town, up near the Uni. It’s an all-day thing with loads of DJs now, there’s nothing up on socials, yet I’m pretty sure once the licence is granted, more details will appear.  Secondly, May 22nd at Escape in Town, I’m Playing at Jump Up V’s Jungle. Looking forward to that one escape is a decent venue, so looking forward to tearing it up in there.  

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This year I’m taking less gigs working on my production skills and I have a few EP’s in mind after rebuilding my studio setup I’m looking at doing one or 2 acid/electro ep’s then back onto some Jungle stuff after, I’ve got 2 acid tracks nearly finished with some sketches of 4 or 5 more on the MPC that need fleshing out, so hopefully I’ll be able to have these released this year.