ZTT Remastered Singles

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markus
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by markus »

Bombadin

Graham:

808 State/ZTT single remasters continue this month under the title of “Special Assignments”
The singles that don't fit neatly with albums starting BOMBADIN from the summer of 1994
https://808state.ffm.to/bombadintommyboy
In The Autumn of 1993 we had started to write for a new album after returning from another US tour this time as support to New Order /The Republic tour. We now had our own writing studio
and there was a period of experimenting ,interrupted with remix and advert jobs .
Here is an early version of Bombadin at its experimental birth
https://soundcloud.com/massonix/bombadin-demo-version
Its starting point being a patch on the ARP2600 synth that had a life of its own ,An Industrial drone recycled from Feverhouse (Fac 105 )
Layered tone generators through a spring reverb played back through a guitar amp in the back garden at volume. A loop of Quica playing (a Brazilian friction drum ) played by Alan Hempsall from an unreleased record by Marcel Fontaine “Black Magic Quica” A loop of pitching gongs from a Chinese opera over layered 909 tom toms .The Bombadin vocal sample is from a K7 record called “I ll Make You Feel Good “ Everything is slathered in Roland Space Echo. Well it aint no dance floor smash !
Meanwhile we get asked to do a remix for Simply Red’s guitarist Heitor Pereira who is doing a solo project .
They must have had a budget as it has mixes by Mark Brydon ,DJ Parrot and Maurice Zou Zou . I m not sure who put these projects together ,it looks a lot like a FON studios based project given the cast of remixers . But it might have come from Simply Red’s office which was upstairs from our office. Mick Hucknall’s reggae label Blood & Fire lived next door to us.
I digress , Heitor had made quite a percussion heavy track called Ligierin which had a triplet feel to it , Parrot's" Afron Rampage" mix still sounds fresh today ,but he had covered the route we would have taken. Instead we thought of calling on the percussion expertise of my old Biting Tongues chum Colin Seddon . I have talked of him in previous remaster notes , Colin was our tour drummer for a period later down the line. He laid down more of a samba rhythm using Pandiero ,Repanique ,Brekete , the sort of instruments Colin used in “Inner Sense” his samba band.
Colin also played a instrument called a Berimbau which is like a bow & arrow affair with a dried pumpkin as sound box ,you can hear it at the beginning of the track .
Thinking about it now Heitor who was from Rio Grande in Brazil probably rolled his eyes at all this coals to Newcastle business .
Heitor does a lot of Hollywood movie soundtracks these days ,but I never knew he played with Milton Nasciemto Thats big points in our house !
Check out this interview with Heitor here
Anyway we were so enamoured with the rhythm track that we applied it to our Bombadin demo a few days later . Colin had laid it down in 2 minute chunks ,so we had a number of left out takes and breaks that we fed into the Akai S1000 in order to manipulate the arrangement. We dropped the industrial feel then honed it more toward the dance floor over a number of mixes. There's some waka cher waka guitar and some more “shit trumpet” as mentioned last week.
I think the team at Tommy Boy Records (specifically Victor Wong) were enthusiastic to release the results ,So it was another situation where it appeared over here as an import first .
ZTT released it not long afterward in August 94. Ive just remembered that Bombadin was in the movie “Pret A Porter “ later that year . We did a specific ‘catwalk ‘ mix .
Emma and I went to the premier as we were in New York for Christmas that year. The film was a dud but the A list was strong -Sophia Loren & Lauren Bacall !
The B side is super odd as only a B side can get away with being. “Marathon” is based on an Accordion sample with a frantic 2/4 beat and an electric violin giving it a Cajun feel ,I must say now that it proceeded Cotton Eye Joe and coincided with The Grid’s Swamp Thing -some kind of catfish summer going on then that is now best forgotten . I still like the manic energy of Marathon ,its a soundtrack looking for a cartoon chase .The “Drumapella” is my preference as the accordion gets ditched and the rhythm track is pretty lush once you remove the pub drumming . The 909 hats run through a Doctor Q envelope filter pedal and we miked up our faithful Transit van horn in the parking bay in one of the mixes, I think most of the Filtered synth is ARP 2600 again. We had boiled everything down to a one finger thrash .
Underworld’s “Rez” was around this time , there were a few ‘Filter” tracks knocking about .
Safe to say neither of these tracks would be on an 808 album. I tend to think of them as transient ,though we did have Bombadin in the live set for quite a while as it grooved hard and was fun to play.

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markus
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by markus »

Art Of Noise - Moments In Love - The Massey Mixes:

Share Moments in Love with 808 State, and Art Of Noise
The Dream Department at ZTT Records continue their July deep-dive into the special projects and covert assignments from the world of 808 State, with Moments In Love - The Massey Mixes:

Following last week's a digital edition of the US 12" of Bombadin from 808's Tommy Boy Records slipstream, this week sees a digital release of a 12" originally scheduled for 10 February 1994 in which 808's Graham Massey remixes Art of Noise's genre-bending classic (and current Tik Tok slow dance anthem), Moments in Love.

Although the 12" never made it to the stores, the tracks here later appeared on ZTT's The Art of the 12" compilation series. Massey Mixes One and Three were both included on A Promotion Of A Way Of Life (The Art Of The 12" Volume Two) released on 20 February 2012, while Massey Mix Two was included on A Soundtrack For Living (The Art Of The 12" Volume Three) released almost exactly two years later on 10 February 2014.
The worlds of 808 State and Art of Noise had already collided a couple of years before, of course, when Graham Massey completed three remixes (only one of which has so far been released) of Legs, for the Art of Noise's China Records era album The FON Mixes. And the Moments remixes were undertaken at the same time that 808 State remixed another iconic ZTT single, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Two Tribes.
For this new digital release, all three tracks have been remastered by Graham with Geoff Pesche at Abbey
Road Studios. Listen/hear:

1. Moments In Love - Massey Mix One: 00:05:39
2. Moments In Love - Massey Mix Two: 00:03:51
3. Moments In Love - Massey Mix Three: 00:05:11

"808 State of Art Of Noise in Love" was packaged and brochured by The Dream Department at Zang Tuum Tumb (Ian Peel, Philip Marshall) and is Number 14 in the Definition Series.

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nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Bombadin - UK Mixes:

UK edition of Bombadin is this weeks remaster from the 808 State /ZTT archives. notes to U.S. version would also apply to this version too.(scroll up the page)

Listen/hear:

01. Bombadin - Barta Edit: 0:03:50
02. Bombadin - Bombapella: 0:04:43
03. Marathon - Club 12" Mix: 0:04:54
04. Marathon - Drumapella: 0:04:20

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nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Insane Lover / Freak:

Graham:

Hi lets have a go at some notes for this weeks 808 /ZTT Remasterd single which is “Insane Lover/Freak.” You probably wont have heard it before.
After the initial burst of the first 5 years of 808 State 1994 was a slow year ,experimenting ,remixing ,DJ ing ,writing in our own studio and recording at FON studio in Sheffield.
A lot of what we got up to that year has not seen the light of day ,we had the luxury to say we were unsure . By 1994 Dance music had gone off down 2 paths , big room DJ ing or pure electronica
It was interesting being in Sheffield recording at the time as WARP had their offices upstairs and their shop was going great guns just up the road ,We were sort of the old guard ,not weird enough for one camp and too odd for the mainstream Mix Mag establishment.
At least that’s the way I see it now ,but at the time our world felt wider after travelling a lot ,we spent time talking ideas with some new people who set up a new fangled website for us , were nt too many of those about back then.
If we needed artwork at that point it was easier to go for a pub lunch with Designers Republic who had an office up the street in the same block as WAU /Mr Modo records. There was a tug/dynamic in 808 between the two Dj s and my self , they wanted records to fit into what they played out ,that had played out to a certain extent on the last LP “Gorgeous “ but in 94 we were looking for a club record and testing them on white labels . Insane Lover /Freak was one such white label .So no CDs or Cassettes of this one.
We were also trying to write songs , I remember Robert Owens coming and staying for a few days , Billie Ray Martin worked on a track , Al Fisch our engineer at the time suggested getting Pete Hope to try and write on a couple of tracks , If I remember correctly he was in another room at FON doing a project with DJ Parrot at the time. That writing room was mostly occupied by Mark Brydon and Róisín Murphy making the first Moloko album .
FON had a family vibe in 94 . Back in a previous era I had witnessed Pete Hope doing gigs as the singer in a band called The Box. Because they were angular angry sax driven beatniks like my band Biting Tongues ,we had shared stages together including The Venue ,Virgin’s new flagship club in the West End .
I think Pete was a bit reluctant due to our rave reputation but he had a go at a couple of ideas.
One result was a track called Mondays (see 808 Archives Vol IV), The other was a full blown song called Insane Lover , we wrote the lyrics by committee (never a good move ), That version is still in the vault . Americana was a flirtation for us at the time ,Pete’s voice was more Beefheart than Yorkshire and I had decided to get my trusty white electric violin out ,because that’s what any disco hit needed was nt it ? . The violin is fed into a battery operated amplifier called a Pignose that was pointed into a big metal tannoy horn ,Al Fisch and I were very excited that we had got a Sugar Cane Harris type of sound .
We also recorded the violin feeding back into an Echoplex ,another essential disco sound.
The main synth on the Analogue mix is an OSCar ,which was stolen the next day from the studio .
On the “Loco Mix” its the Mini Moog taking the lead.
The Hi Hat sound is a 909 fed directly through an Electro Harmonix Dr Q envelope follower,but you knew that !
Just the chorus survives here from Pete’s performance. I ve an idea that there is some
of Colin Seddon ‘s rare groove biscuit tin samba snare drum - on the “Loco” version, I really need to dig out the track sheets ,but they are buried in the attic at the moment.
We tried Insane Lover in the live set at a Mega Dog event around this time ,just the once , the live set was pretty weird that year ,trying things out on an audience was always an acid test.
“Freak “ got a better response from the DJ returns , its quite a simple affair but has an edge ,even fits in sets today . .It comes in two versions “Dark Disco” it does what it says on the tin and the” Astroban Mix” is more of a weird texture excursion that has a tempo shift event in the style of French Kiss .I remember was a pain in the arse to pull off when the time code was dragging the samplers along with it in the studio ,everything had to sync up with the material on the tape after a tempo curve ,so its more of a performance mix. The desk at FON was a AMEK Mozart with some Neve Channels -It had automation but we avoided it most of the time. We were recording to DAT
and occasionally doing edit session at Red Tape Studios down the corridor where they must have had some early Soundtools set up or perhaps an Audiofile system. Editing was expensive and to be avoided if possible .
What is an Astroban ? ,sometimes Astobahn / Astrobanjo. Well Its a one string electric banjo that my Dad made me in his shed one weekend in the 70s . It has a pick up at either end of the fretless neck made from telephone receivers , so every time you play a note you get the difference note at the other end of the sting . Once you tune into the sound you might spot it on many of my records over the years . Its the clanging dulcimer sound on this mix. Signature sounds and family heirlooms !

Listen/hear:

01. Insane Lover - Analogue Mix: 0:06:00
02. Insane Lover - Loco Mix: 0:05:30
03. Freak - Dark Disco Mix: 0:05:25
04. Freak - Astroban Mix: 0:06:41

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PeteB
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by PeteB »

Will Quincy's Lunch (7" Slut Smalls version) become available Digitally at some point, ;) :wink:
nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Pacific (UK Mixes):

Graham

Do you know you're Pacific 303 from you're Pacific 909 or indeed your Pacific 212
Well we are going to split this weeks 808 /ZTT remasters into the UK mixes and then another week for the Tommy Boy U.S. mixes.

The story of Pacific by 808 State goes back to November 1988 when we were invited to do a Peel Session by the man himself .John Peel (the BBC Radio One DJ) made regular visits to Manchester in the late 80s checking out all the record stores including Eastern Bloc (our base at the time) . Peel had been airing our earlier releases such as Newbuild ,Let You're Self Go and the Lounge Jays EP
We should have gone to Maida Vale Studios and jammed like we had done on BBC Radio Manchester earlier that year ,but we had the idea of just recording a few tracks and saying it was a session , Peel entertained the collusion but then his producer put his foot down. So we never did a Peel session. But we did start Pacific State with this session in mind , It was sketched out in a session in November 88 .So this was the short lived original line up with Gerald ,Martin and Me .We were playing a few random gigs in 88
,sometimes as support slots to the likes of Inspiral Carpets and ACR .Sometimes travelling by National Express up to Scotland or doing one off warehouse parties. Its not like we had a set list when we played live ,it was largely improvised .Quite often it was a duo as Martin lived outside Manchester and had a day job at the shop . Some times Chapter and the Verse would join in ,
Some times that line up would do A Guy Called Gerald gig such as the one at the swimming baths or Born In The North on The Other Side Of Midnight , Sometimes we would be on the same bill as both groups such as Dingwalls with Ed Barton and The Ritz for Steve Barkers Meltdown Xmas Special with Tackhead at the end of 88. There seems to be a lot of MCs on that recording in both groups.
So it was organic and blurry and as VooDoo Ray took off Gerald was around more intermittently .January 89 I was finishing an album as Biting Tongues called Recharge .It was using Atari Computer ,analogue synths and our usual horn section .I had time booked at the studio over the weekend to finish some recoding but we squeezed an 808 session in on the Saturday morning .A bunch of spectators turned up with Martin and Gerald from the shop -I tried out some soprano saxophone on the Pacific tape . The instrument was left there from the night before.
I think it was important that my playing was limited , if we got a real sax player in it could all turn out to be Kenny G in an instant.
The drums were changed from TR808 to TR909 and a B section was devised giving it more of a story. We mixed various sections to be edited together later. So that was in the can so to speak . The rest of what became Quadrastate came from some sessions around that time ,Sometimes just me when I could spot a gap at the studio, some of it with the Spin Masters(Andy Barker & Darren Partington) and some of it with Martin or all 4 of us.
808 had a manufacturing /distribution deal with Revolver /The Cartel ,so you got a slot to fill timing wise. Quadrastate turned out to be a bit of a hodgepodge ,but full of new ideas . The SpinMasters began to try it all out off cassette at The Thunderdome Club ,It became apparent early on that Pacific had that sweaty group hug vibe . It got some airing on the 808 State radio show early that year . Test pressings were to come out in May 89 . Meanwhile we had done Dance Yourself To Death with MC Tunes and performed it on a BBC2 program called SNUB TV . ZTT’s Paul Morley liked it a lot and came up to talk to us.He found out we had this whole eco system of the record shop supplying a top ten of imports to our radio show on community radio ,and the ability to self produce at the centre of a very exciting version of the Manchester music scene to the one he had left behind when he moved to London.
ZTT did nt ask for demos ,it was all rather based on us being a convincing team . Pacific got aired on daytime Radio One after DJ Gary Davies had heard it out in Ibiza that summer ,It also became a big Hacienda anthem that crazy summer of 89.
Once we had signed up with ZTT as a four piece that summer we had to produce an album in time to hit the winter which meant hand it in finished by the end of September! The heat was on !
But inspiration was everywhere ,so many great records coming out , so many great parties -just take it all in and breath it all out ! Now for the first time we had a budget and people could turn up more regular instead of working 3 jobs ,we could buy tape and our own computer , book studio time when we needed it , It was an expensive occupation back then.
I don't know how much you kids know about ZTT ,but it was a label put together by Paul Morley ,journalist ,writer and conceptualist and hit record producer Trevor Horn .Trevor made some very wild records but had a real sense of a radio record and how to shape drama into them.
We spent sometime talking through some of these ideas and so we completely re recorded Pacific
as the version called Pacific 202 for the 90 album. Its faster and visits more stops on its trip ,Even then it was edited down to 3.58 to become Pacific 707 for the 7 inch radio single . Radio did indeed take to it and by November 89 we managed to heave it into the top 10 preceding the release of our first ZTT album “ 90” in December that year . Pacific 303 was a variation of 707 as an extra mix for the 12 inch single
Such were the time pressures back then on studio time ,we could nt. get in our preferred studio Square One in Bury and we went to Square Dance in Stoke where my college mate Danny Spencer worked (he of Candy Flip) This one has the cuban chant and some added flutes and is heavier on the percussion front . We tended you use this version at gigs in 1990 .Completing the 12 inch was a one minute advert for Cobra Bora that would be on the up coming album. Again I think it was because we were rushing to a deadline that it was nt a finished piece.
In order to sustain your weeks in the chart back then it was ok to release a second batch of mixes
Again working against the clock and available studio time we knocked up Pacific 909 Mellow Birds Mega Edit plus Bonus Bird Beats ,which really is going off at a tangent .We recorded this one evening in Spirit Studio ,Some nice melodies and bass from the D50 , no sax on this -Bass Clarinet is the wind instrument. Lots of Roland R8 & 909 drum machines
The video for Pacific 707 was made by Howard Walmsley ,who s soprano sax I borrowed that day
He shot some silhouette footage of the band and the rest is made on a Video Fairlight ,very high tech at the time.


Listen/hear:

01. Pacific 707: 0:03:52
02. Pacific b: 0:04:28
03. Pacific 202: 0:05:38
04. Pacific State Origin: 0:06:31
05. Pacific 303: 0:06:23
06. Cobra Bora Shortcut: 0:01:08
07. Pacific 909 (Mellow Birds Mega Edit): 0:07:05
08. Pacific Bonus Bird Beats: 0:02:49

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nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

The Extended Pleasures Of Dance EP:

Graham

808 State/ZTT Friday Reamster series continues

The Extended Pleasure Of Dance ,sounds like a Paul Morley title if ever I heard one !
But If I remember correctly the PM had left his post shortly after securing our signatures to a ZTT contract .
I found this most disconcerting as he was a big brother sounding board and ideas man.
If I remember correctly Martin Price and Morley were particularly sparky together, cooking up plans and schemes .The first press release for “The EP of Dance” suggests the idea it was volume one of a series of EP s and that a follow up album was imminent only a few months after "90" in December of 89. A tad over enthusiastic with those plans ! A late night session no doubt .
Meanwhile we needed a second single from 90 -Cobra Bora was the stand out track in many ways.
It was nt like any other dance track at the time , it had started out based around a riff on the TB 303 but with a 4 bar funk pattern programmed on a new drum machine called a Roland R8 ‘Human Rhythm Machine” .The R8 was supposed to emulate the nuances of a real drummer .The track has a really nice cross rhythm rave stab motif and then a snake pit tangle of SH101 synthesisers .
At half way it switches to jazz funk in 6/8 time with a Jan Hammer-esque synth solo played also on a SH101. Yes Thats our new single!
I remember being at the Hacienda one night when I think Mike Pickering or Jon Da Silva played Cobra Bora for the first time -people were falling over ,some serious dancers were doing a bit of the Michael Clark to it as the dance floor thinned out. Still the important thing to note here is the DJ s were still taking risks and new ideas were at least given a chance.
Why did we remix everything only weeks after recording tracks back then ? Well the pace of recording and cost meant that writing tracks in the studio were flash events .We always jumped at the chance to correct and improve on those events with a bit of hind sight .Hence the “Call The Cops “ mix presented here was an attempt to get to more streamlined and club empathetic version
It ditches some density and the 6/8 sections and solos for a big stompy rave piano .It has some fancy edits and drum tricks to spice it up for instanced the chopped riff edit at 2.34 mins .
I remember us doing this remix in Sarm West Studios near Portobello Rd London in the run up to Christmas 1989. SARM is the studio you see in Live Aid’s Feed the World Video_Again its one of those temples of music making ,before Trevor Horn set up camp there in the 80s it had been Island Studios ,sometimes known as Basing St Studios . Built in a Victorian Wax Works (think candles not Tussauds) ,This was a big deal when you grow up with album sleeves and credits - All those early ENO albums , Led Zep , Bob Marley,Robert Wyatt etc .
It was the state of the art studio of its day in the 80s with huge SSL desks and all the posh outboard effects, It was best if we worked with the house engineer Ren Swan- I was generally engineering our sessions up to that point but this place was too intimidating.
Trevor Horn popped in to observe and offer suggestions , I think his head exploded with our strange methods of not composing to tape ,rather carving from loops on
the multitrack , not to mention all the larking about and shouting.
While we were at Sarm we also remixed Ancodia from the 90 album as the B side. Im not sure what ‘Taters Deep Nit Funky Beat” means , some one from Bolton might translate ? The origin of this track goes back to before Darren & Andrew had joined 808 State and were coming to the studio to record as The Spin Masters .It was an Electro Style track based around Andy’s Sequential Circuits Tom Drum Machine .Darren fleshed it out using technics record decks ,Martin always had a bag of records with him at that point . I painted melodies on the Juno 106 to glue it together then we re did it all later down the line using a TR808 (its rare for 808State tracks to have an 808 on them ).
Its called Ancodia as a reference to Ancoats a run down bit of Manchester just north of the city centre where Andy & Darren lived at the time. I was always told that Ancoats was named after Ann Coates who was tried for witchcraft and executed there in 1700 and something , but it could be an urban myth cooked up in a Smiths record. .Ancoats was actually the birth place of the Industrial Revolution and is nt short of dark satanic mills .The first place to have a Victorian sewerage system after it was deemed to be the best slum on earth by a couple of locals called Engels and Marx .The Italian community was strong there and built some churches and was the ice-cream capital of England for a while in the early 1900s. If you go there now its all loft living and restaurants. To me Ancoats is where Darren’s mum used to deliver excellent plated Sunday dinners from directly to the studio ,home of The Crusty Cob s legendary pies .
It also turns out my great great Grandma ran The Crossed Keys Pub there in the early 1900s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancoats
The third track on the EP was the first appearance of Cübik . I have covered this in previous notes ( theres about 18 of these sleeve notes if you scroll back on Facebook @ 808stateofficial) Its interesting that we thought it as the wild card on this EP ,but slowly it came into its own as the stand out track here. There are some 7 inch edits and a frankenstein edit of both tracks that were designed for radio play at the time ,these appear here now for completists .
The sleeve for EP Of Dance we thought quite radical at the time- Early computer art by Phil Wolstenholme ,As an electronic music fan you will know his work from Cabaret Voltaire,Warp Artificial Intelligence series.The Orb , The Shamen - But this is one of his first in that ‘Rave ‘Amiga style.

Listen/hear:

01. Cobra Bora - Call The Cops Mix: 0:04:49
02. Ancodia - Taters Deep Nit Funky Beat Mix (Utd State 90 Edit): 0:05:18
03. Cübik: 0:03:32
04. Ancodiacobrabora: 0:03:15
05. Cobra Bora - Call The Cops 7" Mix: 0:02:58
06. Ancodia - Taters Deep Nit 7" Mix: 0:03:42

[Note: Ancodia (Tatters Deep Nit Funky Beat Mix) is the edited version from Utd State 90 and not the full length mix originally on the EP.

This is in the process of being remedied.]


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nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Pacific Tommy Boy Mixes

Graham:

We hooked up with Tommy Boy Records for a U.S. licensing deal some time early in 1990.
It would have been a natural choice in that they were also under the Warner Bros umbrella like ZTT plus that they were looking for a boost in club credibility at the time by looking to the UK. Tommy Boy Records was nearly 10 years old at that point. Tom Silverman (The Tommy In Tommy Boy)came over to meet up with us in Manchester at the Midland Hotel. They would later start licensing Warp Records starting with LFO -Steve Knutson masterminded that move.

We did n't take much convincing as we already thought Tommy Boy had all the credibility in the world ! Our 1st ZTT album 90 had hit the Christmas rush in 1989 proceeded by Pacific 202 being a top 10 pop hit in November. So in order that the Tommy Boy version of 90 had a fighting chance against six months of UK imports hitting American stores we acquiesced to add some tracks to what would be called
“UTD State 90”. We hit the studios and reworked some pre ZTT material and added two new tunes Cübik and Boneyween plus 2 remixes totalling 7 extra tracks on the CD ,5 on the vinyl ,which makes it a bit less hi fidelity than the UK version of the album.

Leading up to the release of UTD State 90 in June 1990 , We dropped the U.S Pacific single in March. Tom Richardson (another Tom) was our man on the ground in New York and he knew who to pick to remix the track for what was going down at the time. Justin Strauss had been championing the original version for a year by that point and it had picked up some play on localmix shows in NY and on the West Coast. Justin had his team of Frank Heller doing the engineering, Eric Kupper on Keys (Justin says he would sequence on an Ensonic) and the great Chep Nunez on editing duties. Justin had a SP12 as his drum Machine at the time. I think he was a bit freaked when the drums were nt printed on our 2 inch tape ,but often we would run the drum machines off SMPTE code live and may be just print a guide track while we worked out arrangements in live mix situations.A mix was often like a performance that had to be rehearsed in sections and then edited together on tape , the old razor blade way. Thats why it was a thrill to see Chep Nunez ’s name pop up , he “the“ razor artist of the day. My other razor hero was Teo Macero ,who chopped and shipped all the Miles Davis 70 s material it was akin to film editing back then.

Justin’s team cooked up 3 versions 101 being the main one - 212 (New York area code) and 516 (Long Island area code). 516 has Eric Kupper letting loose on organ and is a bit more slashed up .The other 2 are quite disciplined and solid for the club vibe.

Coming at it from a completely different direction is the Musto & Bones 718 mix (Brooklyn/Queens area code) It is breakbeat based with a lovely bouncing bass line and it does something else with the pad sequence. They do a second mix called Pacific Break which leaves off the bass , may be that is some kind of DJ tool and enables mixing something with it ? There was a lot of these “Bones Breaks” knocking about so more likely that it fitted his format for those. Also included here is Justin Strauss ’s 4minute 36 second short edit of 101 ,which I can only think was for radio play ,it surfaces here for the first time.

808 State went out to New York for a concert at the New Music Seminar in July of 1990 , It was a Manchester Night with Hacienda DJ s and The Happy Mondays ,it also has Adamski on the poster ,honorary Mancunion for the evening , though I have no recollection of him playing. To be honest after a night out with the Happy Mondays, things were completely erased from the memory banks. I woke up asleep on a glass coffee table with Tom Richardson and Martin talking Klingon. There was a good review in the New York Times later that morning which was a relief. The thing that stuck in my head was seeing Dee Lite performing two brand new tracks 2 nights before also at
The Sound Factory -Groove is In The Heart and What Is Love ? We got a free copy on cassette in our NMS goodie bag . Martin appeared on a Panel at the seminar ,there was another panel hosted by Tony Wilson entitled “Wake Up America You're Dead“ I did nt witness these as I was record shopping at "Colony"in Time Square - shovelling up jazz.

We did a lot of meet and greet on that trip ,we got taken to lots of distributers ,radio shows , record stores and clubs . I wish I had taken notes . New York seemed an overwhelmingly friendly place when I was expecting something else.

Manhattan was still a bit scruffy at that point in a Kojak way. It was the height of summer and it smelt of hot garbage and dank river, The Empire State Building was on fire (it must be recorded somewhere? I m not making it up), We got to meet everyone at the Tommy Boy Offices which was on above a sports shop on First Avenue, quite claustrophobic, every square foot crammed with stock ,messy desks over flowing with activity, people talking down 3 trim phones at once tangled in curly leads. A memorable first trip I sat next to Limahl from Kajagoogoo on the flight back, chatty man !, Not shy at all !

Listen/hear.

01. Pacific 101 - Justin Strauss / Eric Kupper: 0:05:32
02. Pacific 212 - Justin Strauss / Eric Kupper: 0:06:49
03. Pacific 516 - Justin Strauss / Eric Kupper: 0:06:42
04. Pacific 718 - Musto & Bones: 0:05:46
05. Pacific 0101 (Remix Edit) - Justin Strauss / Eric Kupper: 0:04:20
06. Pacific Break - Musto & Bones: 0:03:10

Discography page.
markus
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by markus »

Pacific 98/Cübik 98

Graham:

The final batch of remastered singles from 808 State/ZTT is Pacific 98/Cübik 98

In 1998 we put together a greatest hits compilation celebrating a decade of 808 State under the numerological title of 808:88:98
The ZTT team of the day set about inviting some interested parties to remix any of the tracks from our collection.
A reflection of London at the time meant a number Drum & Bass remixes .Here we have Grooverider’s take on Pacific “Groove Jeep Mix”. People may have to be reminded that that genre had its roots in rave & breakbeat ,take a club like Rage in London ,I remember Goldie telling me how Cübik was a big tune at that club , - Grooverider would play a lot of techno at times . So it was a natural fit and an honour to have him on board.
Optical remixed ‘Only Rhyme” & Dillinja remixed Azura which I noticed popping up in Doc Scott sets in 2021 .
I was thrilled with the Monkey Mafia reworking of Cübik ,Jon Carter delivered an unexpected chubby dancehall stomper !
The riff does nt come in until 3.40 minutes introduced by a Mancunion “Aye Mate have you got that Tune that goes Egh Egh Egh Egh Ugh.. ,I don't know if he picked that up as urban myth -but I believe at Eastern Bloc Record shop that was a common way of requesting that track when it came out in 1990.
Victor Calderone ’s version of Cübik is stone cold four to the floor ,no nonsense New York floor filler . I know the Spin Masters swore by this one at the time . Its an epic 10.42 minutes ,but you also have the completist options of the “Not So Long” mix and the radio edit of his mix in this new package.
Victor Calderone from Brooklyn would seem to be quite a high end remixer for people like Madonna & Beyonce but Cübik was an early mix in his discography.
It appeared first on a U.S. 12 inch only ,not on Tommy Boy Records this time ,but on ZTT through Universal . It may be that ZTT were moving away from Warners around this period. It also appeared as a promo only 12 inch in the UK and in shorter form on The Only Rhyme That Bites 98 release a bit later on.
We've slotted in Farley & Heller’s “Fire Island “Remix of Bombadin which was also submitted for the The Only Rhyme That Bites 98 release. I remember this getting a great response on the DJ return sheets that used to chunder through the fax machine on a Monday morning.
Pacific 98 & Cübik 98 are essentially the arrangements we were playing in our live set in 1998.
They are both a bit more uptempo and breakbeat driven than the originals and they certainly bring back
flashbacks from all the gigs at the end of the millennium. That year I can remember the live band expanding to having Paddy Steer on Bass ,James Ford ,Colin Seddon or Myke Wilson on drums ,sometimes using two drummers .
Just the other night my synth repair mate was dropping off last months job and I dragged up an old Yamaha CS 50 out of the basement that has been faulty since someone gave it me at A1 repairs in the 90s. A chunky 60 kilogram beast of a keyboard.
It had all these airline stickers on it , do not drop etc . Tim was incredulous about the fact we would fly such items around back then , I would nt mind but i only used it on one tune (Relay) ,because after 15 minutes it would conk out .
1998 was proper Spinal Tap for us ,you know the bit where they go a bit jazz fusion?
The setlist was mostly unheard stuff from sessions we were doing at PWL studios in Manchester.
These tunes were later released on a compilation called State To State 2 ,A free CD that came with our DVD Compilation that same year called Optibuk. One of the airport stickers on the Yamaha is Heathrow to Istanbul .We played a massive rave in a public park there along with the Prodigy & Aphex Twin .In fact it was while staying in the same hotel that the initial discussions about Rephlex rereleasing Newbuild (808’s first record from 88 ) came about and was realised in 1999. Another gig by contrast was an big rave filmed by MTV for The Party Zone in Vigo (Northern Spain ) -No one came ! A ghost rave! There was actual real tumbleweed rolling through the site while a couple of aerialists floated across the sky suspended from hot air balloons . We played our spinal jazz fusion set with two drummers on the Friday , Im not sure if it was recorded ? I seem to remember Alex Paterson spent the night in jail and we had to hang around another 2 days as the 808 DJ s were also booked to do the Sunday . We took our babies and kids with us on that trip ,quite an entourage. Somebody lost a lot off money !
We did a couple of hometown gigs in 98 ,One at Heaton Park ,sponsored by Pepsi Max . But my favourite one was Depercussions in Castlefield ,this time we played the Roman Fort -under some railway arches - Much more of a family gathering ,where doing what we were doing felt correct and adventurous in front of a home crowd .Ten years earlier I used to walk around MCR and think about outdoor gigs inspired by what you would see in NY Hip Hop documentaries or in my case Sun Ra VHS tapes ,and you would look at car parks and railway arches and almost project a will to wash these urban spaces with music. It seemed like a far off dream in dreary 80s Manchester , But music can be a powerful force for change in a city . A decade later De Percussions Festival was Manchester at its best ,a street party on a large scale that reflected what had been going on in the clubs all year , Big names , up and coming acts all mingled with all age groups in the audience , I feel it is very important for young kids to get access and inspiration from their home City . We finished off 98 by playing Mega Dog at the Manchester Academy on New Years Eve with System 7 & Banco De Gaia. -So you can see that 808 covered a lot of bases back then , a lot of different scenes overlapped. The 90 s had flowed with an ever changing and charged musical energy . In that 10 years the world felt a bit more joined up .I like to think we played a part in that .It was messy and wholly un sensible but it was a music that was borderless and spoke globally . Thanks for listening, try and come to our gigs this autumn in the UK if you feel safe to do so. More stuff in the pipeline next month from 808 .

Listen/hear.

1: Cübik: 808:98: 04:43
2: Pacific: 808:98: 05:56
3: Pacific: Groove Jeep Mix: 08:22
4: Cübik: Monkey Mafia Remix: 06:40
5: Cübik: Victor Calderone Remix: 10:42
6: Bombadin: Fire Island Mix: 07:36
7: Pacific: 808:98 Edit : 04:13
8: Cübik: Victor Calderone: Not So Long Mix: 07:49
9: Cübik: Victor Calderone Radio Edit: 03:35

Discography page.

ZTT:

Take a fresh look at two 808 State anthems: Pacific and Cübik:

...with new-to-digital remixes from Grooverider and Monkey Mafia, and previously unreleased mixes from Victor Calderone on the nine-track 'single', Pacific808:98.Cübik98

This latest digital release from The Dream Department at Zang Tuum Tumb brings together the many and varied remixes from around the time of 808 State’s 10th anniversary releases and the 808:88:98 compilation.

As a result, now arriving on digital platforms for the first time we have 808's own 808:98 mix of Cübik and 809:98 Edit of Pacific. Grooverider delivers a Groove Jeep Mix of Pacific and we land the ferocious Monkey Mafia Remix of Cübik for all you paratroopers out there.

Alongside the Fire Island mix of Bombadin and Victor Calderone's 07:49 mix of Cübik are two previously unheard takes from the Calderone sessions: his full-length 10:42 mix and 3:35 Radio Edit.

Listen now:

1: Cübik: 808:98: 04:43
2: Pacific: 808:98: 05:56
3: Pacific: Groove Jeep Mix: 08:22
4: Cübik: Monkey Mafia Remix: 06:40
5: Cübik: Victor Calderone Remix: 10:42
6: Bombadin: Fire Island Mix: 07:36
7: Pacific: 808:98 Edit : 04:13
8: Cübik: Victor Calderone: Not So Long Mix: 07:49
9: Cübik: Victor Calderone Radio Edit: 03:35

Please stream and/or download this almost-final weekly digital archive deep dive from The Dream Department (Philip Marshall & Ian Peel) at Zang Tuum Tumb with our compliments, and complements. Thank you to Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road for all the audio remastering so far.
808 State will return.

…with ESP (The 808 State Effect).
markus
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by markus »

Out today, digitally:

MC Tunes - Voiceprint

Graham:

On paper a teaming up of a techno group and a speed rapper was not a direct route into the pop charts back in 1990,but in the eye of the storm of Madchester anything was possible !
Over the next 8 Fridays ZTT are uploading the MC Tunes Vs 808 State archive .
Many of the tracks that were previously only available on vinyl or cassette have been remastered
for digital platforms .We also found a few oddball mixes that were found in the vaults.
The series begins with VOICEPRINT -MC Tunes Vs. 808 State’s Greatest Bits
A primer compilation that throws you in at the deep end.

The Only Rhyme That Bites -Original Rap -This mix sounds similar to the hit single version from 1990 yet the drums are slightly different. I could not say for certain but I think it was the mix we finished at SARM East studios.
Before tweaking it at Sarm West to perfect this rather unobvious and ridiculously dense pop single . We should remember that Nicky Lockett AKA MC Tunes was indeed 19 and classed in his own set at this point ,We will go into more detail on the track next week ,but you‘ve not heard this version before.

Tunes Splits The Atom -Original Rap 7inch edit - Again Im unsure as to if this came out ,it sounds
like it has some extra samples compared to the original .May be it was intended to be the Japanese cassette B side or some such 90s pop format. A full set of Atoms to come.

Dance Yourself To Death -Dust Brothers Radio Edit .That is the Dust Brothers produced the Beastie Boys “Pauls Boutique” not The Dust Brothers who became The Chemical Brothers .I cant believe that this did nt come out back in 90.

The Only Rhyme That Bites - Optical Mix -Remixed by Optical in 1999 ,This low end mix had a club renaissance recently ,your earbuds are not enough !

My Own Worst Enemy was actually not with 808 State ,Trevor Horn had one of his guys drum up the music here , No chance of this making the daytime playlist. But it resonated with a lot of people. over the years.

Mancunian Blues - Kind of early form of trip hop , a moody and abstract night ride through the city.

Dance Your Self To Death Original 909 Mix - recorded at Spirit Studios Manchester in 1989
and first appeared on a German Techno compilation o Blackout Records that borrowed the same title .ZTT ’s Paul Morley spotted a performance of this track on BBC ’s Snub TV and the courtship began.

Pump -Fon Mix - An early mix of our 1995 reunion collaboration ,recorded at FON studios in Sheffield ,previously unreleased.

More - also recorded during 808 State’s Don Solaris sessions 1995 and a live favourite in those years.

Primary Rhyming -7inch mix -When Tunes got everyone in the neighbourhood on the record
More of that to come.

The Only Rhyme That Bites -The Worlds End Instrumental - A stripped down re record from 2013
designed to fit a particular scene in the movie “Worlds End”

01 MC Tunes, 808 State - The Only Rhyme That Bites (Original Rap) 0:04:59 *
02 MC Tunes, 808 State - Tunes Splits The Atom Original Rap (7" Edit) 0:03:14 *
03 MC Tunes, 808 State - Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Radio Edit - The Dust Brothers) 0:04:36 *
04 MC Tunes, 808 State - The Only Rhyme That Bites (Optical Remix - Optical) 0:06:25
05 MC Tunes, 808 State - Own Worst Enemy 0:03:45
06 MC Tunes, 808 State - Mancunian Blues 0:04:50
07 MC Tunes, 808 State - Dance Yourself To Death (Original 909 Mix) 0:04:58
08 808 State - Pump (FON Mix Edit - MC Tunes) 0:02:58 *
09 808 State - More (MC Tunes) 0:03:38
10 MC Tunes, 808 State - Primary Rhyming (7" Mix) 0:03:47
11 MC Tunes, 808 State - The Only Rhyme That Bites (The World's End Instrumental) *

* previously unreleased digitally
markus
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by markus »

Graham:

MC Tunes Vs 808 State -The Only Rhyme That Bites -ZTT singles collection. Out today on Digital Platforms.

If my memory serves me right we started writing ‘Only Rhyme as a new tune at Spirit Studios MCR for a possible TV appearance that was to be filmed at The Thunderdome in March 1989
I’m not sure but it might have been for Snub TV or Granada ,the filming was scrubbed but the gig kind of happened very loosely on one of the SpinMaster's regular Saturday night slots. I remember Martin bringing along one of those Steinberg headless bass guitars and I wrote the baseline based on a Magma riff that I could play .(replaced by A Roland D50 keyboard on the record) The drum patterns in my R8 were recycled many times in this period ,for instance I hear “The Only Rhyme” beat in other tracks such as Cubik and in a remix for The Shamen “Human Energy”. By using the “Electronic”Ram card it could sound like an 808 but with wider dynamics and swing ,really skippy ,but in some later versions of the track we employ the Simmons drum sound from the same sound card .We always ran the drum machine live to the mix so as to interject little trills and fills between the vocals. The Big Country sample came in on a later session and Im pretty sure it was one of Martins middle of the night ideas .He asked me if I owned a copy of this Western Film theme on vinyl ,I did but it was an MFP version ,We later replaced it with the OST version ,it involved a bit of cutting and jiggling to make it fit .(not necessarily in tune ) We may have attempted cutting it in off a turntable ,there are some other samples cut in by Daz on the ones and twos.Around this time we had got hold of a new synth called a Waldorf Microwave
,so thats playing the melody along with an EMU Proteus synth using the oscillators stacked in 7th s These sounds give it a dark Hollywood vibe .Just to Bernard Hermann it up a bit more we sampled the shower scene stabs from Psycho ,but they were so crackly that it sounded better emulated on the D50 .There is also some analogues squiggling on the Juno 106 synth.So it was sounding like a completed Techno track by the time MC Tunes bursted into the studio out of the rain looking for Martin. Let Me on it ! Let me try something ! Barked the Tasmanian Devil . Tunes always had his exercise book of rhymes on him .He had used this rap previously on a session I was involved in for Phil Kirby at the same studio some months earlier .Tunes was capable of a one take performance ,certainly for the early version ,I just remember him being like a live Francis Bacon painting , a steaming red blur in blue smoke ,. The Ugh Ugh s smelt of Spud U Like ,Clix machine soup and Bensons. The testosterone lingered in the basement for a couple of days.
A few months later and we are now signed to ZTT as 808 State and MC Tunes has his own separate deal with them too . Paul Morley was super keen on Dance Your Self To Death as the first single for Tunes .But I think it was easy to push that idea over in favour of Only Rhyme. Trevor Horn loved it , but could see that it needed something to make it work as a radio record .We worked with one of Trevor’s engineers Ren Swan (great name) to get it sounding a bit slicker. We re-recorded the whole thing at Sarm East Studios .This was Trevor Horns/Jill Sinclair’s first studio below a hairdressing salon in East London .
The standard kit out for an 1980s studio was an SSL desk ,racks of AMS reverbs and delays , posh compressors ,bring your own computer .
I believe some sessions for Bohemian Rhapsody and other Queen sessions were held in this humble abode . I remember we all shrieked as a Dickensian East End Rat appeared at Tune’s feet while he was re recording his rap ,he did nt notice ,it ran off. It was a long session finishing at around 6 am when we all ended up at the Brick Lane Bagel shop for the first time. It took a second session at Sarm West (the old Island Records studio near Portobello Rd) to get the finished article . Trevor sat in on the session for an hour but found our methods to be unfathomable ,what he did do was to edit our mix down to a radio friendly length .I think it was possibly his idea to put the prequel ‘The one s who brought you intro , but that also sounds like a Martin idea .
The Only Rhyme That Bites was eventually released at the end of May 1990 and charted at number 10 in the UK pop charts .
Here ZTT have gathered the 12 inch and 7 inch A & B sides together for the first time on digital platforms. Its an unique UK rap pop prog rave smash is it not ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg76n0B9kiE
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Graham:

MC Tunes Vs 808 State -Tunes Splits The Atom -ZTT singles collection. Out today on Digital Platforms.

This weeks Friday remaster from MC Tunes Vs 808 State goes back to 1990 and TUNES SPLITS THE ATOM.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4xkqynO0 ... tjnag&nd=1

Nicky Tunes was asking me last week how I can remember all these details about old recording sessions .Mostly it is because of my 80s Filo Fax the rest is like diving for that rubber brick in the deep end in your pyjamas .Looking back at April 1990 it s pages of studio dates with multiple projects in multiple studios .I ve located the birth of Tunes Splits The Atom to some early writing sessions in a rented house in Cheadle Hulme belonging to Revolution Studios .808 State still did nt have a base in early 1990 and usually wrote most of their material under pressure in expensive studios .It's a method that required a steady hand on the rudder .
The good ship 808 was like an oil tanker sailing up the Suez Canal piloted by the Keystone Cops
So the attempt at a writing session was a good idea .
All this youthful energy meant there was never any shortage of ideas .Driving around in Andy or Daz’s car back then The Stone Roses album was the permanent soundtrack ,It seemed an audacious idea to sample the baseline from I am The Resurrection at that point in time .I was sceptical as to weather to spend time pursuing that .But one of the lads got the OK off Mani directly and it was all sorted out through the right channels.
In MADchester at that point I actually lived a few doors up the street from Mani ,but being as we were all so busy ,we were ships in the night .Another neighbour was future author Jon Ronson who wrote for City Life at the time ,We all start somewhere.This was Rusholme ,the curry mile .The local night club was “The International “ a medium sized venue that was run by DJ Roger Eagle and Stone Roses manager Gareth Evans . MC Tunes also lived in the neighbourhood ,Filofax says Tunes’s Birthday Party ,Shoes stolen . Another entry is “burgled !”trainers taken -They could have taken my new Atari ! but shoe theft was big in the early 90s apparently.Martin Price gave me his old Travel Fox ,the most desired trainers of the day ,a generous gesture!.
April 1990 we are ensconced at Square One Studios in Bury ,probably the best studio in the Manchester area at that point ,The Stone Roses later bought the place and hardly used it.
We worked on Atom ,Olympic , a track called Euro which might have been In Yer Face plus a remix for Jon Hassel .All in 10 days .There is s recording session on 24th April at Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record the drums 6pm till 11pm .Atom has a live drum kit on the track played by Phil Kirby .Kirby lived in Rusholme too and had been in Biting Tongues with me for a number of years .He was currently riding high with his group Yargo .Phil was investing in drum machines and synths and was exploring hip hop ,so there are some sessions we did for Phil’s projects with MC Tunes and Raagman the year before .One got a re rerelease recently as “Two the Hardway" featuring Sugar Merchant. … So Phil as a drummer had hip hop sensibility .The Roses loop was a bit wonky to fit a machine to at the time. I think Tunes Splits The Atom is a great title but it's not referenced in the lyrics ,It does give
a nod to all things Mancunion as Rutherford's work at the Uni here later gave birth to the nuclear age . We should have gone to UMIST to do the cover shot ,but schedules dictated a Sunday afternoon session at the Labs of Holt Radium Institute .(The Holts Radium Institute was set up by Joseph Holst of Holts Brewery in Ancoats MCR to research cancer treatment in 1914 when Factory workers were frequently being diagnosed -Radium St in Ascots has something to do with this - My great Grandma ran The Crosskeys Pub on Radium St -the periodic number for Radium is 88) When I hear Tunes Splits The Atom I see the cover in my head ,its just as important as the music .Gary McClarnon from Mixmag took the photos ,The Graphics for all the MC Tunes /808 project was by … who went on to run the label
The video for Atom was put together by a production company called Swivel ,who had formed from the lighting crew at the Hacienda .There was the Dj Box and next door to that on the balcony was the lighting box ,which was always a popular hangout for the VIPs .Conveniently filmed in Rusholme
at an old BBC building /church warehouse that I thought was the old Top Of The Pops Studio
(Turns out that was on the same road but nearer the Welcome pub)Nicky brought his whole neighbourhood along ,it was important to get the relatives in the video back then , I seem to be carrying somebody’s baby -I could be wrong but I think its Andy’s nephew Oliver ? There is a psychedelic vibe to the video that reflects the hippiness of the track - It came out at the end of the summer of 90 and is almost a MaDchester Pop perfect artefact .Thus propelling it to the top 20 of the pop charts ahead of the album release at the end of September that year.

The “Zero Gravity Mix “ is an Instrumental mix of the single so you can rap along -The Roses baseline is fed through a Morley Wah Wah Pedal -The Rap version is a 7inch radio edit ,and the longer version was for the 12 inch and album .

The B side to Atom was an instrumental mix of Dance Your Self To Death ,a casual end of session dub from a session at Out Of The Blue Studios at the beginning of May 1990. Possibly remixed later in Mirage Studios in Oldham in the summer of 1990.Sounds like a supermarket sweep around Martin’s Eastern Bloc record store.
Im indebted to Nick King & Markus Arnolds excellent fan page @808state.com
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Graham:

MC Tunes Vs 808 State -Tunes Splits The Atom (The Creamatomic Alternative) -ZTT singles collection. Out today on Digital Platforms.

This weeks ZTT Archive nugget is MC Tunes Vs 808 State “The Creamatomic Alternative”.A set of 4 mixes based on “Tunes Splits The Atom” which never saw the light of day until this morning.

Ian Peel who has been sifting through tapes at ZTT for a good couple of decades always wanted to put them out ,Im pretty sure they were “overnight mixes’ i.e. work in progress and not finished for release . The Tapes from the following day were released as The Creamatomic / Cool Atom 12 inch single of September 1990 . In those times ZTT still played the chart game by issuing follow up remixes a week or two after the single entered the charts .It was a game of keepy uppy as the Warners team battled at retail to maintain or increase your chart position. As producers it was a challenge sometimes to do something worthy of the original song and time was tight ! We mostly spent our money in Northern studios as a matter of policy at 808 HQ . But in 1990 things were booming enough some weeks that everywhere was booked up ,so we ended up in ZTT 's studio complex SARM WEST in London.Probably one of the best studios in the world at that point and there for hard to book as well . They had at least 4 control rooms in the building.We set up in the Live Aid one and got moved to the upstairs one on day two ,which was nt ideal when you ve got a mix on the go. We would be working with SARM’s engineers which had its advantages ,but I remember personally feeling it was altering the music making by relinquishing the driving seat at the time.

From the engineers point of view I guess we might have been a lot to handle as a bunch of 5 rowdy northerners making it up on the fly. I think it was a Tunes/Martin Price idea to use “Sunshine Of Your Love” from Cream’s Disraeli Gears album as a device to ditch the Stone Roses bass line from the mix . MC Tunes and rock music always seemed like a natural pairing ,it was part of his musical DNA via his parents . This may be a family myth but he claims to have been conceived at the Stones in Park concert in 1969 ,it could stack up date wise ?

When I think of it now ,we plowed on without checking if we would be shut down by Cream’s publishers , but our publishing guy set about sorting that out almost immediately, I think he knew the right person though the old boys network . When I think of summer 1990 ,Cubik might have been our current style tune ,certainly in the USA .We were to re release Cubik hot on the heels of Tunes Splits the Atom in October 1990 ,so its odd that we sample the guitar off Cubik in Creamatomic ,therefor pre sampling ourselves.

Its also tickles me that in a parallel universe Im in a guitar dual with Clapton.

Aside from the main guitar riff which you can hear was sampled from a vinyl copy ,there is a bit Clapton wailing and some Jack Bruce humming .
I remember the sleeve /vinyl of Disraeli Gears being in the studio ,we would always need a Technics record deck with us at that point .Our sampler at this time was the Casio FZ1.more often than not we fed it from a plastic carrier bag of cassettes ,a lot of the crackling and hissing was dispatched by the Casio’s excellent filter ,but I can still hear certain patinas in the sound that have survived its journey through all these SSL desks and outboard equipment , I always felt that ‘Atom” had this Peter Blake collage feel and colour to it . A few years later seeing MC Tunes fronting the Dust Junkies live ,it channeled the same Rock/ Psyche DNA to great effect.

So to recap this weeks release we have Track one - Creamatomic Alternative where you can hear the evolution of the idea that would be Creamatomic ,yet where is that mix ?Well I haven't found the original tape or DAT tape ,not to say it's not in my house somewhere in the wrong box ,but its
not in ZTT s box either . We are hoping to find or the relevant parts at some point and put that together ,please bare with us. The live drums have been dropped from these mixes and replaced on track one by a TR909 /Roland R8 drum machine combo .The over use of swing & flam was an 808 trait that I quite like . The R8 provided TR808 tones which were often detuned to give a richer low end. There is a new bleep line in Cool Atom (tracks 3 &4) , the bleep machine of choice back then was a Roland SH09 mono synth .I m pretty sure we did nt re record Nicky’s rap ,but it is amazing how it swings to these different beats ,his rhythm was impeccable ,jazzy like a boxer !

I notice we've even bleeped out the swear words in this rough mix ,pre parental advisory stickers .

4:16 Tunes Splits The Atom (creamatomic Rap)
4:13 Tunes Splits The Atom (creamatomic instrumental)
3:27 Tunes Splits The Atom (cool atom Rap)
3:27 Tunes Splits The Atom (cool atom instrumental)
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Graham:

MC Tunes Vs 808 State -Primary Rhyming -ZTT singles collection. Out 28th October 2022 Digital Platforms.

Continuing with the ZTT Friday digital remasters ,the dog eat my homework last week so there are two this week .

First off PRIMARY RHYMING (released 26 th November 1990)

Primary Rhyming was the 3 rd single taken from MC Tune’s debut album “The North At It’s Heights” Rather than the usual” MC Tunes Vs 808 State “this single comes with the moniker “MC Tunes Presents “
It was a generous community minded move for Tunes to give over space on his album to up and coming talent from his neighbourhood.
The neighbourhood in question was a block of streets around to the south of Rusholme bordering Moss Side not far from Manchester City Centre, not far from Manchester City football ground at the time .1990 was the time of the inflatable banana craze on match days thousand of fans marching down the Curry Mile and terraced back streets ,extra jolly with giant plastic fruit. I think it's interesting that so much talent spilled out of this compact set of mixed housing .With in spitting distance of each other was A Guy Called Gerald ,The Ruthless Rap Assassins (including Kermit from Black Grape) and MC Tunes all of them still with active careers 30 odd years later.
Literally a street scene where dancing , rapping and party sound system culture thrived. Im not saying it was like FAME but there were some leg warmers still knocking about.(Oh god Ive just realised Im Bruno Martelli ! )
19 year old NickyLockett (MC Tunes) had been mentoring a couple of young MC s there was 12 year old Noel Cockshutt (DeWizz)and 15 year old Diane Duncan (The Microphoness). There is also Nicky’s old drum teacher “Carl “Dready” Thompson singing and MC ing on the track.I can remember Dready turning up with his drums to one of the sessions but it is Phil Kirby of Yargo who provides the beat here.I think we might have recorded the drums at Out Of The Blue Studios in Ancoats.Phil remembers rehearsals for the record in Yargo’s rehearsal room down the corridor at Out Of The Blue with Nicky as rap coach .That studio was based in an old Ice making factory on Blossom St ,it always smelt acrid from soldering as they made circuit boards for AMEK mixing desks in one of the rooms on the same floor.
I bet Nicky would have made a great drummer but I think he had to give it up when he had a collision on his bike with a double decker bus and ended up in hospital for a number of weeks .He is deaf in one ear and is still wearing a bit of Wilmslow Rd in his face to this day. The main session for this record was recorded at Mirage Studios in Oldham that was formerly Pennine Studios (Joy Division recorded there).Michael Haas was a Canadian sound engineer who we started working with for a number of years at this point .Im not sure if he came as the house engineer at the studio ,but there were also two female engineers who worked at Mirage who are also credited -Jenny Durcan & Becky Atkin. Previously to this record I had engineered all the 808 stuff , a role I very much enjoyed ,but each studio had its quirks back then and we were working at such a pace by this time.
Synth of the week was a newly acquired Roland JX8P https://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/jx8p.php I used the JX for Bass ,Organ and Pads on Primary Rhyming ,I pretty sure all those parts were written around the sample elements in the track as a balancing glue ,A string bass vibe in hip hop was in the air from tracks such as “All That Jazz 'by Stetsasonic. Yet it also has a reggae feel as suggested by Dready to place his styling on. It ‘s one of the lighter sunny tracks on “North” this may be because Microphones and DeWizz bring some Yang to Nicky’s Yin. Also least we forget that one of Eastern Blocs biggest sellers the year before we made this record was Six Feet High & Rising by De La Soul with its lighter psychedelic hues that soundtracked the summer of 1990. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSa9g0unn64
The Video for Primary Rhyming was filmed at The Apollo Theatre in Ardwick , It’s Manchester’s Hammersmith Odeon ,big stage velvet curtains ,follow spots .Beatlemania happened there .I remember going to see Paradise Hawaiian Style the Elvis film there when I was 7 ,very exciting.
60 years of music history there and counting.
Nicky had reached Busby Berkley levels of street choreography for this video which was once again shot by ”Swivel” the video production people who lived in the Hacienda lighting box.
Ajax ,Tune’s faithful Jack Russell terrier makes another appearance and is also upfront on the record sleeve .That dog went everywhere with Tunes ,I remember Nicky cycling in from Rochdale (14 miles) onetime with Ajax running alongside with his little legs ,a sweaty bullet of a dog, Superstar !
Everyone has an inner superstar ,Nicky was good at summoning it out ,there is always a baby being held up to the camera in these videos ,they are family portraits.
Dready went on to work with Tunes on the next album with” Five Minutes In Paradise” and a remix
of “Another Day” He was also a successful session musician in London before he passed away.
Noel met a tragic early death when he was shot at the age of 22 . There s a lot of light and shade in this debut album of MC Tunes, This is the light and they all shine on !
An extra track is added to this digital bundle “Dub At Its Heights” was the albums overture in reverse and elements of Primary Rhyming can be found floating in the wreckage.

01 MC Tunes versus 808 State - Primary Rhyming (7" Mix) 03:47
02 MC Tunes versus 808 State - Primary Rhyming (Extended Mix) 04:31
03 MC Tunes versus 808 State - Primary Rhyming (Instrumental Mix) 03:34
04 MC Tunes versus 808 State - Dub At Its Heights 01:40
nickking
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Re: ZTT Remastered Singles

Post by nickking »

Graham:

MC Tunes - Dance Yourself To Death (The Dust Brother Remixes) -ZTT singles collection. Out today on Digital Platforms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awVUL0BejDw
Not much to say on this release other than it’s a quality remix by the New York Production team
who brought you The Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Brothers
The hook up is a bit of a mystery to me .
It is possible that it came about from our licensing deal with Tommy Boy Records and trans atlantic conversations there. Martin or Ron might have had the idea or someone at ZTT
I personally was n’t aware it had been done at the time. Talking to Nicky he wanted to release this as the first single of his second album.But because Dance Your Self To Death was on the North At It’s Heights that would seem incongruous to the record company
The version on North At Its Heights that 808 did is n't the best version in my opinion.I prefer the early 1989 version it has more focus ,but the Dust Brothers version I bow down to ,it grooves and it is joyful!
As I have pointed out before the rap remains the same in all versions,the changing musical surround emphasises how musical a rapper Tunes is.
We have emptied the production DAT tape here ,so we have the Club Mix with the full rap.Secondly there is an instrumental .
Track 3 is a TV mix which was often edited down to be shorter and with support parts if you were doing a live vocal on a TV show .Then TRack 4 The Versamental ,some variation that Im not sure how different it is but you might as well have it.
The Dust Bros mix never saw the light of day until 2011 when it was included on the Japanese deluxe edition of North At Its Heights .
Im not sure where Nicky got the inspiration for the title from ,may be this
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/202 ... s-to-death

7 Digital: https://uk.7digital.com/artist/mc-tunes ... s-24903845

Qobuz: https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/dance ... bnzku76y9a

01 MC Tunes - Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Club Mix) 5:12
02 MC Tunes - Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Club Mix Instrumental) 5:23
03 MC Tunes - Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Instrumental) 4:38
04 MC Tunes - Dance Yourself To Death (Dust Brothers Versamental) 5:16
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