Running Back, the German dance label headed up by DJ Gerd Janson, re-issue one of the first tracks I ever worked on today, 34 years on from its original release in 1984.
Tag Archives | UK Electro
Re-Edit Culture – A Potted History Of The DJ Manipulator
Back in 1966, The Beatles’ record producer, George Martin, executed my favourite singular edit of all time. John Lennon had been working on the now iconic ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ – he’d recorded 2 versions, and was faced with the dilemma of wanting to use the first section of one recording, but take the rest of the track from a completely different and more progressive version. His comment to George Martin, when the producer pointed out the difficulties of matching pitch and tempo, was ‘you can fix it’. The fixed version is the definitive one that we all know, two recordings perfectly merged together by one decisive splice. You can hear it, if you listen carefully, at just before the minute mark, on ‘going to’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UQK-UcRezEÂ
Greg Wilson Versions 2005-2013
I’ve been giving the studio computer a bit of a spring clean, sorting everything into the correct folders and generally getting myself better organised. Given that I’ve entered a new phase, as far as remixing is concerned, partnering up with Derek Kaye nowadays, I think this is a good time to clear the decks and make the work I did between 2005-2013 available to stream via SoundCloud as a complete collection – 40 tracks in all.
Masters Of The Airwaves
I want to give you a heads up on a new book that focuses on the evolution of black music radio in London during the ’80s. ‘Masters Of The Airwaves – The Rise And Rise Of Underground Radio’ is the labour of love of 2 influential figures from the period, Dave VJ and Lindsay Wesker. The book is presented as a series of interviews with the great and the good of London’s pirate and specialist radio back in the day (plus a few Northern exceptions) .
Schooled In The Classics – Press Release
2013 sees Greg Wilson taking his first steps back into record production, starting off with Schooled In The Classics, a series of groove based dance tunes put together to play out at his gigs, the initial tracks being first road tested in Chicago and New York last year to a great response. Greg now plans to issue 8 Schooled In The Classics tracks this year, both digitally and via 4 limited edition 180g vinyl releases. The first 2 tracks in the series, ‘12-Turn-13’ and ‘Blue Angel’, are issued this week.
Confessions Of A Teenage DJ
It’s 2013 and Coldcut duo Jonathan More and Matt Black are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their Solid Steel radio show. To mark this milestone, a number of selectors have been invited to contribute a mix to the programme, its presenters choosing various artists and DJs they feel have had a significant presence at some point during the last 25 years. I regard it as a big compliment to be one of those approached, so was more than happy to oblige, the only brief being that they wanted us to weigh in with something that sits outside of that for which we’re generally known, which suited me fine – it was just a case of what?
Electrofunkroots Revitalized
You don’t know how happy I am to be able to tell you that, after months and months of chipping away, the new redesigned revitalized Electrofunkroots website is now live and kicking, having undergone a complete overhaul, with loads of new content added. Full menu here:
http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/index.php/sitemap/
Remix, Cut ‘n’ Paste, Mash-Up and Edit
As I navigated the winding country lanes on my way to the M5 from Minehead, where I’d been playing the Sunday night 1.00am-3.00am closing slot / graveyard shift at the inaugural ‘House Of Fun’ weekender, I was pleased to discover that there was a programme on the radio about the JFK assassination 48 years ago in 1963. Always a subject of fascination, this would help me whittle away half an hour of journey time as I weaved onwards towards the motorway.
Turntable Edits
I’ve just uploaded three previously unavailable ‘turntable edits’ (as I called them at the time), which can now be streamed at my MixCloud page. Back when I did them in 1984, their original purpose was to help me in my forlorn quest to make a breakthrough into remixing, but they were also played on Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio during Timmy Mallett’s award winning ‘Timmy On The Tranny’ shows, which hit the bullseye with the teenage audience they were aimed at.
Catch The Beat
A great new book documenting the London based dance publication Soul Underground is now available via DJ History. ‘Catch The Beat’ spans the pivotal years 1987-1991, as UK dance culture was breaking out of its previously specialist confines and coming right into mainstream focus.
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