Another fortnight has passed, so another Pipe is due.

And here it is.

There is quite a lot in it this time and it has a bit of an 80's slant (again).

What? You complaining? I'll cut you up like a Cockney Nutjob.

( This Issue Of The Pipe Was Restoked On The 2nd Of August )

Sorry about that. I didn't mean to threaten you. Here, cool down with this.

Those two Boosh tracks are taken from the Save Darkplace fan site.

There's plenty of Darkplace media on there and other bits and bobs, so go check it out and sign the petition to ensure C4 commision another series of this fine comedy show.

So what have I been listening to over the past couple of weeks?

Well...

Chikinki "Ether Radio (Fake ID Remix)
Lionel Vinyl - "Your Own Personal Rachel"

I'm aswell getting these out of the way first, by now you should need no introduction to Lionel / Fake ID / Gloomybear / Geoff Carpet or whatever he is calling himself this week.

First up is another storming Fake ID mix of a Chikinki song. His other remix of their "Assassinator 13" is a must have, so check out the Fake ID site for that one. His "Ether Radio" mix is a buzzing, frenetic electro rework.

Apparently, there is a version of "Ether Radio" that he has mixed with Britney's "Toxic" but for some reason, it can't be unleashed yet...

The orginal "Ether Radio" track can be heard on Chikinki's rather good debut album "Lick Your Ticket".

Now its the turn of Lionel Vinyl again with some fine bootleg action of the new Rachel Stevens track "Some Girls" with Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". And bloody great it is too.

Chikinki - "Ether Radio (Fake ID Remix)"
Lionel Vinyl - "Your Own Personal Rachel"
Fake ID Site
Chikinki Site

DJ Earworm - "Policy Of Sweet Dreams"

DJ Earworm is another bootlegger who I have mentioned a few times in the past, You may remember his smart PJ Harvey / Human League / Miss Kitten mash from the last Pipe. He has a bit of an 80's fixation. But that is by no means a bad thing. It's a good thing.

To tie in with the Depeche Mode boot above, here is Earworm's bootleg of Depeche Mode's "Policy Of Truth" with the Eurythmics track "Sweet Dreams".

Be sure to check out his site as there are 2 other great Depeche Mode boots up there. One with Goldfrapp and the other with The Crystal Method.

DJ Earworm - "Policy Of Sweet Dreams"
DJ Earworm's Site

The Police - "Walking On The Moon (Jools MF Mix)"
DJ Prince - "Pump Up The Volume (Lesson 7)"
The Postal Service - "Against All Odds"
Lali Puna - "Together In Electric Dreams"

Ok, I promise, this is the last (for this issue anyway) of the 80's influenced tracks.

First up, a spaced out and dubby total rejig of The Police's classic "Walking On The Moon". It sounds strange at first as Jools MF has played with Sting's vocals to wrap them around this brand new backing. Don't expect to sing along to it first time around as the track reveals itself to be more mood based and not song based. Its on it's 2nd and 3rd listen that you really start to appreciate this head nodding groove.

Norway's DJ Prince started a Pump Up The Volume Challenge Thread over on GYBO a couple of weeks back after he managed to track down and compile the vast majority of samples that made up this classic 1987 UK dance record by M/A/R/R/S. Only a few people have taken him up on the challenge so far and his version for the challenge is going to take some beating. Comprising of the main track he also manages to cram in around 80 more samples. Cheekily subtitled "Lesson 7", this is a nice nod to the legendary "Lesson" series that was laid down back in 1983 by the sample and cut up happy Steinski & Double Dee.

If you fancy taking up the challenge then click on the above link for details.

Now for a couple of cover versions of famous 80's tracks...

The Postal Service's album "Give Up" was one of my highlights of last year. A glorious collection of hyper electronic tracks with the sweetest and catchiest sing along songs I had heard in a long time. Whilst browsing around the Stereogum blog this week, I stumbled across their cover of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds". I couldn't download it fast enough. Initially I was expecting more in the fast style of "Give Up" but was then pleasantly surprised to find that they had kept the song to its original tempo, but stripped it right back to some minimal beats, clicks and an acoustic guitar. Very nice it is too.

"Together In Electric Dreams" was a huge hit for Georgio Moroder and the Human League's Phil Oakey way back in 1984. This cover version by the German experimental electro pop group Lali Puna sees the track, like above, being stripped down to a very minimal electronic backing and instead of singing the song it is gently spoken by the bands Valerie Trebeljahr. It is a thing of beauty.

It's taken from the 2000 trinute album "Reproductions : Songs Of The Human League" that seems to have slipped under my radar and which I will now be hunting for...

This file is hosted over on the Epitonic Site.

The Police - "Walking On The Moon (JoolsMF Remix)"
DJ Prince - "Pump Up The Volume (Lesson 7)"
The Postal Service - "Against All Odds"
Lali Puna - "Together In Electric Dreams"
JoolsMF's Site
DJ Prince's Site

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - "Trouble"

And whilst posting about cover versions, I'm aswell pointing you in the direction of the Copy, Right? Blog where they have early 90's indie faves Jimbob and Fruitbat covering the bubblegum pop of those other 90's chancers Shampoo. If you are aware of the Carter USM sound, then you'll be able to guess exactly how this one is going to sound...

Carter USM - "Trouble"

Mark J - "3000 Scrubs"

Want more guitars? Then download this. Oh, and it's, erm, (cough), Busted and their "Year 3000" track with the TLC "No Scribs" 'pella over the top. And I'm ashamed to say it, but I love this.

I don't know anything about the guy behind it, but the track is featuring just now on Q's Mix Week.

Mark J - "3000 Scrubs"

DJ Scenius - "Wordplay"

Another 'legger who I'm not all that clued up about, but over the past few weeks he has delivered a couple of tracks over on GYBO, one featuring the American Beauty theme and this cracker here, "Wordplay". Its quite short and is not unlike a Mr Scruff track (all shuffling hip hop beats and a lovely wonky trumpet sample) and has Scenius himself doing a spoken word / poetry skit over the top.

DJ Scenius - "Wordplay"

Air - "Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Remix)"

The Whistle Track! Here this gem of a record from Air's "Talkie Walkie" album gets a hip hop remix by Mark Ronson. Ronson, who had a hit last year with "Ooh Wee", speeds up the track a touch, adds an old skool hip hop break and lets a rapper loose over the top. Brilliant stuff. And the whistling it still in there! Join in...

File hosted over on the excellent Fluxblog site.

Air - "Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Mix)"

Jimmy The Flid

Notorious Forum Newbie Baiter, Ranter, Parent Tormentor and good friend of mine has finally dumped the sounds he hears in his head onto MP3.

And folks, it's not just his arms that are short...

Below are 3 of Jimmy's mini tracks. Heavily influenced by Coldcut's long forgotten "Tone Tales For Tomorrow Too" mix (up there with the infamous "Journey's By DJ" CD) this ambient, woozy and sample heavy album seems to have rubbed off on him big time. His tracks may be short, but they seem to quickly drag you into this off kilter atmosphere that he creates by using tiny bits from other peoples tracks. They seem to be more like an audio collage as opposed to an actual tune.

It's hard to review the tracks as they are so short. Just download them and count the days until he links all the tracks he has been promising together to form one strange but hypnotic mix.

Jimmy The Flid - "All By Yourself 2"
Jimmy The Flid - "Chemfraiche"
Jimmy The Flid - "Scary Yanks"

*** UPDATE ***

When The Pipe got published at the end of last week, 2 of the forum members dropped me a note to inform me they had tracks ready for the next one. As these tracks are both good it's worth my while adding them to this issue instead of having them sitting on my hardrive for a fortnight and you being deprived of them.

Electroretro - Pump Plastic

As mentioned above in the DJ Prince section, there is a challenge to remix M/A/R/R/S' seminal "Pump Up The Volume" track. Well up to the plate stepped our resident dirty dancing stormtrooper, Electroretro.

Taking the samples provided he has wrapped them around the minimal acid techno of Plastikman's "Plasticscene". The beat is methodical and heavy and wait till the 2 minute mark for the 303's to start bubbling away in fine Plastikman fashion. Another great Electroretro track.

Electroretro - "Pump Plastic"

Sie - "Blue Whale"

It's amazing what a new PC can do... Sie, recently got a new PC as his old one was creaking under the weight of this musical productions. So armed to the teeth with more processing power he set about knocking up this new track.

At first I thought he had gone all Moroder on me what with the bassline sounding quite similar to the one on Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", but that was soon forgotten about once the main riff kicked in around the 1.30 mark. As with Sie's last track the production has many layers to it, so if you've not got decent PC speakers, rip this to CD and play loud a couple of times on your stereo. The more you listen the more you discover. He's probably best trying to describe what it sounds like as if I say it is Trance he may be offended. Though saying that, to my ears, it does sound like trance, but trance without the cliches. Stunning stuff.

"Sie - Blue Whale (original mix)"

Well, I think that's enough to be wrapping your lugs around for another couple of weeks.

Again, I hope you enjoy the selections and please feel free to discuss them over on the Forum.

Cheers,
Budgie

[ if anyone does not want me linking to their files, then please let me know via the forum and I shall remove the link. ]

Ever wished that Damon Albarn and Co. would get a right ole booting?

Well fret no more because Blur have just been given a right old going over.

Come see...

Parkspliced

You may remember a few issues back I mentioned the bootleg remake of The Clash's "London Calling" by the members of the Get Your Bootleg On forum. Well, after that was deemed a success they then turned their collective hand to Blur's "Parklife" album.

The fruits of their labour are now online.

It's never going to be an easy task to rework such a definitive album, that was made apparent with The Clash rework, and this is no exception. Listening to this has only made me dig out the original and appreciate again just how good an album it was / is.

Now, I'm not having a go at the guys behind the Blur rework and it has nothing to do with the old "some things are best left alone" argument as I am always excited to see how these guys can re-interpret such classic tracks. It's just that on a project like this there are always going to be tracks that just stand head and shoulders above the rest and the tracks that you really want to work are not always the ones that do.

So what tracks work? Well, for me, Gameover's drum and bass style rework of "End Of A Century" is great, Go Home Productions take on "London Loves" gets the big thumbs up from me (always good to hear some XTC being sampled), Fake ID turns in a headfucking hard, glitchy house rework of "Trouble In The Message Centre" and Dunproofin & MixMasterMac's "Is This A Bootleg?", which takes on "This Is A Low", is absolutely sublime.

As so many people showed interest in doing tracks for this project, they decided to expand it beyond the "Parklife" album and include reworks of the B-sides from the singles from it. This is where 2 of the best tracks reside. Lenlow spices up "Peter Panic", from the "Girls And Boys" single, by adding the Bob James "Mardis Gras" break and samples from a version of Prokofiev's "Peter And The Wolf". And Faultside reworks "Threadneedle Street", from the "To The End" single, with a dash of Wham's "Last Christmas". It has to be heard to be believed.

Like "London Booted", the tracks are available to download but the co-ordinators of the project would like you to make a donation to one of their chosen Charities (Oxfam, Amnesty International & Cancer Research).

So pop over, spend a few quid on a good cause and then download away.

Parkspliced Site

The Moldy Peaches - "Who's Got The Crack? (Dsico's Edit)"

I've mentioned Dsico on here before, I linked to his electro take on Sonic Youth's "100%" waaay back on the first issue. Well, after rummaging about on his site I stumbled across this version of The Moldy Peaches track "Who's Got The Crack?". I was expecting this to be one of Dsico's usual vocoder reworkings but was pleasantly surprised to hear that it wasn't. As the original is so lo-fi and only really features a guitar and some drums on the chorus, Dsico pads the tune out with a beat, a bassline and some electronic shennanigans and hey presto! you can now dance to it whilst singing along to the bizarre lyrics ("its hard to be a garbage man / when a sailor's stole your glove..." and the shouty and catchy chorus.

MP3
Dsico's Site

Kelis - "Trick Me (Phalanxx Mix)"
Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out (Phalanxx Mix)"

2 reworks from Manny Phalanxx.

There have been quite a few Kelis "Trick Me" boots about recently, so much so that it's getting a bit boring hearing the acapella turn up over the top of many a tune. So it is refreshing to hear that Phalanxx has taken Kelis' voice and built a whole new track around it. The beat is stunning (it almost sounds like a live drummer) and a buzzing bassline are added to beef the track up. Nice and dark.

The Franz Ferdinand one is a harder affair and miles better than Daft Punk's recent and poor remix of "Take Me Out". The vocals are chopped up and the beat is a fast rolling break. It's good to hear a fresh take on the track as it's getting a bit overplayed now.

MP3
MP3
Manny Phalanxx' Site

Vector Warrior - "It Will Be A Dark Day In Hell"
Vector Warrior - "Crystals"
Vector Warrior Vs New Order "Crystals (MixMasterMac Mix)"

The return of The Vector Warrior.

Again, this electronic wizard comes up with the goods and why the hell he hasn't been snapped up by Warp yet is beyond me.

First up is "It Will Be A Dark Day In Hell". A slow, chimey Boards Of Canada style track. A beautiful clash of both light and dark moods with stunning subtle drum and percussion programming.

"Crystals" is the thumper of the two. Starting with the sound of rain, then in comes the Orbital-esque main riff and then it kicks off with its Aphex Twin style glitchy drums. A corker of an uplifting track. This will sound amazing on a big sound system.

MixMasterMac takes "Crystals" and goes the bootleg root and tweaks New Order's "Crystal" track over the top. It works, but personally the original version of the Vector Warrior track is the one for me.

MixMasterMac is a guy who I have been listening to for some while now. A great musician who occassionaly makes bootlegs by taking the acapella's and then sitting down with his guitar and reworking the tracks and then recording them. One of my all time favourites of his is a slow motion almost acoustic version of The Trammps legendary disco track "Disco Inferno". A Classic.

MP3
MP3
MP3
Vector Warrior Site
MixMasterMac's Site

DJ Earworm - "The Night Of Kitten's Messy Dream"

Hmm, two minds about this one. I can hear some slight chord and vocal clashes in this but for some reason I keep going back to it and the more I play it, the more I love it.

The idea of using the following artists in one track is a brave one. The main track is P J Harvey's and Thom Yorke's duet "This Mess We're In" then wrapped all around it are Goldenboy & Miss Kitten's "Rippin Kittin", The Human League's "Things That Dreams Are Made Of" and Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night".

Give it a try and see what you think...

MP3
DJ Earworm's Site

GloomyBear - "Kickin' Sunshine"

I don't know much about Gloomybear (I have an incling it has something to do with Lionel Vinyl as the track is hosted on his site and it's not as if he hasn't used a different name before - Fake ID and Geoff Carpet being other alter ego's) but who cares if it is him or not as this is a corker of a big hands in the air summer anthem. It sounds like a straight A + B bootleg featuring Richard F's housey "Let The Sunshine Through" and Simple Minds "Alive And Kicking".

Go on, cheer yourself up from the pish weather and listen to this.

MP3

Well another Pipe smoked.

Hope you enjoy the selections.

Feel free to have a blether about them in the Forum.

Budgie.

[ if anyone does not want me to link to their files, then let me know via the forum and I shall remove the link. ta. ]