HEXSTATIC – PICK’N'MIX (SANCTUARY)
May 16th, 2006 by rui
What would you put on your All-Time Best Ever Party Compilation? For most, I’d imagine it’d break down thusly:
(1) a whole heap of the big tunes that set your hormones racing when you were a young ‘un.
(2) a few numbers that your groovy uncle/aunt/older brother/sister turned you onto.
(3) some bits of more recent bizzle that have helped you to keep the faith in the face of imminent world takeover by Daniel Powter.
(4) a couple of humorous interludes to make the assemblage giggle. Ladies and Gentleman, Pick’n'Mix, aka Robin and Stuart’s Party Tape.
Robin and Stuart being Hexstatic, the mix is driven by breakbeats. This doesn’t mean Fabric main room “Everybody Get Those Hands In The Air!” Nu-Acid Breaks, but breakbeats in the original sense of Funk and Hip-Hop, with a capital F and two capital Hs. Of course, you’re more than welcome to Get Those Hands In The Air if you so wish.
There’s plenty of tuneage you’ll recognise – Melle Mel’s White Lines for one, and terrace favourite The Liquidator from the Harry J Allstars for another. But there’s also plenty that’s more obscure. Let The Good Times Roll by RJD2 is a dub-hop monster, and Melle Mel shows up again on Steinski’s remix of Freestyle, a gem.
Hexstatic’s new mix of their own Pulse is pretty hot, and there’s a wicked cover of Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) from the Pioneers, a Jamaican vocal group who tuned right into the skinhead reggae-soul crossover by doing most of their recording in sunny Willesden.
As ever, “different strokes for different folks” will occasionally apply.
Unless you’re Robin &/or Stuart, you may find that not every single tune
drives you wild. For instance, the sleevenotes tell me that We Got The Funk by Positive Force is “the ultimate floor-filling, party-calling … soaraway soul boy anthem”. In my ignorance, I’m expecting something along the lines of A Town Called Malice. What I hear is another slab of funk (well I suppose I should have expected it given the title of the track) and it doesn’t squeeze my personal lemon. Mind you, as the liquorice-themed sleeve of the package implies, it takes all sorts.
The mixing ranges from the simplest cut to the most intricate long overlay, and all points between, but always serving the boys’ philosophy that “Juxtaposition’s The Word”. Hence mild-mannered janitor Mr Scruff gets roughed up by the very rude JuJu and Bloody Moon yelling Ahhhhhh Punch You In The Face. Aforementioned coke-a-thon White Lines is punctuated by (all too brief) snippets of Dillinger’s Cocaine, while judicious use of delay elects Dick Emery (no less!) the new spokesperson of the Hexstatic Fan Club. And Hot Butter by Popcorn does, as promised, blend rather nicely into The Kinks’ You Really Got Me. Now there’s a sentence I never for one moment imagined i would ever write.
A technical note: a very wise and knowledgeable geek of my acquaintance tells me that this product contains “mad wow and flutter”. This, as far as I understand it, is a most atmospheric/irritating* (*delete as applicable) side-effect of using old and slightly warped vinyl. I don’t think it’ll upset you too much.
So there you have it, a classy house party mix from two bona fide music nuts. And in the proper house party tradition, it only remains to approach the DJs with a drunken glint in my one good eye, and a request. Ere mate… MATE! Mmmmmmy mmmmmate… love what yer doin, love it… LOVE IT!!… ere mate… mate… you got Town Called Malice?
Johnny Clash
Pick’n'Mix by Hexstatic is out now on Sanctuary.
Hexstatic play a live set a Cargo, on 1st June.
