Websites of interest

• www.beingcharliekaufman.com
  Unofficial website with a glimpse into the mind(s) of the wonderful screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.
• www.brokenbeatradio.com
  Broken beats online radio website, including archive of King Britt’s college radio shows.
• www.deephousepage.com
  We’re not worthy!
• www.kingbritt.com
  News on the Philly beat-meister. He frequently posts on the forums page and has his feet firmly on the ground.
• www.littledetroit.net
  All things Detroit and beyond…
• www.nuwaveradio.co.uk
  Excellent on-line radio-shows. Frequently updated and maintained by Somatik, one of the many Dollis Hill crew who’s shows feature here.
• www.okayplayer.com
  Inside view of hip-hop with the Roots and co.
• www.pocketcalculatorshow.com
  You know what you can do with your i-pod mate. This is where music on the move began…
• www.reinforcedrecords.co.uk
  All things start at Dollis Hill, home of 4 hero and many more…
• www.superfuture.com
  Worldwide shopping.
• www.truly-madly.net
  One man’s journey towards a deeper world.
• www.turntablelab.com
  Fantastic mail-order site for a variety of beats and bobs, clothing, equipment and design-work.
• www.waxpoetics.com
  The quarterly bible for beat-diggers. Cover-to-cover reading every time.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 220
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Deck set-ups thru the years

1 December 2008 | Page views: 219
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Richy Pitch interview

(Originally published in April 2005)

Known for his involvement with London’s long running and monumentally popular “Scratch” hip-hop night, which comes highly recommended and with all the trimmings; recent and upcoming guests include the legendary DJ Cash Money, Pete Rock, Roots Manuva and one of my all time favourites, Big Daddy Kane. His website illustrates his friendly and colourful design projects and his immersion in teaching. Having fully paid his dues to hip-hop, it’s musical, social and cultural strands, his cv of tracks stands strong; the Live At Home LP appearing on the American independent hip-hop label Seven Heads and London’s Above The Clouds Recordings.

His remixes include workings of Busta Rhymes’ Dangerous, A Tribe Called Quest’s Stressed Out and Sunshine Anderson’s Heard It All Before. Work has included pairings with Apani B, The Nextmens’ Dom Search, Marcia Escoffrey and J-Live. Look a bit deeper and you’ll see he has created dancehall sevens (Collect on Scenario Records) and jazz numbers (Quasimodo on Kwerk) to boot. So, as hip-hop tightens it grip on the globe, and the information uber highway brings us closer and closer, it is so encouraging to see British artists like Richy Pitch working with such talents who clearly come from all corners of the musical and geographical globe.

It was a chance encounter with one such meld of styles that brought me to meet Richy in that I was spending yet another lunchbreak between Soho’s various record shops successfully managing to keep my spending to a bare minimum, when his version of the legendary club romp “Walking On Sunshine” by Rockers Revenge drifted over the speakers. I asked the lovely girl in Sounds Of The Universe what the record was and was quickly informed “oh, Richy Pitch? ” I mumbled to myself, knowing my money would shortly be leaving my wallet but not knowing he was stood about three feet away from me in the shop at the time. I happily paid the good man directly for said track and told him to keep up the good work. Result.

CK: I gather you have been into all sorts of beats since way back when, hip-hop being the best documented of all of your passions. What was your first set-up like? Did you get the real deal Technics 1200’s from the word go or did you learn the trade on another source?

RP: Yeah, I bought a pair in 1989, but I started DJ’ing on Cloud 9’s nothing to brag about there, these were like school disco decks!!! But you could still change the pitch so you could practice beat mixes even though the belts on the decks weren’t direct drive.

CK: What about your first studio set-up? When did you start crafting beats together?

RP: First studio set up was an Amiga computer, and octamed and 8 bit recorder/sequencer, it got me into recording loops.

CK: I thought your version of “Walking On Sunshine” breathed new life into the Rockers Revenge tune, a track I thought until then had been played to death; how did your new version come about? Is it an old favourite of yours?

RP: My friend Cyril McCammon was heavily involved in this production, he was one of the first artists to have an LP out with Soul Jazz and has played with all sorts of peeps from Don Blackman to All Saints. He had an accapella and so we got to work on a new idea for it, giving it a more downtempo soulful swing to it. It’s definitely an old favourite of mine written by Eddy Grant, I met his daughter the other day and told her about it.

CK: On the flip is your version of “Dangerous” by Busta Rhymes; do you know if your version ever reached his ears and what he made of it?

RP: Well we’ve just put it out so I doubt he’s heard it, but it’d be very cool if he heard it. Busta is one of my all time favourite MC’s.

CK: Would you try out your own exclusives in front of the Scratch crowd?

RP: Absolutely, i’ve played the Busta track plenty of times at Scratch.

CK: I always get a buzz when I hear that artists from the UK do well in The States, be it hitting the charts there or simply getting recognition on the musical scene; e.g. I love the fact the King Britt name-checks the likes of Dego on a regular basis or that drum and bass finally made it on the club circuit over there (albeit on a relatively small scale). I read the Seven Heads mention in the magnificent Wax Poetics publication and see that your “Live At Home” long player gets great reviews across the board over there, but have you noticed a greater following of late from that side of the Atlantic?

RP: Well I still have plenty of contact with the US but most of my recent projects have been on UK labels, so they get to find out less about me at the moment. Live At Home was a great building block for me and set me up as a producer. Seven Heads are a wicked label but they have changed quite a bit since I released my music with them.

CK: How about Japan? I know how those guys can often have their ear closer to the ground than most beat-diggers?

RP: Yeah I get love from Japan too, they have put my stuff out and I’ve remixed for people out there, still haven’t managed to get out there though.

CK: My favourite track of yours is probably “Don’t You” on the “Green Lanes EP”, featuring Marcia Escoffrey which I play constantly. It’s something I wouldn’t know what genre it belongs to, not that that matters of course… Are the lyrics something you wrote with Marcia in mind?

RP: Yeah lots of people like that track, we wrote it together, we started with Marcia improvising over the music then we refined it to a verse-chorus idea and got Sean in to do some trumpet bits, it turned out pretty good…a nice piece of British Soul.

CK: Please book-end your record collection; first tune you bought and last one out of the cellophane?

RP: First lp was Cheap Thrills by Planet Patrol, first tape was Blondie Plastic Letters. Last vinyl I bought was a Dave Brubeck lp Impressions of Japan for sampling purposes.

CK: I think it was Mike D from the Beastie Boys who pointed out that he took offence to term record ‘collector’ in that it implied it was someone who buys records purely because of the value it holds rather than a lover of the music; do you agree? (what’s the record you own that means the most to you?)

RP: I don’t really have one record that means the most to me, I have some worth a lot of money, i have some cheap as chips which are amazing and I have lots that remind me of good eras in my life, plus I have records I have made myself which make me proud…so music can create all sorts of good vibes.

CK: Being a producer and DJ amongst various other things, how do you feel about Mr Bongo closing down recently? To a certain extent I’m as guilty as the next man, buying tunes over the internet but to me this shop was a real huge part of London’s hip-hop backbone and I still love going round the various shops in town.

RP: Yeah it’s a real shame, it was a great shop and I got on well with all the guys in there: Huw, Tom, Kam etc etc. You’d get a nice personal service, something you don’t really get in your HMV’s or bigger music stores. Plus it was the best place to pick up indie hiphop!

CK: Hiphop at present is being cited as the biggest, most influential youth culture around, but do you feel this is the case? Perhaps it’s just the big-guns who are shifting units, with the small independent groups doing their own thing, as they have always done? (I remember being in Mr Bongo about two weeks before it closed its doors, CNN happened to be in there filming a spot on the rising power of hiphop. I got chatting to one of the writers of the piece and asked her if she didn’t think the project was kind of ironic seeing as she was stood in a well respected part of the hiphop scene in London and it was about to close down. She didn’t get the irony and the guys in the shop didn’t give a monkeys as they were so fed up the shop was closing. I’m sure they saw the piece as a calling card for future business, but to me it seemed weird that they put prop records up on the rack and acted like it was just another day in the store…)

RP: Yeah that seems a little weird but for the guys in the shop I know they were just ready to leave so they wouldn’t have cared either way. As for CNN, well the media always gets on band wagons and then dumps them at their convenience; we’ve had all sorts of media types, film and interview, at scratch nights but if they are there or not we still carry on. Hiphop isn’t a fashion…

CK: As well as being a DJ and producer, I hear you are still involved in teaching part-time and design work in various fields; perhaps you could tell me about how the design work came about?

RP: Yeah I like to have fingers in pies, the design story is a long one but I’ll try and keep it short. About nine years ago I went to Mauritius with my girlfriend whose family is Mauritian; I took my records over and ended up DJ’ing in the middle of a sugar cane field for a guy that ran a clothing range called Habit. He was looking for a designer so I said I could find him one, my designer friend got involved initially but had other commitments (he ended up being head of design for Evisu!)…so I decided to have a go. I’ve been designing clothing logos for them ever since and I have some great designers from London also involved like graff artist ‘Etch’.

CK: What design work are you currently inspired by?

RP: I like old school images like Top Trumps and my Football’79 sticker book, sorry this is probaly not the answer you were looking for, I’ve also got lots of books like 1000 Great Record Designs that help give me inspiration. My record covers inspire me, magazine layouts, London etc etc…

CK: Do you find it hard coming up with new ideas and concepts for your design projects?

RP: Yeah it can be a struggle but I try and source thoughts from my childhood all the way to the present day, in order to get ideas.

CK: Are you still involved with teaching? Do you get inspiration from the kids you work with?

RP: Yeah I still teach, I was working this Tuesday but it is very irregular these days. I love it, it’s really good for the soul and at the school I work at, the children really look forward to you teaching them, which is great.

CK: Do you feel that the days of loving vinyl and vinyl alone are behind us? Do you think you need to keep up with the new technologies to keep on top of the game? (Do you ever mix with CD’s/mp3’s?)

RP: Yeah I think both are important. I love vinyl and I love technology, for example I use Final Scratch on my laptop when I DJ at gigs like the Jazz Cafe, it means I can take 4000 tunes out with me, but there’ll always be promo vinyl in my bag too!!

CK: What records are rocking your world at present?

RP: The new De La Soul lp, Plantlife, Sa-Ra…

CK: What producers are you following?

RP: All sorts, from Jay Dee to Bugz in the Attic, fat and musical is the key!!

CK: Any artists you’d like to work with at the moment? You have worked with a great deal of artists over the years and don’t seem to stick to one style in particular; do your production methods reflect the sounds you are into at the time?

RP: My sound reflects the fact that I’m into all sorts of music, I’m not gonna change my name just because I make a broken beat or a house beat, I like people to know that I’m a lover of just good, warm, soulful music. I have been described as idiosyncratic and that’s cool…I hope to do an lp soon that will reflect that. Most people I know collect all sorts of music, if you just collect one genre of music you are most certainly missing out.

CK: What has been your favourite track you’ve worked on to date?

RP: Good question, the hardest but most satisfying was probably my remix of Ramp’s Everybody Loves The Sunshine which is out on a Verve soul compilation (Universal Jazz) at the beginning of 2005.

CK: What is your favourite track of 2004? favourite lp of 2004? biggest disappointment of 2004?

RP: I’m not sure about this, Kanye West continued to make a positive impression in 2004. Lets have more original minds on hiphop tunes rapping some memorable lines and not that crunk shit whose beats sound great but are let down by mindless lyrics. Put J-Live and the Neptunes in the same studio. Bugz in the Attic, IG, Mark De Clive Lowe and Yam Who continued to produce some quality tunes. Estelle got some good producers behind her and made some good chart worthy hiphop. The Electric Soul 2 compilation was one of my favourite lp’s of last year, quality tunes through out. Pete Rock’s lp was probably the biggest disappointment; mind you he made up for it with his production on the new Edo G lp…‘Boston’ is the tune, that shit is fat…check it!

CK: What does 2005 hold in store for you?

RP: More remixes, official and naughty ones. I just re-worked an Englebert Humperdink tune believe it or not for Universal Jazz. To make a Richy Pitch lp sampler and shop it to some decent labels, to continue working with quality singers and rappers. Look out for a mix tape at some point called Summer Madness…

CK: Anything you’d like to add? Any links to sites you’d like to see up?

RP: Check my stoopid site www.richypitch.com and look out for a revamp of www.scratch-web.com as Scratch has a new home at the Forum (we will still be working with Fabric too), see flyer. Cheers for the support. Richy

Richy Pitch artist page on discogs

1 December 2008 | Page views: 214
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Not The Full Moog

(Originally uploaded January 2005)

This mix was started simply as a means of getting to know some of my new tracks, picked up on a recent weekend’s record shopping in Nottingham before playing at a charity gig there. So what started out as a means of getting to know the new grooves ended up being a nice little mix… I’d never heard of Zoo Brazil before but have a few pieces on label Airtight already and went with my gut feeling as my patience for digging in the crates can wear thin at the best of times these days. I’ve since listened to the other tracks on the flip-side of both of the twelves featured here and I’m glad I picked them up. The NYC2 track is something I picked up from Flying Records and I’m afraid I don’t have any more info other than it sounds like an old Detroit number and that’s always a good thing for me. Speaking of Detroit, the Sandstorms tune from the Just Another Day release by Carl Craig, is something I’ve been listening to a fair bit of late; every track melting any hassles away. One wonders how he manages to keep putting out such lush aural gems that sound oh-so-familiar yet so different at the same time… Show tracklisting.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 239
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Show 'Nuff

(Originally uploaded September 2004)

Having company on a Friday night can be somewhat more tiring than it seemed a few years back, but this selection of tunes took care of clearing away those cobwebs… Said company prompted a trip down drum’n‘bass lane. The mix starts in a dense sea of beats which could leave some gasping for air with Dillinja featuring heavily (literally) but ends altogether more sanely on the softer side of d’n‘b.

My purchasing of drum’n‘bass has weaned of late but I do still pick up the occasional twelve and lots of mix cds but I don’t have my ear as close to the ground as back in the 90s. A favourite here is Roni Size’s Fashion on V Recordings. He’s someone I have seen at numerous gigs and events over the years and have chatted to on a few occasions. I’d like to see him and the other Full Cycle team on their home turf as I’ve heard Bristol has a vibe to experience… Grooverider’s mix of his Share The Fall was a favourite when I was staying in a flat-share in Crouch End. The neighbours used to get so annoyed with our constant drunken antics that on a Sunday morning, they would turn their speakers to face my flat-mates wall and play the Sunday prayer services at a high volume, knowing that we were hungover because of the noise we’d made the night before. Shocking behaviour on our behalf really. You can’t beat a good dance at a drum’n‘bass night and I look forward to wherever my next one may be… Show tracklisting.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 250
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Didn't See That Coming

(Originally uploaded August 2004)

Pulling out an old, somewhat neglected, Candi Staton LP from deep within my music collection started this mix off. There’s a fair bit of disco material in here; much of what was bought at Soul Jazz during another splurge on those vinyl wonders. Much of this material is unlisted, and so I don’t know if it’s genuine old re-released material or the more likely scenario, re-edits done by someone at home on their pc. The piece of score music from Subway was pretty much the only thing on the album that felt right; I really need to re-visit the film again to see if it rates as highly as I remember it doing originally. The tune on Trojan is from a Joey Jay 7” box-set picked up in Phonica, and I’ve recently found out a friend of mine should be able to get her hands on more Trojan vinyl so I’ll be tapping her up for that if possible! Sitting in the middle of the mix is a snippet from the wonderful Derek & Clive which I bought for one shiny pound at a record fair in Westcliff, Essex back in July. Much of the LP is scratched but if I can pull such an amusing sample from within, it’s not an issue to me…

With regards to the Alan Smithee track Blue Blackness, bit of a long story this: I heard this on a Michael Reinboth mix on the milkaudio mail-out; in the show, he mentioned it was only available in Japan or from one shop in Germany. I followed the German lead, and the shop is run by Tristian from Âme who puts out nice tunes on Sonar Kollektiv. Several e-mails later, Tristian agreed to bring the record to The Big Chill with him; he was kind enough to do so and I met him after his set in the dance tent, so that was a bit of a weird place to pick up some vinyl from, but there you go… What a nice guy!

The ZZ Top tune was given to me by my brother-in-law and it’s featured on the soundtrack of the wonderful Dogtown & Z-Boys. Don’t you just love it when family and friend pass on their vinyl to you after hanging on to it for so many years?! Sitting calmly before that is a track from the wonderful Laura B; someone who I took a shine to at this years Big Chill festival in Eastnoor. I picked up the marvellous Survival Of The Slowest CD set she created and I’ve yet to make it to hear the end of any of them if you see what I mean; very relaxing stuff indeed. Anyway, enjoy… Show tracklisting.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 242
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Do You Chew?

(Originally uploaded August 2004.)

Another Friday, another mix. This was started as a work-in-progress; I had a friend over for the evening and I thought we’d do the standard two tunes each, but seeing as he’d just recorded a mix for his girlfriend in New York, he seemed happy enough to let me get on with it. In turn, I was happy enough to eat the cheese toasties he made while I was knee-deep in vinyl.

There’s a fair bit of new material here; I made my first trip back down to Soul Jazz after boycotting the store as it’s just so damn busy these days. The verdict? It depends on who serves you; the main dude only let’s you have three pieces of vinyl at a time to listen to. I can see where they are coming from but hey, if I’m not happy I’ll walk… Anyway, I’ve got another version of the Who Are We? vs. Sunshowers which runs for the whole accapella and I’ll get that in a mix somewhere soon so watch this space… Show tracklisting.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 223
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Fresh Out The Box

(Originally uploaded June 2004)

It was a pleasure to see my brother pick up some vinyl for the first time in eons. I think it was a meeting between myself, Pinky and my bro that spurned him on; we spent the night discussing music in an oh-so-anal manner. It was on said night that my brother implied that he’d introduced me to Detroit Techno! I soon put him right and sent him scurrying back to his case-logic collection of CD’s. The very next day, these here records appeared so when my brother worked out he couldn’t carry his new slabs of wax home on his bike (it being a tube strike day here in London), I offered to pass them to him the next time I saw him.

As soon as I got home, I literally hit record on the CD-R and started pulling the records out of the bag and onto the decks. The comedy clip from Beyond The Fringe is one of my own and it breaks the mix up nicely I think… I’ve since picked up the Nite & D.A. Compilation which I’m convinced is a bootleg as the pressing is pretty appalling and our friends at Discogs don’t hold such a listing (and we all know how on the ball they are). Show tracklisting.

1 December 2008 | Page views: 289
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