Thursday, 17 July 2014


Dusk Dubs Vol.47 - Original Gidman




Dusk Dubs returns this week with another incredible journey through sounds. As always, our guest provides us with music that has a special place in their memories and in their souls. Music that moves them, that invokes images of sunrises, sunsets, good times and good people. I then play each record, in full, giving it breathing space and allowing it to shine.
This week it’s a long overdue return of another Dusk Dubs resident, Original Gidman. Here from the beginning, in fact, here before the beginning, Gidman keeps everything on track and without him, not in a million years would we be approaching a year of weekly mixtapes. He wears his Dusk Dubs heart and soul on his sleeve for all to see, and we couldn’t have a better representative. No one can match his knowledge, and the respect he has in our game is second to none. Constantly putting our selectors at the forefront of his mind, daily promoting of their mixtapes, and providing 24/7 advice and support, it’s about time we all returned the favour.
So, here he is, taking you back to where it all began for him.
What a journey!
Salute The Original Gidman!

Here are some words from this week’s selector, and as always with Gidman, a superb write up on his tracks:

“ As you can probably tell from the artwork I have used, featuring my youthful fresh faced self (ha ha), this volume is an attempt to reflect a particular time during my years out in the raving wilderness. Although all my previous#DuskDubs volumes’ include tracks which I have a personal attachment too, I think this volume has to be the most personal so far. It includes tracks that still resonate with me today from a time in my life where I felt part of a widespread youth culture. I feel blessed, not many generations can say that…. Of course, this is #DuskDubs, so there’s no hands-in-the air anthem’s here, just tracks that affected me emotionally during those years and still do to this day…… “Taking you back to the morning after……” ”
1. Neutron 9000 – Way To Heaven
Taken from the 1990 ‘The Green House Effect’ album on Profile Records – this track takes me back to every ‘morning after’ or every ‘car journey home’ after a night out. Whether it was in the car or at home, The Green House Effect was the ‘Go-To’ album of that time, and this being the first track on the album would set the scene….. Pure chill out bliss.
2. Candy Flip – Strawberry Fields Forever
Also released in 1990, this track would end up being a UK Top Ten success. However, before it became a commercial hit, it would form a staple part of the soundtrack to many of the illegal raves I was attending at the time. By covering the Beatles, sampling James Brown’s "Funky Drummer" and adding some additional reverb, Candy Flip seemed to connect two youth cultures – one from the 60’s and the other from the 90’s…. memories of Kangol Hats, Baggy Jeans, Naff Naff Jackets and Wallabies shoes……
3. Psychotropic – Only For The Headstrong
Starting with that classic vocal sample “Music’s Hypnotizing”, this 1990 warehouse anthem would rock many a sound system back in the day with those “Funky Drummer” beats, but it was those dreamy synth lines that hooked you, hypnotised you and took you somewhere else – only for the headstrong… indeed.
4. Joanna Law – First Time Ever (Mellow Groove Mix)
Originally written by Kirsty MacColl’s father Ewan McColl back in 1957 and covered by over 60 different artists, this version was released on a number of different labels in 1990. Featuring the stunning vocals of Joanna Law who would later go onto work with Pressure Drop and Way Out West to name a few, this classic would give me goose bumps every time I heard it, and still does today…. A Perfect #DuskDubs moment.
5. Roots and Soul – Mr. Kirk vs. The Real Bassline (Original Mix)
Found on the A-side of Roots and Soul’s 3rd 12” release on Street Bwoyz Pro label in 1991, this bass heavy track takes the “Mr Kirk” sample from 4 hero’s Mr Kirk’s Nightmare and, repeats it like a mantra as the bass washes over you. I have only ever heard this track played out once on a system and when I did….. well it you can imagine !! The feeling has stayed with me ever since…..
6. A Guy Called Gerald – Emotions Electric
Gerald Simpson could do no wrong back in 1989. After his early involvement in 808 State and his success of Voodoo Ray in 1988, Gerald would release a couple of what I regard as classic UK Acid House albums. However, for me that stand out release during this period was on a ‘Peel Sessions” 12”, released in 1989 on the BBC’s Strange Fruit Records. This track has all the emotional power of any of the Vocal House classics that preceded it, but with its slower pace, deep bass lines and gorgeous synth washes – this is another “goose bump” moment – its emotional power is immeasurable.
7. 808 State – Sunrise
There’s not much I can say about 808 State that hasn’t been said before, just that this track off their first album “Ninety” (1989) was one of those tracks that fell between the dance floor and the chill-out room. Throughout that album, they managed to include all musical aspects of rave culture – techno, house, ambient, hardcore – it’s all there…. an album I still play – and a track that takes me to that “head space” between the dance floor and the chill-out room…. a certified classic.
8. Critical Rhythm – Fall Into A Trance (Alternative Ambient Mix)
I first came across this track on the classic Bio-Rhythm LP, released on the ever-consistent Network Records in the summer of 1990 – it featured the ‘who’s who’ of electronic music at that time Mark Archer, Derrick May, Derrick Carter, Paris Grey, Frank De Wulf, Neal Howard and of course Critical Rhythm aka Lenny Dee and Victor Simonelli. Purchased on good ol’ cassette at the time, it was another ‘Go-To’ album for the car…. @DZG303 can vouch for that ! The track ‘Fall Into A Trance’, originally licensed from Nu Groove Records and engineered by the don Tommy Musto, was a personal highlight and would always evoke a trance like state, even more so on the ‘Alternative Ambient Mix’ version.
9. Ability II – Pressure Dub
Originally released in 1990 on the Bassic record label and then licensed to the famous Outer Rhythm Label and re-released in 1991, this track was a classic of its time. Ten glorious minutes of breaks, bleeps and vocal snippets processed through an echo chamber, which when played on great sound system would pound your body into submission with that devastating bass line – Amazing… nuff said.
10. Unique 3 – The Theme
Released on Chill Records in 1988 and then picked up by Ten Records, this is another bleeps and bass classic that would be heard in every DJ’s set from that period. As well as hearing this amazing blend of Hip-Hop and Bleeps & Bass at every rave between 1989-1990, I also heard Unique 3 do a live PA on the legendary mixtape ‘Grooverider 1’ from the Eclipse Coventry (still a prize possession). Apparently, 'The Theme' was voted the number 1 track played at the ‘The Hacienda’ in Manchester in the '90s, by the world famous Deejay team who played there (Mike Pickering, Graeme Park and Dave Haslam). Although I first heard in the rave, its Hip-Hop styling’s and lower BPM’s lends itself perfectly for this #DuskDubs volume.
11. Sweet Exorcist – Testone
Sweet Exorcist aka Richard H Kirk and DJ Parrot released this track on their second 12” for Warp Records in 1990. Starting with the famous sample from the film ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’, this bleep and bass classic is one of my favourites from both The Warp stable and of that era. Those synth pads and minimalist construction would pave the way for the later generation of producers, particularly during Warp's Artificial Intelligence series.
12. Earth Leakage Trip – No Idea.
Featured on the first 12” release on the now legendary Moving Shadow record label in 1991. Earth Leakage Trip, who would later release on Rising High Records and Direct Source Records to name a few, manage to create a trippy techno classic with clever use of film samples, eerie synth pads and a throbbing bass. After first hearing it on an old beaten up TDK 90 cassette, those seagulls samples have embedded themselves in my brain – must be something to do with living near the coast at the time.
13. Mundo Muzique – Andromeda
I finish with a bona fide masterpiece in my humble opinion. Originally released on the compilation ‘Brooklyn Beats - Brooklyn's In The House’ on Easy Street Records out of New York in 1991 – the compilation was picked up and re-released by one of my favourite and most collected labels of that time – R & S Records. Mundo Muzique aka Edmundo Perez released some classics on R & S, including the Tranztechno EP Vol. 1 and the Andromeda 12” , but it’s with this track that he manages to hit all the bases….. Simply put, a stunning piece of music.
And if you enjoyed this week's Dusk Dubs, feel free to stop by and check my other works:
@tommyharrison
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