Mrs P's 7" Collection

The latest GoatLab Radio show is now online (Feb '07). I popped along on the night as a special guest and dropped in a few selections as well as generally chatting bollocks and being almost as unprofessional as the rest of the set-up. It was great fun, and I hope the guest presenter idea takes off as there are so many people near-by who could contribute great music, interesting insight and irreverent conversation. My first suggestions would be for Bin.ray and Atki2 if they are up for it.

Right at the end of the show my forthcoming sets for the next GoatLab gig are mentioned (a live breakcore set in the main room, and a DJ set in the Lab room) and Anarchist606 asked me to explain in a bit more detail here about the proposed DJ set.

The idea behind the lab room is to bring a bit more experimentation back into the scene and provide something different to what's on offer in the other two rooms (mostly breakcore, ragga jungle, mash-ups and a little dub-step). With this in mind I made my lab set at the first GoatLab night the old-school cassette based DJ set I'd been looking for an opportunity to put together for ages. You can read more about that here (including tracklisting) and download a recreation of the set I recorded at home the following day.

Gusset – GoatLab Experimental Cassette Based DJ Set 29.09.06 [46MB MP3 128kbps]

I still have other ideas up my sleeve for more electro-acoustic / pluderphonic type experimentation for future nights, and I may get around to making the BBC Micro set I promised GlitchNight eventually, but for this next one (2nd March) there is another DJ set I want to try out.

After moving house last year the Mrs and I spent quite a lot of time playing old records as we unpacked them. This gave me an idea of trying to pull together a DJ set constructed entirely out of her 7" collection. It's mostly '80s stuff with a few early electro classics scattered among a sea of soon to be big indie bands and assorted chart dross. A couple of things from my own collection slip in nicely and are tunes she remembers well but never bought. Other things she now owns only on CD have been tracked down in charity shops, bought, gifted to her, and once again taken the place they deserve in the collection. (I still can't find the Wuthering Heights 7" though, which she called the most romantic thing I ever bought her after I tracked it down for one of our anniversaries, I'm sure it's still in the house somewhere!)

I'm hoping to be able to string together an indie set of Cranberries, The Fall, The Cure etc that will merge seamlessly (via classics like the Ghostbusters theme) into an early chart-friendly-electro set of Kraftwork, Paul Hardcastle, Soft Cell, Sly Fox and so on.

I ran this idea past Mrs P and it was reluctantly agreed on two conditions:

1. She is to retain a right of veto over any additionally material I try to sneak in

2. The set has to include the T.U.R.T.L.E Power theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

She danced around the living room throwing faux karate moves with a cushion stuffed up the back of her T-shirt until I agreed. It remains to be seen whether she will come along and repeat this on the night.

If you can, please drop by and see how it goes. I will try to record the set for posterity and for the people who can't make it.