Tag Archives: old-school

J-Star – The Herbalist Mix Pts. 1 & 2

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I’ve been a big fan of J-Star’s DJ mixes for a couple of years.  The Herbalist series of mixes are all reggae songs about smoking weed.  So, if you’re into that, J-Star brings the hottness!  The songs are a mix of modern tracks and classic anthems, quite a few of which can be found on volumes 1-3 of the great “Big Blunts” series of compilations on the Tommy Boy label.

You can stream or download J-Star’s Herbalist mixes from the Soundcloud widgets below.  Hint – click the “down arrow” to download the mix.  Also check out J-Star’s Soundcloud account for more great mixes as well his own remixes of reggae classics.

Herbalist mix Part1 by Jstar

Herbalist Mix Part 2 by Jstar

Tracklist for Part 1 after the jump… Continue reading →

Catnap – Meow Mix 4

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The latest edition of the Meow Mix takes you to the beach!  In keeping with the Meow Mix tradition, it features lots of uplifting, melodic tunes with some Latin spice and a couple classic anthems.  It kicks off with a rare live jam by BT & Danny Tenaglia called “Blue Skies,” a longtime favorite of mine.  Other highlights include funky workouts  by Herbie Hancock and War, Aly-Us’s unforgettable “Follow Me,” Pete Heller’s “Big Love” and a little Daft Punk.  Bob Sinclair, Basement Jaxx, and DJ Gregory are all in the mix, too.

***Update***  I added six more songs to this mix on December 26th, 2010.  See tracklist for update.

Alternate Download Link (right click and “save as”)

173mb /// 1 hr 15min /// 320kbps .mp3

Tracklist after the jump…

Continue reading →

DJ Spinna – Happy Birthday Marvin Gaye

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DJ Spinna offers this mix in celebration, which he says features

“some rare releases, B-sides, alternate versions, exclusive re-edits and remixes courtesy of myself and some legendary dj/producer friends.”

He goes on to say that:

“The whole world knows that I’m a huge Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Prince buff.  But the other beast of a soul artist that I love to death is Marvin Gaye, of course! His music deeply expresses the soul of a man.  The most bewildering thing about Marvin that I’ve come to understand more in my adult years is how he was able express his life experiences so artistically despite all his traumatic upheaval. I mean, his pops was a cross dressing preacher that practically despised his own son. I’ll never forget the day I found out his dad took him out, the day before his birthday! I couldn’t understand it and I was sad as hell. But life is wild that way. All that pain he endured led to greatness.”

– DJ Spinna on his “Happy Birthday Marvin Gaye” mix

Listen here:

Download here (right click and “save as”)

61.5 mb /// 1 hour 29 min /// 96kbps .mp3 (but it sounds damn good)

Eddy Merckx 7-11 Corsa Restoration

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photo by Alan R. Tansey - alan.r.tansey@gmail.com

After several months, I have finally finished my restoration of the Eddy Merckx Corsa in Team 7-11 colors that I first acquired last year.  I started by stripping off the worn and non-period-correct Ultegra group that was on it, and sent the frame to Allan Wanta for a complete re-paint.

Allan is the real hero of this project.  His work is impeccable – from the paint to the decals, he did a truly perfect job on the bike.  It took about seven weeks from when I shipped the frame to him to when I got it back.  He was great about communication, updating me on the progress of the restoration and even sending me pictures.  The price for this work was very affordable as well – about 50% less than all the other quotes I got!  He gets my top recommendation and I will certainly send more work his way in the future.  Check out the pictures after the jump to see lots of up-close, hi-res shots.

To properly complete this restoration, I slowly collected up a complete Dura-Ace 7400 group on eBay.  Most of the group was New Old Stock, with little to no marks on it at all.  Being a fan of brifters over downtube-mounted shifters, I did drift just a little out of period by including the Dura Ace STI shifters from 1990.  The photos I’ve seen of the 7-11 team’s bikes don’t include these shifters but I’ve seen a number of other 7-11 Merckx’s using them, and more importantly I’m gonna ride this baby a lot so I wanted to go with what I like.  And it doesn’t disappoint – it’s fast and aggressive ride, with the trademark stiffness of Columbus TSX steel.  I feel like this restoration has really brought out the racing spirit of this bike.

The rest of the parts used were:

  • Modolo EVEN ergo bars
  • Selle Italia Flite saddle
  • Time ATAC pedals (Eddy Merckx Podio pedals and shoes coming soon)
  • Cinelli stem with Eddy Merckx pantograph
  • NOS Casiraghi brake cable
  • Matric ISO rims
  • Fizik Microtex bar tape

Alan Tansey was kind enough to volunteer his awesome photo skills to take a great set of pictures of this beast.  Check out the full photo gallery and specs after the jump…

Continue reading →

This Is Lamb

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Lamb, a contemporary of Massive Attack in the mid-late 90’s UK triphop & drum n’ bass scene, produced several albums of haunting, edgy electronic songs, the best of which are collected in DJ Finny’s awesome “This Is Lamb” mix.   Although getting their start in Manchester, Lamb are more commonly associated with the Bristol-based trip hop sound that was popular during the nineties. Aside from trip hop, their musical style is a distinctive mixture of jazz, dub, breaks and drum and bass, with a strong vocal element and, in their later works especially, some acoustic influences.

At nearly three hours, this mix captures the best work of Lamb, mixed smoothly and unobtrusively.  In Finny’s words:

After a very long drive back from an airport, my cd changer came up with Lamb’s first self-titled albumn, and i thought to myself “has anyone done a mix of Lamb’s stuff?” well, i didnt actually look to see if anyone actually did or not, i went straight to planning 🙂 And here is the final Result.

This is a journey through all 4 of their albumns, this 3 hour mix starts with their very laid back ~70bpm tracks, and gradually builds to their trip hop and ambient DnB ~150bpm tracks, and if you haven’t heard of Lamb before, this music is perfect to shag a lass to.

I purposely put “Arranged” as opposed to “Mixed” because i made a physical effort not to overlap the tracks too much, yet make the transitions as smooth as possible, because i wanted everyone to hear the very best of this duo.

Listen Now:

Download here (right click and “save as”)

2 hours 52 minutes /// 256mb /// 192kbps .mp3

Track list after the jump… Continue reading →

Coldcut – 2006 Essential Mix

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The following is excerpted from a larger article, found here:

Matt Black and Jonathon Moore have been creating tracks since the mid-80’s. It wasn’t until they came together as Coldcut and formed the highly innovative label Ninja Tune that they really started to have any success. With tracks such as “Mo Beats”, “Beats and Pieces”, and “Greedy Beat” they helped lay the foundation for hip-hop instrumentalists like DJ Shadow and RJD2. The Ninja Tune label has released albums and singles from DJs and producers such as the deep hip-hop of DJ Food, turntablist extraordinare Kid Koala and Russia’s DJ Vadim.

The mix starts off with some classic hip-hop, including Sweet Tee and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” with the original Lou Reed vocal over it. The mix then moves in to expiremental electro-house territory, before starting the second hour with some drum-n-bass like DJ Zinc’s “Super Sharp Shooter” and Krust’s infamous roller “Warhead”. Laced in between is Wayne Smith’s heavy “Under Me Sleng Teng”. Finally rounding out the mix is Franz Ferdinand’s “This Fire” over a floating dub reggae track, they then put Bjork’s “Hidden Place” with a backing track that consists of reggae guitar, 808 drums and opera-like vocals.

This is an entertaining mix that keeps you nodding your head the whole time and leaves you in awe at some of the things Coldcut come up with — they prove that even in an era when a kid with a computer can create “Jay-Zeezer” it still takes talent and a knowledge of music and DJing to create truly beautiful music using . It is rare that you get a DJ mix that contains creativity. It is even rarer to find an Essential Mix with longevity that doesn’t just contain the newest and hottest tunes.

Listen now:

Download here (right click and “save as”)

124 minutes /// 170.21 mb /// 192 kbps .mp3

Track list after the jump… Continue reading →

DJ Dopeshoes – Sole Food: Cold Bolgona Mayonnaise And Bread

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DJ Dopeshoes is a member of the Hometown Blends crew and a selector with an excellent taste in hiphop, funk, breaks, and soul.  Sole Food: Cold Bologna, Mayonnaise, & Bread features a lot of her personal favorites in both old school, and recent hip hop as well as funk and soul.  In her own words “This is a largely retrospective mixtape for afternoons, bbqs, and whenever the hell else you feel like it.”  I will definitely be rocking it at my next BBQ, and so should you.

Listen now:

Download here (right click and ‘save as’)

66 minutes 31 sec. /// 153mb /// 320kbps .mp3

Tracklist after the jump… Continue reading →