Solid Steel - 20 Years Ninja Tunes

20 Years Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune – Solid Steel
www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel
www.ninjatune.net
www.djfood.org

On the Wheels of Steel
DJ Food (Ninja Tune, London)
www.djfood.org
James Mountain (Ninja Tune, London)
Phil Da Funk (easymoods, Graz)
Slipmad (45fruits, Graz)

Solid Steel Clubnights, endlich wieder auch in Graz!
Der Anlass ist die Jubiläumstour zum 20-Jährigen Bestehen dieses nach wie vor einmaligen und legendären Labels.
Diesmal wird der legendäre DJ Food, einer der Ninja Tune Artists der ersten Stunde, die Turntables bedienen.
DJ Food hat schon in den frühen 90er Jahren gemeinsam mit Coldcut produziert (die berühmte Jazz Brakes Reihe!), ist Solid Steel DJ der ersten Stunde und Meister der vier! Turntables.
Wie bei seinen richtungsweisenden Alben, A Recipe For Disaster, Refried Food und Jazz Brakes Vol. 1-6, kann man einen aufregenden Freestyle-Mix aus jazzy, funky Breaks, Bootlegs, Hip Hop, Drum & Bass und Breakbeats erwarten.

Bereits seit 1988(!) produziert das legendäre Londoner Label Ninja Tune (Coldcut, Hexstatic, Amon Tobin, Herbasliser, DJ Food u.v.a.) die Radioshow Solid Steel.
In den Anfängen wurde Solid Steel über diverse Londoner Piratensender verbreitet, inzwischen wird die Sendung wöchentlich von mehr als 30 Radiostationen in aller Welt ausgestrahlt. In Österreich übernimmt das logischerweise FM4.
Solid Steel steht nicht nur für die allwöchentlichen, atemberaubenden DJ Sets von Coldcut, Mr. Scruff, Hexstatic, Producer DK, DJ Food, Andy Smith von Portishead und zahlreichen illustren Gästen, sondern inzwischen auch für eine erfolgreiche CD-Reihe und eine regelmäßige Clubnacht in London.
Solid Steel Clubnights mit wechselnder DJ-Besetzung finden außerhalb Londons auch regelmäßig in Berlin, Paris, Rom und Graz statt.

Eintritt:
Kein Vorverkauf, Karten an der Abendkasse erhältlich.
Online Kartenreservierung zum günstigen Preis von EUR 7.– (EUR 6.– für spark7 Members): tickets@zeiger.com
Reservierte Karten werden an der Abendkasse hinterlegt. Reservierungen können nur bis 12 Stunden vor Veranstaltungsbeginn entgegengenommen werden.
Ticketpreise: Bis Mitternacht Euro 7.–, (Euro 6.– für spark7 Mitglieder)
Ab Mitternacht: Euro 9.– (Euro 8.– für spark7 Mitglieder)

DJ Food aka Strictly Kev
www.djfood.org
www.myspace.com/strictlykev

Strictly Kev
The stalwart Ninja who stepped out of the shadows after years of steady DJing with Coldcut on numerous club gigs and their weekly radio show ‚Solid Steel!‘ Kev met Matt Black at the ‚Telepathic Fish‘ ambient parties of the early 90’s, started designing artwork for Ninja Tune and paired up with PC to form the public ‚face‘ of DJ Food on 4 decks in clubs around the world. After working on various Food and Coldcut related studio projects with PC (Recipe for Disaster, Journeys by DJ, ColdKrushCuts and the Blech mix compilations for Warp) he is preparing the next course…
Now working on the next DJ Food album himself, expect more of the same from the man who penned tracks like “Nevermore” and “The Riff”, among others, from the last album ‘Kaleidescope’, and is responsible for the incredible “Raiding the 20th Century – A History of the Cut-Up” mix (so popular it crashed boom selection’s server when posted on the premier bootleg site).
History lesson….
DJ Food has been many persons, of who we will come to in a moment. DJ FOOD is best described as Food for DJs, simple as that, just flip it around and it begins to mean something entirely different.
Originally produced by Coldcut the DJ Food project started in 1990 with the release of Jazz Brakes. Jazz Brakes Volume 3 being the label’s most successful early album. Not only are they effective collections of breaks, loops and samples ideal for mixing, remixing and producing – but also fine collections of funky jazz & hip hop tunes, that cut it just as well on the discerning dancefloor as in the safety of your own home… Since the growth of the abstract hip hop scene recent years the Jazz Brakes albums have proved to be ahead of their time Jazz Brakes Volumes 4 & 5, co-created with DJ/producer PC, are collections of finely crafted tunes that transcend the breakbeat compilation format to stand as artist albums in their own right. These latter DJ Food albums have developed with shades of latin, dub, techno, ambient, tribal, african and jungle flavouring the funk. The October ’95 album entitled ‚A Recipe For Disaster‘ was a conscious break from the five Jazz Brakes volumes to form more of an identity as an artist, and a remix album of tracks from all 6 LPs ‚Refried Food‘ was released Feb ’96. A new Studio album is being prepared by PC and Strictly Kev in various top secret kitchens across London as you read this. They are collaborating with various guests on this including Bundy K. Brown (ex-Tortoise, Directions in Music, Pullman) and Ken Nordine (60’s word jazz poet).
But who makes this food then? We know that Matt Black & Jonathan More (aka Coldcut) were responsible for starting the DJ FOOD series of Jazz Brakes back in the early 90’s, and along the way they met Patrick Carpenter (PC) who was commonly misconstrued as the computer that they made the tracks on for a while. A loose collaborative team began to form as more like-minded people arrived at the party; Paul Brook, Paul Rabiger, Strictly Kev and Issac Elliston to name a few.
Whilst keeping their hand in as DJs, Matt & Jon couldn’t and didn’t want to DJ twice in one night under both aliases of Coldcut & Food so PC & Strictly stepped up to represent the Food club-wise. This was the score for some time, until PC became so busy with his involvement in the Cinematic Orchestra that he decided to depart to concentrate on that, leaving Strictly Kev to carry the mantle and really come into his own.
The Present Day
Kev now DJ’s out regularly, travelling all over the world and creating a stir wherever he plays! He is amazingly versatile, both in the variety of tunes and his skills on the decks, playing a mix of jazzy, funky breaks, bootlegs, hip hop and usually building the set to a drum & bass crescendo that has the crowd going nuts.
He has also becoming reknowned for his soundtrack performance to the Monkees’ insane surreal movie ‘Head’. An astonishing 90-minute three-deck real-time rampage through 60’s psychedelia, soundtracks, humour, military bands and other crazy tunes, he shows exactly how it should be done in terms of balance, timing and sheer accuracy of deck craftsmanship.

The man is a joy to watch and great fun to dance along to – look on ye mighty DJs and despair!

Solid Steel Presents DJ Food & DK: Now, Listen Again!
Want to hear Rakim dueting on the mic with Phil Oakey from the Human League? Rock drummer Cozy Powell trading beats with DJ Format? Maybe the funky film version of ‘Are You Being Served’ is more to your taste or some West Coast surf-psych in the form of The Dragons’ rarity ‘Food For My Soul’? Resisting all the food puns we can think of (we know you’ll be doing it for us) Solid Steel presents DJ Food & DK with “Now, Listen Again” – the sequel to the mix that kicked off the series in 2001.
Six years ago, DJ Food and DK launched Ninja’s hugely successful “Solid Steel” mix series with “Now, Listen”. The current main movers of the long running and much-loved “Solid Steel” radio show and club night, they laid out the basic template of all that was to follow. A dizzying, kaleidoscopic pile-up of musical styles and spoken word eclectica, all pieced together, layered and re-treated with the sort of attention to detail that only comes from nerdy obsession and music collections that need reinforced floor supports to be held safely.
Now… Listen Again! Ever wondered what these would sound like? Roots Manuva given exclusive makeovers by d’n’b new kids the Qemists and cut ’n’ paste legend Steinski? Primal Scream in Hammond funk mode jamming with a northern soul version of ‘Purple Haze’? The dub mix of New Order’s classic “Blue Monday” (s)mashed into the vicious 2-step grime rhythm of New Flesh producer Part 2 with Fallacy on the mic?
It’s all here plus plenty more besides, picking up (literally) where the last one left off. The emphasis with this compilation is on making the listener want to listen again and again, if not just to peel back the layers of the onion but just because it demands a repeat performance amongst the sea of data we consume these days. Food & DK wanted to make something that stood the test of time, a mix you’ll still want to listen to 5 or 10 years from now, not something that dates quickly because it was trying to be too upfront. As the voice near the start implores: “Listen, Listen, we ask you, NOW LISTEN!”
… then listen again.