Homage by Rawtrachs
This project came about from chopping up old jungle records. It wasn’t something I planned to do, I was just having fun chopping up beats using the Boss SP 505 sampler and going with the flow. The recordings are lo-fi and there is some clipping in places for a load of reasons I won’t bore you with but mainly down to my laziness! As I was making these beats/sketches I had the idea to put them together as a kind of ‘beat-tape’ to give a bit of respect to my own roots and influences which is mainly jungle. I also wanted to avoid sampling really popular records. This project is a document in a way. I’ve used various clips from interviews which are detailed below. I hope the passion and energy I have for this thing comes through - please go and check out the interviews and tracks that I’ve mentioned below.
0. Excerpt from Alpha Omega - MG’s Chamber (Reinforced Records)
1. Immortal Minds - Flux (Reinforced Records) - Rawtrachs Chop
About a month ago I was going through a bit of a stressful period at work and needed some time to escape. I’d been itching to mess about with my SP 505 for a while so I decided to have a play. The first record that came to mind to sample from was this Immortal Minds release. I popped the record on the deck and decided to play and sample the record at 33 1/3 rpm. I got the beat together, and then I decided to see if I could make a short track based on samples only from that record. I was pretty happy with what I’d put together, I liked the idea of making something based on samples from only one record and so I decided to do more. I also wanted to include the excerpt from Alpha Omega’s ‘MG’s Chamber’ to pay respect to Reinforced Records which is one of my favourite Jungle/DnB record labels
2. Excerpt from Pilgrim and Shock C, Detonator at The Que Club (Birmingham, UK) 1994
3. Shock C - Bad Man Squad (Headless Records) - Rawtrachs Chop
4. Excerpt from DJ Ratty and Shock C, Choice FM 1996
The next track that I wanted to chop was Shock C’s ‘Bad Man Squad’. I liked this one because it had lots of different amen patterns and very minimal sounds over the top. I believe Shock C was originally an MC at events such as Amnesia House and then got into DJ’ing and producing tracks. I mainly knew of him as a DJ from tape packs and seeing his name on flyers, and later I used buy records from him at Summit Records in Birmingham city centre. He also made a brilliant 12” with Ellis The Menace on Back2Basics……
5. Excerpt from DJ Asend/Lee Smith interview on Suburban Base ‘Bass Impact Podcast’
6. Ultravibe - Why… (Back2Basics Recordings) - Rawtrachs Chop
Back2Basics Recordings was a record label and a record shop based in Wednesbury town centre. It was how I got into jungle and collecting records. It was my introduction to this whole culture and totally changed my life. Ultravibe (Warren Smith) used to work at the shop and often used to play and sell me records. He was a brilliant producer and I wanted to chop this record up as a way of giving props. ‘Why…’ was a brilliant record to chop because of the samples used in the making of the record, I had such fun putting this together on the SP 505. Like the others on this project, it was chopped up really quick and arranged very quick too. There doesn’t seem to be any interviews with Ultravibe online, I used to have a tape which I think he MC’ed on with Asend DJ’ing on HOT FM (I think this was around 1996) but I’ve lost the tape and couldn’t find a recording online. However there is this interview with DJ Asend where talks about early productions with Ultravibe and so I decided to add an excerpt of that here. The interview and many others by Suburban Base are well worth checking out.
7. Paul Z - Beautiful Dreams (Prophecy Recordings) - Rawtrachs Chop
This is a beautiful track, I’ve never heard it on a DJ set and so I had to chop this one up. And I’m afraid I cheated in this one a little…. I’d already sampled and chopped up the parts that I wanted but forgot to take the vocal and I’m not even sure if there’s a clean version of it to swipe from the record either, so I decided to take it straight from the source hehe! I bought this record from Don Christies in Birmingham. Reggae was sold on the ground floor, and jungle/dnb in the basement, it was a brilliant vibe in there.
8. Excerpt from Jeremy Sylvester - How it all began (Part 1)
9. Excerpt from G.E. Real and MC Chickaboo at Dance Paradise 1994
10. Darkus - Screwface 2 (G.E.Real remix) (Sub Assertive Sounds) - Rawtrachs Chop
11. Excerpt from G.E. Real and MC Chickaboo at Dance Paradise 1994
Darkus is an alias of Jeremy Sylvester, and G.E. Real (R.I.P) was a Birmingham based DJ who did the remix on this track. Whenever G.E Real DJ’ed he was usually accompanied by MC Chickaboo who I believe is one of the first female MCs in rave/hardcore/jungle. The track itself is raw breaks with lots of film samples scattered over the track. I sampled a little section of the beats and was endlessly listening to this loop of beats I chopped up. I decided to distort it up a bit using the filters on the SP 505 and also on the DJ mixer I use. I then threw a few of the samples over the top of the track to help keep it moving. It’s a self-indulgent chop because I love listening to the drums on loop which is basically what this is.
12. Eze-G - Something I Feel (Soundscape Records) - Rawtrachs Chop
I’m not sure if I picked this record up from Back2Basics or from Bridge Records in Walsall. It’s a white label with ‘SCAP 4’ written on it. I later found out it was by Eze-G thanks to Discogs! Some of these tracks were re-released on Street Beats/Basement Records. I didn’t sample any beats from this, just a couple of snippets of the melody. I didn’t do much with it to be honest, just made a simple melody and popped a filter over it - it probably sounds a little distorted in places because of it :) I let this one roll out probably a little longer than needed, but I enjoy the journey of it.
13. Excerpt from DJ Asend/Lee Smith interview on Suburban Base ‘Bass Impact Podcast’
14. The JB and Asend - Let It Go (Edit) (Back2Basics Recordings) - Rawtrachs Chop
I included another excerpt from the above mentioned Asend interview as it gives some more history and context. Asend (Lee Smith) also used to work at Back2Basics in Wednesbury and I was lucky enough to buy some records from him. The people that worked in the shop were so crucial in helping kids like me at the time to develop and build a good record collection. Him and JB (Jason Ball) have made many brilliant tracks. I was unsure whether to chop up ‘Let It Go’ or the other side, ’The Dreamer’. Both tracks are brilliant. I don’t really have much control over things, I just go with what I like and that’s what happened with this. It was fun to chop up old jungle records and make something different with them. I remember around 1994/95 Asend made a studio mix ‘Back2Basics - The Full Story’, it’s a fantastic mix and is available to listen online. Ned Ryder also did a studio mix for Back2Basics which was released earlier than this one and is also worth checking out. Also, Asend ran his own label called Second Movement Recordings which released some wicked tracks and I think some of the back catalogue is available digitally too.......
And that’s it. I hope you enjoyed listening and reading this project. Please go check out all the people I’ve mentioned and maybe do some digging!
