REALLY OLD BOOTLEGS! PART TWO
Should I have a stupid subtitle for this post, like THE QUICKENING or ELECTRIC BOOGALOO? Nah, fuck that. And as sad as it is to say this, I've read that the word boogaloo now has some kind of new, shitty context related to racist organizations. Fuck that too! All I'm here for is the music and the history, sometimes in that order, sometimes reversed. And today, it's more about the music because someone else did the history part a long time ago. And with that...
Do you remember Richcolour and Mastermix dot org? If not, well, you missed out. It was a cool site dedicated to mixes played on the radio in the UK primarily in the eighties. The site is technically still there, but there isn't any content and I wouldn't bother visiting. Instead, use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and visit some archived versions of the site! Now, at this point you might be saying something to yourself like "None of the links on archive pages ever work, so I can't grab any of this cool stuff. What a rip-off!" To which I will respond, yeah, it's difficult for a service as cool as the Internet Archive to have unlimited bandwidth to share everything from every site ever, especially if there are copyright issues, but I've done you a solid and grabbed most of the mp3s that were there and now you can grab them from me! That's pretty great, right?
Let's discuss that most for a moment. Much to my surprise, I was able to get every mp3 from volume 2 of the Mastermix series directly from the archived versions of the site, which includes the supplemental mp3s featured alongside some of the main ones. Volume 1 was a different story though, as most of those links are totally dead. Thankfully, I found most of them on Soulseek and have included them for your listening pleasure. What's missing are a few tracks and some of those supplemental mp3s. As for volume 3, it seems that "Rich", or whatever the person running the site's real name is, never finished it, and I was only able to find three of the six mp3s that were posted, so I've included those three and a few tracks that fit the vibe of the rest of the site.
Below, you will find a link to the archived page for each volume as well as links for zipped collections of volumes 1 and 2, along with separate links for the volume 3 and related tracks. Please check out the archived pages as they give a ton of info about the individual tracks and where they were sourced from. Lots of incredible details there.
One more thing to go over regarding these files, the original metadata on them was a mess so I've pretty much thrown all of that away. I've renamed the files and retagged the mp3s so they're much easier to recognize. I'm under the impression that "Rich" was updating the site as they went along but never really altered the mp3s aside from pulling down some of the old links due to bandwidth issues. So if you're wondering what the original, untouched files looked like, please don't worry about them, because it was very easy to lose track of what you were listening to based off the confusing, incorrectly labeled metadata within them.
Mastermix dot org Volume 1 web archive
Volume 1 mp3s download
Mastermix dot org Volume 2 web archive
This page, for reasons unclear, still has a lot of the images, unlike the Volume 1 page.
Volume 2 mp3s download
Mastermix dot org Volume 3 web archive
Coldcut - Say Kids! What Time Is It?
The Commision - Satellite120
Paul Oakenfold & Woody Wood - Live and Direct
Paul Mulhern - Pause Button Mix for Stu Allen
I have no idea where I got this from. It's absolutely nuts and kinda creepy.
Tears for Fears - Shout (Omar Santana Bullet Edit)
Old school manual tape edits for the win! Does anyone still say for the win? Who cares! This is awesome!
DJ Crash - He Is DJ Crash
I read about this track in the liner notes to DJ Shadow's ...Endtroducing in the late nineties but I couldn't find anything about it at the time. Turns out DJ Crash was the DJ for rapper Gigolo Tony, and I believe they were from Florida. This track, an amazing example of tape edits, appeared on Gigolo Tony's second album, Ain't It Good to Ya, in 1989. Sadly, the record seems unavailable through legal means, though some of Gigolo Tony's music from that era seems to be around (see the excellent Shake Your Pants!). It also showed up on the first volume of the Scratch Masters bootleg compilation where it's attributed to Cut Master Crash. Discogs is my primary reference point here and there simply isn't any concrete data there to go by regarding Crash, so if you know more about him, please reach out to me here or on twitter. If you need my email address, it's unheard78 at gmail dot com, minus the spaces and such of course.
Do you remember Richcolour and Mastermix dot org? If not, well, you missed out. It was a cool site dedicated to mixes played on the radio in the UK primarily in the eighties. The site is technically still there, but there isn't any content and I wouldn't bother visiting. Instead, use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and visit some archived versions of the site! Now, at this point you might be saying something to yourself like "None of the links on archive pages ever work, so I can't grab any of this cool stuff. What a rip-off!" To which I will respond, yeah, it's difficult for a service as cool as the Internet Archive to have unlimited bandwidth to share everything from every site ever, especially if there are copyright issues, but I've done you a solid and grabbed most of the mp3s that were there and now you can grab them from me! That's pretty great, right?
Let's discuss that most for a moment. Much to my surprise, I was able to get every mp3 from volume 2 of the Mastermix series directly from the archived versions of the site, which includes the supplemental mp3s featured alongside some of the main ones. Volume 1 was a different story though, as most of those links are totally dead. Thankfully, I found most of them on Soulseek and have included them for your listening pleasure. What's missing are a few tracks and some of those supplemental mp3s. As for volume 3, it seems that "Rich", or whatever the person running the site's real name is, never finished it, and I was only able to find three of the six mp3s that were posted, so I've included those three and a few tracks that fit the vibe of the rest of the site.
Below, you will find a link to the archived page for each volume as well as links for zipped collections of volumes 1 and 2, along with separate links for the volume 3 and related tracks. Please check out the archived pages as they give a ton of info about the individual tracks and where they were sourced from. Lots of incredible details there.
One more thing to go over regarding these files, the original metadata on them was a mess so I've pretty much thrown all of that away. I've renamed the files and retagged the mp3s so they're much easier to recognize. I'm under the impression that "Rich" was updating the site as they went along but never really altered the mp3s aside from pulling down some of the old links due to bandwidth issues. So if you're wondering what the original, untouched files looked like, please don't worry about them, because it was very easy to lose track of what you were listening to based off the confusing, incorrectly labeled metadata within them.
Mastermix dot org Volume 1 web archive
Volume 1 mp3s download
Mastermix dot org Volume 2 web archive
This page, for reasons unclear, still has a lot of the images, unlike the Volume 1 page.
Volume 2 mp3s download
Mastermix dot org Volume 3 web archive
Coldcut - Say Kids! What Time Is It?
The Commision - Satellite120
Paul Oakenfold & Woody Wood - Live and Direct
Paul Mulhern - Pause Button Mix for Stu Allen
I have no idea where I got this from. It's absolutely nuts and kinda creepy.
Tears for Fears - Shout (Omar Santana Bullet Edit)
Old school manual tape edits for the win! Does anyone still say for the win? Who cares! This is awesome!
DJ Crash - He Is DJ Crash
I read about this track in the liner notes to DJ Shadow's ...Endtroducing in the late nineties but I couldn't find anything about it at the time. Turns out DJ Crash was the DJ for rapper Gigolo Tony, and I believe they were from Florida. This track, an amazing example of tape edits, appeared on Gigolo Tony's second album, Ain't It Good to Ya, in 1989. Sadly, the record seems unavailable through legal means, though some of Gigolo Tony's music from that era seems to be around (see the excellent Shake Your Pants!). It also showed up on the first volume of the Scratch Masters bootleg compilation where it's attributed to Cut Master Crash. Discogs is my primary reference point here and there simply isn't any concrete data there to go by regarding Crash, so if you know more about him, please reach out to me here or on twitter. If you need my email address, it's unheard78 at gmail dot com, minus the spaces and such of course.
Top work sir, some great memories of a fantastic site here.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who Rich Colour was, cos via the wayback, he name checks myself, and a few people that worked together and hung in the same circles during the early 2000s...
Didnt Rich Colour [or was it MP3Genius] release a finished CD ? MP3 Genius did a ropey looking comp but it definitely isnt that one, from memory it had a very glossy colourful sleeve.
A copy appeared at where I was living about a decade ago. I have one somewhere, it's tucked away in a loft at my Brothers place, and until he sells, that CD is buried underneath who knows what amount of junk.
Hopefully Rich/ Mastermix will return soon, I see theyve been teasing us recently...
http://mastermix.org/
BTW. The Omar Santana mix is banana bread with thick double cream !!
Many thanks....Craig