Tom Middleton: The Trip

Various Artists / The Trip - Created By Tom Middleton
Family Recordings

Tom Middleton jumped at the chance to create a unique mix CD when given carte blanche to trawl through the archives of Universal and other labels. Following up his excellent "The Sound Of Cosmos" collection, he wanted to create a mix that would stand head and shoulders above the hundreds of machine-mixed, by-the-numbers house, and send-you-to-sleep chill-out CDs. Divided into two styles (party and post-party) on the CDs (with a selection of both on the LPs), he mixes up funk, soul, new wave, electro-pop, hip hop, drum and bass, reggae, punk-funk, jazz, electronica...in fact, anything he fancied from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s! There's a disco mix of James Brown, Sherbert's rework of The Police's "Roxanne", the Bollywood Freaks' Michael Jackson cover unmasked as Usha Uthup's "Chhupke Kaun Aye", Ramsey Lewis, The Mohawks, Danny Breaks, Spanky Wilson, Ulrich Schnauss and (pleasingly showing his age - 37 / 38?) a whole load of telly and film themes (Pearl & Dean, Star Wars, Camberwick Green, Bod, The Clangers, that bit from the end of John Craven's Newsround, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind etc). Mr Middleton, we salute you, and your disco beard!

2xCD - 981 753-4 - limited cheap price
45 track double mix (?) CD. Extras include.... Tom Tom Club, Thomspon Twins, Pigbag, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Lenny Fontana, Mckay, Shirley Ellis, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Level 42, Faze-O, The Style Council, Dorothy Ashby, Stanley Clarke and obviously loads more (too many to type!).

i'm sooo glad somebody finally figured out about usha uthup. it's bad enough bootlegging music, but changing the name?? and can i just say that i've heard about enough "wordy rappinghood" for a lifetime, thanks. i don't want to hear it again unless it's LOUD.

this looks pretty good, though i recall feeling similar sensations on seeing the chicken lips mix tracklistings and since i got those (nitelife + dj kicks) i've listened to them about, oh i dunno, five times between the two of them.

i'm still listening to tom middleton's essential mix from 10/02, though, so i'll probably have to check this one out anyway.

First Time: Ronan persuades friend who loved "Take Me With You" to come to Middleton instead of Etienne De Crecy/Alex Gopher the week after, friend in question is not very into dance music but knows what he likes, Middleton plays some deep house then loads of shite bootlegs badly mixed, then he begins to talk into the mic and say "are you enjoying yourselves" and things. Some sort of triumph for those "ah he did something different" salt of the earth dickheads was that night. Anyway he never even played Take Me With You, and Etienne/Alex were amazing the next week, and said friend went off coming out clubbing for quite some time.

SECOND AND WORSE TIME: Witnness Festival, Middleton is on circa 5 o clock. He comes on and plays rubbish old skool hiphop for a while, then starts talking on the mic again, maybe he was coked I dunno, over the music, then as the final indignity ends his set with HAVE A NICE DAY by the Stereophonics!

FUCKER.

Oh my. This CD is the bomb, really and truly, but that's just the worst thing anyone can do ever.

But the CD is awesome! It's smooth and silky and inventive - I especially love the epic Dudley Moore Trio track which is the centrepiece of the second disc - and its one flaw is that it includes a Senor Coconut cover of "Smooth Operator" instead of the original "Smooth Operator", which would be perfectly suited to the general mood.

Well OK, I only know the one track - a demented Bollywood/disco masterpiece called "One Two Cha Cha Cha", which quotes KC & The Sunshine Band. But it's fab.

Some of the tracklistings have the Thompson Twins track down as "Love Lies Fierce" - a limited edition remix of "Love Lies Bleeding" for which I retain a great affection.

who's actually listened to it?

could be the ideal remedy, because funny thing is these days i'm sorta sick of all mix cds to be honest. even soulwax, dj kicks, yoda, the jacques lucont fabric one; all of them kind of them bore the ass off me. i think it's because in the world of mp3s, ipods, cd mixers and god knows what else our own mixes are invariably just as much fun! more so.

yeah the presence of wrdyrppnghood *agan* kinda wrankles.

I've turned 30 at my birthday party with Tom on the decks - best night of my life. Don't knock someone who likes to take risks - if he didn't, then this album would never have been born. Bloody binheadz that anticipate what he's going to play and feel let down when he does something completely different. If a gig is advertised as being "Deep House" and he plays Monkey Magic all night, then you have reason to feel cheated - if you're going to a Tom Middleton gig it's a bit like watching "Have I got News for you" on one of their better episodes. Some people think it's a bit wanky to play what you like but maybe those that get offended by hearing Stereophonics at the end of a set really need to get their head out of their arse and stop being such a spoilt bratt. I don't like the Carphone Warehouse or Stereophonics at all but please, so what.

What you think is shit is someone elses roses.

so far like.

http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=378037

Trip 2 !!

"...every track a joy ...in short it's what djing should be about"
mixmag

Cosmosonica was such a huge dissapointment though, wasn't it? especially after the amazingness that was The Trip and Sound of the Cosmos...