So these two fellas get together, one guy named Strictly Kev, the other PC, that's short for Patrick Carpenter, but that "real name" shit doesn't matter here 'cos these guys are respected recording artists for the Ninjatune label. Cohorts of Coldcut. Masters of Mixology, if you can bear to hear that overused term one last time.
Soundproof: The last work that I remember seeing from you was the Funkungfusion track (The Crow) and the Mimaster Morris remix (Nepalese Bliss). What are you working on right now?
PC: We’re about to finish an album, probably next week. It’ll be out in April next year.
Soundproof: Who are some of the guests on it?
Kev: We’ve got Ken Nordine, who used to do word jazz in the Sixties…well still does word jazz. He premiered in the Sixties. He’s a spoken word guy. Bundy K Brown, who’s part of Tortoise, and now works with the whole Chicago lot. J. Swinscoe from the Cinematic Orchestra; he’s also a Ninja. Patrick’s doing a track with him that might not make it on the record. That’s about it for guests… and Strictly Kev. I’m guesting on my own record.
Soundproof: The Solid Steel radio show had been moved over to a Ninjatune Internet show, is that correct?
DJF: Yeah.
Soundproof: What’s in the work’s with that?
PC: There was a situation where Kiss FM in London, which we were originally on for doing the show. They were changing their format and they wanted to cut back on DJs. We had a Saturday night 1 to 3 slot. They wanted to move us to a Tuesday morning 2 to 4 slot, which we said was no good. We weren’t happy with that. They wouldn’t change it, so we left rather than being moved and kicked off later on and fade into obscurity. Quite a lot of other DJs got sacked or left as well. It’s now going onto the Internet. It’s still syndicated around the world in various different countries and it’s still being done on and off. We just don’t have a London outlet at the moment.
Soundproof: Tell us about the Blech project from a couple years ago. How did that come about? Are there any other mixed CDs coming out of the release pipe? I still think that’s actually one of the nicest mix CDs that I’ve ever heard.
PC: You’ve heard Journeys By DJ I presume? We did that with Coldcut. The ColdKrush compilation, have you heard that? The compilation of Ninjatune stuff. There’s two Blech’s; there’s the cassette version which is different than the CD. There was going to be a third one which was going to be a breaks and beats thing on vinyl, which we were just going to make all the beats out of Warp artist stuff, just like a DJ tools. That didn’t really materialize. That whole thing came about through being friends with people at Warp and them wanting their cassette back. The original cassette was like a promotional only thing, which they decided to sell eventually, because the distributors were really into it. They wanted to do a CD version because tapes don’t particularly sell and because we didn’t feel the cassette was involved enough. We did a completely new one.
Soundproof: Do you have any more mixed-set releases impending in the future?
PC: Not in the foreseeable future, no.
Soundproof: Your shows are really interactive when you have all the Hex stuff and the artists that are involved when you go on tour. How did the shows develop?
PC: We didn’t really. We don’t really interact with Hex at all. That’s all more Coldcut. If you’re on a ninja tour with Hex on board, they do visuals for everybody. It’s pretty freeform.
Soundproof: Is there any crossover or merging that happens on the Coldcut and DJ Food album releases between Coldcut and DJ Food? Are you ever considered part of Coldcut or are either of them considered part of DJ Food?
Kev: Sometimes they consider themselves part of DJ Food, but they wouldn’t consider us part of Coldcut.
Soundproof: Is that a superiority thing on their angle?
Kev: No. We would be considered part of Coldcut in terms of the radio show. I mean, not as in the recording part of Coldcut. The whole thing with Coldcut and Food is really ambiguous because they started Food. They’ve now given it over to us. We’ve helped out Coldcut numerous times in recording, mixing, DJing clubs, all sorts of things…the radio show for years. It’s all very ambiguous. If you’re hearing Coldcut on the radio, you could be hearing me or Patrick or them or any other number of people. It’s very ambiguous. You have to read the small print to see who you’re getting. Coldcut live is Matt and Jon. Coldcut on record is Matt and Jon with collaboration. Sometimes that might be us…more rarely these days.
Soundproof: Out of curiosity…how many hundreds of times have you guys heard the Eric B and Rakim mix from a decade ago?
PC: Not too many.
Kev: They let us play out with them way too many times on tour. The end of ’97, we were touring non-stop with them. You know…you’re hearing the sound check, you hear it on the stage.
Soundproof: Were the remixers that were involved on the Refried Food project your personal choices or the label’s choice?
PC: Some of them. I specifically got Squarepusher to do his mix. He hadn’t done any remixes at all. He had only put two records out. We both wanted Autechre to do. I don’t know. Did you choose some?
Kev: I chose a couple.
PC: I think some people asked to do it, which is nice.
Kev: Damian Harris from Skint asked to do "Dark Lady."
Soundproof: The hip-hop scene in Britain has gotten a lot of international recognition recently. What’s your perspective on how the U.K. scene is doing right now and what kind of feedback do you get from other countries?
PC: Do you mean the hip-hop scene or what Ninja makes of it? I don’t classify what Ninja does as hip-hop. I don’t know what it is. It’s just Ninjatune music.
D: Well then the hip-hop scene.
Kev: I don’t know. I mean, Clifford Gilberto, I wouldn’t say was hip-hop. I wouldn’t say we were hip-hop or Coldcut’s hip-hop. It’s derivative of a lot of things, including hip-hop. I don’t really know what that scene is or does.
Soundproof: You said J. Swinscoe was going to be playing a part in your release. How large of a role does he have?
Kev: Me and Jason have started writing tracks and we’ve got another two or three to start. I don’t think they’re going to actually make it on the album. We’ve sort of wrapped up the album now. Nine of them are finished. We’ll finish them and put them out separately as an EP or something.
Soundproof: Motion has got to be one of the most underrated albums that’s comes out in the last few months. It hasn’t been getting a lot…
Kev: It did just come out.
Soundproof: Yeah, but I just feel it hasn’t quite gotten the press it warrants.
PC: It takes time. A release…jazz…that’s got a big push behind it. It takes time.
Kev: But subtle things take time. They have to prove their worth by standing the test of time. This has only just come out in the last couple of months. I think people will return to it and listen to it more and more as time goes by. Subtleties are not in your face obviously. It’s going to take a bit of time to be noticed on a sort of grander magnitude.
PC: I think a lost of people are going to be surprised when they hear our record as well. It’s not exactly club music. It’s got elements of Jason’s record and elements of something like…I don’t know. What does it got elements of?
Kev: It’s got all sorts of stuff.
Soundproof: Anything that you guys want to add?
PC: DJ Food didn’t sell out.
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