Beat Mining With The Vinyl Hoover

I was listening to this programme on Radio 4 on Monday when I picked up M from school but due to having other things on my mind at the time I wasn't really listening.

I listened again last night and think that anybody interested in vinyl at all should listen to it. It is narrated by Toby Amies and is about crate diggers, vinyl junkies and beats and breaks. It has some good contributions from the likes of Coldcut, giving a sample by sample run through of their groundbreaking remix of Eric B & Rakim's Paid In Full. Keb Darge talking about his exploits when looking for rare soul and Mark The 45 King's prescription for making the perfect hip-hop record amongst others.

This type of programme is why I love the BBC and Radio 4 in particular, informative without being dull and not at all that you would expect from the station that brings you Gardeners Question Time. It is a programme that is totally incongruous to the Radio 4 demographic. I can't imagine that the average Archers listener is a vinyl junkie, although I'm getting quite into the Archers these days, a sure sign of the aging process.

"A song about life, death, love, hate, wealth, poverty, racism just a few things that've been running through my head"

It got me thinking of all the cut n paste tracks that I have and what is my favourite. As I've mentioned before when hip-hop and dance started using samples I started buying these records like a zealot. When I bought my first record on Mo' Wax, I knew that I had found something really special, it was the 14th release on the label and I loved it so much I went on to buy each release up to # 70.

Unfortunately in a moment of madness I sold most of these off at a record fair in March 2003 to finance my first ipod, a move that I have bitterly regretted ever since as I only got 220 quid for 50 0dd releases including Headz and both Headz 2 vinyl box sets. I really wanted an ipod but why the hell didn't I just put it on the plastic?

I did, however keep MW014 and another 10 which I couldn't bear to part with.

DJ Shadow and the Groove Robbers - In/Flux