“It’s your record. You discovered it…You love it for the feelings it conjures…
Thirty years ago some now-forgotten musicians cut that record. Without them this brilliant song wouldn’t exist. But without you – a DJ – that record would be in a bent cardboard box in a basement…
This is the thrill, and the compulsion, of DJing. This need to share music, and to constantly find new music to excite people with, this is the primal force of DJing.”
Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton
The Record Players (DJ Revolutionaries)
Welcome to the Cookie-Dough Guest mix where we invite some of favourite DJ / Producers to answer a few questions and dig deep into their collections and put together a mix of their favourite records.
For this episode we have invited Swedish DJ Olof FolO aka DJ ShmeeJay to spin some of the records that have influenced him over the years.
His ‘Ain’t No Big Thing’ Radio shows have had us grooving at Cookie-Dough HQ!
Nice one Olof!
A few words from Olof
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to your project and to give me another excuse to tool around some more with my music collection. Putting together a mix of my favorite music is an interesting challenge and isn’t necessarily as easy as it seems, considering the wealth of music and variety available. I chose to make this a fairly upbeat and fun affair, kicking things off with Kid Creole and The Coconut’s ‘Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy’ for the simple reason that I love everything about Kid Creole and the Coconuts and think August Darnell is a genius providing a carnival of sound and a sight for sore eyes with the Coconuts and August himself in his zoot suit. Honestly, when I was fist awarded the offer to make this mix tape, I knew I had to kick off with Kid Creole and The Coconuts. From there I tried to keep the fun going in the hopes of getting the listener of their seat and wiggling their hips. Lastly I close with Louis Armstrong’s rendition of ‘What A Wonderful World’. A song that may not seem to fit with the rest of the tracks, but one that fits in the theme of some of my favorite music. His rendition, including the spoken intro on this version from 1970, just drips of sweetness but also has a dark undertone creating an incredibly powerful song that truly is a classic for the ages.
One more thing I’d like to say, though, is that there should be no guilt. Only pleasure.
Track list:
Kid Creole and The Coconuts – Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy (Original Mix)
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks (Disco Tech Needs A Break Edit)
Alicia Myers – I Wanna Thank You (Alkalino Rework)
Average White Band – Work To Do (Pulse Rework)
Dynasty – Love in the Fast Lane (Munga‘s Nasty Bits Reordering)
Richard Jon Smith – Baby’s Got Another (Shield Your Eyes Re-edit)
Claudja Barry – Sweet Dynamite (Breixo Edit)
Tony Orlando – Don’t Let Go (Disco Tech Edit)
Rick James – Ghetto Life (Queen & Disco Edit)
Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World (Spoken Intro Version – 1970)
Nec seclus. Tantum delectantur
Q&A What was the first record you bought that made you realize that you wanted to be a DJ / Producer?
Beastie Boy’s ‘She’s On It’ that came out in 1985 the year before License To Ill. I recognize it’s not an entirely original story regarding the seminal nature of Licensed To Ill, but I entirely feel off of my rocker when I got my hands on this 12″. I got the 12″, not because I thought I’d wanna dj, but I wanted the last verse, that wasn’t included on the 7″ version. At 13 me and some friends started a hip hop crew calling ourselves Five UnCilized Kids (F.U.C.K), making tracks with two MCs, a drum machine, live bass and electric guitar. I was probably the worst white suburban MC in the history of mankind, and eventually leaving that behind spending the 90s making strange ambient dub music with hardware and not really getting into djing until about 10 years ago. I have not been able to put music aside since that record landed in my hands.
What record makes you most nostaligic?
MC5’s ‘Kick Out The Jams’ Back in my ‘hip hop days’ in Sweden we were a strange crew and just a mix of kids that were into music. I was driving the hip hop element in my all Adidas gear, but the guitar player was a punk, alos playing for a band they called The Doodles (still have a 7″ they put out, by the way), and the bassist was also playing in a band that was doing blues covers, going by King Nilssons’s Cruel Jazz Band. ‘Kick Out The Jams’ was a record we all united around, and this questions is particularly poignant because I just picked up a reissue at Sonic Boom Records in Seattle last month.
What is your favourite end of night record?
Clearly, that really depends on the night and the crowd. But I do have a particular fondness for closing the night with The Wings’ ‘Good Night Tonight’. It’s just so obvious, and when you play it everyone knows what’s going on. “Don’t say it! Don’t say it! Don’t say goodnight tonight’. But, I am…
Do you have a guilty pleasure record?
The Backstreet Boys’ ‘Backstreet’s Back’ and I bet that came as a surprise. The story behind it though is I was living in Oregon in the Northwest US. I was in my late twenties and my sixteen year old sister was visiting with a friend of hers. While my partner was away at a music festival with some friends, I decided to take the girls camping in the Northern California redwoods, Driving there I though I’d be the good guy and just let the girls have their way with the radio, and it being 1998 they had the tape on repeat. The trip escalated to the three of us driving around the Northern California forest with the volume up, windows down and all of us singing along at the top of our lungs. But, no, I don’t have the record, but I can honestly say I love it.
What is your most treasured piece of vinyl?
Jerry Garcia Band’s ‘Cats Under The Stars’. Jerry Garcia Band isn’t really know for producing great albums. But just like the Grateful Dead, the band that Jerry made his name with, they’re really a live band. But ‘Cats Under The Stars’, Jerry Garcia Band’s only credited album, is just a beautiful album with a beautiful and simple cover art and a bunch of wonderful songs. I’m particularly fond of the title track ‘Cats Under The Stars’ as well as ‘Rhapsody In Red’.
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