I had just returned from Jamaica, and by a nice coincidence I had a very nice selection of Studio One 7″ and 12″ records selected and mixed up all ready on a link (ready to download) in my personal email inbox by a guy named Adam Morris.
Adam has been ‘namedropped’ on this very site several times by myself as he is not only a great bloke, but he was also the tour manager of Killing Joke way back during the early days of the band up until the bands heyday during 1982 or thereabouts. Adam was also one of the head honchos at the Wau / Mr Modo record label that released some proper nice stuff, either on the same Wau / Mr Modo imprint, The Orb for example (Adam was also the manager of The Orb up to the time they signed to Virgin Records) or via Peppi’s Youth Sound label out of Stroud Green Road near Finsbury Park, Lidj Incorperated and Sound Iration etc (does anyone remember the Africa Centre Covent Garden Sound Systems this guy Peppi did?).
Adam has, along with a fellow Clash City Rocker, Pete Keeley (also a mate of Adam’s and myself incidently), a seriously large reggae vinyl record collection and I can guarantee that the tunes supplied on these mixes are proper Studio One 7″ and 12″ records bought or blagged at the time of release as opposed to a whole clutch of relatively piss easy to get late 1980’s / early 90’s 7″or CD re-issues.
A message from Adam Morris:
“Here’s the first of the new mixes I’m doing of my reggae vinyl collection. Its been a long journey already and I feel I have just begun.
I have so far been through four recording phases since I hooked an old PC up to my mixer last Xmas.
Phase one was using Sound Forge, a programme I was familiar with, but I only had on demo version and when the crack codes stopped working I realised it was £150 + for the official thing. Not right now, thanks. I don’t mind spending money on this project, but right now I need equipment, Ableton and CD DJ decks in particular, so if it makes any money, it is going on that.
Off I went to the land of freeware and a programme called Audacity. Its good once you get used to it. But the default setting is for mono recording and I was well into mix two before I realised this fact.
End of Phase two, the mono hours.
I have issued the results of Phase three in these two mixes. The stereo hours part one.
In a previous time, I lived in the Harlesden area of London when London was the reggae capital of the world. As a result, I worked as Lee Perry’s tour manager for a short while, I shopped at Mr Pecking’s Studio One shop and got to know George Pecking well and I was neighbours and mates with Dr Alimantado, to name but a few. So I feel I had good educators. I also feel the history and culture that this wonderful music represents and the need to treat these tunes with respect.
I’ve abandoned the idea of recording one continuous live DJ mix like I used to do in previous eras. For one thing, recording a CD/MP3 and mixing live are totally different performances. One is there permanently for posterity and the other isn’t. And one requires interaction with a crowd and lights and volume and so on which do not exist in my backroom.
Add to that the restrictions of the sound card and the fact you cannot use the EQ’s on a recording as you would live without over recording, plus, ofcourse, if you make a mistake 50 minutes in, you end up re-recording the whole thing again not just the bit you messed up, which is not a good way to work.
Not when you mess up as often as I do!
Trouble with my echo box is the buttons are not very accurate. You get a delay between when you push the button and when the effect arrives. So its tough staying accurate. But, given this restriction, since the days when I heard a roland chorus echo in action (used by Killing Joke and Basement Five rather than a dub band), I’ve wondered what reggae and Coxsone in particular would sound like passed through one, given that Coxsone didn’t have one in Studio One when he made the tunes.
The versions on his singles are sparse and full of space, making them prime material for adding dub echoes to.
I’m glad to say that now I’ve heard them, the tunes sound pretty much like I suspected they would ie ACE !!!
I have evolved a methodology of recording and mixing each track separately, then I am hooking them up into a DJ mix at the end. Still learning how to label the final file so the tracks show up individually, rather than as one continuous track in the CD player. Once I’ve done that I am home free. Perhaps.
Phase 4 started ten days ago.
I’m working on a 3rd Studio One mix, then I’m going to change to another studio, I’ll go back to Coxsone further down the line.
I am now treating it more like a recording session with a band, so I am making multiple recordings. The first take is the track flat, not speeded up or EQ’d. Then I record several different remixes. That way I will eventually end up with all vinyl archived digitally, which will be a good thing to have. And then, when I get the CD DJ decks, I can use WAV’s of the original recordings and speed them up and dub them live if and / or when I start playing out live again. And I will only have to take CDR’s out, not my heavy, vintage, rare vinyl. That can stay safely in my backroom where it won’t get worn any more.
My flat is now a home recording studio for DJ’s. One morning I had an album recording in one room, a CD burning on the other PC and I was in the front playing back my mixes. It was infact the first time I’d heard them all the way through.
I’m satisfied. I want to remix the tracks again of course, infact I probably will when I’ve gone through everything else.
So that’s all my spare time for the rest of my life sorted then. I hope you like what i’ve done, there’s going to be a lot more if you do…”
Thanks to Adam for sharing these tunes with me and allowing me to upload them here on this site.
These selections esp the second one is dedicated to my little man Aaron who has had his first (out of England) holiday very recently where he enjoyed meeting some of his cousins, aunties and uncles in Kingston, Gordon Town (Blue Mountains above Kingston), Black River (St Elizabeth) and Georges Plain (Westmoreland) immensely.
The weather in Jamaica suited him a fair bit also, 25c in that country’s winter time, suited me as well to tell the truth!
dan i
February 23, 2010 at 7:31 pmNice to hear about Adam, so he was the guy behind Mr Modo – very influential label in its day. Tell him thanks for all that Sound Iration stuff. Looking forward to listening to his mix, but envious of the spare time thing.
Hope JA was good,
Dan I
kperry
February 25, 2010 at 9:33 pmWelcome back and many thanks for the terrific beats here.
Cheers
kperry
charlie
February 26, 2010 at 1:10 pmwas adam around in nottingham 1981 ish and went to do some managing the newly forming southern death cult??? could be same bloke who hung out with the nottm punx and turned us on to the likes of gang of four etc…??
Penguin • Post Author •
February 27, 2010 at 9:25 amCharlie: Message from Adam Morris:
“I was born in Nottingham but left there when a small boy. Brian and I once went to see SDC with a view to signing them to Malicious Damage but nothing ever came of it, MD never had a bean to sign anything, which was a shame coz we also went to see The Birthday Party and DAF at that time… that’s the only Nottingham connections, oh, Killing Joke once got banned from Rock City after being forced to cancel a gig there”.
kashi
March 1, 2010 at 5:30 pmthank you for these … I haven’t heard them yet, but they look great.
dan i
March 8, 2010 at 9:51 amYou can tell Adam – very nice indeed, but you are allowed to switch the echo box off from time to time!!!
dan i
March 25, 2010 at 7:38 amTop reggae blog site: http://www.rootsfromyard.blogspot.com
Well worth exploring if you have enjoyed Penguin’s occasional reggae/dubwise selections as well as these lovely mixes from Adam.
Might even be a few things those two don’t kno on the site!
kashi
March 28, 2010 at 8:39 amFather & Dreadlocks on Vol2 !!!!
Penguin • Post Author •
March 28, 2010 at 8:56 amSome great material to upload on the site Dan I, another reason for me to while away the hours on blogs!
It even has some Penguin inspiration on one of the posts:
http://rootsfromyard.blogspot.com/2009/10/mother-miserable.html
A photo taken by me enroute to see Jah Woosh in St Mary’s JA. Nice to see it there!
Could you notify the moderater about this page below please Dan.
https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=701
As he or she tried a similar thread on the site re: Clash / Revolution Time
Some extra tunes that they may not know about.
dan i
March 28, 2010 at 11:43 amDone Penguin. It would be great to see some more of your JA photos. The ones you have shared so far have really captured the flavour of the place. And I am jealous…
Penguin • Post Author •
March 29, 2010 at 9:10 amThere are no doubt some more photos of JA that you have not seen on myspace page Dan I, got loads just need the time to scan them and store them somewhere. Hit my name for the myspace page to appear. Cheers for sending the other blog folk the message. I moved the post to today’s date as no one commented on it originally and it was Richard Kicks birthday today and he likes The Clash so hopefully will find the post interesting.
i@n
January 24, 2011 at 7:59 pmI really loved these mixes and still play them frequently. Any more in the pipeline?
Penguin • Post Author •
January 25, 2011 at 11:23 pmI will call Adam sometime this week and see if he has anything coming up.
Jeanette
January 27, 2012 at 1:13 amIt’s good listening to Adam’s mixes again. I used to have a couple of them on cassette tapes, given to me by his brother, Peter, who I used to go out with (back in the early 1980s).
jonder
June 12, 2012 at 2:47 pmI listened to both of these mixes during a long and rainy drive through the country, and they greatly improved my day! Thanks for your hard work and your impeccable taste, Adam. And thank you too, Penguin, for sharing these mixes and all the wonderful early On-U stuff.