idjut boys: s/d

"since u-star records formed in 1984, its releases have been characterised by the use of studio techniques that draw their inspiration from the type of heavily effected sounds that original djs/mixers such as francois kevorkian and larry levan used during their more creative dub-based disco phase. after owners dan tyler and conrad mcdonnell (aka idjut boys) forged a useful partnership with like-minded studio producer laj (raj gupta), early releases such as 'oh la la teaparty' and 'funkyland' by bam bam proved that impressive and humorous talent was already developing. unfortunately, these extremely limited releases ensured that the idjut boys were kept a well-hidden secret.

the first u-star record to achieve any recognition was the not reggae ep (1995), which stood out from the vast majority of new releases because of its originality and the quality of the production. mixing live instrumentation with deep, dubby, heavy four-to-the-floor grooves, it was the sketch for the london 'nu-house' sound prevalent in recent years. included on the b-side were extended beat-based instrumentals which used heavily effected studio tricks to create a sound that shocked, then rocked dancefloors. tracks such as these are a staple element of their djing, tying vocal-led cuts between percussive grooves of original disco tracks between modern house, using techniques similar to dj harvey.

ben davies' the quakerman ep followed suit with the piano-led 'cream cheese' and the electro/house fusion of 'schlam me.' the beating on dave ep and the beard law ep (both 1996) continued in a similar vein, but also marked a progression in the intricacies of their pot-fuelled music which would later become evident on their debut album.

although still an enigma to most, the idjut boys received sufficient attention in london and from abroad to work on dub-reimxes, as opposed to complete reconstructions, for a variety of like-minded artists. one of their earlier efforts, a remix of century falls' 'it's music' (1996), produced live instrumentation above and beyond the normal artificial house sounds, managing to mix live salsoul-styled disco with dubbed-out house. their remix work has involved a man called adam, 16b, dimitri from paris and dj gilb'r, as well as re-editing jazz-funk records such as kabbala's 'ashewo ara' (1997) and atmosphear's 'deep space nine.'

alongside london's faze action, dj harvey, crispin j glover and ashley beedle, idjut boys were placed at the centre of the media vaunted 'nu-house' scene. while live instrumentation had become the fresh sound of house, the idjuts marked themselves out by veering clear of aimless 'jazz-noodling' and making records people could dance to.

alongside their u-star and noid imprints, the idjuts have launced the fiasco label (featuring a tabasco bottle on the front cover), with laj and quakerman providing the music, and the difunctional label, offering a diverse range of tracks from artists around the world. in 1997 they picked up more club play with the fela kuti-influenced drum sounds of the whoktish ep and perhaps their most complete production to date, the roll over and snore ep (1997), with a title track which uncharacteristically kicked into life with killer piano hook similar to those used on early chicago house cuts by the likes of marshall jefferson and sterling void.

1998 witnessed their debut album, noid long player. although it featured none of their singles to date, it had the idjuts' mark clearly stamped over every track. using a wealth of jazz-funk/disco samples as a common thread, cuts like highway 167 and steinworld are nothing but ludicrous drum breaks, extreme sound effects, and crazy marx brothers samples all the way."

-- vahid (vfoz...), April 5th, 2006.

Are you still doing this?

I'm impressed!

"NOID LONG PLAYER" JUST REISSUED ON CD.

BETTER THAN BURIAL

STOP

BETTER THAN GET PHYSICAL COMPS

STOP

BUY ON SIGHT

four hour set from manchester's electric chair

http://mixes.electriks.co.uk/IdjutPart1.mp3
http://mixes.electriks.co.uk/IdjutPart2.mp3
http://mixes.electriks.co.uk/IdjutPart3.mp3

yo awesome!
thanks vahid

again, make sure you burn this to a disc and play it on a real stereo ... their use of phasing + delay is just out of this world as usual

some funkiness going on with the track titles.

the track labeled "IdjutPart3" is not contiguous with "IdjutPart2", it's contiguous with "IdjutPart1".

so it goes like this IdjutPart1 -> IdjutPart3

IdjutPart2 is not contiguous with either 1 or 3, so i'm not sure if it's a different night or what ...

accordingly, i performed the following surgical re-section to fit them onto 4 CDs...

Disc 1
IdjutPart1 edited at 69:26 (just at the end of "boogie oogie oogie")

Disc 2
remainder of IdjutPart1 (20:56)
IdjutPart3 edited at 47:32 (added a 5-second fade)

Disc 3
remainder of IdjutPart3, edited the fadeout at the 82:03 mark (34:51 total)
IdjutPart2, beginning at 00:09 (only the tribal drums, skipping the horns) and cut at 27:06 (just before the cymbals come in)

Disc 4
remainder of IdjutPart2 (62:33)

sad, right?

more like "generous". i'll be the one who buys several chunky 4CD jewel cases and creates artwork for it and then hands it out to friends (if that's cool)

have they/will they come to sf?

i just moved back here and missed harvet

HARVEY

haha it turned out that my dissection of the tracks was totally WRONG.

the problem is simpler than i guessed! what's really going on is that for some reason 54 seconds from part 2 somehow snuck onto the beginning of part 3.

so i recut it like this

disc 1 - first 69:27 of idjutspart1.mp3

disc 2 - last 20:56 of part1, first 00:54 from idjutspart3.mp3, first 41:02 from idjutspart2.mp3

disc 3 - last 48:39 from idjutspart2.mp3, 00:55-22:38 from idjutspart3.mp3

disc 4 - remaining 62:05 from idjutspart3.mp3

What is that crazy violin tune at the end of part 1, is it a loop they're layering on top or does anyone know of it? I'm talkng about the hysteric bit at the start, not the smooth strings that come in later -unless it really is all from the same track.

china crisis - african and white (39 minutes into part 2)

SO FRESH

oh man i just got a copy of 'beatin' on dave', it is the greatest. so heavy!!

i'd just like to give props to "smokin balls" and "laisn". the kalabrese rmx of laisn is totally fucking sick, as well.

this thread was cute. proto beardo

'Jaz Fook' - Idjut Boys & Laj (from the Noname ep). I LOVED that tune when it came out (in 1994?)!

Phil Collins remix posted on 20jazzfunkgreats is great! A bit of echo turns that piano into an epic rhodes.

i played that out on friday! so good

how was that?

i mentioned it on the techno bobbins thread already but there's a new idjuts 12" proper (not re-edits or remixing someone else) called 'droid'. it's tracky, like 'dj tool' tracky - drums-n-echo and not much else, really minimal.

i heard a suggestion that "droid" was a new sub-label (of noid) for tech-ier stuff. like hairy claw vs bear funk, maybe?

that'd be good! i am... getting a bit burned-out on disco edits.

i am ... also ... a bit ... burned-out ... on ... edits

this looks alright!

so does this actually, hot damn.

anyone got 'droid 2' yet? samples sound like a couple of dubby acid blowouts.

that looks SO good.

looking for "droid 2", "droid 1" was fucking heavy.

i wish i understood how the idjut boys mixed records, they are so good at it and yet it seems like they don't even bother to beatmatch really, they just do some weird-ass mixing board magic and everything just flows together. it is bizarre. i wonder if they use kaoss pads?

like, what is that thing on their discogs.com photo and why does it have a billion wires plugged into it? are they mixing with a 4-track or something?