It's hard to believe that this is only Surgeon's second ever mix CD. He used to put out a fair amount of records back in the late 90's but really not much at all these days. This is a welcome selection mixing up 30 tracks, presumably in Ableton. It's a heady mix of techno and UK bass music expertly blended. Surgeon really knows how to construct a mighty fine journey through his DJ sets and this documents that wonderfully. There are some cracking tunes on here from Scuba, Forward Strategy Group, Starkey, Robert Hood, Gatekeeper, Ancient Methods, Ital Tek, Greena, Planetery Assault Systems, Orphx. There's a healthy balance of dark and lighter tracks, always with an emphasis on infectious rhythm and almost narcotic groove. The set ends with two euphoric funkers from Russ Gabriel and DJ Overdose. This is coming in the car with me..... Highly recommended. I think the cover is a bit shite though, but that's a minor gripe.
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Sound clips for Fabric 53 by Surgeon: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Fabric, fabric105p, £11.99.
Flicking easily from the heavy, sheets of sound produced by his old school contemporaries, the legendary Surgeon fuses the old with the new on ‘fabric 53’.
At the beginning of 1993, Surgeon co-founded the House Of God night in Birmingham along with a like-minded circle of friends. The city’s first techno club night, the night has continued to strive 17 years on. Since its humble beginnings as a small night in the back of a pub, it has grown to host parties in 2000+ capacity venues around the Midlands, as well as introducing massive acts such as Dave Clarke, James Ruskin and Neil Landstrumm to perform in the region for the first time.
Over the years, Surgeon has been responsible for shaping and influencing much of the British techno scene – from his own solo productions to his work as British Murder Boys, Surgeon’s raw, industrial, avant-garde inspired style have been a staple for his constantly evolving sound. All the while, remaining contently oblivious to changing trends.
Anthony Child’s first foray into production was the highly acclaimed ‘Surgeon EP’, which eventually ended up in the crates of such DJ names as Jeff Mills and Dave Clarke. A further consequence of the ‘Surgeon EP’ led to Regis (aka Karl O’ Conner and one half of Sandwell District) starting the Downwards label, primarily so he could release Surgeon’s music.
Surgeon’s DJ career catapulted when he was offered a residency at the worldrenowned Tresor club. As well as landing a regular DJ slot at the club, Surgeon has also had a number of releases on its highly exclusive label, which has also been home to releases from the likes of Jeff Mills, Drexciya, James Ruskin, Juan Atkins, Thomas Fehlman and Octave One.
Surgeon’s DJ sets have always been a highly anticipated affair as each set is never the same; his selection of tunes forever change and stylistic perceptions are always broken down, making Surgeon a highly unpredictable act. Surgeon was one of the first DJs to go digital by incorporating Ableton and Final Scratch into his sets, discovering the potential of digital DJing.
Tracklisting:
Location recording from Kuramae Subway Station, Tokyo, Japan Scuba - Glance Surgeon - Bad Hands (Drums Only) Marco Bernardi - Giro (Exium Remix) Instra:mental - Forbidden Forward Strategy Group - Applied Generics A Reeko - Agile Movement Surgeon - Bad Hands Part 2 (Drums Only) Robert Hood - Superman Planetary Assault Systems - X Speaks To X (Al Tourettes & Appleblim Remix) Ritzi Lee - Black Star Ritual (Ben Sims Remix) T-Polar - Crab People Ital Tek - Spectrum Falls Surgeon - Klonk Part 1 (Drums Only) Subeena - Picture Fran Hartnett - It Was Written In Vapour Mark Broom & James Ruskin - Hostage Stephen Brown - Stress Free Ancient Methods - Ancient Methods 4 B1 Surgeon - Compliance Momentum Greena - Tenzado Starkey - Spacecraft Starkey ft Anneka - Stars (Slugabed Did A Remix) Cari LekeBusch - Spindizzy (Luke Slater’s L.B. Dub Corp Mix) Surgeon - The Crawling Frog Is Torn And Smiles Orphx - Threshold (Substance Mix) Gatekeeper - Blip Mark Broom & James Ruskin - No Time Soon Russ Gabriel - El Juan DJ Overdose - What
Other items by Surgeon
Balance Surgeon Double LP (vinyl), £9.99 Sorry - sold out.
