Steinski's Party Invite

I've always been a big Steinski fan. In fact the first time I ever heard a Double Dee & Steinski record would have been back in 1985 with the track, 'Lesson 3' (the Led Zep intro). This was my first taste of cut-n-paste and I was immediately hooked.

I bought what I then thought was the proper record but was actually a bootleg - red label, The History Of Hip Hop, RPM Records - from the legendary Groove Records a couple of years later and then another copy from Bluebird Records. Also included here were Lessons 1 and 2 - Lesson 1 being the Payoff Mix which was at the very least a remix of GLOBE and Whiz Kid's Play That Beat Mr DJ.

More tunes would follow in a similar vein. The elusive The Motorcade Sped On, which was a cut-up track about the assassination of President John F Kennedy using the news report from US news presenter, Walter Cronkite. I managed to get this on wax on a record from the US dj pool service DISCONET and subsequently later as a 7" on a special edition from the British NME magazine.

We'll Be Right Back came along in 1986 which used a succession of old 1950's US commercials all cut-up and scratched. In actual fact Steinski (Steve Stein), being in Marketing himself, used his network of tv voiceover artist friends to record a load of phrases, thus not having to pay for any copyrighted ads. This time he released the song as Steinski And Mass Media as Double Dee (Douglas Difranco) was not available.

1988 saw another release, the more clubby Let's Play It Cool which used bongos to help it achieve a nice groove. There were still a good amount of samples employed here, albeit very obscure but possibly to avoid any clearence issues. As with the previous release the accapella was included on the flip - a treasure chest to me!

The was a break for a while until 1992 when I first heard Steinski in interview on Coldcut's Solid Steel show - I will post this once I've converted it for the digital age. He gave us a new track entitled, It's Up To You' which was about the Gulf War. I personally preferred the B-side Television mix which was much more Steinski of old.

There's a pretty rare cd going around called Nothing To Fear - A Rough Mix which is just superb. Hold tight people, this is coming soon I promise.

In the meantime here is something which is pretty rare. In fact I've never heard it anywhere else. It's a cassette tape invite entitled: The Reckless Spenders Social & Pleasure Club in association with Mass Media USA proudly present The 1991 Autumnal Harvest Festival & The World's Greatest Soul Dance, Friday October 18th, 9pm. It's a specially-made short piece using obscure and not so obscure (Bugs Bunny) samples for a club night back in 1991.

I ripped it from a cassette and the reason I got this tape was because I won a competition on the Coldcut Solid Steel Show. Obviously Steinski had sent them the cassette and they were now giving it away. Lucky me. Now, lucky you. This is something I've always and will always treasure so grab yourself a listen. It's only 2m.40s.

Download Steinski's Party Invite Tape