SAT SHED BOOGIE AND BEYOND: Free mixes to download.

You may have noticed a link to S.A.T.’s Shed Boogie blog over in my links section. Can’t remember how I first came across the site, I think me virtual partner in grime Al Iguana may have alerted me to the site. The site has not been updated for a while… until recently. SAT has just uploaded a mix he has put together for all to download, called ‘Spring in the Shed boogie’. I duly downloaded it and burned it onto disc. It is a nice little blend of jazz, funk, and dub with several spoonfuls of salsa/marimba jive type stuff. Well worth the wait since the last update.

After giving his new mix a listen I decided to have a root through his links and revisit some of his older posts. My hard drive is starting to clog up with stuff I have now found. Many of you will find this old hat, but this is all fairly new to me; I have been too paranoid about viruses to do much downloading but Number one daughter persuaded me to let her download some stuff then the next thing you know I was up till the wee small hours plucking old classics from Limewire. Anyway…. I will highlight some of the stuff I have found from diving off S.A.T.’s virtual surfboard.There are a couple of sites where you can find mixes uploaded.

BoomBox deals only with ‘Virtual Mix Tapes’, i.e. compilations of stuff already released but not remixed by the ‘uploader’, cos re-mixing obviously has legal implications. It looks like anyone with a bit of technical knowledge and a half decent record collection can upload. There is shed loads of stuff on there and I aint even scratched the surface, but I did find a few interesting things done by BONG, the poor mans Orb. I particularly liked his ‘Cosmic Ambience (Your’e Going Home Ina)’ and ‘Astral Chatterlings’. the quality obviously varies, but I aint found any howlers (yet). You can even download covers to print out.

Beatonic appears to be stuff uploaded by ‘proper DJs’, the Paul Murphy ‘Afro Beat Mix' is nothing short of awesome, I also liked the Boogieburg ‘Solid Steel Mix’. There’s some other stuff I have downloaded from there but not had a chance to listen to them all yet.

The mixes on the above sites are downloaded as one long MP3, which can be a bit annoying when trying to work out what it is you are listening to or if you want to skip to your favourite bits, but on the other hand maybe they should be listened to as a complete piece of work to be fully appreciated.

Also through rummaging around SATs blog I happened across Go Home Productions, where Mark Vilder has some MP3 goodies for you to plunder (his words, not mine). He has done some pretty wicked mash up/bootleg thingys, I particularly like ‘Strung Out’, which mixes Elvis Presley and the Farm (yes, the Farm) and his mash up of Primal Scream’s ‘Kowalski’ with the Beatles and Beyonce.

This is just a sample of some of the stuff I have found since surfing off SATs platform, Big shout to ya SAT, who ever you are!

While we are on the subject of freebies, you can download a welly full of really nasty crusty hardcore by going to the 'pukebox' on Scrap Records , home of 2000 Dirty Squatters. Not quite as classy as SAT and his mates, but stuff that is pretty hard to get hold of elsewhere.

Watch this space, i am sure i will have more for you in the future!