The History of the london Vibes EP .
For a while i went by the name of Cutmaster Ace “The Ladies Choice”
but really I DJ by my real name Orion.
“Sounds of the DJ Orion”
www.dj-orion.com
I was a cross borough youth worker at the time teaching Young people how to DJ and also at the youth Club had a basic studio using Cubase and an Akai S3000XL . I was into Djing myself and still am.
During the years of being a youth worker various young people came through the Youth Clubs were I worked such as:
DJ Dee kline (aka Nick) Rat records and Jungle Cakes
(I went round his house in Wimbledon and I taught him at the time the basics of how to use the Akai S2000 ) I think he gave me £10 for doing that.
DJ Basher (aka Darren) Ram Records and Proximity Records (Setup his Akai S3000 XL and got it working with his Computer, which he gave me a Tenner.)
DJ Acee (aka Andrew) Flex Fm (showed him the basics of cubase at the youth club)
Mikal - (Aka Mick) Metalheadz (showed him the basics of cubase at the youth club)
DJ Blakey (aka Richard) DMC 2004 DMC Champion (Brilliant DJ far better then me, helped prepare his set for DMC in London 2001 which he got through. He went on to win the uk championship in 2004 and came fourth in the world Championship in 2004.
DJ Underground Ice (aka Wayne) Wayne was a regular at the youth club and him a little bit of experience of the studio.
I can’t remember the others sorry .
oh yeah another one DJ Topspin aka Jesse from Mortlake but he only DJ a couple of times at the Under 18 parties called B line where I worked.He went on to make Hobson’s Choice in 1997 I think. I didn’t really know him.
THE EP
One side was produced by myself which involved the tracks using the samples
1, London Vibes - Sampled from : DJ Krome & Mr. Time = Ganjaman
2, Escape Feat: Sampled from: MC Dett - Renegade Snares by Omni Trio
This is my EP link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_e5o4KEitc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47UHG8KcTD4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeqBj_6G6AU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpKDBzt0Tlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3nRXpZyZzs
https://www.discogs.com/SW15-London-Vibes-EP/master/1263141
MY side of the Ep:
The Track: London Vibes
This was a collection of samples relating to smoking weed which was ironic since i was a youth worker at the time. Just for the record I was never into smoking dope but never the less the idea to make a tune using those samples came about.
The b line was meant to be different after every breakdown and thats something Tam was able to make better then what i imagined. I do regret not making a 2 step mix but I was never into 2 step that much hence there was only one mix of the song.
The Track: Escape
With the intro of Darth Vader and MC Dett this was more of a track that started atmospheric then when the Line came in it changed the style of the song. I was inspired when I heard a garage track at a rave at club colosseum on boxing day 1996 in vauxhall when the drop came in and so the idea of using take me up came into the making if it .
The b line was inspired by Renegade Terrorist .
Escape is my favourite track out of the two.
Both tracks I made were just a collection of tracks and samples I liked and wanted to put them into a tune. The sample of MC Dett in the tune Escape , came from a Jungle Fever Mix by DJ Hype in Germany in 1998 .
The otherside of the Ep:
The other side was made by a DJ called Mister Sess aka Richard who was my mate.
He made his tracks in 2000.
Mr Ses: Reminisce (Back 2 89 Mix)
Mr Ses: Drivin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=ku2EVQmGTBA
The name of the label SW15 wasn’t my idea but went along with it and so fungus mungus came later. Another name was weedburners but that was thought of being too much and so at the time we both agreed to call the label SW15. The original idea of the label was to be called garage grooves and I designed the artwork for that back in 1996 but again it wasn’t right for the tunes made at that time.
I designed and printed the orange A4 letterheads at the youth club. On the back we had a reaction sheet were you could of sent it to some Random address in Roehampton SW15 hence the label name. The phone number was a pay as you number and did receive a few calls about tracks and I think we did get a couple of CD’s sent .
I thought of the ideas and samples and how I envisaged the track to be. I produced London Vibes and Escape by drawing out line by line eg
Track 1 Beat 1
Track 2 Sample “Take me up”
Pretty much like your see today on your logic or Cubase screen.
Then my friend Tam had a studio in Farringdon at the time and so went round there and he helped me put the tracks together . I said I would like the B line to sound like this and he did his best to come up with something I liked and would work.
Tam Cooper now has own studio and makes music.
His recent success was the music behind the Thomas cook advert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZaXIjpUQg
I think Tam has got the files but i still have the samples. And the mastered Copies of my tracks.
I found a music presser called Independent Pressing co.Ltd in Sheperds Bush and for £400 (cash) we could get the track mastered and pressed using virgin vinyl and white labelled up and basic sleeving.
With that you also got either 5 or ten test presses.
It was a limited run of 200 copies , Most were sold or given away.
The tracks were mastered at Alchemy Mastering in great Windmill street . by Martin Giles and mastered . Mastered CD’s were given to us at the end of the session which I’ve still kept.
The test presses and copies were delivered to Mister Sess in Roehampton.
We even went under false names eg: I called myself Dominic when going to the mastering studio LOL.
When I cut the dubs at music House in Holloway Road The engineer Leon said “ your using DJ hypes track, thats my mate. I said it was a youth club project and so he carried on cutting the dubs .
During the session we got on quite well. But I learnt really not to push the track. I didn’t want DJ Hype coming after me LOL.
It was a white label of about 200 copies in which we went around the record shops in London and did it on sale or return. We sold most of them but to get money off certain records shops after were sold, was tiresome , some were cool but some tried it , so in some respects it put me off doing the whole thing of sale and return.
I sold a few copies to the young people in the youth club at cost price and they seemed to like it. I would always play it without telling them to see there reaction. After I told them most of the time they would buy it.
Certain DJ’s got test presses like DJ EZ (I didn’t meet him I just dropped it off at Kiss House in Holloway Road LOL . I did hear his show after i dropped off the test press that evening and I heard him saying he was going to play a brand new 4x4 track called escape but on that show he had MC PSG live and so it didn’t get played. In saying that he might of played it , i’m not sure really. ! Also a couple of Dj’s from Flex FM DJ Accee (Aka Andrew) and Dee lite FM . One of the DJ’s was called Steppa (Aka Daniel) and DJ Underground Ice (Aka Wayne) who is a great DJ ! .
A dub plate was especially cut for DJ Deekline as I knew him and at that time he had a show on Flex FM on Sundays and his MC called MC Hyperactive aka Amar .
The EP was in my opinion was brought out too late in 2000 . My tracks were made in 1998/99.
The scene then changed to more of a 2 step beat style with mc’s .
Mister Sess aka Richard is a talented DJ and music producer and taught me the basics of scratching we discussed about music and he said he would be up for being involved in the Ep by providing two tracks. Believe it or not his tracks were made on a Playstation and then got it put onto CD for mastering.
I was a key holder to the youth club and it was agreed Icould use the studio out of hours to do stuff so I do remember one night getting the tracks off the playstation and burning it onto CD.
For £5 he was asked to have the mastered put onto CD at the mastering studio, but not sure if he did this or not.
To my knowledge I only have the mastered versions of my tracks from the EP. Because I kept the receipt and have kept the CD.
Mister Sess had a few things going on and sort of went AWOL for a few months and sort of lost contact.
I ended up doing most of the sale and return and sort of pushing it really and therefore we sort of went our separate ways. We never fell out or nothing and we are friends on facebook .
During that time I was studying to do the knowledge to become a licensed London Taxi Driver and so I concentrated all my efforts into that. After ten years of being a Youth Worker and doing various projects I resigned . I became a London Taxi Driver in 2003 and was still into Music and DJing House until 2008. During that time I made tracks here and there but only for personal use and maybe play out from time to time.
I do remember in 2000 /2001 I did for some reason send it to some random Dj’s by taking out the A4 orange letterhead and printing stickers with name Fungus fungus Vol 1 . I made up one of the names on the label by saying it was precision cut mix but wasn’t.. I spoke to Tam Cooper who was part of precision cuts recently and confessed i did this and he said that was fine and laughed about it. I think I sent DJ Lottie one at Radio 1 because I quite fancied her but never got reply LOL .
Over the years the people that came to the youth club have down really well and I’m happy for them and Yes I do watch : People just do nothing! LOL . Some of the characters I’m sure are based on people I remember going to the youth club LOL !
I spoke to Basher many years later and he said that era was amazing to be in . Everyone was into the scene whether it was Drum & Bass or House & Garage .
After 2008 I stopped DJing House and started learning Salsa.
In 2010 I started Djing salsa up until this day.
So all in all it was a little project that was good at the time but really I had other things to do in life .
Good times though :-)
I doing house & garage mixes of the 90’s and might put them in there for memories.
As i said before it was a idea from making the tunes to pressing them up.
I’m quite touched by your interest and the youtube videos put up and the value of it on Discography and the comments.
Kind regards
Orion
07956 44 55 05
www.dj-orion.com
