Substance

Between 2002 and 2004 I was one of the mix DJs on the BBC’s station for “new black music”, 1 Xtra, and throughout 2004 I was a regular feature on the Saturday night mix show.  For this mix, I’ve sewn together a handful of the highlights from my appearances on that show.  The resulting mix, the second in the “Not necessarily …” series, was broadcast on DJ Food’s ‘Solid Steel’ Radio Show in 2005.  As with the first, it’s predominantly hip hop accapellas over pretty heavily layered beats from a range of genres and tempos although a little more hip hop orientated than the first.  Chris

To download mix (mp3 format) click here

To download CD cover click here

I’ve always thought putting together a Mix CD was the perfect excuse to present a load of music that you

can’t get away with playing / wouldn’t want to play in a club.  With that in mind, I put together this mix, which sounds very little like anything I would usually play to a crowd.  If I’m being honest, this is probably the least well received of my mix CDs, perhaps because it isn't what people who checked it were expecting - arguably in a similar veign to stuff like Coldcut's Journeys By DJ but a few years too late!  However, I was pretty pleased with it and so were Kev & DK from DJ Food.  It was broadcast on their Solid Steel Radio show in 2002.  Chris

To download mix (mp3 format) click here 

This mix was broadcast live from Substance at the Custard Factory in Birmingham in late 2001.  Roc & I performed this mix to a crowd of about 500 in the club and about another 250,000 on the airwaves.  It was performed on 4 turntables and done in one take with very little prior planning.  It was broadcast around the same time that I was thinking about the first “Not necessarily …” mix and so there’s a chunk of about 15 minutes which is very similar.  In most other respects, this mix is fairly typical of type of club sets we were playing at the time.  Chris

To download interview (mp3 format) click here

To download mix (mp3 format) click here  

As if the pressure of DJing live to 250,000 people wasn’t enough, the same night as the Radio 1 Live DJ set, we recorded this live session with the band which was broadcast a few months later. The session took place shortly after we released the Lyric Superbrand album and features live versions of some of the tracks from the album and some other bits and pieces we were trying out at the time.  For this performance we pulled together a few extra band members raising the head count on stage to 9.  Although we still do live performances as often as commitments will allow, this was probably the last time all of us came together at the same time to rehearse for a show!  Chris

To download interview (mp3 format) click here

To download mix (mp3 format) click here

To download CD cover click here