Flip presents Mentasm
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Mixed in London, 2005
(67:08, 123.07 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Big cover
Cue file
Style: Freeform hardcore
Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/guestmixes/flip/Flip-Mentasm.mp3
Tracklisting:
01. Twisted Freq – Martyrdom (Volatile Digital Audio)
02. Carbon Based – Fatal Flashback (Electronic)
03. Pain On Creation – Adaptation (Finrg Digital)
04. AMS – God Of Hell Fire (Nu Energy)
05. Oli G & Dodgee – Heh (Nu Energy)
06. Invader & Oli G – Living Hell (Digital Beatz)
07. Alek Szahala – Tlaloc (Electronic)
08. Cynista vs Safe n’ Sound – Chemical Warfare (Nu Energy)
09. Carbon Based – Anger Ball (Nu Energy)
10. Kevin Energy – Crescendos Of Ecstasy (Nu Energy)
11. Twisted Freq – Burnin’ Up (Volatile Digital Audio)
12. Pain On Creation – Mortality (Electronic)
13. Carbon Based – Underworld Species (Electroplates)
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Last month I posted a great mix called Flip’s Freeform Mix, a 2005 freeform hardcore mix by Flip, an old mate from the London club scene. I originally posted it after seeing a request for it on the United States of Hardcore forum, but having posted it, Flip got in touch to say that he had another old freeform mix kicking around that he would be happy to give me for the site if I was interested.
That was not a decision that took long to make!
As I explained on the other post, I met Flip back in about 2002/2003 through Banging Tunes, the message board we both used to frequent, as well as Redtrip, the London party crew that he was involved in. Anyways, we ended up becoming friends and I went on to play for Redtrip a few times, both in the main room playing techno and in the side room playing jungle/drum n’ bass. Good times!
For this post, I thought that it would be nice to ask Flip a few questions, so that you can get to know a bit more about him, the Redtrip crew, and this mix.
All the photos are from a January 2004 Redtrip vs Zoology party at the 414 Club in Brixton that Flip and I both played at – he played hard trance and I played hard techno.
Flip on the decks
Pearsall: To start with, how did you get into clubbing and dj’ing?
Flip: When I met Slacky (one of the co-founders of Redtrip) back in 1999 he was really into Gabba, Speedcore and Acid Techno and at that time I was a metaller. He played me some records and lent me some Helter Skelter tape packs mixes and I was hooked as soon as I heard them (especially Mark EG and M-Zone). I went to Pendragon on NYE 1999 with Slacky and the rest of the guys who would later become Redtrip and fell in love with clubbing. I knew that night that I wanted to get into DJ’ing. Shortly after my parents bought me a set of decks and that was that.
Slacky banging the techno
I think I first met you guys at one of the earliest Redtrip parties, but I never really knew how the Redtrip crew came about and what made you want to start doing parties?
We used to club loads throughout 2000, 2001 and 2002 and after putting on many house parties we decided to start a night. It’s a long time ago now, but I think at the time it was just intended to be a one-off for my sister’s (Jolene Redtrip) 21st birthday in November 2002, but we came up with the name “Redtrip Presents … ” so I think we may have been thinking ahead somewhat.
How did the crew work? Did you have different people responsible for different aspects, like music, promotion, business, etc or did everyone do a bit of everything?
There were about 10 or 11 of us. We had DJ’s, dancers and MC’s. There was also those who use to look after the decor, and others who helped out with promotion. But everyone did their bit for the promotion and running it, be it designing the website, right down to getting up at 4am on Fridays and Saturday to go and flyer outside The Fridge, Camden Palace and anywhere else that was worth flyering.
L-R: Shimmer, Zeus, Tracey, and BSE from the Zoology crew
Can you tell us a bit about the Redtrip parties, the ethos, the venues, the dj’s, and so on?
One of the main reasons we started Redtrip was because clubs were starting to get a little boring, there would be no progression throughout the night. You could hear a tune played at midnight, then again at 5am, whole nights of 1 genre, no real warm up sets etc.
I mean, who really wants to hear whole nights of 155 bpm Hard House?
That’s not how it should be.
Because we all had a broad range of musical tastes, we felt we had something that was possibly missing from the London club scene, with the exception of Escape From Samsara, Logic and Zoology (to name a few). When we put on our second night we went for having 2 rooms and that was how it continued for us. The main room playing everything from Techno, Acid, Hard House/Trance and Freeform, even some Gabba at times and the second room would start off with House, Breaks, D&B and even some Psy-Trance for good measure. We tried to ensure there was something at our nights for everyone. We started off at The Electrowerkz in Islington in 2002 who were really good to us. We then moved onto The Telegraph in Brixton in 2004 which was my personal favourite, then onto Deep Blue at the beginning of 2005. We also hosted rooms for Logic and The Gathering as well as a stint of Friday nights at The Purple Turtle.
One thing we prided ourselves on was that we would always get a new DJ down to play their first ever club set. Whether it was in the main room or the second room, every night we put on would have a new DJ. As for guest DJs, personal favourites of mine were D.A.V.E the Drummer, K-Tech Live, The Geezer Live, Rubec, Mark Ashley and Eryk Orpheus.
Webbo ‘aving it
Any favourite memories of Redtrip? Any real nightmares?
It’s hard to pin point as we had an absolute blast doing all our nights. I think the our third night “Corrosive” (the first of many “Redtrip Presents Corrosive” nights) is something that I’ll never forget, having both dancefloors packed from early on in the night, even through to the end of my Freeform set at the end of the night.
As for nightmares, I think I can honestly say there were none. There was the usual stresses that comes from running a night, and the odd occasion where the sound system played up. But what night doesn’t have that? I think we were quite lucky with the smoothness of the events themselves.
Shimmer and the Future Sound of Elvis
Why did the Redtrip parties stop?
There were a whole manner of reasons. The main ones being mainly around the money and each event was costing more to put on than what we were taking on the night. Even though we were getting good amounts of people through the door, it wasn’t always enough for the nights to pay for themselves. There were also differences of opinions on ideas to the point where it was causing big arguments amongst the group, and because most of Redtrip had known each other at that point upwards of 15+ years, the friendships were more important.
So some became less involved and some left. Eventually the nights just stopped during 2005.
I think we had intentions of just having a break and then starting up again, but other interests and commitments took over and it never happened.
Zeus
I remember hearing you play quite a range of music, from hard trance to acid to freeform – what was your favourite?
My favourite genre to play was (and still is) Freeform. It wasn’t very often I’d get booked to play Freeform sets elsewhere, but with our nights, if I knew I was playing at a certain time, or had a Live PA after me, then I knew I’d at least end my set with it. I also loved playing Acid Trance, like the old Cannon and Public House sort of stuff.
Besides Redtrip, you also played at quite a few parties in London back in the day – any particular favourite memories you want to share?
My first ever set in a club was for Logic at The George, back in Feb of 2002, in the days when Logic use to do weekly Saturday afternoon parties. It was a 2 hour set so I reember trying to fit in all my favourite tracks at the time. I’ll always have fond memories of Logic as I played for them very regularly and even had my first main stage set at The Fridge for them. That was really my one goal when I started DJing – to play the main room of The Fridge.
Zoology also deserve a mention. They always throw great parties and I always had the best time whether I was there DJing or just as a clubber. One particular memory of Zoology was when we did Zoology vs Redtrip. It was 2nd January 2004, so it was a great way to kick off the New Year! I remember playing German Trance and Hardstyle back to back with Latex Zebra and you played too if I remember rightly Pearsall.
Me on the decks blasting out the hard techno
Yep, I was playing hard techno at that night. You also did a bit of production, and even had one release on Nu Energy – why didn’t you take it further?
The simple answer is I don’t know, as there was no excuse at all! I’d written two hard trance tracks with AMS and Elvis under the name of CIN, in which the second one we wrote (Acid Spunk) was given a Freeform remix by AMS and released on Nu Energy, and the first not getting a release (this was called Sacrificial, as featured at the start of one of my previous Freeform mixes). I also did a Freeform track with Eryk Orpheus which again didn’t get released. Mind you, it was never completely finished anyway. I’d still like to go back and finish it off as it’s a fucking storming track. But we’ll see.
Anyway, I was never an engineer, I had ideas for sounds, riffs, arrangements, samples etc, but never the know-how when it came to actual production, nor did I have the patience to learn either. I was just lazy I guess.
Jolene Redtrip on the floor
Tell us a bit about this mix – when was it recorded, what was the thinking behind it, and what did you think of it listening back to it?
I seem to remember recording this mix sometime during the summer of 2005. I’d just received a CDR of future releases from the Pain on Creation guys and with a prior “yes” from Ari of Carbon Based, you very kindly gave me a CDR of some of their unreleased tracks.
I was so buzzed with that sound (and I still am) that I was literally bouncing off the walls with these CDs and was itching to make my ultimate Freeform mix. It would also be the first mix I’d do where I was using CDRs throughout the mix as well as vinyl (I always preferred mixing with vinyl).
As usual, I spent many, many hours at my decks in the evenings trying to get the perfect track listing, the right points in which to bring the tracks in etc. I was never one to just grab a handful of tracks, hit the record button and record a mix on the fly just like that. I was always careful, almost to the point of being anal when planning a mix.
Over the past 6 months I’ve been listening to my old mixes, and especially this one. It still rocks, even though the mixing isn’t spot on, it just feels human. The only thing I’d change would be to have the mix end with Mortality, and not Underworld Species.
Flip
Finally, what have you been up to ever since Redtrip finished? I know you got bang into metal, but any chance of catching the mixing bug again in the future?
I got back into Metal around 2005 in a big way. Sold my decks, bought a new guitar and started playing again. I’ve got into writing my own tracks which I have been putting up on soundcloud (if anyone is interested, check out soundcloud.com/philthy-1).
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting back into mixing, purely to just record mixes, but after attempting a few times over the past few months on Slacky’s decks, I think I’ll give that a miss. I am going to rip a lot my vinyl to MP3 and get rid of my collection, so I’ll more than likely use Ableton to do some mixes.
Thanks!
Here’s a gallery of photos from that Redtrip vs Zoology party in January 2004:
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