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Pearsall presents Rinsessions Revisited [Old Skool Grime Instrumental Mix]

Pearsall drops an all vinyl mix of classic early grime, a tribute to Rinse FM’s Rinsessions release

Pearsall presents Rinsessions Revisited

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Pearsall · Rinsessions Revisited [Old skool grime vinyl mix for Begrime!]

Mixed in Berlin, March 2023
100% Vinyl
(59:19, 136 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Cue file

Direct link to the file:
https://sonicrampage.org/mixes/begrime/Pearsall-RinsessionsRevisited.mp3

Tracklisting:

  1. Danny Weed – Kick Off [Dump Valve]
  2. Davinche – Phaze [Paperchase]
  3. Wiley – Avenger [Dump Valve]
  4. Wiley – Fire Hydrant [Eskiboy]
  5. Wonder – Undertaker [Dump Valve]
  6. Rapid – Wide Awake (Instrumental) [Ruff Sqwad Recordings]
  7. Skream – Midnight Request Line [Tempa]
  8. Plastician – Vio-Lent [Terrorhythm]
  9. Geeneus – Parasite [Soulja]
  10. Geeneus – You Know [Dump Valve]
  11. Danny Weed & Wiley – Heat Up (Instrumental) [Relentless]
  12. Jammer – Jampie (Instrumental) [Wiley Kat]
  13. Target & Danny Weed – The Avenue (Heartache Refix Instrumental) [Relentless]
  14. Scratchy – Trim & Scratch [Related Distributions]
  15. Macabre Unit – Tensor Jam [Terrorhythm]
  16. Wonder – What (Geeneus Remix) [Dump Valve]
  17. Wiley – Colder (Remix) [Eskiboy]
  18. Ruff Sqwad – Night Ryder [Ruff Sqwad Recordings]
  19. Rapid – Who’s Mercs (Instrumental) [Adamantium]
  20. Skepta – Dupps [Pirate Sessions]
  21. Scratchy – Shangooli [Dump Valve]
  22. Low Deep – Down Like That [Colourful State]
  23. Mikee J – Mic Check (Remix Instrumental) [679]
  24. Dexplicit – Change Formation (Hench 2) [DXP]
  25. Wiley – Carnival [Southside]
  26. Ruff Sqwad – Hear Dis [Ruff Sqwad Recordings]
  27. Rapid – All Day Long (Instrumental) [Ruff Sqwad Recordings]
  28. Dexplicit – No [Lethal Bizzle Records]
  29. Wiley – Sidewinder (Instrumental) [Ruff Sqwad Recordings]
  30. Slew Dem – Grime [Slew Dem]

As far as I’m concerned, the best grime mix release ever (EVER!) is Rinsessions Vol. 1, which was put out by Rinse FM back in 2005, back when Rinse was a pirate station, and not the legal, award-winning, genre-straddling UK music behemoth that it is today.

The concept of the set was pretty simple: invite the hosts of some of Rinse’s biggest shows at the time to provide mix sets and package them all onto one massive 6-cd set, thus providing something that was a bit like a live radio recording, without the normal chaos of pirate radio, as well as something that was a bit like a live rave recording, but was more structured.

The final release contained three mixes where mc’s rhymed over the top of a dj playing instrumentals (Roll Deep, Ruff Sqwad, and Gods’ Gift and Riko over the top of Slimzee), and three strict dj mixes (Plasticman aka Plastician, Logan Sama, and Jiggy B). Taken together, it’s a remarkable history document of grime at the height of its creative early period.

I’ve talked about this before, but early grime was, in my humble opinion, one of the most exciting things to happen in UK music over the last several decades, and I was very fortunate to have experienced it, even if I did so in a weird way, because I mostly experienced it in my apartment in Astoria, Queens, where I engaged with this first flowering of grime by reading music blogs, scouring message boards, writing my own blog, swapping mixtapes, and listening to low quality radio rips downloaded to from sites like WeTransfer and YouSendIt and MegaUpload.

What I loved about grime was the sound of the music, those strange angular shapes that the music conjured – the blocky beats and the roughly-hewn chunks of bass, the crazy strings and the utterly unkempt rhythms. I wasn’t too bothered about the mc’s, which is unusual, I guess, because the mc’s were/are far more important to grime than any previous forms of electronic music from the London streets …

Just like it wasn’t so easy for me to explain why I disliked UK Garage so much, similarly explaining my love for grime is not so simple a matter, especially considering that I have just admitted that I wasn’t too interested in the mc’s lyrics, which is clearly one of the key elements of the whole scene. I guess it was just that it was such a raw, stripped-down sound – many of the tracks were literally nothing more than drums and bass. It was totally fat free – no messing around with fiddly edits or epic journeys or any of that kind of bullshit, just here’s a beat, take it or leave it. Raw and pure. At the same time you could often find unexpected moments of tenderness and depth in grime – glacial melodies peering through the mix, like the first rays of sunshine on a cold winter’s morning, and those contrasts played a big part in getting me hooked.

So when the time came to do March’s mix for Begrime, I decided that I wanted to recapture that feeling by making a tribute to Rinsessions.

How to make a tribute?

Easy – I just sat down, went through the tracklisting of the whole 6 cd set and figured out what tracks I owned on vinyl, dug them out of my shelf, put them in a big pile, did some rough sorting by vibes, and then hit record. Simple!

The outcome is … well, you can hear it for yourself. These tunes are great!

And it’s all instrumentals, so you can just yell all your favorite classic bars along to the mix. 😉

Let’s round things off by looking back at each of the mixes from the set:

CD1: Roll Deep

The first mix in the set is from the inimitable Roll Deep Entourage, with all of the members trading bars over some of the biggest instrumentals of the time, mostly coming from Roll Deep members Wiley, Danny Weed, and Skepta, as well as from a host of other big names in the scene. This is like a slightly cleaner version of one of their acclaimed Rinse radio shows of the era, and showcases their unique energy much better than their debut album of the same year, In at the Deep End, which sanded down their rough edges to achieve a more radio-friendly sound.

3 big tunes I used in my mix:

  1. Skream – Midnight Request Line
  2. Wiley – Avenger
  3. Danny Weed – Kick Off

CD2: Ruff Sqwad

I’ve always been a massive, massive fan of Ruff Sqwad, so you know I love this mix! All of the Ruff Sqwad members trading bars over a DJ Scholar selection of beats from Rapid and Dirty Danger (mostly)? Sign me up! This is a great, great mix, and it includes a bunch of stuff that has still (!) never seen the light of day. Just a top selection from maybe the best grime crew ever.

3 big tunes I used in my mix:

  1. Jammer – Jampie (Instrumental)
  2. Rapid – Underground (Instrumental)
  3. Low Deep – Down Like That

CD3: Slimzee

Slimzee is, simply put, one of the most important and influential figures in grime’s history. Look at this for a resume:

  • Rinse co-founder
  • Roll Deep member (and before that a member of the super influential UK Garage crew Pay As U Go Kartel)
  • One of the most important dj’s in the scene
  • Label boss of Slimzos Recordings
  • Owner of a vast trove of dubplates

It’s not hyperbole to say that he played a key role in the development of UK music over the last 25 years, even if it is not often acknowledged.

In this mix he seamlessly mixes together a selection of his trademark tough instrumentals, accompanied by the rhyming talents of scene stalwarts God’s Gift and Riko.

3 big tunes I used in my mix:

  1. Geeneus – You Know
  2. Dexplicit – No (Instrumental)
  3. Scratchy – Trim & Scratch (Instrumental)

CD4: Plasticman

Plasticman (now known as Plastician) has been the artist who has most cleverly crossed back and forth between grime and dubstep over the year, as a dj, a producer, and as a label boss at Terrorhythm Records, and this mix is his magnum opus. Over 50 tracks in just over an hour … on vinyl! It’s just an unbelievable mix, simply genius. I think this is the best grime mix every made. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to it. It’s incredible. If I could make a mix 1/10 as good as this I would die happy.

3 big tunes I used in my mix:

  1. Wonder – Undertaker
  2. Plastician – Vio-Lent
  3. Macabre Unit – Tensor Jam

Bonus: check out this interview with him I did way back in 2005

CD5: Logan Sama

Logan Sama has been one of the grime scene’s biggest boosters from the very beginning. A white guy from Essex, his sheer perseverance broke him through on the scene, back when it was very much a London thing. I vaguely remember him as a forum regular on the old RWD Magazine forums (where I used to lurk) and as a guy who ground his way from a basement slot through to being one of the biggest names on Rinse, and from there onwards to Kiss and then the BBC. Back in the day I always used to love checking out his shows on Rinse, because he had a pretty unrivaled selection of dubplates and exclusives, and you were always guaranteed to hear fresh stuff when you tuned in (in my case by loading a shitty 128 kbps rip onto my iPod). A very hard-working and successful guy!

This mix is him playing a bunch of vocal grime tracks, his signature back then. It’s cool!

3 big tunes I used in my mix (note: I played the instrumentals instead of the vocals):

  1. Wiley – Sidewinder (Instrumental)
  2. Danny Weed & Target – Thinking of You (Instrumental)
  3. Rapid – All Day Long (Instrumental)

CD6: Jiggy B

Oh, honestly, I’ve got no idea about this one. I don’t really like UKG and I think I listened to this once. It’s probably very good if you like this kind of thing!