Tik Tok feat Lady Reload, OB1 – The Beginning EP (CDJ303 001)

Cat no: CDJ303 001
Get it from: CDJ303.com

Fentek 303 and sister label Coaxial are no more, sadly, but from the ashes has arisen CDJ303.com, for all your Lincolnshire-based headfuck needs, and the output so far is top notch. The brainchild of Jamie Taylor (aka Tik Tok) and Olly Berry (OB1), the aim of the label is to bridge the gap between the vinyl and downloads markets, and guess what? It’s started at a lick, producing two EPs, a mix CD from Jamie and a very reasonably priced MP3 CD featuring the entire Fentek and Coaxial back catalogue as well as a few bonus tracks.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload
BPM: 145
Riffy, trippy and very, very insistent, Lose Control builds beautifully and has a deep, industrial sound as well as a kind of buried-sounding 303 line that’s really unusual but works. Jade Rose’s ‘lose control’ vocal is suitably alluring and the whole thing rips along, with all the ferocity you’d expect from Jamie Taylor, while on the strength of this, I’ll be listening out for solo Lady Reload material for sure.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload (OB1 remix)
BPM: 148
If you ask me, Tik Tok and OB1 go together like peaches and cream. Tik Tok brings the roughness, the filth, the sleaze; OB1 has the clinical surgeon’s eye. Thus it’s when they collaborate or remix each other’s tunes that you get the real gold. Here, OB1 does the track equivalent of tidying up the wires behind the back of Tik Tok’s TV, straightening the tune out into a series of suites, speeding it up, and developing the acid line into something approaching 303 nirvana. Put it this way, if you like the full-on acid wig outs of A.P you’re gonna love the final section of this: Mister Berry’s really excelled himself here.

Pure Junk – OB1
BPM: 146
OB1 brings the acid fatness on track three with a low, growly 303 line that breaks into shards around the introduction of a vocal sample, then reassembles, with another, higher, acid line layered on top. Irresistibly groovy, of course, and a good tool as they say, but maybe just a bit too locked-in and buttoned-up to truly shine. You can’t help but wish for some of the same madness of his Lose Control remix.

Pure Junk – OB1 (Tik Tok remix)
BPM: 145
Proving my peaches-and-cream theory, Tik Tok takes Pure Junk and loosens it up a bit. The drums are tribal, there are horns, and he makes better use of the vocal sample, letting it dip in and out of the melody. The acid, too, takes on a life of its own, as though refusing to be herded into predictable, manageable chunks and as a result the whole thing has a funkier, more freewheeling feel. Top stuff.

Lose Control – Tik Tok feat Lady Reload (OB1 remix)

EP Previews

Tik Tok & OB1 – Coaxial007 (Coaxial)

Cat no: Coaxial007 
Release date: 29/08/11

OB1 – A Little Something
BPM: 147
Two very different tracks here, but both bang like a barn door in a hurricane, fizz with a raw, punk spirit, and sound like they mean it. The kick that lifts off A Little Something, for example, is truly earth-shaking, and when the acid drops by at 2.11 it’s a dark, untamed thing. A contained rage holds the track together, though, even as it shifts into a third phase at 3.55, an extended break introducing all manner of synthy siren stabs and an evolving acid line that works itself into a frenzy before dropping out for a long outro. You want to hear it? You should. Click below for a sound sample.

A Little Something sound sample

Tik Tok – Fucka Hooka (2011 mix)**
BPM: 145
Hooligan and berserk, Fucka Hooka’s the volatile enforcer to A Little Something’s implacable boss. Its 303 seems to spin and giggle like cracked-out carnival music, while savage, goggle-eyed noises saw away in the background and mad drums constantly threaten to send it out of control. The overall effect is like that scene in Goodfellas where Joe Pesci goes, ‘Funny, how?’ but set to music, and it’s a perfect yin to A Little Something’s yang – the Pesci to its De Niro. Which is 007’s nominal A-side and which is its B-side, I couldn’t say, but it doesn’t matter because they’re both essential. I’m told the next Coaxial release is OB1’s Olly Berry remixing Fucka Hooka, and Tik Tok on A Little Something. Fingers crossed the results are as devastating as the pairings suggest.

Fucka Hooka (2011 Mix) sound sample

Get it from: Fentek 303