I very nearly missed out on including this. For legal reasons, the t:me label pressed up two versions of Disneyland (the later version changed the title to D*****land), with the same mixes on both discs but on the D*****land version the KKKings mix was called the Station K mix instead. And that was the mix title which was shareable. If I hadn’t seen the insert sheet on the promo version of Disneyland and which was the record played by Peel on this programme, I’d have been writing this up as “a record I’d have liked to share, but couldn’t…” on the notes page for this show.
The promo blurb seems as good a place as any to start when it comes to celebrating this mix. The tracks on the Disneyland 12-inch are described as Five concept mixes taken from one bassline. As for the KKKings mix…
Bhangra falling upwards…Station K ready to blow. Radical Sista, Balwinder Safri, Mikha B and PalmDeep Chana give us the ultimate street sound of the East Midlands. This is the first recorded moment from Station K. Anything can happen in the next 6 months*. (Promo notes on the Disneyland EP, t:me/Hollywood Records, 30 March 1993).
Bhangra forms the basis of this mix, but KKKings keep things interesting with tuneful and intoxicating digressions along the way: Indian singing, woodwind, laser blasts, funky guitar, a thundering tabla beat that never lets up, and perhaps most interesting of all, a wah-wah riff that folds back in on itself from the moment it’s introduced at 1:20, but which sounds familiar. Listening to it, I found myself wondering if it hadn’t stuck with Fatboy Slim, when he was looking for a suitable refrain when remixing Wildchild’s Renegade Master, several years later. I’ll be astonished if at least one of you who plays the video on this post doesn’t find themself singing, With the ill behaviour over the final 80 seconds.
This seems to have been Peel’s favourite mix on the record as he played it again the following week. It’s my favourite too, though all the mixes are worthy of your attention. They run the gamut from clubland workouts to ambient space jazz and hypnotic past life regression. I regret that Peel didn’t appear moved to play the Nyman/Sisterlove mix, which I also love for the way that it fuses industrial samba with snatches of music that sound like it’s been taken from a 1970s Canadian TV Movie of the Week.
Videos courtesy of h3lme.
*Anything could happen and duly didn’t.
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