Claymation - Live Breaks Mix (3rd November, 2005)

Selections For All Occasions—DJ Mixes by Brendan Clay

This mix is ripped from the old, dusty archives. Indeed, it will blow out 15 candles later this year. I stumbled upon it when trawling through some older storage space and flicked it on because, well, why not? It's very much of the nu-skool breaks variety and gets quite tough and pretty filthy towards its conclusion. This was Claymation—a duo I formed with long-time collaborator and great mate, Gav "Bassboy" Smith. I remember heading down to the studio—rather, the basement laundry—on a late spring evening in 2005, setting up our four-deck/two-mixer concoction and just letting it rip. (Wish we'd taken a photo of the carnage.) As was the case with such an arrangement; we did our best to get tunes cued up, ready, and in the mix as early as possible. The mixing is raw, ballsy, honest, risky at times, and doesn't take itself too seriously—as was fairly typical of breaks DJ sets of the time. Indeed, as refreshing as it is to hear; it begs the internal question of whether I play it too "safe" nowadays. Food for thought, perhaps. Unless I'm mistaken, this is likely 100% vinyl, or close to—another characteristic fairly common to the time. The usual suspects of the time are heavily featured—at least those that were regularly pulled from our boxes. If you fancy a trip down memory lane; go forth and (hopefully) enjoy. Failing that, perhaps I'll just continue to reminisce self-indulgently. :)