JW / Electronica Classics 028: Grayarea Live at Transit Chicago 2002

This week's selection is from one of my favorite live performance electronica acts. I had the opportunity to see this trio perform three times between 2003 & 2004 in Baton Rouge & New Orleans. Truly high energy shows on each occasion.

My first exposure to this group's music was on John Digweed's Kiss 100 show back in November of 2002. That broadcast was a recording of a show they performed two months earlier at Transit in Chicago on September 5, 2002. As you can see from the tracklisting below, the show consisted primarily of their own production work, with a couple of remixes thrown in for good measure.

It's been a few years since I've heard anything from these guys, but apparently they are still doing production & remix work. Their website links to profiles on a few social networks and it seems they've shed one of their original members and are now a duo. Enjoy this mix from their early years.

Grayarea - Live at Transit Chicago 2002-09-05

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01 - Grayarea - Yewminyst

02 - Scanners - Femme Fatale (Grayarea's Damaged Goods Mix)

03 - Grayarea - One For The Road (Designated Mix)

04 - Grayarea - One For The Piano

05 - Grayarea - Blueletter

06 - Grayarea - Gray (Part One)

07 - Grayarea - Sector Seven G

08 - Grayarea - Gray (Part Two)

09 - Grayarea - Energy Vampires

10 - Bjork - It's In Our Hands (Grayarea's Lawsuit Mix)

JW / Electronica Classics 011: Hybrid On One World 2003

This week's choice is the first breakbeat mix in the series and a true musical gem. I first learned about Hybrid back in the fall of 2000. This production team out of the UK was known for its fresh approach to breakbeat music, and represented a noticeable departure from the traditional breakbeat sounds popularized by DJs in Florida in the late 1990s. They gained international fame in the early 2000s when they were the opening act during Moby's tour.

The set was recorded on Radio 1's Maida Vale Live Session back during the summer of 2003 while promoting their then soon-to-be-released Morning Sci-Fi album. A year later, during July of 2004, I was able to conduct a phone interview with Chris Healings of Hybrid and asked him about this performance. Here is an excerpt from that interview.

Originally published in the August 2004 issue of the New Orleans Electronica Digest:

Juston: Your Maida Vale Live Session on One World that was broadcast on Radio 1 in July 2003 still generates buzz on dance music boards around the world. Were you guys aware of the set’s immense popularity amongst your fans?

Chris: We were actually, and you know what? For myself, as well, I think I actually prefer it to “Morning Sci-Fi”.

Juston: Really?

Chris: Yeah, I think it’s a much better set of tracks, mix of tracks. It’s got some of the older stuff in there and it’s got that “live” feel to it. It’s actually going to get released. We’re just releasing a Y4K DJ compilation, but after that there’s going to be another “Remixed & Additional Production” album that we did, which of course we’ve done before. It’s basically a set of all our favorite remixes that we’ve done for other people. We’re currently doing some remixes for Hans Zimmer, the composer. We’ve already gotten a hold of some of the parts from “Hannibal”, the film. So we’re currently remixing some film scores just because it’s rather interesting. So that album of “Remixes & Additional Productions” will be all of our remixes, but the second CD will be that live show from the BBC. Hopefully there will be some footage on there, too. Let’s see, what all did we have there that day? I think it was something like 40 classical players, we had Peter Hook from New Order there, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and then we had our 5 or 6 piece live act. So there were a lot of people in there that day.

Juston: Yeah, it sounded like quite the full studio that day.

But I’ll tell you what, my god was I stressed. (laughs) Pulling that one together was a bit tricky. But it came out really well. So that’s gonna get released, a proper release, because it really deserves it.

If that doesn't pique your interest, I fear little else will. Enjoy!

Hybrid - Live Session On One World Radio 1 2003-07-25
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1 - Visible Noise / Theme From Wide Angle
2 - Kill City (Live Mix)
3 - If I Survive (Adam's Vocal Cover)
4 - I'm Still Awake
5 - Know Your Enemy
6 - Higher Than A Skyscraper
7 - True To Form
8 - Blackout