S P A C E C O W B O Y S

The Space Cowboys would like thank Fingerlickin’s Jem Panufnik for the gorgeous artwork he just finished for The RIPEcast! Jem’s funky interpretation of The Unimog is the new face of The RIPEcast. We’ll be introducing different variations of Jem’s RIPEcast artwork over the coming weeks so make sure you stayed tuned to the podcast to check them out!

To see the artwork Jem has done for the Fingerlickin label over the years click here.

And to listen to The RIPEcast visit Podomatic.com

This week The Space Cowboys are pleased to bring you a very special Burning Man edition of The RIPEcast courtesy of Tech Funk pioneer and good friend, Elite Force [U&A Recordings]. Featuring several unreleased Elite Force “revamps”, this masterful RIPEcast exclusive mix is the perfect tune-up for the Playa, Boys and Girls. Don’t forget to add it to your list of things to pack for Black Rock City.

You can get this mix right now by visiting The RIPEcast on Podomatic, SoundCloud or iTunes.

And for a complete schedule of Elite Force Burning Man gigs, including his Friday night set at the Black Rock Hoedown on the Unimog inside The Temple of Flux, visit www.uaarecs.com/burningman.

Click here for a free download of the Elite Force vs. Prodigy ‘Smack the Force Up’ MP3

Track List

1. Intro – LSD
2. Seductive – Take Control (Tom Stephan Mix)
3. Djedjetronic – Bit This Thin
4. Chemical Brothers – Horse Power (re-fueled)
5. Proxy – Vibrate (Noob Mix)
6. Lee Coombs – Italo Disco (Maelstrom Mix)
7. Dom G – Work (DJ Dan & Mike Balance Mix)
8. Chasing Shadows – Amirah (Elite Force Revamp)
9. Elite Force & Various – Hangover Deep (Revamp)
10. Chems Vs Dyson – Swoon (Elite Force Revamp)
11. Elite Force – Psychotrope Jams (extract)
12. Zodiac Cartel Vs Elite Force – Devil’s Mashup
13. Felix Luker – Mechanical
14. Paul Chambers – Yeah Techno! (BeatauCue Mix)
15. Bitrok – Closest Strangers (Loops of Fury Mix)
16. JDS – Blackout (Elite Force Re-fix)
17. Felix da Housecat – Oops
18. Don Diablo – Who’s Your Daddy (Black Noise Mix)
19. Ed Rush & Plaza da Funk – Keep Your Pacman (a Revamp)
20. MJ Cole – Sincere (Nero Vs Elite Force Revamp)
21. New Originals – 1979
22. Excision – Subsonic (Elite Force Revamp)
23. Elite Force & Bar 9 – Shaolin Style
24. Outro – Now Generation
    

Simon Shackleton’s Elite Force project began way back in 1996, debuting on his own newly founded Fused and Bruised label with a series of peerless 12s and remixes. After a successful five years, he put Fused and Bruised on the backburner to concentrate on production work, and following several years with Whole9Yards and Moonshine he became a mainstay recording artist for AdriftRecordings (formally known as Kingsize Records) before moving on to set up hisown hugely successful U&A imprint.

Often credited for being a lynchpin in the developing the tech-funk genre (an amalgamation of breaks, house, techno and electro) he has released a series of highly successful singles in the past few years, finding broad support from DJs and musicians across the board, including the likes of James Zabiela, Sasha, Crystal Method, Laurent Garnier and Fatboy Slim to name but five. In 2008 released a semi-retrospective double album’s worth of remixes and re-workings of a 12-year back catalogue, with over 25 mixes coming from such luminaries as Miles Dyson, Rogue Element, Deepgroove, Dylan Rhymes & Calvertron.

In addition to these solo singles, Meat Katie has been a regular collaborator with Elite Force, a relationship that had begun in 2003 with the massive-selling ‘Toba’, and that will see their creative relationship come to fruition in 2009 with the launch of their new joint project under the name ‘Dustbowl’, as well as a series of singles under the ‘Meat Katie & Elite Force’ banner.

As a remixer, Elite Force has always been in huge demand, with re-workings for the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Crystal Method, Jungle Brothers, Stereo MCs, UNKLE, Infusion, Rennie Pilgrem, Shiloh and Dylan Rhymes all contributing to his reputation as one of the most creative and effective remixers around.

Elite Force’s music has also been the soundtrack to many a movie, with a huge list of impressive A-list credits to his name, including the likes of the Matrix, Charlie’s Angels, Arlington Road, Mortal Kombat, Crow, The Bone Collector, The Jackyll, Spiderman 2 and his music has appeared on a wide array of TV shows, from CSI to Top Gear, from Football Focus to LA Doctors. He’s also soundtracked a number of computer games, including no fewer than 5 FIFA games, several of the Wipeout series, The Matrix and Motorstorm 1, and he is currently writing some bespoke music for forthcoming games for Ferrari and Motorstorm2.

On the decks, Elite Force has been a prime mover since 1990 when he cut his teeth playing huge student nights and self-promoted acid house nights in the South West of England, before moving up to ….London…. and ultimately gravitating towards his tech-funk style, with which he now has a full diary of global bookings. He has become known as one of the top technicians on a circuit that has included massive shows in Belarus, Hungary, Australia, Italy, USA, Czech Republic, India, Turkey, Spain, Japan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and China, amongst others, as well as numerous festival slots including Glastonbury, Coachella, Bloom, Wickerman, the Glade and more recently Burning Man.

He was also responsible for the hugely influential Strongarm Sessions webcasts which became something of an institution since their inception back in 2001, receiving as they did around 20,000 downloads per show, but now put on the backburner to concentrate on other projects, such as his own blog, Tech-Funk Manifesto and his other musical projects, such as Dustbowl (with Meat Katie).

Bio courtesy of www.myspace.com/shackforce.

Artwork courtesy of Thomas Reed at Hive Management.

For more information on Elite Force visit www.eliteforcemusic.com or www.facebook.com/djeliteforce.

The Space Cowboys are happy to report that syndication of The RIPEcast is well under way and there are now three ways to download or stream your favorite Cowboy DJs!

- Via The Cowboys’ brand new SoundCloud profile
(Best for those who don’t use iTunes)

- You can also catch The RIPEcast on our brand new Podomatic profile

- And, finally, by subscribing to The Space Cowboys RIPEcast in iTunes

All three methods are easy to use and free o’charge!

And now this week’s featured mix on The RIPEcast, MoPo’s live set from Breakfast of Champions this year..

“I got to BOC at 8 AM, having already been awake for 24-hours producing Sea of Dreams, and playing a 3-hour set there in Silent Disco. The plan was to drop gear, then head home for a nap as my set was at 6pm. As the day wound on I realized that going home would be the end of me, so I figured I should tough it out. Besides, after wanting to play this party for so long, maybe this was simply the final flaming hoop Id have to jump through to earn the right. Right? Better said than done. The day wore on. Good conversation, some dance, a burger, a bloody, my throat growing raspier and more sore. Id look at my watch and it would mock me by saying “11:30” or “1:15” . By 2pm I couldn’t even talk anymore and was relegated to “that guy who whispers in everyone’s ears at parties”. Somewhere along the way I realized I didn’t have Serato Cds, a potentially devastating development if I couldn’t find some blanks. Thankfully, Kramer HAD blanks which I paid for by promptly spilling his full beer all over him. Now I’m THAT GUY too.”

“At 4 Clarkie went on and sprayed flaming gasoline on the crowd while I nervously burned my Cds behind him. At 5, Aaron Pope went on and reminded us why he’s one of the finest dance-music Djs in the Bay Area… Just an outstanding set, energetic, funky, yet progressive-enough for the tweakers. A VERY hard act to follow. By this point, I’m going on 36 hours or so so its basically adrenaline and redbull. I figured my go-to thematic funk/rock remix stuff would be too tough a transition from Pope so I stayed with the more beat-centric stuff earlier, then downshifted into the chunky later as it got darker. It seemed to work really well. To my surprise, the techier stuff was less effective than anything with a rap or a hook (my go-to territory anyway). When I downshifted into the funky stuff (“Earthlings” and “Jungle Jam”) and my own edits, the crowd really just erupted. It seemed like folks were about ready to rock out, so we went there. Towards the end, the security told me I had 10 minutes, so I dropped the tempo and went into a few midtempo bangers with the idea that Id close out with “Whistlers Delight” which ends on Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. As it turned out, 3 minutes into this Andrea got them to give us another hour and I upshifted into Neighbour’s “Superstition” so that 8Ball and Zach Moore could take it home. All in all I couldn’t have been more thankful of the opportunity to play for most of everyone I love at one of my favorite all-time get downs.” – MoPo

Track List

1. Dynomite -Kraak & Smaak
2. Lose Control – NAPT
3. Makossa – Maelstrom
4. It’s the Weekend – Andrew Friendly
5. Boomin Back Atcha -DJ Wolfie
6. Flattened if ya Hear Me -Motion Potion Edit
7. Busta Don’t Touch -DeeKline
8. Off the Hands – Motion Potion Edit
9. DaGalacticBodyFunk – Motion Potion Edit
10. Earthling – Sterofreakz vs Earth Wind & Fire
11. Jungle Jam – Motion Potion Edit
12. Back it Up – Caro (Kraak & Smaak Remix)
13. Cali Keeps Lovin – Nick Thayer Edit
14. $uper Too Short – Nick Thayer Edit
15. Whistlers Delight – DJ Rico
16. Superstition – Neighbour & U-Tern
    

Thank you to MoPo from The Space Cowboys for the rockin’ set!
RIPEcast intro courtesy of Deckard and Andrea Lundquist

Next Up on The RIPEcast:
April 27th – Aaron Jae vs. Mozaic from BoC 2010
May 4th – 8Ball live from BoC 2010
May 11th – Surprise Guest Mix (Stay Tuned!)

(Photo courtesy of Pilar Woodman Photography)

Happy Tuesday Boys and Girls! It’s time for your weekly dose of THE SPACE COWBOYS RIPEcast!

This week’s mix comes to us from JoeJoe [Brass Tax] who threw down this killa ‘electro-hop’ set at his Breakfast of Champions debut this year. There are two ways you can get JoeJoe’s mix:

1. By subscribing to The Space Cowboys RIPEcast at the Apple iTunes store (it’s free). The link below will get you to The RIPEcast homepage at the iTunes store and from there you just click on the “subscribe free” button under our logo:

THE SPACE COWBOYS RIPEcast at the iTunes Store

2. Or if you’re not an iTunes user, you can get JoeJoe’s set right away (along with all the other RIPEcast mixes we’ve released to date) using this link:

THE RIPEcast on Box.net

And now a few words from JoeJoe on his BoC experience…

“Just a playful electro set featuring a bunch of my own ‘electro-hop’ mashups. Probably was having a little too much fun behind the decks at times, but hopefully it’s still fun to listen to. Big thanks to the Space Cowboys for having me out for my BoC debut!” – JoeJoe

Track List

1. Ghost ATLiens – jjmix (dave spoon/lee mortimer vs. outkast)
2. Motherf#cker – 2 bit thugs
3. Vote for Rumpshaker – jjmix (pedro sanchez vs. wreckx-n-effect)
4. Here Comes Under the Sun – jjmix (hevre vs. beatles)
5. Tight Jeans – f###k offf rmx
6. Real Smooth – tim healey / tomcraft
7. Get F##kkkkked Up – jjmix (aniki vs. eminem vs. snoop dog)
8. Play With It – breakdown (gigi barocco mix)
9. Skank Out – nom de strip
10. Born to Bounce – Rico Tubbs
11. Bucky Done Gun – Stanton warriors / MIA / Mogwai
12. Watch yo Work – jjmix (deadbots/dj bam bam vs. bryan cox)
13. A##n T###ies – dj assault (defunct rmx)
14. Flex – dizzee rascal (dave spoon reflex)
15. Junk There It Is – jjmix (itchyfeet vs. tag team)
16. Low Lovin – dj earworm (flo rida & t-pain vs. chromeo & Yuksek)
17. Stupid Overnight Celebrity – jjmix (stupid fresh / twocker vs. twista)

Thanks to JoeJoe from The Space Cowboys for the great set!

Next Up on The RIPEcast:
April 20th – Motion Potion Live from BoC 2010
April 27th – Aaron Jae vs. Mozaic from BoC 2010
May 4th – 8Ball live from BoC 2010
May 11th – Surprise Special Guest Mix (Stay Tuned!)