Elite Force : Burning Man 2010 DJ Mix (Ripecast)

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.

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)
10b. Elite Force - Psychotrope Jams (extract)
11. Zodiac Cartel Vs Elite Force - Devil's Mashup
12. Felix Luker - Mechanical
13. Paul Chambers - Yeah Techno! (BeatauCue Mix)
14. Bitrok - Closest Strangers (Loops of Fury Mix)
15. JDS - Blackout (Elite Force Re-fix)
16. Felix da Housecat - Oops
17. Don Diablo - Who's Your Daddy (Black Noise Mix)
18. Ed Rush & Plaza da Funk - Keep Your Pacman (a Revamp)
19. MJ Cole - Sincere (Nero Vs Elite Force Revamp)
20. New Originals - 1979
21. Excision - Subsonic (Elite Force Revamp)
22. Elite Force & Bar 9 - Shaolin Style
23. Outro - Now Generation

Many thanks to everyone who's supported the Vandal remix that was released last week. It's sitting pretty at #3 on the Beatport charts at the moment & if you haven't yet grabbed a copy would much appreciate your support in pushing it all the way!

VANDAL - BIG DOG (ELITE FORCE REMIX)

And for a free download of the Elite Force vs. Prodigy "Smack the Force Up" MP3 visit: HERE

Wish me luck with my journey back from the States. Yesterday I was delayed leaving Salt Lake City & missed my flight home, winding up at a silly airport hotel at midnight staring at a can of lukewarm cuppa-soup and a non-existent mini-bar. Up at 6am today for the circuitous trip home via Chi-town. Still it's been a great trip out to North America these last 10 days & a big thank you to everyone who made it out to the shows.

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 (Techfunkmanifesto) and his other musical projects, such as Dustbowl (with Meat Katie).

ELITE FORCE : BIO

THOMAS REED : COURTESY

THE SPACE COWBOYS