01 – Fluke – Groovy Feeling (Circa)
02 – Hydraulik Dogs – Shake It (Styles Kickin)
03 – Tinstar – Sunshine (U.S. V.Z.)
04 – Dan Robbins – Chanting in the Dark (Oxygen Music Works)
05 – Fluke – My Spine (Copyright Control)
06 – Spank – Don’t Stop (Kidsound)
07 – Greed – Strange World (SOG Records)
08 – Supercombo – Revolution (Twisted)
09 – Missy Elliot – Get your Freak On (White)
10 – Nat Monday – Waiting (Distinctive)

The mix seems to have been either recorded, or broacast, on XFM on the 14th July 2001 Edit: 14th September 2001, according to the handwritten CD/cover by Jon Fugler.

This has brought to light one further problematic aspect of the site here, though. While we host Fluke live performances (usually very low quality and different to the recorded versions) purely in the hope that they interest fans who have already bought the music (and are relying on Jon and the gang not to sue us!), doing the same for a DJ mix no longer seems tenable. I have, therefore, removed previous DJ mixes from the Files page and will not be posting this one. Sorry if that’s a disappointment (it’s a great mix!), but hope you all understand.

Edit: update. Jon Fugler recommended MixCloud as a service that will allow mixes to be embedded, but also one that pays royalties to artists through the PRS. They seem legit, so I have uploaded the mix there in good faith that this complies with all licensing agreements.

It’s been a while coming, but here’s some very positive news direct from Mike Tournier on the new Syntax album and associated press, Tri-Polar. http://www.syntax.uk.com/

We’re just about to launch a new website: http://syntax.uk.com

It will contain a blog, photos, lots of music and a live Twitter feed. We’re trying to keep it really simple. Everything on one page. Should be finished in the next couple of weeks.

I’m trying to get the Twitter side of things going at the moment. You can follow us @syntax_uk
It will take some time to gain some popularity, but you have to start somewhere!

I should probably own up straight away that website delays may, in part, be my fault; I had been approached to help out on this, but had to back out owing to massive work commitments and overload. Apologies to Mike and all on this front; hopefully these infrequent 2bitpie.net updates make up for this at least a bit!

Finally, jUSTIN cREDIBLE has listened to the pre-mix version of “Man” from the new album (which was incidentally featured in a US advert recently) and it’s sounding great. This track was originally a project started in collaboration with DJ Sander Kleinenberg and Steve ‘Dub’ Jones (who helped on the mixed of Fluke’s “Atom Bomb” and “Absurd”). If you heard the demo version earlier, you’re in for a treat when this finally drops as it has evolved substantially since that time.

First off, Frank has a promotional CD-R containing various mixes from Meccano Mind. I’ve labeled this, in the absence of any defining title, “Extended sampler” and it’s an 11-track entry featuring mixes of Pray, Bliss and Message.

Secondly, Frank sent me a scan of the CD and cover sleeve for the Meccano Mind Instrumentals promo, which is now available to view.

So head on over to the discography to check them out.

The remix itself is excellent, mostly because it takes the hard edge off the original. The original Pulse was utterly relentless; listening to it more than a couple of times in a row could feel a bit like banging one’s head against a table — it just didn’t give you any room to breathe. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — it was certainly Fluke’s darkest track — but this mix, instead, takes the driving bassline and gives it a harmonious and melodious counterpoint, leading to a softer, more forgiving, version of the track.

The track is also far more professionally mixed than previous work by JC, which I noticed instantly and is because, according to the man himself, he’s acquired some nice new monitoring headphones!

Without further ado, then: Fluke – Pulse (jUSTIN cREDIBLE remix) (FLAC and MP3)

The mix is a chilled out version, with a very nice intro and outtro appended to a much amended and beat-backed version of the 7″ edit from the One Little Indian Presents album.

You can download the mix for yourself: 2 Bit Pie – Colours (The Just Incredible Remix – Edit)

Enjoy!

So, without further ado, here’s the history of the track Bjango.

Well, story, long, where to begin…

We were at Real World Studios for their recording week, ’95 I think, where all the artists from Womad get together and record, as everyone is in the country from far flung places and RW has loads of space to work it makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, not that productive for us but we did get this amazing piece by a berimbau recorded, weird instrument, sounds like Rez on a stick.

We were asked to do a mix for Bjork the following year, track was Hyperballad, OLI wanted something big, progressive and Fluke like, unsurprisingly, so we duly delivered, using the berimbau from RealWorld. Bjork wasn’t so convinced by our mix, so we did another one, halftime, which she loved and was duly used, this is one of my favorite mixes we did.

So, what to do with the original, we chatted and decided there would be no harm in releasing a cheeky white label of say 1000 copies and with the tacit agreement of OLI this is what we did, this is what I think you have, just can’t remember the colour. Well, 1000 quickly became 3000 and we were then approached by Hi-Life for a release, which we did, with pleasure, although still signed to Circa. Everyone was so much more relaxed in the 90′s….

As for Bjork……. well, there was a comedy meeting at an MTV party, small ballistic Icelandic diva told me in no uncertain terms that all we had to “was fucking ask”!

There you go, it was sort of “collaborative” just not everyone knew they were collaborating.

I was looking at your discography because I have been a fan of Fluke for a long time. I wonder if you can help me: I have a white vinyl, single sided 12” with Bjango written on it but it doesn’t appear on your discography.

This was intriguing and I originally utterly misread the email and set a confused reply thinking it was the “white label”, not a white vinyl of the track Bjango by The Lucky Monkeys which, as most readers will know, is one of Fluke’s many aliases. After some cross-purpose discussion, I eventually forwarded the email to jUSTIN cREDIBLE who identified this as a different recording altogether. After a week or so (a surprisingly short time), I was able to track down a copy of this edition. It is, indeed, a single-sided 12″ white vinyl that looks like this:

As you can see, the label features a handwritten statement of “Bjango” followed by the signature “F” of Fluke spelled in Xs:

XXX
XX
X

The mix itself is previously unknown. I originally mistook it for the Original Mix, but again was corrected by jUSTIN:

This version is clearly (but slightly) different to the Original Mix.
The part which starts at 02:50 min – 03:32 min does not exist in the CD/ Vinyl Original version.

For those curious, here’s a sample which includes the portion not previously heard: Bjango White Vinyl sample. We’ll try and get this incorporated into the discography as soon as possible.

The record, from the 1997-1998 period, conveys the enthusiasm felt for the group throughout, with many mentions of excited concert ticket acquisitions, hard to find promos and worldwide availability. Here was one post I particularly liked:

I caught your show in vegas under the race track bleachers You guys where so awesome .Ive never in my life seen a group as intense as you.

In addition to many posts praising the group, it also provides an interesting source of information to follow up on our historical project, for instance:

I just saw Fluke at The JayHawk Festival in Kansas. Yes. Kansas. They were incredible.

Which is certainly one of which were were unaware. Another lead to be followed up:

budapest(august ’97)

Anyway, thanks again to Waldemarus and we hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane.