Couple weeks ago an old buddy emailed me… “Serge… I digitalized some old mixes you did back in the days… you interested in the files? They’re pretty cool! One has written ‘Clone Store selection December 1996’ on it”. Dude of course!!
Recorded in the very first Clone store location, the old Urban Unit skatestore garage… 23 years ago. While my neightbours of Midtown records were selling shit and shit loads of gabber (which was at its peak and total mainstream in 1996), I was selling records to the freaks and recording mixes like this in the quiet hours in the shop.
The only Pioneer equipment used was the headphone, the classic SE450… mixed on a crappy Realistic mixer…..the tape had some glitches as it’s probably a copy, or a copy of a copy, as the reach of such a mix was probably about 10 friends who all copied from each other… Funny when you realize how easy is it to reach 1000’s via Soundcloud and Youtube these days, while back then you only made these mix tapes for a couple buddies… :-)
I can use some help with track id’s as I barely remember 4 of them… time screws up your memory 😂
(Goosebump alert at 55.30 minutes!!)
Coping with long nights in clubs, dancing or dj’ing for hours, digging and strolling record fairs for days requires some stamina and a healthy life style. Some skateboarding, surfing, playing football with your mates all contribute to that.
It’s no secret that the Dutch love riding their bikes though, and therefore we designed our 2nd cycling kit to make our life on the bike a bit more comfortable. A high quality aero cycling jersey manufactured by Belgium company Vermarc, known for providing team kits to some of the top pro cycling teams such as the winning Quickstep team with Niki Terpstra and Philipe Gilbert.
The aero team jersey is ergonomically cut for the riding position, (tight around the arms and shoulders, longer in the back) in optimum performance fabrics. Three back pockets, full length zipper in the front.
The jerseys comes in both a male and female versions. The bibshort and arm pieces are available on special request.
2001, the first year of the 21st century, but especially for many born in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the year that was surrounded with an aura of “the Future” and that became symbol of the new and unknown things that life has in store, the starting year of a new transgression period in both scientific, cultural and spiritual evolution. In that year Transllusion recorded music in the Dimensional Waves Productions studio of which till date two known productions saw a release: “The opening of the Cerebral Gate” and shortly after that the mysterious “L.I.F.E.” album on Rephlex.
More than 15 years later, an unknown wave resurfaced, washing up an incomparable emotional state of electronic depth. Music from the Future rooted in an underwater Afro-futurist realm and the grandiose cosmological truths. This time rushing over us in a much more personal, reflective and more introspective way, yet leaving behind sonic confusion.
We now know who was responsible for all these futuristic recordings perfectly reflecting what the year 2001 stood for, James Stinson can be seen as one of the last few techno musicians from his generation that lived up to the high expectations of moving forward, finding the unknown and embracing the future without reliving the past.
Transllusion – A Moment Of Insanity DAT tapeThis recently discovered DAT-tape, using his Transllusion alias, is the 3rd outing of the project and, surrounded with an even brighter aureole than the previous recordings, confirms the status of its producers mastermind. No further details are known, except for the project name written on the tape, but these intimate moments in the studio tell us what the future sounds like according to James Stinson!
Clone Royal Oak 043 delivering fresh new cuts from the dutch west-coast! Adventurous psychedelic house tracks with colorful warm tones squeezed out of an artillery of warm and wooly sounding vintage synths creating futuristic vibes.
Masterlight taken from Third System EP – Clone Royal Oak 043.
Out mid june 2018.
Order vinyl: https://clone.nl/item51195.html
Clone store 1997, in true ‘men you’ll never see’ style located in the upstairs backroom of the Urban Unit.Rotterdam, 1997… a regular wednesday in the small Clone Record store. Our imports shipment from the USA arrived… the highlight of the week!!! New releases that have been ordered from a fax list from the American distributors. In these days it was just phone calls and infosheets rolling from the faxmachine! New records from Detroit, New York, Chicago that I ordered but never heard before. Labels and artists that were unknown… just trusting your gut feeling while reading the description on the fax list and seeing the artist name and track titles. It felt like gambling with scratchcards… hit or miss! This shipment had a bunch of records that looked kinda obscure inbetween the many NY house records and harder acid and techno listed. The names looked cool so I ordered some copies… “Cybonix – Cybonix in Effect”, “DJ Assault – Tec De France” on D-bass Records, “D.I.E. – The Men You’ll Never See” were listed with restocks of old Incognito titles such as Tronikhouse… could be something nice!?
About 5 copies of each title arrived… I broke the seal on my baggy Stussy pants, put the needle on… and there it goes Boom Pack, Boom Boom Pack, Boom Pack, Boom Boom Pack… That’s the shit… That’s some energy going on right here…wait… what’s that?? A guy with a mic?? Bang, that quirky sharp bassline drops…. wooowww!!! “To all the people in the house, I’ve got two things to say and that’s… Get Up!” Crazy stuff… I like it! Flipping over to the other side… Cosmic Cars vibes… killer! These guys knew their classics, it sounded like a cover version of Cybotron’s Cosmic Cars???! I could tell from the music… I like these guys!. Ok… Last tune… Deep Space Detroit Techno Electro… I got all exited. This is the shit!!! This whole record is gold! “Driving in my car… Making techno tracks… People try to stop me… But I keep on going because I’m the man you’ll never see!” Goose bumps!!! That’s us… The Men You’ll Never See… just a bunch of freaks making techno tracks, playing them in the car with friends, at small parties hosted by ourselves or even imaginary parties in our bedroom. Not looking for fame or trying to make shitloads of money. We preferred music from DIY labels and anonymous producers… let the music do the talking… as pure as it could be! “We’re The Men You’ll Never see” that’s our vibe and D.I.E. made the perfect theme to that vibe!
The regulars came in for their thursday and friday round of record shopping looking for the latest techno and house imports, the latest bangers for their regular dj gigs at the local clubs. Sure, no worries… I got their back! No shortage of good records from all over the place in my little recordstore! Axis, Kanzleramt, Prescription, 7th city, Strictly Rhythm, Soul City, UR etc. etc.
I did put a small stack aside with these electro 12’s for the saturday morning when the out of town regulars from Alkmaar and The Hague plus the local guys with a day job came in; Pim Pametex, Electronome, Edo8, Cosmic Force, I-f, Duplex etc.
Everything sold out after a couple days… I had work to do. I needed restocks so I started faxing to the number on the records. Long story short… a longtime friendship was started and we did a remix ep on Clone Records with killer remixes by Adult. I-f and Electronome all going against the stream showing their love for Wave and Electro and delivering superb tracks.
Now it’s 2018… The world did change… Nobody is a man or woman you’ll never see… everyone’s got a camera in their hand and is a voyeur looking at other peoples lives. It’s all about seeing and being seen these days… Facebook and Instagram and their algorithms are setting the rules and often it seems that music is of secondary importance. But the music is still here… We are still here and we’re still making techno tracks. At the end the music is the only truth!
Needless to say it’s a proud moment to be able to offer 20 years after the initial release.., the official re-release of “The Men You’ll Never See – Part 1 and Part 2”
Friday September 30 we’ll host another in-store! We welcome Massimiliano Pagliara, Duplex and Luca Lozano to play music at our store. Drop by for drinks and fresh vinyl between 18-22h, before 18h it’s business as usual. Free entrance and drinks, limited capacity.
Canada’s Patrick Holland joins the Clone Royal Oak ranks with his Project Pablo monniker. A four tracker with a fresh take on house music with some nods to the classic sounds from Chicago and New York.
Listen to the opening track, No Rush, below.
More then 25 years after original release the album that became the blue print for Deep House gets a deserved re-issue on Mr. Fingers own Alleviated Records.
