Heeeeeeeeee’s back! As promised by the man himself, here is the second installment of Carlo’s φ (pronounced “Phi”) series. Missed the first one? Where were you, under a bush?! Here’s what Carlo said then about the series:

The general idea with this mix is to play edits of songs I find particularly interesting/engaging/inspiring that did not yet get the recognition I think they deserved. As with “Vol. 888″, the idea is not to mix songs according to tempo, but rather according to tuning and feel, in the high-school-mix-tape-for-your-girl fashion. And no, once again, there will be no tracklist, but feel free to drop me a line if you need specific info about a track…I’ll see what I can do. Massive thanks to everyone that spread the word about any of my releases, as well as those that bought my music…There’s a bunch more coming your way. Final thanks go to the Rhythm Incursions extended family, for allowing me to contribute to this constant, impressive musical output. Epic.

We love Carlo. We love his mixes. We REALLY loved Phi 1. And trust us, we’re loving Phi 2… possibly even more. Now: GO GET SOME.

Click here to download Carlo’s φ mix!

Back in November 2007, Bully Records’ alumni Carlo sent us a mix, entitled Vol.888. It was a pause-tape style mix, and showcased a bunch of obscure tracks, some of which had been sampled by the likes of Four Tet and Sixtoo. With no tracklisting offered, it was almost like a sample spotters’ challenge, dropping song after song where you thought “goddamn… where have I heard that before??”. Quite aside from that element of course, it was also a stellar selection.

Now, I’ll be honest here: we thought people would like this mix. However we had no idea how fast word would spread and how many downloads this thing would cop. A year on, and we’ve totalled the downloads to be well past the 12,000 mark.

Cut to the present, and its time for Carlo’s next offering: φ. Pronounced “Phi”, this is the first part of an ongoing series, and trust me, if you liked Vol.888, you’re gonna go insane for this. I asked Carlo to give us a few words on the mix:

The general idea with this mix is to play edits of songs I find particularly interesting/engaging/inspiring that did not yet get the recognition I think they deserved. As with “Vol. 888″, the idea is not to mix songs according to tempo, but rather according to tuning and feel, in the high-school-mix-tape-for-your-girl fashion. And no, once again, there will be no tracklist, but feel free to drop me a line if you need specific info about a track…I’ll see what I can do. Massive thanks to everyone that spread the word about any of my releases, as well as those that bought my music…There’s a bunch more coming your way. Final thanks go to the Rhythm Incursions extended family, for allowing me to contribute to this constant, impressive musical output. Epic.

As Carlo says, there is more to come and this is just the beginning. But enough words: grab the mix and get listening.

Click here to download Carlo’s φ mix!

1. The Joe Beats Takeover
I still love this show, in which Joe stepped up to deliver a glorious range of his own productions. I won’t like; Joe and Mat Young (aka DJ RPM) remain my two favourite producers when it comes to the instrumental side of hip hop, and on this show Joe demonstrates just why that is the case. Fantastic stuff.

2. Carlo – The Vol. 888 Mix
Of all the mixes we’ve hosted, this one seems to have made an impression more than most, mainly for delivering track after track of songs that so many producers sampled. Consider it a sample-spotters paradise, tempered only by the fact that Carlo never named the tracks used. So, you get to hear the originals… but you’ll never learn what they are. Any which way, this is gold.

3. Buddy Peace – Obituary Medicine (tracklisting here)
Buddy is pretty much extended family to Rhythm Inc now, but on this show he brought his own psychedlic lofi madness style to the chair when he presented his own “Obituary Medicine” mix. Featuring a raft of his own remixes as well as mad mix work, the whole thing is topped off by Buddy’s own “broadcasting from space” voiceovers. A true original – don’t sleep.

4. The Dday One Takeover
Our former Needlework cohort over in LA stepped up for a guest slot in the presenting chair and brought another fine, original blend of his own unreleased work, stellar selections and even various snippets from previous RI shows (including samples of me, much to my bewilderment!). Dday always works with immense passion, and it shows on this 60 minute special. Grab it now!

5. Mr Trick presents Dang In Dub 2: The Curse of the Black Ark
Following on from the success of the original Dang In Dub mix, I thought I’d toast the summer in last year with a live decks n’ FX mix of my beloved Lee Perry productions on his Black Art label – ostensibly the finest works from his golden period in the Black Ark studio. With summer nearly here and a third Dang In Dub mix on the way, now’s a good time to get into what you might have missed…

A while back, our good friend Carlo contacted us about doing an old skool, pause-button style mix of tracks he’d sampled, along with tracks the likes of Sixtoo, Four Tet and others had sampled too. Knowing how much Carlo knows his stuff in this area, we said a hearty “sure!” and waited to hear the result….

So, a couple of weeks back we got this, and decided that it was something best dished up as a podcast-only affair, for one simple reason: it warrants more than just one quick airing on the radio show. This is one of those mixes you have to listen to 10 times before you even get halfway to spotting all the samples in it. In fact, quite aside from the musical excellence, it could almost be a challenge: name the samples!

Anyways, sit back and enjoy what we think is an incredible tour of the music that inspired the songs. To us, this kind of mix acts as much as a document, showing the material your favourite artists were loving enough to sample and re-mould into their own creations. Fine stuff, we hope you’ll agree…

Click to download Carlo’s Vol.888 mix! (80Mb)

Be sure to hit up Carlo’s MySpace page, at http://www.myspace.com/mynameiscarlo, or drop him an email to say thanks at carlok7@gmail.com

Footnote: if you were wondering what the inspiration was for the artwork… click here