So the scene is set something like this… London. January 18, 2004. Strictly Kev (aka DJ Food, aka Kevin Foakes) of Ninja Tune fame premieres his Raiding the 20th Century mix on XFM Radio. This 40 minute mix traversed the full spectrum of cut-up / mash-up music.  Shortly after he is introduced to Paul Morley’s book Words & Music.  This book aimed at providing a concise history of pop music.  Kev quickly realized how closely his mix echoed the themes of Morley’s book.  From this he decided to track Morley down and work with him to expand the mix.  Exactly one year later, a full one hour mix is released, now with additional material and excerpts of Morley reading.

Now for those super in-the-know this is old news, but I apparently missed it and thought “hey, maybe I’m not the only one”.  I have already given this several rotations (perhaps too many).  This mix goes beyond the simple mash-up and provides a valuable addition to the history of communication theory.  I could drone on about this but I recommend you just go ahead and download this one… is free!

Strictly Kev – Raiding the 20th Century