At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a placeholder to appear on the podcast feed. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. You can also support me by buying one of the audio services I offer – https://centuriesofsound.com/services/

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

Do you remember them times?
Do you remember these days?
Where you could bubble in a rave
Find me in a club like
Downing pure silk like
Yeah, this is when garage was alright!
There weren’t no fighting and ting there weren’t no gun tings
It was a gyal ting, a raving ting! Bubbling ting
Ok, let’s go back
– Durrty Goodz, Switching Songs Pt 2

My first memory of the year 2000 is walking back from Lennons’ nightclub in Southampton, and sitting by myself in a freezing cold room, while in the room above my friend had sex with a girl he’d met in the club. As the sun rose, still unable to sleep, I watched the celebrations on a black & white TV, the world outside feeling more like a funeral than a celebration. I was halfway through a degree I didn’t want to do, living a lifestyle which was often fun but not really sustainable. Who I actually was and what I wanted from life was still a complete mystery. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In 1999 I had been immersed in new music, in 2001 I would pick it up again, but this was the year we all just listened to Canterbury Scene and Krautrock. If you think this paragraph is a mess then you don’t know the half of it.

Among the things I missed out on; in the USA Timbaland was leading a revolution in perfectly produced R&B, and harder-edged alternative rockers were making jagged, angry music. In Europe, house, techno and electroclash producers were putting out work which still feels like an unsurpassed peak a quarter of a century later. And in the UK we were at the peak of UK garage, a genre whose imperial phase had been kicked off at the same club I went to – The Artful Dodger’s garage night was on Tuesdays, the indie night was on Thursdays. None of this really sunk in at the time.

The one salient point here is this: I did not really experience this year myself, I have had to piece it together from available evidence. The news events of this year are either a mystery to me or things I heard about only later. The new music here was all discovered later, with the exception of Emiliana Torrini’s “Unemployed In Summertime” – which I heard while being unemployed in the summertime, aged 21, and found memorable for this reason, and V/VM, who were memorable for other reasons. For the first time I have included some clips of home videos in the mix, but the narrative has once again made itself, if there even is a narrative. It is, it turns out, a pretty good year.

Tracklist

(New Year Montage – various clips)
0:01:15 Azzido Da Bass – Dooms Night (Timo Maas Remix)
(Clip from In The Year 2000)
(Clip from The Simpsons)
(Clip from Amores Perros)
(Clip from home videos – Ed)
0:04:47 Sunship – Cheque One-Two (Original Mix)
(Clip from Sexy Beast)
0:08:46 Primal Scream – Swastika Eyes (Jagz Kooner mix)
0:11:13 Life Without Buildings – Let’s Get Out
0:15:01 Emiliana Torrini – Unemployed In Summertime (LP mix)
(Clip from Memento)
0:17:58 Ghostface Killah feat. The RZA – Nutmeg
0:19:59 Chris Morris & Michael Alexander St John – Club News
0:22:46 Jonas Mekas – As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
0:22:54 Boards Of Canada – Kid For Today
0:25:56 Roni Size & Reprazent – System Check
(Clip from Big Brother UK)
0:28:33 The Hives – Die, All Right!
0:31:10 Destiny’s Child – Jumpin, Jumpin
(Clip from home videos – Rowley & Jamie)
0:33:35 Jamie Lidell – La Scappin Rood
(Clip from Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
0:34:36 Aaliyah – Try Again
(Clip from Meet The Parents)
0:37:39 Mala Rodríguez – Tengo Un Trato
(Clip from Final Destination)
(Clip from Billy Elliot)
(Clip from Yi Yi)
0:39:14 Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Storm
(Clip from BBC Review of The Year)
0:44:38 Anaal Nathrakh – The Supreme Necrotic Audnance
0:45:46 Radiohead – Idioteque
(Clip from Jackass)
0:49:16 DJ Zinc – 138 Trek
0:52:43 Fragma – Toca’s Miracle
(Clip from The Beach)
(Clip from home videos – Ed & Rowley)
0:54:17 Phoenix – Too Young
0:57:18 Two Lone Swordsmen – Brootle
(Clip from BBC Review of The Year)
(Clip from home videos – Adam & Olly)
0:59:09 Fiona Apple – Paper Bag
(Clip from Sexy Beast)
1:02:35 PJ Harvey – Good Fortune
1:05:46 Elliott Smith – Can’t Make a Sound
1:08:50 Belle and Sebastian – Judy Is A Dickslap
(Clip from The Simpsons)
(Clip from interview with Broadcast)
1:11:38 Mos Def – UMI Says
1:16:27 Susumu Yokota – Genshi
(Clip from Dancer In The Dark)
1:20:56 Brave Captain – Tell Her You Want Her
(Clip from Requiem For A Dream)
1:24:06 Shiina Ringo – Tsumitobachi
(Clip from Black Books)
1:29:34 Papa Reu – Shine (feat. TC, C-Note & Lil’ O) (Screwed & Chopped)
1:31:59 Faye Wong – Chanel
(Clip from Yi Yi)
1:34:37 The Flaming Stars – Some Things You Don’t Forget
1:35:38 Green Velvet – Flash (Danny Tenaglia’s Prepare To Dub)
(Clip from Freaks & Geeks)
1:38:03 Fatboy Slim – Sunset (Bird Of Prey)
(Clip from Harvey Birdman)
1:42:05 Playgroup – Make It Happen (Soulwax Remix)
1:43:41 Super Furry Animals – Ymaelodi A’r Ymylon
(Clip from home videos – Biggsy)
1:45:47 Peaches – Fuck The Pain Away
(Clip of Hubert Selby Jr Interviewed by Ellen Burstyn)
1:47:29 Laurent Garnier – The Man With The Red Face
(Clip from Best in Show)
1:51:01 Sweet Female Attitude – Flowers
1:53:50 Monsta Boy – Sorry (I Didn’t Know)
1:56:36 MJ Cole – Sincere
2:01:35 Freescha – Lift
(Clip from Best in Show)
(Clip from home videos – Dan)
2:05:27 At The Drive-In – One Armed Scissor
(Clip from Da Ali G Show)
2:09:10 Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit Of The Summer
(Clip from Sexy Beast)
2:11:42 Dandy Warhols – Horse Pills
(Clip from home videos – Ed & Tim)
2:14:33 The New Pornographers – Letter From an Occupant
2:18:13 All Saints – Black Coffee
(Clip from The Beach)
(Clip from High Fidelity)
2:23:09 Johnny Cash – The Mercy Seat
(Clip from Final Destination)
2:27:44 V/Vm – Two Can Play That Gammon
2:29:07 Electric Wizard – Vinum Sabbathi
2:31:54 Bantam Rooster – You’re the Sun
2:33:09 Add N To (X) – Brothel Charge
2:36:00 Oxide & Neutrino – Bound 4 Da Reload (Casualty)
(Clip of John Peel)
2:38:25 Ballboy – I Hate Scotland
(Clip from Vince Russo shoot on Hulk Hogan)
2:42:17 Sigur Rós – Dánarfregnir og jarðarfarir
2:46:11 Daft Punk – One More Time
2:51:19 Spiller – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)
2:54:55 Photek – Infinity
(Clip from Erin Brokovich)
(Clip of Hubert Selby Jr Interviewed by Ellen Burstyn)
2:58:36 Clearlake – Winterlight