Monday 10 January 2022

What Are You Thinking Of?

Side 2 of a mixtape, compiled October 1996 and featuring Secret Knowledge aka Kris Needs and Wonder Schneider.
 
Kris Needs is a journalist and author who edited legendary music magazine ZigZag from 1977 to 1981, contributed to numerous other publications and has written several biographies and music history tomes, including 2021's Babble On An' Ting: Alex Paterson's Incredible Journey Beyond the Ultraworld With The Orb. Wonder is an American singer/songwriter, fittingly born on 4th July (Kris was born on 3rd July) and currently based in Cleveland, Ohio.
 
Secret Knowledge debuted with the 12" single Your Worst Nightmare/Make Me Scream, in 1992 before releasing a couple of 12"s on Andrew Weatherall & Nina Walsh's Sabres Of Paradise label, including the legendary Sugar Daddy. A move to Deconstruction saw the sole Secret Knowledge album, So Hard, in 1996. Needs was also a prolific remixer in the mid-late 1990s, transforming tracks by The Boo Radleys, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart, The Prodigy, The Grid, Alabama 3, Transglobal Underground and Hurricane #1, to name a very few.
 
This selection manages to squeeze a mere 5 tracks onto one side of a cassette, but they are personal favourites. Hug My Soul is underpinned by the inspired use of a sample from Reach Out I'll Be There by Four Tops and ends with someone blowing a raspberry. Breakdown was released as a standalone 12" featuring 'light' and 'dark' Secret Knowledge remixes, both excellent. The Nitzer Ebb and Love And Rockets remixes vastly improve on the originals. The Afterworld was originally submitted for inclusion on the Volume compilation, Trance Europe Express², and resulted in conflict when the wrong version was used. The press release accompanying the subsequent 12" release of Afterworld tells the story. It was only when reading the press release again that I realised The Afterworld 12" was issued on 4th July 1994, Wonder's birthday.

Kris and Wonder reconvened Secret Knowledge in 2019, in a collaborative single with Sendelica, with remixes by The Orb. Windmill was written as a tribute to Kris Needs' soul mate Helen Donlon, who passed in 2018. A digital version of the EP is still available on Bandcamp.

Kris also collaborated on a remix for The Orb's excellent Abolition Of The Royal Familia (Guillotine Mixes) album in 2021 and is currently writing a Silver Apples biography. Wonder continues to perform and collaborate on musical projects. There's a great interview with Kris from May 2021 on the Strange Brew website.

1) Kick It (The Secret Knowledge Velvet DM's Mix): Nitzer Ebb (1995)
2) This Heaven (Secret Knowledge Mix): Love And Rockets (1994)
3) Hug My Soul (Secret Knowledge Limbo Mix): Saint Etienne (1994)
4) The Afterworld (Backing Track For PAs): Secret Knowledge (1994)
5) Breakdown (Secret Knowledge Dark Mix): One Dove (1993)
 

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