Oh man, this one’s been killing me. I’ve been trying to figure out what this is for years, mainly because it sounds really familiar and I always feel like I’m just about to figure out what it is when I hear it.
The mystery track is from one of Coldcut’s “Solid Steel” radio shows. Back when I was working in college radio, they sent us a bunch of CDR’s of the solid steel shows in an attempt to get us to syndicate it. We declined, but I kept the CD’s as they’re pretty dope DJ mixes.
These mixes cover a wide range of genres and periods; this song segues into a house track, but then there’s vintage electro, early hip hop, sixties rare groove and soul jazz, weird mutant R&B, straight-up techno, and other stuff that appears over the course of the mix(es). It’s merely labeled “Show #3,” but I know it’s not their third show in their history, as they started in '88 and I got this around '01.
Anyway, here’s the mystery instrumental. I get a Les Baxter/David Axelrod vibe from it, but it could just be someone sampling one of those guys or something from their era. I can’t tell if the beat that comes in toward the end is a programmed hip hop beat or part of the original composition. Have at it!