BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1986
“Octomnipent Zeitgeist” were two medleys released in 1986 by Hot Tracks Remix Service the medley’s appeared on Series 5 issues 1&2.
Making Of… “Octomnipent Zeitgeist” Medley’s
To create the medley, Glenn Cattanach worked with two other DJs – Greg Lee and Jeff McKeehan. Glenn owned all the equipment, and Greg and Jeff were local club DJs in Lexington, Kentucky. The three of them had previously made two other medleys together – the “1984 Top 40 Medley” and the “Best of Hot Tracks 1984.” Both medleys appeared on Hot Tracks during 1985, which was the 4th year for Hot Tracks.
Glenn, Greg & Jeff came up with the idea of a BIG two-part medley for 1985 and started work on it in October of 1985. Greg was really the mastermind behind the medley, being the one with most of the ideas, but the medley was a group effort. Greg reviewed dance charts and came up with a list of songs to include. They named the two-part medley “Octomnipent Zeitgeist” which loosely meant “THE Spirit of ’85.” These guys wisely kept logs on the entire project, noting the settings for the turntable speed, mix board levels, equalizer settings, tape speed, etc. This enabled them to later re-edit any part that needed perfecting.
All the work was done with two turntables, a ¼” track 15 IPS reel to reel recorder, a cassette deck with dbx noise reduction, and a variable speed 7½ IPS reel to reel recorder. Digital recording was uncommon in 1985 and no samplers or effects (delay, reverb, echo, and no CD players!) and no multi-track tape recorders were used.
The key to the entire medley was what was called the Kentucky Multi-Track method (named that because they were living in Lexington, Kentucky at that time). They would record 8 to 16 beats of a percussion piece to use “under” the song being edited. They looped those beats by splicing a length of edited tape together, sometimes several meters long, and playing it repeatedly while recording that rhythm track to a cassette deck (with dbx noise reduction) for 3 minutes. They would then play that cassette back, mixing in the record/song they were adding to the medley with the rhythm track. To transition to another song, they would use the same rhythm track under the next song to make it sound similar to the previous song. Frequently, several rhythm tracks were sampled, layered, and cross-faded. This method was often subtle and always effective. This way the songs did NOT sound like a bunch of turntable mixes that were simply chopped up and edited back together. They used more than 70 or 80 different “loops” or rhythm tracks for the entire medley.
Final preparations for “Octomnipent Zeitgeist” included breaking the 35-minute medley into two parts, adding mix breaks between the two parts, and adding a Wizard of Oz theme (since they were calling the separate parts OZ-I and OZ-II). The medley ends with a trickling ultra-high-speed voice-over describing the origin of OZ. Hot Tracks published the medley in January and February 1986 as Series 5, Issues 1 and 2.
The mix took 600 man-hours and over three months to complete. It was a labor of love for these guys. They figured out what they had spent on tape (remember, back then everything was on ¼” tape, no hard drive recording) and the vinyl records, they each made only about $40 US. They didn’t care. They had created one of the best year-end medleys ever and were known by DJs around the world.
Source -HostDiscoMix
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
OZ-I:
Octomnipent Zeitgeist I (Medley) 17:14
DJ Mix – Glenn Cattanach, Greg Lee (4), Jeff McKeehan
110-124 BPM
Prince — Pop Life
Alison Moyet — Invisible
France Joli — Does He Dance
Tears For Fears — Shout
Mai Tai — History
Alisha — Too Turned On
Scritti Politti — Perfect Way
Jenny Burton — Bad Habits
Belouis Some — Imagination
Skipworth & Turner — Thinking About Your Love
Stevie Wonder — Love Light In Flight
Pointer Sisters — Dare Me
Jeff Lorber — Step By Step
Kaja — Turn Your Back On Me
Murray Head — One Night In Bangkok
Robey — One Night In Bangkok
Billy Ocean — Lover Boy
Simply Red — Money’s Too Tight To Mention
Aretha Franklin — Who’s Zoomin’ Who
Angela Bofill — Can’t Slow Down
Nuance — Love Ride
Chaka Khan — This Is My Night
Shannon — Do You Wanna Get Away
Rene & Angela — Save Your Love (For #1)
Simple Minds — Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Steve Arrington — Feel So Real
Belouis Some — Some People
André Cymone — The Dance Electric
Hall & Oates — Dance On Your Knees
Five Star — All Fall Down
Video Kids — Woodpeckers From Space
Tramaine — Fall Down
Fancy — Come Inside
Madonna — Into The Groove
OZ-II:
Octomnipent Zeitgeist II (Medley) 17:57
DJ Mix – Glenn Cattanach, Greg Lee (4), Jeff McKeehan
118-212 BPM
Colonel Abrams — Trapped
Steve Arrington — Dancing In The Key Of Life
Brenda K. Starr — Pickin’ Up Pieces
Vikki Love with Nuance — Stop Playing On Me
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force — I Wonder If I Take You Home
Harold Faltermeyer — Axel F.
Kool & The Gang — Fresh
Cheyne — Call Me Mr. Telephone
Paul Hardcastle — 19
Siedah Garrett — Do You Want I Right Now
Goon Squad — Eight Arms To Hold
Time Bandits — I’m Only Shooting Love
Mary Jane Girls — Wild And Crazy Love
Mary Jane Girls — In My House
Exposé — Point Of No Return
Phil Collins — Sussudio
Alexander Robotnick — Problems D’Amour
Klymaxx — The Men All Pause
Book Of Love — Boy
ABC — Be Near Me
El DeBarge with DeBarge — You Wear It Well
Aretha Franklin — Freeway Of Love
Dead Or Alive — Lover Come Back To Me
Eurythmics — Would I Lie To You
New Order — Perfect Kiss
Dead Or Alive — You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)
Ready For The World — Oh Sheila
Madonna — Angel
Madonna — Dress You Up
Natalie Cole — Dangerous
Patti LaBelle — New Attitude
Laid Back — One Life
Pointer Sisters — Neutron Dance
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Hot Tracks– SA 5-1, SA 5-2
Series: Hot Tracks Series – 5-1, Hot Tracks Series – 5-2
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Partially Mixed, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop, Funk / Soul, Pop
CREDITS:
Producer – Cameron Paul
NOTES:
For DJ use only
Find the 12″ at DISCOGS Part I
Find the 12″ at DISCOGS Part II
VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
THE GEAR:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge/Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Password: burningtheground
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