Ruforia: Unless You Wear a Rucksack

After just over a month being back in Ibiza, and just under a month of having no electricity, we've now joined the civilized world, and all their 240v glorious advancements. Meaning that I can finally get back to producing some Ruforia mixes again! This time I've enlisted my long-suffering girlfriend (long suffering because she's had to listen to all these tracks and a million others about 600 times in the process of choosing tracks for this mix - a Ruforia mix doesn't just happen over night you know!) to help with the track commentary for this mix:

1. Luis Paris Vs. Adamski - One of the People (First Life's One Nation Mix)
   Rufus: I was given this track handed to me on some random promo CD when I first got back to Ibiza this year, and haven't stopped playing it since! I really love the "anytime I find myself... wrestling with my mental health... playing that same old song... all night long" lyric, something I think everyone can relate to at some point in their lives! Plus I think it's just one of those tracks that you couldn't stay in a bad mood after listening to, it was destined to start a Ruforia mix!
   Marisa: Every time Rufus plays this track, I get an image of Rufus dancing around in the kitchen like a tard. Then I go into the kitchen and he actually is dancing around like a tard. With ABANDON. It gives me great joy, this track.
   With: Ivor Cutler - If Your Breasts
   Rufus: How can one 10 second sample make me laugh so much every time I hear it? I don't know, but Ivor Cutler clearly took a lot of drugs in his life. Long live Ivor Cutler! May his wierd Scottish soul rest in peace.
   Marisa: Long before Jack Black and / or Kyle Gass and / or any of our other perennial favorite comedy / folk rock duos ever picked up a guitar, there was Ivor Cutler. Being bizarre with a harmonium, and the occasional company of his muse and girlfriend, Phyllis King. She wasn't his baby mama, and I don't even think she is on this track, but I felt her name bore mentioning, for reasons unbeknownst even to myself. I'd like to add, Ivor Cutler is a very researchable guy, with his very own ''.org''.
   
2. Bassmonkeys feat. Naomi Marsh - The Answer (Eric Kupper Dub)
   Rufus: It's been a long time since I heard a piano house track with so much funk and passion behind it. It made me want to hump the walls. Nothing more needs to be said.
   Marisa: Piano house. I don't know what to say. It has taken me a year of solid, unrelenting exposure to the genre, which, kicking and screaming ''this is GAY!'' I eventually succumbed to. Now I love piano house, diva house, Dr. House, all house. Blame the DJ.
   
3. Delano & Crockett - Walking on the Moon (Delano & Crockett's Grand Club Mix)
   Rufus: The only thing better than Sting is Sting + Piano. The only thing better than Sting + Piano is Sting + a drink, while he lets you beat him at pool and relives his acting in "DUNE" in vivid detail. That never happened (at least not to me), but this is a fair substitute.
   Marisa: This is exactly what a pop remix is supposed to do: maintain the original voice of the song, multiply it by 7,000 times the dance and rock-ability, and serve it to you over a heaping pile of beats and piano plinks. I really have nothing else to say about it, other than the only thing better would be what Rufus just said, videotaped by me.
   With: Admiral Titbit - Upside Down (Acapella)
   Rufus: The image of the guy singing this turned on his head and inside out, so his guts were spilling all over the place, while at the same time trying to pen a love song about how he feels about his present situation still haunts me to this day. I'm going to stop thinking about it now.
   Marisa: This track reminds me of having a girlfriend.
   
4. DJ Spinnin - Punk Chic (Johan S Original Mix)
   Rufus: If any one track is responsible for getting me into Funky House in the first place, this would be it. An old friend of mine gave me this on CD (Where are you Alex Parks? I miss you!!) when it first came out, and after hearing it, I alienated myself from the entire world trying to find more tracks this good. I'm still trying.
   Marisa: If someone would drop this after ''Common People'' at [insert Los Angeles club venue here] I'm pretty sure I would stay and keep dancing, and so would ever other vintage store clothing assistant and record label intern there as well.
   
5. James Kakande - You You You (Alex Gaudino & Jerma Mix)
   Rufus: My new "Love Generation" - the only difference being that this one hasn't been ruined for me (yet) by being played 6 billion times a day on every radio station, and every cheesy club in the UK.
   Marisa: As I was passing out on the stairway in Pacha, and this came on over the speakers I thought to myself ''Wow, me and Erick Morillo actually have something in common'' and ''I am going to hear this every day for months after Rufus gets it off Beatport.'' But I'm not mad.
   
6. Danny Rodia & Dave Gallucci - Electro Move (Harmo Bass Mix)
   Rufus: I shamelessly pilfered this off a Record that Donald bought, and if he thinks I'm not going to play the bloody socks off it, he should think again. Buy more records like this Donald (and then let me nick them).
   Marisa: Remember that part in The Anchorman where Ron tells the jazz club band to take the bass line for a ''walk''? Exactly.
   With: Joe T Vanelli - Sweetest Day of May (Acapella)
   Rufus: One of my all-time favorite Ruforia tracks finally makes a welcome return in Acapella form. Don't touch any of the remixes from this year, you'll be sadly disappointed. Besides, why would you - you can't improve on perfection! Sadly, this means whatever I mix the acapella with is going to do it an injustice, but even I'm not shameless enough to just play the original in 2 different Ruforia mixes.
   Marisa: Finding an a capella that showcases the talent of the vocalist, rather than the talent of the studio production team is a rare thing indeed. You could loop it over a gravel truck driving over nails and her voice would still sound amazing.
   Rufus: What She said.
   
7. Mr. Fuzz Pres. Twisty Fuzz - Disco Biscuits 3000 (Original Mix)
   Rufus: Not every track can get away with the line "How tall are you? 5'10''? I didn't know they could stack beauty that high!". It's cheeky and funky in equal measures, and therefore I like it. Plus there's not enough house tracks that mention biscuits at all, and I say that in my professional capacity of biscuit connoisseur.
   Marisa: You thought you were bored, but you were definitely ''thirsty'' so you headed over to the bar and got a mojito and then you heard this, chucked a bunch of cash at the bartender, made a start for the dance floor and started texting like mad to find some chemicals. Your night just got saved.
   
8. Josep Gardinho - Acid Workout (Soul Avengerz Vocal Remix)
   Rufus: We're getting a little bit darker now, but not dark enough to stop with the awesome piano solos. This isn't Jimi Hendrix (if he played piano) quality solo material like "The Answer" is, more kind of Jimmy Nail on pills quality (ie. take a few choice chords and just keep repeating to the beat), but that doesn't mean you can't dance to it.
   Marisa: Aren't you glad you stayed? Even if you haven't gotten a hold of any disco biscuits, by now I'm certain you don't care. Saying you will be home by sunrise is pushing it. I hope you don't have to work tomorrow.
   
9. Fun Da Mentalists Feat. One - World Wide Party (Hoxton Whores Full Vocal Mix)
   Rufus: If I'd have known I was going to get this dirty, I wouldn't have had a shower before doing this mix. Classic "We're going to talk about how much you can dance to house music" house music. (That's an actual genre in my collection)
   Marisa: Every time I hear this track I instinctively expect to hear Rockwell's ''Somebody's Watching Me,'' but I'm never disappointed when an artist combines the epic synth riffs of the past with the uplifting message to shake one's ass.
   
10. D. Ramirez - The Ramirez EP (Side B Whitelabel)
    Rufus: This was one of those infuriating finds in Delta Discos, that just says something like "The Ramirez EP" on the label and nothing else. Who did these remixes? Maybe we'll never know. Side A sucks donkey balls (The Lost in Rave Remix of "Lost", but with more vocals!), but if you come across this one, it's worth it just for Side B.
    Marisa: The best thing about this track is how the hollowed out production functions to make a bigger deal out of the vocals, rather than competing with them. There is so much going on in this track I suggest you listen to it many, many times, both in and out of context.
    
11. Liquid - Sweet Harmony (Spoon & Talk Mix)
    Rufus: The first of my 'back to the old skool' selection on this mix, this one couldn't disappoint if it came home one day with all F's on it's report card, apart from in General Studies, which everyone knows is gay.
    Marisa: Yes, please and thank you. This track is tight and economical without being spare or minimal. Try pulling that off while busting an Eddie Van Halen double arpeggio technique and kick flipping off a seventh-story roof top into a pit of fire, why don't you?
    With: Chemicals are Important
    Rufus: I have a feeling this came from Steve. I love samples from old black and white English television and government education television. They remind me of an innocent time when going to a club involved ballroom dancing, and the only drug people were getting high from was the mercury used to make the top hats.
    Marisa: Chemicals are important.
    
12. Roar & Baumartner - The Beat (Josh Nordlander Mix)
    Rufus: You can't go wrong with this song - every track that's ever used this sample has been amazing, and this one is no exception. I like the shameless use of Ableton Live's beat repeat effect in the second breakdown.
    Marisa: I haven't been this excited since I heard the original played at the Hi-Fi in Leeds. People always make a fuss about how Buddy Rich is the best drummer in the world and what-not, but I always thought the chick singer was cool. I still do.
    
13. Gat Decor - Passion (Moss Szade Mix)
    Rufus: Just as I managed to unearth the original single of this in Oxfam, with a view to putting it on Ruforia, along came a shed load of remixes. Few tracks can be so famous from a 1-bar riff, but this remix manages to take that 1 bar and turn it into an entire track on it's own. Take out the weedy vocals from the original, and turn the piano riff into an entire breakdown, and you've got the makings of a true leg end.
    Marisa: I never got anything neat from Oxfam. But I won't say Oxfam never gave me anything.
    
14. Moby - Porcelain (Daft Mix)
    Rufus: A house mix of Porcelain is looooooooong overdue, and I'm glad this one does the original justice. The speeding up is noticeable, but necessary. Never has a string hook been reversed in such a haunting way before now. Now I just need some remixes of Massive Attack, and I'll not know whether to dance or get stoned for ever more.
    Marisa: Why is it not cool for me to feel the same way about Moby as I do about Beck? Moby is a perfectly stand up guy, and he owns Teany, for god sake. Give the man a break. He also recorded this, and let's not forget ''Raining Again.'' We can forget that thing he did with Gwen Stefani. Bygones.
    
15. Mick Jagger & David Bowie - Let's Dance (Whitelabel)
    Rufus: Do they smoke grass in space, or do they smoke astro-turf (such an artificial high)? I don't know, but if they did, this is probably what Bowie (Ya freaky old bastard) and the Mick Jaggernaught would compose.
    Marisa: Not that this would ever happen, but let's just say that you were dj-ing a wedding, and a bratty 23 year old came up to the booth with her mom, her mom's chain smoking, angry older sister, and um....my dad. And they were all like ''I'm sorry, but do you have anything we can DANCE to?'' You'd know what to do, I'm just saying...hypothetically.
    
16. DJ Joe K. - Born Slippy (Instrumental Mix)
    Rufus: The apex (I just wanted to get that word in somewhere to be honest) of this mix, in my opinion. The first time I ever went clubbing (Jabez Cleggs in Manchester, if you must know), they played this at the end of the night, and I realized this was a turning point in my life. I would never listen to music with the same ears again. Pair with 'The First Time' acapella for extra sentimental meaning heaped on top.
    Marisa: Much in the way that The Pixies ''Hey'' reminds me of every crush I have ever had (real or imagined) Born Slippy makes me nostalgic for memories I've never had in the first place. I don't know why. I didn't even like Trainspotting that much, honest.
    With: Roland Clark - The First Time (Acapella)
17. Blur Vs. Jonathon Ulysses - Parklife (Rufus Returns to Bora Bora Mix)
    Rufus: Another first on Ruforia, a friend of mine wanted a version of Parklife he could play at the closing party of Bora Bora this year. And so this mix was born in an afternoon. A blatant splice between Parklife and Jonathon Ulysses - "This is how we... ROCK!", I take minimal credit for this track: the groundwork for it's awesomeness was already done for me ;).
    Marisa: Like upstart younger siblings vying for the respect of an older brother, Lucky and I fought over the speakers for the better part of an afternoon-- ''listen to my track...no MY track!!!! Me next, me next....!'' while Rufus quietly bimbled away on his laptop, producing this gem. And then we were all like ''awwwwww Heaaaaaaaath....'''