011. Mitch & Mart - Get Up

Elusive, rare, hard-to-find, valuable; these adjectives represent increasingly disappearing values and concepts in the age of digital DJing. Tracks get picked up by the big jocks, spend a while doing the rounds in promo then get released and distributed via MP3 format to the online stores for the world and his wife to download (if they haven’t already after it’s been sneakily ripped and leaked to the internet by a nefarious link in the chain). This is a central reason why we progressively see DJs tending to re-edit and remix tracks for their personal use only; to unconsciously reinvigorate and maintain exclusivity. As back catalogues are being uploaded, we’re rapidly approaching a point were if you can’t find a track to download, the chances are you never will be able to. While I have sympathy with values of egalitarian access, this trend undermines much of the appeal I find in record collecting and DJing. What are we supposed to admire in sound craftsmanship of the work-a-day DJ when we know all the background research he (or she) has put in has been half an hour spent downloading online? How can I respect you as a DJ if this is the case? Does a collection of music have as much intrinsic meaning if it is electronic and not physical? Can something still hold value if it lacks rarity?

Putting these somewhat metaphysical problems of contemporary DJing culture aside for one moment, here we have one track which still clings onto those adjectives we introduced earlier. Mitch & Mart’s Get Up was a regular staple of Mr. O’Riordan’s back in the hazy days of 1999 and early 2000. It’s a funky, but hard, housy number with trancy overtones. As indefinite descriptions go, that’s about as good as it will get. Despite receiving consistent DJ support from one of the biggest DJs of that era, and featuring on Ministry compilation with wide commercial distribution, this never saw the light of day. All that exist of this track are a few white labels which were pressed for promotional purposes. As a result, quite a buzz still exists about this tune. Thankfully, I’m now lucky enough to own one of those elusive copies now.

Mitch & Mart - Get Up
[White : MITCH01]
(1999)