This reissue 12 contains 2 classic cuts of early `90s dance floor sampledelia, produced by the duo of DJ Gavin Mills and musician Nick Nicely, under the alias Psychotropic. 

The lifts used come not from their original sources, but are instead second-hand snippets, samples of samples, cherry-picked from hits of the day. Prince via The Criminal Element Orchestra. James Brown care of The Stone Roses. The bleepy, boisterously bass-ed B-side’s clip of Ronald Reagan ordering, “Give to them! Give it to them!” – chopped from an infamous 1984 press conference where the then US President jokingly outlawed Russia – a popular purloining at the time, could have been commandeered from either S’Express, Orchestra JB, Coldcut, or the Double Trouble remixes of Bam Bam.* Deftly demonstrating the productions, and producers’ playful, magpie-like nature.

The “hypnotising” A-side takes bites of sexy West End disco and jazzy NYC garage and very cleverly collages them over a swinging breakbeat. Filtering, EQing everything so that the song is continually, psychedelically shifting. Showcasing techniques that Nicely had been perfecting in his solo work since the start of the `80s. Funkily fucking with the repurposed fragments. For example, a Pal Joey steal is slowly, slyly transformed into a vamp / riff on Orbital’s rave favourite Chime. This is all done so smoothly that the track crossed over from UK Second Summer Of Love shindigs to make the playlists of David Mancuso’s celebrated New York loft parties. 

*And not the “See The Light, Feel The Heat” Air Force 1 OG.

Psychotropic’s Only For The Headstrong can be ordered directly from All City.