Dr Octagon, paramedic fetus of the east, with Priests, I’m from the church of the operating room…….
So sang/rapped Dr Octagon aka Kool Keith on Blue Flowers. I first heard this song on the Cream Live 2 triple tape (or CD if you was a flash cunt) and although I was going through my own “summer of love” at the time and loved the Paul Oakenfold and Nick Warren (and especially the ORN Snow tune, still gives me goosebumps) tapes I loved the James Lavelle courtyard mix. By all accounts Lavelle didn’t mix or scratch the album (it was the Psyconaughts) but I’d moved on a bit from hip hop by then and this reminded me why I’d loved it originally (I was 18 and if you’re thinking “this prick must think he’s too cool for school” the first single I bought was Locomotion by Kylie and I loved Bros as a kid so there’s a bit of balance for you). The closest I got to Cream was listening to these tapes, reading about it in Mixmag and my cousin from Llandudno telling me that the Quadrant (I think) was better and it was all about St Etienne away shirts.
Blue Flowers was on Kool Keith’s first solo album away from the Ultramagnetic MC’s and he also rapped on Diesel Power by the Prodigy that is 18 years old, which scares the life out of me.
Engineered Garments is getting a rightly deserved lot of love on Proper at the moment and it seems Daiki Suzuki has been getting a bit of inspiration from Kool Keith with 3 blue floral print short sleeve shirts, a long sleeve floral print shirt and a white t shirt with blue daisys on that Dr Octagon would be proud of. Get them at Oi Polloi here and listen to Blue Flowers here
