crazy bald heads: first born

"I bought the First Born 12" from the Sounds of the Universe record shop in Soho in 1998. It was a time when I was deeply excited about the new and experimental two-step/garage records that seemed to be coming out every week and the people in the shop knew I'd want this when I came in. They told me the record had been dropped off by the kids who had made it that day and they were just selling it direct to shops. It came in a handmade sleeve with bizarre artwork for a garage 12" and the music on the record sounded incredible. In 2011 I was asked to do a mix CD for Fabric and I wanted to use the original version of 'First Born' and my remix on the CD. It seemed like a good chance to get it out there after all this time. However, we couldn't find any of the Bald Heads anywhere at first to clear the track and no one knew anything about them. Some of the original garage DJs like Zed Bias remembered the record but no one had any contact details. I now realized that this was one of the weirdest and most unknown garage records from the late '90s. Fabric managed to find one of the Bald Heads at the last minute though and the track was cleared and I was put in touch with him. I met up with him a few months later and we spoke about the idea of a reissue to give this music some more life and because the original 12" is so rare, and now this reissue is finally ready. The three tracks from the original EP plus my remix from the time that wasn't released. The reissue audio is from the original DAT but unfortunately the floppy disk with the original artwork on was corrupted." -- Kieran Hebden, 2014