A few weeks ago a friend of mine got in contact with me to see if I wanted to help relieve him of his record collection, which he was getting rid of due to the arrival of his first born later in the year. Records do tend to take up a bit of space after all. I came away with a large amount of vinyl and I said the least I could do was to make a mix for him. You can figure out from the track list that a lot of the music was originally purchased in the earlier part of the last decade/end of the 90s and Stu also played a lot of electro, so it’s fairly prominent. There are a few obvious big tracks on here which I’d actually probably never have owned if not been handed to me, French Kiss being one. Of course then I actually go and put it on the mix ! So this maybe ain’t one for the underground nerds out there, but it was fun to make as I restricted myself specifically to what he gave me and I wanted to try and squeeze in the different type of stuff I got so it fluctuates from house to electro to techno to disco and back around again. Apologies for some of the poor sound quality (it’s quite manky around the Decal/Radioactive Man cuts) and I’ve since rejigged my set up but I was happy enough with it that I didn’t wanna re-record it.
Joe Smooth Inc. feat Anthony Thomas – The Promised Land
The Parallax Corporation – Slowflight / Runner
MAT-101 – Haunted House
Green Velvet – Stranj
Alden Tyrell – Disco Lunar Module
Dark Vektor v Kosmozo – Els Arbres No Em Deixen Veure El Bosc
I-f – Disko Slique (Instrumental)
Anthony Rother – Basic Level
King Sun – On The Club Tip
Slick – Space Base (botox edit)
Jeff Mills – Tango
Lil Louis – French Kiss
FPU – Crockett’s Theme (Zyntherius Lame Mix)
V.U.L.V.A. – White BMW (Legowelt Remix)
The Vision – Crush, Kill, Destroy
Decal – Gadgets
Radioactive Man – Airlock
Dj Q – We Are One (Carl Craig rmx)
The Aztec Mystic – Knights of The Jaguar (Jeff Mills Remix)
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – Scorpio
Inner Life – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Interviews with the one and only Kenny Dixon Jr are as rare as a sober person at BLOC so I’m really looking forward to watching this when I finish work today. The little write up on the post from the Red Bull Music Academy site makes it sound highly entertaining. I hope it delivers!
Our main man Lerosa touches down in Tokyo tonight at Module for his debut Japanese deejay set. For all our readers in Japan, you can find more info on the gig here. If you have been paying attention to our mixes, you know you are in for a special treat!
Thankfully Leo has been gracing us with mixes for a while now, and we have a new one for you today to mark this occasion. Despite listening to and playing disco in his sets, Lerosa had never previously done an all disco mix. Now he has, and he filled it with plenty of all-time classics! Grab this and play it while getting ready to go out tonight! Make sure you give Leo some love at the club…..
Tullio De Piscopo – stop bajon
Level 42 – love meeting love
Rene & Angela – i love you more
Herbie Hancock – stars in your eyes
The Blackbyrds – rock creek park
One way – cutie pie
The Kay-Gees – i believe in music
Voughan Mason – bounce, rock, skate, roll
Roberta Flack With Donny Hathaway – Back Together Again
Change – a lover’s holiday
Sharon Redd – can you handle it
loose joints – is it all over my face
dinosaur L – clean on your bean 1
the clash – the magnificent dance
cloud one – flying high
Another mix from me, this one picks up the tempo somewhat from my last one. Yes, the title is rather corny but I’m quite happy with the mix, so fuggit
1. Kyle Hall – I’m KMFH Girl!
2. LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 (Theo Parrish Space Cadet Remix)
3. Gaz Nevada – I.C. Love Affair
4. Bernard Wright – Spinnin’
5. Darwin’s Theory – Keep On Smiling
6. Plunky & The Oneness Of Juju – Everyway But Loose (Larry Levan Mix)
7. Delano Smith – Nebula
8. Rick Wilhite – Drum Patterns & Memories (Rick’s Morning Service Mix)
9. Brass Construction – Music Makes You Feel Like Dancing
10. M. Pittman – Chicago Nights
11. Chip E – Time To Jack (House Mix)
12. Expansives – Life With You
13. Leron Carson – Dedicated
14. Gherkin Jerks – Tar-Disc
15. Patrice Scott – Do You Feel Me
16. George Duke – I Want You For Myself
17. Jared Wilson – Bangkok Four Seasons Hotel
18. Rick Poppa Howard – Without Your Love
19. Tevo Howard – Move
20. Ronnie Dyson – All Over Your Face
I already mentioned this elsewhere, and I know it’s still a little early, but I’ve been cooking up a personal wish list of artists I’d like to see get booked for DEMF this year. I’m really excited for the ten year anniversary. Though there was no mention of lineup until late March last year I am hoping that Paxahau and (supposedly) Carl Craig will give us some information sooner than that this year. The only alleged booking so far is the mention of way-past-his-prime Richie Hawtin pointlessly rolling out the Plastikman guise again. I should have been excited for this news because, really, who doesn’t love the Plastikman material? My guess is though that he won’t actually be playing the old tracks as they were originally recorded, but instead use all that fancy shmancy emmpeethree technology that he’s gotten addicted to and turn it into just another loops n’ EFX wankfest. And, really, fuck that noise. I care about as much about a Plastikman set as I do about the weirdos who want to get Hall and Oates booked. (For that matter, I’d almost RATHER see Hall and Oates!) Anyway, point is, I’d love to hear what ISM readers have in mind for their own personal dream lineups for Movement 2010. Here’s mine, so far:
3 Chairs
Amp Fiddler
Andres
Anthony “Shake” Shakir
Blake Baxter
Claude Young
DJ Dex aka Nomadico
Derrick Thompson
James Pennington
M. Pittman
Niko Marks
Omar-S
Todd Osborne (in his deep house guise)
Patrice Scott
Pirahna Head
Reggie Dokes
Rick Wade
Rob Hood
Scott Grooves
Terrence Dixon
disclaimer for sleeping heads: do note this is only my wishlist!
Anyway, here’s to hoping that DEMF 2010 is more like this:
Popul Vuh – Nachts: Schnee (Mika Vainio Remix)
Ø – Loihdittu
Das Etwas – International News
Professor Genius – A Jean Giraud (Brennan Green Remix)
Grackle – Jungle (Keeler & Capablanca Remix)
Unit Black Flight – Masking
Heinrich Dressel – Escape From The Hill
Biosphere – Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings
Juju & Jordash – Quasi (Ruff Dub)
Jitterbug – Dream Memory
Tin Man – Love and Sex Acid
Rondenion – The Beautiful Memory
Jason Fine – Half (Anton Zap Remix)
Omar S – Busaru Beats
Jurgen Junker – Appearances #2
Ectomorph – XXX
Jason Fine – Midwest B
Juan Atkins – I Love You
Hieroglyphic Being – Liquid Sex
Analogous Doom – Lost Together
Les Aeroplanes – Ils Disent Que L’Orient Est Rouge
Isolators – Concentrate On Us
Free Disco – Wierd Summer
Nacho Patrol – Africaspaceprogram
Tony Allen – Ole (Moritz Mix)
Grackle – Grackle Trance
Our latest guest mix comes from electro maestro Dj Overdose who’s been kicking it about the Dutch scene for quite some time now, releasing not only as a solo artist but under a few others guises such as The Hasbeens and Novamen. Under the Overdose moniker he had two fantastic releases in 09; In For the Kill on Legowelt’s Strange Life and the 2012 Ep on Lunar Disko. Anyone who’s seen him dj will know that he deals in lots of old school electro, hip hop and freestyle with nearly all selections coming from the golden era of electro. This is no different, delivering us a bad ass party mix to get you poppin’ and lockin’.
He didn’t supply a tracklist but I’ve ID’d most of it (I think correctly) so if anyone wants to help us complete it, please post up!
Run DMC – It’s like that
Drexciya – Andreaen Sand Dunes
Nice & Wild – Diamond girl
Twilight 22 – Siberian Nights
Hypnosis – End Title (Blade Runner)
Cybotron – Alleys of Your Mind.
Dj Overdose – Mossad Commando
Planet Patrol – Play At Your Own Risk
Prince & The Revolution – I would die 4 u
?
Tag Team – Whoomp There It Is
N.W.A. – Something 2 Dance 2
Sleeze Boyz – Robocop
Novamen – Back Again
Also, the photo above is taken from the Portraits Of An Electro Scene series which is a brilliant collection from Paul Langlade, the rest of which you can see here
I’m pretty sure the Gridface blog has been mentioned on here before – it’s in our links anyways – and it continues to be one of the finest blogs for quality electronic dance muzaks. Recently Jacob has posted interviews with a couple of major players in the early Chicago house scene, Vince Lawrence and Chip E. Both are really enjoyable reads irregardless of how much of the history you know of the scene. Similarly to Detroit there is always a bit of clouding of facts and myths and what not about who started what and made what first and here Chip makes his claim for first house record and also some ownership on the term “house”. I mention Detroit also because when the Bleep43 site posted an interview with Juan Atkins a few months ago it kicked off a little bit in the comments section due to what was percieved as Juan’s toying with the facts from what went on back in the day. For those who missed it first time around, you can read it here. I’m not saying that Chip E is wrong or making things up – or Juan – but these music’s histories is, amusingly I find, full of contradicting stories and arguments from various people and is always pretty interesting.
I know I mentioned Convextion in my last post but since that, the latest podcast from Bodytonic is from electronic music’s bestest Kevin Bacon look-a-like and it can be grabbed here. There aren’t many of Hansen’s live sets knocking about the internet so I thought it was worthy of linking here. His sets truly are exceptional, and even though when he plays live he looks like he’s reading a particularly uninteresting page from wikipedia he resculpts and morphs his amazing productions – as well as playing some unreleased material – into a deep, engrossing thing of wonder. Enjoy!
Scott Ferguson has been a contributor on the mix front for almost two years here at ISM, and over Christmas he even debuted a digital album here for us. Today, he adds one more notch to his ISM belt: guest writer! Scott was obviously inspired by a recent night out at Fabric on January 23rd, and we were more than happy to give him the forum to talk about it!
To be able to use words to describe exactly what you mean or how you feel is a true art. For writers such as Henry Miller, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin, it took years of practice, patience, and self-discovery to hone this high caliber skill. To uniquely craft a story that touches other human souls with nothing but experience, skill, and your mind is truly a gift to behold. I am no writer, nor do I pretend to be. What I am is a Deejay, and an appreciator of Deejaying as a true art form. The same as in writing, a true Deejay must craft a story that touches souls with nothing more then experience, skills, and their mind. There are many who would argue that they are not concerned with a Deejay’s skills so much as their ability to select good music. I would argue that this is similar to a writer with a magnificent vocabulary but no means to tell a story. For me skill plus selection is a rite of passage, not just playing a good record. Last Saturday in Room 3 at Fabric I witnessed three artists who skillfully used experience, music, and their minds to touch souls…
I arrived to a full capacity Room 3 at Fabric around midnight as Kyle Hall was starting his set. There are many in the press asking the question, “Can Kyle Hall live up to the hype?” Let me tell you something, Kyle Hall is the HYPE, both with his physical and spiritual presence in the studio as well as behind the turntables. Kyle Hall’s Deejay performance was truly inspiring and 100% Detroit. Playing records like he constructs music, Hall’s set was full of energy, hands always busy, mind always focused, constantly creating. A true performance of scratching, beat juggling, and mixing, playing a wide range of house and techno records, many of which were made while he was still in diapers. With all of the tricks, skills, and brilliant track selection, the one thing that made me smile most was Kyle, like a 19 year old kid, had removed his shoes as if playing records in his bedroom, opposed to one of London’s highest ranking dance music clubs.
The next time slot of 2:00 to 4:00 was filled by Underground Quality label boss Edward McKeithen AKA Jus Ed. Although I’ve known Ed personally for some time, this was the first occasion I was able to listen and observe one of Ed’s Deejay sets from beginning to end, which made me both happy and excited. Mr. McKeithen absolutely did not disappoint. Ed performed no scratches or backspins but what he did do was select track after track of soulful bliss, mixing each new selection in a way that made it hard to tell when the primary track ended and the new track was left solo. Something else that gives certain Deejays a real edge is the ability to play their own unreleased tracks. Roughly 50% of Jus Ed’s set was unreleased music, including one of his tracks with techno style pad strings and synthetic gun shots. It was 2 hours of a perfectly blended musical journey performed with true artistic craftsmanship.
4:00 to 6:00 was occupied by UQ soldier and Strength Music owner DJ Qu. First and foremost DJ Qu is a dancer, and this makes him a dancer’s DJ. Qu performs no tricks or 6 minute blends, on the contrary Qu lets tracks play out in their entirety only leaving a minute or so to transition to the next track. He does this very well always choosing the next song that works musically, spiritually, and mathematically. The first 20 minutes of Qu’s performance was chock full of beautiful house tracks from the 90’s including the original version of Blaze’s ‘Wishing You Were Here’ and Round Two’s ‘New Day’. DJ Qu stayed true to his dancers and true to his emotions, two very vital aspects of the art form of Deejaying. Qu kept building and building until it was time for him to head to the airport for his flight back to the States, I will be anticipating his next arrival.
I left Fabric that night feeling full of inspiration and camaraderie. In spite of digital vs vinyl, deep house vs minimal, Ableton vs Hardware, etc… there are still some people out there that are concentrating on Deejaying as a true form of art, continuing to mix music as a creative outlet and a way to share emotions with the world. I want to thank Kyle Hall, Jus Ed, and DJ Qu for being three more true artists keeping the love of Deejaying alive. SOLID!
(I also wanted to mention that I went out in December to one of the infamous SUD Electronic parties here in London to see XDB and Levon Vincent. Levon Vincent did amazing American style things like shutting off the current record to allow him to redirect his set, pumped some mid 90’s NYC classics, and destroyed the floor with his own amazing productions. XDB was a technical mastermind building and building musically like a mason with brick and mortar. Kosta (AKA XDB) had me re-convinced in the power of the Deejay when he rocked ‘Forever Mona’ and later the 12″ version of ‘Me & My People’s Eyes’ mixing them seamlessly at the perfect moment in time. If you want to see two more well rounded Deejay’s both technically and musically, I highly recommend catching either of their DJ sets. SOLID!)
Scott himself is one of those deejays who is very successful at pushing all the right buttons. On guest mix #9 for us, he drops some classic soulful hip-hop, mostly from the ’90s. In describing it, he says, “I named it ‘Driveway Tempo Mix’ because it reminds me of my early twenties when my friend Nicodemus and I sat in his driveway in Detroit blasting songs like these from the shitty speakers in his Ford Tempo.”
Tracklist:
01. Mos Def – Modern Marvel – The New Danger
02. Immortal Technique – Caught In A Hustle – Caught In A Hustle Single
03. Talib Kweli & Hi Tek – Too Late – [Reflection Eternal] Train of Thought
04. Dj Quik – Summer Breeze – Safe + Sound
05. Common feat. Cee-Lo – A Song For Assata – Like Water For Chocolate
06. Common – One:Nine:Nine [Hi Tekstrumental] – Rawkus 12″
07. Common – One:Nine:Nine – Rawkus 12″
08. Digable Planets – Black Ego – Blowout Comb
09. Gang Starr – Tonz ‘O’ Gunz – Hard To Earn
10. Black Star – Respiration – Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star
11. The Roots – 100% Dundee – Things Fall Apart
12. Method Man – You’re All I Need – I’ll Be There For You EP
13. Brand Nubian – I’m Black And I’m Proud – Foundation
14. A Tribe Called Quest – Electric Relaxation – Midnight Marauders
Many regular visitors to the discogs website will probably be aware of this list that appeared at the beginning of the week, detailing the most expensive records bought on the website’s marketplace. It’s an interesting and at times amusing list, veering from Throbbing Gristle boxsets to Italo and hip hop 12″s and even a rare release from infamous death metal act, Burzum, along with lots of other anomalies. I commented before on here about the ludicrous prices wanted for some records but this list is a telling sign of just how much some people are willing to fork out for a record.
And in some cases there has been more silly things done via e-bay than on discogs – just from what I know myself for the Clarence G record, and some Italo bits and bobs – and while collectors will always want the original of the likes of Dario Dell’Aere – Eagles In The Night (which comes in at 83) it being re-issued last year would have certainly put off some people maybe prone to some extreme indulgence.
One thing I would like to know, if readers can help me out, is why No.1 Equidity Funk by Mistafide went for so much, it’s more than double anything else on there! I hope there is an interesting back story to that one. Or that it’s a joke.
One bizarre – well seemingly bizarre – entry comes from Jennifer Warnes, most famous for the hit single “I’ve had the time of My Life” from the 80’s movie “classic” Dirty Dancing. There is an album of hers in there that goes for about 6 quid on CD, but someone forked out $831 for a vinyl copy! Why do I mention this? Well this is where Arthur Russell comes in to play. He obviously has nothing to do with “The Hunter” album but to my surprise Warnes was a singer that Russell once worked with, which I discovered reading the new Tim Lawrence book, “Hold On To Your Dreams”, his biography of Russell which also doubles as an overview of the Downtown music scene in New York in the 70s and 80s.
Some of you out there will no doubt be aware of Lawrence’s writing, who is most well known for his fantastic disco tome “Love Saves the Day” which was a fascinating and in-depth analysis of disco music in the 70s in America. Similarly in his latest he balances the nerdier elements (it’s great to read about the making of some of the music and then go listen to it) with interesting human insights into his subjects without any huge amount of fawning going on. To be honest, after reading Hold On To Your Dreams I imagine Russell was a bloody nightmare to work with even though he paints a picture of a gentle and genuinely nice human being. But he was one just so full of ideas he could barely finish any work properly, much to the frustration of those around him. I’m not going to go in to too much detail on the rest but just gonna recommend it for Russell enthusiasts and also people interested in dance music and/or alternative music scenes. Lawrence’s two books really paint a great picture of the melting pot that was New York city during those decades.
After Tom’s skyscraping post on new music there I’m just gonna leave a link to my latest Traxx:Files article on the Bodytonic site, looking at some music I’ve been diggin over the last few months. I don’t always link to it, but my article is monthly and it’s where I do new music reviews more so than on here, if anyone’s interested. Also a new podcast from Juju and Jordash appeared today too, here.
Silly season is about to kick in the clubbing world too. Next Saturday (20th Feb) sees a fun double header roll into Dublin with ghetto legend Dj Funk and the rather wonderful Gerard Hansen aka Convextion/E.R.P. performing over 2 stages in The Twisted Pepper. I’m especially looking forward to this one as I’m also getting to play records. I’m on the early slot in the stage room, where Funk is on (with Conan O’Donnell slipping inbetween us, who more than knows his way around turntables) so it should be a great night! The week after that sees both Maurice Fulton and Blake Baxter come to town, on the same night no less. Fulton is in The Button Factory with Baxter playing in new(ish) venue The Good Bits (that’s the 26th btw) Also, yesterday BLOC announced that the Saturday night headliner of this years festival would be Model 500, which has certainly increased my excitement for the weekend (happening March 12-14th). I was initially disheartened by this years line up, as previous years had been so amazing but it’s shaping up nicely now. Along with Juan and Mike will be Omar S, Alden Tyrell, Autechre, Rob Hall, Anti-Pop Consortium and Del May amongst others. And as anyone who’s been there knows, half the fun of BLOC is partying oneself into oblivion in the chalets. AND, if your brain is still functioning after that Rob Hood comes into town the week after – again in Twisted Pepper for Test who are doing the Funk gig – so whatever energy one has left, you can use up then. I’m then hopefully gonna find a really comfy hole to crawl into for a while.
