Here in Dublin we are currently experiencing what one could call a proper summer, as in the sun is out and it’s actually warm, unlike the last few years. Even us nerdy types here at ISM aren’t immune to the ability of the sun to perk us up and I for one have been waiting for this coming weekend to come around for quite some time. Most of this weekend’s shenanigans realistically have very little to do with the weather as most of the fun is to be found inside the environs of clubs long after the sun has gone down but all this weather means plenty of drinking in the sun pre-club, which is a nice alternative for us sun-starved Irish.

First up on Friday night Test will be taking over The Button Factory - which I have to admit is far from the top of my list of favourite club spaces in Dublin - when the Delsin 2.0 tour roles in to town with a double header featuring Redshape and Vince Watson. Watson, who’s productions veer from the excellent to the slightly bland will be taking over the wheels of steel and I expect will deliver a good set of Detroit influenced techno before Redshape performs live. As with Watson, Redshape has had his duff moments but has been on form of late with his latest 12 on his own Present imprint, “Alpha On The Rocks” while his “Blood Into Dust” ep on Styrax last year was one of the outstanding techno releases of the year. His live sets are an excellent fusion of Detroit and Chicago sounds melded into his own style.

On Saturday my boys Lunar Disko celebrate their 3rd birthday party with another double header, this one featuring Berliner Sneak Thief - who featured on Lunar’s debut twelve inch - playing a live set while Creme Organisation boss man and recent ISM interviewee TLR fills in the gaps on the technics. Expect a night of acid, disco, italo and whatever else the guys throw at us. If it’s half as good as the guys birthday party last year - probably the best night out I’ve had in Dublin in the last two years - then we should be in for a treat. Inflatable Llamas optional.

And if that wasn’t enough Sunday brings us one more double header - though at this stage I may feel like I’ve no functions going on in my own head - courtesy of myself and Gmos. Some Like It Deep have been putting on afternoon/evening roofparties in the Sycamore in Temple Bar for a couple of months now, and this Sunday long running club night Fatty Fatty takes over the controls and they’ve kindly asked myself and Gmos to help aid them round off the weekend alongside FF residents Pablo and El Tomo. It’s a great spot and hopefully this weather continues and there’ll be no need for any canopys to be pulled over and a selection of disco, house, techno, funk and whatever else we dig out will keep everyone smilin’ n’ dancin’ for the day.  It all kicks off at 2pm and runs till 10pm which gives everyone who’s got to work on Monday morning plenty of time to get home and get a decent nights sleep in.  Myself, I’ve booked the Monday off to rest my weary head. Hopefully see some Irish readers along the way.

Not sure how I’ve not gotten around to make a post about my little holiday over to the States for DEMF, but I thought I’d say a few things about it now. (more…)

Simon and Guillaume have been working with the Lucky Cloud soundsystem for some time, putting on some great parties including hosting David Mancuso’s London Loft sessions. More recently the guys have also been running Deepfrequency.com - an internet radio station par excellence.

ISM caught up with them to talk about some of the history and ideas behind what they do. They also very kindly contributed a great mix and edit to the site.

Simon - Deep Frequency Mix
James Brown - Body Heat (G’s Infinite Sex Machine Edit)

(more…)

Tonight Jwan Allen and I are taking over the Re-rewind radio show on WRCT 88.3 FM with our man Jake the Snake. We’re gonna be bringing all the illest new shit, plus classics and lesser known jams from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. You can definitely expect to hear the Disco Nihilist record as well as the two new releases on Technoir Audio. The show kicks off at 8PM EST (that’s 1AM GMT) with Jake playing some drum and bass, then Jwan and I will be dropping our mix-up of styles from 9PM-12AM EST (2AM-5AM GMT) or so. It’s gonna be off the hook as usual. Tune in the old school way if you’re in the area, or you can stream it (in fact you can choose between MP3 and OGG hi and lo res) worldwide from WRCT’s site.

I wish WRCT still looked more like this, though:

Oh yeah, you can harass us for requests and the like via phone 412-621-WRCT or via AIM “wrct883″. If you call in from outside of the country, we will do whatever we can to get you live on the air.

Got a couple more records since the last post….

First up is the “Music For A Saturday Evening” album by BSTC on All Natural Inc., usually a hip-hop label but this time delivering awesome live soulful house. I have to give the credit to this selection to Kai Alcé who dropped “Love It” on his ill mix for us last year. But really, this whole album is dope. I have no idea if it’s because this label is kind of obscure for dance music heads, but every soulful house head should be copping this record. It kinda reminds me of Tortured Soul but with horns and possibly better songs. Very dope.

Demis Roussos (of “L.O.V.E. Got A Hold Of Me” fame) has a new album out, and the lead single “Love Is” is a funky disco-style banger. Flipping the typical dance rythm on its head, the snare drum drives the track on each beat, while the chorus vocals take the melody over the top. Judging from the soundsamples of the original, Krivit beefs up the drums and puts the vocal front and center. This may be a bit of a turnoff for many, as Demis’ vocal style is pretty distinctive and odd, but the piano and uplifting lyrics describing love make this a prime end-of-party anthem, total hands in the air business.

I finally got a copy of an import jam that’s been killing me since I heard it on Youtube months ago, Floating Points’ “Love Me Like This”. Jacking a loop from Real to Reel’s dope boogie jam of the same name, Floating Points add some fat synths and a healthy dose of repetition to create a storming deep house jam. This is definitely top 10 of ‘09 business right here.

After seeing it kill dancefloors while on vacation in Chicago and again multiple times over DEMF weekend, I had to pick up Afefe Iku’s “Mirror Dance” on Yoruba Records. I’m not sure when exactly this came out (Discogs says December 08, though I am sure it’s been around longer), but this is pretty much as ridiculously anthemic as deep house gets and will forever remind me of spring and early summer 2009 when I saw it do damage. This track is simplicity at its best: a tribal drum loop, a synth chord, a repeating vocal, and of course the infectious marimba melody is all it takes to crush a dancefloor. While catching up on my Osunlade related records (Yeah, my bad for forgetting about you, man! Your DEMF set reminded me why I love your records, BIG TIME), I also grabbed “I Don’t Know” which is another deep vocal jam from the man.

Pittsburgh band Zombi wised up and rereleased their difficult to find Carpenter-esque dance jam “Sapphire” on the Throne of Blood label. The original is definitely the one for the cosmic, techno and italo heads, while the new remix by Escort kills it in more of a disco style. Speaking of Escort, does anyone have any idea what happened to them? It’s been over two years since their last single, and about the same since the ridiculously anthemic remix of Tracey Thorn. I’ve basically hammered everything they’ve done in my sets, but I WANT MORE.

This past weekend I dug up an extremely fresh album, “Heart of the City” by Barrabas. I’m quite familiar with their classic “Woman” as well as “Checkmate” from this album, but basically every track on here is a dope latin-funk dance joint. It’s so good that you can just play the whole thing through, I highly reccomend this one.

An update on the Disco Nihilist record for those interested: I am basically out of white label copies. The artwork is being finalized this week and the officical pressing will be dropping shortly thereafter. If you REALLY want a white label, I think we have 3 left at the shop I work at. You can order here, though due to insane shipping costs I reccomend this mostly for cats in the US or Canada.

I’ve been listening to a couple of library LPs over the past few days, prompting me to make a (rare) post about them and also some other music I’ve been playing recently.

The idea of the library LP is something that fascinates me, especially given the amazing music that found its way on to some of them. Musicians going into the studio and knocking out an album full of grooves in one day that may or may not have been picked up and used in TV, films or whatever and the same music now making it’s way onto the dancefloor - this appeals to me.

Categorising something as a library record is a bit loose, but I suppose my introduction to the concept was through the excellent DJ Friendly website, who have a whole section devoted to it. A good few years ago I remember listening to the mp3 clips on the site with NCW and coming across a 45 by Resonance called OK Chicago/Yellow Train on the Sirocco label. £20, but the 30 second clip was enough to convince us to get a copy each.

If you’ve listened to a few of my mixes, you’ve probably heard Yellow Train. I went through a period of about 3 or 4 years of playing it at every opportunity. Essentially it’s two minutes of heavy percussion which on big speakers makes you feel like you’re about to be hit by a train. OK Chicago on the A-side is something I passed over altogether until NCW suggested I listen to it on 33 rather than 45.

The record came from France, put out on the sometimes brilliant Sirocco label. Other big records on the label include a few Voyage LPs (one of which includes the excruciating I Love You Dancer, which got a lot of plays a couple of years back) and the Apradys LP. There’s also a double LP by Resonance that I’ve recently picked up.

I’ve also been checking out Ariel Kalma’s Interfrequence. The track that stands right out is Danse Souer, which also appears on a compilation on Permanent Vacation called Space Oddities by Alexis Le Tan and Jess that I’d thoroughly recommend checking.  It’s a great introduction to some of the ridiculous music that was put out on these obscure records.

On the subject of compilations, I’d also recommend checking Mark Seven’s recent Originals Volume 2. Mark’s mixes are something that I’ve listened to a lot over the last couple of years and while this compilation doesn’t seem to have the same staying power on my iPod, there is still some great sounding Electronic Disco on the CD.

One more thing I can’t get enough of at the moment - Danielle Baldelli. A couple of friends of mine had him DJing up in Newcastle a couple of months back and it was easily the most blown away by a DJ set I’ve been in a long time. The records he played, the way he programmed his set and the tightness and creativity of his mixing were nothing short of spectacular. His Cosmic - The Original mix is fairly representative of the set he played, but you really have to check him out live.

I’m starting a new 2 hour monthly show for deepfrequency.com tonight (16th June) from 9pm to 11pm UK time.

I’ll be transmitting live from my flat in Brixton tonight joined by Dea playing music from around the cosmos. The show aims to be ISM related so we’ll be playing some guest mixes from ISM posters and also trying to feature great music from the past, present and indeed future.

Hope you can join us!

I’m also just trying to complete a feature on the guys behind Deepfrequency radio and also London’s Loft parties and Lucky Cloud Soundsystem. They’ve also very kindly contributed a mix and edit for download.

One of the reasons I started this here blog was my dissatisfaction with the existing dance music media. Possibly the most annoying music critic trend in general (and one that has really gotten on my nerves more and more from reading the critic-heavy I Love Music forum [warning, only go there if you want to become so annoyed that you begin ripping your hair out]) is that of the “narrative”. To be able to write a story in real time with musicians and “scenes” as the actors and settings seems to be the ultimate goal of these critics. I guess it gives them a chance to one-up on the people who came to fame with their retroactive narratives (yes, I’m talking about the obsession with Simon Reynolds that seemingly all dance music writers have) on different “scenes”.

Whatever the reasoning for this method of music writing, it fails on all real levels. Reality thankfully doesn’t follow a narrative, and to try to assign one is pretty worthless most of the time. The addition of narrative to the portrayal of Notorious B.I.G. made the film Notorious painful to watch. Life is much more like Dazed and Confused in structure!

It was Philip Sherburne’s blog post from the other day that set me off on this topic. In it he said:

Also, is it just me, or do the house and techno offerings of 2009 seem a little blah? Some scattered individual triumphs, or at least worthy showings, sure—but there still seems to be precious little in the form of an overarching narrative, or even competing narratives. Where’s the surprise? Whither the WTF?

This is not totally dissimilar from Ronan Fitzgerald’s post from last year where he bemoaned the lack of interesting critical discourse despite hearing much music that he liked. I just want to know what is more important to these guys, discourse and theory or the music? I understand the power of the written word to influence peoples thoughts and ideas, so it’s not as if I am discounting the importance of music writing or criticism. I mean, I am typing this on a music blog, right? I know it’s cool to be all Lester Bangs about it and put yourself up above the music, but I am a fan of MUSIC not of MUSIC WRITING. I could give a fuck about a writer if they’re not getting something more than their own ego across. And that’s not a diss to Philip in particular, but it is a diss of the accepted format of music writing that pervades just about every outlet that aspires to be something more than lowest common denominator crap.

I’ve mentioned Vince Aletti’s Disco Files book here recently, and it serves as a perfect example of how to do music journalism properly. What Aletti did was to actually document a naturally evolving musical form as it was developing, moving between the overground and underground fluidly. The format of a weekly article/record round-up is really not very different from what is possible with a blog right now. Yet he managed to do his thing without the assistance of an “overarching narrative”. He did follow trends as they rose and fell, connecting the dots between the old and the new in a way as to frame them so that people could easily understand today’s happenings in the context of what they already knew. His record reviews were far more functional in description than the long winded tripe that passes for “reviews” today. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see how similar his columns were to the way we do record round-ups here at ISM.

Why is this format of music journalism so unpopular? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that ego gets in the way of music writing since it gets in the way of the music itself so often. But I really see almost zero examples of this kind of documentation and analysis out there. Instead, there’s plenty of examples of forced narratives that end up simply propping up dying trends, especially in the world of dance music where everyone keeps their eye out for the “next big thing”. Philip Sherburne has been writing as much about dubstep as techno or house recently presumably because there are better stories to write there; don’t we have enough of that stuff already? I’m having a hard time understanding how he has become the default “techno writer” when he skips DEMF but goes to Mutek. Again, I’m not really trying to diss him (in fact, I am going to buy that new issue of the Wire so I can read the Moritz Von Oswald interview he did!) but my frustration with the approach of techno and house journalism is not waning even though the level of coverage of good music is definitely increasing on every level from the blogs through to magazines and bigger websites. Vince Aletti did a great job back when dance was really developing, why not follow his lead and try to create a better method of covering dance music that isn’t indebted to the rock-centric approach that clearly doesn’t work very well when applied to the music we love?

A few records I’ve picked up recently that tom didn’t mention in his last post. First off there’s the new Reggie Dokes on one of the new Clone labels, Loft Supreme. Reggie’s a big fav here at ISM, of course, and this is another fantastic example why. 2 quality deep house tracks, more dancefloor friendly than a lot of his material but still with all the idiosyncrocies that really makes his music stand out, nobody else is making music like this. On the 2nd new Clone label, Jack For Daze, the first release is by Neville Watson. Early deep chicago house a la Marshall Jefferson or Virgo Four is the obvious influence here, my fav cut is the A2 Up Yours, with the deep and bouncy bassline keeping things moving nicely as different elements are layered on top.

A few of my new purchases have already been covered in the recent mix I posted, but I’d just like to again mention the new Legowelt on Aroy Dee’s label M>O>S cause it’s sick as hell! Especially the A1 and B2 cuts.

On the ambient tip I grabbed this Martyn remix of Efdemin’s Acid Bells, 2 artists I haven’t really been following to be honest, but I have heard good things about Martyn. It’s the Bittersweet mix you want here, a beautiful ambient piano track that wouldn’t feel out of place on Warp (when it was good).

As far as techno goes, I managed to grab a promo copy of the latest Styrax In Loving Memory compilation. I’m not sure what the story is with the full release of this, but there seems to have been quite a few promo copies pressed up. This is really top notch stuff, featuring melodic Detroit and Basic Channel influenced techno from some of the less heralded names in techno along with some of the newer brigade of techno producers.

While the Styrax comp harks back to the mid-90s heyday of deep melodic techno, the Son Of Cybotron record harks back to the very beginning when Cybotron and Model 500 were just beginning to define what techno would become. Basic Terminology is very like the early Model 500 releases and could be classified as either electro, techno or house, whereas Around and Around is very much in the mould of the more industrial sounding Cybotron tracks. Are these tracks new productions? Well they certainly sound like they’re from the early to mid-80s, and the label says “Vault Series” but I haven’t heard or read anything definitive on it. On a related tip and definitely from the late 80s is this reissue of 2 classic Juan Atkins tracks. And I couldn’t mention classic Detroit reissues without giving a heads up on the Minimal Nation reissue which has just hit the shops this week.

Finally, myself and Kenny will both be playing on the radio this weekend. I was invited on to my friend Owen’s show on Irish language station Radio Na Life. It’s on tonight, Friday, from midnight ’til 1.30a.m., if you’re in the Dublin area you can tune in on the wireless at 106.4FM, and everyone can stream from the website. The show was prerecorded, Owen plays the first couple of tunes and then I take over for the remainder, expect a mixture of Snagcheol Tí Domhain Teolaí, Teicneó Detroit, Rianta Spleodracha Chicago, Ceol Dioscó Clasaiceach agus Athmheascáin srl. And then on Saturday evening Kenny is making a guest appearance on my man Nik’s show, Box Deluxe, the same show I did the Drexciya special for a few weeks ago. If you’re in Dublin you can tune in at 99.5 on your FM dial or go to the website and stream from 6.30-8.00pm.

NOTE: All times are Irish time which is the same as GMT.

DEMF wasn’t as happening of a weekend for me as it was for my ISM compatriots. However, I did catch most of Derrick May’s closing set at the main stage, and, most importantly, I was there to witness an excellent Wizard-style performance by Jeff Mills at the Mixworks party–replete with self-made edits, multi-layered blends, and really funky 909 programming.

The Wizard played many tracks that sounded like his own unreleased material, similar in flavor to the compositions on One Man Spaceship or Contact Special albums.  From the eerie, space static ambient intro to the energetic 909 programming, each track flowed nicely into the next.   Mills managed to present a selection of hard as nails techno (I heard a track that featured somewhere in the middle of the Live at the Liquid Room mix), to cerebral, original minimal techno of Rob Hood’s Minus, to the fast, abstract dub of Basic Channel’s Octagon, and Enforcement.

Instead of playing the expected peak time anthem of his own The Bells, Mills chose instead to play a track off of his early Tresor release, Late Night.  Surprisingly, most of these originally fast tracks sounded good played at a seemingly much slower speed than what would be expected from a serious techno set.

Mills’s set wasn’t pure nostalgia and classics, however.  A loop of a Sleeparchive track towards the end sounded like a jazzy electronic trumpet solo, and a layer of a Norman Nodge track (Jeff popped the tone arm after an annoying skip in the middle of this only to have the track land right back on beat) sounded great blended with a recent-sounding production circa The Good Robot.