Time, once again, for another guest mix! As long as they continue to come in thick n’fast they’re gonna appear as quickly. This time around we have Sir Charles of Bennett, part of London’s house posse, To The Bone. The boys have been throwing sporadic parties for many a year, and have always kept ahead of the curve, bringing guests like Prosumer and Sven Weisemann over before they were the poster boys for Haus music in Berlin and some such. On top of that they’ve kept us a-breast of much heat, new and old via their radio show and most recently have been involved in the “dream line up” Beyond The Clouds parties in Corsica Studios. Enough with the introductions, I’m gonna leave you in the capable hands of Charlie for the next 2 hours with a stonking mix of house new and old with some sunny diversions into disco and what not – plus one of my favourite AFX cuts, Cuckoo, which I’d not heard in years. Perfect summertime jams.
Huerco S – Press On (Ruff Rub)
Brenda Fassie – Qula
Blue Moon – Track Show 2 S
Black Ice – A Different Space
Fresh & Low – New Life
Li’L Jazz – Sound Of The City (DJ Q Mix)
Fred P – Project 02
Professor Inc – Sizzle
Master C & J – In The City (Devil Mix)
Dolo Percussion – Dolo 1
Common Factor – Will
Pev & Hodge – Bells (Dream Sequence Mix)
3 Big Men – The Time Is Now For Action
Stacy Kidd – Think Of You (Paul Johnson Mix)
Soif De La Vie – Goddess Of Love (Instr.)
Bande Apartment – Kate’s Girth
Red Flag – If I Ever (Dub)
Willie Burns – Pong In A Tracksuit
The Beloved – Acid Love (Love & Ecstasy Mix)
Nightmares On Wax – 21st Kong
Dungeon Acid – Nude Descending A Staircase
Benga Benga – 1
K.O.T – Open Your Mind
Paul Mac – ?
Forgemasters – Conga
Aphex Twin – Cuckoo
Debbie Malone – Rescue Me
I’m not 100% sure why but the debut slab off Jordan Czamanski’s new label Off Minor was not what I expected. Maybe I associate Off Minor with Juju & Jordash’s decidedly eclectic radio show of the same name, or maybe it was the expectation that a solo off shoot from an already experimental act would prove even more off kilter. Instead we have in “Crybaby J” a decidedly breezy, pristine and summery affair.
It rolls straight off the bat with crisp 909 claps and the sort of ethereal keys one would come to expect from Czamanski before a rather jaunty, strolling bassline adds another layer of bounce; we can be pretty sure already that this isn’t going to descend into some doom-laden triptych of frowning jazz chords and droning bass. Instead we get some 80s tinged, sun kissed synths perfectly suited to the hazy summers eve I’m currently having here in Dublin. Later on, while the song has also been buoyed by more gentle piano and distant vocal hums, the vocal refrain of what sounds like “down, down, down, down” seems like an amusing challenge to the relentlessly upbeat nature of the rest of the song. It doesn’t succeed.
Having said all that, the Dub version proves that it is possible to take many of the elements of the original and re-shape things into a more sullen exercise (it is called Crybaby after all). By removing the bright synth lines and replacing it with a twisting, darker bassline, bringing the “down down down” vocal to the forefront and generally adding space to the original composition we are pretty much left with a sulkier version of the A-side. And, while it’s less instant than the A side I think I prefer it even more. Also, anyone who follows Mr Czamanski on Twitter will be more than aware of the 2 sides of his character on display here, and the project gets an extra thumbs up for some amusing self awareness.
When the Delete crew out of Bournemouth in the UK hit me up looking for a podcast a few months ago Free Rotation must have been fresh in my mind. I’m figuring it was around the time tickets came on sale and the ensuing stress from it means little else is on one’s mind till the ticket is safely in the pocket. Free Rotation was also where I first met Dan from Delete so I thought it would be a nice idea to tie the mix into the festival.
Trying to convey the mood or atmosphere of a weekend long festival would be a pointless endeavour so I went down the route of having the mix comprised exclusively of music from producers/djs who’ve played the party or are playing this year. I’m not sure how many records this restricted me to, but it was a bit of a challenge to make something coherent that had some variance too. I just went with it at times which also meant that some obvious names who are part of the very fibre of the festival are absent, but I didn’t feel like making the mix any longer than usual, or forcibly shoe-horning everyone in, in a cluttered mess. It also meant a couple of artists are in it twice and so be it. Some work is original, some remixes and so on. There are a couple of slip ups though! It wasn’t until I was doing up the tracklist that I noticed the Daryl Cura cut. It’s from an EP where the rest of the music is by Chicago Skyway, so when taking records out I figured it was all Sean’s material. Also about a day after I recorded it Santiago Salazar cancelled, so his work under the Ican Productions banner was thus disqualified from selection. Oh well. Enough waffling. Hope ya dig.
The Sounds of the Baskerville
Aybee – Dawn [Deepblak]
Sven Weisemann – Revoltec [Styrax Leaves]
Steven Tang – Rocket Deep [Aesthetic Audio]
Patrice Scott – Evolutions Pt.2 [Sistrum Recordings]
October & Borai – Level Abstain [Never Learnt]
Appleblim & October – Ny Fizzzzz [Schmorgasbord Records]
Levon Vincent – Man or Mistress [Novel Sound]
Kirk Degiorgio – Idiom [New Religion]
Kirk Degiorgio – Dechorent [A.R.T.]
Delta Funktionen – Onkalo [Delsin]
Kowton – More Games [Livity Sound]
Kowton – TFB [All Caps]
Scuba – Ruptured (Surgeon rmx) [Hot Flush Recordings]
Objekt – CLK Recovery
The Superior Inferior – Echelon XIII (John Heckle’s Interpr 1) [One Electronica]
Ican – Short Stop [Ican Productions]
Obsolete Music Technology – Latency [Machining Dreams]
Daryl Cura – Fourtone [Eargasmic Recordings]
Kassem Mosse – 2D (Kinda Soul Recordings)
The Black Dog – Siiiipher (The Bass Soldier’s Forgemaster rmx) [Soma Recordings]
Aybee – Solaris [Deepblak]
Brooks & Spandex – Untitled [Ruf Kutz]
Check out the Delete guy’s blog here with more mixes and info on their parties ‘n all that jazz, and I’ll be seeing folk back at Baskerville Hall next month!
Bordello A Parigi first came to our attention with it’s debut release back in 2011, the amazing Forever Strangers release from Model Man (aka Dj Overdose). Not only was the music killer but the packaging was sumptuous and this attention to detail hasn’t let up since. There’s been edits, Italo re-issues, mix Cds ( and tapes) alongside new material from the likes of Skatebard and Mario Moretti since and with an already busy first half of 2013 under wraps it seemed like a good time to ask De Dupe aka Otto Kraanen aka that guy who runs Bordello A Parigi to hit us up with a mix. Nicely off kilter and loaded with some awesome grooves, this is ace from beginning to end.
Jeroen Warmenhoven is someone who could never be accused of overkill when it comes to his recorded output so it nearly comes as a bit of a surprise to have 2 Dj Overdose releases appear in the same month. I already covered the killer 12″ on Lunar Disko and no sooner had the needle been lifted off that record than I had the Bizarro World long player cued up and ready to go. Appearing for the first time on the ever prolific Creme Organization label it’s also a bit of a surprise that they haven’t worked together before. The labels output and idiosyncratic style is a perfect match for Overdose’s collage of old school electro, synth heavy jams and soundtrack-esque work outs.
The throbbing “Aan De Overkant” leads perfectly into the brilliant title track, a stomping mesh of clanging electro beats, vocoders and eerie keys, perfectly encapsulating what Overdose does in one cut. It should be noted that this is pretty much the pattern for the rest of the album. Yes, it’s one of those electronic long-players that does the old beat-track-followed-by-ambient-interlude progression (or lack there of) but while that sometimes feels like an artist trying to pad out a standard 12 inch into a long player here it actually makes things a bit overcrowded at 15 tracks.
So it ends up being sort of like 2 releases combined together. The shorter cuts come off at times like they are taken from an old Italian Giallo soundtrack with a heavy Goblin influence coming through on the likes of “Bloed Aan De Muur”. It would also seem that Warmenhoven is aware of this with the closing song titled “Film Freak” which is the one instance in the album where he most noticeably combines the soundtrack stuff with his usual electro fare, if at a vastly reduced bpm.
Inbetween all that is some of the most badass electro you’re going to hear anywhere these days. Be it the ghetto influenced “Stay On My Feet” and “Leipzig”, the anthemic 4/4 march of “Suck Chain” or the lighter touch of “Don’t Stop” I can’t imagine an electro fan not finding much to love about this. He keeps the lose swing of old school electro on his 808 without falling into copycat mode, merging it with darker melodies that gives the album it’s overall character. It’s eclectic without coming off as overly scattershot or incoherent, a problem many face with the long player format. Coming into his second decade of output one can’t bemoan his sometimes lack of productivity when everything he drops is pretty much vital to any electro connoisseur’s collection.
Another highly prolific Dutch label is the omnipresent behemoth that is Rush Hour. It’s output caters for far and wide making it nearly impossible to keep track of at times. Yet it turns out that i’ve been quite avidly following it’s latest sub label, No ‘Label’ quite closely over the last 9 months, without even properly realising it. That might seem like an odd statement but there is no dots joining each of the releases and it was only with the release of the latest Aardvarck, 1990, (the killer Nubian was also on No ‘Label’, and his return is the first sign of any coherency on the imprint) that I paid heed to what part of the Rush Hour machine it was a cog in. So when I went to catalogue it yesterday on discogs (I can’t link it as it’s not up there yet) I suddenly realised that, hey wait a sec, I’ve bought the last 5 releases on this label. I suppose I’d just marked them down as Rush Hour in general, and maybe it’s just a total coincidence that they were all on No ‘Label’, but regardless it’s on a great run. The amazing Black Deer 12″ I recently reviewed was on it, the lush electro of Stellar Om Source was awesome while the playful lowest of the lo-fi techno of Heatsick got a shout out from me in my end of year review for 2012. And now Aardvarck is back with arguably the strongest release so far.
“1990″ takes it’s cues from early rave; the diva vocals, euphoric pads and simple key refrain are all present but when run through the Aardvarck filter are brought right up to date. It kicks off with a thundering half time kick drum then breaks off to the pads on their own before a cage rattling breakbeat arrives in around a 3rd of the way in. Add in one of those typically gnarly Aardvarck basslines on top of everything else and the result is a track that simply bowled me over. His off kilter funk meshed with such direct musical cues result in an intoxicating performance – it’s first full play resulted in a rewind thrice over. In a just world this would (will?) be a huge hit.
How the flipside, “Ok.O” will go down is another story altogether. It’s punchy, near punk type drums carry along a machine gun bassline and whistles and little else. The result is a cut that has a somewhat d’n'b feel to it, yet it’s tied to a 4/4 rhythm. It’s pretty good fun yet I imagine it may well be ignored in favour of the a-side.
Followers of what the various ISM crew do outside here will most likely be aware of this French producers work on Tom’s Love What You Feel Label. He’s also released under some other guises but Discogs doesn’t link the profiles so let’s just leave it that way for now . He’s certainly one of the brighter sparks to emerge in house music over the last few years, making raw machine funk without sticking so rigidly to laid out tropes like too many of the so called hot shots out there today. He’s also behind the Got2go label, the latest V/A 12 of which sounds pretty killer. His mix for us is a smooth blend of the new and old, containing fellow Frenchie Pepe Bradock’s new bomb on Acid Test, a recent classic I’d forgotten about (Tres Demented) along with Gherkin Jerks, Tevo Howard and an offering from his own Got2go imprint amongst others. Get it into ya…
Intro – Billie Holiday – On The Sunny Side of The Street
Pittsburgh Track Authority – Missile 1 [Work Them]
Marco Bernardi – Kill The Worm – [Abstract Forms]
O.D.D. – Pols [Dixon Avenue Basement Jams]
Whim-ee feat. Myles SergÈ – No Mo [Got2go]
Bicep & Ejeca – You (Steffi Remix) [Aus]
Ike Release – Westview (extended version [Mos Deep]
PÈpÈ Bradock – Lifting Weights [Acid Test]
Tres Demented – Demented Drum Version [Planet E]
Tevo Howard feat. Rick Howard – House Room [Bio Rhythm]
The Deep – Dom Dom Jump – Bonus Beat [Basenotic]
Moodymanc – Black Paint (Larry Heard’s After Dark Mix) – [Tsuba Special]
No Smoke – Koro-Koro [Warrior Dance]
Gherkin Jerks – Space Dance [Alleviated]
Kuniyuki – Between Shadows and Lights Springles’ Lights Out Dub [Mule]
Bande Apartment – Lubricating Rita [Apartment]
Julian Jonah – It’s A Jungle Out There (Club Mix) [AUX]
We’d a rather large amount of fun a few weeks back when Jitterbug came over to play at our lil Gary’s Gang shindig here in Dublin; some would say too much fun. But it’s fine, our head’s have stopped hurting now. We recorded the night and Jitterbug has given it the ok to post it up and he’s provided (most of) the tracklist to go along with the full 2 and half hour set. His online mixes are nearly non-existent so get stuck into it. Hope y’all enjoy it as much as we did on the night…
Paul Johnson – Groove melody
Wyndell Long – She heard me cry
Drew Sky – Funky Disco
Paul Johnson – U remind me of some sex
3 Chairs – 6 mile
Paris Mitchell – Rubber jazz band
Martin Circus – Disco circus
Sylvester – I need you
Parris Mitchell – Work it rmx
Bande Apartment – Lubricating Rita
Parris Mitchell – Climb the walls
?????? – ?????? – double copies
The Sun God – The Third Wave
Ministry – Halloween (remix)
?????? – ?????!
Parris Mitchell – Climb the walls
Sneaky Tim – Planet wall
Baby Pop – Battle drum
The Sun God – Ancient Echoes
Crash Course In Science – Flying Turns (J.Rocc edit)
We all know by now about the (re)emergence of Sweden’s Frak in 2012, a trio of strange fish who had managed to fly under the radar of most of the world up until a string of releases last year, most notably on Digitalis and Kontra. So after such a high profile year it was odd to find their new mini album, “Erase” in the back of a shelf in a record store here in Dublin a few weeks, one I had no idea existed and at the time it didn’t seem to be knocking about online too much either – this has thus changed – even though Discogs stated that it had a February release. I’m figuring this is down to it coming out on Psychic Malmo, a small Swedish label with less clout than the other labels.
There is nothing complex about what Frak do and this simplicity can sometimes lead to moments of tedium but when they get those direct, monotonous hooks right it can all be rather wonderful and the “Erase” release is just that. The stark drums and uncomfortable vocal drones of the opening title track slowly but surely drag you into their murky mind-set, either wearing you down with the groove or maybe putting you right off (it was the former for me). They ease off with the near whimsical electro bumpin’ on “Talk On Answer”. While not as grinding as the opener they are still all about pulling you slowly along, layering jolting notes and acid over each other, though in a much lighter fashion. It can feel like it goes on forever, though maybe not this time in the best manner possible, but hey, plenty reading this are Djs so get to work on it. The A-side closes off with the “Bonga-Dance”, an industrial-tinged slow mo banger. One gets the feeling that Frak sometimes get a perverse kick out of making you feel like you’ve taken some horrible mongy drug. I’d like them to take this as a compliment btw.
The B-side starts off with “Classic Bass (do the Frak)”, it’s title creating an image of the trio teaching their fans some sort of weirdo dance to go along with their weirdo techno. It’s bouncing bass, flowing hi-hats and murky vocals calling us to do the frak is in contrast to the throbbing a-side cuts and then they amusingly cut it off early while before it was all about seeing things to the bitter end. After bringing us into the light with the Lps shortest cut, it’s time for the centerpiece of “RZA”, all quirky jumping assonance and skipping 808s, with what sounds like a playful melodica riff (though i’m half-guessing it isn’t that either, but another equally cheap bit of gear) plus another semi-atonal keyboard line. It’s pretty much everything Frak does in one track, raw kicks, those loose hi-hats and relentless riffs that beat you over the head. It’s fantastic. They close off proceedings with the house-centric “Controlled tie”, once again utilising their knack for an off-kilter, unsettling riff with an acid line coming at you from a distance, this time backed with some classic 707 rhythms. The synths sound like they are coming from afar too, on one hand creating a spacious sound yet it feels like the cavern they’ve invited you into has no way out. Frak don’t often deal in pleasantries and things are so simple with them at times it’s interesting how they’ve managed to carve out a sound so individual, but after 20 odd years at it maybe shouldn’t be all that surprising either. Sometimes playful, sometimes ardent and most of the time downright odd, when they are on form like with “Erase” it’s all worth it.
Even by my standard that headline is a pretty awful attempt at rounding up a few of the releases highlghted in this post. But it’s late at night so whatever. Let’s start with the the bitter so. Mr Scott Grooves has a tendency to appear on the fringes every couple of years before slipping away again. Sometimes going practically unnoticed as with thesetwo releases from a couple of years ago. So once again with no fanfare he returns on his own Modified Suede imprint with Bitter Sweet/C Track. “Bitter Sweet” is a moody and subtle house cut that slowly unfolds under a proper beatdown kick, with jolting strings appearing without ever fully falling into that cliche of the big strings 313 stylee; one can always count on Grooves to do things a little differently. “C Track” is a classic bit of Grooves deep house. Wonderful lilting organs bounce over his laidback yet insistent groove – buoyed by some great percussion – that keeps the track driving all the way through. One of those killer cuts that works as a dj tool for the long blend or can be left to stand alone and ride along on it’s own. Who knows if this time around Grooves will hang around a bit longer or go off the radar again for another few years. We’d rather he didn’t.
William Burnett has been causing a bit of a stir recently even though he’s been knocking about for maybe longer than many think (for starters here’s our own interview with him from over 4 years ago). Outside of his work as label boss of WT Records, his production work mainly as Willie Burns has garnered him more attention than previous incarnations as Grackle or Galaxy Toobin. For all the hype NYC is getting at the moment Burnett tends to have himself slightly removed from it all (no sign of him in the recent RA “HEY MAN DON’T YOU KNOW NEW YORK IS THE TOUGHEST MOTHERFUCKING CITY ON THE PLANET” video) and his music reflects this, it’s just that little bit different. His Heatsick remix from earlier in the year is still possibly my favourite track of the year – definitely remix-wise – and the grimey synth driven house of Daywalker + CF is one of the stronger releases from L.I.E.S. in 2013, even if it got passed over compared with weaker releases, something that does tend to happen with that label. But now he is back in the shape of Black Deer, a bizarre 12inch of native american influences, discordant guitar riffing, drones and eerie samples all wrapped up to deliver an intoxicting blend of weirdo techno (sorry, “outsider” yeah?). “Almost Had a Moment Alone” is a brooding opener, a repetitive beatless wonder driven by it’s tense bassline and reverbed guitar, like an alternate soundtrack to vampire cowboy flick Near Dark. I Mention Near Dark as the original soundtrack was composed by Tangerine Dream and the B2 “Native” melds their sort of organic synthesiser contradiction with Indian chants and drums. It closes on the more straight forward downtempo of “Trail of Tears”,but before those 2 comes the highlight of the release, the amazing “Cheif Big Thumb”. Jitterbug played it here last Friday and his suggestion that it would sound “fucking massive on a rig” was 100% correct, as it needs a proper system for the kick drum to be fully realised. Mixed with it’s palm-mute bass, chanting and odd, staccato melodies we get one of the freshest sounding peices of techno in some time.
I first came across Container via Donato Dozzy when he played here last year, and it was a quite fitting introduction, with this guy’s interesting fusion of miniml techno with more abstract noise aflections quite suited to the odd paths Dozzy brings his listeners down. Container sounds like it should be really lo-fi yet there is a pristine element to his productions in so much that no matter how distorted his tracks get there is still a bizarre clarity in amongst it all. His latest 12 is for Morphine and while it doesn’t break from the mold of his previos Lps it’s still worth your noitce even if just for the epic title tracks. It’s 9 minutes are pretty much built over one ever evolving riff, evolving in the sense that it gets more and more fucked up as the track goes along before descending into controlled chaos by around the 6 minute mark. And that’s whats interesting to me about Container. You can quickly dismiss him as noisy shite but you are missing out on his fundamental understanding of the minimal aesthetic that holds together his music, no matter who much noise he piles in on top, and it’s how he has produced this noise in the manner I mentioned before that marks his work out from so many others at the moment.
Central Processing Unit is a new Uk based electro label that has recently delivered it’s 3rd vinyl release by relative newcomer CN. Voyages is a nicely varied mix of Detroit inspired electro and techno with the playful and dreamlike “Stellar Awakening” kicking things off very strongly, removing the sausage from it’s rigid electro beat through aching, funky melodies. “New Ways To Walk” takes a more direct techno route while “Intravenous” takes nods from Mr ‘De and his Electro-Funk imprint before the closing “Zener Diode Blues” decides that fusing Drexciya’s “Digital Tsunami” with poppy, trance, plinky plonk pianos would be a good idea (It is!). What I like about this release is the fun he has with his canorous interjections over the obvious 313 inspired rhythms. It doesn’t take itself too seriously yet this in no one generates a frivilous tone to proceedings. I’d already picked up the Cygnus 12″ on this label (which is pretty cool too) and I’ll be watching both label and it’s respective artists from here on in.
Finally I’m gonna quickly put the ISM stamp of approval on a couple of recent big releases. Pepe Bradock continues his adventures in every increasing oddness with the awesome Acid Test 07. It may be more streamlined than some of his other recent output but as straight up club acid tracks they are still as bent out of shape was one could imagine, both sides are wonked out brilliance. Rhye are a new pop duo who have been causing some commotion with their svelte Sade inspired album “Woman”. While we are also recommending the LP overall, if you ain’t taken a gander at Maurice Fulton’s remix of “The Fall” you gotta check it out below right now. While every idiot on the planet shits on about Daft Punk’s Raddison Inn Foyer Musak version of Chic on Get Lucky this is 2013′s real pop/dance hit! And finally an album that I really should do a much more detailed write up on is Fulton’s return as Syclops, “A Blink Of An Eye”. It is a helluva lotta fun.
Tomorrow night sees the Dublin debut of one of ISM’s more stealth operators, Jitterbug. Never one for fanfare, Jitter has quietly been sneaking out some killer music over the last few years, mostly via Uzuri, with his Arcane Theory ep from this time last year being a standout release. He also featured recently on this excellent Metrolux V/A 12″, so we are pretty chuffed to be having us play for our monthly soiree, Gary’s Gang. As with all our parties, it’s free in, and runs late down in the Basement of Sweeney Mongrel on Dame Street. Warm up comes from the gang’s Phil Long of Slowburn. Here be the Facebook page
For the more foolhardy crew out there the Gary’s Gang crew will be taking over the Breakfast Club on Saturday morning from 7am until 1pm in The Dark Horse, again with Jitterbug hitting the decks alongside Shane O’Meara and Paudi Ahern.
Next up, just a lil heads up to say that I’ve repressed the first Apartment 12 from 2011, Panther Veil by NCW. The 12 picked up a bit of steam at the end of last year and with quite a few requests and faintly silly asking prices appearing on Discogs it is now currently back in stock at Juno, Decks, Diamonds and Pearls and a few other places. If your regular shop don’t have it, just ask
Also, NCW has got a brand new 12″ out on Ali Renault’s new Vivod label. It’s a fancy pants screen printed limited thingy featuring the cold wave pop of Golden backed with the Michael Bundt-esque Lands. He’s helped along by the charmingly titled Piss on the killer A-side. There’s only 150 of these so don’t sleep!
Not long after making my post yesterday some more upcoming heat from Ireland reared it’s head. Cork based producer Colm K has a new ep The Love dropping later this month and here is a taster from it, an awesome low-slung boogie/funk jam called Spaced. Perfectly timed for the arrival of summer (we hope)
Moving away from Ireland for a moment, the Chicago based Argot has just dropped it’s latest release from Detroit newcomer Elizebeth Merrick-Jefferson, Urban Off Road, which is a high tempo house 12, which reminds me of how John Heckle takes Chicago influences and gives them a modern update with some especially sweet melodic work on the B2 cut, Astronomical Twilight, the video of which you can see below. This is my favourite release from the Argot imprint thus far and it gives us another hot new artist to be keeping an eye on over the coming years.
Finally, former ISM guest dj Platinum Ray has dropped another superb mix, this time for the Inside The Box site, which you can grab over here. Contains a few favourites of my own, including the killer Chaz Jankel cut that I’ve linked below. Alongside our own Gmos, I reckon Platters is Dublin’s best kept secret. This is perfect for the sun that has finally decided to make an appearance this week. Get on it.
. He’s certainly one of the brighter sparks to emerge in house music over the last few years, making raw machine funk without sticking so rigidly to laid out tropes like too many of the so called hot shots out there today. He’s also behind the Got2go label, 
