Despite only being around since 2010 (and the with vast majority of their releases having been this year), L.I.E.S or Long Island Electrical Systems has established itself as one of the most interesting dance music labels out there. Putting out fast paced sci-fi techno jams next to slow sample-based deep house grooves is what LIES thrives on, and with the impending release of Professor Genius’ Hassan LP, further excursions into even more left-field territory seem to be in store.
It is clear that a love of 1980s US house music is at the root of much of what LIES do. From the second release by 2 Dogs in a Room (aka Jason Letkiewicz and label head Ron Morelli), which consists of sleazy Chicago-esque grooves, to Willie Burns’ (aka Speculator) debut release under that pseudonym, an EP full of quirky house tunes, the sound of drum boxes and vintage synths is not out of place. It might be Marcos Cabral’s EP that most perfectly describes the LIES aesthetic: hints of vintage drum machines poke through the haze of very modern sounding tracks that tread the line between house and deep techno, a perfect combination of old and new.
Legowelt’s Sark Island Acid EP is another highlight of the label. Dense, melodic synth lines do all the heavy lifting emotionally, while the banging drum tracks remind of Chicago and Detroit, but without sounding too derivative. Terekke’s Damn EP seems to be the one most desired by the Discogs crew, fetching high dollar amounts despite only just seeing release over the summer. The bass heavy, lo-fi joints work very well with the hand-stamped white-label aesthetic of the LIES “X.5″ release series they appear on.
Throw in the most recent release, a typically highed-up EP by Beautiful Swimmer Maxmillion Dunbar as well as two solo outings by Mr. Letkiewicz (one as jack-tracker Steve Summers, one as sample heavy Malvoeaux) and you have quite a varied lineup of house music on one label released in just over a year!
LIES also has the distinction of putting out my favorite techno record so far in 2011, Steve Moore’s excellent “Zero-Point Field”. The connections between LIES and Washington DC’s Future Times crew is obvious from the sharing of artists such as Mr. Moore between the labels, helping to create an interesting East Coast dance music crew. Their vibe seems to be spreading out through other labels like 100% Silk, which also has multiple releases by Jason Letkiewicz in the past year!
With so much quality and variety coming out, as well as connections to some other outstandingly interesting labels, it’s clear why LIES would be a favorite of mine. I hit Ron Morelli up with a few questions via email to get a better idea about what motivates him…
ISM: The releases on LIES have a tendency towards American dance music (even the Legowelt record is in a Chicago house vein), though not of any particular style. Are there any specific labels that are influential to your approach?
Ron Morelli: I wouldn’t say that there are any specific labels that are influential in my approach regarding how I run the label and the aesthetics of the music therein. I have cited on numerous occasions how Bunker Records and the 90s Hague squatter scene and their anti-establishment approach sonically as well as their business model or lack of had undoubtedly resonated strongly with me. All I’m doing here is putting out jams by people I know. If people are open and catch on, then cool, if they don’t that’s cool too.
ISM: How does working at A1 affect what you do? Do you tend to buy more new music, or more older music?
RM: It’s 70/30 down the line. Kinda always has been. There’s so much old music out there to be discovered still, but it would be ignorant to not keep up with new projects coming out. I’m a fan, I wanna know what’s out there and check it out regardless. There’s a lot of new stuff out there good and bad, gotta check it always.
ISM: Many of the artists on LIES are known more for live performances as opposed to simply deejaying, how does that tie into the music you choose to release?
RM: I think that has really been strictly by chance. Although, somehow through the years it seems to me like producers who dj are generally not great djs and djs who produce tracks are never as good as the aforementioned. Obviously there are exceptions and this is just some baseless observation on my part which may or may not hold any truth.
ISM: On a record nerd tip, what is up with the “XXX.5″ catalog numbers for the recent white label releases? are they meant to be thought of differently from the full-blown LIES releases?
RM: This was just circumstance as I was told that records released in the summer months records don’t sell as well and blah blah blah.. Europe,vacation, partytime, industry this, that, the third. So basically I heard some tracks that were sick and thought that there was no way I’m waiting until September to put this out when it was June, so I was like fuck it I’m just gonna press this shit. So it’s kind of a monster that created itself. I’m not trying to wait around for anyone really, just keep it moving, so yeah it’s inadvertently become a label within the label.
ISM: Which artists from outside the LIES camp would you like to work with if money/era/etc were not a problem?
RM: I would commission Black Sabbath, Flower Travelin Band, Achim Reichel, and Conrad Schnitzler to compose an epic 4xlp collaboration album with Phil Spector behind the glass, gun at hand.
ISM: Name your top 5 NYC records regardless of genre:
RM:
Whodini-5 Minutes of Funk
Liquid Liquid-Cavern
Implog-Holland Tunnel Dive
EPMD-Business Never Personal
Petula Clark-Downtown
There you have it. You’ll be sure to hear more about LIES and their artists on ISM in the future!
You can check LIES out on Soundcloud here. Ron Morelli is currently on tour in the UK and Europe for the next week or so, check for dates and locations on his Facebook page here.
Guest mix time here again, and this time we got a repeat offender; Dublin degenerate, Shane O Meara. Known for his insatiable love of Liverpool FC and liquor, Shane is also one of my favourite deejays in the city and this time around he’s cut us off a rapid fire mix of house, synth pop, disco and Italo, shit we love here at ISM. Worth posting alone for possibly the silliest titled mix we’ve received yet.
Tracklisting
Maxim Lany & Lemakuhlar – Exotic Guitar
Fish Go Deep – ESL
The SJU Project – Medones Thoughts
Nebraska – Bar Story
NCW – Panther
Kuba Sojka – Mysterious Intrigue
Bromar – Call Me
I:Cube – Arp Freeze
Serious Lover – Got It Wrong
Visage – I’m Still Searching
Depeche Mode – My Secret Garden
Faze Action – In The Trees
Black Devil Disco Club – Timing, Forget The Timing (Kerrier District Remix)
If memory serves me right it was around this time last year that Morgan Geist debuted the Storm Queen project with “Look Right Through”, and in the process wiped the floor with most of the year’s music in one smooth, acid tinged swoop. I will admit when I saw “It Goes On” announced my first thought was “well, this couldn’t be as good”. But then we are dealing with Geist here so I probably should have been a bit more positive. “It Goes On” follows the same path tread by the debut, utilising the same sounds to create a pristine pop production with a chunky bassline and svelte vocals (delivered again by Damon C. Scott). Last year he teased us before dropping that acid line half way through, and again Geist keeps us waiting for 3 minutes before the track really lifts off, with a chorus that I think even surpasses “Look Right Here”. He reigns it again after, keeping the listener on the edge of their seat for another 3rd of the song before he returns to it, when finally Scott properly lets go on the histrionics. This will test the patience of the dance floor but the pay off is just so worth it. The B-side offers a dub that is more direct in it’s approach that is certain to find it’s fans but I can’t get enough of Scott’s contributions to these tracks, so I gotta go with the vocal. Another fine attempt by Geist to get another record filed away under “classic”.
Mario Pierro’s work as Raiders of the Lost ARP has been the sort of project that I’ve felt I should like more than I actually do. Yeah, he’s got a few gems in his cannon but at times I’ve felt his approach to re-styling deep Detroit-inspired techno and electro has been a little bit too clean for it’s own good. When he veers more into cosmic territory it becomes more effective and this is where we see him on the latest Lunar Disko release. As a friend said to me recently, if you’re gonna put the word “theme” in your song title, you’d wanna be delivering a big song, and Pierro rises to the challenge with the opening “Night Theme”. At 7 minutes long it doesn’t do a whole lot for most of it. It hits us in the face with BIG synth stabs at the beginning before it goes all cosmic sci-fi for the majority of the song, keeping it’s head above water with a throbbing bassline. Like Geist above, he’s more than happy to keep the listener waiting and waiting – more so than the former, actually – but eventually he lets it all drop and the hook comes back in, this time backed with a rolling disco beat, wherein you pull one of those scrunched up gurn faces of sheer delight.
The B-side, “Lunar Lander”, packs a fair old punch too, staying on the electronic disco tip, with a soaring female vocal carrying the first part of the song before Pierro once again drags the listener into a spaced out mid section before the keys and vocals come back in. It lacks the impact of the originals main hook but it’s groove is more insistent and is sure to cause a bit of havoc on a dancefloor. Dutch maestro Rude 66 delivers a remix of each track which takes them in a totally different direction. Moving at what seems like half the pace of the originals, he re-tools the euphoria of the originals and brings them into deeper space, coating them in his typically dark and atmospheric stylings, leaving us with an Ep of 2 contrasting styles, both equally satisfying. (The video below is a shortened edit of the opener, btw)
Clio – Eyes
Long before the current Chicago revival was in full swing Clone’s Classic Cut series was unearthing gems from the golden age of Chi-town. The series was also on it with Italo re-issues such as T.F. Los Angeles’ Magical Body and Plastic Doll by Dharma and in a smart move Clone return to Italo for the first time in 4 years at a time when old Chicago re-issues seem to be ten a penny (or maybe I’m just confusing it with all the current knock offs). This time we get 3 versions of Eyes by Clio, 2 from back in the day and a new edit. If many of the elements seem familiar it’s because the chap behind Clio was also behind Pineapples – Come On Closer (a personal Italo fave). What we have here is Grade A Italo, combining those symplistic, naive Italo riffs with typically semi non-sensical vocals/lyrics (I don’t have a fucking clue what she’s singing about in the chorus even though the verses are in English) all wrapped in perfect pop melodies.
There isn’t a huge difference between the original and Paris versions, both are pretty awesome, and the edit serves us up a take that moves it away from more the linear pop song structure of the original and into trackier, club territory that is probably more approachable for those who only like to tread lightly in the world of Italo. Lightweights. Like Storm Queen, for me, the vocals are an intrinsic part of the song, losing a part of it’s magic without.
A few months ago Clone got the worldwide electronic community foaming at the mouth with the announcement that there would be new Drexciya re-issues on the way. First off were a few 12s that Clone had already released or re-issued themselves before, leaving us wonder when they’d be pulling out the big guns or if it was all just a ruse. We shouldn’t have worried though, as Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller 1 is the first of 4, yes FOUR compilations of Drexciya material.
First thing of note is that they aren’t doing straight re-issues of the material, which I think is a good idea. It keeps the nerds happy that their precious originals haven’t been cheapened as much as they could have been while also supplying others with plenty of difficult to obtain music on wax. Going on this first compilation they seem to have put a good amount of thought and effort into compiling them instead of just dumping a bunch of tracks together. And while it’s nice to see “Dehydration” appear on wax after being only available on The Quest CD there is also a previously unreleased cut, “Unknown Journey”. Yes, that’s new Drexciya material. Wow.
Bubble Metropolis and The Unknown Aquazone are featured most heavily here with 3 tracks taken from each and 1 each from Deep Sea Dweller, The Return Of, Aquatic Invasion and the aformentioned The Quest. Most intriguingly – in terms of what the future may hold – is the inclusion of “Hydro Theory” and “Darthouven Fish Men” from The Journey Home. While the others are culled from the UR camp this was released originally on Warp. Though this package contains material only that goes under the Drexciya name could this possibly mean that The Other People Place and Elektroids (Stinson’s other releases on Warp) could also be making an appearance in the future?? Hmmm. One can presume the Tresor material will not be surfacing here, what with it being re-released already. Also, the other afformentioned Warp releases were Stinson solo projects so this may not happen as Clone are more than likely working with Gerald Donald on this series.
Anyways, back to this one. As Drexciya releases were never simply a bunch of club tracks thrown together the re-arranging of the music has to be looked at. Unsurprisingly they start things off with “Welcome to” before things kick in with “WaveJumper” and “Lardossan Funk” gently upping the ante bit by bit. I’m working off a digital promo for this but I’m presuming that the B-side leads with “Bubble Metropolis” and we vere into more abrasive territory with the following “Hydro Doorway” and the properly warped “Take Your Mind”. The Cd version sees “Take Your Mind” placed near the end but I feel it is more suited to come after “Hydro Doorway”, nicely slotting inbetween it and the murky “Aquarazorda”.
And so we come to “Unknown Journey”. The 808 programming is pure Stinson but you can feel the input of Donald in the track with it’s initial catchy hook that is soon contradicted by a droning bassline, and spooky, ethereal chords . The song focuses on the melodic elements when they arrive, more so than the drums which for the most part are little more than a 808 kick drum, breaking out into the groove only one more time after the opening minute or so. This is very much a welcome addition to the Drexciya cannon and proves once again that all the impersonaters that have followed since have rarely, if ever, been able to capture the magic these guys could from their machines.
The tempo is brought down again a little bit more by “Dehydration” before “Beyond The Abyss”‘ rough and pacy beats accompanied by screwy warped noises leads perfectly into the crushing techno of “Sea Quake”. (On the CD, “Beyond The Abyss” follows “Hydro Doorway”, which also works pretty well). “Rubick’s Cube” follows this is and it’s where I would have wrapped up this compilation. “Darthoeven Fish People” is maybe too similar to “Sea Quake” for both of them to appear so close to each other. Again, at the end the CD running order is different with “Dehydration” closing things off, but I still would have finished with “Rubick’s Cube”.
And that is that, for now. As a commited and unashamed fanboy of Drexciya there is very little on the musical side of things I can criticise. It would be different if this was a one off compilation, we’d be pissing and moaning as much as praising over what’s there and what isn’t. We will have to wait until the end of the series before we do that but this double pack gives us a coherent and solid over look of the various facets of the duo’s sound and runs in a smooth fashion for the most part. It doesn’t venture too much in to the more abstract end of their music but does let it peak out every so often and I think should work as a good introduction for new listeners. They’ve included a new track with no fan fare at all which was also a nice touch, especially when these lost tracks that are unsurfaced rarely ever deliver anything. Compare that to Soma’s OH MY GOD NEW DAFT PUNK approach to a track that was forgotten for a reason “Unknown Journey” was an extremely pleasant surprise. More of the same, please.
Edit: I haven’t commented on the sound quality as I don’t yet have a vinyl copy, but going on the digital files Tyrell has done a sterling job, as with the rest of the Clone Classics series.
Last year’s Returnal album was a pretty enjoyable if far from earth shattering release from Daniel Lopatin and while it’s somewhat of a given that he’d have to pull something pretty incredible out of the bag to ever top his Rifts compilation, I was still intrigued to see what he’d offer up this time. Opener “Andro” eases us in with a decent, if typical, OPN soundscape, which eventually gives away to slightly warped tribal-ish percussion, hinting that we may see Lopatin introducing new elements to his pallete. ”Sleep Dealer” then sees a rare excursion into beat driven territory, with a small kick drum loop and a flute type sound giving the track a different sort of groove to be expected from Lopatin, hinting more at 70′s funk than colder 80s sounds. “Power of Persuasion” similarly features more organic instrumentation, led by a couple of jittery piano loops backed by Vangelis-esque assonance. As the song continues it becomes surrounded and eventually lost in a sea of quite wonderful bass with the piano eventually disappearing completely, the song collapsing on more stoccato drones.
“Remember” passes by forgettably before the album hits its peak in the middle section with the wonderful title track, which again sees Lopatin return to a piano motif, but instead restrains himself wherein instead of letting the other elements swamp the song, they gently infuse the song with more brittle starkness. It’s arguably one of his most effective songs yet, it’s simplicity being it’s strong point. Lopatin proving that he can still create wonderfully emotive music, with seemingly little effort. “Nassau” continues the theme of sharp, jittery sampling, this time with odd vocal sounds and glitchy noises before allowing another melancholic piano riff to come to the fore. The rest of the song is lead by this while he brings the earlier chopped up sounds in and out, introducing additional oddness before he reduces it to a purer ambient style, again leaving us with another touching, wistful song.
“Up” kicks off with a heavy drum loop, somewhat reminiscent of the Games mixtapes, which, as is the way more than once on the album, fades away to ambience, letting the synths and piano breathe more. I would have found this a much more interesting composition if he’d melded that opening loop with the 2nd half of the song. On “Child Soldier” the chop n paste approach is brought to it’s peak in a rather irritating way, it’s basically just a mess of grating sampling; his final descent into ambience pasted on for no other reason than it being the “thing” he does. “Explain” brings the album to a calming close with multi layered “aahhhs” (Enya much?) – not dissimilar to the opener but with a brighter tone -, warm synthetic bass and the usual drones that generates a feeling of optimism compared with the more downcast and darker feeling contained within much of the rest of the album.
As an album it works reasonably well, and while the likes of “Submersible” and “Remember” sound like he knocked them out in his sleep (one aided by a bucket of valium) he has advanced on Returnal and it contains some pretty special moments of depth and emotion, which are welcome additions to his discography. After the Games/Ford & Lopatin album was such a disappointment earlier in the year here he proves that he is still, at times, an artist worth giving some time over to.
Having re-issued the classic Surkit last year, I initially thought this double pack on Don Williams’ a.r.t.less imprint was some old unearthed work from Marty Bonds but instead we have his first new material under the Reel By Real monikor since that original 12inch 20 years ago. Coming in a lush package featuring art work by Abdul Haqq, it was nice to see a return from a back-in-the-day Detroit artist arrive with little or no fanfare, which nearly undermines the brilliance of this album.
Starting with the wonderful breakbeat techno of I Won’t follow the following 3 tracks keep the mood sparse and deep with the atmospheric techno of Look At Me being the stand out. Bonds starts looking more towards the dancefloor for most of the remainder of the album, melding odd vocals (these may divide some people), jagged funk and the type of percussion work that too many deep techno producers now seem to ignore, preferring to soak their tracks in dramatic synths, thinking this alone will qualify their music. On “Fate”, Bonds is at his most affecting in this regard but it displays much more depth than countless other tracks of it’s style.
He slips up a bit on Stow Away, with its shuffling rhythms being a bit lackluster especially compared with the stomp of the following Buckshot. The album closes with WRX, bringing the album full circle with more breakbeat techno that sounds like it’s been transported directly from the 90s. While, for some, this may seem like a criticism – do we need anymore techno in that vein? – the album over all avoids being a mere throw back. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but much of the music on here is head and shoulders above a lot of techno I’ve heard this year and while some of the sounds used may be more than familiar to a lot of listeners Bonds uses them in such an effective manner that the likes of Fate and Look At Me are as essential as anything else that has come out in 2011.
The Ukranian producer has been busy the last few months offering 3 releases on his new Shevchenko label with this being the 2nd. The A-side takes it’s lead from a Reggie Dokes styled piano line wherein Vakula gives it a more techy-edge than the more organic sounds one would associate with Dokes recent material. Vityk once again displays a euphoric, slightly psychedelic approach to house music with the track expanding and opening up into a multi-layered composition that leaves much of todays deep house in it’s wake.
Rural Dances on the flip features more rasping percussion and he again layers the track with quirky twists before giving way to a heaving acid line that matches the accompanying heavy drums really nicely. This disappears not long after it arrives to give way again to deeper pads and more tripped out sonority. I’m not taking to mixing records much these days at home, so I’m all for more music like this that wants me to leave it alone instead of reaching for another record.
For those living under a huge rock The Labryinth is a much lauded techno festival that takes place up the hills in Japan every year, a party that has reached near mythical status amongst revellers and the world wide techno community. The idea of this double pack is to transport the atmosphere, musically, of the party on to vinyl. In that aspect it works perfectly, as after listening to this – many many times – I want to make the trip more than ever. It opens with the dense, thrilling Rites De Passage – Naeba Variant by Peter Van Hoesen which slowly but surely opens up in to a monster of a techno track. Hypnotic and mesmerising, even at plus 9 minutes it never becomes boring. Functional techno, this is not.
While I’ve never been a huge fan of Donato Dozzy’s productions – certainly not compared with his djing – he rises to the challenge here with the awesome minimal techno of Giusy. The Labryinth’s most famous son, Dozzy produces a cold yet gripping track that is a fitting accompaniment to his legendary sets from the party. Mike Parker delivers the only damp squib of the release with Kaze No Oto, which is a slightly forgettable production which may make sense in the right context but unlike the rest of the release it doesn’t stand out quite enough on it’s own. While the other tracks never suffer from their length – if anything these tracks are asked to be left alone for their duration – this tends to meander a little bit.
Gerard Hanson has been focusing much more on his ERP alias in the last few years, so it’s good to see him finally returning to his Convextion guise with the double pack’s amazing closer, Oil On Metal. That old techno chestnut of soundtracking a dsytopian future has found a new paean with this enveloping and engrossing soundscape. A Blade Runner-esque existence has rarely sounded so appealing. Between this and the Reel To Real album most of 2011′s techno sounds limp-wristed and disposable in comparison.
Today we kick off the week with a mix by a name that is probably pretty new to most of you: Jay Simon from Washington DC. I had the pleasure of meeting Jay earlier this year when he came up to Pittsburgh when Omar-S played here in January. I could tell that he knew what was up, and now he is proving it with his first release on vinyl! Kyle Hall’s Wild Oats label is dropping Jay’s track “Faith”, which is a funky low slung house jam featuring vocals borrowed from the r&b singer of that same name (which is included on his mix of course!), on limited edition 7″. Pretty heavy stuff for a debut record!
We did a little email interview with Jay to go along with the mix. As you will see, he rolls exactly how we like here at infinitestatemachine…
ISM: How did you originally get into deejaying? Production?
JS: I had always been into “beats” (more from a hip-hop perspective) for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t really get introduced to underground hip hop & electronic dance music stuff till I was about 14 or so. Once I figured out that there were entire genres that catered to the sounds I liked I was hooked. I couldn’t stop looking for new music & sounds…I’m still like that. So along the way I amassed a good collection of music, and really took an effort to educate myself on the roots of it, from there I realized other people I really respected (DJs and producers) had similar taste as me, so I decided to share my perspective of it. As far as production again from a young age I realized I really wanted to do it, but I always felt like I never could because I had no musical education, but recently I’m just trying to experiment and do things for myself, if other people like it that’s great too, but I’m really not trying to make stuff for other people specifically.
ISM: I know you’re a younger cat in this scene, are lots of your friends your age into this music?
JS: Definitely not, haha. Although with the internet there are more and more young kids really schooling themselves at a young age. Especially because you can basically make music with just a laptop now, and websites like discogs allow kids to know and hear almost everything an artist has done with just a few clicks on youtube or whatever. But even now nearly all of the “music people” I hang out with and regularly converse with online are an average of 5-10 years older than me. There are a few exceptions though…Kyle Hall obviously, Jay Daniel, SlikTimm, Floating Points, Funkineven and, Space Dimension Controller to name a few.
ISM: What is the dance music scene like in DC? Who are your partners in crime?
JS: The Future Times guys are definitely my closest friends in D.C. Dance music wise they are the only crew consistently pushing things forward while still having knowledge and respect of the past. I don’t really have any “partners in crime” musically, I’m just on my solo dolo as far as that’s concerned. Most parties here are dominated by your typical RA type stuff, most party goers’ & promoters’ knowledge doesn’t really run too much deeper than that. So you get a lot of bullshit hipster post-minimal faux “deep” house stuff which I hate, so I don’t really go to non Future Times related events much at all.
ISM: How would you describe your deejaying style?
JS: The style of no style I guess…I really love a lot of different types of music and really try to incorporate as much as possible, which is usually difficult/basically impossible to do in a 90 minute set… I prefer to play all night if that’s possible. Because of that, you might catch me playing completely different stuff from party to party or mix to mix…to me it’s all the same shit, music that hits me physically and emotionally, I’m not too caught up on sticking to one thing these days at all.
ISM: Does it affect the way you approach making tunes?
JS: Yes and no. I think unconsciously it definitely does, but it just comes out of my own taste I guess. I just try to make what I like to hear, not necessarily something specifically for DJing. A lot of my favorite stuff isn’t so DJ conscious from a production or arrangement point of view, in that sense I see it as a challenge to work it into my own sets, and I like to challenge myself.
ISM: How do you work you love for hip-hop and broken beat, two non 4 on the floor musics, into what you do?
JS: It’s definitely a challenge, but my favorite DJs are the ones who don’t just stick to the modern idea of one genre or style, and I try to approach things that way too. I tend to gravitate more towards warm sounds & groove oriented music… which can be anything from post-punk to techno. Recently more than ever I’m really trying to take my selections to the next level and show people a broader picture of where I come from, not only as a DJ but as a person.
ISM: How did you get hooked up with Kyle Hall?
JS: We originally started talking on Facebook a few years ago, I was into his music and knew he was a young dude with ears beyond his years (haha) so we initially connected on that. From there we started sharing tunes, and a lot of the stuff I was very into at the time (broken beat mainly) was mostly new to him. I knew from his music he was attracted to more abstract rhythms and had a respect for musicality, so the broken beat stuff was like a natural fit. A few months after we met online, he played his first show in D.C. and we met in person for the first time. After that we just kept in touch.
The record came about just from me randomly showing him some of the stuff I did on Soundcloud, and he happened to be into a lot of it. I was never planning on putting that “Faith” track out, I just did it for my own DJ sets mainly, but he was really excited about it and wanted to release it.
ISM: You’re also starting your own label soon, right?
JS: Yeah…it’s called Must Have Records. The first release is a relatively under the radar Finnish producer named Saine. He mostly does hip hop & downtempo/jazz type stuff, but on his albums (he’s already released 2 full LPs) he would have 1 or 2 killer house jams. I contacted him on Soundcloud and he was down to do his first “dance music” oriented EP for Must Have. Stylistically its pretty unique, I call it “modern deep”, it’s definitely not your typical house record. It’s coming on vinyl before the end of the year…test presses sound excellent. The second release is going to be from a friend of mine named Julien Love, I included one of his unreleased tracks on the mix. His music has been heavily sought after by heads in the know for some time now, so its a real pleasure to be able to release some of it. 2012 will be a big year for Must Have Records so stay tuned…
ISM: Do you feel like you’re part of a bigger movement right now coming out of the US?
JS: I never really thought about it that way, but maybe? I’m just trying to do things with knowledge and respect of the founders of this dance music thing, while at the same time putting my own spin on it…anyone trying to do that I fuck with.
———–
Jay’s mix entitled “Swag Swag Woop Swag” can be downloaded HERE.
Tracklist:
1. Slum Village – Forth & Back Ft. Kurupt (Remix) [Ne'Astra]
2. The Shake Up Connection – Let’s Dance [Amplified]
3. Jay Simon – Faith [Wild Oats]
4. The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds (Cumulonimbus Mix) [Polygram]
5. Rondenion – The Beautiful Memory [Aesthetic Audio]
6. Hunee – Amiadar [Retreat]
7. Trio Zero – Twilight [Capitol]
8. James Mason – Nightgruv [Mighty Fine]
9. Julien Love – Touch [CDR]
10. Steve Arrington – Dancin’ In The Key of Life [Atlantic]
11. Burrell – I Really Like [Virgin]
12. E.S.P. – It’s You [Underground]
13. Theo Parrish & Marcellus Pittman – Night of the Sagittarius [Sound Signature]
It’s been a while since Mr Rosa has graced our site with one of his deejay mixes and since that offering last Autumn he has, of course, released his 2nd album, Amanatto, to much (deserved) acclaim and fawning. Leo is not one to continue to mine the same path over and over be it with his productions or his dj mixes so this time around he delves into the world of techno, electro and bass music, showing that he can turn his skills to this bizness as much as anything. Have a gander…
tvo afanc – 2562 refix
Shed – Sweep Dreams
Dmz – Anti-War Dub
Psyan – The Norm
Om Unit – Prawn Cocktail
Tessela – Subway
Rustie – Jagz The Smack
Soul Oddity – Rhythm Box
Bitstream – The Bionic Hands of Dj Daddy Longlegs pt1
Hey folks, just a quick heads up for anyone around Dublin on Saturday. Detroit techno legend and ISM favourite Anthony “Shake” Shakir is in town. Support comes from ISM’s Kenny Hanlon and Pogo resident Barry Redsetta. Proper!
