GOODIES

Hello Hello Hi. It's been a while so I thought I'd post up a trio of mixes that have been giving me brain erections over the last few weeks. Every time I listen to them in the office where I'm ''working'' I have to cross my ears over my skull just to hide the bulge. Failing that I just concentrate very hard on data entry and my brain begins to shrink to a manageable size - say, that of a tennis ball.

The mix I've been listening to the longest is Ben UFO's Fabric Promo Mix (right click and save). It's intesting that the kind of 'dubstep' Ben's playing nowadays is so percussively led that there isn't a very obvious point where he moves from stuff like Omar S and Karizma to Peverelist and Mala. It's all mixed up, and it BANGS the whole way through (not the way a porn-star bangs, more like the way Seal probably bangs if he's pissed). Worth a special mention are the tunes by James Blake and Joy Orbison - both fucking bootiful and full of happyweird vibes.

Greena - Maracay (Forthcoming Applepips)
Omar S - Busaru Beats (Sound Signature)
Aphrodisiax - Unfinished Business (Jus House)
Karizma - 33rd Street Anthem (Defected)
Unknown - Unknown (Unreleased)
Altered Natives - Rass Out (Fresh Minute)
Pearson Sound - Wad (Unreleased)
L-Vis 1990 - Hey! (Unreleased)
Brackles and Shortstuff - Sutorito Faita (Forthcoming Planet Mu)
Deep Cover Inc. - Deepin' Side [NYC dub mix] (FX)
Ramadanman - No Swing (Unreleased)
STP - The Fall [T++ remix] (Subsolo)
Peverelist - Teachings (Unreleased)
Shortstuff and Mickey Pearce - Tripped Up (Unreleased)
Untold - I Can't Stop This Feeling [Pangaea remix] (Unreleased)
Bump and Flex - Promises [Hardstep dub] (Urban Heat)
Untold vs. Tempz - Nextaconda (Unreleased)
Youngstar - Bongcat Riddem (White)
James Blake - Air and Lack Thereof (Unreleased)
Untold - Flexible (Unreleased) Ikonika - Unknown (Unreleased)
Mala - Hunter (DMZ)
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo (Unreleased

Next up is a mix by Alex Bok Bok for Lucky Me (right click save) which is, barring the most tasteful (but good) thing I've ever heard from Doneao, approx. an hour of veiny sausage meat riddims.

01 - REFUGE - U Best Believe

02 - DONAEO - Love To Happen

03 - MOSCA - Square One

04 - DRE SKULL - I Want You (BOK BOK remix dub)

05 - ALISON HINDS ft MACHEL MONTANO

06 - DJ CLEO - East Rand Funk

07 - R1 RYDERS - Rubberband

08 - DORIAN CONCEPT - Trilingual Dance Sexperience

09 - SHORTSTUFF & MICKEY PEARCE - Tripped Up

10 - ZOMBY - With Lasers

11 - ELECTRIK RED - Drink In My Cup

12 - JOKER & GINZ - Purple City

13 - TERROR DANJAH - Sidechain

14 - BOK BOK - Crew dub

15 - DJ ASSAULT - Vandalism

16 - MR DE - Time Space Scrilla

17 - BASUTBUDET - Take Them Out To Eat (BOK BOK's sundown edit)

The tunes on this mix are nuts, I don't even know what genre a lot of them belong to - but it's in the area of funky/garage/dubstep/grime/soca/rave... Remember this post? All the mixes in this post wot I'm doing here mix up different genres, but there are also quite a few tunes in each mix which are spanning genres on their own - margin tunes which are forming a new and turbulent centre in this kind of mix.



Last but by no-fucking-means least is Untold's mix for Fact Magazine (Link HERE). In Blackdown's recent interview with him, Untold talks about how he is interested in combining cliches from various genres to see what will happen to them - 'mongrel' beats. You'll see what he means as soon as you hear this mix. His tunes feature recognisable synth/bass sounds from Grime/8-Bar, jungle, hardcore etc. placed together in rough harmony - and whether or not the combination always works, you can't deny the energy and excitement that such a scattergun approach provokes (to both the listener/dancer and the budding producer/DJ).

These tunes are mixed down perfectly well, and will no doubt devastate a dancefloor, but they don't sound at all slick or tasteful: you can see the joins. In this respect, they do justice to the references they make to early 90's hardcore music in using certain sounds in exhibiting a similar sort of 'chuck it in if it works' quality. I don't want to go overboard on the chin strokery analysis which the use of 'nuum' samples invites, because really the achievment of this music is to make you twitch around in your chair like a human hamburger leaving death row.

Stereotyp - Uepa (feat.Joyce Muniz) - Man Recordings

Untold - Just for You (Roska remix) - forthcoming Hotflush

Hot City - No More - forthcoming Infrasonics

Untold - Never went away - unreleased

Untold - I can't stop this feeling (Pangaea remix) - forthcoming Hemlock

Untold - No one likes a smartarse - unreleased

Untold - Gonna work out fine - unreleased

Untold - You didn't win the holiday - unreleased

Untold - Stop what you're doing - unreleased

DJ C - Jump Up and Bounce (ft. Ms. Thing) (LV remix) - unreleased

Littlefoot - Sell my soul - unreleased

Mount Kimbie - Esasub - unreleased

TRG - Siberian poker - unreleased

Ramadanman - Bleeper - unreleased

Ramadanman - No swing - unreleased

Joe - Perculate - unreleased

Untold - Flexible - unreleased

Shortstuff & Mickey Pearce - Tripped up - unreleased

LV - Crossfire - unreleased

Generally speaking, this is raw and 'shallow' music. There's not much depth (there's no room for it - it's surface orientated, sounds jostling for position... it's too ADD also - warping, pitch-eluding synths, rhythm evading drums and almost childish: ecstactic, restless, joyful... emotions as unambiguous as in rave music...)... but who cares? It's rave music. Dance music. It's fun music, not po-faced: but not a joke either. Being taken away from genre, from specific places, is a double edged sword - certain things are lost but the focus becomes more about the sounds: how they're used, how they can be clashed and mashed together etc. And the lack of deference to generic rules results in things you haven't heard a hundred times before (if you're me, at least).

I've clearly got too much thought on my brain.

That Roska RMX is raw, and his remix of Neighbourhood (see HERE) sounds even better.

Pick N Mix

Lately it seems that all the best mixes I've been hearing have been mixing different styles up like sperm in the guts of a gangbang record breaker. There's Ben UFO's latest show, wot I just posted about yesterday, the boy Bizmarc's excellent funky/techno colliding Gorillacopter mix, Spyro and Maximum cross-breeding grime, garage and funky on Rinse a while ago, and many more examples which I can't be fucked to link right about now.

4 Line Haiku off Dissensus wrote this the other day:

"The growing amount of released funky seems to be leading to a lot of house/techno -> funky -> 2step -> dubstep type DJ sets, which is nothing but good news in my book.

I know for a fact that every single mix I'm doing at the moment goes something like that. Most of Ben UFO's recent radio shows are another (probably better) example.

Obviously this sort of thing has always been perfectly doable, but the combination of sped up funky and slightly pitched down 2step covers that slightly awkward BPM gap so perfectly, it would be rude not to do it"

and it reminded me of what Blackdown wrote in THIS post about Funky almost a year ago. Writing about how DJs in Napa in 2007 were mixing funky with bassline and grime and all-sorts of other things, he remarkled:

"(2000) was a halcyon era, where a tempo plateau around 138bpm saw multiple genres and scenes mixing and interacting, with the old school UK garage guard meeting the upstarts of raw proto-grime, dark 4x4 beats like DJ Narrows being mixed with Zinc-inspired breakbeat garage rollers, housey Todd Edwards-style 4beat mixed into proto-dubstep like El-B, Horsepower and Zed Bias.

Since then the various factions have either diverged or fragmented, occasionally interacting but seldom truly engaging in sustained dialog. Until summer 2007. Seven years on, suddenly it felt like there was another tempo plateau appearing again.."

Having recently been extremely excited to hear this kind of DJing style in practice on various aformentioned radio shows, and having rejuvinated my own interest in mixing somewhat by mixing 'Woman Trouble' with UR's 'Timeline' (and discovering an uncanny fit in the process) and stuff like that, I would have to agree that if this style of DJing came into vogue in clubs as well as the bedrooms of GEEKS (lol) it would really be the kick in the pants that plenty of underground scenes are begging for.

Another DJ who has recently been doing this (in fact who has probably been doing it for fucking ages) is Night Slugs' honcho Alex Bok Bok. He talks about the ethos behind the Night Slugs night in THIS Fact Magazine interview, which also includes a mix which perfectly illustrates the sort of informed eclecticism I'm drooling about. You also need to check out his latest Sub FM show in which he went back to back with Dress 2 Sweat's head honcho (there's a lot of honchos sticking their oars in) Jackmaster. It is fucking superb. The link is HERE and the tracklist is as follows...

01 - ROSKA -
02 - D MALICE - monopoly
03 - ILL BLU - frontline instrumental
04 - APPLE - seigalizer
05 - KERIZMA - broken beats
06 - ROD LEE - let me see what u workin with
07 - DJ ROB 3 - the chase
08 -
09 - CRAZY COUSINZ - Infiltration
10 - FINGERPRINTS - just leave remix
11 - LIL SILVA - funky flex
12 -
13 - D1 - ongie bongie
14 - WIZZBIT - jamhot (DAVINCHE remix)
15 - DAVINCHE -
16 - WILEY -
17 - PALEFACE - Do You Mind (TERROR DANJAH remix ft KYLA & BADNESS)
18 - TUBBY - t-mac
19 - ROSKA - our father
20 - ZOMBY - rumours
21 - GEMMY - back to the future
22 - CRIME MOB - stilettos (pumps)
23 - IKONIKA - please
24 - RUSTIE - bad science
25 - ZOMBY - aquafre5h
26 - D1 - bg
27 - LIL SILVA - seasons
28 - GEENEUS - into the future
29 - IRONSOUL - you liar
30 - DOK - big bang
21 - LAVA UNIT - not interested
22 - RUDE KID - sing for me instrumental
22 - NASTEE BOI - bangorz
23 - L-VIS & BOK BOK - bongo ram refix
24 - MALA - hunter
25 - WITTYBOY - attention
26 - DS1 -
27 - DROP THE LIME - hear me (4x4 mosh dub)
28 - PANTHA - damn thing
29 - MYSTIC MATT - igloo 2008 remix
30 - unknown - ENDZ vs ICE RINK 4x4
31 - KODE9 vs LD - bad
32 - L-VIS 1990 - zahonda
33 - STARKEY - gutter music
34 - MOVES!!! - playaz
35 - ILLMANA - shut yr mout rudeboi
36 - FUZZY LOGIC - twiss
37 - PIDDY PY - giggle riddim
38 - L-VIS 1990 - playing with knives refix
39 - KENTPHONIK - sunday showers

There's obviously still a lot to be said for working within a single genre as a DJ - it allows you to go in deep in a way that playing across the board arguably doesn't. But personally I find that the idea of mixing like this actually makes me feel much more excited and pant-wettingly enthusiastic about being a DJ. For starters, it's obviously a lot more fun mixing together different styles of beats and discovering things that (often against all odds) work together in the blend. But it also seems to me that it makes selection a much more individualistic thing.

If you're a strictly dubstep DJ its hard to bring a selection that isn't going to be pretty much exactly the same as the next guy. With this style of DJing you have so much stuff to choose from that you might very well end up playing a completely distinct set from anyone else... And if that sounds like its coming too much from a DJs perspective, maybe it is. But I reckon a lot of people on dancefloors across the country would be relieved to hear a wider range of styles on a night out (I've got to mention Notts based nights Wigflex and Futureproof here, as both are pushing this kind of eclecticism) and it keeps things interesting/NOT BORING when you never really know what's coming next.

Oh, and here's the flyer for the next Night Slugs at which about four different absolute dons are spinning


Other things I recommend mixing up in 2009: Ketamine/Pills, Mars Bars/Apples, Indie Groups.

belch

First up, Pinch has done a mix to celebrate the first birthday of Rob Booth's humonghuge Electronic Explorations series. Loads of Pinch dubplates. Need I type more? I could do, but I'd probably end up writing the words 'dystopian post-humanoid neuro-sonic-architectautologlogical cerebrashards' or something, which would be unfair.

Right click and save HERE for the mix. For more info go to the EE website, linked just ^ up there.

[01] - DZ - Just Rollin (Akira Kiteshi Remix) - [Forthcoming ‘Black Acre’]
[02] - Jus Wan - Affletic - [Forthcoming ‘Applepips’]
[03] - Planas - Zulu - [Forthcoming ‘Ranking Records’]
[04] - Reso - If Ya Can’t Beat Em - [Forthcoming ‘Civil Music’]
[05] - Ben Sharpa - Hegemony - [Jarring Effects]
[06] - 16bit - In The Death Car - [Forthcoming ‘Boka Records’]
[07] - Enormous O’clock - Disparity - [Ai Records]
[08] - Millie & Andrea - Black Hammer - [Daphne]
[09] - Gunjack - Bruckshut’s Revenge - [Unsigned]
[10] - Kid606 - Die Soundboy Die - [Tigerbeat6]
[11] - Indigo - Ignite - [Forthcoming ‘Surface Tension Recordings’]
[12] - HxdB - Sedation Nation - [Forthcoming ‘Surface Tension Recordings’]

Pinch (Owner of ‘Tectonic Records’) In The Mix — EE.ORG 1st Anniversary Mix

01 - Pinch & Pavel Ambiont - Poison Antedote - [Dubplate]
02 - Pinch - E.Motive - [Planet Mu]
03 - Pinch - Attack Of the Giant Robot Spiders - [Dubplate]
04 - 30Hz - Mutate(d) (Pinch Rework) - [Lot 49]
05 - Pinch - Chamber Dub - [Soul Jazz]
06 - Deleted Scenes - Terminate - [Dubplate]
07 - Pinch - Midnight Oil - [Tectonic]
08 - Peverelist - The Blues - [Dubplate]
09 - Pinch & Peverelist - Revival - [Dubplate]
10 - Distance - V (Pinch Remix) - [Dubplate]
11 - Pinch - Joyride - [Tectonic]

[13] - Mount Kimbie - Maybes - [Forthcoming ‘Hotflush Recordings’]
[14] - Octa Push - Ai Nadia - [Dub]

Second up, the illustrious DJ Zinc is apparently DJing fidget house nowadays instead of DNB, and THIS mix showcases some of the stuff he now plays. I haven't got a tracklist and I haven't a clue what it might be, since I know fuck all about fidget house. I've always found this kind of music a bit too maniacally upbeat and self-consciously 'banging', but what with recently getting a bit sick of 'deep' music which seems to make up for in tastefulness what it lacks in energy, I'm actually finding this sort of inflatable mallet music quite refreshing.

Lastly (Subliminal Download This Hard House Banton Mix Message To Be Placed Here and Whited Out Later), on Sub FM the other night Hessle Honcho Ben UFO and Night Slugs uhhh Nice-Up Sultan Alex Bok Bok went back to back and played 2 hours of pretty much everything good (funky, niche, grime, garage, dubstep etc.) I posted up their previous b2b on here a while ago but I think this one is even better. Click HERE for the mix.

1. Theo Parrish - Took Me All The Way Back
2. Luciano - Mousa Big Band
3. The Martinez Brothers - My Rendition
4. Roska - Feline
5. Zander VT - Get Up
6. Rod Lee - Let Me See
7. DJ Mystery - Changes
8. L-Vis 1990 - Flux
9. Marcel Dettman - Shatter Proof
10. D Malice - My Joy
11. Christian Martin - Elephant Fight
12. X5 Dubs - I Wish
13. Radioslave - Tantakatan [Shed mix]
14. DJ Tameil - Body
15. Hard House Banton - Sirens
16. Lighter - Skanker
17. Sticky and Viper - I'm On The Mic
18. Artwork - Basic G
19. Lil Silva - Funky Flex
20. Roska - Our Father
21. James Lavonz - Feel My Dreams
22. Leee John - Mind, Body and Soul [MJ Cole mix]
23. Tubby - Slush
24. Bigshot - Stomp VIP
25. Rustie - Tempered
26. Trim and Scratch - Trim and Scratch
27. Scratchy - Shangooli (Geeneus remix)
28. Tasty Grits Production - Chase Rhythm
29. Distance - Repercussions
30. Milanese - The End [Untold remix]
31. Drop The Lime - Hear Me [Buraka Som Sistema remix]
32. D Malice - Gabryelle refix
33. Skream - The Bug
34. Silkie and Harry Craze - Favela
35. Rebound X - Mystery
36. Wizzbit - Emerald City
37. D1 - BG
38. Pearson Sound - Ex
39. D.O.K. - Royal Flush
40. Pantha - Damn Thing
41. TRG - Broken Heart [Martyn remix]
42. TRC vs Addictive - Right There
43. Silverlink feat. Jammer and Badness - The Message Is Love [Starkey remix]
44. J-Sweet - Gutter (Alias Remix)
45. Scuba - Tense
46. Octa Push - Ai Naida
47. Brackles - Lizards

# chin - check follows #

Eclecticism can seem tokenistic and shallow (''look at me, I'm playing Night AND Hearbroken!''), but when DJs with real knowledge and love for the music they play do it it can have a completely different effect on the listener: instead of being comfortably reminded of the greatest hits from different genres, you're encouraged instead to make connections between pieces of music you might never have linked, and to see familiar tunes in a different light. So, for example, a 'deeper' dubstep tune, when mixed into a grime or funky or house tune, almost becomes a different tune to that which it is in a set entirely consisting of deep dubstep.

Anyway, it isn't as if this set was an intellectual excercise or nuffin' - it was as 'banging', in its own way, as the most bait crammed Scratch Poiverts set (who to be fair are pretty fucking good at that kind of set). If anything, a set like this seems to discourage the usual genre'n'scene related chin-stroking by taking tunes partially out of their convention/anti-convention ridden scenes and encouraging the listener to see them as individual pieces of music (though ironically often also reminding you, in the process, of what you really love about certain genres).

I notice now that there's a definite theme going on in this post which I never intended to give to it... but this is what I've been thinking about recently, in an effort to distract myself from the global financial crisis, the crisp darkness that flickers at the core of every human soul and from not having enough money to buy the D Malice EP.

P.P.S.: here's something good by Masters at Work.

Thank Fuck For Internet Radio Vol. 23

Firstly, new Blackdown/Dusk on Rinse

We've been through all this before, but special mention must go to A: Now That's What I Call Ragga-Grime anthem featuring Badness, Flowdan, Killa P AND Riko (I think it's about guns or something) B: Skream's 2005 style dubstep tune, which just goes to show that I'm happy to swallow any number of formulaic tunes, so long as I LIKE the formula C: Pinch's tune, which is just fucking great D: The tune that follows Pinch's tune, which makes me want to bounce like I was auditioning for the front cover of NUTS magazine and E: Shortstuff getting a tune played, and it being, like, totally excellent...

Click HERE, dummy.

Dusk + Blackdown on Rinse Oct 08

Wookie "Far East" (Manchu)
Ms Dynamite "Boo" (FFRR/Social Circles)
Sunship "Cheque One-Two" (Filter)
El-B and Nude "Reality" (Shelflife)
Hotboys "Hotboys (vocal)" (Hotboys)

Zomby "Helter Skelter" (unreleased)
Asher D "MO pt2 ft Durrty Goodz and Sway" (unreleased)
Gemmy "Johnny 5 0" (unreleased)
Joker "Do it" (unreleased)
Zomby "Notes From the Underground" (unreleased)
Starkey "Gutter Music VIP (demo)" (unreleased)

Scratcha DVA "Bullet A Go Fly ft Badness, Riko, Flowdan and Killa P" (unreleased)
Joker "Solid State" (unreleased)
Guido "Beautiful Complication remix" (unreleased)
Blackdown "deFocused" (dubplate)
Shortstuff "Regression" (unreleased)
Jtreole "The Loot [Sully rmx]" (unreleased)
Sully "Reminder" (unreleased)
Ramadanman "Dayride" (Soul Jazz unreleased)
Skream "Memories of 3rd Base (Eyes Down)" (unreleased)

Pinch "Midnight Oil" (unreleased)
Unknown "unknown" (unreleased)
Grevious Angel "Move Down Low (funky remix)" (unreleased)
Wiley v Heatwave "Wearing my Rolex refix" (unreleased)
Kontext "Plumes (Ramadanman remix)" (unreleased)
Dot Rotten "Talking the Hardest" (unreleased)
Geeneus "Knife and Gun ft Riko, Wiley and Breeze (Blackdown remix)" (Keysound dubplate)

Secondly

This is Alex Bok Bok (of Lower End Spasm) b2b Ben UFO (has nice hair) on Sub FM. Right click and save and then bask in the glory of every genre around the 130-140bpm mark getting flung together like flaps in an orgy.

1. STEVE GURLEY - Hotboys dub
2. DONAEO - Devil In A Blue Dress instrumental
3. DJ NAUGHTY - Quicktime
4. ROSKA - Pyramids
5. A MADE UP SOUND - Next
6. CASSY - Poem
7. SMD - Hustler (SHACKLETON remix)
8. DJ MYSTERY - Changes
9. THOMAS MELCHIOR - Choir
10. SUTEKH & ALVA NOTO - Deuterotype
11. MARTIN LANDSKY - Man High
12. JAZMINE SULLIVAN - Need U Bad (CRAZY COUZINS remix)
13. JOEY BELTRAM - Instant
14. MADIE MYLES - I've Been Waiting (DEM 2 mix)
15. PAUL JOHNSON - She Got Me On (TODD EDWARDS Club mix)
16. HARD HOUSE BANTON - Sirens
17. ZED BIAS - In Your Mind
18. FUZZY LOGIK - Twiss
19. OCTO PUSH - Laika Likes It
20. DOT ROTTEN - What remix
21. GHOST - Shorty (Conga mix)
22. SlLAUGHTER MOB - Thriller Funk
23. DUBCHILD - New Era
24. EGYPTRIXX - Use Magic To Kill Death
25. BIG E-D - Grimey remix
26. PRESSURE - Money Honey feat. Warrior Queen
27. D1 - I Believe
28. MATT SHADETEK - Craziest Riddim remix
29. ORIS JAY - Confused?
30. TOASTY - One Life
31. SKEPTA - Tingles
32. SCREAMA - Taurus refix
33. PATTY BLINGH - Brother
34. GRIEVOUS ANGEL - What We Had
35. STARKEY - Escape
36. BASSBOY - Bass Power
37. TERROR DANJAH - Sneak Attack
38. GRAIN - Untitled
39. D MALICE - Gabryelle Refix
40. BOY 8 BIT - Suspense Is Killing Me (DROP THE LIME remix)
41. SKREAM - Affeks
42. 2 AS 1 - We Got Luv (El-B dub)
43. TINIE TEMPAH - Tears ft Cleo Soul (BURGABOY remix)
44. DOT ROTTEN - Oxygen
45. PANGEA - Router (Forthcoming Hessle Audio)
46. MALA - Learn
47. SLAUGHTER MOB - Amore
48. GEENEUS - Thunder
49. 2ND II NONE - Bulldozer
50. DRU HILL - How Deep Is Your Love (GROOVE CHRONICLES remix)
51. TRC - Hush Baby
52. BOK BOK - No Need To Front '08
53. DARKSTAR - Need You
54. MAXIM - Scheming (ZED BIAS relick)