Mix Monday

Few mixes for you this morning - some old, some new, some on more of a chilled tip, some more of a heavy one.  I wanted to get my hour long radio show for University Radio Falmer up in this feature, but tragically the online stream went down (again...) today, and the AM broadcast hasn't worked for about two months.  Been working on the tracklist for the show for about 2 weeks as I missed last weeks show thanks to a meeting in London with UK hip hop MC/ head Twizzle about an upcoming collab and some live dates, so I thought I'd record the show anyway - I'll up it onto the blog later this week, when I've found my microphone.  Oh finally before we got down to mix business, thanks to Heather Jeany for the image.

First up we have a Disco mix from Dollop resident and promoter D'lex.  D'lex recorded this back in November to promote Aeroplane's appearance at Dollop that month.  Taking in some more obvious Disco picks (Paris), a classic Talking Heads B-side (Naive Melody, possibly my favourite Byrne tune) and some more obscure picks (House to House). Here's what D'lex had to say about the mix:

This month at dollop in Nottingham, we have the mighty Aeroplane playing alongside The Count & Sinden and Nero. In honour of the Belgian disco dons i have recorded this little mix featuring some of my favourite tracks of the 'cosmic / nu disco' sound (along with some guilty pleasures).

D'LEX // Disco To Disco Mix

LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great / (DFA / EMI)
Moon Ray – Comanchero / (Flarenasch)
Still Going – Still Going Theme / (DFA)
Aeroplane - Caramellas / (Eskimo Recordings)
Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) / (Sire Records Company)
Holy Ghost - Hold On / (DFA)
House Of House - Rushing To Paradise / (Whatever We Want Records)
Friendly Fires - Paris (Aeroplane Remix feat. Au Revoir Simone) / (XL Records)
Hercules & Love Affair - Blind / (DFA)
Siriusmo - High Together / (Kitsune)
Ali Love - Diminishing Returns / (Back Yard)
Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer (Aeroplane 'Italo 84' Remix) / (Record Makers)
Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (Joakim Remix) / (Modular Records)
Metro Area - Miura / (Source UK)
DJ Mehdi - Pocket Piano (Joakim "Piano Debout" Remix) / (Ed Banger Records, Because Music)
Juan Maclean - Happy House (DFA)
Freeez - Southern Freeez / (Beggars Banquet)
Donna Summer - Dim All The Lights / (Casablanca Records)

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Next up we have the Zomby Rave Mix - a retro-hardcore mixtape that Zomby put this together for Dazed & Confused back in January 09 to promote his Where Were U In 92 LP.  The answer to that question for both me and Skream may be "I was in Nursery School in 92", but this sound has definitely come back in a big way recently, with producers like Redlight, Skream and many others repping it in their own productions, and when this mix popped up on shuffle last week I was reminded of how much I loved it. Thanks to the fellows over at Dazed for the upload.  A tracklist (albeit provided in prose form) can be found below, thanks to Zomby for the amusing commentary!  Also check out the youtube video for the Skream (I Was in Nursery School in 92) Remix of Zomby's Float below.  Still waiting to hear on a release date for this, if you have any info please let me know!

Zomby 'Back to 92' Mixtape

Bodysnatch - Euphony
Manix - Special request
Structural Damage - Really Living
2 Bad Mice - 2 Bad Mice (Remix)
Code 071 - A London Sumtin
Rufige Kru - Menace
4Hero - The Elements (Fire and water Remix)
DMS - Vengeance
Criminal Minds - Baptised By Dub
4Hero - Students Of The Future (4th Dimension Remix)
Studio 2 - Dirty Games
Johnny Jungle - Flammable
Inta Warriors - Your Love Is Yours
Dub II - Badman (Tuffness Mix)
DJ Trace - Lost Entity

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Cheers to the guys over at Tourist Party for this, proper quality mix from an amazing DJ - Weatherall pulls it off again - sublime tracklist, and the mixing ain't half bad.  Mixing between techno, disco and gloomy electronica.

ANDREW WEATHERALL - Bastard Dancehall Mix

Knights of the Occasional - Jahmarama
RSD - Love Of Jah Light
Brommage - Carbon Dub
Radical Majik - Direct Action (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Chaton - 91 Ahead
Bate N’ Lemm - Cabin Fever Vol. 8
Andreas Toth - Marsalissa
Markus Homm - Transposer
Tom Clark - Ultimo
Andrew Weatherall - Built Back Higher (Radical Majik Remix)

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Finally a mix from High Horse and Blogger's Delight resident Casper C - this is his warm up set from the last High Horse night at London's T-Bar.  According to Casper, the majority of this set was played to an empty room - which seems to me to be somewhat of a tragedy given how perfect this set is as an example of a warm up set.  A few tracks in the tracklist are incomplete - they slipped Casper's mind.



Earth, Wind And Fire - Beijo (Brazilian Song)Social Disco Club, Maia - The Way You Move (Greg Wilson Edit)
?????
Meanderthals - Andromeda (Idjut Boys Remix)
Chamoboche - The Edge
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Stripped Down To The Bone
Lowtec - Meandyoudub
Mark E - Human
Hot Natured - Modern Amusement
Nicholas Chacona - Time Bandit (NC Dub Beats Mix)
???
Daniel Wang - Like Some Dream (I Can't Stop Dreaming)
Husky Rescue - Diamonds In The Sky (Emperor machine)
Mike Dunn - Phreaky MF
???
Le Loup - I Keep Secrets
A Made Up Sound - Disconnect
DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central (Deep Into The Bowels Of House (MCDE Bassline Dub)
Neworldaquarium - Tresspassers
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (Hercules & Love Affair Dub)
Chip E - Like This
Chamboche - Feverish (The Revenge)
Shackleton - Next To Nothing (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts)
Rebolledo - Marchante
Tom Trago - Passion
Omar S - U
Sideshow - African Cheri

Wonky (Worst genre name since nu-rave?)

Reading a hilarious Guardian article on 'wonky', a new style of dubstep, that linked wonky fans with ketamine users (a tenuous one at best I thought), I thought it was probably the laziest piece of music journalism I'd ever encountered. To make a connection between drugs and any genre of music is lazy enough, and especially when the genre is debatably not even a real one - many of the artists mentioned in the article do not seem to have any real connection, bar sharing a label (often Hyperdub) and a larger genre (dubstep). However this doesn't change the fact that the producers mentioned by Simon Reynolds in the article are some of my favourite at the moment - Zomby, Joker and Hudson Mohawke. In the last paragraph of the article, Reynolds makes his most sensible point - he compares the sound to 8 bit and trip hop, and listening to tracks like Ikonika's Simulacrum or Joker and Rustie's Play Doe certainly reinforces this. But the genre also seems to me to align itself with hardcore more than Reynolds likes to admit - Zomby even released a hardcore tribute album - Where Were U in '92? Although my answer to his question is probably in a crib wearing a nappy, producers like Acen, 808 State and Altern 8 have been really up my street lately - the breakbeats bring hardcore closer to bmore than happy hardcore or drum & bass, the genres that hardcore were said to develop into.

Zomby - Where Were U in '92? Buy rest of album here:

Ikonika - Simulacrum (Hosted by Electrorash)

The B side to Ikonika's debut single on Hyperdub (Please) was absolutely rinsed by me when I first got it - Ikonika combines a proper fat analogue bassline, and a synth line that borrows heavily from chiptune and 8 bit, with a classic syncopated, off-beat dubstep percussive beat. Buy MP3 here.

Zomby - The Lie

This Zomby track samples classic reggae artist Sizzla's I Was Born, coupling that vocal sample with percussive shakers, airhorns (hardcore again anyone?), detuned synths and a real feeling of pent up aggression.  The 12" came with remixes from LV and a new Zomby track - Dripping Like Water.  Buy it here.

Joker - Zariak (Hosted by YCCMP)

Another jittery, off kilter hit from Joker - keeping up the tension with a fat square wave analogue bass and a drum beat that keeps you guessing all the time.  Thanks to the Grime Forum for releasing this for free.

Joker & Rustie - Play Doe

This was my first real introduction to 'wonky', and still remains one of my favourite tunes - it's so easy to hear exactly which parts are Rustie and which are Joker.  It's got that trademark Rustie 'aquacrunk' (another contender for worst genre name) lead synth line, and that grunting vocal sample propels the track along nicely.  Buy MP3 here

2000F & J Kamata - You Don't Know What Love Is

Already covered this song in my first post for Squeaky Bleeps - I think the exact words I used were "If Prince made dubstep", and I'd still agree with that... the vocoder gets me everytime.  Showcasing a more funky vibe, this B side to Joker's Digidesign actually got more attention than the A side from a lot of DJs, and with good reason.  Buy the 12" here