Another planet entirely

What the future sounded like

Delia Derbyshire track from 1963

Discovered on a cassette hidden in her attic after her death in 2001.

Erik Satie's Gnossienne No 1 for Modular Synthesizer

Brilliant because it leaves me completely and utterly cold. This captures a particular feeling of science fiction angst and dystopian paranoia better than anything else i can remember.

Here's the original for comparision.

Derrick May

Make more bloody music.

Detroit to Berlin

And back again

Fuck Compton

Lee 'Scratch' Perry vs Kode9 - Yellow Tongue (dub)

Kode9 continues the 'dystopian funky' paradox with this new cut featuring Lee Scratch Perry. A combination of carefree caribbean percussion and dark bass stabs simultaneously recall images of a summertime barbeque in the Bahamas and any one of a number of 20th century dystopian visions of the future.



If you want a picture of the future, imagine a jolly, fat Jamaican lady playing a steel drum - forever.

Sigúr Ros Vs Mobb Deep

I think it was some point soon after Diplo mixed Snoop Dogg with The Cure I lost interest in 'Mash-up' mixes; to me they just seemed to be a competition of who could combine the two most disparate tunes for the purpose of either demonstrating eclecticism, or just plain old irony. If 'mash-up mixing' was to manifest itself in human form I imagine it to appear wearing a pair of flares, a gingham shirt and a new era baseball cap whilst cycling on a fixed-gear bike through Shoreditch.

Bearing this in mind I'm not sure why I clicked on a link to 'Sigúr Ros Vs Mobb Deep' by Emancipator, but I am glad I did, and recommend you do so too because it works incredibly well, and without a trace of irony.

Drexciya (James Stinson) interview from 2002

Conducted only months before James Stinson died. It's really depressing to hear someone talk about their future when they are so close to death, particularly someone who is so committed to what they are doing.



Now seems like an opportunity to post some of my favourite Drexciya tracks.







RIP James Stinson

Squarepusher interview from 1996

Particularly like the bit where he asks to do a soundcheck and gets completely shutdown. I imagine that doesn't happen too often nowadays.


The other two parts of this documentary are also on youtube:
Part 2 (Photek)
Part 3 (Source Direct)

How records are made.

Here is a short piece from BBC news about the process of pressing a record.

For the week ending 16/03/09

The 130bpm tempo and soca drum beats on '2 Far Gone' are further evidence of Kode9's continuing move towards the fertile new soil of (UK) Funky (house). However the word 'funky' is not helpful here, at least not as an adjective, and as for 'house', well there is a 4x4 kick drum in there somewhere ... underneath a lopsided snare pattern and a what sounds like a distorted Space Ape vocal sample. It really is a tough one to describe by comparision simply because, like much of his other music, it is so brilliantly unique. 'Black Sun' on the other hand undoubtedly sounds like the soundtrack to a psychotic episode: fidgety drum patterns support relentless synths that bend up/down/sideways to amazing but nauseating effect. I'll call this one paranoia-step, I think.
Kode9 - Black Sun / 2 Far Gone

Eyes and ears will probably be drawn to the Shackleton mix here but collaborator DJ Maxximus does the flip side more than enough justice with two great tunes. 'Israhell' particularly is worth your time, incorporating two key elements of dubstep in the big snare on the 3rd and that ol' wobble bass, but reducing the tempo to a lowly 120. Smart percussion fills the gaps nicely but more to the point this is probably my favourite use of the old wobble bass since Vex'd did 'Angels':
DJ Maxximus / Shackleton - Neo / Israhell / Neo [Shackleton remix]


And finally a brilliant 12" from the creative minds of Appleblim and Geoim. 'Shreds' on side A is a simply awesome: constantly evolving drum patterns splattered with all kinds of dub-inspired time delayed effects which eventually arrives at some simply stunning piano keys. Puts a smile on my face every single time. Side B on the other hand throws the dubstyled delay out the window and goes straight for punchy 2-step energy vibe:
Appleblim & Geoim - Shreds / Flame Tree

Interviews

I have been meaning to post some of these interviews for weeks and last week two more popped up (with Kode9 and 2562). Starting with the newest first:

Kode9 talking to Fact magazine about the constant evolution of his sound.

2562 mostly talking about his influences

RSD talking about his long term involvement with electronic music.

Theo Parrish running around Detroit capturing sounds and droppin some knowledge:

"Creating rap music because I never dug disco..."

I have been looking for the origin of the 'never dug disco' sample that Automator used for the legendary Bear witness since... well since I first heard that tune, which must be going on a decade! Amazingly the same verse also contains another sample Automator used to great effect on the track Holy Calamity two years later.

And here it is...

4-Ever Fresh - Urban Sound Surgeon

For the week ending 09/03/09

Martyn AND Surgeon remixes of Shed:
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=OSTGUT020

Dubstep from Kryptic Mind's on Loefah's brand new Swamp81 label:
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=SWAMP001

New Burial tunes

There's a Burial/Fly-Lo collab on Fly-Lo's myspace

And here are two more from last week's Benji B 1xtra show:

Pangea

Pangea

This guy is pretty much boshing out exactly the kind of shit I love at the moment: punchy but deep rolling 2-step patterns runnin ~140bpm. The You & I / Router 12" was in my imaginary (I never wrote it down) top five of 2008, and can be heard on his myspace along with another unreleased tune called Memories which is et for a March release.

If you can't wait till March then this is out Friday on Hot Flush recordings:
Bear Witness / Mosaix

For the week ending 22/02/09

Either I'm slacking or the last two weeks have been pretty dry. Only one for this week and it's another one from French label '7even recordings':

Likhan - Redlight / Quiet Riot

Not much to say except I think it's probably an early contender for 12" of the year.

For the week ending 01/02/09

Mount Kimbie to start with this week. Something very Mogwai-esque about these tunes, particularly the title track:
MOUNT KIMBIE - Maybes

T++ and Peverelist remixing for Shed on this one. Peverelist predictably brings a relentless energy to the tune, while T++ gives it a soakdown in his characteristically dark, paranoid techno:
STP - The Fall (remixes)

And lastly some largely synthetic hip-hop grooves from Harmonic313, one half of the Global Communication duo who featured on Warp's Detroit-techno influenced 'Artificial Intelligence' mix tape from way back in 1994. The Detroit influence persists, and not just in the form of Cybotron and Drexciya inspired techno, but also in the form of late Detroit hip-hop legend J-Dilla. You can feel Dilla's presence from the first snarling bass synth, which makes for the almost eerie moment on track 8 when his vocal sample comes in and Phat Kat (another Detroit head) drops his name. All in all a carefully constructed homage to the last two decades of Detroit, but not the least bit derivative because of it.
HARMONIC 313 - When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence

For the week ending 18/01/09

First up is another shuffly, technofied dubstep outing from 2562. This one out now on Martyn's 3024 label:
Embrace / Hijack

The new Math head 12" is one for the dancefloor if you can handle the metal as fuck guitars. And if not then the final track ('last') takes it down a notch with a kind of plodding, oriental sounding halfstep affair. Other samples are available on his myspace:
Stab City

Worth a mention is the latest Earth616 sampler. The First track named 'License' by Rapid comes with both vocal immitations of gunshots and actual gunshots and is, expectedly, murderously dark. Having said that it's probably not worth the 7 quid fee alone:
Earth616 sampler Vol. 3

For the week ending 11/01/09

I think just about everyone has shaken off their festive malaise and started releasing music again so here we go...

7even Recordings coming out of France continue to build up an impressively consistant catalogue with this one from F. Both sides are great but side 2 is the real killer, bringing almighty bass hits and echos (no pun intended) of Basic Channel, which drift through the track like some kind of German ghost:
F - The Untitled Dub

From dubstep-techno to... dub-techno, here's a really nice 12" from Intrusion. The second release on the Intrusion imprint (a sublabel of Echospace). One for the Rhythm & Sound heads:
INTRUSION - The Seduction Of Silence

Accompanying that last one from Intrusion and also released this week is the CD of the same name:
INTRUSION - The Seduction Of Silence CD

And lastly a really nice minimal house joint from Max Cooper. Harmonisch Serie is the one to check on this one:
COOPER, Max - Harmonisch Serie

Where's Amon Tobin?

Apart from releasing all kinds of free shit on his website (a live recording of the foley room album and a brilliant hendrix/velvet underground mashup amongst other things) Amon Tobin has been working on a project with Doubleclick called 'Two Fingers'.

The first release, What you know (feat. Sway), is out this week on Big Dada and has been humourously described by the press release as sounding like 'Blade Runner re-enacted in Tottenham'. On the flipside is an Emalkay remix which surely indicates the direction this project is set for is somewhere near Grime and Dubstep on the compass. A full length album, largely featuring Sway on the vocals, follows this first 12" and is set for a March release. This is the tracklist:

1.Straw Men feat. Sway
2. What You Know feat. Sway
3. Better Get That feat. Ms Jade
4. Two Fingers feat. Sway
5. That Girl feat. Sway
6. Keman Rhythm
7. Jewels and Gems feat. Sway
8. Bad Girl feat. Ce'Cile
9. High Life feat. Sway
10. Doing my Job feat. Ms Jade
11. Not Perfect feat. Sway
12. Math Rhythm

Apparently not included on the album, and arguably the best of the lot, is a track they did with Durrty Goodz on the vocal which can be found here. Nice to hear a big dubstep influence on that one, not sure if it's getting it's own release as it was featured on the latest Ninja Cuts CD almost a year ago now.

mr chop

Last week I accidently found mr chop. His tunes remind me a bit of early Diplo productions that sourced from crazy psych, funk and prog rock material (chop uses session musicians rather than digging through thousands of old records, however). It's good shit, and although it seems he has been around for a good few years with very little output, in 2008 he stepped up with two pretty solid releases on Stones Throw subsidiary Now-Again Records and German label Jazz & Milk Recordings.

The Caveman!