Best of…

One of the great things about being at leisure for the whole of December is the chance to indulge in “best of” lists. I made my own – below – then spent an entire day listening to others on the interweb. On the upside, Little White Earbuds bigged up Paul Frick’s dub version of Steal My Heart (the earlier vocal versions featuring Crawford are even better) and it makes me happy to see that other people’s listening habits are as eclectic as mine. On the downside, I’m not quite buying all this bowing scraping adulation of American woozy disco house. Sure, Levon Vincent and co have made some great tunes, but it can all be taken a bit seriously (likewise, Hyph Mngo is fun, I agree, but it’s a rave garage choon, not a cultural revolution). Anyway, cheerfully I do not have to be an arbiter of quality and innovation. And the nice part of having zero experience of making electronic music is that I’m free to judge tunes in all innocence on their effect not their virtuosity. So my thanks to the blogstad cognoscenti out there for maintaining direction, introducing me to new stuff and making me laugh.

OK so to continue to add to the end-of-year blah blah blah, my favourite album of the year must be Vertical Ascent by the Moritz von Oswald Trio – highly rated all over the place, so no further praise for me to add. And my top twenty tunes of the year, in alphabetical in lieu of random order:

Ratts Leaving the Sinking Ship in Nortt - Artificial Latvamaki

Soundtrack to your voyage to the afterworld on the burning deck.

I Am the Car - Audion

Surely the most prolific producer in techno? This for me is the stand-out from his series of give-away MP3s this year.

Checkpoint Charlie (Max Cooper Remix) - Bigger Than Jesus

Please can 2010 be all about techno that sounds like this. Never mind the fuzz, let’s go back to basics.

Seaweed - Clark

FX – simple, effective teenage kicks.

The DJ - DJ Hell ft. P. Diddy

Seems to have met with approbation and ridicule from everyone, including the people who made it, missing the fact that it’s a perfect straight-up big-production Romboy-style dancefloor magnet.

Grand Central, Part I (Deep Into The Bowel Of House) (MCDE Bassline Dub) - DJ Sprinkles

Dr Motor City expertly extracts Ms Sprinkles’ head from her arse.

A Nightingale - Isolee

I was really pleased to see this pop up on a couple of other “best of” lists as it was hardly talked about over the year but is beautiful and complex and special. The other side October is great too.

37 min to 7 - Margaret Dygas

Thanks to Cubby for introducing me to this Margaret among others. I eagerly await her every diversion…

Rollerskate (Radio Edit) - Matias Aguayo

Favourite pop ditty of the year. Strictly small doses – he was dead boring when I saw him live this year.

Die a Little (Bruno Pronsato Remix) - Mikael Stavostrand

Not sure why this has such a hold on me – dusty, bouncy-melancholy and strangely addictive.

Hundraelva - Minilogue

Another reason, along with Isolee, Dygas and Pronsato’s Make Up Break Up, to keep the faith in minimal.

Get Your Whistle Wet (DJ Sep & Jason Short Dub Mix Featuring Juakali) - Mochipet

There is nothing original about this, but if I ever manage to sit on a chair all the way through I know it is time for the euthanasia clinic.

Maybes - Mount Kimbie

Everyone likes them and I like them too.

Variance (Function Edit) - N/A

Choon!!! Worth every millimetre of its fetishistic one-sided blue vinyl.

Pokerbrett - Norman

A net label mystery. Church organ meets big techno – what’s not to like?

WAD - Pearson Sound

Ethnic percussion in its rightful carnavalesque element. Irresistible.

Alles Gute - Pole

Please make some more tunes for us Stefan – we miss you.

Klinik - Scuba

That washboard scratch gets me every time. Apparently he is a brilliant DJ as well as producer.

Marche Funebre (DJ Koze Marxa Mix) - Soap & Skin

Yes, I also loved Fever Ray, and here is another modern gothic madame deserving of attention.

Space Bass (Jamie xx's Remix of The xx) - The xx

Ditto Mount Kimbie.

Feliz navidad

Yay, it's crimbo! Big love from the Red Room to all my husbands and homies. Here's a loved up yet wistful mix to match your reflexive spangly outlooks. Don't know what has become of Cubby - perhaps he's headed off to the beach for dos mojitos...

Twenty Minute Versions

My My - Bonus Jack

Alexis Cabrera & Guti - Dos Mojitos Bitte (Piano Edit)

Benoit & Sergio - What I've Lost (Bruno Pronsato Remix)

Audiofly X - Sweeter Than

Salif Keita & Cesaria Evora - Yamore (Luciano Remix)

Marcin Czubala - At The Beach In San Foca

Alex Under - Gris (extract)

Douglas Greed - New Innerstate Strategies (Tofu On Ice Edit)

Matias Aguayo - Rollerskate (Radio Edit)

Usually Bubble

At 6:02 pm last night I pressed send on the final document - and with that act became free, well and truly free, for the whole of December at least, if not longer. I immediately made a mix for Bernard, seeing as it was his party a couple of hours later. So here it is - 46 minutes of fullfat cheezie wotsits, y'know, enough familiarity and kitsch to keep the folks on the floor. Nobody needs to listen to this - instead you can go and check out Max Cooper's really great mix on We Play Music. Any which way, have a good chuckle and bubble like this lad Liam.

Usually Bubble

Prince - The Future (Mark Moore Remix)

Claude Vonstroke ft. Bootsy Collins - Greasy Beats (Tech Funk Mix)

Onionz ft. Snow - Nothin But Love (Funkerman Remix)

Freeez - A.E.I.O.U. (Latin Rascals Club Mix)

Chromeo - Bonafied Lovin' (Sweetlight Remix)

Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer (Tom Novy Remix)

Lee Van Dowski - Go Bowling

K.I.G. - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Alp vs Outwork - Fiesta Elektronika (Paolo Aliberti Reprise)

Bingo Players vs Rozalla - I Will be Free (DJ Mercer Bootleg)

Beenie Man & Wiley - Rolex It Up (The Heatwave Refix)

Where did that come from?

More mucking out before settling down for a good winter. Today it snowed-that's something worth shaking your hips for.

Musclebound

Margaret Dygas – 37 min to 7

Stefan Goldman – Wolverine

Jeff Samuel – Work 4 Sex

Tiger Stripes – Hooked

Solomun + Ost + Kjex – federgewicht hamburg mix

Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts – Ochre

dOP- come with me

Alien Agar

Some Robot Dub with a bit of shouting. Less of a mix and more of a succession of tunes.

Alien Agar by strcprstskrzkrk

Calabi Yau Manifold - Dopplereffekt

Haxan - Demdike Stare

Empyrean - Deepchord Presents: Echospace

Fall Into Oblivion - Quantec

Robot L.O.V.E. - Alec Empire

Hypercommunication (Alter Ego Remix) - Poni Hoax

Aidys Girl's a Computer - Darkstar

Minsk - I/Dex vs Pole

Three Views Of A Secret - Kryptic Minds

Buzz In (Nosaj Thing Remix) - Boris

The Confidence Man

This has been sitting around for a while now, so few surprises for you perhaps, but it still manages to lure me in. The title is a reference to Hermann Melville's book of the same name. Both richly allusive and difficult to corner, it pulls a narrative stunt midway through which left me reeeling.Something like a good mix.

The Confidence Man

https://www.dropbox.com/s/spo0yqr17zj66fa/The%20Confidence-Man.mp3?dl=0

Paul Frick – Do Something

Akufen – Psychometry 3

Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts – A Third Nut

Noze – Piano (DOP remix)

Ido Oshkopun - Teacher

Plastikman –Panikattack 2nd Attack

Petre – Galantar

Melchior – Out There

Stefan Goldman -Sleepy Hollow Version

For Leda

The thing about presence is that it needs constant upkeep.




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Mihalis – Interamerika

Stimming – Una Pena

Fidan – all pleasure (Vakant)

Trentemoeller – Always something better dub remix (Pokerflat)

Mr G – Makes No Sense Radio Slave Shaking the Tree rmx (Rekids)

Portable – OK Then

Pepe Bradock – Deep Burnt

Wbeeza – He So Crazy ( 3^rd Ear)

Oscar G - Chunky Buddha (Innervisions)

Pete Namlook – Subharmonic Atoms Pepe Bradock Bonus Bug

Counting Every Drop

You’re at home. It’s raining outside. You’re way wasted. It’s late. You put on the radio and out crackles a mysterious station speaking straight to your mood…

Counting Every Drop

Hua Yang - Radio Broadcasting

Kim Cascone - Three Parasites for Deleuze (excerpt)

The Others - Bushido

Pinch ft. Indi Khur - Angels in the Rain

Ben Klock - Gold Rush

Irma Thomas - It's Raining (excerpt)

Deadbeat - Melbourne Round Midnight

AGF / Delay - Most Beautiful

Bajofondo - Borges y Paraguay (excerpt)

Zomby - Test Me for a Reason

TRG - Time Is Now

Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo

Eskmo - Agnus Dei

Black Unity Trio - Opening Prayer

Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night (Burial remix)

Untold - Kingdom

Bic Runga - Ne Me Quitte Pas (excerpt)

Leila ft. Seaming To - The Exotics

Plastikman - Rekall

Björk - In the Musicals (excerpt)

Pinch ft. Juakali - Brighter Day

Chip in the Old Block

August has not been a great month for making mixes - too busy doing as little as possible. So here's one I made earlier, for my new friend Andy, who dwells somewhere out there in the extended mind. Or in there in the embodied technology. Here’s to your ‘ggggrrrrrrrrrr’.

Chip in the Old Block

Alva Noto – Autoshape

Alex Smoke – Dimbulb

Ilyah & Ltd. Candy – Machines And Ghosts

Plimsoul – Bird

Kate Simko – Machine War

Mark Henning – I Lost My Brain At Wrinchout

Pole – Alles Gute

Bogger – Honz

Sleeparchive – Galactic Blob

Clark – Seaweed

Sub Dub – Dancehall Malfunction

Burial – Ghost Hardware

Plastikman – Okx

Suits you,sir!

Went to this event at the weekend in a relatively new venue just around the corner and was delighted to have my faith in dubstep restored. Two rooms-with a good, forward range of sounds (except for the deadly strains of intelligent dubstep-my pet hate). Ikonika especially was impressive with a sound that was very fluid and techno influenced. And a real sense of excitement about the evening, being forced into new ways of moving just to follow the shape of the music.

Really enjoying your trip to africa-some of the stuff I have (eg living near africa) but that's comforting, coming across your tracks in da jungle. I like how stripped back a lot of the tunes are. Loving the solo track and it's very sly of you to use the faithless vocal-instant durban flashbacks. Where did you come across the dj mbuso track?

Tableau Noir

Uncle Rebus got me bad. I’ve finally come round to your way of hearing La Mezcla. Plus the high operatic camp of Ame, strings sandwiched between cowbells. And Love Spray so roks in that k-kinda-way. So here is my AfriKKKan reply. Check out the hot South African producers Culoe de Song and DJ Mabuso. And check out my hot combination (… if maybe I should have toned down the bass …) of the three tunes Congoloid, Work that Body and Insomnia. (Cheeky cheese squeeze). Plus two of my favourite tunes, The Dragon and Living Near Africa.

Tableau Noir

Ian Simmonds ft. The Ekonda Women Of Kinshasa – The Dragon

Culoe de Song – African Subway

Zombie Disco Squad & Solo – The Dance

Wighnomy Brothers – Moppal Kiff

DJ Mbuso ft. Shembe – Ukukholwa Kuwe

Solo – Congoloid (Minimow mix)

Min – Work that Body

Faithless – Insomnia (Ricardo Villalobos mix)

Jet Project – Monkey Skulls

Ilario Alicante – Living Near Africa

Stella Chiweshe – Zvinonhamo

Fusion

Benny Nero

It's an appealing concept:a non-cheesy, ethnomix. I started wondering how to classify-what are the limits-where do you cringe or what features lull one into a sense of authenticity?

I am a huge fan of portable and somehow his tracks always sound authentic with little sense of a template followed. But the second track is by an artist I know nothing about except that he has the cadenza seal of approval. For me, this track comes dangerously close to some sense of being too much, signifiers overloaded with latin emotion. But something about the woman's voice carries it. Somehow I believe her.

Then I start to think about the kicks from pushing these taste boundaries. This mix features ame- and also flirts with my prejudices-an overblown trance workout with echoes of the 80s. I should run screaming but there is a dark attraction to it all. I find this kind of drama fun-something to play with when I dance.

The Rebus Principle by Crawford

Portable - 30 Hz Michel Cleis - La Mezcla Vocal mix

Michel Cleis - La Mezcla

dOP - walk the line original mix

Silvetas - Caleza

Ame - Setsa

Philip Sherburne - Salt & Vinegar

Seth Troxler & Patrick Russell - Love Spray


Check out the weird and wonderful world of Benny Nero

http://www.konvulsator.de/bennynero/

All Back to K’s

This is from a couple of months back, for Keryn’s birthday. It’s emotive – partly because I know that’s what she likes and partly because she has been my babe du jour on more than one needy occasion. Shout out too to Greg, who on K’s birthday said to about 20 of us, many strangers: all-back-to-G’s instead of all-back-to-K’s. His place turned out to be the most beautiful flat of the most beautiful block in Brighton, and we danced and danced and watched the full moon move across the sea and the ghostly pier, and played this mix just before sunrise. And apologies to Cubby for more Cassy torture...

All Back to K's

Crowdpleaser & Ly Sander – Walking Home

Damian Lazarus – Moment

Loco Dice – How Do I Know?!

Alland Byallo – True (Lee Curtiss Remix)

Cassy – Poem

Butch – Last Tango

Function – Variance

Seth Troxler – Aphrika

Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts – Sous l’Arbre

Reshuffle – Hedonism

Rune – Bora Vocal

Federleicht – On the Streets (Kollektiv Turmstrasse Core Mix)

local collapse

100 Abandoned Houses Kevin Bauman

My, doesn't time fly in the blogosphere! Finally got the chance to have a 'serious ' listen to the ladies. From one feedback junkie to another, here goes.

The transition from ellen into Simko is great- i love that kind of dark reduced techno that you play plus the feel of almost live percussion. I'm surprised by the ellen allien-I've never payed much attention-any other recommendations?And the kate simko track is clinical and classy-I hadn't heard of her. Love the margaret dygas-it positively bristles as soundtraps go off.

The change of sound with agf in the middle feels like a good move to me-dancefloor damage. Only the cassy kind of throws me because I know it so well. You keep it pretty dark and trippy but playful too. And Leila's polite mayhem to close

I'm afraid you're going to have to come up with a more convincing metaphor for this blog though-if this is the sound of indigestion well then I'll have another slice.

And with this next mix there's equal parts stamping to pirouetting. From the archive:

local collapse

Local Collapse by Crawford

Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts – Can’t Argue with Silence

Onur Özer – traumbone

Henrik Schwarz & Aampondo – I exist because of you (Dixon’s Stripped Down Version)

Mihalis Safras – Interafrica

Schneider & Galluzzi – Albertino

Knowing Looks – 1= moon

Argy – Love Dose (Luciano rmx)

Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts – Yone

D.H.S. - House of God (Martin Landsky rmx)

Carl Craig – Movement 8 ( c2 version)

Henrik Schwarz / Ame/Dixon- D.P.O.M.B (version 2)

Letter to the Laingoustine

Well, already you’re clear about this blog’s nature. It is like a meringue. Cubby pirouettes at the curvy-wurvy tippy-top, spinning out vinyl with all taste and skill. I squat rather lower down, in the denser crumbly bit, gurgitating semi-digested laptop mixes. This one being an example. It’s for Marg, in answer to her question “Where are all the women producers in techno?” So here are some of their great tunes, bludgeoned by me. If not skill, let’s hope at least there is taste. The only thing that keeps me from the gooey chewy sugary morass below.

Letter to the Laingoustine

Quio - Me Mucker

Ellen Allien - Elphine

Kate Simko - She Said

Margaret Dygas - See You Around

Dinky ft. Jorge Gonzales - No Sleep

Sarah Goldfarb - Crashed by Society

Miss Fitz - Dementia

Cassy - For You

AGF ft. Delay - Generic

Anja Schneider - Beyond the Valley

Ada - Live it Up

Magda - Panna Cotta Eyes

Monika Kruse ft. Tim Price - Spank Me Later

Leila - In the Garden

Dreamtime Again

Setting the pace:thick and fast. It's been the warmest April since forever here in Berlin and this May Day we've had to call off the revolution once again. Time to slip, slip away...

dreamtime again


Ricardo Villalobos - Ananas

Matthias Meyer - tout va bien( liebe detail)

Culoe Du Song - The Bright Forest (Innervisions)

Stimming - The Anger (liebe detail)

Oleg Poliakov - Rainy Dayz -Portable rmx

Michel Cleis - La Mezcla (Cadenza)

Anthony Collins - upright bass -foog rmx (mule electronics)

Robots, you just can't trust them

My top five for April look like this:

tommaso cappellato - the knight ep (elefanto! rosso)

radio slave - neverending

Change! - A Various ep ( Children of Tomorrow)

Anthony Collins - upright bass ep (mule electronic)

Michel Cleis - La Mezcla ( Cadenza)

And check this for a nightmare insight into the future from the past of German sci-fi.

The Time Machine

Frail and sensual as the Eloi, troubled by the dreadful presence of the Morlocks, this is a mix which appears to slow down, and at times stop time. I invite you to take part in a small experiment to help me confirm my impressions.

Auswahl update by Crawford

Yma Sumac - Chuncho
Kurceli Hicazkar - Selim Sesler
Felix Laband - Radio Right Now
Mum - I'm 9 today
Autechre - Yulquen
Random_Inc - In Pisgat Zeev
Chronomad -Sama'i

Pachyderms on Parade

Kicking off the next chapter of our Berlin-London hopping, hooping and looping conversation with a visit to the zoo. As our thick-skinned friends say, “Roh!”

Pachyderms on Parade

Dinky – Burdelia
Ellen Allien – Elphine (Zander VT Remix)
The Martin Brothers – Dum (Casanova & Jay-You Animales Mix)
Christian Martin – Elephant Fight
Style Of Eye – Hide
Gabriel Ananda –Mahatma Regatta
Style Of Eye – L.D.R. (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix)
Deepgroove – Elephant Charge
Ray Barretto – O Elefante (SHH Remix)
(+ a bit of Prompt – Elephant for mixing)