"IF YOU WANT A VISION OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE CRAP 808 SAMPLES STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE- FOREVER"
Musick for Moorland was inspired by two immediate events. The first was writing a feature about The Haxan Cloak, whose self-titled album from this year is one of 2011’s finest, darkest treats. The second was a late night purchase of Leyland James Kirby’s 2008 album Bleaklow, recorded and released under the name The Stranger, whose theme was one of exploring the moors around the region where Kirby grew up.
Both musicians are tied together by writing music that’s strongly evocative of the countryside and untamed nature (and also of people being swallowed up by the wilderness). Both albums are wild, elemental listens, necessitating repeat listens at high volume on very large speakers.
This mix was also influenced by a trip to the Peak District a few weeks back, a welcome escape from the urban surrounds within which I spend most of my time.
Outside of these triggers to record the mix, there are the contents themselves. A number of (particularly British) artists have been taking electronic music and composition into darker and more treacherous territories over the last two to three years. People like Demdike Stare, Raime and Ekoplekz are rewiring and re-energising the dread ghosts of eighties Thatcherite Britain, potent reminders of the fucked state we find the UK in circa 2011. Others - Manchester’s Modern Love label and a number of people in Bristol immediately spring to mind - are wearing the hard, polished edges of dancefloor music away, leaving rhythms that send muffled ripples of dissonance outward through the mix. And the spectre of post-punk and early industrial - Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle - is once again leering forward in Perc’s hard-edged techno, Roly Porter’s ragged ambient landscapes, Actress’ house-not-house and Ekoplekz’s crushed analogue dub. Richard Skelton and Lawrence English both make music concerned with space and resonance, the former working with the naturally amplifying properties of wind-whipped moors in order to create beautiful, moving, exploratory string compositions.
There’s something peculiarly British about the landscapes - both urban and rural - these artists evoke: the main reason why it was particularly easy to find the common threads that bind them together in a mix.
So Musick for Moorland is intended, as much as possible, to match its title. For best results, if you’re not anywhere near somewhere wild, cold and unnerving to go walking, it’s probably about turning the lights off, or something similar.
Music by: 10-20, Raime, The Haxan Cloak, The Stranger, Andy Stott, Leyland Kirby, Miles, Demdike Stare, Perc, Richard Skelton, Chris Watson, Roly Porter, Lawrence English, Actress, Shackleton & Sam Kidel.
Download in 320: http://www.mediafire.com/?gg6supb820z47ah
As dubstep’s stature accelerates to a freefall from grace, the Bristol music scene’s existential crisis has deepened. Some have stuck to the path well trodden with mixed results-see Punch Drunk’s excellent releases from Bass Clef and Kahn, and compare to Joker’s trance tinged attempt at pop dubstep crossover - whilst others have undergone slow yet radical transformations. As the dust clears, the consensus seems to be settling on deep and deadly house and techno.
Kidkut’s sometimes-mixed Immerse Records (though still baring the slogan “breakbeat and sub culture”) has entered a powerful second phase with a string of spectacular Bristolian house records, peaking with a decidedly underrated classic by exciting new face El Kid. Elsewhere Appleblim, a figure formally synonymous with dubstep, now counts producers like October and Watergate resident John Osborn among his collaborators, featuring with each on the launch release for new house labels Smorgasboard and Taanstaafl respectively. The most pronounced change in the Bristol landscape, however, is the move from sadly defunct Rooted Records to Chris Farrell’s Idle Hands, acting as the record shop arm of the label and agency of the same name. Just as Rooted functioned as a hub for the Bristol dubstep scene, so now does Idle Hands for house and techno, with a tightly woven web of connections between labels (Idle Hands, BRSTL Vinyl, Livity Sound), artists (Kowton, Outboxx, Hodge) and nights (Western Union, SUM) all traceable back to the shop via releases, instores and staff members. As the monthly, midweek dubstep party Dubloaded sadly bows out, its not inconceivable that Chris and Kidkut’s intimate house night Western Union could start to play an analogous role for this new scene somewhere down the line.
Its not entirely without coincidence that the majority of dance music we’ve enjoyed this year falls under the same bracket. Parties like Dirtytalk, Ist Das and Headrush have brought the likes of Marcel Dettmann, Prosumer, Surgeon, Peter Van Hoesen, Kassem Mosse, Legowelt, Intergalactic Gary, Conforce and more to the city over the last year, and its been hard to escape the feeling that all the best nights have been house and techno related. In terms of releases, with the bass-centric hype bubble imploding impotently, great labels like Underground Quality, Rush Hour, Workshop, 100% Silk and Clone Royal Oak have completely usurped all of our previous focuses. This mix is a reflection of that: 53 minutes of hypnotic house and techno featuring Kyle Hall, Ben Klock, DJ Qu, Octo Octa, Vakula, Move D and much more.
ALWAYS EVERYTHING 004: INTO THE DEEP by Always Everything on Mixcloud
Tracklist
Recloose - Electric Sunshine [Rush Hour]
Motor City Drum Ensemble - L.O.V.E (Kyle Hall Remix) [Studio !K7]
Ben Klock feat Elif Bicer - OK [Ostgut Ton]
TJ & DJ Raybone - Gone [Rush Hour]
Octo Octa - I’m Trying [100% Silk]
Carsten Jost - Chateau Jalousie [Dial]
Cooly G - Landscapes [Hyperdub]
Hunee - A Leaf For Hand In Hand [Ostgut Ton]
O.N.I.T - We’re Out Of Control [Fourth Floor Records]
Vakula - Crossing [3rd Strike Records]
Farben - Swinn Off [Faitiche]
Elgato - Music (Body Mix) [Hessle Audio]
Move D - A1 [Workshop]
Sound Stream - Deeper Love [Sound Stream]
Manuel Tur feat Holly Backler - Most Of This Moment (Isolée Mix) [White Label]
Outboxx - Blueberry Lemon [Well Rounded Housing Project]
DJ Qu - First Down [Strength Music Recordings]
Skirt - In The Meadow Under The Stars [Horizontal Ground]
Download 320: http://www.mediafire.com/?7iuofzm1kaqylcf
The original plan was to record a super sunny house mix for the freak early October heatwave we just experienced, but by the time I got to my decks it had passed. Brief bloom. Blending moody autumnal bass tracks throughout definitely reinvigorated the DNA of the mix anyway, so whogivezafuk. Some stone cold house classics, a couple of underrated gems from the last couple of years and a smattering of new and upfront tracks. A psychedelic house journey featuring Oliverwho Factory, Risque Rhythm Team, Steffi, Dj Qu, Kowton, Isolee, Walton, Shed, Cosmin TRG, Carl Craig and more.
ALWAYS EVERYTHING 003: SECOND SUMMER ENDING by Always Everything on Mixcloud
Tracklist:
Peverelist - Sun Dance
Creative Sens - Rainbow Harmony
Funkineven - XXX
Risque Rhythm Team - The Jacking Zone
DVA - Ganja
Ikonika - Idiot (Altered Natives Remix)
Cosmin TRG - See Other People
Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Green Sun
Jam City - Barely A Trak
Morgan Geist - Detroit (c2rmx1)
Throwing Snow - Shadower
Steffi - Yours
Walton - Mangled Riddim
The Oliverwho Factory - Galactic Transit (Recall Mix)
Isolée - In Our Country
Kowton - Looking At You
DJ Qu - Babyluv
Altocamet - Contrasendito (Shed Remix)
Leyland Kirby - Live For The Future, Long For The Past
Download 320: http://www.mediafire.com/?rof32s3u4akvl37
Previous Mixes:
Always Everything 002 Grime Futurism 2
Always Everything 001 Flex Mentallo
Next in our mix series, a long overdue sequel.
Austere and alien, the classic 2002-2005 era of grime instrumentals remains one of the most futuristic and alien subgenres of electronic music. Though partly attributable to coincidence- the space required for MCs disfiguring UKG into asymmetry together with naive approaches to extremely restrictive technology- with the requisite imagination it is easy to place grime instrumentals into a lineage with early electronic work, electro, neue deutsche welle and other bold leaps into the unknown. Perhaps its the emphasis on hollowed out sinewaves, a sound that will always be associated with futurism. Maybe the hyper-functionality of 8-bar tracks and stark minimalism puts in mind classic modernist tropes of utopia. Or maybe its just the combination of hungry youngsters absorbing video game soundtracks and a naive approach to technology that calls to mind the usual examples from early electronic experimentation.
At the same time, the complete unattainability of so much of grime has almost imbued the music with a totemic kind of mythology. With limited white label runs, poor distribution infrastructure and rumours of the complete hard drive failure of some classic producers, incredibly there is a wealth of music that will never see the light of day outside of the battered copies in obsessives’ collections. Bizarrely, this futuristic music harkens back to an age before the internet gave everybody instant access to everything, creating a weirdly contradictory exoticism around tracks which can only be found in fossilised form, the lo-fi rips of records endlessly scavenged and re-encoded.
Futurism aside, its still some of the most striking dance music ever created, in its best spots attaining a delicate balance most fail to meet. Steely complexity and sonic experimentation is always tempered with an IDM-dodging functionality and security in purpose. Fierce sexuality and violence offset with a playful, often naive approach. Its at once exploratory and completely direct. Through all of these dichotomies the best grime instrumentals hit all the pleasure spots of the best UK dance music whilst crucially avoiding the oversteps and excesses of the more indulgent underground niches. Its always slightly baffled me that grime was pushed onto a braggadocio/violence side of the dubstep/grime false binary given how diverse the beats actually are, and I still experience a steadfast resistance from detractors who have already written the genre off. I’m still convinced that people from fairly distinct musical backgrounds can find a lot to enjoy in music that seems to exist, artificially or not, at the intersection of lo-fi, electronic music futurism, hypnogogic pop and UK dance music. Perhaps the recurring theme is music that works against restrictions; more and more I think that idea underlies the majority of worthwhile music.
This mix is a collection of a few more white labels I acquired since the previous Grime Futurism mix I did, together with some newer tracks that touch into that unique space. It seemed about right with the announcement of a (sacrilegious) Blade Runner sequel.
ALWAYS EVERYTHING 002: GRIME FUTURISM 2 by Always Everything on Mixcloud
Tracklist
Darq E Freaker - Queen of Hoxton
Superisk - Find Your Way
Big$hot & F1 - Armageddon
Becoming Real - Showdown In Chinatown (Instrumental)
Plasticman - Shockwave
Bok Bok - Crew Instrumental
Big$hot - Stomp Remix
Joker - Untitled.rsn
Zomby - Aquafresh
Starfox - Blink
Jon E Cash - Spanish Fly
Jay Weed - On The Nile (Becoming Real Remix)
Wonder - What
Mr Mitch - Skittles (Brey Remix)
Big$hot - Short Circuit
Jam City - Island
Royal T - Orangeade
Skepta - Love Is Here To Stay (Terror Danjah Remix)
Bossman - Bongo Eyes (Backwards Riddim)
Nocturnal - Bun Man
Bok Bok - Silo Pass
Wiley - Avenger
JME - Skeng
Untold - Never Went Away
Wiley - Colder (Bass Mix)
Vangelis - Main Titles / Ruff Sqwad - Lethal Injection
Download 320: http://www.mediafire.com/?ijytryq70t65yx6
Previous Mix: Always Everything 001: Flex Mentallo
First drop from Tallinn At Dawn follow up, Cabaret Cixous. Not Not Fun enjoying one of their best runs to date right now.
We’ve been making noise about Laurel Halo’s music for some time here at AE - last year’s King Felix was among our favourite records of 2010. But with her new EPs Hour Logic and Antenna it feels as though she’s taken a significant step forward again. There’s been a lot of talk lately around the use of synth sounds more readily associated with the beginnings of electronic music, especially in the context of the current vogue for chatter around Retromania. But what set her music (and that of some of her closest contemporaries) apart are the themes it explores, most of which couldn’t have been approached in the same way any time but now. It’s especially concerned with notions of connectivity, the net, science and modern society, all delivered with real weight and excellent production. Hour Logic is particularly physically involving, its surface synth drones often accompanied by a heavy dancefloor undertow. It’s out now on Hippos In Tanks, and comes thoroughly recommended.
I recently interviewed Laurel for The Quietus, where we spoke about Detroit techno, science, and why her music’s not retrofuturistic. Read the interview here.
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Rory
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