Max Duley and I are playing in Shoreditch on Friday for free. Come one come all!
Guest djs for Friday, November 10th are:
Max Duley and Tristan Watkins
Free Entry, cheap beer, new soundsystem, random beats, perfect.
8 till late (around 4ish)
Wildcats Bar
79 Kingsland Road
Shoreditch
Waldorf Q
w00t!
Recorded tonight. Encoded at 192 Kbps CBR. Not perfectly mixed, and some of the levels get a bit crazy (I’m getting used to new monitors), but I reckon it’s got enough favourite house tunes to help fend off seasonal change. It’ll just fit on a CD. Get it here.
Tracklist:
Pal Joey – Pulling a Cat Out of a Hat [Loop D’ Loop]
Mr. Fingers – Can you Feel It [Indigo Music]
Pal Joey – Santeria Samba Groove [Loop D’ Loop]
Drugs vs. Château Flight – Brain On Drugs (Château Flight Remix) [Kraked Recordings]
YMC – Mushrooms [Source Records]
Theo Parrish – Dark Patterns [Peacefrog]
Unknown Artist – B1 from The Nature of Retribution [Prescription]
Frankie Knuckles – Whistle Song (Re-edit) [A lime greenish label]
Abacus – B1 from Collectors Edition [Prescription]
Romanthony – Desire [Azuli]
James Duncan – A1 from Night Tracks [Le Systeme]
Classic Man – A Passing Thought [Natural Resource]
Incognito – Skin On My Skin (Pepe Braddock’s Dub Aquatique Remix) [Talkin Loud]
Tread – Tiny Rain [Third Ear]
Wamdue Kids – Optimistique [Peacefrog]
Tortured Soul – I Might Do Something Wrong (Lonely Mix) [Central Park]
DJ Sneak – Show Me the Way [Henry Street]
Made another trip back to the Barbican yesterday for the continuing celebration of Steve Reich’s 70th birthday. But first, here’s The Guardian’s brief, ** review of The Cave and another slightly more in depth one, both confirming my critique.
But Sunday was another day. We were total idiots and missed Konono 1 (again) when they were playing free that afternoon but we got there in time for the Bang on a Can All Stars, and they were good! The first song was some Michael Nyman thing that was OK. Nothing special, and perhaps a bit grating. The second was something that had been written specifically for them and it was wicked. Really mental frenetic cello and upright bass bowing. The third was a four-section song that covered loads of territory and really worked well for them. The last track was by Louis Andriesen, which was relentless psychotic cartoon music, vaguely reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s theme to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Gutted I missed Konono 1 earlier, but Split with Sims/Surgeon doing Frequency 7 the night before pre-empted.
The later Reich performance was totally brilliant. It opened with Cello Counterpoint, which had been written specifically for the performer. She had pre-recorded (and filmed) seven of eight parts that were broadcast on a large screen behind here, while she played the eighth part live. It’s fairly short but gripping.
The second part was the world premiere of Daniel Variations (quoted from the press thingy):
Reich puts a text from the Book of Daniel alongside words by the violinist and mandolin player Daniel Pearl, the journalist taken hostage and murdered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 2002.
There were twenty performers for this, with most of the same instruments as Music for Eighteen Musicians, except there were two more strings IIRC. And it was a very string-heavy piece, and heavier on the orchestration, lighter on the repetition. The singing in this was a bit too loud in the mix for my liking, and really I thought it could been nixed altogether. Hannah really liked the singing though, and I reckon this just would be divisive. Still quite good on the main. Would love to hear an instrumental version, but I’m doubtful that would happen.
Finally we got to Music for Eighteen Musicians, which was every bit as brilliant as you’d expect, except twice as good for being able to appreciate the visual element of it. It was particularly cool that Reich played with them (with his distinctive baseball cap and all), although I could have sworn I heard him hit a couple of wrong notes. Still… it was absolutely gorgeous. The liveness of it is stunning. They called it a ‘joy machine’, which sums it up perfectly. The concentration it must take to play that is pretty unfathomable to me. Totally humbling and enjoyable. Made up for The Cave about 5 times over.
Saw The Cave last night. It’s basically a multimedia collaboration about the story of Abraham. Parts of the bible are typed out rhythmically and displayed multilingually on five monitors. The rhythmic typing gets joined by clapping and then orchestration, and occasional slightly-questionable operatic singing. Then the massive turd hit when it segued into sampled interviews of people editorialising on their perceptions of or relations to Abraham and his seed. This would have been fine, and even interesting if the interviews had been played unadulterated atop the often brilliant music, but the audio-video was cut up in the style of an 8 year old with his first two-second-memory Casio sampler ad naseum. It would seriously go on and on for ten minutes with the same sample bank of maybe 5 clips. FUCKING SPIT IT OUT! Utterly tedious worse than water torture nonsense. The only thing that was missing was the dog barks. To say that it’s dated poorly would be too generous.
The first part ended with five cameras roaming around a temple or mosque or something in circles for about ten minutes with very quiet ambience in the background. This amounted to the effect of watching 5 CCTV cameras with nothing going on to a lullaby. It put me to sleep (which was actually an improvement on the antecedent annoyance). We ran out at the first short break. Anya and Jason had the misfortune of staying through the next 40 minutes until the first interval, which they said got worse. They also said there was a fairly massive exodus then. Not surprised. What a fucking disappointment. Especially since the music and the idea was so good, except for the fucking sampler abuse. It very well may have been more acceptable in the early ’90s. I mean we listened to shit with all sorts of sampler abuse back then, but this was severely grating.
Still looking forward to Music for 18 Musicians and Konono 1 on Sunday though.
A few more have been purchased since the last post:
Was, Not Was – Wheel Me Out [Antilles] (Laaaaaaaaaate)
Philus – Kolmio EP [Sahko Finland] (Late)
Koss – Ring 02 [Mule Electronic Japan] (stock problems last time around)
Ø – Rontgen EP [Sahko Finland] (Late)
Traxx presents The Dirty Criminals – Collision Between Us And The Damned [Gigolo Germany] (Late)
Monolake – Alaska Melting [Monolake Germany] (Late)
X Press 2 – Kill 100 [Skint] (Carl Craig remix)
Sundiata – Come Together [Back 2 Basics] (cheap find at the Beano’s closing down sale)
For those who have asked, the trial mixes in preparation for the Latvian gig aren’t really worth publishing, but I will probably use the core of that set minus a lot of the records that have found their way in to my other sets, plus some new acquisitions as the foundation of a new set, which I will try to get done before too long.
Used stuff
Black Dog – Music For Adverts (And Short Films) [Warp Records])
Dan Curtin – Whisper To An Echo [Peacefrog Records]
Björk – The Best Mixes From The Album – Debut For All the People Who Don’t Buy White Labels [One Little Indian] (CD)
Robert Hood – Apartment Zero [Logistic Records]
MK – Somebody New [Network]
Various – The Soul Of Science 3 [Obsessive]
Kuniyuki Takahashi stuff (he is the fucking dood)
Koss – Ring 01 [Mule Electronic Japan]
Koss – Ring 02 [Mule Electronic Japan]
Koss – Ra1030in [Mule Electronic Japan]
Kuniyuki – Sekai No Ichiban Tooi Tochi E [Mule Musiq Japan]
Slow Didi – Follow Me [Tri Eight Music Japan]
Marcellus Pittman stuff
Marcellus Pittman – # 2 [FXHE US]
Marcellus Pittman – Come See [Unirhythm US]
The Rotating Assembly/Green Pickles – Seasons Of My Life [Sound Signature US]
Other new stuff (which I’m particularly please with)
Erell Ranson – Sleeping Beauty EP [Arne Weinberg]
John Beltran presents Nostalgic – Going Home EP [Groovia Sound Project US]
Future/Past/Balil – ART 1 EP (repress) [R&S Belgium] (err, OK , so this isn’t new)
Apologies for the funky dynamics imposed by the fancy radio station mixer, but an archive it is. My part’s not mixed. It’s sort of a review of the non-house/non-techno stuff I used to play on my radio show by virtue of the fact that I only brought CDs (lots of ambience, trance-before-it-was-a-bad-word and industrial things, with a couple of hip hop bits for good measure). As you can see below, Dan kicks things off with a load of older drum n’ bass, and my set starts in the 51st minute. It felt like a bit of trip down memory lane for me to be live on the terrestrial radio again, playing the same material I used to. It was fun!
Part I
Mix by host Dan Bean (01:00:00-01:51:17)
War – Slippin Into Darkness [United Artists]
More Rockers – You’re Gonna (Make Me) Roni Size & DJ Krust Remix) [More Rockers]
Solo feat. J. T. – Pressure [Mo Wax]
Lemon D – I Can’t Stop [V]
Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roachclip [Sussex]
Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes [Atlantic]
Madvillain – America’s Most Blunted [Stones Throw]
Bobby Demo – More Bounce (Rap) [Amherst]
Arne Weinberg – Oblivion (Duplex Remix) [Arne Weinberg]
The Nova Dream Sequence – Dream 7 [Compost]
Mix by Tristan Watkins (01:51:18-03:59:59)
Big Black – Kerosene [Touch N’ Go]
Doubting Thomas – The Run [Netwerk]
Part II
De La Soul – I.C. Y’all [Tommy Boy]
A Tribe Called Quest – Baby Phife’s Return [Jive]
Nine Inch Nails – March of the Fuckheads [Island]
Front 242 – Don’t Crash [Wax Trax]
David Byrne – Ava (Nu Wage) [Island]
Wagon Christ – Aerhaart; Ahead [Rising High]
Move D – Xing Jordan / Seven [Source]
Mappa Mundi – Trance Fusion [USA Import Music]
The Ambush – Terra [Harthouse]
Sun Electric – Sarotti [R&S]
Part III
Tylervision – The Last Human [Silent]
Full Moon Scientists – Fatwah Boogi (Acid Raintrancer Mix) [Hard Hands]
A Small, Good Thing – Ostrichism [em:t]
Depeche Mode – It Doesn’t Matter Two [Mute]
Pelican Daughters – Auarascape [Silent]
Skinny Puppy – Love [Netwerk]
Autechre – Arch Carrier [Warp]
P-Eye-Eye – Lost at Sea [em:t]
Schizophrenia – Schizophrenia [Tresor]
The Sabres of Paradise – Edge 6 [Warp]
Daft Punk – Veridis Quo [Virgin]
Skinny Puppy – Love [Nettwerk]
Aroy Dee – Boracic [M>O>S]
T.O.M. Project – Renaissance [Sound Signature]
Lil’ Louis – Video Clash [Soul Jazz]
Oasis – Oasis #1 [FXHE]
No Milk – Voice of… [Rhapsody]
The Mole – In My Song [Wagon Repair]
Forcept 1 – FR:01:V1 (Akufen Remix) [Concept]
Horror Inc. – Siamese Twins [Revolver]
Monolake – Stratosphere [Monolake/Imbalance Computer Music]
Atjazz – For Real (Version Remix) [Sonar Kollektiv]
Julien Jabre – Swimming Places [Elias]
DJ Gregory – And [Faya Combo]
Kuniyuki – Precious Hall (Original Mix) [Natural Resource]
Atom Heart – L.T.B.C.Y.B. [Recognition]
Green Velvet – I Want to Leave My Body [Relief]
Mathew Jonson – Spanish (Hrdvsion Remix) [Wagon Repair]
Thomas Barnett – Thrill of the Hunt [Audiomatique]
Surgeon – Magneze [Downwards]
Max Duley – Eternal Bleeding [Arc]
Claude Young – Angelic [Deta]
Convextion – Spice Tea [Down Low]
Trolley Route – Tempure (Sterac Mix) [Pure Plastic]
Planetary Assault Systems – Take Back [Peacefrog]
Jacek Sienkiewicz – Still Forward [Recognition]
Kaito – Breaking the Star [Kompakt]
Quiet Daze – November [Transmat]
Tomas Jirku – West Bestern [Arbutus]
Cobblestone Jazz – 5th Element [It Is What It Is]
D5 – Sides of Space [Delsin]
Jacen Solo – Sculptor [Open Mind Recordings]
Reporter – K for Cars [Open Mind Recordings]
Raiders of the Lost Arp – Funk 006 [Pigna]
Front 242 – Don’t Crash [Wax Trax]
DWA – DWA [Recognition]
Doubting Thomas – The Run [Wax Trax]