It’s a specially extended edition of the podcast this month….I’ve bought so much new music in this last couple of weeks that an hour was just too short!! As usual, this mix really goes round the houses genre-wise, kicking of with a couple of chinese themed tracks, before delving into some quality detroit house music courtesy of Omar S & New World Aquarium.
We have a little bit of jazz from Portico Quartet, and a wicked new Floating Points remix of Sebastien Tellier’s new single. As usual, there’s a section dedicated to drum & bass, this month with some exclusive dubs from Need For Mirrors, a new project from Mosus & HLZ.
The pace is taken back down again later on in the mix, where we drop some more nu-jazz from the likes of Cinematic Orchestra, before taking you into one of the tracks from the latest Pheonix album. We finish of the mix with one of my favourite Stevie Wonder tracks, the shamelessly-cheesy Golden Lady, before closing with two nice, mellow indie tracks from The Sundays & The Whitest Boy Alive.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s Sessions Podcasts. I already have more music lined up for February’s episode, so keep your eyes peeled for that one!
Vangelis – Little Fete
Bent – Comin’ Back
Royksopp – Poor Leno
Omar S – Flying Blind
New World Aquarium – Avon Sparkle
Omar S – Flying Gorgars
Sebastien Tellier – Armour Et La Violence (Floating Points Mix)
Portico Quartet – Lines
Seba – Dangerous Days
Blu Mar Ten – Blu Runner
Need For Mirrors – Low Tide (Nu Directions Dub) *
Consequence – 11 Circles
Excerpt from INLAND EMPIRE
Fanu – Where It Rains Blood
Need For Mirrors – Narrative (Nu Directions Dub) *
Consequence – Pseudo Echo
The Cinematic Orchestra – Familiar Ground
Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset Part I
Stevie Wonder – Golden Lady
Low Tide
The Sundays – Folk Song
The Whitest Boy Alive – Promise Less Or Do More
* Need For Mirrors is a new project from V Recordings’ very own Mosus, and collaborator Hlz. Tracks forthcoming on Nu Directions. For more info, check the Need For Mirrors myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/needformirrors
…as with all the other podcasts, there are a number of ways you can obtain this one. Firstly, via itunes. Alternatively, you can download the mix via Beatplexity, or MixCloud, or via a Direct Download.
1. Floating Points – Love Me Like This – R2 Records
I’m racking my brains trying to remember how I came across Floating Points, but I just can’t really remember. It may well have been on Gilles Peterson’s excellent Radio 1 show. LMLT, an infectious, funky 80’s sampling slice of deep house, was featured on the February edition of my podcast, and was originally given away as a free download. Within a few months, it was released on Vinyl courtesy of R2 Records. The first pressing completely sold out and a repress was soon in order to meet demand!!
FP went on this year to release further singles on Planet Mu and his own Eglo imprint. His rapidly increasing popularity was confirmed in the same year, with numerous guest appearances on Radio 1 on the Mary Anne Hobbs & Gilles Peterson shows. His second appearance for GP included a live session at the Maida Vale studios.
The record that completely flipped the script in the drum & bass scene this year is definitely Sepia Tones. The first time I heard Translucent, on DJ Flight‘s 1xtra show back in Nov 08, it totally blew me away; The pure power of the melody and subtle drum patterns sealed Instra:Mental‘s reputation as pioneers in what felt, for long time, like a stale genre. The limited edition Sepia vinyl double pack will be a sought after collectors item in years to come. Sepia Tones can only be described as an utterly timeless masterpiece.
Largely thanks to the excellent Spotify, I decided to check out Bat For Lashes. This album swiftly became essential listening for the latter part of 2009, and both albums were rapidly purchased. “Two Suns”, the 2nd album from BFL, effortlessly shifts from pop, to folk, to indie, and more. “Daniel” is an excellent single, with a very catchy chorus and has an undeniable Fleetwood Mac style about it. “Sleep Alone” is just utterly engaging; amazing production, haunting vocals and, quite simply, a perfect pop song.
It was only through falling in love with an early single, Golden Cage, that made me think to see what TWBA were up to. It soon became apparent that they had a new album. After one listen, I was utterly hooked. Great guitars, lovely screeching fender rhodes, and brilliant vocals from Erlend Øye made this an essential purchase. This album also has the rare quality in that I like every track. Superb stuff.
Every Spectrasoul record this year has been absolutely essential. This one is a guaranteed dancefloor smasher, Break quite rightly sealed his place in the drum & bass A-List with his remix; an excellent, melodic and infectious track.
6. Unquote & Mr Sizef – Hours Have No Reverse Motion – Hospital Records
Recent years have seen an explosion of dnb producers coming out of Russia. Oak, Electrosoul System, and now Unquote & Mr Sizef. This leftfield dnb track made it’s debut on the massively popular Autonomic Podcast and was an instant hit. Hard kicks, odd vocals, and sad chords make it sound fairly drab on paper, but the end result is infectious, soulful, and pretty groundbreaking stuff.
This single was a taster of the Alix Perez album 1984, and was a great choice for first single. I’m Free is a deep, dark & moody master class in drum & bass production, and a definite highlight of 2009.
The London-based Trio have been working hard this year, turning in two drum & bass singles and a 13-track LP, no mean feat for any producer. “If I Could Tell You” is an outstanding track which has gained attention both inside and outside the drum & bass scene for it’s gorgeous melodies, infectious vocals and solid bassline. A firm favourite of a mate of mine: Strangely enough, he really doesn’t rate drum & bass, and won’t accept that this isa dnb track!!
9. Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream – Virgin
Without doubt, this year’s MGMT. Empire Of The Sun’s debut is an LP bursting with retro, 80’s sounding pop tracks. Massively infectious and just a joy to listen to.
10. Spectrasoul feat Mike Knight – Melodies – Exit Records
The second appearance from Spectrasoul in this chart; It was hard deciding on the best tracks because they’ve released so many this year, on labels such as Subtitles, Exit, SGN:Ltd, and most recently, the mighty Metalheadz. Melodies is a mysterious, magical track with sparkling synths, slamming drums and amazing vocals courtesy of Mike Knight. The flipside, Insignia, is also, absolutely superb.
As usual, there’s a good slab of fresh drum & bass, this month from artists such as Spectrasoul, Blu Mar Ten, Rockwell and more. Following on from last month, there’s a little bit of Bat For Lashes too.
Also, in keeping with the diverse nature of these mixes, I’ve included a bit of 70s Underground Disco from Two Man Sound, and a Fender Rhodes jazz-funk anthem courtesy of Gil Scott Heron. A special thanks must be given to DJ DMT for sourcing the Edú Lobo track for me. I’m very grateful, I love that song!
M83 – America
Craig Armstrong Feat. Antye Greie-Fuchs – Waltz
Bat For Lashes – Moon And Moon
Craig Armstrong – Amber
Two Man Sound – Que Tal America (Extended Mix)
Edú Lobo – Upa Neguinho
Rockwell – Underpass
Unquote & Mr Sizef – Hours Have No Reverse Motion
Spectrasoul – Suppression
Blu Mar Ten – Grey Area
Stray – Timbre
Spectrasoul – How Strange
Spectrasoul – Guardian
Heinrich Mueller – Drone FX
Instra:Mental – Leave It All Behind
Gil Scott Heron – Peace Go With You Brother
It made me laugh earlier that, in a photoshoot at Twitter’s swanky new offices, they chose to include a very unconvincing photograph of a woman doing a bit of DJ-ing, supposedly because all hip & happening internet corperations like Twitter have a DJ booth in the office, positioned somewhere between the tapas dispenser, Tassimo cofffee machine and ipod recycling bin.
Gosh, it’s obviously like one long party working at Twitter, it must be a treat to work amongst a real mix of trendy, pioneering web marketing strategists, next-generation web 2.0 coders and blue sky thinking project managers who have clearly harnessed their work/life balance to the max.
Of course, the most likely explanation behind this perculiar photo is that she’s gone & had a recording from a conference about HTML Web Standards pressed onto a 12″ and is blasting it through the office for all her nerdy computer chums….
It strikes me that some people still think there’s nothing cooler than being a DJ. I can think a billion reasons why DJ-ing really isn’t that cool, for instance:
1. On a Saturday night, you’re stood behind two turntables playing records for hours on end, whilst your mates are drinking, having fun, and meeting interesting people.
2. You’re spending hundreds of pounds on vinyl & CDs whilst your non-DJ friends can spend it on clothes, therefore ensuring that they always look more presentable than you.
3. You will never earn enough money from DJing to cover all the money you’ve spent on records no-one’s ever heard of.
4. All the big tunes you’ve bought recently – no-one’s ever heard of them.
5. All your “prized possession”, “Limited Edition”, “Rare Pressing”, “Desert Island Discs” – no one’s ever heard of them and no-one cares.
6. No karaoke machine will ever have that cool record you bought – and even if they did, your mates won’t sing along or enjoy it, because you’re the only one that knows it.
7. Your prized record collection will be worth next to nothing by the time you find yourself forced to sell it due to lack of space / lack of cash / emerging offspring.
8. Records don’t fit through your letterbox, you’re never in when the postman comes to get them, and they’re about 10 times as expensive as a download and take a 1,000 times longer to arrive.
9. Regardless of how underground you think you might be, you can guarantee some berk will ask you if you have any U2 in your box.
Now, admittedly, that’s not a billion reasons; in fact it’s only nine. However, I’ve decided that neither you nor I would have the patience to whittle through the remaining 999,999,999,991 other reasons.
SABRE ‘ONE MAN JETTISON’ / ‘BOUNDARY PT.1 (AFTERTHOUGHT)’ / ‘DECORUM’
2009 USHERS IN A NEW PROJECT FOR THE DARKESTRAL OPERATION WITH THE CREATION OF AN IMPRINT SPLICED FROM THE MOTHERSHIP LABEL DNA, WITH THE INTENT OF SETTIN OUT TO EXPLORE THE OUTER REACHES OF THE DARKESTRAL SOUND WITH A MORE CINEMATIC PERSUASION.
EVEN MORE STRIPPED DOWN AND MINIMAL THAN THE MAIN BODY, THIS 170BPM SERIES HAS FOUND THE PERFECT FIRST EXAMPLE THAT DESCRIBES THE FEELING OF BEING CAST OUT INTO DEEP SPACE, WHERE GRAVITY HAS A DIFFERENT IMPACT ON BOTH MIND AND BODY, SO, FITTINGLY, IT’S FIRST TITLE IS ‘ONE MAN JETTISON’, A RENEGADE PRODUCTION FROM THE ARTIST KNOWN AS SABRE.
A1 ‘ONE MAN JETTISON’ COLD, MILDLY MELANCHOLIC STRINGS PLACE YOU IMMEDIATELY IN AN UNFAMILIAR SURROUND, SLOWLY AWAKENING TO A FEELING OF ISOLATION, THE BEATS START TO PUMMEL GENTLY AS THE HEARTBEAT AND ADRENALINE RISES TO THE SURFACE BEFORE FADING BACK DOWN AND A LEVEL OF CALM REALISATION AND PEACE RESIDES . THERES NO GOING BACK. A PERFECT METAPHOR FOR THE LABEL INTENT.
A2 ‘BOUNDARY PT.1 (AFTERTHOUGHT)’
1 MIN 30 SECS OF AMBIENT DRIFT DESCRIBING THE SMALL PARTICLES OF DEEP SPACE FLOWING PAST YOUR VISOR AND HEADWEAR CREATING A SUBTLE GRAZING TEXTURE OF SOUND IN YOUR ENCLOSED SURROUND.
AA ‘DECORUM’
BEATS RISE AND FALL AS IF FLOATING WITHIN THE SONIC VACUUM CREATED BY THE ‘2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY’ FLOW OF THE SURROUNDING PRESSURED ATMOSPHERICS, YOU MENTALLY DRIFT ALONG BEING GENTLY BUFFETED BY CHANGING AIR CAVITIES WHILST THE STRING SECTION ACCENTUATES THE FEELING OF WEIGHTLESSNESS.
With Instra:Mental launching their own label, it’s great to see that Darkestral are signing material from other artists. I’ve had this release for a few months now, and I have to say that it’s a really unique, original, cinematic, and atmospheric piece of music. A great start to a label which is clearly going to be focussed on pushing the boundaries of what is drum & bass. ST Holdings, the distributor for Darkestral, have confirmed that the release will be a limited edition run of 500 copies on Black & White streaked vinyl, untreated black reverse board with overprinted logo.
One Man Jettison will be released on 7th December 2009. The track “One Man Jettison” featured in a drum & bass mix I recorded back in February 2009, which you can download here
ASC has very kindly put together a superb autonomic-themed drum & bass mix. It’s an excellent selection of forthcoming tracks from the Exit / NonPlus+ stable and features music from the likes of D-Bridge, Instra:Mental, Consequence and ASC himself.
ASC’s next single, “Porcelain” is due imminantly on NonPlus+. In fact, promos have just appeared on Red Eye Records… Here’s the official statement from NonPlus+:
Instra:mental welcome a new addition to the Nonplus+ camp who goes by the name of ASC. This producer is by no means new to making music, but recently his productions have become an essential addition to dBridge & Instra:mental’s Autonomic podcast series and also frequents their club sets.
ASC ‘Porcelain’ is a perfect illustration as to why Instra:mental have been paying ASC’s music so much attention. It begins with a glitchy yet groove-laden beat coupled with dramatic piano and fx stabs, then fills out with a warm drawing sub bass and smooth atmospheres. As the track progresses and you think it’s reached its climax, ASC cleverly layers an almost oriental sounding percussion stab to accompany the bass line and picks up the track to another level. This track is a prime example of being able to express the utmost with the minimum.
ASC ‘Focus Inwards’ is the deeper side of this 12” and as the title suggests, takes you on a journey into yourself. Fully charged with progressive chords and melodies alongside electric sounding drum fills and percussion, the arrangement, musical content and pure elegance of this track give us an insight into ASC’s compositional abilities and potential for the future.
DAVID BOWIE – TELLING LIES (ADAM F REMIX)
BRIAN ENO – IN DARK TREES
D-BRIDGE – MEMORY PARK
BLU MAR TEN – BY THE TIME MY LIGHT REACHES YOU I’LL BE GONE
DEEP BLUE & BLAME – DE-TRANSITIONS
LTJ BUKEM – CONSTELLATIONS (FEAT. MC CONRAD & DRS)
JOY ORBISON – HYPH MNGO
FLOATING POINTS – J&W BEAT
FINK – TROUBLE’S WHAT YOU’RE IN
UNKLE – IN A STATE
A NUMBER OF NAMES – SHARI VARI
INSTRA:MENTAL – TRAMMA
BLU MAR TEN – MADE OF AIR
BAT FOR LASHES – SLEEP ALONE
ROBERT MANOS – FIRST BORN LOVE
BAT FOR LASHES – DANIEL
KOEN HOLTKAMP – WALKER / MONEY MARK – INSECTS ARE ALL AROUND US
Mixcloud helps connect radio content to listeners more effectively. Mixcloud is re-thinking radio by joining the dots between radio shows, Podcasts and DJ mixes. We refer to them as Cloudcasts – audio shows that are stored in the “cloud” and available to be streamed on-demand.
I have decided to take advantage of this new site, and have therefore uploaded all sixteen episodes of my podcast, for your enjoyment. This means you can now listen to each episode, without needing to download the audio beforehand.
The nice thing about mixcloud is that, as well as being free, and easy to use, it also encourages it’s users to submit a thorough tracklisting to accompany each mix. You should find a complete tracklist against each & every podcast uploaded to MixCloud.
To check out my MixCloud homepage, click the link below:
Swedish producer Seba has been making top quality tunes for a number of years, with a string of releases on labels like Good Looking Records, Metalheadz and his own Secret operations label. Originating from Ingaro, an island just outside Stockholm, Sebastian Ahrenberg started producing in the early 90s. Working with a basic home studio, he began by making techno, but soon progressed to a more breakbeat-orientated sound, which is know today as drum & bass.
Seba is known for his emotional depth in his music, which is rarely seen in todays drum & bass. In 2001 he started his label Secret operations, as a platform to continue making beats in a deeper and emotional direction.
Last year saw the release of Seba’s debut album, Return To Forever, which, in my opinion, is probably the best drum & bass album I’ve ever heard.
Seba is probably the most talented producer in the d&b scene bar none; musically, he never fails to deliver, and his music is constantly evolving. What a joy it must be then, for him to find time to put together this excellent 50 minute drum & bass mix.
Tracklisting
1. Illogic & raf – songs of experience – Bingo
2. Mosus & HLZ – Nexus7 – Liquid V
3. Calibre – understand – deep kut
4. Seba – pressure point – hospital dub
5. Seba – dont you love me any more – dub
6. Seba – painted sky – secret operations dub
7. Seba & Kirsty Hawkshaw – The joy (face to face) – secret operations dub
8. Spy – ASBO – soul:r
9. Illogic & raf – complex identities – Bingo
10. Eward Oberon – Paradise – dub
11. Spy – the boy who cried wolf – 31 records
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” -Charles Darwin
Few musical acts can lay claim to such dynamic evolution as Blu Mar Ten. Formed in the big-bang of 90’s drum & bass, their superior genes saw them grow and mutate beyond the confines of the jungle into lush experimentation with downtempo, ambient, house, techno & left-field.
Returning to their ancestral roots, ‘Natural History’ is the long-awaited first full drum & bass album from Blu Mar Ten leaving you in no doubt about their position at the cutting edge of the genre. From the storming remix of vocal opener ‘Starting Over’, through the deeply abstract ‘Grey Area’, to the VIP rework of massive club hit ‘Close’ and the epic ‘Last Dance’, ‘Natural History’ showcases the trio’s ability to enrich and develop their DNA, resulting in an album full of surprising twists and turns that always carry the Blu Mar Ten stamp of quality.
DJ support for ‘Natural History’ has come from right across the d&b family tree, including:
Marky, London Elektricity, Doc Scott, Teebee, D Bridge, Hype, John B, Logistics, Ed Rush, Marcus Intalex, Utah Jazz, Makoto, Spectrasoul , Apex, SPY, Craggz, DKay, Seba, Loxy, Ink, Lynx, Instra:mental, John B, Randomer, Data, Ink, Nerm & D-Kode, Annie Nightingale, Crissy Criss, Mosus, Furney, SPY, A Sides, Tom Middleton, ASC, Kubiks, Lomax, Alleycat, Big Bud and many more….
CD Tracklisting:
01. Starting Over (2009 Remix)
02. Above Words
03. God’s Lonely Man
04. By The Time My Light Reaches You I’ll Be Gone
05. Grey Area
06. Believe Me
07. Close (VIP)
08. Clipjoint
09. If I Could Tell You
10. Nobody Here
11. Last Dance
12. Overwhelm
13. Bedroom Eyes
The Sessions Podcast 