As we gear up for his journey to Farringdon this Saturday, where he shares Room Two with Psycatron who are performing live, DC has found time to lay down this exclusive mix for our blog and diverts from his aural insights into the sounds and shape shifts of techno to come of White Noise instead leading us through an arrray of vintage classics from Grace Jones to Dead Presidents also including a previously unreleased DC remix.

The Jena joker turns in an eclectic mix of hip-hop, pop, chill wave and more.

Delicacy is not necessarily an adjective you’d attach to Robag Wruhme if you saw him behind the decks. Either solo or in tandem with Sören Bodner as the now defunct Wighnomy Brothers, Wruhme has gained a reputation for his boisterous, hard-drinking DJ sets. But scratch the surface of his recorded music, and in particular his recently released Thora Vukk LP for Pampa, and a whole microcosm of elegance and grace is there to enjoy. Wruhme was the production brains behind the Wighnomy Brothers, who from their hometown base of Jena in the east of Germany put out a string of leftfield house and techno releases through Freude Am Tanzen until their split at the end of 2009. During that time they also proffered a seminal mix CD in the form of Metawuffmischfelge, a feat Schablitzki followed up on earlier this year with his excellent Wuppdeckmischmampflow for Kompakt.

Much like his latest full-length, Wruhme has only minor dance floor considerations on his mind for this mix—hip-hop, pop, chillwave, spoken-word and (of course) bags of oddities are much more the order of the day.

What have you been up to recently?

Interviews and podcasts.

How and where was the mix recorded?

In Jena in my bedroom and in my kitchen, with a turntable, apples and a lot of vinyl and CDs.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind the mix?

“Good Morning” was and is the idea … I hope I can share that.

What are you up to next?

I have to work in my own car wash centre and then I will bring out the vegetables in my garden… it’s April!

A new moniker from an old name.

“Maceo Plex is me having fun,” Eric Estornel recently told EQTV. Listen to his debut album under the moniker, Life Index, and you can clearly see what he means. The album was camped in the quintessentially Crosstown Rebels terrain of slow-burning, yet floor-friendly house, and brought together enough outside influences to triumphantly nail the format. In opposition, Estornel said that his other main alias, Maetrik, is him “thinking” about his productions. How that manifests itself is tenebrous club music that could loosely be described as techno. Treibstoff, Mothership and Cocoon are among the many established labels to put out Maetrik productions since the debut record back in 2001, although, as is discussed below, Estornel has somehow flown below many peoples’ radars for all these years.

The US-born, Valencia-based producer proffers a seedy 73 minutes of low-slung house on his mix for us, stopping off to enjoy a spot of disco and electro as he does so.

What have you been up to recently?

Recently I’ve been mainly writing a lot of new Maceo Plex music and working on my live set. I had a really good debut of my live set at the Get Lost party in Miami last month and now I’m just finding ways to improve it further.

How and where was the mix recorded?

It was recorded in my studio with Traktor using [digital] vinyl to mix. I’m not into using CDJs or mixing in Ableton. The mix was done in an on-the-fly type way the same as I would do in a club. I hate planning mixes too much, no fun.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind the mix?

I mainly wanted to showcase some of my own new music as well as new and old tracks by people I really love. There’s some Idjut Boys in there who have been huge influences in my music for the past 17 years. Also some amazing stuff from Crazy P and cool new bits on some great labels I really like. No big idea behind it really, just great jams and a nice touch of beauty which I think is really important to round out a mix properly.

You’ve been releasing music for years yet people still refer to you as a word-of-mouth success. Why do you think that is?

Yeah, that is weird. It could be that people aren’t completely aware of me due to a lack of good PR for the past 11 years I’ve been releasing music. I never cared much about blowing up and having the best press shots or writing whatever style is in fashion. I make music my way and have fun with it. It’s now that people are connecting a little better with the Maceo Plex style which could be because of the moment in time we are in musically and socially and the great job by Crosstown at getting it heard. I’m just going to continue improving myself as a producer and releasing tracks people wanna move to and hope that’s enough to live beyond these “15 minutes.”

What are you up to next?

At the moment finishing up and planning my next release on Crosstown called “Can’t Leave You.” Damian is getting some amazing remixers on board for it, and I’m sure it’ll be insane. Also just finished something for Jamie Jones and Lee Foss’ new label Hot Waves, and working closely with Jamie on planning some new fire for Hot Creations. I also have a remix I just did for Get Physical and another remix for the label Serialism. My Maceo Plex project is relatively new, and I’ve been having a crazy amount of remix requests coming so I’m still figuring out all that before announcing anything else. Under the name Maetrik I have a few remixes coming soon for Adam Beyer, Timo Maas and M.A.N.D.Y. And also a new EP on Cocoon titled Crush On Me. Busy, busy I suppose!

Heady home listening from the French duo.

Discodeine is French producers Cédric Marszewski and Benjamin Morando, who are more commonly known as Pilooski and Pentile. The duo have been releasing a colourful brand of club music under the name since 2008′s Joystick EP, and have just put-out a self-titled album, which called upon the vocal talents of Jarvis Coker, Baxter Dury and Matias Aguayo. Pilooski built a name for himself in his own right during the ’00s, thanks largely to his Dirty Edits series and remixes for LCD Soundsystem and Mystery Jets. While less widely recognized, Pentile was part of several recording projects at the beginning of the last decade—Octet, France Copland and solo as Morando.

The way in which artists label their mixes for us is often as intriguing as it is nebulous, and in the case of Discodeine “a pop selection” was how it was tagged. We’re not sure we’d entirely agree with that description, although if pop music didsound like this we reckon the world would be a much happier place.

What have you been up to recently?

Living the life.

How and where was the mix recorded?

With a lot of records, sweat and chocolates in the Discodeine HQ.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind the mix?

It’s just some songs we like in some very different styles, not especially electronic or club; a short journey into our record collection.

How did you guys hook up with Jarvis Cocker for the track “Synchronize”?

We didn’t know that Jarvis was a great fan of the Dirty edits. One day he sent a mail to buy a copy to the Dirty mail order. Then he proposed to Pilooski to do a remix. We naturally thought of him when we were searching a singer for the “Synchronize” demo.

What was the inspiration behind the artwork for your debut album?

Some flashy 19th century lions! We wanted to finish with some colour this series about Gustave Dorée’s engraving initialized with our EPs.

What are you up to next?

Preparing and rehearsing our live set.

The RA staff takes a look back at 2010.

And you thought we were done talking about 2010? Not a chance. Music writers can’t get enough of the listmaking, the haggling, the debating and everything else that goes along with the end of the year. That’s why we invited our Berlin-based contributors down to RA HQ for a chat about the topics and trends that defined the past 365 days. Our talk covered just about anything that made our year-end polls and everything that came close as well. And, even though it’s two hours, it felt like we were barely scratching the surface. Enjoy this first RA Exchange where the writers take over.

Participants
Philip Sherburne
Todd L. Burns
Christine Kakaire
Jack Haighton
Ryan Keeling
Will Lynch

A breath-taking regular podcast, hosted by LAZARUS, that features some of the special records he plays around the globe’s most happening parties, mixed up with the various different styles of music he likes to listen to at home; comedy moments spliced up with funk, latin melodies played next to soundtracks, plus cosmic disco, techno and rock… it’s all here in this fresh new show…
subscribe, sit back, relax and welcome to Lazpod…

A breath-taking regular podcast, hosted by LAZARUS, that features some of the special records he plays around the globe’s most happening parties, mixed up with the various different styles of music he likes to listen to at home; comedy moments spliced up with funk, latin melodies played next to soundtracks, plus cosmic disco, techno and rock… it’s all here in this fresh new show…

Subscribe, sit back, relax and welcome to Lazpod…

Time has accelerated ten-fold for Konrad over the last five years since the dark, shadowy tones of “Draconia” & “Medusa Smile” enveloped dancefloors around the Globe, christening his influencial Wagon Repair label in style as well as establishing him as a highly innovative producer and much sought after remixer (just check out his work for Tiga, Snax, Audion and Martini Brös if further proof is required).

His relocation to Berlin 5 years ago also gave him the opportunity to express himself more regularly as a DJ, resulting in a fast expanding reputation for sending crowds into a frenzy wherever the call of duty takes him. Konrad knows it’s about living and breathing the music, it’s not just a question of turning up, spinning a few tunes and then disappearing back into the night, it’s about getting to know the people, understanding what makes the club tick and always delivering a night of memorable tracks and seamless transgressions. He quickly found himself holding down one of the much coveted residencies at the Legendary Panorama Bar as well as regular spots at dance musics epicenters; Fabric in London, Rex in Paris, Tenax in Florence, Privilege in Ibiza to name a few…

After 5 years of a hectic touring schedule, Konrad relocated to Los Angeles and teamed up with fellow producer Martin Buttrich to record a yet unreleased album. For Konrad the aim was to remove himself from the day to day influence of the dance scene in Berlin and “clear the sonic palette” by relocating to a place whose palette couldn’t be further from that of techno’s mecca of Berlin. “We wanted to be as far from the scene’s influence as we could be; Away from any outside musical influence. Berlin is full of musicians of the electronic variety so we decided to do the album in L.A. in the winter time…and I’m happy we did! “It was nice to be back in that west coast laid back way of life…one that I actually missed…which I never thought that I would. “One that couldn’t be further literally and figuratively from the 24/7 Techno of Berlin.”

In hindsight, Vancouver’s laid back way of life was the perfect environment to patiently prepare for the whirlwind his life has now become. Free from the restraining influences of established scenes and trends, Konrad was able to develop his own individual take on dance music under the guidance of Patti Schmidt’s Brave New Waves late night radio show. Digging through the junk bins in Vancouver’s coolest record stores – Basics & Odyssey Imports – also unearthed hidden gems from artists like Tikiman and Maurizio, along with early Klang and Perlon releases that had been shamefully overlooked by the uninitiated.

Although his initial instincts had led him in a Drum and Bass direction, it wasn’t long before he began transplanting his ideas into a 4/4 context. Hooking up with Swayzak in 1998 had a large part to do with this and led to a string of releases on 240 Volts including the Busting Down The Door With A Shotgun EP and the inspired Swayzak / Headgear collaboration on In The Car Crash in 2002. During this period Konrad also relocated to London, producing both Drum and Bass for Ed Rush and Optical’s Virus Recordings, and Techno (together with March 21st) as Headgear including a remix of In A State for James Lavelle’s U.N.K.L.E. project.

On returning home, Konrad finally met up with fellow Vancouverite Mathew Jonson who was already having massive success producing on the much lauded It Is What It Is label. Together with Graham Boothby and Jesse Fisk they founded Wagon Repair, basically “to do whatever the hell we wanted to do’’ and in a relatively short space of time it’s developed into one of the most respected labels around. Konrad’s own approach to music basically sums up their original mandate – “It’s important to let music mature and resonate. It’s important to know who you are and to embrace the things that drive you forward even if they seem strange to others’’.

…like dreaming darkly on a sunny day. There’s certainly a Byronesque quality to Black, a perpetual struggle between external light and inner darkness that unearths moments of beauty in the darkest corners of our collective consciousness. But fortune seems to favour the brave and it’s with this firmly in mind that he leads the crowd through the night towards another Berlin sunrise.

MP3 / 320 Kbps / 2:02:52

Biography

France’s most wanted radio host and selector, Ivan Smagghe stands at the crossroads between glamorous parisian hype and musical integrity. 

His Test radio show and compilations imposed a new vision of leftfield electronica on Radio Nova and his programming for the two past years has been a faultless example of quality eclecticness. Though Smagghe hails from the early days of the Parisian underground – both through his connection with the defunct Rough Trade record shop and remixing contributions on various formats – he came back to music production in 2001 by launching his own Set imprint.

Vive le Smagghe! The French DJ/producer/label boss turns in a selection of dance floor treats for the RA podcast.

Ivan Smagghe comes from an older school of DJing: Gloriously eclectic, unafraid of a wild jump in tempo, selfishly confident in his crate in the best way possible. It most certainly stems from his days at Rough Trade, educating Parisian record buyers to all manners of electronic (and otherwise) music. Since Smagghe transitioned to DJing and producing full-time, he’s been stunningly prolific, churning out iconic mix CDs, guiding Kill the DJ to international prominence and bringing his open-minded sensibility to audiences around the world. For his RA podcast, he spans old and new in a set that you might find him playing at peak-time during his upcoming all night gig in London. Until…well, we won’t spoil it for you.

What have you been up to recently?

Quite a bit actually. We’ve moved the It’s a Fine Line studio, which was quite a piece of work. Analog gear is nice but… We should be getting back to work soon now. In the meantime, I did a solo remix for French label Remain, something I have not done in ages. Also, French fashion emporium have just released a super limited promo CD of edits of mine, some taken from my blog, some not.

How and where was the mix recorded?

At home, involving the usual mish-mash of techniques, from scratchy old vinyl dusted off the shelves to the latest Traktor Plugs from Native Instruments. (Am waiting for the Kontrol S4.)

Can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind the mix?

An idea? Hmmmm…

Think of it as a machine made out of cables all pulling out in different directions and me just trying to maintain the equilibrium, playing with the tension. I’m not really one for the 60 minutes tunnel, but it still has to have some kind of coherence, if not an “idea” or a theme. Not that simple when you want to have the old, the new, a bit of yours and some of your close guard, the electronic dark disco and the strange rock (I’m quite happy to have included a 140 BPM rockfish ending this time), the straight hypnotic feel and the rickety funk… To make it short, it’s about trying to give an idea of yourself in 60 minutes. If that’s possible…

You recently started a blog. Why?

It’s the best way I’ve found to do “online” communication, MySpace and Facebook not being my kind of thing. (Some weird fans are doing that for me, even quite badly). Just a bit more personal than the rest… I actually started with two other blogs, for books and movies, then thought about doing it for the music…

We’ve been told you’re into magic. What’s your best trick?

Do magicians talk about their tricks? Hmmm… My best one may well be still being around though…

What are you up to next?

I’ll be in the States and Mexico for Halloween. Getting back in the studio with IAFL as I said… We are going to produce Battant’s second album, As I Ride with No Horse. Also busy with my label Kill The DJ (it’s our ten year anniversary next year). We’re launching a year-long series of digital releases. First are remixes from Chloe’s album by Magda, Alex Smoke, George Issakidis, Jenifer Cardini and Plein Soleil; then there will be a 12-inch by RMVN, a collaboration between Roman Flugel and myself. Remixes of Battant by Capracara and Tim Holmes, a 12-inch by Clement Meyer, etc. Loooooads of stuff.

Whilst it’s clear that Nathan takes influence from the likes of musical mischief-makers such as Aphex Twin and Squarepusher the intrigue in his Hrdvision output perhaps spawns more from the amalgamation of such influences alongside…, well everything else it seems! Hrdvsion’s experiments began with exploring his blues-loving father’s midi keyboard at the age of eight. His mother nudged him towards classical piano and he tinkered with the washtub bass from time to time. But it was the keyboard he always went back to, stubbornly wrenching tune after tune from its limited 127 sounds, even while his older brother Mat (better known to the world of techno as Cobblestone Jazz’s Mathew Jonson) was bringing home fancy bass synths and TR 909s.
These early musical trips were formative to say the least. Nathan still spends most of his studio time with his head inside a computer, searching for strange sounds and mysterious glitches. “The programs are so complicated these days, they just can’t test them to their limits in every direction,” he enthuses, “so you can still find all these hidden sounds and bugs.” An interesting character indeed!

For his Technique podcast Nathan has spliced, chopped, and mashed together an hour of Public Enemy, Cathy Dennis, Milanese, Juan Atkins, Robyn and Sugarhill Gang. Sound strange? It is…but in the best possible way.

You can hear the crackle as Toby mixes Hot Chocolate with Willie Hutch, Kiss with Hamilton Bohannon and classics from The B52’s, The Erotic Drum Band, Earth Wind and Fire, and even manages to squeeze in some Bowie! If you were a fan of Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts brilliant RA podcast, then no doubt you’ll be shakin’ it to this one for many years to come!

Born Kieran Hebden, Four Tet was already making waves as a member of the group Fridge when he dropped ‘Thirtysixtwentyfive’, his 1998 debut single for Trevor Jackson’s Output label (you can probably guess how long the track lasted). A debut album, Dialogue followed, but what really propelled Hebden to stardom – and set the tone for Four Tet as one of music’s most celebrated and in-demand remixers, later lending his magic to Bloc Party, Radiohead, Anti-Pop Consortium and many more – was his remix of Aphex Twin’s ‘[Cliffs]’, commissioned for Warp Records’ Warp 10 + 3: Remixes collection.

A series of acclaimed albums for Domino followed, along with more improvisational collaborations with late jazz drummer Steve Reid, the end credits of a Bond film, and a blink-and-you-missed it 12” release with Burial, accumulating in this year’s There Is Love In You – arguably Hebden’s most realised, composed, and beautiful album to date.

A large part of Four Tet’s musicianship in recent years has revolved around his residency at Plastic People, the much-loved East London club that earlier this year faced closure. Well, seeing as it’s now re-opened, Hebden will be restarting his residency this Saturday, September 11, and this mix is done to celebrate it. Ramadanman, Villalobos, Oni Ahyun and more feature, along with Four Tet’s own mixes of Rocketnumbernine and Bob Holroyd, and an original new Four Tet track for Soul Jazz’s Future Bass compilation.

Hybrid Life Podcast 006 – Discreet Unit

(Click on the links below to download each part)

Discreet Unit Podcast – Part One

Discreet Unit Podcast – Part Two

Discreet Unit Podcast – Part Three

So Tim, Prime numbers seems to be your home stable, but where has Discreet Unit been hiding for the past two years?

Discreet Unit is my musical project, but it has to work around my life as Art director of my own design studio – nth creative. I currently do all the design / artwork for Prime Numbers and lots for Firecracker Records, Soundway records and other clients in and around the music and film industry.

I have been DJing since I was 16, growing up in Bristol amidst the sounds of 88-94, I was part of the Sublove crew making crazy drum & bass and performing it at raves such as Universe and Exstatic but that sound and the raves themselves soon became too far removed from what I wanted to hear. I had originally found myself in the Moon Club (Bristol) at 17 listening to DJs mixing Detroit Techno with LFO and A Guy Called Gerald and all the Network sounds alongside dub and the heavy Shut Up & Dance sound. This mixture I had originally heard on a mixtape recorded live at an Energy rave in Brixton Academy by Fabio  it literally blew me away, he basically played most of Shut Up & Dances first Album with slabs of Joey Beltram and other Transmat / Metroplex tracks and to new ears, it was a total revelation, I didn’t know it then but that sound would resonate with me right up to the here and now. Since then I have always been busy sampling and collecting sounds for tracks and contributing to tracks over the years…

About two years ago Trus’ Me heard a track me and my bro had made called ‘Written in Our Nature’ which went out on Prime Numbers R3 and then we put out ‘unit 1’ on I5  – both tracks went down well but due to design work and other life stuff it’s taken this long to get a new solo EP together.

Stunning thoughtful podcast we have here, it’s a first at Hybrid Life to have a three part, three hour mix! How happy are you with the finished article?

Thanks, it’s a good overview of the styles and sounds that I appreciate, mixes are always journeys for me, especially when you haven’t done one for a while, they need to flow together but in some way also capture the mood you’re in, the way you feel about all the music that surrounds you at that moment in time.

I knew I wanted to start with some African vibes as I had recently done some new record sleeves for the Soundway label and the perks of the job are to receive early copies of the music being dug up from the depths of archives in Nigeria, Ghana etc. The Hedzoleh track at the start of the mix is massive. The album was always playing whilst driving back from a surf at the start of the summer. (http://www.soundwayrecords.com/catalogue/hedzoleh-soundz-hedzoleh.html)

After the Jimpster skit about being incredibly hot (which it was when I did the mix) The Celestine Ukwu track is a real stunner and can be found on the 1st Nigeria Special compilation. I really wanted to start the mix with Phontacid by the genius – Aphex – because that track is insane, it captures in one track the vibe of the old British free parties and the sounds that overlapped from sound system to sound system, it’s pretty slow though so everything kind of hinged around it. The rest of the mix just gets a lot heavier as it goes on, ending with some new Du material some Linkwood and the master – Jeff Mills

You obviously have a lot of different world sounds here, where does the inspiration originate from? And how was Discreet Unit developed?

The inspiration in this case was my vinyl collection, which I had finally managed to get in one place, in an old barn in Cornwall with the decks and a Micro track wav recorder. Beyond that the cacophony of sounds and music that exist all around us in 2010 is getting exciting and crazy in equal measure, music should be heard at the best quality possible and it seems to me that our ears are facing the glitch too much these days – I guess this mix will be an mp3 though so I better shut up!

Discreet Unit has really grown out of a passion for music, and finding the roots of musical styles I come across on my travels. Once you start digging it becomes difficult to stop. As you enquire further into musical heritage you end up realising the debt so many of the electronic productions of today owe to the pioneers of Jazz, Funk, Reggae/Dub, Boogie and Disco as well as the Avant-Garde musicians who explored the uncharted territory that we can access via the joys of vinyl and nowadays the web. I am lucky in that I spend a lot of time in the studio designing covers and music related design so I get the opportunity to listen to a huge amount of music each and every day, and this inspires the way I put sets together and how DU tracks are developed. I am also part of two really great labels whose members are all avid collectors and music heads in their own way…So there is always another track being unearthed around the corner!

You are really good friends with Linkwood, is it true you are from the same town?

Linkwood is actually my younger brother, and without his skills and talent in the studio the DU sound would never be as heavy.

We work together on DU tracks and try and keep the sound live and as analogue as possible. It’s great to be able to express my ideas musically in a studio environment with someone who knows exactly what I like and what kind of sound I am after but also adds his own quality and skills to each and every cut. I am still blown away by his sound, the new Appleblim remix he did is superb. I’m lucky to hear most of what comes out of his studio, he’s been making some set up improvements over the last few months and it’s all analogue, so listen out for some new Linkwood cuts in the very near future.

Finally, what is next in line for Discreet Unit?

Most importantly I have my first DU artist EP coming out on Prime Numbers at the start of September, both tracks are on the mix, the main track is called Shake Your Body Down, I am really chuffed with it as it sounds like it should! The B side – twilight is also heavy, it was originally going to be another cut called Love Machine but Trus’ Me had a dub of Twilight which he said did the damage out, so we went with that instead and The Love Machine track will come out later in the year.

286 of the The New DU EP are going to be screen printed by us at nth so look out for those.

It’s all change at the moment, I have just moved to Cornwall for the summer and will be back in Bristol before the winter begins, so a few miles away from my Bro and the Prime Numbers Artists in Edinburgh. I hope to be doing a lot more DJing this year and getting the DU sound out and about.

We have a nice gig coming up in London, A Firecracker records special with the Juno lot on Friday 10th September at the Horse & Groom that will involve: DU, Linkwood, Fudge Fingas, and House of Traps. I also hope to have an exhibition of my own artwork before the end of the year with a DU Soundtrack.

The London-based duo mix up influences and fresh material on this week’s podcast.

Bursting onto the scene with their Maybes EP at the start of 2009, Mount Kimbie, the duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos, quickly impressed heads with their idiosyncratic takes on micro-garage, wistful downtempo techno and loping, twee dubstep. Their willingness to subvert such a multitude of genres gives them a sound unlike any other, skewing typical song structures but with a keen sense of melody.

This week heralds the release of their debut album, Crooks & Lovers, which sees Campos and Maker spread their loose and dreamy sound over a short but sweet 35 minutes. They’ve been busy touring with their current live set-up, recently playing at Berghain for Sub:stance’s 2nd birthday, but this week’s RA podcast sees the pair eschew the instruments for a specially tailored showcase of where their musical heads are right now. We shot them an e-mail to ask about the mix, plans for DJing in the future and their current live show.

What have you been working on recently?

Mostly we have been trying to improve our live set, bit by bit. It can be hard to find enough time to use everything we’re learning between shows, but we’re adding stuff all the time. Really looking forward to sitting down and writing some new music soon though.

How and where was the mix recorded?

The mix was recorded at Kai’s house in South London using a laptop, a Kaoss pad, and for various technical reasons a 4-track tape machine and a field mic!

Can you tell us a little bit about the mix?

It’s more of a collage – I wanted to show some stuff that has really had an influence but we don’t often talk about, I guess. People ask about why or how we decided to make the music or ‘the sound’ that we have so far and it’s always quite hard to answer and seems a bit weird. It’s often hard for two producers to work together but I think we both were in the same place and had a similar idea of where we wanted to go artistically. This mix defiantly represents one side of that. In a sense each one of the songs (excluding our own) has been like someone you meet on the way to somewhere else, if that makes any sense, and I hope that all together they give a better sense of our movements over the last couple of years.

How have the live shows been going? Have you had any difficulty translating the more complex parts of the album into a live configuration?

The live shows have mostly been amazing. It’s just a completely separate art and one that we’re excited about and learning a lot about all the time. Some of our songs can seem impossible to play in an interesting way in our current set-up. We tend to change them a bit depending on the song and how we feel we can express it best in the live environment.

Did you have much input when it came to selecting the artists for the two remix EPs? What did you make of the results?

Yeah, we were asked, but it’s a bit funny because my mind went kind of blank. I love the remix EPs. I didn’t know how much I liked the Instra:mental remix until I heard it by chance a few weeks after it had come out, and it just hit me, and I always think that’s a good sign.

An artist named Klaus seems to be a new collaborator for you guys, with an unreleased track here on this mix. What can you tell us about him?

Klaus is another guy from South London. He makes really beautiful music that’s original and so well crafted. We met through James Blake. I think James was playing a really early beat or sketch that Dom had done and he really liked it, took it home, cut it up and made quite a bit of the track in the mix. Then I got him to send over some bits that he used and added more and another ending which got cut off in this mix. It was actually a really fun way to work and we’d like to do more with him soon. His MySpace is here.

What are you up to next?

Lots more gigs this summer. A couple of dates with The XX, US tour in September, then back to Europe for a bit. That should keep us busy for a while which is great, and then hopefully we’ll have time to look back at 2010 and figure out where we want to go next.

A breath-taking regular podcast, hosted by LAZARUS, that features some of the special records he plays around the globe’s most happening parties, mixed up with the various different styles of music he likes to listen to at home; comedy moments spliced up with funk, latin melodies played next to soundtracks, plus cosmic disco, techno and rock… it’s all here in this fresh new show…

Subscribe, sit back, relax and welcome to Lazpod…

For over 15 years Patrick Pulsinger has been doing things his own way. From free-jazz experiments to producing pop acts, Pulsinger has never been taking the easy route throughout his career. Neither has he made it easy for his fans to love all his diverse productions in equal measure, but entirely worthwhile for those broad-minded enough.

Pulsinger has started his career in the early 1990s, recording harsh abstract techno for labels like New York’s influential, though short lived, Vortex Records and eventually for Cheap, the label he founded together with long-time partner Erdem Tunakan in 1993.

Just as a booming techno scene began to embrace harder and harder techno sounds, Pulsinger & Tunakan turned the dial in the opposite direction: Tracks like iO’s ‘Claire’ and ‘Libre’, or the Pulsinger/Dorfmeister co-production ‘Citylights Pt II’ pioneered the fusion of jazz and techno, turning the heads of people far outside the techno scene, such as James Lavelle, who signed ‘Claire’ to his pioneering trip-hop label Mo’ Wax.

The milestones of Pulsinger’s career are almost too numerous to mention. His debut solo album ‘Porno’ from 1994 is certainly one of them, as is his free-jazz deconstruction ‘Easy To Assemble. Hard To Take Apart’ from 2002. Both these threads have been picked up again lately with the joint project of Pulsinger and bassist Werner Dafeldecker, dp-S, continuing the exploration of experimental jazz sounds and his latest solo album ‘Impassive Skies’ showcasing his continued love for cutting edge techno.

Take a listen through this year’s five NOCTURNE showcases, running Wednesday June 2 through Sunday June 6, to get a taste of the variety this series has to offer.

Ad Noiseam

Ad Noiseam has been swimming against the flow since its inception in 2001. Mixing genres and formats, this label has made every possible atempt to blur its paths and not become a niche label. Noise, electronica, jazz, breakcore, dubstep, metal: over close to 130 releases (all of them on physical formats), Ad Noiseam has touched almost every possible genre of underground music, and intends at keeping it this way. Modern and indie in its relation to artists, shops and promotion, it’s in a way an old-school record label, which puts the quality of the music first, and not its genre or hype.

About the mix

Respectful of the high quality of the podcasts on Electronic Explorations, I wanted to do something special with this set. It’s easy for a label manager to record an hour long-advertisement for his roster, or to unleash dubplate after dubplate. After all, my job is to listen, select and work with tracks which haven’t been released yet. My intention here was different: on the one hand, I wanted to showcase what Ad Noiseam is about, but I also wanted to show that my words are not vain when I say that I like very varied genres of music. This is why there’s some Ethiopian jazz next to some doom metal here, and why some hot and fresh new track out of London might be mixed together with an old Diamanda Galas classic. It’s my opinion that if the tracks are good, they can be mixed and presented together easily. Moreover, this is not a club DJ set: I could start very slowly and take much time to bring the hardest material. I hope the listeners of Electronic Explorations will enjoy this set, and that it will stay as a (hopefully successful) experiment in genres mixing. This is what Ad Noiseam is about. And of course, thanks to Rob for the opportunity and his hard work.

With his street smart and club savvy mix of syncopated and pumping Latin rhythms, Caribbean bottom end, disco and electro flourishes, Diego Morales embodies much of what has come to define the style of MATHIAS AGUAYO’S Cómeme collective.

Performing as part of the special live band on the festival’s NOCTURNE 1, DIEGORS the DJ, will kick off the festivities with a fat Latin disco set replete with crisp hand claps, sizzling riffs, and serious dancefloor grinders.

Cathch them at POGOs 5th birthday this saturday at the Twisted Pepper

At the beginning of 2010 I was asked by various Music blogs to compile my favourite tracks from 2009
I decided to make a mix from these 70+ tracks with the help of 2 friends, Tommy ‘Akira Kiteshi‘ and Matt ‘Mad EP‘

Fast forward a couple months and here we are !!!

Unfortunately due to timing constraints beyond Akira Kiteshi’s control, Tommy was only able to piece together the first 20 minutes of the mix, using 18 of the tracks available to him, however, you’ll agree its a bit special.

Matt ‘Mad EP’ diverts away from the AK approach, staying close to his hip hop roots and the love of the cross-fader…. how the hell did he mix up 70 odd tunes into the space of 46 minutes !!
So ….. I gave these 2 producers the following tunes .. the rest is up to them !! .. oh and yeah, I know I missed out some awesome tunes from 2009, but its bloody hard to remember all the good music from 2009

[CD1] 13 F**king New Tracks

[CD2] 12 F**king Classics

cheers,

G-Stone Recordings Team