bits to pieces

ssg mixes

glad everybody has been digging the koss set. really lovely sounds... next week we've got a great mix of deep techno sounds from yuka. if you want a taste, head over to her soundcloud page and grab a few of her old mixes there. after that, we'll see. i am very, very excited about the people who have agreed to do mixes for us. get ready for some serious music!

twitter

i've decided to give twitter a go. if you are interested, you can follow me here. random musings and so on. i will also try to post any good sets as i am listening to them.

manchester

i really should give a full report of the erosion party i went to the other week, but i dont quite have the motivation to. but in short, i had a great night out. unlike pete who is a bit sceptical about heading to clubs these days, i still have a real need for them. nothing beats hearing the music on a big rig in a dark room and just being able to let loose and dance... seldom felt were quality, but it was marcel fengler who really owned the night, pulling out a couple of hours of perfectly weighted techno. it was great not only dancing to his sounds, but also getting to meet him. as expected, lovely individual. i'm expecting his star to continue rising. i hope so. he deserves it. on the whole, what was really nice about the night was just meeting up with people and connecting over a common bond, namely, a love and passion for techno music. i'm back in tokyo for the next 2 months, but on my return i am hoping to get up to manchester on a semi-regular basis. i really liked what i saw.

reflect

if you haven't read this new interview with donato dozzy posted over on the RA feed, i strongly recommend you do. i really find his whole approach to music and life very inspirational. while we are on RA, i'd also suggest having a read of pete's thought provoking piece on the relationship between DJ'ing culture and environmental issues. as usual, a great piece of writing by PC.

set up

dozzy & nuel - aguaplano sessions: the first two aguaplano releases by donato and nuel have been causing a stir, and for good reason, both are awesome. my only complaint is that they are vinyl only. anyway, no need to revisit that argument here! this is a live recording of donato and nuel playing tag. exactly what you'd expect from them - deep, tripping techno at its very best. excited about seeing donato spin in london next week.

adam x - big apple bites berlin mix: while on the techno tip, this one is also worth checking. been keen to hear something from adam x for a while, so i was happy when this appeared. quality stuff.

petar dundov @ oldiest goldiest: this is dundov playing an old school set. jam packed full of classics. a really fun listen. have trouble concentrating while listening to this, too many memories...

surgeon @ the shelter: head over to the media/audio section of his site to grab this beauty. reports are that he killed it in tokyo recently, and i am not surprised if this set is anything to go by. sometimes he bangs it out a bit too much for my liking, but this set is much more restrained and better balanced.

raster noton @ the bunker: wow. the bunker boys deliver the goods again. i think this alva noto set is equal with the speedy j/george issakidis gtc 'cast for the best mix i've heard this year. amazing stuff. essential. there are also recordings from frank bretschneider, byetone and signal, which are all first rate and should be listened to.

ok, think that's all for now. if you've come across any good sets, please share them in the comments. have a good weekend!

mnml ssgs mx27: koss

SSGs is proud to present its latest podcaster, Sapporo’s Kuniyuki Takahashi, aka Kuniyuki, aka Koss. To the unfamiliar, Kuniyuki is a sound designer, musician and producer, most of whose works have appeared on the mule family of labels. He’s worked with (or been re-worked by) YMO’s Haruomi Hosono, Terre Thaemlitz, Theo Parrish, Heinrik Schwarz, Cobblestone Jazz, Tony Lionni, Chateau Flight, and a Mountain of One (among others). He’s also released three extraordinary albums in the past few years: with pianist Saiko Tsukamoto as Saikoss (somewhere between nsi’s play’s non-standards and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s solo piano work); with various collaborators as Kuniyuki for All These Things, which stretched effortlessly between ambient, jazz/house and techno; and, finally, as Koss. The 2006 Koss album Four Worlds Converge as One is, to me, easily one of the best ambient albums of the last few years. As with Kuniyuki’s other projects, the hallmarks are of a highly developed sense and sensibility, including an incredible ear for sonic detail and beauty and an intuitive sense of flow, backgrounded by a strongly ‘elemental’ aesthetic, where each element, left in its naturally expressive form, interacts (coolly, calmy, cosmically) with the others.

For this SSG set, Kuniyuki appears in his Koss guise, building and blending layers of looped elements into a gliding, grooving, elegant house assembly that floats like a butterfly, and kicks like a mule. It's a beauty, and it's here


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Playing Catch-Up, Without Sinking

Over the past few weeks I’ve been playing catch-up with a number of 2009 releases (mostly ambient, I should add). It’s actually a difficult thing to do without getting the feeling that you’re sinking. I’ve gone through quite a few albums, but there are three releases that have definitely floated to the top, and which I keep returning to.



Fans of the neo-classical sound are strongly advised to check out Hildur Guðnadóttir’s mournful yet moving ‘Without Sinking’ on the Touch label (who would like to take this opportunity to remind you that they are, in fact, not a record label). A classically trained musician who is also extremely comfortable in the experimental and electronic worlds (having collaborated with Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, and BJ Nilsen), Guðnadóttir has crafted the ten tracks on the album around the rich resonant tones of her preferred instrument – the cello. The tracks show the hand of an artist that is both deft and restrained – Guðnadóttir allows single notes the space to sing sweetly, gliding solitarily before diving into deeply layered pieces. On her website she says the inspiration for this came from staring at different cloud formations during plane flights:

"My aim with this record was to create a feeling of breath with a bow on string. I wanted to create a sky and cloud-like feeling in the compositions. I wanted to have open space for single notes and let them breath, like single clouds in a clear sky. As a contrast I also wanted create denser and heavier compositions which were more thundercloud like. I like the way clouds form, how many tiny droplets can form such dense forms and then slowly evaporate into thin string-like ones."

Readers concerned that an entire album of cello compositions may be in danger of repeating itself need not worry – much like the many-shaped clouds drifting by, there’s a surprising amount of variety here. There are moments of drama, such as on “Erupting Light” with strokes that rapidly slide down the register underscored by insistent low notes that quicken the pulse; moments of gentle beauty, such as on “Aether” which introduces a zither and clarinet that hang in the air; and moments of melancholy, such as “Ascent” with its sweet yet sorrowful notes. Of course, the sound of Guðnadóttir’s cello is the thread that ties everything together, taking us deeper (higher) into her world of wintry skies, creating a listening experience that is utterly involving and moving. Highly recommended.



Andreas Tilliander’s latest album under his Mokira name, ‘Persona’, is something I keep describing to people as, “kinda like the lovechild of Vladislav Delay and William Basinski.” Although I really should think of another way to describe it, because it sounds like I’m being critical when I don’t intend to be. ‘Persona’ is an incredibly hypnotic album that combines the headfuck reverb and delay of Vlad (and I mean “headfuck” in a nice way) with the decaying loops of Basinski (particularly on the opening and closing tracks) – true, the influences are pretty clear, but that makes the album no less engaging. It reaches deeply, and I find it a nicely meditative listen.



Of course, if it’s Basinski-esque sounds you want, then you can skip straight to the man himself with his latest album of tape-loop genius, ‘92982’. The title is actually the date that Basinski recorded three of the four tracks live in his studio in Brooklyn, on September 29, 1982 (the fourth track is a newly recorded reprise of the first track). It’s absolutely astounding that the vast majority of stuff that Basinski has released in the past ten years was actually recorded in the 1980s – why did he sit on this material for so long? The boys over at Boomkat ask a particularly insightful question: You can't help but wonder why this music, recorded so long ago, is only just surfacing. Was the world not ready for WIlliam Basinski in 1982, or was WIlliam Basinski simply not ready to hand himself over to an audience at that point?

It’s a question I’d like to know the answer to. But regardless, these recordings haven’t dated a day – they sound incredibly fresh and vital (dare I say timeless?). For those looking for an entry point into the world of Basinski ‘92982’ is highly recommended, as each of the three main tracks touch on different parts of his extensive back-catalogue. The third track is an extended version of a piece that appeared on ‘Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive’, piano notes pinging and bouncing off each other and spiralling endlessly. The second track is an absolute triumph, recalling the faded grandeur of the monumental Disintegration Loops albums. A melancholic loop repeats for a little over 20 minutes, the tape sometimes warping, as sounds from outside the studio intrude on the recording … a gentle tapping … a peal of thunder … police sirens … helicopters …

The sound of Basinski’s world is absolutely absorbing – a world of transitory beauty, standing on the edge of decay. For those wanting to take their first step into that world, or those who are already there and wish to stay a little longer, ‘92982’ is highly recommended.

return mix

back from a fantastic night out in manchester with the erosion boys, marcel fengler and the seldom felt crew. i have some thoughts coming out of all that, which i plan to write about soon. for now i just wanted to share with you this mix i put together last weekend. if you've heard either of the other two mixes i've posted online before, you'll have a fair idea of what to expect: deep, emotive techno sounds focused on the heart and mind, rather than the feet. an important differences, though, is that i have developed a much better sense of how ableton works now, so this mix is a lot cleaner in terms of both mixing and sound quality. this mix occupies a roughly similar location on the sound seascape (i think sound seascape is actually more accurate as a crappy analogy than sound landscape), but i think the feeling is definitely lighter - no doubt a reflection of my slowly changing mood. the picture accompanying it is one i took the other week on the coast of wales. while at first it may look a bit bleak, i find it uplifting. i am happy and proud of this picture, and the mix too. i'll put the tracklist in the comments section so it is your choice if/when you have a look at what the mix is composed of. all records are left at original speed and the mixing is basically just laying, but that is all that is necessary for my purposes.

chris - return mix (55 min, 320kbps)

from my techno heart to yours.

Here come di hotstepper [word 'em up]

Ah, the 90s.... thank God that's over!

To me, 2009 has been the year where dubstep has fulfilled a lot of its promise. As you can read here in my Scuba feature, it feels like we're no longer dealing with the 'angry boy music' a la Casio of the grime era.... not only that, but a lot of the producers are now taking on a lot of what was interesting about the earlier 2-step/garage patterns... Ramadanman's Humber (and the Sven Weisemann flip) even have shades of Force Tracks, to my ear.

Here come di Philip Sherburne with a mix that, for me, perfectly pitches all these influences into a 90 minute curveball.... this is such a great mix, a perfect episode for what is shaping up to be a great series by the Hose and Yves de May.

Get on it here

Also, I'm hardly sure I need to tell you about Scuba... for any of you who missed it, here's the mix he did for XLR8R. Keen SSGs also take note that we may be seeing more from Mr P Rose on this URL soon...(not just 'cos he looks a bit like Chris) but 'nuff on that for now, here's that most musical of diving apparatii, in the mix. The closing tracks are fucking slamming, every time I hear 'em I bump the stereo and ruin my relationship with my neighbours (again).

Dive, Dive!

Last, but certainly not least, another fantastic mix, this time from Untold (Jack Dunning), whose latest EP (which appears on Sherbs' mix) is one of the freshest and most exciting to have been released this year... not even sure *what* you call Untold's music. It's far too original to be genrework.... this fella is making genres. And this mix is also dope.

You've been told

Okay, back to the hokey 90s clips... ...more proof of the fertility of Jamaican rhythms, I guess...



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The Darling Buds of May – 2009 So Far

Can you believe that the year is already over a third done? It feels like only a few weeks ago we were just getting 2009 underway. An even more frightening thought – in about six weeks from now we’ll be standing at the year’s halfway mark. So before those darling buds of May get beaten down by the summer sun, and too much more of the year slides away from me, I thought this would be a good time to cast an eye over what’s come out this year so far, and pick out a few releases that have really struck a chord with me.

It’s a little strange for me to think of DJ Sprinkles’ ‘Midtown 120 Blues’ as a 2009 release – it dropped internationally in January, but I picked it up in a Tokyo record store in August last year as Mule often releases its records in Japan quite a few months before the rest of the world. I can’t help but feel it was a mistake of Mule to hold off the international release in the case of this album – in many ways ‘Midtown 120 Blues’ can be read as a direct response from Terre Thaemlitz on the deep house revival of 2007/2008, and a 2008 release would have made the international appearance of the album extremely timely. (I saw Thaemlitz perform a live set of much of this material in April of 2008, so it’s clear that he’d been crafting his response to the deep house revival for a while.)



Of course, the timing of the release doesn’t change the quality of the album a jot – and the quality is very high indeed. Thaemlitz serves up well over an hour of beautifully lush deep house (almost entirely instrumental, I might add – the only vocals are a handful of monologues and looped vocal samples), shot through with twinges of melancholy and sadness. If you care to read more of my ravings about this album you can read a review I did, but to save you time I’ll repeat here the final paragraph of that review:

‘Midtown 120 Blues’ is an incredibly deep album – not just in terms of the “deepness” of the house on offer, but emotionally and intellectually so, as Thaemlitz maps out the sound in a deeply personal way. A meditation on the “meaning” of house, a critique of the recent deep house revival, an exploration of one man’s personal relationship with the sound – ‘Midtown 120 Blues’ is all of these things, not to mention being some of the best deep house you’ll hear in a very long time.

Without a doubt, this is absolutely one of my favourite albums of the (this? last?) year, and one that I hope won’t be forgotten by the year’s end.

(By the by, long-time ssg readers are probably no doubt well aware of our fondness for Terre Thaemlitz. However, those who are either new to the blog or Thaemlitz may want to check out a lengthy interview fellow ssg Pete did with Thaemlitz back in March of 2008 that is both revealing and a great read. Pete also recently did a review
of ‘Dead Stock Archive’, for those interested in acquiring absolutely everything Thaemlitz has ever done.)



Another January release that I hope won’t be forgotten come December (well, late October, ‘cos that’s when everyone puts together their “best of” lists) is Intrusion’s ‘The Seduction of Silence’. I get the feeling that Stephen Hitchell’s contributions to Echospace are often overlooked – with Rod Modell having such a strong hand in Echospace’s sound signature, it’s easy to think of Hitchell as “the other guy” (particularly if you’re not familiar with his solo work as Soultek). ‘The Seduction of Silence’ puts paid to this, with Hitchell crafting over an hour of extremely warm and mellow dub-techno with a hint of reggae. It’s a soothing, enveloping album that I find incredibly calming – yet there’s a lively pulse here too that keeps the album grounded and earthy, instead of drifting off into the coldness of deep space. When the album ends I find myself feeling not only calmed, but also positive.

(It’s also nice to see that Hitchell gives Japan’s 2008 Labyrinth festival a shout-out with the track “A Night To Remember”. Also, I see in the intro text for Hitchell’s Intrusion podcast over at RA that he’s working on an interpretive album of material by Brock Van Wey – better known to us as ssg favourite Bvdub. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing that.)



The amazing run the Raster-Noton label had last year continues into 2009 with Alva Noto’s ‘Xerrox Vol. 2’ Reading the blurb for Carsten Nicolai’s second Xerrox outing over at the label website is interesting, as it claims that ‘Xerrox Vol. 2’ is an exploration of the New World while Vol. 1 referenced the Old World “with its tradition deeply rooted in classical music” – yet I find the music on Vol. 2 is far more orchestrated and symphonic than Vol. 1, with clearly discernable strings on quite a few of the tracks. In fact, I’ve never heard Nicolai be more, dare I say, musical. But none of this should be read as criticism – it’s a very exciting direction for Nicolai to take, and the results are fantastic. The three central tracks that form the album’s emotional core (“Xerrox Sora”, “Xerrox Monophaser 1” and “Xerrox Monophaser 2”) are some of the best things I’ve ever heard from Nicolai – “Monophaser 1” in particular is astoundingly beautiful with its delicate strings accompanied by a distant rumbling that summons up images of cracking arctic ice.

That said, there are still signature Alva Noto moments of bracing white noise; “Xerrox Meta Phaser”, the album’s fourth track which is the really the climax of a single piece in four movements, builds in power and intensity before falling away into silence. These moments of power combined with moments of delicate beauty make listening to ‘Xerrox Vol. 2’ an experience that is involving, emotional, and rewarding.

(By the way, I haven’t gotten around to hearing the other major releases on Raster-Noton this year so far by Atom TM, Pixel, and SND, but I haven’t heard a bad word said about any of them.)



I lost faith with Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series a few years ago – since I discovered the series with the exceptional ‘Pop Ambient 2002’ (which introduced me to Donnacha Costello’s ‘Together Is The New Alone’) I bought each instalment every year without fail, but eventually I found the Pop Ambient sound becoming tired. Artists stuck a little too closely to the formula, and the results came closer and closer to aural wallpaper. ‘Pop Ambient 2009’ however, is a rather striking return to form – it’s clear that the formula has been shaken up a little here, with the inclusion of some new non-Kompakt artists (The Fun Years, Sylvain Chauveau, Tim Hecker), and the resident Kompakt artists introducing a slight edge to their contributions, making proceedings a little bit darker than usual. Special note needs to be made of Sebastian Meissner in his Klimek guise – he’s at the top of his game here, turning in the highlights of a very strong compilation; “The Godfather (For William Basinski & Snoop Dogg)” is 10 minutes of chilly choral ambience that hovers very close to a lot of dark ambient stuff I used to listen to. I’m really looking forward to the Klimek full-length that Meissner has said is coming out this year. Great stuff, and highly recommended (and furthermore, the vinyl version comes bundled with a free copy of the CD version – in my local record store for exactly the same price as the CD version alone!).



I’m actually surprising myself a little here by not putting the new Junior Boys album ‘Begone Dull Care’ in this list. I thought ‘Last Exit’ was great, and I practically obsessed over ‘So This Is Goodbye’, so I’m slightly shocked to find that I’m not clicking with the new album, despite giving it quite a few listens. I suspect this is a case of, “it’s not you, it’s me”, because I know a lot of people out there really love ‘Begone Dull Care’. Actually, perhaps the reason I’m not clicking with it is revealed in the title – the touch of melancholy and heartbreak that inhabited the first two albums is largely absent here (begone!), and perhaps that misty-eyed aesthetic is what endeared me to the Junior Boys.

Of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list of the best stuff that’s come out this year (thus far). There’s heaps of stuff that I literally just haven’t gotten around to listening to – there are CDs that have been sitting on my desk for weeks that I haven’t even taken out of the plastic yet. (I’m really looking forward to giving these proper listens sometime soon, with stuff from Tim Hecker, Mokira, Pan American, The Sight Below, Hildur Gudnadottir, Jacaszek, and William Basinski) You’ve also no doubt noticed that I’ve only been talking about full-length albums here – there’s been so much great stuff coming out this year that I haven’t even been able to keep track of EPs and remixes. (That said, I think Donnacha Costello’s ‘The Only Way To Win Is Not To Play The Game’ and Ancient Methods’ ‘Third Method’ are both amazing.)

So, how about all you ssgs out there? What’s really grabbed you this year? Let us know about your favourite full-length, or EP, or track/remix in the comments section.

bits to pieces

picture this

there are two new visual blogs i have started following recently. first up is surgeon's 'back in the grinder', where he takes random pics of different people, places and things from his travels. there is something kind of intimate i like about it. second is from the sandwell district boys, who have started a blog 'where next?' of 'influences, information, disinformation and photos/videos of sandwell gigs'. all very interesting (the pic on the left is an example).

mixed up

it has been a while since i've posted some sets. time to change that. here are some of my recent favourites:

petar dundov @ air 4.4.09: this took place a few days before i arrived in tokyo. i am seriously pissed i missed it. a really beautifully crafted 2 hours of techno.

DEMF 2008: a couple of very special recordings from the festival last year. DBX live speaks for itself. as does deepchord live. a rare recording of a dj set from zip is further evidence of why he is one of the best, and most under-rated djs about, while this is one of the best sets from cassy i've heard in a while. there are other recordings from DEMF floating about but these are the creme, from what i've heard so far.

byetone @ mutek: if you aren't keeping up with the mutek 'casts, this is one that is worth grabbing. recorded back in 2000 but still sounds super fresh - evidence of how far ahead of the game the raster-noton guys have been.

dave siska - grey sky cracks: from the lovely 'sonic sunsets' page. the mix starts with fokewulf's totally awesome 'body heat' then just sets sail from there. the mix has a great sense of coherence in the feel of the records - 'retro-future analog visions' is the description they give for the mix. whatever. just give it a run (enjoying it as i type this).

peter van hoesen - ensoniq.fm mix: the hose knows. that simple. deadly stuff.

move d @ frei 8.5.09: great find by adriaan. regardless of move d's productions, one thing i have noticed is that his dj'ing has improved out of sight over the last year. the track selection has always been there, now the mixing is tighter. a lovely mix from d.

giorgio gigli - electronique 'cast: around the same time i was organising giorgio to do a ssg mix for us, this appeared and made me very glad he has agreed to do one for us too. this is a stunning mix - deep, timeless sounds.

manchester manchester

now that i am a bit more of a free man i am looking at getting out to some more parties, and manchester has some beauties coming up. planning to go see marcel fengler and seldom felt play on the 23rd at the next erosion party. very excited to see ssg mixer fengler in the act, and keen to see what the unknown seldom felt guys are like (their records are top notch). also hoping i can make it the following week on the 29th to the faktion party with female and andy stott - both have been on my 'to see' list for a long time... with crews and events like these, i dont think i will be bothering with london much anytime soon!

ok, that is all from me. have a good weekend ssgs..

Dysconnect, April 2009: Deterritorialising Piles [as files]

~ a reprint of my monthly column from Inpress ~
Flashback five years: it’s April 2004, and I’m standing outside Cisco Techno in Shibuya (RIP), trying to send an email on my phone while juggling an unwieldy shoulder bag, an umbrella, and another record bag heavy with my latest EP purchases – if I recall, it was the lion’s share of the early Musik Krause back-catalog, and one or two EPs by James Din A4. My bag was unwieldy because of what it contained: I was toting my recently bought G4 Powerbook and a USB hard drive, which I’d been invited to bring over to my friend’s place in order to ‘get some music’.

And boy did he give me some: in one night, he transferred nearly 100 GB of music from the collection stored on his USB hard drive. I watched, gobsmacked, while album after album of classic music transferred in seconds between my spanking new super smooth laptop and his even more frighteningly powerful watercooled G5 Power Mac. When I made to leave, my hard drive was so hot I could barely touch it – and yet it weighed a little less than the seven or so vinyl EPs I was also about to carry home on the train with me. In hindsight, it was a pivotal moment for me – but what was truly pivotal was that I was only one of tens of millions of people all around the world who were starting to do just the same thing.

In April 2009, sharing entire music collections in this way is a commonplace. Ironically, the vintage of my G4 Powerbook – still lumbering on as I write this like some desk-living Chevrolet in Havana – means it doesn’t support unpowered USB drives, a periodic problem when interstate friends arrive toting card-size drives and demanding their 'rightful copy' of the collection.

…which I’ve become a bit ‘thing’ about giving over, actually. ‘Cos there’s an icky aftertaste that follows the initial exhilaration of acquiring music in this way, and it affects you even if you don’t taste it. Let’s be clear, I like the sharing bit: music’s becoming common certainly de-commodifies and de-fetishises what was once the purview of the febrile trainspotter, whose manic passions for dusty crates of records, combined with her equally peculiar passion for particular artists, produced a collection that was idiosyncratic, irreducible, flammable, dust-gathering, cumbersome, and almost impossible to ‘share’.

But the ickiness sets in when you give things away without their due, without filtration, to be anonymously filed on some stupid magneto-optical device (that gets ‘all hot’ when you load it), unloved, unnoticed, un-curated. Despite (and indeed because of) all that quantity, it’s actually a very shitty way to ‘get’ music: podcasts, radio, playlists, mixtapes – much better, for the common reason that there’s someone applying their peculiar ‘plastic passions’ to your earspace.

For my own part, I decided to stop letting the pace of releases dictate the pace of listening-digestion. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I’ll take all the promos as they come, but I’m just going to get through them at my own pace.’ Well, shucks, let’s count ‘em – it’s April 2009, and I have eighty-seven unlistened to long recordings (albums and mixes), and 37 EPs sitting in a ‘clearing folder’ on my desktop, a folder I created in December 2008. It’s not even necessary for me to engage in piracy: I have a hard enough time getting through a fraction of what I legitimately receive and should be listening to in my capacity as a professional peddler of interpretations on recorded music.

‘We’ve come a long way’ in five years… but what kind of progress is this? Anecdotally, this is how almost all of my friends acquire new music now: only two still regularly buy CDs, and fewer and fewer are buying records, while those like me who still do are buying them more selectively/retrospectively, in fewer numbers… and soon much of it will all be deterritorialised, uploaded onto the common cloud… it’s a funny old world, what’s materially left of it.

...fellow SSG readers... how does this accord with your experience?

NB: this is not a 'format war' post, and no correspondence on the superiority of any given format will be entered into.

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ancient methods mix - tracklist

mnml ssgs mx26: ancient methods

1. Intro: Vestigial – The Coming (Cold Meat Industry 183)
2. Cangaroo Planet – System Support (Airlock 1215) / Haus Arafna – Invisible (Galakthorrö 014)
3. Wassermann – A2 (Profan 027) / Atom TM – Schlußwort (Raster-Noton R-N 99)
4. Brian Aneurysm – Brot (Sub Static 028) / Robert Henke – Studies For Thunder (Imbalance ICM 05)
5. Omen’s Jot – Toe Job (Ampoule 06) / Nordvargr – Talamaur (Old Europa Café OECD 097)
6. Detroit Diesel – Moto-Rmx (DUM 018) / Ø – Jään alla (Beneath The Ice) – (Sähkö 019)
7. Traktor – Traktor Mood (Traktor) / Fennesz – Live in Japan (A) – (Autofact 09)
8. Richard Devine – Krake Technomix (Detroit Underground 09)
9. Heiko Laux – The Mightiest Beep On Earth (Missile 037) / Front 242 – Operation Tracks (Red Rhino Europe MK1)
10. Roger Rotor – The Bastard Burns In My Head (Ant-Zen 154.4)
11. DJ Dex – Blight (UR7-61)
12. Ancient Methods – White Flames (Ancient Methods 03) / Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works D1 (Warp LP21)
13. Gizz TV & Walker – Little Lovesome Astronaut A2 (Force Inc. 077)
14. Mugon – Untitled A (E-COM 015) / Raison d’ être – The Slow Ascent (Cold Meat Industry 078)
15. Patrick Pulsinger – Construction Tool (Disko B 025) / BJ Nilsen – Purple Phase (Touch TO:65)
16. Continuous Mode – Disinformation Design (Klang 049)
17. Ostia – Paved (Seico Corp 03)
18. Various Artists – 8 (Ae Mix) (Fat Cat 08) / Transient Waves – 8.80 (Fat Cat LP02)
19. British Murder Boys – Court of Conscience (Counterbalance 012)
20. Phoenecia – Conummity Coolge (Laboratory Instinct LP01)
21. Function – Semantics (Warm Up 014) / Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker – Phantom On A Pedestal (Alien8 LP81)
22. Brethren – Turn The Other (Sect 02) / Venetian Snares – Room 379 (Planet Mu 199)
23. Luka Baumann – Boys Will Be Boys (Emergence 09)
24. Future/Past – Clinically Inclined (R&S 92010) / Lawrence English – Organs Lost At Sea (Touch 031)
25. Thomas Bangaltar – Outrage (Roulé 309)
26. Adam X – Shifted Gears (Sonic Groove 0835)

listen to chris

listen to me. go and download this. now. i am not going to bother with explanations, but all i will say is:
- this is not what you'd expect
- this is one of the best mixes i have heard in a long time

that is all you need to know.

gtc061 - speedy j & george issakidis (direct link)

get on it. this is hot hot hot.

Modes of Music, pt 1

~ NB Please click on the image above for a close-up of the Difference Engine ~

Last week, in the wake of my contentious post on 'dance music', I've been continuing to think about how we understand electronic musics of different kinds.

One of the things that fell by the wayside in the comments section of that post was that, at heart, what I was trying to do was to de-naturalise a given, to suggest that the dominant mode by which electronic music is currently understood (as dance music) is a historical phenomenon – not timeless, natural, proper, or inevitable.

With this in mind, I contacted some people I know (RS, AF, AC, TH - anonymity retained on the request of some, imposed on all for uniformity): these are people who are all avid music lovers, music makers, peddlers of opinions and interpretations, and passionate listeners to electronic music.... but they're also people who, I think, have never been primarily interested in electronic music's dance music modes (with exceptions).

So, to clarify some of my arguments, to bring in some of theirs, and to think a little more (and a little differently) about what so many of you appeared to be soooo keen to talk about, I sent them questionnaires.

The responses were fascinating... and long. So for digestability's sake, I've split 'em up into four parts. This, the part one, asks basic/fundamental questions about electronic music (dance music is pt II). Okay, here goes:

~ NB: I would appreciate it if you would read slowly and carefully, and try to get the sympathetic 'gist' of what people are saying... I don't want to be drawn in to a flame war with someone who has read a sentence, become angry, and gone straight for the comments section... simpatico, simpatico ~

1) What do you think about when I say 'electronic music'? What is electronic music about? What does it explore... using what tools and methods? What would you say are its histories, its innovations, its developments?

RS:
I see electronic music simply as "music produced electronically" - ie - using instruments other than acoustic or analogue (including electrified acoustic) instruments - computers, drum machines, samplers, sequencers, midi etc.

I think because of the inherent restrictions in early electronic music technology electronic music grew initially with a high level of repetition (of both rhythms and sounds) which I think led to a new way of looking at music - suddenly it was extremely *easy* to produce an identical loop (something very difficult with acoustic instruments) and this influenced general music composition.

AF:
Jeez, you sneak in a lot of questions under 1)! Electronic music, at its best, is concerned with creating sound. That is, it is a means to manipulating the compression of air (through speakers or headphones) to affect a particular reaction with the listener, as opposed to reproducing a live musical event. Recordings of classical music, the most extreme opposite, steadfastly refuse to 'pollute' a live recording with input from the studio. The studio is transparent. If only some inspired bastard would do a studio version of Rimsky-Korsakov!

Of course, ever since music was recorded and played back, there has been a tension between purely reproducing, with the greatest fidelity possible, a live musical event, and producing an aesthetically pleasing sound. Electronic music is concerned with the latter. (Which is why I think 'live' electronic sets are disingenuous - the live event is a reproduction of the recording, which inverses the chicken-and-egg order of performance and recording).

AC:
Electronic music is music made by electronic (transistor powered) as opposed to electric (tube stuff like guitars, basses and early keyboards that needed tube amps) music generators.

Electronic music is about many things for many people. Having fun, annoying neighbours/family, being seriously into technology, programming, exploring space, taking drugs, being cool, innovation, mimicking the contemporary urban sound environment and probably heaps of other stuff too.

Electronic music is interesting in its history in that it seems to have roots in more places (geographical), styles and genres than a lot of other genres. Its comparatively easy to say where rock, funk, classical, pop or lots of other genres come from. Electronic music seems to have become a tag attached to a sound in the 80s but there were heaps of people from different geographical places and musical backgrounds (Cage, Kraftwerk, 'Scratch' Perry, dare I say Joy Division?) who perhaps didn't identify as electronic music who were considered the forefathers of the genre by self described electronic musicians of later generations.

TH:
Literally, and without being disingenuous, music that's electronic. Tools and methods: I suppose synths and computers spring to mind, particularly these days where pretty much anyone can set themselves up with a little home studio. What's it about? I think you can say in general those making electronic music are more interested in sound than somebody picking up a guitar; for all that the two strands have converged, I'd say rock music is still more lyrically-based than electronic music; it's more about getting the words across, whereas electronic music is less concerned with this and more concerned with the possibilities of sound.

Its innovations are manifold; synth pop in the '80s and the rise of commercial dance music in the late '80s/early '90s expanded pop music beyond the guitar/bass/drums format - and over the last 10 years, a lot of those innovations have now been reabsorbed into guitar music. And there's also the proto-electronica of the '60s and '70s, which was astonishingly innovative and ahead of its time.

2) What are the contexts and sites proper to the production and reception of electronic music? Where does electronic music happen? Where do people listen to it?


RS:
Anywhere else other music happens - ie - everywhere that there are people. And electricity. I don't think it's appropriate to speak of "proper" sites when it comes to any musical form, but that's just me.

AF:
The means of production, for me, are unimportant. It's a means to an end, which is the entire point. In some senses, I would consider Radiohead's (awesome, awesome) In Rainbows, as electronic music because, as you said in reference to Sly and the Family Stone, the studio is the instrument.

I listen to electronic music with headphones on my own, and find any other way kinda weird. While genres of music are inherently social (eg folk, hip hop, telling stories, messages with the music there to engage) electronic music needs the quiet to appreciate the intellectual appeal of its inherent abstraction. A night club is possibly the worst venue because the music is relegated to be on par with the wallpaper. If its loud enough, you can't socialise anyway, so why pretend? If want to socialise, then to a pub w/ a jukebox. Harsh, I know, but I think electronic music blindly follows the tradition of live music (which is exactly what it is not) uncritically. The 12k thing in Japan you told me about sounds intriguing. If any public broadcast of electronic music is appropriate, it would be some kind of installation, rather than a club.

Okay, the one or two times I've done the drugs and clubbing thing it was fun, but you could put the Chemical Brothers on and I would have enjoyed it. Nup, electronic music is for downtime, maybe the washing up, headphones, and you listen to it.

AC:
The word 'proper' should not be used in conjuction with any kind of music let alone something as young electronic music. Proper suggests a right and wrong dichotomy. Personal Computers are probably simultaneously the most common sites for both the production and reception of electronic music. Electronic music happens in bedrooms, studios, clubs and raves.

TH:
I think the picture here is more diverse than it used to be. Whereas once the majority of electronic music listeners would have listened to it in a club, that's not necessarily the case any more. Club culture is clearly still an important part of electronic music, but it's not the only part - Portishead's Dummy and Air's Moon Safari
soundtracked every mid-'90s yuppie dinner party.

3) What are your favourite works of electronic music? What is it about them that you love?

RS:
Bjork - "hyperballad" (actually my first strong memory of a piece of electronic that had any effect on me at all)
- The Ricardo Villalobos stuff you've given me recently
- Likewise the Donnacha Costello pieces, especially "Together is the New Alone"
- M83 - "dead seas..." album
- I'd actually like to put Kate Bush "running up that hill" in this list as another example. And while I'm at it, the original "Doctor Who" theme music.

The common element seems to be a focus on slow melodic development, repetition, and an almost incidental use of "electronics" - all the pieces I like would be inherently valuable pieces of composition if they were played on regular "analogue" instruments.

AF:
Vlad Delay/Uusitalo, Mouse on Mars, Villalobos, Frank Bretschneider, Andreas Tilliander, Gas, Rhythm & Sound - nothing within the last five years, I fear. All because of the complexity of their compositions, the quality and uniqueness of their production and the enigmatic imagination of their vision.

I should add that imagination and abstraction is, for me, the major appeal of electronic music. Where you're not limited to the restrictions of an instrument and anything that can be expressed in a soundwave is possible, it's a true blank canvass.

AC:
Model 500, Night Drive
Kraftwerk, anything
Carl Craig, More songs about...
Frankie Knuckles, Traxx Classics
KLF, Chill Out
POLE

Great electronic music utilises sounds that are 'new' or unfamiliar to the listener. The chief excitement in listening to electronic music is marvelling at all the indescribable sounds that you hear coming from the record. All of the above introduced me to sounds that I was previously unfamiliar with. Model 500 and Frankie Knuckles were also very funky.

TH:
Massive Attack's Blue Lines (the track in particular, as well as the album): Minimalism. Subtlety. The sense of space in the music.
Casiotone For The PAinfully Alone's Twinkle Echo: The DIY idea of using shitty cheap keyboards, the lyrics, the fact that this is electronic music and almost kinda folk music at the same time
The Doctor Who theme: for creating this crazy other-worldly sound with
tape loops and simple analogue synths
Chromatics' In The City: more minimalism and space, and a glacial synth sound

charting

now that life is a bit more normal, i've been listening to more EPs and LPs again. so one thing i'm going to try to start doing is putting together charts and posting them now and again. this is what i've been digging:

jacek sienkiewicz - 'modern dance' [cocoon]: i've been waiting quite a while for this one to drop, and it was definitely worth it. a very carefully composed album and i am particularly like that the whole thing is all mixed in together. one of my picks of the year so far.

tobias. - 'clapper' [diamonds & pearls]: the efdemin contribution to this split EP is surprisingly weak, but the tobias. track? boom. big room killer. absolutely love the old school riff in this.

donnacha costello - 'the only way to win is not to play the game' [look long]: while i think this is one seriously bullshit title for the EP, i have no problem with the tracks. the more i listen to them, the more they've grown on me. simple, emotive, beautiful. essential.

byetone - 'plastic star remixes' [raster-noton]: ok, this is not new but i only just discovered it. while the sleeparchive remix is great, it is the alvo noto one that really does it for me. it would be seriously destructive dropped at just the right moment...

planetary assault systems - 'temporary suspension' [ostgut]: a very logical pairing, as the influence of the early planetary assault systems gear is crystal clear in the ostgut/berghain brand of techno. slater delivers the goods with the title track - so much pressure. combined with the right bass kick and i can see this really doing damage on dancefloors.

peter van hoesen - 'face of smoke / continued care' [komisch records]: you can just feel the momentum the hose is gathering, can't you? this is the first release from a new label that has the support and backing of some people whose opinions i greatly respect, so i think this might be one worth paying attention to. and it starts in fine form - i think this is one of the best things peter has done. he is continuing to build a powerful, distinctive take on techno. looking forward to seeing what the rest of '09 has in store for him.

silent servant - 'la noche' [historia y violencia]: this is silent servant's new bomb on his label with santiago salazar. while santiago's track is very nice, i can't escape 'la noche'. this one reminds me of the harder edged basic channel stuff but is most definitely not trapped by that legacy. just like his other sandwell labelmates, basically everything he is doing right now is gold. i am not sure when this ep is coming out, but when it does, get it.

sandwell district - variance edits [sandwell district]: you have one mix from function, one from marcel dettmann and one from regis. need a say more? all are top notch techno and each one reflects exactly what you'd expect from the different producers. sandwell continues its excellent run...

bvdub - 'a prayer to false gods' [shoreless] and 'to live' [smallfishrecords]: a pair of releases i just picked up from bvdub. both continue his fine form of late. 'a prayer to false gods' is - i think - a bit more ambient than many of his previous releases (i may be wrong on this). anyway, i really like it. and 'to live' is simply stunning. a 20 minute musical reflection on life from brock. i am not sure whether there is anyone more musically honest than this guy. there is so much feeling in what he does, i sometimes really struggle listening to it actually.

ok, that's it (i think). i'd be very keen to find out what everyone has been listening to, so please feel free to add charts, tracks to check etc. in the comments.

mnml ssgs mx26: ancient methods

i think perhaps the best introduction to ancient methods, comes care of hardwax:

third method - mindblowing extreme funky industrial techno with drone atmosphere - TIP!
second method: ultra heavy & industrial / noisy atmospheric techno killer cuts - TIP!

you get the idea? if i hear hardwax say 'TIP!', i pay attention, so when i saw these records on the weekly mailout i began investigating and soon discovered their description is very accurate...

ancient methods consists of 2 guys based in berlin. there has been a bit of mystery surrounding them, but from what i can see basically for them it is all about the music and this is their priority, rather than creating an anti-brand through anonymity. so far they have put out 3 eps on their on label, each generating a lot of buzz, and rightly so. beyond the fact they are some of the most beautiful slices of vinyl i've ever seen (check this pic of AM02), these records are some seriously heavy gear fusing industrial and techno sounds. think some of the old downwards stuff and you'll start getting an idea. powerful, distinctive, uncompromising techno at its very best. so it should be pretty clear by why i approached ancient methods for a mix...

boomkat's description of ancient methods' music perfectly sums up what you can expect from their mnml ssgs mix: 'pitch black techno war funk'. just a warning. this mix is pretty fucking destructive. be prepared... for me this is techno at its very best - raw and powerful, without sacrificing quality or care.

mnml ssgs mx26: ancient methods presents 'fashion is not a part of it'

much respect to the ancient methods boys both for this mix and what they are doing. you can find more info about them at their myspace. later in the year we can expect the 4th method, as well as a split ep on RSB. and if you happen to be in the UK on 27 june, i would strongly suggest heading to leeds where they are playing at detatched.

ok, now go find yourself a dark room and a strobe light, it is time for some fucking techno.

bleep bleep!

new dozzy set. get excited! in the leadup to the donato dozzy's debut in london on 12 june, the always excellent bleep43 has a downbeat mix from the professor:

bleep43 podcast 134 - donato dozzy

to be honest, i've been sitting on this mix for a while and i am very, very happy it is seeing the light of day. i can confidently say that this is one of the most heavily played mixes of 2009 for me. it has kept me company during many late nights in the office. he really pitches the BPMs down on this - really heady, trippy stuff...

i'm going to be heading over to london for the weekend for this party. looking forward to seeing dozzy again. and well, omar s, i guess that is just a very nice sweetner! i am presuming quite a few ssgs will be attendance so i'll see you all there.

taste test

mike dehnert has been putting out some quality techno over the last few years on his own fachwerk label. and well you know us, we like our techno... so i asked mike to do a ssg mx, and he agreed to try to put something together in the coming months for all of us. in the meantime, he kindly provided this little to treat to get us in the mood:

mike dehnert - short live act cut, berlin (april 2009)

just a warning so you don't get too excited, it is short. but. but it also happens to be really good. consider it a nice taste test for his ssg mx, which should hopefully come at some stage over the european summer...

dream stream

rarely has procrastination been as productive as it was yesterday. i hit on a couple of amazing sets which i haven't seen elsewhere. one slight problem. they. all. are. streaming. grrrrrrr. i hate streaming! and i completely lack the ability to work out what the original audio source is, or how to rip it in a way so it still sounds decent. anyway, here they are. if anyone can work out how to rip any/all of them, can they please do so and upload them onto a filesharing site and post it in the comments or email it to us? EDIT - links added. thanks ssgs.

donnacha costello livepa @ private party, berlin 1-2009

a brand new livepa from donnacha composed completely of new and recent material. 'holy crap' i hear you say. yes. holy crap. the oldest track on this is 'black bag job' and the transition he does to this from 'trust' is very nice... most of the set is made up of material from the first two releases on his new label, look long. quite a few tracks of the 2nd ep - which sound a bit weak on their own - work much better in the mix. simply put, this is totally awesome. please, please can someone get a mp3 version of this for me/us?

direct or rapidshare

tobias. livepa @ clapper, tokyo 11-2008

i came across this while trying to find a place where i could purchase a mp3 copy of tobias' new track, 'clapper', which i am big fan of. while unsuccessful in that regard, i did chance upon this recording. it doesn't include 'clapper' unfortunately, but plenty of other gems. there is also a liveset here from 2007 (which has already done the rounds) and a podcast mix (which i don't think has).

clapper (rapidshare) and island (direct)

ben klock: knister knaster radio mix

not sure what to say about this despite the obvious: it is a new set from klock. and of course, it rocks. klock is a very tight, reliable DJ. always know what you are getting with him. and that is seriously quality techno.

direct

samurai.fm: ostgut radio

continuing on with the berghainers, over at samurai.fm there are new/recent mixes from the gang: dettmann, fengler, steffi, tama sumo and tobias. need i say more?

there you go: heaps of awesome music you can't put on your ipod/phone/mp3player/etc. can someone please, please get a mp3 version of donnacha? it is soooooooooooooo good.

bits to pieces

ok, back from j-land and currently dealing with a nasty dose of reality... first of all, thanks to everyone who has contributed to pete's last post. i have found the whole discussion very interesting and worthwhile.

who can find me (i can now)

if you have a look to the right, you'll now notice there is a search function for the blog. our dear friend, yuri, who has more net skills than the 3 of us combined, added the function, so much thanks to her. now you can happily search for all the old ssgs you want.

tokyo adventures pt 2

after don williams really dropped the ball, i was relying on soundstream to set things right. an essential part of any visit to tokyo is a good night out at a club and this was my 2nd, and last, chance before departing. the night started off well as we arrived to a local dj, dasha, warming things up very nicely. hadn't heard of him before, and what i saw i liked. he finished with the new tobias. track, 'clapper', which i am a big fan of. sounded fantastic on a big sound system. so we were starting to get pumped up and in the mood. then the next local dj, salmon, came on. that is a picture of him on the left. and yes, he was wearing that mask when dj'ing. not exactly redshape... unsurprisingly, he was a complete vibe killer and managed to not play one decent track during his whole set. not exactly the perfect lead in to soundstream. but once salmon and his stupid ass mask left the stage, the good-ness began flowing again. soundstream knocked out a very nice 90 minute livepa of, as expected, cut up disco treats. the high level of repetition in his sound gets a bit tiring on the ears after a while, but on the whole it was a really enjoyable set. and finishing up with 'for disco play only' made me very happy. to close out the night was gonno, who i was quite interested in seeing (a) because of his name and (b) donnacha costello did a really nice remix of a track of late last year. and as it turned out, he played a great final set. very appropriate to close out things. so all in all, a fun night out. not happy that i am missing fumiya by a couple of days, though...

ssg mxs

for all the tracklist hungry readers, here are the records that XDB played in mnml ssg mx25:

part 1
1. Jitterbug "Raw Winter ep" Uzuri 006
2. MXM "Disloc8ted Science ep" AmpArt 001
3. Kenny Larkin "Keys Strings & Tambourines" Planet E
4. Re-Composed "Movement8 C2 rmx" Deutsche Grammophon
5. Levon Vincent "Invisible Bitchslap" Deconstruct 001
6. I-Robots "Laws ep Part2" Opilec Music 002
7. Risksoundsystem "Tsiy Kerry Chandler Inst." Kerry 001
8. Sasha Dive "Basic Collective pt.2" Deep Vibes 003
9. Wbeeza "New Skank ep" Third Ear 100
10. Chez Damier "Untitled" KMS 49
11. Pullen/Damier "Forever Monna" Balance 06
11. The Answer "John" Rockin House 08
12. Jitterbug "Raw Winter ep" Uzuri 006
13. Arto Mwambe "Mudhutma" Brontosaurus 004

part 2
14. Soul Capsule "Las Ramblas" Trelik 13
15. Unknown Artist "Music Institute 20th Anniversary 1/3" NDATL
16. Aril Brikha "Art Of Vengance ep" Fragile 13
17. Aril Brikha "Art Of Vengeance ep" Fragile 13
18. Jesper Dahlbäck "The Persuader" Svek 11
19. Sons Of The Dragon "SOTD" SOTD 01/02
20. Robert Hood "Omega" Peacefrog 043
21. Johannes Volk "Internal Structure ep" Lifeworld 02
22. Unknown Artist "Primitive Urges 01" Primitive 01
23. Techno Grooves "Mach 4" Stealth 1191
24. R.A.Presents "Entangled" Deviate 007
25. JS 01 "JS 01" JS 01
26. Convextion "Venus In Spurs" Tektite 10
27. Aftrax "Extended Play" Nova Mute 31
28 .Levon Vincent "Six Figures ep" Novel Sound 02
29. DPLAY "Huub Sand" Running Back 018
30. Plein Soleil "Casus Belli" PlayRJC 02

the mixes have been coming pretty fast lately, so now is a good time to go back and enjoy them all again. i've got the natural/electronic.system one on as i write up this post... the next mix in the series will probably be from ancient methods. this is one we are very excited about. if you haven't heard anything from them yet, i strongly suggest checking their myspace and start joining us in a state of excitement. i have a feeling they will come up with something special. all their releases so far are seriously heavy gear... besides that, we've got some other excellent people lined up, so more good sounds on the way.

'cast crazy

i must admit one trend i have been somewhat sceptical of is the explosion of podcasts this year. there seems to be a new 'cast starting every week. i have been hesitant to say anything about it, because it'll seem like i am just being pissy and defensive. but i get the feeling having a podcast is just increasingly something you should do. what is the point, though, of having a dedicated podcast if what are being contributed are just standard mixes? there are, however, some really good 'casts out there with a specific theme/purpose. i think LWE's talking shopcast is an excellent example in this regard. anyway, this is all a very long way of highlighting 2 new podcast series which have impressed me. first up is the new timecast series from peter van hoesen's time to express. the opening mix is from eavesdropper and it really is a beauty. a very carefully composed hour of quality electronic music. definitely get on it. the other new podcast is care of mutek, and is just ridiculously strong. digging into their archive of live recordings, they've already posted 14 episodes from people like vladislav delay, closer musik and lawrence. while the write-ups are somewhat over the top (the one for lawrence is pretty ridiculous), there is no doubting the quality of the music. i think we are all very lucky the mutek crew are kind enough to share these treats with us.

ok, that's all for now. now that life will be a touch more normal, hoping to be posting more regularly. will make sure to post some new sets sometime soon too...

GFC A-Ok? We need a new house notion...? [Unplugging 'dance music' with a big douche called Bankrupt]

You might have noticed that SSGs has changed in the past few months, with a heavier emphasis on live sets and less editorializing, ranting and wanking on about various micro obsessions. ‘Good!’ I hear you say. Ahem… well, we’ve all been ridiculously busy, it’s true, but for me personally, another key factor has been my own disengagement from that understanding of electronic music known as ‘dance music’. I’ll explain.

My initial transition into electronic music came by way of electronica, especially Sonig, Warp and Sub Rosa. But by 1999 or so, when I was a first year undergraduate, it was all about the parties and the drugs: I had discovered drum’n’bass, acid techno and minimal techno, and I would head out into the night with a head full of kick drums at least once a week. It was a fix, one I enjoyed, one that connected me to the music in a viscerally embodied way. In those days, I didn’t trainspot, I just danced my anonymous dance to the anonymous beat, often being laid down by an anonymous DJ (I really mean it. I’m not sure even she knew who she was at times). Coming out of rock (noise/indie/post) it was the largest of liberations finally I was freed from the musically masturbatory cult of personality that I saw on stage accompanying almost every singer/songwriter/guitar-based musical group. A side-effect of rave culture had been the invention of a completely new and different way of relating to music, and I was young, full of the devil, and loved it.

Five years on and not only going out to listen to music, but also studying and choosing the event with the utmost care (the lineup, the venues, the soundsystem) had become integral: provoked by Tokyo, my standards had gone through the roof, and I came to demand and expect what the Eastern Capital could provide – world-class talent playing to dedicated crowds in great clubs with outstanding sound systems. I got spoilt.

Europe was a partial disappointment: Fabric was (is) an overcrowded shithole full of coked up muthafuckers; Rex is a sleazy hangover from the seventies where talent and a great system are wasted on a daggy dancefloor full of out-of-towners and Erasmus students on the pull; Berghain was fine, but everything in Berlin seemed intimately tied to getting very, very, very, very wasted for a long time…. even though it was often almost impossible to score pills. Very frustrating.

In all these places, something was ‘missing’. Or, to put it another way, the precise problem was that ‘the proper way of listening to dance music’ in the Euro understanding was intimately tied to binge culture, to hedonism, to getting wasted. Escape was inescapable, even (especially) in Berlin, where I thought a significant minority would be there for the music. And sure, a minority were… but they were wasted too. But the majority? They were only there for the drugs. Hell, I was there for the drugs too, and I still enjoyed the ‘party’ aspect of it… but the music bit had seemed to fade into the background, replaced by a scene that was driven by visual/fashion cultures – haircut techno. Was it me? Was I just getting old and crotchety? Was I sentimentally romanticizing the past, or just painfully shedding it, only to discover that the present was too cool to touch without shivering. Whatever the reasons, it was impossible for me to capture either the dance connoisseur/auteur/otaku culture I’d enjoyed in Tokyo, or the anonymous rave oblivion of the 90s. I could try if I wanted to, but once the drugs wore off, I’d remember where I was, and it wasn’t ‘then’ anymore. Worse, it was like the ‘Eels’ song from the third season of the Mighty Boosh:

‘Elements of the past, and elements of the future, combining to make something – not quite as good as either.’

Returning to Melbourne accelerated the Eels experience by a factor of five… I could certainly enjoy going out to get wasted (which I still did, but not as much, and not as often), but it was getting nigh on impossible to get back… and slowly (with the preternatural onset of middle age) my urge to go out was beginning to be met with an urge not to go out. That my Melbourne friends were overwhelmingly uninterested in staying out past three and doing drugs with a bunch of mostly cliquey, dull, unfriendly clubbers in second rate clubs might have had something to do with it… I found the whole malarkey actively alienating, and I’m convinced that ‘it’s not just me’. Even factoring in the fact that I’m spoilt, picky, snobby and over-the-hill, something has changed, and not for the better. ‘Electronic dance music’ (that particular way of relating to and understanding electronic music) had dug itself with a groove into a rut of no return. It was stuck on loop in the late 90s, with the same signifiers, the same venues, the same stale ideas about ‘the proper way of listening to dance music’: added to that was all the ‘neo’ stuff, a horrible hodge-podge of new rave and surf wear, the perfect outfit for another weekend’s worth of corporate raving and outer suburban glowstick waving, jagerbombs, methed-up bouncers, and Trentemoller. It's true there are still some good parties, some good DJs, some good events... but fewer and farther between, and overwhelmed by what has become a particularly nasty culture of hedonistic consumerism based on being glossy and getting fucked and bombed on drugs designed to reinforce ego.

And now there's just such a massive disjuncture, because production community has moved on: these days Martyn and Flying Lotus have no problem meeting and collaborating; Seth Troxler begins to snap at the heels of Ricardo Villalobos… and listeners are listening, too: even died-in-the-wool Pitchfork listeners at least try to ‘get’ Skull Disco; Mount Kimbie listens to DJ Koze, Koze plays Mount Kimbie and Animal Collective… but where the fuck is your local clubland? At 10:15 on a Saturday night, it’s waiting for its baggy to arrive is what (purchased on cash advance). And you have to have pretty strong powers of repression and denial not to see the chains of equivalence between this moribund and morbid culture of sniffing, snorting, and strutting about and its enormous toll on the earth itself, whether it’s the ridiculous number of air miles the DJ jetset culture uselessly ‘racks up’, or the current drug wars (and associated instabilities) taking place in Colombia, Mexico, in Jamaica, in West Africa. Meanwhile, back here in la la land, behind the walls, the sad old beast still has a few sniffs left in her.

To wit: 'dance music' always involved drugs, and fashion and fuckwits, no question. But at some point, a music culture that took a lot of interest in drugs became a corporatised drug-taking culture that took some interest in the brands of certain 'names' in 'dance music'. In retrospect, I think it will be associated with the worst excesses of the pre-bust era. With this in mind, I suggest keeping some happy snaps lying around to show to your grandchildren. You can say, 'beware children, for it can all go so terribly, horribly wrong.' Or, more directly: 'the planet was destroyed for this.' We can leave it up to them to decide whether it was worth it.


I have a very strong (and slightly tingling) feeling that the current economic contractions will squeeze a lot of this tired old detritus out, and as far as 90% of them is concerned, this is something I heartily welcome. Hopefully a whole parochial industry lousy with VIP laminates, redundant ideas and third-rate cocaine will get washed out into the Bay… but what’s gonna take its place? Who gives a fuck, actually. But no, as a matter of fact, I have a feeling that something good, something young, something rooted in its locality but with an ear to the world of now will grow up in its place. No doubt it will be quickly modulated, managed, and subordinated to a profitable and marketable imitation of former/same, but in the meantime, something good might happen. Something interested in what, I trust and know, all you ssgs are interested in: music.

...or please tell me that 'business as usual' is okay, and I'm just a jaded wanker... what say you?

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mnml ssgs mx25: XDB

it is just under a year since we started off this series with bvdub, and now we've just cracked 25. crazy. and what better way to hit the quarter of a century mark than with XDB. 

XDB has quietly been making a name from himself with a string of impressive releases, primarily on his own label, metrolux music. along with producers like patrice scott and arne weinberg, he is pushing a sound that is clearly influenced by detroit but not trapped by that legacy. with eps scheduled on his own label and wavetec (run by francois k), remixes of aaron carl's 'crucified' on millions of moments, as well as tracks on forthcoming sistrum and workshop releases, XDB is definitely someone to be keeping an eye on over the next year. 

cam and i connected up with XDB at the labyrinth festival last year in japan. it was the opening night that he played (from memory), and he put together a deep set that really impressed us. over the weekend we had a chance to chat quite a bit and what i really noticed - beyond him being a nice guy - is his musical knowledge. i like to think that i know a fair bit when it comes to techno and house, but i felt like i complete amateur next to kosta (XDB). this guy really knows his shit. which definitely bodes well when it comes to DJ'ing...

by the time labyrinth had finished i knew he'd be perfect for the ssg series and i'm really glad he has been able to contribute. it is a live recording from a set he played recently and i think it is a good representation of his sound - a carefully blended mix of the old and the new, detroit and beyond. 

mnml ssgs mx25: XDB @ fundbureau, hamburg 13.3.09

part 1 (direct dl)

part 2 (direct dl)

big thanks to XDB for this. you can find more info at his myspace. and if you happen to be in or near manchester on 25 april, there is a metrolux music label night with XDB and arne weinberg that'd definitely be worth checking. it is put on by erosion, who look like one of the crews in manchester that are putting on some seriously quality parties.

ok, not sure when the next ssg mix is, so enjoy this one for now...

back in the J

sorry for the radio silence. been a ridiculous week or so. finished my phd thesis which i've spent the last 4 years of my life on, so this means a bit more time for other things, including the ssgs, so expect some more posts from me soon. this blog has been a really good outlet for stress and support a lot of the time, so thanks to everyone that has contributed along the way.

anyway, ssg headquarters is now firmly in tokyo. here on a short holiday to see my fellow ssg cam and the other delights of j-land. unfortunately, though, i managed to pick the 2 weekends when there arent many good parties on. last friday we went to catch don williams at module. after his recent roof.fm set, which was excellent, i had high hopes, but in the end, we were all pretty disappointed. he started off really strong, but after about 30 minutes of cool jacking house, he got formulaic and lost us. i felt like part of it was the fact he was laptop DJ'ing. all the mixes were just a bit too nicely beatmatched. i am not sure exactly what it was, but i had a very similar reaction when i saw konrad black play a while back too. anyway, the don started with 'rise' by phuture, which i dont think i'd ever heard about before, so i'll cut him some slack. this friday will give soundstream a go, so fingers crossed he is a bit better...

in other news, glad everyone has been digging the kevin gorman mix. i've had it on repeat since first getting it. seriously special stuff. i'll be posting the next mix, which is from XDB, later day when i work out how to tag files on macs. hmm. as you may have noticed, we know much more about techno than we do about computers...