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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

full & paid

That Cool Kids mixtape "That's Stupid" went live last night - grab the free download from their myspace. I only started listening to it this morning, but sounds pretty good. Got that same old skool hip hop sound, with phat 808 slow beats, first track has a sorta "Slow and Low" sound, and "Full and Paid" is a pretty good Eric B and Rakim inspired track.

Another excellent discovery, which Roel Funcken introduced me to, was Bretzel Zoo, friends of theirs from Belgium, who also do a really crunchy electronic project by the name of Herrmutt Lobby. I've been listening to these Bretzel Zoo tracks on repeat - on quite a similar sound path as Hayzee, who i posted about yesterday, nintendo inspired lurching hip hop.

dang, so much good stuff going on in hip hop at the moment!

Labels: bleep, bretzel zoo, cool kids, downloads, hip hop, nintendo

Monday, June 16, 2008

dilla-gence

rar, what a pretty good weekend...

Friday went along to the Jahtari/Werk nite at Plastic People, which was pretty ace. When i first arrived Lukkid was just starting and did a pretty good chopped up soul/hip hop set. Some other decent stuff over the evening, one guy who i *think* was Newworldaquarium, played an excellent detroit-style set with loads of little recognizable snippets of tracks including a Nexus 21 track which me and Matt/Spendlove got excited about. The total highlight of the evening, and the reason most everyone was there, was for Disrupt - fuck, by that point the volume was up so loud i was almost feeling queasy with the bass thud - it was perfect for his set and everyone was skanking to his 8-bit-videogame-dub.

Saturday i was recovered enough by the evening for the Warp Brainfeeder night which has a massive lineup - Ras G, Samiyam, Rustie and Hudson Mohawke, Kode9, Flying Lotus and Mala. Quite a decent crowd of us out for it, and the whole evening was excellent. That venue, Hearne Street Car Park is great too, spacious enough to relax and not feel cramped, with external areas to the main dance-room, and somehow escaping the non-smoking laws - my guess is that its classified as a private party, judging by the use of drink tickets and the setup.

Finished off sunday with some light-weight movie action to see the new Hulk movie, which was actually better than i expected, sort of in the same league as the latest Iron Man movie - not amazing but tied in enough with the Marvel comics universe to appease comic geeks and enough in-jokes to keep you amused.

Feels like a slow start to the week today though, but i found a few new free downloads to be start the week right:

Theres a download of Flying Lotus' live set for radio one last year, shorn of the radio one bits. Link found via his myspace blog:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VSR24FW5

New mix went online over the weekend from DJ Synflood featuring an excellent mix of the hip hop such as Flying Lotus, Daru, Dilla, Madvillain and more.

Best of all - via J Dilla's wikipedia entry i found a free mixtape of unreleased Dilla production with Busta Rhymes. Grab is from here. Via mickboogie.com

Labels: dilla, downloads, flying lotus, mixtapes, weekend

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

dubTechno2StepAcidBassline mix

while preparing for DJing at the upcoming Funckarma release parties, i've been assembling a set in Ableton Live. I made a recording this past weekend of the more uptempo tracks which beat-match. I was pretty happy with the results, it seems to have turned out all right - from 2step to bassline via some 303!

Download here.

Tracklisting is:

thorsten's dubTechno2StepAcidBassline mix

1. Ramadanman - Kablammo Eleven
2. Appleblim - Vansan
3. TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)
4. 2562 - Enforcers
5. Peverelist - Infinity Is Now
6. Kit Clayton - Aspoket
7. Plastician - Cha
8. Voltaic - Darkhaze
9. Acid Jack - Mookie (Curses! Making You Nervous Mix)
10. Boy 8 Bit - Fogbank
11. Surgeon - Whose Bad Hands Are These (Autechre mix)
12. Ron Hardy - Welcome To The Club
13. Theo Parish - Falling Up (Carl Craig mix)
14. Blaqstar - Shake it to the ground (Drop The Lime remix)
15. DJ Pierre - Box Energy
16. Ron Carrol - Walking Down The Street
17. Ramadanman - Carla
18. Lethal Bizzle - Mr (produced by Dexplicit)
19. Adonis - No Way Back
20. Gescom - D1
21. The Village Orchestra - 2652 remix

Labels: dj, downloads, mixes

Monday, June 2, 2008

dubstoned EP preview

i have a wee Funckarma mp3, sort of like a megamix of their current Dubstoned project, including the upcoming EP1 plus stuff from EP2. Grab it from here.

Labels: downloads, dubstoned, funckarma

Friday, May 30, 2008

slowcoach

yeah, i know - sometimes a bit late to the party! I've been checking out some Martyn tracks and really enjoying them. I've heard quite a few of them on DJ mixes, especially on the new Appleblim Dubstep Allstars, however i didn't own any vinyl or mp3s. I was searching to buy some tracks this afternoon, and have come across a couple of download stores i hadn't used before, both of which allow purchases by Paypal which is something i've wanted for ages. I usually have some money in my paypal account, and it always feels more like internet money rather than real money, so I kinda prefer paying for things via paypal as its not actually coming out of my bank account.

First download store was junodownload which i actually found late last night while purchasing Joker's 'Kapsize' EP. Its a nice simple clean interface, allows easy previewing, and as i say you can use Paypal. They have a good selection, and its a different selection than boomkat or emusic, although album prices were more expensive than at boomkat.

Second store was Digital-tunes.net which again has a different catalog from boomkat or junodownload. Thats where i found the Martyn tunes i was looking for, and even easier - actually allows you to login via Facebook, weirdly, but yeah, nother nice easy store to use with a clean interface.

While I was searching for the Martyn tracks, i found a forum post linking to Lower Depths which has a load of freely downloadable mixes, including four different Martyn mixes, and also two Dogdaze mixes, which is another pseudonym used by 2562/A Made Up Sound. Theres a load of other mixes by people i don't know, but i'll be having a delve in over the weekend. One of the Martyn mixes was from Skream's Stella Sessions, same as the Joker mix i posted the other day - i said i didn't know what the Stella Sessions were, but i think its just the name of his shows on Rinse.FM.

Labels: 2562, downloads, joker, martyn, mixes, mp3

Thursday, May 29, 2008

pants music

aiight - first up - Roel Funckarma was in for the record laquer cut yesterday and says it sounds amazing! Still looking like we're on schedule to get it back in time for the UK record launch parties! rar!

Couple of new things on the (virtual) turntables:

With my recent infatuation with all things J Dilla, i've come across a lot of Stones Throw Record releases, the latest of which has been getting a load of hype - James Pants' 'Welcome' album.
It came out on the 27th, and I finally found it on a download store that wasn't some dodgy russian one, and bought a copy on tuesday night from Juno Downloads. I can't say i'm into it all, some of its a bit too synth-poppy, but other tracks are big wonky disco hip hop jams, and are well worth the price of admission alone. One track is particular has been lodged in my head, and requires playing first thing in the morning - "We're Through". You can download a copy of that track from over at RCRD LBL. Its got an excellent thick big synth that carries it along and an excellent little cowbell percussion.

Buckshot and 9th Wonder - The Formula.
I saw a few people talking about this on blogs earlier this year, saying it was one of their most anticipated releases of the year. i saw on it one of the download blogs i follow and grabbed a copy yesterday - had it on repeat a few times. I've been really enjoying it, quite chunky beats and, a load of little pitched-up soul/disco samples and vocal flow is really smooth. Theres nothing ground-breaking about it, production could easily have come from the mid '90s; it's not part of the current crop of synth-midrange-heavy hip hop, it's much more classic sounding than that, but yeah, quite enjoyable.

I got a copy of Voltaic, which is Rustie's project with Martin Patton. All very different from his own hiphop styled productions, its very electro and dancefloor heavy, but yeah, excellent stuff.

I'll leave you with one new download - Joker did a mix for Skream's Stella Sessions (i have no idea what his Stella Sessions are, i'm just quoting!). It's an excellent 30 minute mix, one of the freshest dubstep mixes i've heard in a while. Grab it here.

Oh! one more last thing - that MF Grimm comic book i read was really good - artwork is really nice, sorta exaggerated hyper-reality - the drawing style reminded me of Eduardo Risso from 100 Bullets. The story itself is excellent and Percy Carey/MF Grimm comes across as an eloquent intelligent guy - he doesn't glorify any of the gangsta life, in fact far from it - he was chasing hip hop as his way out from the lifestyle. Theres loads of highlights to his story, from being a child star on Sesame Street to the amount of characters making cameos in the artwork - chuck d, mf doom, dre, snoop and many more.
Check more details at DC Comics. Oh, while searching for a link to the comic there, i just came across a really indepth article about the beef between MF Grimm and MF Doom. read it at http://www.wutang-corp.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-28558.html - i'm off for a read myself!

Labels: downloads, mf doom, mf grimm, mixes, reviews

Monday, April 21, 2008

current listens

had a couple of new things on rotation this past week which have been pretty good..

v/a - Dubstep Allstars Volume 06 mixed by Appleblim
been listening to a promo copy of this mix, and its excellent. I've seen Appleblim DJing quite a lot in the past few months and he's been consistently top notch, so i had high hopes for this. Theres a few new 2562 tracks on there, which are a nice appetiser for his upcoming album. The whole mix is really seamlessly put together, really pushing that crossover of the minimal berlin sound with dubstep, and really just forging new territory away from the Wobble.

Ando - Habitat
Ando is a project by Taylor Deupree, and pretty far removed his considered sound art which he's known for. From the lastfm bio page for Ando it says it was a project he had started on in 2004, which was always side-tracked, and these four tracks surfaced in 2007. Quite Sahko/Pan Sonic like in its minimal structure, but having a more pronounced melody than you might expect from having heard Taylor's work under his own name. It's actually kinda similar in nature to our own Recon 'White Label' release, which was of course, done by Chris Motion, who released several albums under the name Motion on 12k, both working on subtly shifting time signatures and repetition.

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
This is very good, super chunky and head nodding, but i feel a slight disappointment, i was kinda hoping for something a bit more evil and noisey, whereas it leans a bit more on the Nightmares On Wax's 'Smoker's Delight' kinda vibe. Still damn good though, and i noticed today he's playing alongside The Cool Kids at the upcoming Meltdown festival in June. Well up for that.

Phantom Channel
Came across this netlabel on my journey's today and was very impressed by the quality of the music, super deep and considered drones, digital detritus and dense atmospherics. They have one album at the moment, a compilation made up of nine tracks by different artists. You can download the album from their release page.

Labels: downloads, netlabel, reviews

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

slow day

blah! my work day is going slow here, so i think i'll amuse myself by typing some random-ness here.

The Wire magazine have a new blog going called The Mire, over at http://www.thewire.co.uk/themire/
I don't think they officially announced it yet, but Simon Reynolds posted a link on his blog, so at least if anyone gets in trouble for telling you, it'll be him, not me! :)
Their latest piece is about one of The Heatwave refits of Kelis' "Trick Me", which can be downloaded from the heatwave site. It's well worth spending time going through the Heatwave blogs' music section, as theres loads of nice little gems.

I've been listening to a lot of italo and disco this week. Saturday night, after the lastfm gig, i went along with some friends to see Heartbreak play at Lasermagnetic, which is held at a shoreditch club i'd never been to before called Sosho. The actual club is pretty ace, nice and roomy with two floors and a crisp sound system. The two DJ's Neil and Johnny were playing some amazing music, and totally gave me the disco fever again.
I've always loved my Larry Levan and NYC early style disco, but had never really checked out much of this current space disco/italo revival. With my monthly emusic subscription renewed on sunday, i downloaded a bunch of Italians Do It Better releases, the After Dark compilation, Glass Candy and The Chromatics albums. Some of it is excellent, like Glass Candys' 'Rolling Down The Hills', and a lot of it more so-so, but definitely a nice addition to the library.
The other compilation i got was the Clone Classic Cuts album, made up of very similar material to the Serge mix i posted a week or two back. Some of it is incredible, particularly the second half of the album where its all early house/acid classics like Fingers INCs' "I'm Strong", Rodney Barkers' "House Girl" and Mike Dunns' "So Let It Be House".

Other emusic downloads were the two Darkstar releases on 2010 records. I think both releases came out a while back, but are getting a lot more attention due to their recent release on Hyperdub. I had bought the Hyperdub ones recently too, but i must say i'm not feeling any of the releases too much. On the Hyperdub release i really didn't like the vocodered vocals, even tho the music is pretty decent, but yeah, i guess its just the vocals that kill me, just a little too coffeetable like, and very similar to Various Productions material. I also bought the new Kode9 and Spaceape release, Konfusion, which is really good, just not too groundbreaking.

aiight, well, i think its late enough i can sneak off a wee bit early from work now! laterz...

Labels: blogs, boredom, clone, disco, downloads, heatwave, ramblings, reviews, the wire

Monday, April 14, 2008

dance to the radio

hey!

The label mix i put together for Electronic Explorations went live this afternoon. Check out the website and grab the popdcast from http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/week-020-highpoint-lowlife/.

The whole show is really good and just super well done. thanks loads to Rob Booth for asking to a mix. The tracklisting for the HPLL mix is:

01 - Feld - tut tut
02 - Funckarma - Pable Cath
03 - Fisk Industries - Blood
04 - Mandelbrot Set - Astronomy and Allied Sciences 1b
05 - Erstlaub - Scanning For Daybreak
06 - Erstlaub - Island (TVO's 'Departure (38)' mix)
07 - The Village Orchestra - The King Of All Tears (excerpt)
08 - Production Unit - Single Water Body
09 - Dalglish - dasda
10 - The Marcia Blaine School For Girls - The Ratio

Coming up this thursday, 17th April, The Wire magazine have asked us to come into the Resonance FM studios and join them for the evening on their regular show "Adventures In Modern Music". Me and Mat/Fisk will be going along to play some tracks and talk about the label, which should be a lot of fun! It goes out between 9pm and 10:30pm BST on 104.4FM , or you can tune in via the resonance website

Labels: downloads, mix, mixtapes, new releases, podcast, radio, the wire

Saturday, April 12, 2008

mic terror

i've mentioned this guy on the blog before, but i have to stress how good his shit is. The mixtape, Terror Dome Volume 2, mixed by Million $ Mano is just excellent. I've been sitting here with a beer and a smoke putting together a set for the lastfm gig tomorrow and listening through this album now, its sounding so good. I especially recommend track 3, "Mixtape Shit".

If you didn't grab it before, download the mixtape at his myspace

Labels: downloads, mic terror, million $ mano, mixtapes

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

'history of hip hop' mix series by The Rub

shit, this looks ace - http://www.itstherub.com/radio.htm#history

history of hip hop from '79-'99, all downloadable and mixed up by The Rub, one mix for each year, with their selection of the best and/or fav tracks from the year.

I found it via http://www.weareie.com/.

only problem is which mix to go for first, they all look ace! I've opted for '86!

Labels: downloads, hip hop, mix, mixtapes

Friday, April 4, 2008

weeeekender

yes! weekend is here again!

tonite could be a long one:
it was Mat/Fisk's birthday on tuesday and he's having a drinks tonite which should be fun. The Marcia lads are down in London for the weekend too, so gonna hook up with them for University of Dub later tonite as well. I've never been, and even though i'm balking at the £12 entrance fee, i want to go along and check it out - heard so many good things about it. hopefully should be some relaxation for the rest of the weekend though as its been a hectic one this week!

Heres a couple of downloadable mixes i've come across this week:
Serge doing a mix of Clone Classics records, all nicely proto-house/italo stuff, super good!
http://alainfinkielkrautrock.blogspot.com/2008/03/clone-classics-mix.html

Hudson Mohawk mix via the North South Divide's regular podcast series:
http://www.northsouthdivide.com/podcast/nsdpodcast_270208_wireblock.mp3

Labels: clone, downloads, fisk industries, hudson mohawke, marcia, mixtapes

Thursday, March 27, 2008

pressing issues!

So i got the "Magnetism" masters back from twerk over the weekend, and quickly put together my package with the audio and artwork masters together to be sent my vinyl pressing broker, SFH UK.
Send them off first thing on tuesday morning, and mailed Kerem, my contact there, to let him know i had sent them. Got an email back on tuesday night however - the company had closed up. fsck!!
I've been calling and emailing other pressing plants to find someone else to use, and while doing so i also heard that Independent had went into receivership. I figured the closures might be related, like not enough money in being a broker or something.
I was googling round this morning to see if i could find any news about them..
Read here - dang, turns out they got busted as part of a £5m pirate CD sting. It sounds like a somewhat clouded case, and I know Kerem who works there is a great guy, so we'll see how it works out. However, yeah, in the meantime i need to find a new pressing plant to get the vinyl Magnetism out the door!

I've started burning the CDR versions, and should hopefully have a page up on the site this weekend where you will have a chance to pre-order the vinyl, buy the CDR, and choice of buying WAV or 320kbps MP3s, and also a download for free 128kbps.

Labels: downloads, gossip, new releases, pressing, upcoming releases, vinyl

Thursday, March 20, 2008

something for the weekend..

man - so looking forward to four days of nothing for this easter holiday, been a hectic couple of weeks! however - if i was living in glasgow, i would definitely be off to the Fortified Sessions gig with 2562 and The Village Orchestra tomorrow night, 21st march. Check http://www.myspace.com/theelectriceliminator for details. Theres a new TVO 12" coming out on Stuff records with a 2562 remix.
Theres an excellent 2562 DJ mix kicking around on a bunch of forums at the moment. You can get it from: yousendit - its *really* good!

We got the test masters for the 'Magentism' release through from Twerk - they sound excellent! I should be able to download disc images this weekend, and get the release off for pressing early next week. rar!

New website redesign is coming along - you can have a cheeky gander at a screen shot here - i think we should make some good headway with it this weekend.

Been on a bit of an old school hip hop kick this week, and been digging some old Jungle Brothers, so i'll leave you with a wee track to get you in the weekend vibe - Jungle brothers - straight out the jungle

have a good easter weekend!

Labels: downloads, numbers, upcoming releases, village orchestra, website

Thursday, March 6, 2008

plague of flying lotus

One of the current producers I've been really enjoying is Flying Lotus. Some of the older material can be a bit tame, sorta jazzy hip hop, but still retains that Dabrye style rhythmic chunkyness. The newer productions seem to have way more edge - last years Warp release, the 'Reset EP' was excellent, and the recent remix he did of Dabrye's Game Over.

This morning i was reading Poisonous Paragraphs and found a link to another project Flying Lotus has called Dolly, with a Turkish vocalist named Ahu. Their myspace is at http://www.myspace.com/ahudolly. I wasn't super impressed though, vocals and production are lush, but just sounds too close to mid-ninties trip hop. However i clicked on over to Flying Lotus' own myspace page, and found quite a few new and unreleased tracks up there. You can download a remix of Mr Oizo's "Stunt" which is excellent, plus there is another one i hadn't heard called "Momma Dingo" which sounds so like a Rustie track, it's ace!

I think i heard this on the Mary Anne Hobbs show, but i seem to remember hearing a story about when Flying Lotus was over here in the UK last year, and about him first hearing dubstep and being blown away by it. The potential of this sounds amazing, just taking some of that darker element into his own hip hop productions. mm!

Labels: downloads, flying lotus, rustie

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

new Heatwave blogariddims

following my post last week on the "An England Story" blogariddim, Heatwave have just completed a third episode for the podcast series. You can read about the theme behind it, and download it from their own site at: http://www.theheatwave.co.uk/.

Labels: blogariddim, downloads, podcast

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Heatwave / An England Story

Theres a new release out on Soul Jazz which looks pretty interesting, An England Story, charting the history of the MC in the UK, focussing on the particular british inflections and highlighting the connection and extent of the influence of caribean culture.

Its been compiled by the Heatwave collective, and the release is based upon a blogariddims podcast they'd previously compiled, which you can still download for free, and which features a lot of the same tracks. I haven't heard the Soul Jazz release yet, but i've had the blogariddims podcast on a lot this past week and really enjoying it.

The Heatwave website and blog is well worth checking out and subscribing too - news on their shows, mixes/refits, downloads, and general chat. There is also some discussion on the dissensus forums about the background to the process of selecting and compiling the Soul Jazz release from the lads behind it..

Labels: blogs, downloads, links, netlabel, reviews

Monday, February 25, 2008

distraction records / d_rradio album

If you head on over to the Distraction Records website, you can download a free 320kbp/s copy of the new d_rradio album.
Its only up there for the two weeks leading up the album's official launch, and they have a note explaining:

"So why are we doing this? Simply put, we thoroughly believe that, once you hear how brilliant the d_rradio album is, you will want to support both d_rradio and Distraction Records by buying the actual album. We genuinely plough all of our money (and our wages) back into our releases, so if you like it, ensure that we continue to survive (survive being the operative word. . .) by purchasing the album from our web site, buying the album from our preferred, independent retailers, or by donating some money to us.

Can’t afford to? Hey! That’s cool! If you like the album and like the cut of our jib, please spread the word about it by posting messages about what we’re doing to myspace, Facebook, message boards and the like. You can even forward the mp3s onto people if you wish. There’s no such thing as music piracy to us as far as we’re concerned."

Thats pretty ace - they're definitely on the bus!

Labels: downloads, music industry, netlabel, record industry

Thursday, February 21, 2008

skull disco plus plus

Received a few new 12"s in the mail yesterday, the two new Skull Disco releases, Shackleton/T++, and Appleblim and Peverelist, plus the Flying Lotus/Kode9 mixes of Dabrye. Was especially waiting for the Dabrye one, which doesn't disappoint, hearing Kode9 and MF Doom on the same track is just excellent, plus the production on the Flying Lotus mix is just deep.

Seems to be quite a buzz around the two new Skull Disco releases. I found a link on dissensus.com this morning, to a downloadable mix over at Deeptime which features both new Skull Disco tracks plus a load of other new and upcoming tracks from T++, Pinch, Untold, 2562, The Bug, and the amazing Ikonica track 'Please'. Only just downloading the mix now, so I haven't listened to it yet, but the track listing is tasty.

I came across T++ randomly in December, when i downloaded his "Worn Down/100 Bar" release. At the time i had no idea who he was or of his history, but theres quite a nice little summary over at gutterbreakz

I managed to track down two other T++ releases this morning too, "Aquatic/Storm", and "Space Pong/Space Break", which on first listen sound amazing. What i hadn't realised is that Torsten Proefrock, the man behind T++, has been a member of Monolake alongside Robert Henke since at least 2005, having collaborated on the Polygon_Cities album. Hmm, hopefully he'll be playing at the upcoming Bloc weekend! rar!

Labels: downloads, mix, monolake, skull disco, t++

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Redshape and Rustie

No, not on the same bill, which would be astoundingly good, but two totally unrelated mixes i've been listening to!

I'm planning to head up to Glasgow next month to see Redshape play at Numbers alongside The Village Orchestra which should be ace. I've been really excited about Redshape for a few months now, and been tracking down as much as i can from him. His own site at http://www.shapedworld.com/ doesn't have much info, just his discography. Hiding in the listings there you'll find a link to download "Redshape Live At ADE 2006". Its pretty excellent.

I was checking Rustie's myspace this morning again, and hadn't noticed before a link to http://www.thisisluckyme.com, a loose collective of scottish DJs and producers. They have a download section there which includes a mix from Rustie which is well worth downloading, full of well chunky hip hop.
Theres also a pretty interesting Rustie interview over at http://lazeruspit.blogspot.com/2008/01/rustie-interview.html. Curiously I think he looks quite like Kit Clayton in that image!

Labels: dj, downloads, mix, mixtapes, redshape, rustie

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Fresh for '88, you suckas...

One of the tracks i used on my mix last week was called "Black Mags" by Cool Kids, a duo from Chicago. I had bought that download from Emusic, but it was the only track they had available. Its an excellent track, fat low-end basslines, old school hip hop production and lyrics about riding your bmx as a kid. I've been trying to find more of their stuff, and googling around I discovered an EP called the "Totally Flossed Out EP". However i can't find it to buy anywhere - they're myspace (www.myspace.com/gocoolkids) only lists the "Black Mags" track as available at itunes and amazon. Well, i *ahem* managed to find it. It's well worth tracking down, as it sounds excellent. While googling, i see they've been getting a load of press over at the likes of Pitchfork and also opening for M.I.A., so i assume they're gonna be big soon.

Whilst on the hip hop tip, i picked up a free download album this morning also. Check out http://www.e-q-x.net/eqx013/eqx013.htm and grab an excellent instrumental hip hop album - Various Artists "One Year & A Day - The 5inch Files". The mp3s are a free download, but the release is also going to be released on 5 different records, available in a boxset in a handnumbered edition of 250.

Labels: cool kids, downloads, hip hop

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

of excitement and downloads..

hey!
this is it! I been flyering, i been spamming forums and mailing lists, i been telling all my friends - now it's just wait and enjoy this coming saturday! "Magnetism, That Electricity.."!

I'm super excited about it! Theres been a lot of shows i have been at recently and have enjoyed, but they've either been dubstep/grime, minimal techno, bmore/breaks, or just weird acoustic. I've been itching for a good original electronic show, and well, i think this is the one! Its been a while since i've seen Village Orchestra or Marcia Blaine play live, and having them on the same bill with Fisk Industries and Mandelbrot, at such a lovely venue as the Luminaire - rar! Ticket sales have been going well, and reception on the lists and forums seems really good, plus my two good friends, gerry and pat, are driving down from Glasgow for it.

Aiight, well - rather than just me gush about saturday, heres some new music too:
On last night's Mary Anne Hobbs shows i heard a total stand out track - Alta Infidelidad's 'Hielo'. It comes from an album called 'cactus y volcanes' on the Thinner netlabel.
Minimal and lush 4x4, kinda dub-wonky and jackin' at the same time. If you like that sort of thing, you can download the whole album at: http://www.thinner.cc/pages/releases/releases_detail.php?id=thn083
It's well recommended, every track is a total standout.

Labels: downloads, gigs, netlabel

Thursday, January 17, 2008

new mix

I recorded this last night, just sorta selecting tunes for DJing at "Magnetism, That Electricity.." next saturday.
A blend of hip hop, electronica and dubstep, just pretty much going for a chunky head nodding set. A lot of these are tunes i been picking up recently which i've been really feeling.
Download the mix here.

Tracklisting is:
1. Cool Kids - Black Mags
2. Modeselektor - The Death Medley
3. Ghislain Poirier - Hit & Red
4. Andreas Tilliander - Stay Down
5. Mic Terror - Gold Around My Neck (prod. by Tony Baines)
6. Jay-Z - excuse me miss (rustie rmx)
7. Loefah - Yours
8. Chipmunk - If Only You Believed
9. Benga - Dominion
10. Madvillain - Accordion
11. Headhunter - Drop The Waste
12. Skepta - Serious Thugs Dub
13. The Bug - Poison Dart (Skream remix)
14. Plastic Little - Crambodia (pink skull remix)

I've been discovering a lot of great chicago hip hop at the moment - the Cool Kids, Mic Terror, Million $ Mano. I picked up the Cool Kids track from emusic.com, and the Mic Terror track is from a mixtape you can download on his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/micterrormusic. Mat/Fisk has been a big fan of Ghislain Poirier and from what i had heard i was quite into it, but after listening to his recent Bastard Bass mix over at Pitchfork Media, i'm totally sold! excellent mix. Andreas Tilliander's couple of recent releases which he describes as "Acidub" have me totally addicted. The one on this mix is prob my fav, "Stay Down", but also really feeling "Bonnadub". The Jay-Z track - well, like everyone else i get wet finding any new Rustie tracks! I think that was from his myspace page. Loefah is a new one sided vinyl - tho i apologise for the quality of this rip - i need to re-rip it as the bass just sounds distorted. Chipmunk track is ace fun, and then closing the mix with a couple of dubstep tracks and then an excellent track from Plastic Little, which i believe is Spank Rock, Ghostface Killah and Amanda Blank - I'm slightly confused by the credits on the 12" - from the 12 it looks like the band name is called Crambodia, but when i try and google info on it, the band seems to be called Plastic Little.

anyhoo, hope you enjoy the mix!

Labels: ableton, dj, downloads, gig, live show, mixtapes

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

glesga kiss mix

hello!
I been fooling around mixing in Ableton for the past few weeks for the couple of DJ gigs i've had recently. Mostly when i've been playing out i tend to mix up the styles of music, so quite often its not really beat matched, but at home i have been enjoying being able to just mix detroit and minimal techno. A few influences should be mentioned - a couple of months back i was reading Simon Reynold's Energy Flash, which is pretty decent - the first half of the book is ace and covers early chicago and detroit through the early wave of acidhouse and into hardcore and raves, and more recently listening to the Rob Hall mix series. Anyhow yeah, i have been through several iterations of this mix, but this is the one which i guess i'm happy to leave it at. Nothing special, but kinda fun if you fancy a listen. Mix is uploaded at:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?7mjz2xnjt9o

Tracklisting is:

1. Seldom Felt - A1
2. Redshape - Steam
3. The Village Orchestra - What Time Is Made Of
4. Siobhan Donaghy - Don't Give Up (Carl Craig Dub)
5. Emptyset - Isokon
6. Redshape - Pink Dust
7. Lil' Louis - French Kiss
8. Quantec - T1 0
9. Mark Ashken - Roots Died Brown ( Skream remix)
10. 2562 - Circulate
11. Shed - Solitude Straight
12. MLZ - M-Brane
13. Gescom - D1
14. Leftover - Response
15. Wasteland - Doomed
16. Kaman Leung - Lacriminal
17. Todd Terry - Bango

[me being a young drunk dj!]

Labels: ableton, dj, downloads, mix

Monday, December 10, 2007

post-party post

rar! thanks to all came along on saturday evening for the xmas party, and made it such a good night! Excellent sets all round from max, michael, mat, and then an amazing headline set from Mandelbrot. If you enjoyed the Mandelbrot set, then definitely go along and see em this coming sunday at Bardens Boudoir, where they will be supporting the stellar Lullabye Arkestra from Constellation Records. More details at: http://www.last.fm/event/402058.
There were quite a few pictures getting taken, which should hopefully appear on flickr in the next few days - *edit* - Max just posted some pics up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_imax/tags/highpointlowlife/ - *edit*

I'm mooching around the office today, not really feeling much like working (the dayjob office at Lastfm, not the Highpoint Lowlife "office"!), but i've been getting a load of new music lately which is keeping me going - the best of which is having discovered Rob Hall's website and his monthly mixes to download. http://www.rob-hall.co.uk/. The December one is up at the moment, however, they're only up for a month and then changed over. With a bit of google searching you can find archives of the last ones tho. The December mix is number eight. Really nice dancefloor mix of old detroit and classic techno, seamlessly worked together in what i can only guess to be Ableton Live as they're so well mixed, with loads of snippets and samples of tracks worked into the mix. Other new musics i been feeling are the Rod Modell album 'Incense and Blacklight' on Plop, which is really ace. Even though i am enjoying the Deepchord presents Echospace material, the Rod Modell album has a wider sound pallette and more diversity to it, rather than just the Basic Channel template that seems so fashionable at the moment. Speaking of that fashionable sound though - i have been really enjoying the Murmur album 'Undertone'. Its perfect cold weather ipod music for enjoying.

In a totally different vein, my other top listen of the week is Kano's Mixtape Bootleg. Not sure how old this is - i found it via browsing plunder.com - but its fucking ace. As much dubstep as i been enjoying, for the most part i'm not into the vocal style of most grime, with the quickfire rapping just seeming like technical dexterity, but not having much actual flow or musicality. However, the Kano material just seems to leave more space to hear whats going on, to hear the actual lyrics and working with the music, rather than just spitting over the top of it. The Kano mixtape has a load of amazing production on the music, but doesnt stick completely to that wobbly sub-bass, and at times veers much more into a real dirty hip hop vein. Well worth checking out!

Labels: detroit, downloads, foundry, gig, grime, mixtapes, party, xmas

Saturday, December 8, 2007

001collective.com

Just came across an excellent new torrent based label, although i probably shouldn't call them that - in their faq they say "The collective isn't a label, or an internet distribution site, or an internet label. We like to think of the Collective as a family of artists who help each other out whenever they can, and who make music because they love to make music."

But basically a nice clean website for a really good collection of quality new music, put together by one Luke Morris, an american college student from Louisiana, who also records under the name Secret Owl Society. 001collective.com
At present there are five releases up there, ranging from the lurching shy grandeur of Errand Boy, tinyfolk getting a lot more freak folk than his usual ukulele musings, and the off-beat pop of Secret Owl Society, which kinda sounds like how you imagine Anticon should have sounded. I'm still downloading the other two at the moment, but these three releases so far have all been super good.
What really impressed me was their 'Declaration Of Independence'. Its really articulate and accurately describes our changing habits of music dissemination and file sharing, in the positive manner which it should be viewed, seizing the opportunities of the now, rather than the pessimistic gloom we hear perpetuated from the RIAA and majors.
Oh, and of course they have the cutest logo ever!

Labels: downloads, label, secret owl society, tinyfolk, torrents

Thursday, December 6, 2007

my wee first post

Aiight, this is my secret post - the one where you know no-one is reading, cos no-one knows about the blog yet! Why another blog? Well, sometimes you get excited about things that don't quite fit into the news items, and that you don't want to overload the news page with. So i guess this is the Extras section where I plan on writing some reviews, or give some background info on what is happening with the label, updates on projects, podcasts, and possibly the occasional rant!

So by way of a first post, I'll point a link over to this months Monolake free download -
http://monolake.de/downloads/free_track.html. As probably loads of you know who follow Highpoint Lowlife, Monolake/Robert Henke has an excellent site/blog constantly updated with news and free tracks to download, usually updated at least once a month. Dave/Erstlaub reminded me about this months, which i downloaded a few days ago. It was only last night i had a chance to listen to it - walking in the rain, wrapped in a massive jacket and with my ipod buds in my ears - the track is soo fucking good! Built around a core sample of a water drop which Robert explains was "recorded in my bathtub in april 1993" - the track evolves at a slighly more than glacial speed, shimmering chords gradually sliding into the foreground and a rhythmic muted pulse carry you along effortlessly. At 34 mins long, its a well generous free download, and highly recommended. Check the site link for a bit more info on the track's process and for the download itself.

rar!
thor

Labels: downloads, first, monolake, rant