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Author Archives: Gabe Meier

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With the hyperreal in mind, Murlo has emerged from a pack of young producers with an ebullient sound that matches the melodic acrobatics of soca and the vivacity of bassline with the compositional flex of grime. If that definition could embody Murlo’s sound though, the Into Mist EP (out now on Rinse’s label arm) wouldn’t be as enveloping of a listen as it turns out to be. With a visual element that proffers up the aesthetic inner-workings of the mind of Murlo, Inner Mist coalesces around four original tracks, made up of dozens of twisting, intermingling and fantasmatic melodic threads that tantalize and thrill in equal measure. I’d like to argue that Into Mist is the most fun effort to come out of the enlarged confines of grime this year, but that would involve selling its sheer beauty short. Into Mist is out now.

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Despite the fact that you’re probably more likely to find a large quantity of L.A. Club Resource shirts in Amsterdam or Berlin these days, the Angeleno-led imprint has been making inroads in its native city and in American club land at large. The of-the-moment imprint’s latest release, a reissue of Chicago legend Gene Hunt’s “Freddy’s Dead” (with “Bong” on the b-side), could easily be perceived as Halloween-themed, but in the general work stream of the label’s output, it’s actually relatively melodious, if not downright euphoric. Hunt, known for releases on TRAX, Trainspotter’s Nightmare and Housetime Records, is a more-than-welcome addition to the Club Resource catalogue, bringing a timeless edge to the No Limit cassettes and label boss Delroy Edwards‘ own slowed down funk excursions. The 12″ version of “Freddy’s Dead/Bong” is available here and at select outlets throughout the Flatland.

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For years, Martin Clark aka Blackdown Soundboy’s blogspot address has functioned as both a central point for some of the most current, self-defining journalism in dance music and a treasure trove of garage, grime, dubstep (and beyond) history, including mixes, interviews and retrospectives on the scene’s seminal nights, conflicts and successes. For me, the site has offered a pin prick camera view into the demise of late 1990s garage, the rise of dubstep and the proliferation of grime. It offered a gateway into the spread, mutation and peculiarities of the music I now hold close to my heart and which, at the time, I was unable to connect with due to age, geography and a shit modem connection. Recurring characters like Skream, Kode9 and DJ Target have become familiar, despite the fact that the majority of the articles were written five-plus years ago. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the site, which will hopefully continue to function as an unofficial register of 2000s ‘nuum culture for years to come, and Clark has uploaded an absolute classic of a mix from FWD>> (@ Plastic People) featuring Mala b2b Loefah and the inimitable SFT Pokes on mic duties.

Having never been to Plastic People, attended a FWD>> night, or step foot in East London, it’s difficult to gage exactly what Clark means when he refers to this set as the “best live dubstep set I’ve ever heard recorded,” but despite the inherent cognitive dissonance of listening to a set so firmly set in a specific temporal realm, its eminence is as easily recognizable as any other “scene defining” mix, song, album or live performance. Clark included his own version of live blogging to round out the 10th anniversary celebration, offering up memories, commentary and context to Mala & Loefah’s selections. If you’re not familiar with Clark, Blackdown Soundboy or the label, Keysound Recordings, he runs in tandem with Dusk, cut a few hours from your day and browse back through the annals of the Blackdown Soundboy blogspot.

Download: Mala b2b Loefah ft SGT Pokes live at FWD>> 01.06.06

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In recent years, the name of Armand Van Helden has been somewhat sullied as he flies the EDM banner higher and higher, but then again, the Boston-born garage pioneer never cared much for the cerebral side of things. Portland’s Club Chemtrail team, SPF666 and Commune, have the right idea with this remix package though, pointing to two of Van Helden’s seminal 90s hits and wrenching them out of their former glory. In a sense, both of the Portland-based producer’s efforts are reboots of Van Helden’s originals, maintaining most of the original, strutting intent, but filling each respective joint with an influx of attitude, whether it be derived from ballroom, bubbling, or the dembow-meets-techno of SPF666’s Scorpion Cache EP. Portland’s got it going on these days and the Chemtrail buds continue to lead the way.

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It’s with great pleasure that we can now announce that Astral Plane Recordings and Druid Cloak‘s Apothecary Compositions label are entering into a partnership to give Heterotopia (out now in digital form!) a physical release. As both a label and distributor, the Apothecary team works tirelessly to release well-rounded, fully-conceived statements and recently, they’ve been working with a number of digital-only labels (like us) on physical releases. In mid to late November, we’ll be letting loose a limited run of Heterotopia cassettes through the Apothecary store, an exciting opportunity to give all of you a physical memento of the compilation and an experiment in bringing club tracks to magnetic tape. The cassette will also feature two never before heard bonus tracks from Piri Piri and Chants, which will be revealed in the lead up to the release, as well as some creatively re-conceived art work. This partnership was easily ordained and placing next to labels like Night Slugs and Warp in the Apothecary web store will hopefully bring about some new exposure for us and the artists we work with. If you haven’t checked out Heterotopia yet, stream below and if you like what you hear, pre-order the cassette now!

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Release day is always a bit bittersweet, because, despite all the dithering and busy work that goes into releasing music, it means that the process is almost over. That being said, Heterotopia has been a passion project of ours for quite some time now and it’s with great, treacly pleasure that we finally get to unleash it on all of you. Heterotopia is inspired by Michel Foucault’s essay of the same, but not to the extent that the compilation is imprisoned within the French philosopher’s admittedly problematic framework. The tape is positioned to guide the listener into an alternate reality, not in the science fiction sense, but in the liminal, distinctly body-oriented manner of the club-verse. It was our intention to gather a group of transcendent, progressive musicians and the artists who participated in the project took the conceptual framework to heart and drafted 12 polyglot heat rocks that have continued to defy our expectations on nearly every listen. This sort of language is hyperbolic, but for those of us who take pleasure in the expectation, aftermath and release of the club context, this topic truly is important. Heterotopia is a free release, but if you do happen to have a few spare dollars to spend on otherworldly club constructions in your monthly budget, it would always be appreciated. And while this is release day, Heterotopia will continue as a project of ours in the coming weeks and months. Expect more soon on that front and enjoy.

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There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places–places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society–which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted.

– Michel Foucault

You’ve already heard two songs from Heterotopia and with the tape set to hit the web tomorrow, it’s time to give a little love to the full experience. Watch this space and this space tomorrow and enjoy. Huge shout to Arkitect, Kid Antoine, Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf, Air Max ’97, Victoria Kim, Imaabs, Rushmore, Divoli S’vere, Mike G, Celestial Trax, Riley Lake and Iglooghost for turning in exceptionally creative tracks. And Jesse Treece for fashioning the poignant visual side of Heterotopia. Made this process far easier than it should have been.

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There was a time when forums were the key cog of internet discussion, lo-tek hubs where specialists traded acerbic banter on any number of niche topics. These days, that banter has found a new home in social media, Facebook and Twitter eagerly taking on the brunt of the internet’s collective outrage. And while the large majority of outlandish sub-tweets and ill-intentioned facebook comments about ebola are the virtual equivalent of water trash, a good deal of meaningful, moderated discourse does occur in various corners of the social media landscape. Classical Trax is a facebook group for club music obsessives, who, despite (or maybe because) vast geographical distances, come together to share whatever sonic pleasure they see best fits the proverbial club environment. With a few hitches here and there, the group has managed to bring together a number of fans, writers, DJs and producers who would otherwise never share music, or theorize on the past, present and future of the club space.

Recently, the group held an internal contest to remix a set of Divoli S’vere acapellas and the group admin was kind enough to enlist myself as one of the judges. Predictably, the quality gap of the results is vast, but a selection of edits/reworks have managed to mesmerize the “judges”, none more than Ursula‘s “Sabhyata Divoli Like This”, an non-concrete deconstruction of the Qween Beat representative’s recapitulative flow. Ursula latches onto the versatility of Divoli’s verbal alacrity, pairing it with a cornucopia of playful melodic twists, wobbling low end, barbed ballroom crashes and resonant choral vocals.

The result is a disorienting landscape of fable and folly, a roundabout loop through abstracted vogue culture touchstones, grime signifiers, all tied together by a keen sense of spatial awareness rarely found outside of collage experts like E+E, Lotic and Why Be. Ursula’s take is reverent of Divoli’s envy-inducing flow, but falls far from the legion of bland ballroom approximations that appear daily on soundcloud. There were other edits submitted to the CT contest that reworked Divoli in an interesting fashion, but none grappled with the inherent anger, performative culture, or, slim as it may be, hopeful spirit of vogue culture more than Ursula’s take.

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With only five (!) days remaining until the release of Heterotopia, our comrades over at Truants were kind enough to debut the second track from the compilation, Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf‘s dysphoric “Public Love”. Equal parts Jersey club heat rock and crumbling approximation of the dancefloor edifice, Biberkopf’s contribution to Heterotopia might be the most spatially aware take on the topic. In the words of Truants’ excellent Tobias Shine:

JGB seems to take the theme literally, establishing a widescreen architecture that hones in in the absurdity of Jersey club through dehydrated textures and his trademark use of voice. In a far away room, someone tinkers on a piano. As the arms of power continue to strangle public space, whether through surveillance or the monetization of Soundcloud, the Astral Plane remind us of the powerful political agency ‘real’ club space offers.

The Berlin-based producer approaches music with an understated gleam, but his club constructions are a world within themselves, a funhouse mirror shone brilliantly on the simulacrum of the contemporary “world” city. Heterotopia will be released through our web channels on Tuesday, October 21, but be on the look out for another premiere or two in the meantime!

celestial-trax Since its inception in August 2013, Druid Cloak‘s Apothecary Compositions imprint has become something a meeting point for artists from across genres, continents and sensibilities. The label has a credence for pushing out a physical product after all, cassette and vinyl mostly, and brings in a number of disparate remixers for virtually every release. The physical element, combined with Druid Cloak’s strong sentiments for jungle’s diffracted contemporary form, has led to the likes of Addison Groove, Om Unit, Visionist, Helix and others taking on remix duty, aiding and abetting relative newcomers like Imami, Galtier and, most recently, Wild Kid. The latter is a new kid on the block residing in New York and plying his trade in milky, Port Arthur-referencing beat work. The New Bethlehem EP is his first on Apothecary Compositions and while the entirety of the tape is easily digestible and a closing Slugabed rework adds some heft to the palate, Celestial Trax’s remix is the crown jewel of the package. A patois vocalist is sent into the mix to match up with Bun B’s invectives and CT flips the lead melody from couch slouching pleasantry to schizogenic, back alley menace. It’s quite a transformation, but considering CT’s recent output (and upcoming track on our own Heterotopia compilation), it comes easy for the New York transplant. Pre-order Wild Kid’s New Bethlehem EP here and peep Apothecary’s web store for a number of limited deals on past physical releases.