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Mid-Week Mix Roundup (7/7 – 7/11)

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July 11, 2014
Mixes
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mid-week-mix-round-up

Inspirational mixes from the past week that deserve to reverberate beyond our “office”.

Over the weekend, the Astral Plane team ventured into warehouse land to attend the Fade to Mind/Night Slugs rave, featuring Bok Bok, L-Vis 1990, Nguzunguzu, Total Freedom and Prince William. The Fade to Mind cadre is known for throwing some of the wildest parties Los Angeles has to offer, but the Night Slugs component brought a larger-than-large system and a distinct London aesthetic into the fray. Us Angelenos are spoiled, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t look to New York here and there with a sly eye and a bit of jealousy. In this case, the envy is squarely focused on MOMA PS1’s summer Warm Up series, an expertly curated series of outdoor events featuring the likes of Robert Hood, Tessela, Mumdance, DJ Marfox, Evian Christ and many more. This past weekend’s event featured the inimitable DJ EZ alongside an all star cast of Todd Edwards, Maxmillion Dunbar, Ramona Lisa and Lit City Trax bossman J-Cush. To hype the event, PS1 asked J-Cush to contribute a “Warm Up Mix” and the result has enough fire power to resentment out of the most resolute characters. Lit City exclusives are placed alongside belters from Georgia Girls, Massacooramaan and Inkke and mixed in J-Cush’s signature spin back heavy style. I’ve pondered spontaneous cross country flights many a time this summer and J-Cush’s Warm Up mix might just do the same for you.

As part of the promo run for his upcoming LP on Innovative Leisure, Jim-E Stack stopped by Nina Las Vegas‘ Triple J show to lay down an hour of jazzy, psychotropic house, thumping call-and-response techno and disorienting club deconstructions. Tell Me I Belong hits on July 28 through the Los Angeles-based label and will feature ten originals from the genre-trotting Stack. In his Triple J mix, M.E.S.H. and Shlohmo are surprising bedmates with Shed‘s Head High alias and techno connoisseurs Kassem Mosse and Marcel Dettman. Throwing genre to the wind, Stack focuses primely on beatific, supernal melodic work, preferring carefully constructed, supremely patient constructions to anything that even hints at immediate gratification. That predisposition towards restraint shines in Stack’s existing productions and is exactly why the premise of a full-length from the mans is so tantalizing.

Moleskin, fresh off the release of his debut self-titled EP on Goon Club Allstars, brings tracks from “Chicago, Baltimore, London, Durban, New York, the internet” to the table for Clash. Rhythmic exploration is the name of the game here and Moleskin jumps effortlessly from Neana‘s metallurgy to the polyrhythms of DJ Firmeza and DJ Lag. Cop the Moleskin 12″ and you won’t be sorry.

And to top everything off, don’t sleep on Sharp Veins‘ (William Skeng) recent frozen entry into the Liminal Sounds archives, Australian curators of everything grimy and rough-hewn Ktrax ode to ghetto house and rave, or Shriekin‘s all-original contribution to the ever-growing Boxed family’s mix series.

Download Last Japan’s ‘Ride With Us’ Mixtape

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July 11, 2014
New Music
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Last Japan‘s technical abilities, derived from a music-filled childhood and “computer music” school, are undeniable, but his production output has always left this listener particularly cold. His Circadian Rhythms show on NTS and general DJ work is consistently excellent, but his original work, even collaborations with Trim, have too often come off as safe and carefully mediated through a nostalgic sheen. That’s not to say that his sound design and focus on structural perfection aren’t impressive though. The basis for success has always been there, but the London-bred artist has rarely shown the inventiveness necessary for widespread critical adoration. That being said, his latest collaboration-filled mixtape, Ride With Us, is one of the more visceral, genre-bending efforts to come about all year. The tape, meant as a “musical journey through the dark fringes of London city,” spans pirate radio culture, merging frigid squarewave grime, delightfully swung 2 step and a refined conception of sub-bass into an emotional melange of desperation, anonymity and paranoia. An impressive list of collaborators is highlighted by Trim, Prince Rapid, Mr. Mitch and a surprise vocal performance from Emma DD on “Eclipse”, the song that functions as the proverbial sun-coming-up moment on the tape. The mixtape ends with the Cliques-assisted “Alpha Logic”, a roiling jungle update that utilizes elastic aluminum percussion to maximum effect and one of the more intoxicating breakbeat-led tracks to come out in recent memory. Summer in Los Angeles is about as far from the proper context to listen to Ride With Us, but it’s clear that Last Japan has zeroed in on a cobalt blue aesthetic, as well as a sedulous tribute to the London underground. Stream Ride With Us below and head to Bandcamp to download the full tape.

Astral Plane Radio 001

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July 10, 2014
Mixes
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astral plane radio 001

Over the past two and a half years, we here at The Astral Plane have worked tirelessly to provide a carefully curated, diamond-precise selection of original content. That content has taken the form of interviews, reviews and a mix series that has nearly reached its 40th edition as well as a bevy of daily posts highlighting the most talented fringes of the club and hip hop worlds. Since the site was established in January 2012, our writing team has shrunk and so has our vision culminating in our current focus on the most deranged, exciting corners of the experimental dance music world. Baltimore, Newark, Lisbon, Bristol and Berlin are our meccas as we attempt to bring a conceptual framework to music that refuses to be classified. Our latest venture, Astral Plane Radio, is not a radio show in the traditional sense, but considering our role as a curator of original content with the internet as our outlet, it will function in a similar manner to your FM dial. Every month, our in-house DJ team will bring you a condensed version of our coverage, replete with exclusive originals, edits and club devices from the artists we look to for inspiration. Because the music we regularly cover doesn’t fit within any specific tempo, genre, or structure-based hierarchy, expect eclectic selections that refuse to fit into existing geographic, sonic, or intellectual strictures. Stream/download Astral Plane Radio 001 below and hit the jump for the full track list.

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New Sabrina – “Clique Track”

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July 9, 2014
New Music
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Berlin is quickly becoming home to a cadre of wildly inventive producers combining the stringent hierarchy and supreme production ideals of techno with the roughshod experimentalism of grime, ballroom and Jersey club. Lotic, M.E.S.H. and Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf are the first to come to mind, but fellow Berliner She’s Drunk has also been churning out major tunes, many of which were highlighted in his “Materials” mix for DIS Mag. Recently, She’s Drunk joined up with Le Feu to form Sabrina, an exciting dancefloor duo that has found a home at (former Facebook group) Through My Speakers. “Clique Traque”, from Through My Speakers’ Nurned.01 compilation, is the first song to appear from the project and it does not disappoint, combining healthy wooden percussion with a demanding “fucking click track” vocal sample. The song can be downloaded sans fee here along with a track by Radar Bird.

JT The Goon Remixes Inkke’s “Paradise”

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July 9, 2014
New Music, Remixes
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Listening to a remix sans knowledge of the original is always a fascinating venture, inciting wild speculation and undeniably shaping ones eventual listening experience. JT The Goon‘s remix of Inkke‘s “Paradise” has had a perplexing effect after several listens, falling on the more beauteous, melancholic side of both JT and Inkke’s spectrum while featuring a vocal performance new to both producers’ work. Splintering kicks enter the picture when needed, but the track functions as a sort of grime singer-songwriter fair, churning several short vocal bits from Julia Juban into a wandering, cinematic piece of pop futurism. How Inkke’s original sounds is almost impossible to consider in light of JT’s brilliance, but the song, which will appear on his upcoming Crystal Children EP for Local Action, is readily anticipated.

New 6MAKA6 – “Clap Bakk (Clap For Me)”

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July 9, 2014
New Music
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Toronto by-way-of Montreal producer Steven Hill, aka 6MAKA6 (formerly Hesk), has plied his trade in the footwork-verse for several years now, representing the form in Canada and collaborating with the likes of Nadus and Paveun. 6MAKA6, Hill’s latest project, sees him delving into hyper-real drum trax by combining the visceral rawness of ghetto house with a hi-fi, crisp sound palette and slamming production quality. “Helium”, a reverb heavy track in the Jam CIty vein, set the tone for the project, but “Clap Bakk (Clap For Me)” is the mission statement, dispensing of pastiche to draft a wholly original document. Two deliberately chopped classic vocal samples, give the track texture and relative respite from the thumping kicks, while Boddika-esque arrangements drum machine arrangements delight. Whether you call it techno or something else entirely, it’s clear that Hill has tapped into something special with this alias. Head over to Insert to grab a free download of “Clap Bakk (Clap For Me)” and be sure to bookmark Sir 6MAKA6.

New Palmistry – “Protector SE5”

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July 8, 2014
New Music
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Back in 2012, Benjy Keating, aka Palmistry, released a collaborative full-length with Cantonese-language MC Vinh Ngan as Triad God. The album, titled NXB (“New Cross Boys”), was released on Hippos in Tanks and featured swimming, cinematic production that brought to mind both aquamarine ocean tones and molasses-drenched house production. These days, Keating is functioning as a solo entity and has taken the blueprint established on NXB and melded it with a melodramatic dancehall archetype. Keating brings a sensual touch to dancehall that goes against the form’s standard braggadocio, but involves a beyond complete audial/visual composition that belies his relatively recent entry into the solo singer/producer world. “Protector SE5”, presumably referencing the London post code, is Palmistry’s latest single for Mixpak and a brilliant follow-up to the still-in-rotation “Catch”. Pre-order “Protector SE5” here and watch the Keating and Daniel Swain directed “Catch” video here.

Why Be Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 8, 2014
Mixes
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Screen shot 2014-07-08 at 9.42.08 AM

If an observer were to theorize about the political context of Danish musician Why Be‘s output, the obvious answer would be dystopia. Alarm bells, gun shots and blood curdling screams are only occasionally interrupted by brilliant moments of calm, perhaps denoting a rapidly dissolving state or the supernal disposition of a natural disaster. Foreboding rap cuts echo out of the carcasses of motor vehicles as helicopters circle endlessly above, but while ensconced in the world shattering violence, Why Be’s world is pockmarked by moments of supreme beauty. The all-caps, un-Google-able world of Why Be is difficult to decipher, but like Janus resident M.E.S.H. and recent Astral Plane mixer Drippin, it’s a world that unnerves and disorients with deliberate abandon.

With only one semi-official release to his name, the collaborative fam EP in conjunction with E+E, Triad God and Godlink, and a sprawling collection of, at best confusingly tagged edits, remixes and mixes, Why Be has flown under the rainbow of the club music cognoscenti. Nonetheless, the Copenhagen-based producer’s tracks have ended up in a variety of high-profile mixes and each successive “chop”, “fix”, or “libsent martian attack” uploaded to his Soundcloud solidify his credentials as a bonafide contributor to the zeitgeist. If concrete-hewn, blood splattered dystopia isn’t your game, the brief moments of resplendent beauty in Why Be’s mix work offers catharsis. In his Astral Plane mix, it comes in the form of JT The Goon‘s “Twin Warriors”, albeit mediated through Rabit’s blipping remix, and Palmistry‘s foreboding, melancholic “Lil Gem”. The appearance of grace in a landscape of destruction doesn’t necessarily offer respite from the septic state of being, but it does mirror the paradoxical nature of modernity. At only 24 minutes, Why Be’s Astal Plane mix is brief, but you would be hard pressed to concoct a more accurate representation of destructive club music. Hit the jump for track list and be sure to hit up Why Be’s Youtube channel for a collection of songs, live recordings and other ephemeralia.

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Rope Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 4, 2014
Mixes
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rope-parison

Bristol has generally been perceived as dubstep’s second city, a concrete-hewn outpost of everything rough, dark and ponderously weighty. Slightly outside of the influence of the capitol, Bristol legends Pinch, Peverelist, Joker, Appleblim and more have carried the mid-sized city into a surprising position of influence within the greater bass weight-focused dance music scene. In a similar fashion to the trend of aforementioned producers rising to prominence in parallel to their counterparts in London a decade ago, a new breed of Bristolian has begun to experiment with grime and techno with a uniquely insolent outlook that both bucks the influence of the capitol and draws on its more aggressive strains. Rope is a new name in the Bristol game, but the producer’s upcoming EP on also-brand-new Parison Records is one of the most mature, properly conceived releases to come out of the city in recent memory. Taking direct influence from anime soundtracks, Rope artificially designs an urban environment heavy on futuristic decay and out-of-control technology. Every movement carries a coinciding physical counter-movement, whether that be the scything snares that come in flurries on “Slugface”, or the desperate, immaculately textured rubber ball bass hits on “Cotham Warrior”. For his Astral Plane mix, Rope offers a proper overview of his contemporaries and slots his own originals effortlessly alongside modern classics along the lines of Gage’s “Tello”, Blackwax’s “Grimace” and Mumdance and Novelist’s “Take Time”. Bristol-bred dubstep and grime will always have its denizens, but the new breed, led by Rope, has an opportunity to raise the metropolis beyond second city status. Hit the jump for the track list and pre-order Cotham Warrior/Slugface here.

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New Trap Door – “Luv Thang”

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July 3, 2014
New Music
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trap-door

Alongside fellow Gang Fatale members Neana, Georgia Girls and Ra’s Al, Trap Door (born Connor Shepherd) has rocketed into the popular consciousness over the past several months. Whereas Neana cuts deep with razor-sharp percussive tools and Georgia Girls throws an array of frenzied samples and sonic manipulations into the mix, Manchester-resident Trap Door prefers a clean, stripped back approach to dance music. While an exact release date has not been announced quite yet, Shepherd will release the Emerald Dove EP on B.YRSLF DIVISION at some point in the next several months. Emerald Dove will feature remixes from Mike G, Dreams and Grandivaa.