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Author Archives: Gabe Meier

New Riley Lake – “B Goin In (Dub Mix)”

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July 1, 2014
New Music, Remixes
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As he’s balanced hip hop production, mix engineer work and the ever-progressing concern of a growing hardware stockpile, Milwaukee-resident Riley Lake (born Will Mitchell) has also consistently dipped his toes into the realm of club music, drawing material and influence from a collection of producers, labels and crews that range from the tasteful linearity of Clone and 3024 to boundary-pushing grime outlets Goon Club All Stars and Glacial Sound. “B Goin In” is his latest foray into clubland and features both a dub mix and a delightfully fun Destiny’s Child flip. The stripped back dub mix highlight’s Mitchell’s substantial progression over the past year or so, a veritable simulacrum of the contemporary avant-garde dance that signals a bank of well-researched samples and a strong comprehension of the physical dimensions of the club space. Drop Mitchell a line on Twitter for a download and hit the jump to the stream the “B Goin In (Vocal Mix)”.

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Mid-Week Mix Roundup (6/23 – 6/27)

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June 25, 2014
Mixes
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Inspirational mixes from the past week that deserve to reverberate beyond our “office”.

Whenever DJ Slimzee or Slackk take to the NTS airwaves, the listener is sure to receive a number of cracking exclusives, dubs and deep cuts from the annals of grime past and present. Last week, the two joined forces for a special, guest heavy four hour special featuring Logos, Murlo, Trends, Oil Gang, Spooky and a brief appearance from man of the moment Mumdance who shows up just to play a Riko Dan-assisted version of “Take Time”. Astonishingly, 17 new JT The Goon tracks are rinsed and a bevy of other new ones from Dark0, Inkke and Shriekin that have left us scuttling around attempting to construct a track list.

With the release of Moleskin‘s eponymous EP on the very near horizon, the London-based Goon Club Allstars label has been on many a tongue. With Mssingno’s debut EP still making the rounds and Moleskin’s heavily anticipated tape being played out by the likes of Evian Christ and Bok Bok, the Goon Club team has done an excellent job of showing two very different sides of the grime-club spectrum. Even as they’ve inundated listeners with unique UK-centric productions though, the label has looked further south, focusing their attention on kuduro, dancehall and the multifaceted sounds of Lisbon. Back in May, the label gave away DJ Name’s “Name 4 U”, a palpitating blend of funky and interstitial continental madness, and the Goon Club DJs recently took to Sinden’s Kiss FM to show off a selection of heavily syncopated, densely rhythmic tracks from DJ Nigga Fox, President T and DJ Lag.

The Astral Black crew has always shown a predilection for early-aughts hip hop and R&B, specifically the chipmunk soul stylings of Kanye West and Just Blaze, and that influence has percolated to the surface of JonPhonics, Inkke and especially DJ Milktray‘s productions. To celebrate an upcoming European tour, Phonics and Milktray have joined together as Milkmakerz to bring you the sleaziest from Tweet, R. Kelly and Ginuwine as well as a heavy heaping of heat from Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan and Cam’Ron. It’s not so much an influence mix as it’s a mix of influences and if Phonics and Milktray’s joint output sounds anything like it, then we’re in for a treat.

Not that it’s anything new, but Bok Bok licked the most recent Night Slugs Rinse show with a dashing two hours of analogue techno, Neana and Neana-inspired drum tracks, and hyper-real synth machinations. If you haven’t rinsed BB’s Your Charizmatic Self EP to death, you’re missing out. The NS Rinse slot is about as essential as it gets.

As a House of Trax resident, Rushmore has worked tirelessly to bring ghetto house, ballroom and Bmore legends to East London and has expanded the HoT name into the label world under the Trax Couture nom de guerre. Alongside fellow HoT resident Fools, Rushmore has become one of the most recognizable names in the transitive world of percussive techno/house/ballroom and much of his best work comes out in his mixes. His Astral Plane volume is still a personal favorite and he recently contributed a volume for Mute, a Brighton club night that just happens to be putting on a massive July 4th happening featuring Kahn & Neek, Flava D, Last Japan, Dark0 and Sudanim. Rushmore’s mix is of a slightly different flavor, a full throttle mash of compatriots Akito, Grovestreet, Dreams alongside folk heroes DJ Clent and Slugo.

New Slackk – “Ancient Dolphin”

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June 25, 2014
New Music
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Since Slackk first burst into the general consciousness as a producer circa 2010, he has proven to be a figurehead of sorts in the instrumental grime movement and one of its foremost proponents as a co-founder of the Boxed club night. His solo productions have ranged from four-on-the-floor UK funky utilizing a classic eski sound palette to the black key heavy Minor Triads and Failed Gods EPs. On September 1, Slackk will release his debut LP on Local Action, titled Palm Tree Fire. “Ancient Dolphin” is the first offering from the tape and sees a refined version of his earlier funky/grime explorations. It’s ragged, richly melodic and a little campy. One of the most interesting facets of the Boxed crew’s output in the past year or so is the precise nature in which the dancefloor is understood and at times removed from the equation. “Ancient Dolphin” epitomizes that understanding, matching distinctly minor scale melodic work with chugging, syncopated drum work. It represents a lot of time spent playing out and subsequently taking that experience into the studio. It might not end up being the defining document of grime’s resurgence, but Palm Tree Fire has the opportunity to coherently draw the line between club, radio and home listening.

Drippin Mix For The Astral Plane

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June 24, 2014
Mixes
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While Scandinavia is about as far from a rap hotbed as you’ll find, a recent selection of producers have managed to take on the club hip hop template and infuse innovation into the interstices of the Atlanta-Los Angeles axis. Based in Bergen on Norways’s west coast, Drippin runs the Ball ‘Em Up club night in Oslo alongside Slick Shoota and Emil and has collaborated with Strict Face, Copout and DJ New Jersey Drone. Drippin is viewed as a member of the global continuum that runs from New York’s Venus X-led GHE20G0TH1K through LA’s Total Freedom-helmed Mustache Mondays and on to Berlin’s Janus; the tear-down-the-system “rage” clubs built on black and/or gay culture and involving elements of subversive fashion culture. Not entirely dissimilar, Drippin has also produced for Le1f and Norwegian act Yoguttene, presenting a wind drag approach to Atlantla-centric rap with a distinct grime aesthetic if not the latter’s rhythmic exploration. It’s at the intersection between petulant, yet subversive, club music and stylistically divergent rap that Drippin shines, installing a high-res backbone into genres and sounds that have been rehashed more than they have been reinvented.

With a visual aesthetic that falls somewhere between Matrixxman and Night Slugs, Drippin has been lumped in with dozens of misfit elements, but his next release on J-Cush‘s Lit City Trax is by far the best placement yet. After releasing luminous tapes from DJ Marfox, Visionist and Uniique in recent months, tracks from an upcoming Drippin release have begun to surface in mixes from J-Cush and Neana, as well as the former’s Future Brown live performances. Like Lit City, Drippin operates at the imagined transcontinental pivot point between London and New York, Los Angeles and Lisbon. Staccato kuduro drum workouts sit in time with mid-2000s R&B, while supernal squarewaves and gunshots effortlessly coexist with the raunchiest of ballroom vocals. The bar for club experimentation has been raised in recent years, in no small part due to the aforementioned luminaries, but recalcitrant, progressive producers like Drippin are primed to tear down the remaining geographic restrictions. Place-less contemporaries Georgia Girls, Dubbel Dutch, Zora Jones and Mike G all find space in Drippin’s Astral Plane mix, a 35 minute drill that defies and defines in equal measure.

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New Chemist – “Defiance”

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June 20, 2014
New Music
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We first heard “Defiance” a few months ago at the tail-end of Chemist‘s raucous Astral Plane mix and the punctilious grime weapon has surfaced in official fashion this week. Set for a release on Coyote Records, “Defiance” draws from the industrial, mechanized side of grime populated by SD Laika, Rabit and Saga, utilizing squarewave bass in short blasts over snapping, brittle snares with brutal, dynamic affect. “Defiance” will appear on an EP of the same name, due in the near future on Coyote, which also has a follow-up to the eminently relevant Coyote Kings compilation on the way.

Mid-Week Mix Roundup (6/16 – 6/20)

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June 18, 2014
Mixes
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Inspirational mixes from the past week that deserve to reverberate beyond our “office”.

In the latest edition of Slackk’s formative monthly mix series, the Sulk Records head has dug deep into his bag of tricks to pull out the best in nail gun snares, forthcoming Inkke, JT The Goon and Murlo, and the widest array of squarewaves you’ll find this side of his very own Boxed club night. Commencing on a melodic note with tracks from Boofy, Shadow Face and Lolingo, Slackk expertly crafts a narrative that trends from melancholic to triumphant over mix’s run time. Peaking with a Blackjack-esque selection of 8 bar bootlegs from Tarquin and Milktray, Slackk manages (once again) to encapsulate what makes contemporary instrumental grime such a fascinating subject.

For the inaugural edition of Boiler Room‘s SKYY Stream in Los Angeles, visiting club provocateur Rabit took to the picturesque stage to deliver an hour of emotional grime, Jersey and Diana Ross. After laying down an exclusive-laden FACT mix several weeks ago, Rabit takes a slightly more playful approach for BR, touching on the R&B sensibility that occasionally shows up in his otherworldly grime productions. We hear the aforementioned Ross and Rihanna mixed in with Mumdance and MA Nguzu and a bevy of Southern rap and Jersey club that keeps the mood light. With a debut album forthcoming on Tri Angle as well as new material on the way through Glacial Sound and Mumdance and Logos’ Different Circles entity, it’s a pleasure to watch the Houston native have some fun keeping light as his star grows.

Over the years, this blog has trended slightly away from the realm of house and techno, preferring the sounds of footwork, ballroom, grime, jungle and Jersey club to the more linear forms that have dominated dance music for the better part of three decades. There are a number producers who still wow with their four-on-the-floor fare though and Dro Carey‘s Tuff Sherm alias continues to impress. Always murky, the Tuff Sherm sound sees brilliant melodies drawn out of percussive, dusty nether regions, balancing beatific synth work with a stranglehold over 909 and 808 drum programming. The Australian producer recently hit up Nina Las Vegas’ populist Triple J show to lay down dub after dub, an exciting sign of what’s to come from this ever-blossoming producer.

Writer/DJ/graphic designer/fashionista Meaghan Garvey aka Moneyworth has proven to be one of the foremost purveyors (and critics) of Chicago music over the past few years, espousing the merits of drill, footwork, and most recently, opening up the Pitchfork crowd to the spastic sounds of bop. “the glo” is her most recent mix, the first in eight months, and focuses on the fluid intersection between rap, R&B and grime, populated by Visionist, Young Thug, Kingdom and Casino. The latter third sees a tempo shift and a distinctly Chicago reboot, pumping up DJ Slugo, DJ Rashad and ZMoney before entering a rousing rendition of cutting room floor Yeezus track “Bound 1”. The transatlantic freeway is thriving these days and Garvey shows just how effortless the transition from grime to R&B to ghetto house really is. The glo is very real.

Resident of Berlin club night Janus (alongside Lotic and Kablam, M.E.S.H. has worked tirelessly to deconstruct the way club music is produced, consumed and portrayed. In both his DJ work, which is consistently exceptional, and his productions for PAN, M.E.S.H. has created an immediate aesthetic that is at once a melange of his influences, Jersey, ballroom, grime and R&B, and a streamlined, ululating farce of those same influences. M.E.S.H.’s FACT mix is angry and denuded, but not bereft of fun, which can be found in Spooky’s “Number One Spot” bootleg and the wooden kuduro of DJ Nigga Fox and DJ Firmeza. The Janus fellows are reassembling contemporary club music and this mix is another step in their ascendancy.

Gremino Mix For The Astral Plane

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June 17, 2014
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He’s been producing for over ten years and has made his mark on nearly every sub-genre imaginable, The Fader called him “post-regional”, and Fade to Mind and Keysound have each brought him into their respective folds. His name is Gremino (otherwise known as boi-a-gutz) and over the past few years, few artists have had the indelible effect that this Finnish producer has had on dance music’s myriad sounds. First garnering attention on a large scale in 2011 via a series of EPs on Car Crash Set, as well as a hotly tipped Jam City remix, Gremino was one of the early driving forces for the kaleidoscopic sound currently being pushed by Keysound, Her and Rinse’s label arm. Coalescing grime, garage, dubstep and techno, he has spoken about replacing the staid sounds of misnomer UK bass with an “edgier”, darkly intoxicating final product and that spirit has placed him firmly in the crosshairs of some of dance music’s most respected entities. In 2012, Fade to Mind released the Let’s Jack 12″, a Hadean take on grime and bassline with a focus on industrial rhythmic work and dancefloor shelling squarewaves. Let’s Jack is far from the first release one thinks of when Kingdom’s label comes up in conversation, but Gremino’s anxious compositions have set the stage for much of the imprint’s more recent output (e.g. Nguzunguzu’s Skycell, Dat Oven’s Icy Lake) and led to a placement on both the Keysound Allstars EP and the This Is How We Roll compilation.

Since 2012, Gremino has worked to diversify his bonds and has recently exploded into the fissure opened up between footwork and jungle, especially the TB-303 driven form, under the boi-a-gutz sobriquet. Favoring clipped rhythms and furious acid workouts, the experiment has seemed effortless and can be heard in this recent mix for Long Clothing. For our money though, Gremino’s wheelhouse is still squarely in the realm of 130 and for his Astral Plane mix, the mans came through with an erudite selection of dubstep classics, darker-than-dark house and ethereal tear out grime. The mix effectively functions as a follow up to this selection and is as much a genuflection to British ‘nuum culture as it is a genre-bending shred job. Gremino hasn’t had a proper release in several years, but expect new material in the not-so-distant future and indulge in the past and present of dance music history.

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New Inkke – “Thinkk Star (Club Mix)”

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June 12, 2014
New Music
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As a member of the Astral Black collective, Inkke has quietly become one of the most looked to producers in all of Britain, effortlessly grafting early 2000s hip hop, roughhewn grime and a distinct ‘nuum aesthetic into a singular entity. Whether it’s through his bootlegs, Memphis cassette explorations, or wildly inventive originals, the Glaswegian has garnered widespread support, so much support that his next EP will be released by Tom Lea’s Local Action Records. Set for a July 21 release date, the Crystal Children EP will feature six full-throttle originals as well as remixes from Gage and JT The Goon. The delectably swung “Thinkk Star (Club Mix)”, which actually first surfaced nearly a year ago on Slackk‘s Rinse show, is our first taste from Crystal Children and shows off some of Inkke’s best dance floor inclinations. Pre-order Crystal Children here.

New Moleskin – “Clemency”

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June 11, 2014
New Music
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With an eponymous debut EP upcoming later this month and a slate of well-deserved hype surrounding his b2b DJ appearances with Neana, Moleskin has been shelling down the dance better than most in 2014. “Clemency” is our second taste from Moleskin, out June 25 on Goon Club Allstars, and is exactly the type of retrograde production we’ve come to expect from the London-based producer. Bmore/Jersey forms the foundation here, but “It’s Time For The Percolator”-esque acid blips throw convention for a loop while thickly layered breakbeat science and sparse 808 percussion complete the throwback feel. Pre-order Moleskin here and be sure to peep Goon Club Allstars’ mix for DISMag from a few months ago.

Uniique Remixes Tinashe’s “2 On”

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June 10, 2014
New Music
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uniique

Over the past few weeks, Baltimore legend DJ Technics has uploaded a massive catalogue of club tracks, effectively revitalizing an until-now dormant catalogue of mid-Atlantic heat. From classics like DJ Class’ “Tear Da Club Up” and DJ Samir’s “Samir Theme” to deep cuts from Rod Lee, Karizma and KW Griff, the uploads piece together an invaluable stretch of history that has been largely ignored amid the recent gustatory fervor over bedspring samples and think breaks. While East Coast club music’s rich history has been appropriated in a blunt, ignorant fashion by many younger, by-and-large European producers, Uniique, Nadus and Matic808 and others continue to advance the sound without relinquishing any of its original substance. Uniique’s remix of Tinashe’s simmering “2 On” is the most recent exhibit A, utilizing the typical mementos, not in excess, but as an aggressive form of release from the pounding kicks and reverb heavy vocal work. It’s a pleasure to listen to music that is as functional as it is properly conceived, as sonically adventurous as it is brutally utilitarian. Uniique has us in good hands.