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The Astral Plane on NTS – 1/17/20

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January 22, 2020
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After playing all label/label artist music on our December NTS show, I decided to dive into the HD for a taste of dynamic new music from the past two months. Dancefloor material was more inspiring than usual this time around and I was able to fit in a collection of FDM, litefeet and other 100 BPM-ish tracks into the first 30 minutes. Check out NYOP’s 0 collection and one-offs from Epic B, Davincii and MVSTERMIND. Fridge’s 666 Speed, quest?onmarc’s PHOENIX and DJ Nigga Fox’s Cartas Na Manga were also major focal points for the opening bit of the show.

Vocal edits from v1984, Pininga, nunu and Kelman Duran, as well as a few choice songs from the forthcoming DJ Lostboi and Torus split, form the next section. Sadly, it looks like Kelman took everything on his Bandcamp down, but you can hear “she said she from da westside, yeah she said the best side” below and “die here” in TTB’s most recent show. Having the opportunity to link up tracks that denaturalize the traditionally beautiful and revivify familiar material is one of my favorite parts of composing the show each month. Eartheater & LEYA’s Angel Lust is also a must have and exhibits a few of the qualities that make Eartheater’s live performances so special.

The mixing in the remainder of the show is a bit ropey, but managed to touch on must have new Ase Manual, Bamao Yendé, Color Plus, Ecko Bazz, Gant-Man, Sonia Calico and more. There are a few special Aya edits in there as well. Speaking of which, her latest NTS show is an R.I.P. LOFT special that brings in tracks from various aliases dating back to 2009. You can grab a bunch of those over at her Bandcamp. For a more complete track list, hit the jump and/or check out the Buy Music Club rundown of a good portion of what we played. Our show will be back on February 14 and we’ll have announced APR123 and APR124 by then so keep an eye out.

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ARCHANGEL Mix For The Astral Plane

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August 14, 2019
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The line between club and noise music has been thoroughly breached over the past decade. Artists flow seamlessly between the two worlds, participating in bands and DJ projects, recklessly merging sounds, and ignoring the bounds established by “experimental” scene gatekeepers. More importantly, sounds that had decayed in the hands of those gatekeepers have been revitalized and torn up by a range of black and queer artists who have essentially re-written the rulebook, matching militant energy and high intensity sonics with a deep historical awareness, comedic instinct and collective spirit. Stylistically divergent artists like Dreamcrusher, Fuck U Pay Us and Moor Mother have led the charge in the live arena, while DJs like Juliana Huxtable, LSDXOXO and Nkisi have taken distinctly black, hardcore sounds to global dancefloors.

Richmond’s ARCHANGEL is one of the most refreshing voices to emerge out of this environment of late, combining a passion for Baltimore, Jersey and Philly Club with a distinctly confrontational and emancipatory ethos. Taking on a collage approach, ARCHANGEL mixes and tracks are saturated with information, full of overlapping Club tracks, bits of speeches and spoken word, and recontextualized video game and anime soundtracks. Initially introduced to Club music while driving to a cousins house (her mother is from Philadelphia and the track was DJ TIZZ’s “I’M THE NIKE MAN”), she continued to hear snippets of other regional sounds and was hooked from that point.

Moving away from the dancefloor, ARCHANGEL is also a member of BLVCKPUNX, a  noise-rap group in the process of re-recording their debut YOUAREHERE(I) EP. Filtering the sound of institutional racism and violence, BLVCKPUNX are explosive, pushing back on the idea of blackness as a monolith while embracing a mischievous, joyful energy and a coy hedonism.

With her Club music roots in mind ARCHANGEL’s Astral Plane Mix (initially titled “Hot Girl Summer”) is aimed at letting go and allowing people to let go. At an hour and a half long, the mix is a comprehensive run through the past few years in Club music, drawing on a litany of different micro-movements while touching on specific standout tracks from the likes of Ase Manual, DJ Tameil, LSDXOXO, R3LL and more. A few sly originals from ARCHANGEL herself fit into the end of the session as does an instrumental BLVCKPUNX track. You can grab a download of the mix here and hit the jump for a full track list.

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BFTT Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 24, 2019
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Our affinity for the booming Manchester scene is no secret, but the sense of kinship goes far beyond Manc to the many divergent movements coming out of the UK’s northern extremities. The sonic acceleration of the Sheffield and Glasgow scenes has been noted at length, but Leeds and Liverpool have become hotbeds of experimentation in their own right while sounds like bassline, donk and happy hardcore are still prevalent and thriving in clubs throughout the North. Leeds’ BFTT, seemingly one of the busiest people in dance music, has become a key node in the Northern archipelago, linking with Manchester’s Mutualism label and boygirl collective, while running the Leftovers platform out of Leeds.

Leftovers is a good place to start laying out BFTT’s approach, melding sentimental and campy streaks with an unadorned approach to sonic expansion. May saw the release of An Untitled Longing, a compilation featuring artists “operating in or connected to the North” including IceBoy Violet, LOFT and Marlo Egglplant. The compilation was Leftovers first official release and explored ambient forms in the broadest sense, touching on prickly metallic sounds (Sam Ridout’s “Untitled”), extended voice/noise (Marlo Eggplant’s “September 2017”) and elaborate melodic exercises (Clemency’s “SSRI Season / Sleep-In Sickness”). BFTT’s own “75623372 2” is one of the tape’s standouts, highlighting a granular approach that can also be found on 2018’s “iOSMIDI Tracks” for Tobago Tracks.

BFTT’s more club-focused records can be spotted on labels like All Centre, Cong Burn, Whities and now Gobstopper, the host of his forthcoming Versioning EP. Techno is an obvious template, but the BFTT sound circumvents linearity, matching an innate sense of groove with constantly fragmenting structures. That challenging sensibility is met wit a sprightly dose of fun, found in particular on his bootleg work of Britney Spears and Charli XCX for boygirl, but also in the light touch on tracks like “Enin” and his remix of Dervisis’ “Yelde”. from earlier this year.

The mischievous streak in the midst of formal experimentation found throughout BFTT’s production work is expanded infinitely in his take on DJing, which sees an omnivorous rhythmic diet matched with a nous for idiosyncratic progressions. Wonky low end sounds are matched effortlessly with horizontally arranged bliss and tempos are bound to reach 160+. His long awaited Astral Plane Mix exemplifies that approach while also functioning as an affectionate run through of music from friends and family. AP crew Amzondotcom, Chants and LOFT are all included, as are likeminded exemplars of cross-genre excellence like Ariel Zetina, Mr. Mitch and Oli XL. Recent outings for Rinse and NTS show that the BFTT gospel is expanding beyond the usual circles and the Versioning EP for Gobstopper, due August 7, should introduce the Leeds artist to an even larger circle of fans. Hit the jump for a full track list and download Astral Plane Mix 191 here.

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Osheyack & Nahash Mix For The Astral Plane

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May 1, 2019
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A few weeks back, we featured a mix from Osaka’s Le Makeup, highlighting the Eternal Dragonz crew’s mission to forge a broad, cross-disciplinary identity contextualizing the work of Asian diasporic artists. Today, our focus turns to Shanghai’s SVBKVLT, another emerging outlet that embraces a far more specific, not to mention intense, approach to curation. Largely drawing from Chinese and China-based artists, SVBKVLT has made links between several traditions, namely noise, hardcore and rap, skewing towards a latex-clad, confrontational attitude and an innate performative spirit.

Alongside artists like Hyph11e, Swimful and Yen Tech, Shanghai-based, American interdisciplinary artist Osheyack has become one of the label’s stars over the past few years, conjoining an explicit hardcore ethos with the theatrical potency of proto-noise acts like Cabaret Voltaire and Coil. Early work, like 2015’s Fake/Fiction/Fraud, also set out an affection for various regional club musics with ballroom finding a particularly prominent space, while the five part “Clown” mix series showed off Osheyack’s voracious consumption of everything noisy and full frontal.

2018 was the year that Osheyack’s sound truly crystalized though, first on Empty Hell for SVBKVLT and later on his debut Sadomodernism LP for Bedouin Records. Initially premised on a 2015 remix for Pan Daijing and 2017’s “Pyre”, with frequent collaborators Milky He and Jordan Tierney, ripping rhythms, guttural moans and terrifying screams quickly became signature sounds across the two releases with tracks like “Parataxon” and “With Us”  functioning simultaneously as rave anthems and body horror exhortations. The latter, a nod to New York’s ballroom culture as noted in an interview with The Ransom Note, also featured Nahash, a fellow Shanghai-based artist and affiliate of noise outlet Huashan Records. Featuring on three consecutive Sadomodernism tracks, the duo connect on a deeply intrinsic level, crafting a sound that comes off as both comprised of age old organic materials and hyper-modern methods.

For Astral Plane Mix 190, the duo have continued their prowess by linking elastic, backlit pop with a range of front foot hardcore contortions. At 26 songs in just 30 minutes, the blends come fast and potent here, always on the verge of careening out of control, but never quite leaving the roadway. Artists like Uganda’s Slikback, who recently spent time in Shanghai, Italy’s Nahshi, and Oakland’s Russell E.L. Butler make key appearances in the intricately layered patchwork, which seems to extends forward at an almost exponential rate. Hit the jump for a full track list and download Astral Plane Mix 190 here.

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Le Makeup Mix For The Astral Plane

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April 17, 2019
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Transnational crews, labels and collectives have become one of the major forces in dance music over the past decade, often connecting underrepresented groups unable to build enough infrastructure in their home cities. As often as they succeed though, these entities can water down the output of their individual members, mostly by enforcing rigid sonic limitations, but sometimes through promotion of the whole over its constituent parts. Eternal Dragonz, a cross-disciplinary force anchored in the Asian diaspora, has managed to avoid both pitfalls, bringing together a widely varied roster for releases, radio shows and club nights without ever becoming an overbearing force on its own.

Osaka’s Le Makeup (Keisuke Iiri) had released on several labels, namely Ashida Park, JEROME and his own PURE VOYAGE outlet, prior to 2018’s Matra EP, but the release provided a larger platform and contextualized the singer, guitarist and producer’s work within a similar framework of pop-minded artists. Having previously dabbled in extended ambient pieces, hip hop production and throwback funk and synth pop, dancehall patterns are brought to the fore on Matra, bringing a perpetual bounce that sits surprisingly comfortably with its yearning vocals and washed out guitar arrangements. Avoiding the icy nihilism of so much club adjacent pop, tracks like “Matra” and “White Curtain” are unrepentantly earnest, putting Iiri front-and-center as narrative lead.

Released in January of this year, Iiri’s End Roll takes on an even more romantic tone, largely dropping the pretense of dance music structure and textural guitar work for an intensely melodic, upbeat sound, based around huge rif-y choruses and underscored by trap drums and a comforting bed of sub bass. It’s a long way from 2016’s production-led Esthe EP and the emotional development from release to release is tangible with Matra and End Roll shedding the uncanny sheen of the early work while embracing uninhibited song writing.

Le Makeup’s style of mixing also takes on an earnest, uninhibited bent, full of haphazard transitions (both technical and stylistic) and an all at once attitude that tends to overwhelm. Breaks, avant pop and hi tek hip hop sit comfortable in his Astral Plane Mix, which juts from mood to mood and avoids any sense of tangible momentum. Structured more like a mixtape than anything, Iiri tapes 80s Japanese classics, video game music and breaks at key moments, loosely working together a patchwork of reference points that are as spasmodic as his original work is clean and focused. Download Astral Plane Mix 189 here and hit the jump for a track list.

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Nahshi Mix For The Astral Plane

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April 4, 2019
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Hardcore tropes have become prevalent in niche dance music circles in recent years, both as overt sonic references and more subtle aesthetic predilections. DJs, both in the trad techno sphere and more collage-focused online space, are more willing to play speed-y, intense tacks and a general willingness to embrace the frenetic pace of everything from jungle to hardstyle seems to be taking over. Milan’s Nahshi is one particular voice filtering a particular node of hardcore, Italy’s Lento Violento, into his work, matching contemporary reference points with slowstyle structures. Pioneered by Gigi D’Agostino, Lento Violento reached its heyday in the late 2000s and isn’t exactly an active scene anymore, but artists like Nahshi, DJ Caesar and Vipra have begun reinvigorating the sound and creating bridges with other full-frontal sounds in the 100 BPM range.

Prior to fully embracing Lento Violento in his own production work, Nahshi experimented across a number of rhythmic structures, infusing baile funk, dembow and kizomba with hyper-polished synth work. Recent tracks for Ashida Park and Country Music respectively, as well as a series of self-released edits and originals, have seen the Italian artist wholeheartedly embrace slowstyle as his main focus, showing off a keen ability to twist the processional march of the sound into bizarre new forms. “LL/VV” and “Decelera” in particular infuse a piston-driven potency to the form, moving from D’Agostino’s carnivalesque predilections towards something far more bleak and destructive.

Heavily featuring his own solo productions, Nahshi’s entry for Astral Plane Mix 187 is a concise run through recent Lento Violento sounds with several throwbacks included for good measure. Contemporaries DJ Caeser and DJ Miranthony contribute key tracks to the selection, which proceeds at a remarkably consistent pace, a constant battering of dragged out kicks and high tension stabs. With so many artists aiming for hybrid sounds, the focused quality of Nahshi’s recent work comes as a breath of fresh air. Hit the jump for a full track list and download AP Mix 187 here.

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Odete Mix For The Astral Plane

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March 14, 2019
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In the unconventional and eccentric ends of the electronic music world, artistic voice can often be drowned out in a drive towards peak aesthetics and production-oriented acceleration. This has lead to a number of important sonic divergences, but oftentimes songwriting is put on the back burner at the loss of the listener, DJ and dancer. Portuguese artist Odete has only recently entered the conversation, but has already emerged as one of the most distinct and confrontational voices around, drawing on ballroom linguistics, personal narrative and a novel approach to rhythm. Utilizing various regional club musics in her compositions and mix work, Odete’s approach feels genuinely theatrical, comprised of individual dramatic movements based on the trans femme experience. Even while listening from afar, the urge towards stage performance is clear in her work, which will be displayed in live sets later this year following the release of her debut album.

It was December’s Matrafona EP (out now on naivety) that initially drew us to Odete though, full of short, kinetic ideas, and the sort of jarring voice/spoken experiments that only work when coming from an assured voice. Classical and avant garde ideas meet pop samples through the work, which harkens back to a more protean era of collage. The EP followed Not Worried With The Production of Evidence, a more scattered, but similarly striking self-release out earlier in 2018. Mixes for Discwoman, Jerome and Rinse FM, as well as a number of deeply personal and instinctive self-release mixes, have followed, with technical nous slowly catching up to the expansive, often abrasive freeform tracks on Not Worried With The Production of Evidence. Throughout the two EPs and mix work, Odete has shown a unique surrealistic ability to examine internal pain and externalize it in all of its brutality. The grotesque is certainly not shied away from on tracks like “There’s Pain Under My Wig” and the “Folklore Collage”, but a concrete dancefloor streak remains throughout.

Odete’s Astral Plane Mix comes as natural extension of Matrafona, drawing on a range of polyrhythmic and hardcore dance forms in its structure, while finding time for intimate moments, drawing from more acoustic traditions. The mix also functions as personal exegesis, opening with spoken word examining the trans body under capitalism and patriarchy before launching into a series of vocals from Bjork, Frank Ocean and more. Throughout, Odete refuses to shy away from a through line of emotional rawness, brought out in both moments of tenderness and intensity. Download the mix here and hit the jump for Odete tour dates in March and April.

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The Astral Plane on NTS w/ CÉCI – February ’19

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February 25, 2019
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We celebrated the release of CÉCI’s Vortex EP last week with a very special, contextualizing guest session on our monthly NTS slot last week. Slow jams, fine textures and a range of circuitous melodic structures abound in her 30 minute mix which runs from the hour mark. AP DJ Team handled the first hour and last thirty minutes and slotted in plenty of slow-fast and fast-slow tunes including new Slikback, blastah, Lee Gamble, Simo Cell, HNRO and more. The last thirty also includes forthcoming Chants, that stunning LOFT Charli edit and a few new ones from DJ Plead’s upcoming Nervous Horizon tape. Download it here and hit the jump for a full track list.

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Jasper Jarvis Mix For The Astral Plane

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February 13, 2019
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The conversation around safe club spaces, particularly for womxn, non-binary and queer people, has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past few years, but many large cities, not to mention smaller hubs, still don’t consistently offer comfortable, accessible venues and nights for those communities. The consolidation of venues under corporate umbrellas, gentrification and unhelpful local municipalities has led to a severe lack of smaller, community-oriented spaces and raised tensions between venue owners and promoters. Whereas similar issues have led to widespread anhedonia in adjacent cultural spheres though, a range of nights, spaces and artists have worked tirelessly to build club culture in their image.

London’s New Scenery has been a key player in that fight since launching in 2018, pairing international talent (think coucou chloe, MikeQ, Toxe, Ziúr) with an array of UK offerings while drawing on the experimental fringe without losing sight of what moves the floor. DJ, producer and video artist Jasper Jarvis is one of New Scenery’s organizers and residents and the first artist to debut on the platform’s label arm. Released last week, Finty is an amalgam of hardcore motifs, soundtrack-ready arrangements and re-contextualized pop moments, functioning as a stark debut for an artist finding their production legs. Tracks like “~” and “Trauma” in particular build out a madcap energy, showing that Jarvis is more than willing to push the intensity to uncomfortable levels and test dancers’ resolve.

Jarvis’ mix work, previously heard in New Scenery’s native series and the excellent SISTER series, is similarly wide ranging and holistic, matching their own edits with hits from the club sphere, tracks from contemporaries and soundtrack excerpts. The result is hectic and functions on a mood level more than a rhythmic one, grafting affective bonds through a maze of drum patterns. Their Astral Plane Mix covers a lot of ground, even by the standards established by the type of artists New Scenery books, touching on Jersey Club classics from DJ Sliink and DJ Tiga, Hans Zimmer, Slipknot and a slick Merzbow edit from Emma Lee. Excerpts from Finty put a personal touch on the processions, providing emotional high points to the up and down selections. Hit the jump for a full track list and grab a download of Astral Plane Mix 184 here.

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