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Radar Radio w/ Yoshitaka Hikawa – 25th April 2016

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April 27, 2016
Mixes
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We only came across Yoshitaka Hikawa‘s music this year, but in the matter of a few months he has become an Astral Plane favorite, showing off his clattering aesthetic across a series of edits, collaborations and mixes and establishing himself as one of the foremost voices in the edit/collage sector. Noisy, manic and often full of odd vocal bits, tranquil piano and enough paranoiac ambience to unsettle just about anyone, the Japanese artist’s work is truly special and it was a pleasure to have him come on our Radar Radio show earlier this week. Hikawa came through a special of only music from London’s Beatgatherers outfit, which makes sense because he’s released some of his best work on the label. Tracks from Hikawa himself, Pope, Graves and Barla highlight the mix which starts at about an hour and thirty three minutes in. The Astral Plane DJ Team starts of the first two thirds of the mix with a heap of Astral Plane Recordings material and new dubs and releases from Sully, Bruce, Leonce, Liquid City Motors, Mr. Mitch, Mechatok, B. YHZZ, Silk Road Assassins, x/o, Celestial Trax, Dis Fig, GAIKA, Famous Eno, Tsvi & Lorenzo_BITW, DJ Tray and DJ Haram. It’s all over the place as we like it so trap in and enjoy. Track list after the jump.

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Double Clapperz Mix For The Astral Plane

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April 21, 2016
Mixes, New Music
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Write-up and interview by Julien Breistroff.

Given Japan’s reputation for fostering niche cultures, and considering the nation’s decades-long relationship with reggae, it should come as little surprise that UK dance/bass music has found footing on the islands’ shores. Though Japan’s presence in dubstep may have come sooner – with Goth-Trad and his Back to Chill imprint and night – its grime scene has slowly grown to establish itself as the most cohesive representation of the genre in Asia. This status was recently cemented when Elijah & Skilliam tasked stalwart local MC Pakin with assembling an all star crew of Japanese grime MCs and DJs to record a showcase set for Butterz.

Among the artists featured on the resulting mix was Double Clapperz, a Production/DJ outfit consisting of Sinta and UKD. The duo have steadily made a name for themselves over the last few years, their tracks being played by a number of distinguished grime names. Spooky in particular has supported them since early, though Murlo, Boofy, and Impey have certainly helped to get Double Clapperz’ music played on radio and in mixtapes for Rinse, Radar, BBC Radio 1xtra, and Fabric. Coupling traditionally jagged grime drum patterns with a meticulously crafted low-end, their sound is as conscious a nod to grime as it is to soundsystem culture more broadly. The pair have worked extensively with local MCs and can count themselves among the most prominent contributors to Tokyo’s grime scene. With a white label dropping this June and the spotlight on Japanese grime growing ever brighter, Double Clapperz are poised to help bring their scene to the attention of grime fans globally.

Never straying far from the customary 140bpm, Double Clapperz’ Astral Plane mix progresses at a blistering pace, quickly and deftly blending their own brand of abrasive precision with hollow weightless cuts, dubstep, and hints of dancehall. Filled with unreleased beats, bootlegs, and exclusive vocal tracks, the mix is a thrilling glimpse into Japanese grime. Familiar ground is also provided as the duo pepper in released material from the likes of Commodo, Kahn & Neek, Ishan Sound, Murlo, Terror Danjah, and the Boxed crew – as well as an Astral Plane favourite, Last Japan’s forthcoming “Ascend” featuring AJ Tracey. We had the chance to ask the guys a few questions over the internet, and their responses (along with a tracklist) can be found after the jump/below the fold. In the meantime, turn your subs up and travel from Bow to Tokyo with this lesson in Far Eastern bass.

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Premiere: Karmelloz – ‘Returning / Series’

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April 20, 2016
Mixes, Remixes
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Karmelloz is no stranger to self-releasing music, having released a host of singles, edits and one-offs through is own channels over the past few years, and while official releases for the likes of 1080p and Purr Tapes have bolstered his name among certain crowds, his DIY credentials are as strong as anyones. So when a label he was working with dawdled on getting his next release out, the Portland-based artist decided to take it into his own hands and the result is Returning / Series. Functioning as an a/b single with remixes from Los Angeles’ D/P/I and Vancouver’s Matt Tecson, Karmelloz shows off a more subdued side to his production oeuvre, full of analgesic melodies, dusty drum programming and a good deal of strange vocal ephemera.

As the song titles suggest, the a and b sides have a strong dichotomy as “Returning a Different Person” gives off a hopeful, sunny disposition while “Series of Seizures” is all anxiety, an acid-tinged paranoiac number with an inside the machine feel. D/P/I and Tecson’s remixes offer wildly different takes on the originals as well, the former a shapeshifting effort that transforms from a mysterious drone into an off-kilter IDM burnout and the latter a beefed-up four-to-the-floor number emphasizing the track’s retrofuturist synth work and adding adding a nice dash of polyrhythm to the mix. The two originals from Returing / Series can be streamed below and the release can be bought here or after the jump.

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Orlando Volcano Mix For The Astral Plane

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April 14, 2016
Mixes
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New York has long been a key cog in the world of Caribbean music and for the better part of the last decade, Mixpak has created a firm foundation for the more electronic-focused strains of dancehall, soca and beyond. With Mixpak and their accompanying studio playing a key roll, New York is now home to a range of aspiring artists, producers and parties pushing the more eclectic, digital side of the dancehall spectrum and drawing increasingly important lines between UK forms like garage, bassline and grime, as well Jersey club and other American dance forms. Orlando Volcano is a relative newcomer in this world, but through his own productions and efforts for Escape From Nature, the label he founded in 2015, the Brooklyn-based artist has already begun to make an impact, pushing a jagged take on dancehall, grime & R&B across his solo work and a collaborative single with fellow New Yorker Copout.

With the likes of Wildlife!, Smutlee, Samrai, Ynfynyt Scroll and Murlo forming a global net of connections and contemporaries, Volcano’s work feels right home in the extended dancehall-grime spectrum and while he’s covered an even wider swath of territory in the past, even collaborating with house maestro Octa Octa, the sounds of Kingston and London are where he seems to feel most at home. Recent partnerships as Shine & Criss (with The Large) and The Onda Group (with Ynfynyt Scroll, NAR, HD and The Large) have cemented Volcano’s relationship with Caribbean musics, the former a high promise DJ partnership and the latter a dancehall and reggaeton party and DJ collective. Having spent the past few years experimenting and expanding, it feels like Volcano has found his niche and his Astral Plane mix only solidifies that sentiment, a rolling collection of original compositions, bootlegs and tuff vocals from Riko Dan, Ding Dong, Vybz Kartel and beyond. With New York-based AceMo, Copout, Tygapaw and Ynfynyt Scroll showing up in the the track list, the mix functions as a nice paean to Volcano’s adopted city, simultaneously flexing the more roots-y side and digi-grimey side of his aesthetic. Check out the track list after the jump and be sure to follow Shine & Criss and The Onda Group for updates on those respective projects.

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Pobvio Mix For The Astral Plane

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April 7, 2016
Mixes
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With rhetoric that refers to “[a]n oil and metal mine melting speakers, CDJ platters and smartphones,” nature-learning AI, and “survivors dancing to biorhythms,” Montevideo’s Salviatek outfit has led the way in exploring the synthesized extents of trans-Atlantic rhythms like the candombe and the results are rather stunning. At this point, Salviatek is only two releases deep at this point, but those two, by Pobvio and Lechuga Zafiro respectively, have set the tone for what’s to come, combining complex, hip-shaking drum programming with digital basslines and melodies. The effect recalls the more experimental side of the NAAFI camp and Argentinian producer Moro’s recent release for NON. And despite being a young label, ZF and Pobvio’s aesthetic is already well adapted and well considered, from the cephalopodic Aequs Nyama biobot to Pobvio’s stunning Syndombe Club EP.

That EP was what initially drew us into both Pobvio and Salviatek’s work, a release that comes off as equal parts joyous, mindful and dancefloor-forward, ignoring the loop-based nature of so much rhythmic dance music for a more freeform format and bringing Uruguayan candombe drumming to the fore. A functional follow-up to Pobvio’s also excellent, Syndombe EP (self-released), Syndombe Club proved a perfect introduction to an artist who has since wowed us with two spastic baile funk edits and is the latest artist to contribute an Astral Plane mix. Drawing from a collection of songs by Uruguayan, Brazilian, Argentinian, Chilean and Mexican artist’s work, Pobvio’s mix feels like mayhem failing to be confined to a sterile environment as wild polyrhythms spray about and vocal snippets from throughout the web-driven world of club music enter and leave the picture. No one is making the sort of hi-tech candombe that Pobvio and Salviatek have enchanted us with and it the former’s forthcoming work is as involving and heteromorphic as his Astral Plane mix is then we’re all in for something special.

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Basic Rhythm Mix For The Astral Plane

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March 31, 2016
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There are many avenues to approach Anthoney Hart’s work, each offering different view of the same whole, which might be why his work appeals, and often frustrates, so many. Seemingly always busy, you may have come across Hart’s hazy, abstracted Imaginary Forces project, his brilliant collection of pirate radio recordings, or 2015’s dancefloor-focused Basic Rhythm album on Type, all remarkably distinct projects that somehow speak to a cohesive, or at least coherent, whole. Originally rooted in hardcore/jungle/drum & bass culture, Hart maintained a show on Rude FM in the late 1990s into the early 2000s before becoming bored with the rigidity of the format and striking out into more experimental territory. Mostly known as Imaginary Forces until last year, Hart joined up with John Twells’ Type label for Raw Trax, his first official project as Basic Rhythm and an album that has shown off his abilities as a musical polymath.

Influenced by a huge range of material, from Coil and Kate to Bush to D’Angelo and Kendrick Lamar to contemporary producers like Gage, Rabit and the Her Records crew, Raw Trax is a hypnotizing listen, full of sparse, forceful percussion arrangements and vocal samples that rarely sit high in the mix, but create a mesh of rich, organic textures throughout. Hart’s roots in pirate radio are readily apparent from raw, often manic, energy of tracks like “Raw Basics”, “Break It Down (4 Da Kru)” and “Prototype”, but Raw Trax is not a jungle record and the hardcore continuum is one of many influences to be found across its eight hypnagogic bombs.

With discussions over nostalgia in rave music coming to a fore via the Bloc founder’s acerbic letter a few weeks ago, commentators are quick to lump acts into the heap of revivalists, but Basic Rhythm neither glorifies the sounds of yore, whether they be hardcore, jungle, garage or something else, nor does he rest his music output in those sounds, instead grafting a whole spectrum of influences into his own unique project. Raw Trax is inherently referential by nature of its sample choices, but you won’t catch Hart looking forlornly to the past and if you want to hear straight up drum & bass you can check out his third alias. Hit the jump to check out our interview with Hart. We talked Basic Rhythm, Type, moving back to London and more. Track list coming soon.

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Radar Radio w/ Abyss X, Nunu – March 28

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March 29, 2016
Mixes, New Music
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For the March edition of our Radar Radio show, we tapped two very special artists for guest mixes. Starting with this show, we’ll be putting more of an emphasis on guests and pushing new talent, hoping to offer up a less rigid platform for bringing on artists than our mix series. The first guest session comes from Abyss X, one of our favorite Los Angeles-based artists who officially debuted on Lao’s Extasis label last year. The Greek-born artist’s mix runs along at a torrid pace, hitting on gqom, southern rap, mahraganat and seemingly everything in between. Check out her Echoes EP here and look out for more heat from Abyss X moving forward. French artist Nunu came through with the second session for the show and this Summer he’ll be joining the Astral Plane Recordings family with his label debut. More news on that to come, but for now you can imbibe in his mix which balances noisy pop tropes and contemporary club jams with aplomb. Our own Astral Plane DJ Team starts off the first hour with new tracks from Ziúr, Chino Amobi, Brood Ma, Waterhouse, Mina & Lorenzo_BITW, Gage, v1984, Amnesia Scanner, Celestial Trax & Roosevelt, Mercury Drums and more. Stream the show below, download here and check out the (partial) track list after the jump.

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Malin Mix For The Astral Plane

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March 24, 2016
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Stockholm’s Evolver parties have emerged as a key node in the constellation of on-the-cusp parties in Europe, offering up an uncompromising, futurist approach to the club night format that seems to always fall on the maximalist side of the scale. Evolver is thrown and curated by Malin, Tariq and IINATTI and with a burgeoning mix series (Kablam started it off) and an ever-growing list of guests (Nidia Minaj, Why Be, Toxe, etc.), the self-styled cyborg missionaries seem to be carving out a unique space in Stockholm. Malin in particular has impressed with her mix work, turning out a string of volumes for Truants’ FOTN, Sister and Tobago Tracks that have been on constant repeat since release and provoke a sense of wonder in their handle over the more noisy, non-linear end of dance/not-dance spectrum comprised of everything from Brood Ma and Amnesia Scanner to Angel-Ho and SCRAAATCH.

Malin’s mixes are impeccably organized and seem to have more surprises (even while staring at the track list) than almost any other DJ we’ve come across (we included her in our “10 Club Producers To Watch” feature for FACT on the merit of her mixes), full of the sort of left turns that every selector aspires to, but only a few can truly handle with taste and genuine wit. Her Astral Plane mix takes the aesthetic established on the aforementioned mixes and turns it up to 100, ramping up the tempos and throwing in a helping of hard techno and eurotrance to the pot. Where others might come across cloying, Malin’s work makes big room trance and harsh noise sound comfortable together, bringing out the coy intricacies in both while disengaging from the commercial nature of the former and oft-harmful exclusivity of the latter. It’s had us fucked up since first listening and, while we’re biased, might be her best, most out of pocket mix yet. Hit the jump for a full track list and be sure to hit up Evolver if you get a chance!

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Huntleys + Palmers Mix For The Astral Plane

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March 17, 2016
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“We believe in the timeless appeal of music. Eschewing trends and opting to champion the great and exciting, the new and idiosyncratic. We join the dots between inspiring electronic legends and cutting edge emerging talent.”

So goes the tag line on the Huntleys + Palmers Soundcloud and while most PR-oriented statements are grating and only tenuously true, the H+P universe is truly divergent, a thriving constellation of releases and club nights that draw from a staggeringly eclectic range of the electronic-music world. Over the past nine or so years, Andrew Thomson, head of the label and promotions entity, has crafted H+P into one of the premiere outfits in the left field end of the dance music realm, splitting time between Glasgow and London and building a community around his and Auntie Flo’s Highlife parties. 2011 was the year the label started in earnest and in the five years since, H+P has released everything from a split Auntie Flo & DJ Sdunkero single to Mehmet Aslan’s still important Mechanical Turk EP and on to SOPHIE’s first official release. It takes a true music obsessive to expressively document such a range, but Thomson’s work comes across at effortless and by bringing everyone from Actress to Matias Aguayo to Charanjit Singh out to Highlife, the label’s work is even further solidified.

We’ve been talking with Thomson about doing an Astral Plane mix since late 2014 and when he sent through the volume we’ve gone with, we couldn’t be more excited. Comprised of Thomson’s (as Huntleys + Palmers) opening set for SOPHIE on the enigmatic producer’s Glasgow tour date in January, the set shows off H+P at it most playful, considered best, matching everything from sultry “Lollipop” covers to old trance and plenty of sneaky label material. We also exchanged emails with Thomson to get a better sense of his inspirations when he started H+P as a label, his desire to get involved with music supervision for soundtracks and where he generates the most digital trash. A split Alejandro Paz and Carisma single is all we’ve received from H+P so far this year, but according to Thomson we can expect new music from CAIN and Lena Willikens and a host of on-point parties is more or less a given. No track list for this one at the moment so you’ll have to dig!

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Teki Latex Mix For The Astral Plane

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March 10, 2016
Interviews, Mixes
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Over the past decade-plus, Teki Latex has consistently done more than almost anyone else, building a venerable solo career, seemingly expanding into new formats, platforms and arenas on a near-weekly basis, and imprinting his uniquely open curatorial lens on a huge assortment of projects. Nowadays, you’ll find Teki, born Julien Pradeyrol, at the helm of the insistently current Sound Pellegrino label (run in tandem with longtime creative partners Orgasmic and Emile Shahidi), hosting and curating the “2-hour long weekly DJ television program” Overdrive Infinity, and touring the globe, playing everything from A Club Called Rhonda here in Los Angeles to FWD in London and Cakeshop in Seoul. Inspired by contemporary ballroom legends like MikeQ and Vjuan Allue, Teki is also a member of Paris’ House of Ninja and has become active in the city’s ballroom culture, playing regularly at and supporting balls across the city and even putting on a vogue-focused Boiler Room earlier this year. In short, if you haven’t caught at least a few of Teki’s movements over the past few years you’re not looking in the right places and are almost certainly missing out. After all, the borders between Teki’s many projects are flimsy at best it’s no surprise when an artist contributes a song to a SND.PE compilation, appears on Overdrive Infinity and plays b2b with Teki himself at a world famous London club as Loom has done over the past few months.

For our 100th Astral Plane mix, we wanted to bring in an artist with longevity, sprawling creativity and an unabashed community spirit and I think we’d be hard pressed to find anyone better for that roll than Teki Latex. We spoke with Pradeyrol about his roll as a polyglot and how that effects his bookings and professional perception, his roll with TTC and Eurocrunk’s continuous influence on contemporary crossover forms, and the next wave of French artists and parties he’s in constant dialogue with. His mix is a rambling three deck affair that runs through eras and genres with a reckless flair that only a DJ as skilled as Teki can maintain. 2014’s Deconstructed Trance Reconstructed mix is still one of our favorite mixes of all time and Teki’s work on Astral Plane Mix 100 only expands that affection we feel for the Parisian legend, effortlessly walking the line between the most affective, self-serious modes of club music and its most gregarious, silly fringe. Few artists work as hard as Pradeyrol and even fewer seem to have anywhere near as much fun as he does while doing it. Hit the jump below for our extensive (and wonderful) talk with Teki and a track list (you’ll need it) and the bottom of the article. Enjoy.

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