Midweek Mixes (05/10/22)
A run-down of some of the mixes and radio shows that have been soundtracking my existence – from the box-fresh to the tried-and-tested – all guaranteed to brighten up your week.
Sam Ashton - Pumping Velvet 2022 Guest Mix @ Bruk Radio
A towering mix that should be top of everyone’s playlist right now. Sam is a long-time friend whose party Pumping Velvet has been picking up steam again since Covid, at its new home of the Dalston Superstore in London. Sam has always played records at the party but now he’s got in the digital game too, which is lucky for us because it means the work he puts into listening to music is now available in digestible mix format.
Recorded live for Bruk Radio, this show focusses entirely on 2022 music, making me marvel yet again at the sheer enormity of music in the world, and feel grateful for people like Sam who filter it down to the best bits every year. When I listen to this I can’t help think how my own activity in this regard is painfully limited - be it in terms of genre, tempo, geography, or simply vibe. Where do people find the time?! (Sam is fond of pointing out that if I spent less time watching Super Smash Bros competitions online I would probably achieve more in life, and he’s not wrong.)
Without a tracklist* I can’t give you all the details of who this or that tune is by, or where it’s from, but I can tell you that the thread running through these two hours is a kind of meeting point of deep musical spirituality and sexuality, the sacred and the seductive intermingling, and expressed however they may be expressed in different parts of the world. The mixing is at times thrilling - check Stella’s carefree ‘Sentimentale’ melting into the cavernous stomp of Ibibio Sound Machine’s ‘Electricity’, for example - and the sequencing in general is carefully thought out. There’s boogie, gqom, UK garage, Brazilian funk, nu-new jack swing and freestyle, Cathy Hobi and much, much more.
Listen to this and you will no doubt feel compelled to go to Pumping Velvet…and so you should! This Friday it’s a Bad Gays book launch party with guests Chris Cruse and Abena, then next month I will be making the trip up to London to support a very special guest.
(*Sam, the people are waiting!)
To accompany Green Portal, his wonderful new record on Dream Ticket, BufoBufo provides the label with a 90-minute lesson in all things broken - electro, breaks, IDM, and everything in between. He consistently eschews chinstroking in favour of playful energy, at times mixing in the space of a beat while keeping the flow going. It’s the sound of an expert at work and I want that 2017 Klasse Wrecks tune in my life NOW!