Midweek Mixes (07/07/21)
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.
Rizmi - Awkwardly Cast 037
An inspiring mix from Rizmi, a Leeds-based DJ who I’ve included in a previous Midweek Mixes and whose work always makes me sit up and pay attention. This new set for Berlin’s Awkwardly Social is no exception.
Listing different things from the mix (familiar and unfamiliar) gives a flavour of what it sounds like while saying little about what Rizmi does with the material. But here you are anyway: a chopped-and-screwed ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’ by Eve to open; London reggae (co-produced by Tim Westwood no less); trip-hop and breaks (by turns cinematic, festive, cosmic); jubilant Detroit beatdown and boogie; an insane (and amazing) left-turn into some kind of mash-up of ‘Planet Rock’ vs ‘Bump’ by Spank Rock (remember Spank Rock?); flashes of jungle, 2-step and tribal house (because why not); mid-90s latin freestyle put through a bleep blender; Skepta; and a closing floaty-cloud-of-a-tune that resets the mood and makes you want to stick the whole thing back on again.
As for the mixing, it’s dynamic, crafty and energy-giving. It has personality. In general, you sense that each record has a strong personal and/or cultural significance for Rizmi beyond (or as an integral part of) its musical quality, meaning the overall mix acts as a sort of identity card. It says to us: “Here I am, this is me,” in a way not many mixes do, making it all the more compelling to listen to. It’s the kind of achievement I admire in other DJs – Theo Parrish and Jaye Ward come to mind – and it’s what I aspire to myself.
SKR - The Basic Moves Of…
I associate the Brussels crew loosely centring on Crevette Records and the label Basic Moves with a sort of paradoxical magpie purism. On the one hand, the music you’ll hear in a DJ set or radio show or on a label release retains a refined and generally restrained (if often intense) mood, heavily indebted to the 90s if it doesn’t in fact come from the 90s, and often striking a chord in a way that the more in-your-face sounds of London or Berlin do not. That’s the purist part. On the other hand, where that music comes from, or what genre it fits (or doesn’t fit) into, or what it will be combined with – that’s a different story, the magpie part of the equation.
The result is a cohesive feeling that nonetheless casts a very wide net, in this case snagging just over an hour of deep drum n bass and jungle from long-time radio host and digger SKR. This is sound territory I have next to no grounding in, but that’s the beauty of listening to mixes – someone else has done all the hard work! I’ve listened to this podcast several times now and each time the ebb and flow of the selection and mixing carries me along effortlessly.