Midweek Mixes (09/02/23)
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.
Midweek Mixes has suffered a little these past few weeks. I do often have phases where I simply stop listening to new stuff - and sometimes the flow of podcasts and radio shows can be overwhelming - but for this past month it’s more because I’ve been preoccupied with my own work, past and future.
First, I’ve been prepping for this strange variety of recent gigs by listening to some old sets of mine. I find it reminds me of things I have forgotten about, not just records themselves but also something about the spirit of mixing those records that I might have lost over the years. I also had my Kiosk show and in parallel was finishing a new podcast that should be out in a couple of weeks, and which required plenty of groundwork. Since recording it I’ve listened to it a lot, not really to analyse it in terms of quality (I submitted it the day after I recorded it) but almost as a kind of mourning process: putting tracks in a mix like this, capturing them and releasing them in a package to be consumed by others, always feels like the closing of a cycle.
I know other DJs who never listen to their previously recorded mixes and good for them. But I almost never get tired of listening to my own stuff. Call it self-centred and maybe it is - but I’m my own favourite DJ so why wouldn’t I! That being said, when I get a little tired of my own genius, I do still make some time for the genius of others. So here we are.
Di Linh - Live At Studio Namsan (February 2023)
Di Linh is one of the residents at Savage in Hanoi, which I wrote about recently. Aside from welcoming me at the club, she also sent me an indispensable list of local food places in Tay Ho, without which my trip would have been much poorer. I didn’t get the chance to see her DJ on this trip but here’s a good substitute: a live recording from Studio Namsan in Seoul this week.
She kicks off with a refreshingly light reduced house mood - I want to hear more of this please in general right now! - before moving gradually into techier territory. The sequencing and mixing is expert and, apart from that Plush Management Vengaboys edit that simply won’t go away, the selection is on point. I want to know what this ridiculous track is halfway through that sounds like The Grid with a cut-up sample of Björk talking utter nonsense over the top. Then there’s a nice little 80s moment towards the end. I want to hear Di Linh doing this in person, and I hope that this summer might provide an opportunity!
Anders Dahl - Interflow (Jan 2023)
Swampy, twilight textures for the opening section of this mix from Anders Dahl, who welcomed me to Jolene in Copenhagen back in December. This is winter music, melancholic and wistful but never losing that little glint of optimism, the brief hint of sun behind the clouds. Anders actually recorded this in Latvia in the autumn so I shouldn’t get too carried away, but I guess that’s the point of these things: we listen to them in places and times far removed from their original author, and they speak to us in myriad ways.
Things get pretty wacky in the middle, with a track that sounds like a marching band falling down the stairs (32 mins) and then a hugely satisfying overdriven chopped-up banger (52 mins), before he finishes with some up-to-date electrofunk.
Velvet Velour - Butter Side Up 067
2022 saw Liam put out records on Butter Side Up, Nuances De Nuit and my own Welt Discos (still his best if I do say so myself), and he’s kicking off 2023 with a 6-tracker on Mindhelmet. That’s a pretty impressive showing by anyone’s measure, and listening to this BSU podcast I fully expect him to add more exciting DJ gigs to the CV as the year progresses. I know (from him telling me) how much work went into this mix and the result is a collection of tight, funky, offbeat breaks and garagey tech house that speaks to the varied soundworlds that lie behind his own productions.
When I first saw Liam DJ at Star Lane about 18 months ago I was struck by the playful, housey jazziness in his selections and you get quite a bit of that here too. Then there are the more conventionally shiny modern tech house bangers, which I can mostly take or leave. Somewhere in between is Liam’s own sound, which draws on that current trend but often makes use of a melodic counterpoint that helps him stand out from the crowd. My favourite moments in this mix, though, are those dustier, jazzier ones that provide contrast: the stripped down stepper at 40 minutes, for example, which keeps the energy high but texturally feels miles away from the sheen of the tracks around it.