Midweek Mixes (11/08/22)
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.
A day late but that’s what happens when you’re playing at being a DJ, writing artist biographies, translating a cinema programme and trying to bond with your parents all at the same time. I’m not losing my mind at all. I’m busy, but I’ve been listening to some great mixes and radio shows to get me through - so here they are.
This weekend I play at Panoramabar for the second time, doing the Sunday morning closing shift from 8am through to midday or so, when the garden opens for Steffi and Virginia. Sunday afternoon frolics in the sun? You bet. Then next Wednesday I’m off to Waking Life festival, where rather than playing records I will be playing birthday boy and generally rampaging around. Say hi if you see me. Can’t wait.
Ivy Barkakati – Blast Radio 14/07/22
Moody pop, jazzy loungey vocal-driven house, disco-y early 00s UK stuff, Chicago classics – all mixed carefully and often cleverly together. At times the noodle gets a little too strong for me, but I’ve listened to this mix multiple times recently on my travels and I always ride it out, cos the pay off is worth it. Earlier on the tube I had a bit of a moment to ‘Fade’ by Solu Music, its vocal teetering on the edge of cloying but ultimately going straight to my heart. And later on the techy thump of a 4/4 kick coming in under a broken beat cover of Pharoah Sanders’ ‘You’ve Got To Have Freedom’ is a moment of pure joy. Thanks Ivy for an uplifting two hours, and for finishing in style with ‘The Deep’.
The full tracklist for this show is on the SC page.
Ricky Moslen - “Life Is A Gregg Araki Movie” Mix
I’ve only seen one Gregg Araki movie - Mysterious Skin - many many years ago and I don’t remember anything about the music, just the weird cows-aliens-anuses motif that for some reason has really stuck with me. This mix, according to Ricky, is the soundtrack to a Gregg Araki movie that doesn’t exist, and it works even if the precise reference passes me by. Shoegaze, dream pop, post rock - whatever you want to call it it’s a kind of music I listened to incessantly in my late teens, so this all sounds very recognisable and yet, apart from the inevitable cameo from Liz Fraser & co. and a couple of others, I don’t recognise any of it. For that reason the mix comes off exactly how it was meant to: the soundtrack to a film that sits tantalisingly on the edge of familiarity, but never actually happened.
My friend Sam put me on to AGY3NA recently and this mix of his, which seems to have been largely overlooked. Here’s a DJ reaching across music history in a way I’m always drawn to, making connections based on mood and groove rather than genre or era. The main body of the mix is breaksy-electro and -techno focussed (what isn’t these days), and it’s energetic and often pretty exciting, but it’s at the fringes of this sound that I get really into it: the eerie cold wave opening; the (for me) totally unexpected appearance of Bell’s ‘RIST11A4’ halfway through (microhouse revival anyone?); and the final 15 minutes of 80s breakdance, Detroit techno-funk and a kind of 8-bit italo. I have some insider information that AGY3NA may be making his London debut soon….keep your eyes peeled!