Midweek Mixes (14/03/24)
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.
Some housekeeping before I get to the mixes. Earlier this week I tried my first paid-only post on Buttondown and discovered that gifted subscriptions from Substack had not been transferred over. So if you found yourself locked out of that post, I apologise. I'm reinstating the gift subscriptions now. Hopefully everyone else has the same level of access as before — if not, let me know.
I'd also like to say a thank you to the people who messaged me after I asked for feedback. It's much appreciated and nice to have a bit of a two-way communication with you.
Right, on with this weeks mixes!
Sam PV - Kiosk Outsiders w/Welt Discos (09/03/24)
Sam PV contributed the guest mix for this month's edition of my Kiosk Outsiders residency and it's the sonic equivalent of a one-hour stint in a Vabali sauna. Never rising above 120 bpm, highlights include Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai's forthcoming track on Optimo 'My Heart My Motherboard', which features ABM's dispassionate vocals over a sparse but effective instrumental, Josh Caffe's Prince-like 'The Rentboys Want Their Money Back' (chased soon after by the man himself on 'New World'), and the epic 'Cascade' by Indonesian producer Munir.
I was never the biggest fan of the needy vocals on In-Dex's 'Give Me A Sign' and Orion Agassi's edit on Ritmo Astral doesn't improve matters, but there are much better vocals elsewhere, including Markus's edit of 112's 'Dance With Me', which references that classic banger 'If You're Happy And You Know It'. The transitions in the mix are often key-matched for extra impact and Sam keeps the vibe full of anticipation. This is sexy, steamy warm-up music done right.
TRACKLIST
Raquel Welch - Spacegirl Dance (DJ TLR Edit) [Creme Organization]
Saturn - Fortress of Suara [MM Discos]
Fringe Society - An Skorbut Sterben [Slow Motion]
Markus - With Your Girlfriends [Unreleased]
Que Sakamoto + NT - Ipponjime [dsrptv]
Ambient Babestation Meltdown & Borai - My Heart My Motherboard [Optimo, forthcoming]
Black Light Smoke - Nailed to the Ground [Zone Music]
The Hacker - Jalousy [Zone Music]
Josh Caffe - The Rent Boys Want Their Money Back [Phantasy Sound]
Ritmo Astral Edits - Perpetual [Ritmo Astral]
Prince - New World (Luku Solomon Edit) [Self-released]
Donald Dust - Space Dust Mods [Wilson]
Munir - Cascade [Midnight Runners]
Kross Section - IZU [MM Discos]
Lucien - 2l.a.m [Abuelo Negro]
The second half of the show features an excerpt from my set at Outra Cena back in January, when I was warming up for Livwutang.
Razrbark - Kiosk Outsiders w/Minor AM (28/02/24)
This mix has soundtracked my mornings for the past week or so. Razrbark traverses dusty cosmic-pastoral Americana, detuned shoegaze, languorous spoken word, weirdo folk...and that's just the first half. Having spent a good chunk of my adolescence listening to slowcore, dreampop, neofolk and any number of related sub-sub-genres, many of these tracks have a familiar sound to me, even if I can't pinpoint them. (It's the same feeling I had listening to Ricky Moslen's 'Life Is A Gregg Araki Movie' mix a couple of years back, and Razrbark's selection here could equally serve as an OST.)
In the second half she enters electronic territory with tracks that range from glitchy to dubby to gnarly to steppy. The energy and time shifts are deftly pulled off, the mood kept right at the point of boiling over. By now I've learnt that this is Razrbark's area of expertise — see her Distant Signals mix for another example. It's a vibe I happily find myself returning to again and again.
SPRKLBB - All Night @ Mansions (02/02/24)
So far I have only listened to half of this six-hour all-night-long set from SPRKLBB at NYC hotspot Mansions but that was enough to include it in this round-up. Despite crossing paths with him in both Lisbon and Tbilisi I have yet to actually catch SPRKLBB play, but this is as good a replacement you could ask for until the day that happens. Mansions is a unique out-of-the-way wine+dance spot in Ridgewood that has a sick sound system, excellent drinks and a hell of a lot of fog. I played there all night last August and will be back in early June.
This recording is a showcase for SPRKLBB's unique flow with three turntables (see action shot of setup above), which is a very different kind of DJing to what I do, one that sees tracks not as standalone statements but as raw material to be layered, manipulated, teased out or compressed depending on the mood in that moment. SPRKLBB uses effects to further warp our perception of what sound is coming from which source, and I'm pretty sure he goes for records that are themselves unpredictable or somehow hybrid, to heighten the effect of disorientation even further. How much of what we're hearing is the third deck, how much is the effects and how much is the original records? That's a question I ask myself every 10 minutes or so while listening to this. I'd have to see it with my own eyes to find out.
It's difficult to describe and no doubt much more difficult to pull off, but SPRKLBB does so with aplomb. Also, how on earth does he do this all with the turntables battle style? Nightmare. There are energies and vibes in this set that would be hard to achieve with just one track after another. (Though Prosumer, for example, does sometimes achieve a similarly kaleidoscopic effect with only two decks, as I wrote about here.) The music itself ranges all over the place, but so far my favourite bits are the Manali Cream mix of 'Stoned' early on, the skippy housey stretch around the hour mark which feels ripe for a late late afters, and the mic-drop Sparks moment 2.5 hours in.