Midweek Mixes (20/07/22)
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.
Love Muscle w/Michael Upson (All Night Long)
Now this is a real treat - an all-night recording from Leeds queer pumpathon Love Muscle, with head honcho Michael Upson taking us from open doors at Wharf Chambers through til closing time six hours later. I’ve played at Wharf a couple of times so as I listened to this I could almost picture the scenes, though I have been reliably informed that as far as parties there go, there is nothing quite like a Love Muscle experienced in the flesh.
Michael warms things up with soul, boogie, dub and disco, all the good vibes that let you know you’re in good hands as the dancefloor begins to fill up. Around 90 minutes in he pulls the never-gets-old trick of playing (a version of) ‘At Midnight’ at, presumably, midnight, before Donna Allen’s ‘Serious’ gets the first big crowd singalong of the night. (This also foreshadows the vocal’s re-emergence later on, in one of the seemingly millions of Euro pop tunes that sample it. And I’ll be frank here, if I have to watch one more IG story of a DJ playing a tune sampling either Donna Allen or Alice Deejay this year, I might have to kill someone.)
In isolation, there are many tracks in the meat of this set that I would not give a second listen to if I picked them up in a record shop. There’s all sorts of stuff that’s too trancey, too banging, too dense, too frenetic, too unmusical for my taste, especially listening at home. Yet it’s all put together with an angle that makes these tunes shine, telling a story about the full range of queer dance music history and scenes over the past 50 years - which is something I can appreciate even if the music of some of those scenes is in my book pretty dreadful.
This is an effect I observed and found myself (mostly) appreciating back at Gay Haze at Listen Festival earlier this year. Dancing then, and listening to this now, I find myself wondering what circuit parties would be like if they had DJs with the historical and cultural awareness and sharp sense of humour needed to carry off their more excessive moments. (The conversational mix between ‘Jack Your Big Booty’ and ‘Work Me Goddamit’ is a really fun example of humour late on in this recording.)
My favourite moments - no surprises - are when Michael breaks up the thudding trance and techno and Euro pop with funky syncopation, broken beats, vocals, or a bit of dreaminess or sweetness. Obviously a lot of the impact of the peak time comes from the contrast between those modes. But I can’t help feel a bit relieved when the pace slows in the final hour or so and the focus shifts to soulful vocals, orchestration and, canonically, a ‘Take Me Home’ finale.
Bring Down The Walls w/Slow Motion City & Lirubishi (30/01/22)
I’ve been catching up a bit on Lakuti’s Bring Down The Walls show, and last week’s listening was this South African takeover episode from January this year. Slow Motion City and Lirubishi are DJs and promoters in Cape Town and here they play two hours of jazz, funk, afrobeat, soul, broken beat, and even a bit of MPB (the irrepressibly catchy ‘A Gira’). The centrepiece, ‘Power Show’, was new Fela Kuti tune for me and will be back on rotation for sure. The masters of the extended disco metaphor, Shalamar, see us out.
Pornopolis are a duo who throw italo parties in a very cool looking bar called Maison Balkii in Geneva. I find the first track in this mix pretty obnoxious, with its medley samples and bro vocal shouting “house music is what you need”. (Can we just put all male vocals that go on about house music in the bin please? And a lot of the female ones too?) But get past that false start and you’ll find a collection of exuberant bangers from across the italo/NRG/beat spectrum, among them firm favourites of mine by Sparks, Boytronic and Blue Vertigo. It all culminates with Amanda Lear’s ‘Follow Me’, beckoning us, I guess, to come to Geneva.