Midweek Mixes (21/04/21)
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.
Note: my radio show Flamingo is live on Rádio Quântica today from 16h-18h GMT.
Sofie K - Late Night Shopper
Sofie K’s monthly NTS show is a staple of mine, its usual formula of fist-pumping tunes of different velocities punctuated on occasion by lovingly-curated specials exploring Sofie’s own background and life story: check the episodes focussed on Morocco and Poland, or the nostalgic compilation of music about computers she did last year.
This set is a more down-the-line exercise: just a good old banging club set recorded at London’s charity radio programme Late Night Shopper, which broadcasts from the club MOT in Millwall, South East London. This was where I saw Joe (from Hessle Audio aka my arch-nemesis) play just before the first lockdown of 2020 – a fantastic space with a lovely soundsystem that I can’t wait to visit again in the autumn.
Big-room breaks, hardcore, UKG, booty bass, an electro tune that apparently samples the ‘Ding Dong Song’ without actually being awful – basically it’s one long bop.
Laylla Dane @ Wake Up Stran-Jah 2020
Laylla Dane blew my mind on Monday morning at Meadows In The Mountains a few years ago and I’ve been waiting to see her play again ever since. This live recording from another Bulgarian festival, which I believe she curates herself, is the closest I’ll get for a while, but it surely does the job.
The opening section is tough, a little too high pressure for me the first time I listened, but it’s worth persevering in order to witness the clever way she finesses the toughness into a more uplifting funk. First she uses roomy electro with plenty of super-satisfying live drum sounds to open up some space, which she then fills with bumping house and dreamier techno.
Check out her wonderful recording for CDV last year for more of the same.
Nick Craddock – Sea/Side 05
Nick’s naivetape was one of my favourites of 2020 and here he’s back with a recording for Finnish series SEA/SIDE that complements that mix’s club-focussed drive with a more reflective after-the-afters mood.
The picture he used to illustrate the tracklist on his instagram page is of a sunny beach with blue sky and palm trees in the distance, and that’s what the opening of this mix sounds like. There follow some supple rhythm tracks, slow electro (including Autechre’s remix of ‘BIPP’ by the late SOPHIE) and shimmering ambient (YES IT SHIMMERS), always with a fine balance between organic and synthetic textures.
Simply a class act.
Moving Still – Fresh Kicks 152
I won’t write anything about the background to this mix or Moving Still himself because it’s all covered in excellent fashion in this interview with Gabriel Szatan.
What I will write about is the mix itself, which pushes so many of my buttons: fabulous italo, boogie, 90s house and pumping hi-NRG edits of tunes from the South-West Asian and North African (SWANA) region, all of which I can imagine really losing my shit to at a party like Pumping Velvet or Adonis.
There are a couple of sections where things get a bit dense and heavy, leading me to look for a breather, but he almost always pulls it back with a newly stomping arpeggiated bassline and a great vocal.