Midweek Mixes (27/07/21)
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.
Simm. - LowMoneyMusicLove Mix 23
One of the Just Us crew from Slovenia, Simm. is the DJ whose name was whispered most reverently by the people I met when I went to Ljubljana to play in February 2019. At the afterparty the next day, which was held in a funny old-style restaurant that overlooked the river, he proved why. While the rest of us had banged it out more-or-less appropriately through the night, morning and early afternoon, he came on in the early evening and immediately transformed the mood, playing tracks with more space and melody and a much needed spring in their step.
I can picture it well even today, and now I can hear it too thanks to this mix. Breezy house of the Svek/Herbert/16B variety, deep and wistful electro, and several tunes that verge on nu disco without falling into the trap of sounding too much like nu disco. All of it stitched together cleverly and sensitively, with a shrewd awareness that the dancers’ legs are tired and in need of stern, yet sympathetic, encouragement.
Vassallo - Social Hours 005
Vassallo is a co-founder of ex-Newcastle now-Leeds collective Dig Deep and the new label Subterranean Odyssey, which so far has put out two records very in line with the past few years’ vogue for electro-techno-chicago bangers. If i’m honest my personal patience for that sound has worn a bit thin, which is why I was so pleased to hear the opening section of this mix continuing in the same vein as previous favourites of his: thoughtful, emotional, deep.
After that initial warm-up there are a few acid-heavy tunes that threaten to put me off, but then things get a lot more fun. The synth textures become more adventurous, at times IDM-y, and some variations appear in the breaks. There are a few hands-in-the-air moments towards the end - including a surprisingly dubsteppy one - which remind me of my own mixes, cos that kind of finish is something I can never quite resist.
Franz Scala & Fabrizio Mammarella: Outsiders @ Kiosk Radio
Slow Motion Records and their international sister label Wrong Era are among the few labels I actually pay consistent attention to these days. Ever since Kruton’s Knight Lore EP in 2015 (“never leaves my bag!”, as they say) and Lerosa’s Il Notte Tempo EP in 2016, their bandcamp alerts have always given me a frisson of hopeful excitement that their latest offering might be another banger. In truth, for me at least, the banger rate has been pretty low. All too often the tunes lack a bit in progression or movement, though it’s also possible I’m an impatient sample listener (I 100% am).
But when I listen to this Kiosk Radio session by label heads Franz Scala and Fabrizio Mammarella I hear all the things that drew me to their output in the first place: the vibe is chuggy but groovy, the percussion shifts satisfyingly between loose and regimented, the synths are dense but not dull. It’s a blast, and I find myself wondering how many of these tunes are actually from their label, things I may have previously discounted but that find a new lease of life when played in their right context by the people who put them on vinyl.