Midweek Mixes (30/04/25)
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.
It’s a Sheffield bleep special this week! The first weekend of April involved a whole series of coincidences that all pointed to the same place and sound, so I had to write up this combo here, and then there’s a bonus mix from me.
Clark Price - Freeride Millennium, Radio 80000 (20/02/21)
Clark recently re-shared this 2021 mix online and, being a fan, I immediately stuck it on. I happened to be walking around Sheffield that day after my gig at Gut Level, visiting a couple of galleries and generally soaking in some highly unseasonal northern sun. As it happened, the mix was heavy on the Sheffield bleep, so every time Clark brought in a new local selection my smile got wider and my step bouncier. I was in the right place.
Rob Gordon pops up multiple times, first with ‘Capita’, off his Black Knight EP from 1994, mixed into Psychic TV’s ‘The Final War’, and then again with Forgemasters ‘Clap Your Hands’, which Clark mixes into another Black Knight tune, ‘Balance’. Later there are temporary digressions into classic Chicago house (Housemaster Baldwin and Bam Bam) and deeper stuff (the two tracks at 44m and 47m are gorgeous) but the bleep always reasserts itself, ending with Abyss II’s classic ‘Pressure Dub’. (Apparently that was produced in Leeds, not Sheffield — close enough!)
I dug that Ability II record out for my most recent set at Outra Cena, before I listened to Clark’s show. And there’s another moment where his mix triggers a connection from my recent time in clubs: around 15 minutes in there’s a blast of synth that to my ears resembles the riff from ‘Coda’ by Amin Peck. I took that record off the shelves again recently after hearing DJ Caring play a souped-up version (this one) out at Incognito in Lisbon, and she played it again at Lux just last week. The tune Clark plays only has that blast of the riff before turning into a bleep-with-ragga-vocals stomper — I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s yet another Rob Gordon banger.
Stephen Howe - 100% Rob Gordon on Refuge Radio (04/04/25)
It also just so happened that, on the very day of my gig in Sheffield, Stephen Howe’s show on Refuge Radio in Berlin was 100% dedicated to Rob Gordon. Stephen opens with Gordon’s first (and, one assumes, biggest) UK chart hit, Krush ‘House Arrest’, which was co-produced with Mark Brydon (later of Moloko fame) in 1987 and sold over a million copies worldwide. But as Stephen points out, that wasn’t the start of the story, so he takes us back to Gordon’s childhood in Sheffield where reggae soundsystems played 10” dubplates at community parties and little Rob started making noise machines for his mates. You should listen to the show to get the full story of how Gordon set up FON studios (it stood for “Fuck Off Nazis”) and went on to found Warp.
I’ve always been fascinated by Gordon’s pre-Warp productions, like Stacey Q’s ‘Nights Like This’, which Stephen chases with a remix of Joyce Sims ‘Precaution’ I’d never heard before, but is a real earworm. Indeed, I hear a direct line from that remix, released in 1989, to the 1992 Forgemasters track ‘Conga’, which pops up later in the show and which Stephen rightly identifies as Lil Silva 25+ years before the event. There are brilliant quotes from Gordon on Chicago house, Detroit techno and Basic Channel — “I reckon if I’d have spent any more time in Germany I’d have gone and given them a hand” — and a survey of his work on Source Records. I love listening to Stephen’s shows cos I always learn something: for example, I had never spotted that Richie Hawtin was on the credits for Rob Gordon Projects!
Joe Delon - Hessle Show on Rinse (07/04/25)
In case you missed it, this was my mix for the Hessle Audio show on Rinse hosted by Ben UFO. I wanted to play mainly new music by friends and acquaintances, and that’s what I did!
Here’s the tracklist with links to listen and buy:
Miagma – Bridge Of Rainbows (Dub) [Not Safe For Wax, 2024]
Ranma Entero – Lima [Discos Sentimiento, 2024]
schuttle – Kitchen Sync [Bakk Heia, 2025]
Pediment – Your Life Is Changing [Acid Camp, 2024]
Melchior Productions Ltd. – The Hypnotist [Perlon, 2007]
Paul Fleetwood – Neat Money [Perimeter Junk, 2025]
Sasha Pervukhin – Drum Talk [Bandcamp, 2025]
Ranma Entero – Tortillinas [Bandcamp, 2025]
Bakongo – Best Of Both [Eterna, 2024]
The Memory Foundation – Puppetmaster [Central, 1999]
SHE Spells Doom – 1000 Machines [Alphabet Street, 2025]
Mitch Von Arx – Pin Pon [Bandcamp, 2025]
Gent1e $oul – +390 [Fast Castle, 2025]
Baalti – Bodylock [Steel City Dance Discs, 2025]
C Powers – I Will Not Live In A Fascist State [Sorry, 2025]
Hiroma Keo – Atraso [Eterna, 2025]
RodMan – Last Breath [Cluster Traxx, 2025]
Ranma Entero – Fabre (Extra Queso Mix) [Bandcamp, 2025]
Tryst & Vovian – Haeundae Beach (Eli Verveine Remix) [Stólar, 2024]
Mihail P – Natural High [Rescan, 2025]
Link – Aurora [Symbiotic, 1993]
Thanks to Ben for having me and to Telma and Amaury for lending me the use of their setup cos my current home situation is no good for recording digital mixes.