Midweek Mixes (31/03/21)
A short 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.
Roza Terenzi - Hue & Saturation Mix 024
According to the accompanying interview, Roza Terenzi’s inspiration for this mix arose during her mandatory self-isolation in an Auckland hotel before she performed at Beacon Festival. The tranquilized opening to the mix captures that vibe perfectly, with deadpan telephone vocals taken from 100% Genuine, Rephlex’s infamous 1999 compilation of voicemail messages from a dating hotline.
The ensuing tour through trip-hop, drum n bass, jungle and blissed-out 90s house forms an evocative counterpart to her first lockdown mix for Barcelona’s Maricas collective.
Ana Helder - Tropical Animals Mixtape
Despite her having released three records on Cómeme over the past decade, plus a few other labels, I only heard Ana Helder’s music and mixes for the first time this week. This recording for Italian label Tropical Animals caught my ear by opening with ‘Give Me More’ by Khan, which I also included in the latest Flamingo.
It maintains that unhurried, highly-textured approach through the first half, before an explosively percussive midsection leads into more party tunes later on, including ‘Darling Don’t Leave Me’ by Robert Görl of D.A.F. and Annie Lennox and Kraftwerk’s re-version of their own ‘Pocket Calculator’ from 1991’s much-maligned The Mix. My kind of music.
Penelope - The Basic Moves Of…
After enjoying the three previous instalments from Brussels label Basic Moves, I was excited to hear Penelope’s contribution to the series. It comes hot on the heels of her production debut ‘Gathering’ on Tresydos, a track which morphs from sounding conventionally tech-house-in-2021 in the first half into something altogether more sophisticated and moving in the second.
The mix sees classic and minimal house rub shoulders with more current breaks- and trance-influenced sounds, and I have to say it’s the house that wins out every time: from the stripped-back and refined grooves early on to that Chicago stomp at 29 minutes.
There’s an unsettling vocal about 40 minutes in that’s like a paranoid version of Grace Jones’s orgasmic intro to ‘Love On Top Of Love’ – quite off-putting. But all is forgiven because it heralds the arrival of a huge string-adorned bassline-led house banger in the mid-90s transatlantic style.
Stephen Howe - Internet Public Radio
I met Stephen at Virgo Festival 2019. We were sitting near each other eating breakfast while looking at the view and he introduced himself. Since then I’ve followed his mixes and radio shows, including the long-running Strange Friends & Friendly Strangers on the sadly departed KMAH Radio and now his new show on Refuge Worldwide.
This mix was a guest appearance in the second half of Sarjan Paul’s show on Internet Public Radio. It’s a thought- and mood-ful journey through mid-90s glitchy trippy breaks and electro, slowed to a crawl in the first part and then kicking into warpspeed for the finale. Stephen wrote some very cool notes on the mix in this IG post and it’s exactly the kind of DJ insight I wish there was more of. And i’ll definitely be buying the repress of Ed Chamberlain’s 03/06 after hearing it in this mix.