Midweek Mixes (31/08/22)
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.
And just like that August is over and the gradual downward slope into autumn begins. For me the pace of the summer shows no sign of letting up, though, as I have various trips coming up over the next couple of months: Croatia for Dimensions this weekend; then the UK and US and UK again for a variety of gigs in exciting new places and spaces. More info to follow.
In the meantime I’ve been listening away as usual, on trains and planes and sitting here at my desk at home while doing my other job. I’ve been seeing if I can get on board with the hyped up rave-trance-pop train but, I admit, to little avail. There have been great moments in podcasts by Vivienne and Gramrcy, among others, but I have found it difficult to persevere with this kind of high-speed and high-excitement tonk for the full length of a mix. Rather than hi-energy it gives me a bit of hi-anxiety. (Not even mentioning - though actually mentioning - things like Job Jobse’s recording from Dekmantel…)
So here are some of my favourites of recent weeks that are better suited to my own increasingly old-fashioned tastes.
Two hours of classic stomping house from Five, originally from New Orleans but currently living between San Francisco and New York. This was recorded at the delightfully-named Quiche party at SF Pride earlier this year and by only 7 minutes in the “you took my heart/I can’t believe it” vocal can already be heard speaking for a legion of jilted queens baring their souls on their special day. Punchy is the word I’d use to describe this mix: as it goes through deep, acid, jazz, ballroom, latin, you-name-it varieties of house, the low and mid frequencies thump through the recording (and the transitions, which are musically on point) and keep the energy high.
As is often the case, my favourite moments are the rhythm tracks. Five mixes out of Hercules And Love Affair’s Inner-City-meets-Midnight-Star single ‘Do You Feel The Same’ into a rolling jack track, leaving the outgoing vocal to ad lib satisfyingly over the top. Not long after he preps the ground for a disco sequence with a reverb-heavy snare moment, the kind of abstract pause you may wonder about as it starts, but become thankful for when the payout of the next record comes in.
By the time we get to the end with Jasper St Company’s ‘Smile’ it sounds like Five is speaking straight from the heart. Proper DJing, in other words.
DJ Anarres - Transilience @ Great Circles Radio (18/07/22)
I’m going to be playing after DJ Anarres in Philadelphia later this month so decided to check their music out while I was making supper the other day. Transilience is a monthly show on Great Circles Radio and as it played out I heard the sound of a kindred spirit. Yes you CAN have Space, Thomas Brinkmann and Harold Melvin all rubbing shoulders, and indeed you actively SHOULD.
Tracks like the “Acappella Bitch Mix” of Vince Capretta’s ‘I Will Survive’ are the kind of thing I hope to find when buying records on the East Coast, and ‘Spectre’ by Anthony Shake Shakir is one of those incredible tunes I feel I really should already know about but did not. I confess that the mid-to-late-90s hard(ish)-house diva tracks early on are not my cup of tea (they raise some of those pop remix red flags I’ve been going on about recently) but I can still appreciate the intention behind including them.
Sometimes when I do this sort of pre-listening to other DJs before a gig it throws me a little, even though I know in my rational mind that online sets are not a reliable indicator for how someone plays out. Nevertheless, hearing this show filled me with confidence that we’re going to have a lot of fun in Philadelphia.
Max D - EtoAno Hodgepodge Mix 008
This mix comes with a load of wonderfully personal annotations from Max D himself, which, as you can imagine, is like catnip for me. Who doesn’t love an annotated mix? Max talks about his history and relationship with each record - some in the context of his own productions, others in his work as half of Beautiful Swimmers - making connections between radio plays, samples, house parties, record stores and DJing in a way that just makes me glow with recognition. This in particular, about a Chaka Khan tune, made me LOL:
“My parents listened to Rufus & Chaka growing up, but I was not hip at all to this utter banger. Embarrassingly, I even already had the record at my house, just hadn’t ever peeped this song, like a dum dum.”
I feel you Max.
The second half of the mix is tough going if you’re not keen on either free jazz (this is just within my limits) or incredibly low quality recordings (the final section of DC go-go cassette recordings really tested my ears). But whatever, that’s part of this mix series’ charm - personal tunes with personal stories behind them. Next I’m going to give DJ Wawa’s video game mix a go.