Monday Mixes (11/07/22)
A special Monday edition of Midweek Mixes linking a new recording of Prosumer playing in Leeds on May Day 2022 to his first ever Beats In Space session in April 2008.
Prosumer - Beats In Space #410
A defining mix for me, Prosumer’s Beats In Space #410 was released in April 2008, around the first time I saw him play in London. Once we get through Tim Sweeney’s characteristically awkward introduction to the show, Prosumer gives us a concise lesson in both house history and how to be a DJ, opening with a sleight-of-hand blend of the cinematic intro from Romanthony’s ‘The Wanderer’, the interlude of Nick Holder’s ‘Love Is Blind’, Moodymann’s ‘Backagainforthefirsttime’, and then the full version of ‘Love Is Blind’.
Which instrument is from which track? Which record ends where? The effect is kaleidoscopic and instantly draws you in. After a brief ‘Morning Factory’ diversion he switches to retrospective mode, with a 1-2-3 of Larry Heard and Fingers Inc. that connects 2003 (‘Free’, ‘Tell Me What It Is’) to 1988 (‘Never No More Lonely’). The sweet, loving mood this establishes is then promptly flipped over by the sexy, breathy punch of ‘Break 4 Love’ (also 1988, a record I finally got a copy of from Academy Records in Brooklyn two weeks ago).
Then the pièce de résistance, ‘The Feeling’ from The Grand Lodge Of Luxor EP on Prescription matched with the acappella of Colonel Abrams’ ‘Trapped’, the “wuuh-wuuh” vocals in the former sounding uncannily like Abrams himself so that the two tracks seem like they are one. Prosumer plays with the illusion, cutting the backing track right on time for the “doo-doo-doo aah-aah-aah” bridge and ad lib before nonchalantly dropping it back in with a scratch for the second part of the break, Chez and MK’s melancholy chords drawing out the pain in Colonel’s lyrics before they fade out. He waits a beat, and then drops in the original of ‘Trapped’, the bassline and snare fill slicing through ‘The Feeling’ and giving everyone the chance to really sing along this time.
After all that, the sensitive key mix into another Prescription banger, ‘Be My’ by Noni, and then the whole rest of this stunning mix, feels like just another day at the office.
Why am I reliving all of this more than 14 years later? Well…
Prosumer - Live @ Sheaf Street (01/05/22)
This recording of Prosumer DJing at Sheaf Street in Leeds on May Day 2022 opens with a tune that samples that Noni tune, ‘Be My’, over a very modern-sounding breaksy-house beat that then features the acappella from ‘Moonraker’ by Foremost Poets. Without knowing what the track is, I’m already in another kaleidoscope of house signifiers and we’ve only just started. Around 45 minutes in he plays First Choice’s ‘Love Thang’ and then - or so it seems at first listen - overlays it with the ascending sonar motif from ‘The Climax’, which famously samples…‘Love Thang’. This in fact turns out to be a Gay Marvine edit doing the work for the DJ, but the point for me is the effect of an endlessly diverting tapestry of old and new, original and sampled, familiar and unexpected, stitched together for our education and, more importantly, pleasure.
Prosumer doubles down on all of this by mixing out of the First Choice edit into the B-side of Chez N Trent’s KMS049, which must be his most played record. The stabs and strings in this not only mirror those of ‘The Climax’ (which sounds like it samples the A-side of KMS049) but also call back to that tune that sampled ‘Be My’ right at the start of the set. We spin the house kaleidoscope again and new brilliant patterns emerge. Around the hour mark he uses a “hallelujah” vocal as a bridge between two or three different tracks (it’s difficult to tell where the drums belong), taking us to church for several minutes before dropping a filthy Robert Armani-style jack track that I sort of recognise but don’t.
I could and will go on. He mixes out of Dwayne Jensen’s Tenderness-sampling ‘My People’ by ever so gradually filtering out all of the low end until all that’s left is the hi-hat tss-tssing merrily away. Slowly you realise that there in the background is the loopy guitar lick of First Choice’s ‘Doctor Love’, or rather, of ‘Prescription Every Night’, which duly zooms into the foreground locked in step with Jensen’s hi-hat until its own high end gets going. It’s an audacious trick pulled off masterfully - the train is running and, as if there was ever any doubt, we are on it. Doctors Cat’s ‘Feel The Drive’, well, it drives the message home.
When Prosumer plays Members Of The House ‘Share This House’ later on it sums up everything he, and this set, is about:
Can I share my house with you?
I’ll play it loud if you want me to.
It’s a sort of meta narration of what he’s already been doing, and it heralds another barrage of references as he finishes the set, first with Blake Baxter covering, you guessed it, First Choice (‘One More Time’), then Nightmares On Wax sampling Vicious Pink and Frankie Knuckles featuring Robert Owens (‘I’m For Real’).
Back when I was starting to obsessively listen to (and write about) Prosumer’s sets online and in person in 2008-2010, including that original BIS mix, I didn’t know anything about First Choice, Fingers Inc, Prescription Records, Colonel Abrams. I would go down rabbit holes of trying to identify where vocals and samples in his records came from and, in doing so, I would discover more and more about house music history. I also started learning and thinking about DJ technique. Was he using acappellas? Was he doubling records? Did the synth stab in this record reappear in that one by chance? Were the vocals talking to each other? And today, with almost 15 years of experience under my belt, listening to this recording brings back that same feeling of mystery, wonder and enthusiasm for the music and the craft. It’s a kind of inspiration that can be hard to come by these days.