For some time, I've harbored hopes of putting together a feel-good mix of records that have really stood the test of time, and harbor genuine emotion and meaning to me. And what better time than the beginning of another UK summer that arrived with such high hopes (Don't they always?). And right now, in November, as the nights draw in, and the air begins to bite, what better time to remind ourselves that it's always Summer, somewhere...
The beginning of 2009 was a time of cross-genre musical celebration, with the warm, organic feeling of 'real' house, disco and techno with a non-minimal studio approach enjoying a resurgence, which continues today. Studio-tanned die-hards, such as Aeroplane, Todd Terje, Omar S and DJ Koze were crossing over all over the place, and becoming bonafide members of the pantheon of dance.
This mix is my attempt at telling a story which, such is life, has a bittersweet overtone... Reading between the lines, the second half of the mix is more autobiographical than I feel its necessary to reveal in public. Like the best stories, and the best summers, I hope this mix leaves you with unanswered questions, unrequited emotions but the reassurance that, at the end of it all, everything really is going to be alright, and it will always be summer somewhere.
01. Aeroplane - Aeroplane 02. Tommy Seebach - Bubble Sex 03. Low Motion Disco - People Come In Slowly 04. Skatebard - Marimba 05. Woolfy vs Projections - Abysnth (Marcos Worgull Remix) 06. Blackbelt Anderson - Sandoz 07. Studio - Life's A Beach (Todd Terje Remix) 08. Justus Kohncke - It's Gonna Be Alright 09. James Chance - One More Regret 10. Omar S - Psychotic Photosynthesis 11. Addled - I'm Sorry 12. John Tejada - The End Of It All 13. DJ Koze - Mariposa 14. Tommy James & The Shondells - Crimson & Clover
I was extremely pleased when Modyfier asked me to contribute to the Process Series, so I spent an extra special amount of time preparing and creating this mix. I think it’s fair to say that this is an exact representation of what’s floating my boat at the moment and what I’m constantly playing out and at home. I’ve tried to encompass a nice broad style of House and Garage in the mix and hopefully representing the UK to the max (all of the artists featured on the mix are from the UK, barring Claude Von Stroke, and well the Brackle’s remix is of John Legend but I’m going to let that one swerve). Starting with some really nice trippy 2 step from Pariah released on R & S Records and then moving through the mix we hit man of the moment, Joy Orbison. A couple of tracks from Hot City are in the mix. This is an artist I’m particularly into at the mo. This boy’s harking back to the days of 90’s rave and UK Garage (peak time around the late 90’s, early 00’s) and using this to make fresher than fresh House. A little bit of nice Old Skool UK Garage is flexed, too, from Scott Garcia ("A London Thing" never leaves my box) and finishing up with some recent Claude Von Stroke. Hope you enjoy.
01. Pariah – Orpheous 02. Synkro – Just Say 03. Joy Orbison – J Doe 04. Zomby – Digital Flora 05. Joy Orbison – Brklyn Clln 06. John Legend – Heatbreaker (Brackles Remix) 07. Hot City – Head Work 08. Scott Garcia feat MC Styles – A London Thing 09. Roska – Hey Cutie 10. D-Malice – Keep On 11. Hot City – What Am I Doin’ 12. Claude Von Stroke – Storm On Lake Saint Claire
This is most of the Reagenz live show we did at 222 Club in San Francisco on 1-October 2009. Reagenz is a collaborative project that I do with Move D, aka David Moufang, that we started in 1994. This show has a few tracks from our upcoming album “Playtime” which comes out 1-November on Germany’s Workshop records, as well as a bunch of new tracks we’ve been trying out live over the last few months.
Gear we use includes a Nord Modular 1, a Roland TR808 (which handles most of the drums), a virtual Korg MS20, an analog delay and Ableton Live (which acts as the clock (it’s still unstable, please take note, anyone from Ableton)). There is also a lot of Oberheim OB8 that I just picked up a couple of weeks ago (the lushest 80’s polysynth ever). We trigger a few Ableton parts that are from our recording sessions and mix it up with the live hardware as well as some inspired guitar from David. The idea is to get the machines to do as much cool stuff as possible, in real time, and to keep it as interesting for ourselves and the audience. The first track ‘Shibuya’ is actually edited in from our Decibel Festival show a few days earlier – I didn’t press record in time in SF! To hear the complete Decibel gig, click here.
The 222 show was a really fun gig for us because there was lots of improvisation going on and unexpected things coming in and out of the mix - and it was a great crowd. So here it is, warts and all.
We were really flattered when we got the invite to do something for Modyfier, alongside all these other great artists who have contributed. At first, we thought about painting a picture or cooking one of our wicked toast/egg creations. But, after a while of thinking, we decided to do the thing we can do best: doin' music. To be exact, doin' a proper dj mix for all the Modyfiers out there. We're always on a mission to guarantee a good party, so the aim of this dj mix is to make you dance...when you're at home, at your moms house, on the streets and so on. So you won't hear a Chill out, 80ies-Classics or eclectic Rock-meets-house-meets-rap-meets-everything mixtape, as this ain't Dualton. But you will hear a groovy uplifting set of finest house music, like the ones we are doin' in the clubs right now.
To describe the mix: At the moment we're really into deep groovy house music, often garnished with analog instruments and vocals (without being cheesy). So we go on with new tracks of masterminds like Luciano, Mendo, Damian Schwartz alongisde newcomers like Roger Gerressen, Yvan & Tristan and ourselves. The mix starts off very energetic and uplifting, goes deep in the middle to collect some new energy, and comes back like a hurricane with joints of Radio Slave and Steve Lawler. At the end, it features one of our new releases on VIVa MUSiC which is called "Shanti". What else to say?…uhh…the mix is quite an hour long and we hope you enjoy listening as much we enjoyed doin' it.
If you want to check out what we have produced in the past, just check our releases on imprints like Steve Lawler's VIVa MUSiC, Vivid Recordings from Berlin and of course our older stuff on Rompecabeza and Bedrock. We always appreciate feedback dealin' with our work, so if you like our stuff and if you like this mix here, just drop us a line.
01. Luciano - Los Ninos De Fuera 02. Yvel & Tristan - Candela 03. Mendo - Everybody I Got Him (2009 Mix) 04. Roger Gerressen - No School Like The Old School 05. Frankie Flowerz - It's Funk, It's House (Damian Schwartz Remix) 06. Leon - Puertorican Etno 07. Seth Troxler - Panic, Stop … Repeat! (Paco Osuna Remix) 08. Radio Slave - Koma Koma (Steve Lawler Remix) 09. Dualton - Shanti (Dub) 10. River Ocean feat. India - Love & Happiness (Michel Cleis Remix)
For me, there are two approaches to recording a mix. The first is to take a lot of time in thinking of a smart and coherent concept, to then carefully select the according music and plan its transitions, and later, record the whole thing and make it public. There are plenty of my sets on the internet where I have done exactly that, with quite some variety of styles and ideas, and for a variety of reasons and purposes, too. These mixes are often schooled by the mixtapes I compiled for as long as I can remember (for girlfriends, friends and maybe some yet invisible target audience). My mixes of that kind have gotten more refined over the years. At some point, I started to mix music, and the amount of people such a set finally reaches has grown considerably. But the method, more or less, has stayed the same.
The second approach is to record a set while you're playing in the club. Of course, the selection and execution in that context is different. I usually bring as many records as possible that I would like to dance to if I would be attending the club that very night, and then I combine them as it makes most sense to me in the given situation of the party. I try to avoid repeating combinations with each gig. For me, the fun part of mixing is to try and test new sequences. This can run the risk of a hit-and-miss in outcome (often depending on how inspired or concentrated I am), but in my mind, the possibility of failure is far less uncomfortable than relying on playlists of which I have already explored or experienced the success or functionality of. In short, I try to stay open to the surprises the music has on offer, and I try to pass that on to the crowd.
As Modifyer asked me for a guest mix, I quickly thought of doing something I had never done before: a combination of the two approaches mentioned above. At the time, there were no concepts left in my mind waiting to be released in a set (and admittedly, I also had so many other things to take care of that I found it difficult to come up with another or a better idea). If such ideas don't strike you right away, they are mostly not worth being carried out anyway. What I did spend some thought on, however, was the music I wanted to play at Macro's imminent label residency at Panorama Bar on the 10th of October 2009. I decided to leave the records in my box in the exact order I would play them at the gig, and re-record the set as soon as possible, with the memory of the proceedings still vivid. And thus I did, a day later. Naturally, the way the set now sounds is different to the live situation of the club; the mixing is tighter in parts, probably less frantic, and I could already tell where to mix in from what I could still remember of playing the music as it happened. Still, it was very interesting to repeat the experience, and it was also very interesting to take a second look at the choices I made in the intensity and immediacy of the night.
The night itself was a wonderful experience. We had just released the album "Catholic" by Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras and its accompanying singles. For the occasion, my label partner, Stefan Goldmann, and I invited Serge Verschuur from Clone Records and our friend Hunee to play. We knew that both would deliver the dynamic diversity we had in mind to celebrate what we had worked on for so long. I was due to play the last set, from 8 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. Unfortunately, I had a severe cold resurfacing, so I took some hours rest before arriving at the club at around 4 a.m. I could tell right away that the vibe of the club was a bit different to other nights there. Dubfire was on for Berghain, and judging from the queue I passed on my way to the entrance, the people interested in hearing him play seemed other than the regular crowd. I didn't mind that at all, but as I made my way through Berghain, I kept running into friends who were telling me that there was more trouble at the door than usual. The music was different, too. I paused to listen to Dubfire's set. While the monolithic pulse of the techno sound associated with Berghain was there, it somehow lacked the tension and groove that I need to lock me. I went upstairs to Panorama Bar to check what was going on there instead.
Serge was in the midst of a blinding set of classic and contemporary house and techno. The crowd was well into it. Hunee followed suit marvelously, steering the proceedings to more cheerful shores, and adding some classic disco and anthemic vocal moments. There were smiling faces enough, familiar and unfamiliar, to convince me that the night turned out to be what we hoped for, and then some. As I took over, I had the feeling that I should take another direction musically. I felt very tired and numbed by the fever the flu brought along. To start, I thought that I should kick myself into action with the music, hoping that the dancers would follow my way. Picking Heaven 17 to follow up Hunee's last record, Code 718's blissful "Equinox", was admittedly a bit bold and therefore received some confused looks, but then in the course of the set, things quickly fell into line. Flicking through my box, every next record seemed to be waiting in place, already offering its services to make the night one to remember. When I left the club, near Sunday noon, into the same mean cold drizzle I entered from several hours before, the music continued to thump in my head and there were indeed a lot of wonderful memories to keep. On Monday, I refreshed myself, had a good breakfast and then recorded this set right away in one take, in order to not let any of those memories slip away.
01. Heaven 17 - Let's All Make A Bomb 02. Santiago Salazar - Arcade 03. The Children - Freedom 04. Nitzer Ebb - Join In The Chant 05. Reese & Santonio - Bounce Your Body To The Box 06. The House Factors - Play It Loud 07. Static - The Native Dance 08. Dope Wax All Stars - Angelo's Groove 09. Foremost Poets - Reasons To Be Dismal? 10. Exposure - Love Quest 11. Seven Grand Housing Authority - Love's Got Me High 12. Callisto - Ambent II 13. Caucasian Boy - Northern Lights 14. DJ Pierre - Muzik 15. Loftis # V - Dreamin' 16. M.A.D.A. - The Good Stuff 17. Pet Shop Boys - Can You Forgive Her? 18. Junior Rafael - 4 All Da Men In My Life 19. DJ Sneak - Fear The World 20. Transcendence - Magique Noir 21. Tears Of Velva - The Way I Feel 22. Cheek - Venus 23. DJ Pierre - Box Energy 24. Dntel - (This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan 25. Mina Jackson And The Children - Pray 26. Bam Bam - Where's Your Child? 27. Yello - You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess 28. DJ Bone - We Control The Beat 29. Raz - Baila 30. Air Frog - Bon Voyage 31. The S-Man feat. Orchestra 7 - Rhumba 32. Lime - On The Grid 33. Paper Clip People - Oscillator 34. Aaron Carl & Benjamin Hayes - The Struggle 35. Rhythm Invention - Chronoclasm 36. Audiotech - Techno City 37. John Beltran - Going Home
Depending on what sort of track I want to write, I will apply a different approach. The sorts of tracks I am most into making, and which are probably my most original, are my emotive, melodic works. So I will talk a little about how my creative/production process works in these cases, using the end of reason as a reference. This track was released on Traum Schallplatten as part of my Symphonica EP. I will not however, refer to this released version, but instead, to the unreleased ambient rework, which forms the intro of my live mix - Lipse, included here. I think this ambient rework of the original track strips down to what the track is really all about, acting as a better reference for the purpose of this commentary.
First off, if I’m trying to write an emotive track, I need some sort of emotional message to try and communicate. The clearer and stronger the message, the more chance there is that it can be faithfully translated into a piece of music, and evoke a similar response in a listener. There is a lot of noise (by which I mean randomness and imprecision) in this translation of an emotional message from me, to a track, to a listener’s response. This noise in the delivery of a message from person to person via music is an inevitable consequence of the fact that everyone has a differing response to music, based on their own experiences - there are no magical chords which make all people feel exactly the same way for example. Luckily, there is enough of an agreement, at least in the westernized culture which I am primarily writing music for, to allow for some level of fidelity in the message conveyed by particular pieces of music. Therefore it is possible to convey some sort of message, in spite of the noise in the transfer process. The relevance of this issue to my process of writing music is that I need to be as clear as possible about what emotion I am trying to convey when writing the track; the clearer the original emotion, the greater the chance of a successful transfer. This means that if I get a feeling about a track, I drop everything and get straight to the studio, often meaning starting something new at 3am on a Tuesday morning. I find that if I reflect back to the feeling of an idea the next day, it is diluted, at the expense of the resulting track.
In terms of what triggers an idea like this, it can be anything - a film, light reflecting off a window, anything really. It’s hard to say where creative ideas come from, but I would say it’s all about bringing together influences and experiences which are individual to you, in order to generate output original to you - I don’t believe in the magical creation of ideas out of nothing, and I find that if I spend all my time writing music and not enough time outside the studio, my creativity drops.
When it comes down to actually translating an emotion into music, I find it best to use sampled strings to create a basic chord progression capturing the feeling I want. The rich overtones of orchestral strings makes it easier to judge the properties of chords and their progression (as opposed to using synths), aiding the translation from mind to machine. I will usually then convert this basic chord progression into electronic elements, or as in the case of the end of reason, I sometimes use the strings in the track. I will generally then expand on this idea by adding melodies guided by the basic chord progression.
The actual conversion from idea to reality (how I actually write the chord progression) is done on a very intuitive basis. I try things out, and compare how a chord or chord progression makes me feel in comparison to the emotion I am trying to convey. All I have to do then is match the two emotions up. It’s a bit like multi-dimensional beat matching! Multi-dimensional because I would say emotions are defined by several scales, rather than standard, two-dimensional (time and amplitude) beat matching. And it’s not beats being matched, it’s emotions. Haha, if that makes sense! I don’t have any formal music theory training, although I did have my mum’s piano lessons as a regular background noise when growing up, so maybe that had some effect. In some ways I think it could be useful not to be trained in music theory, as it means there are no pre-conceptions about how to construct a chord progression, and it may be easier to focus on matching those internal (in the head) and external (out of the monitors) emotions. That said, a solid grounding in music theory would no doubt speed the process up.
01. Max Cooper - The end of reason [Traum] - Ambient Rework 02. Extrawelt - Mit Liese - Max Cooper Remix [Traum] 03. Granlab - Industrial Romance - Max Cooper Remix [Broque] 04. Max Cooper - Wasp [Traum] 05. Dominik Eulberg - Sansula - Max Cooper Remix [Traum] 06. Max Cooper - Mnemonic [Traum] 07. Max Cooper - i - Max Cooper's Apocalypse Remix [Traum] 08. Cirkus - Simplicit [Trapez] 09. Marco Dassi - Narcotraffic - Max Cooper Remix [MCGroove Black] 10. Max Cooper - Stochastisch Serie [Traum] 11. Dan Cat - Winterslow - Max Cooper Remix [Playtime] 12. Cirkus - Hyperventilation [Unsigned] 13. Tim Sheridan - Villian - Max Cooper Remix [Veryverywrongindeed] 14. Max Cooper - Symphonica [Traum] 15. Pollyy - Pins and Needles - Max Cooper's Purple Haze Remix [Shrink Records] 16. Bigger Than Jesus - Check Point Charlie - Max Cooper Remix [54 Music] 17. Max Cooper - Harmonisch Serie [Traum]
The idea for this mix came about during a car ride around San Francisco, with none other than humble London producer, author and university professor Steve Goodman. Known as Kode9 by many, Mr. Goodman is the proprietor of Hyperdub, a label known in part for leading the charge into the now-established world of dubstep.
As we drove around town looking for a location to shoot this episode of XLR8R TV, the conversation turned to Hyperdub artist Cooly G, and the mutation of UK garage into what has come to be known as "UK funky", or simply "funky". Cooly G's brand of funky seems to break the rules, veering away from 4/4 kicks and predictable structures, and according to Kode9, she herself didn't feel like any sort of label really fit what she was doing.
Looking into the matter more closely, it became apparent that there are a host of musicians from the UK and the US that are considered dancefloor producers, but their tunes push the boundaries of what most club-minded individuals would consider danceable. Back in the day, we'd call this style of music or DJing "leftfield." Mixing influences and ideas with minimal regard for the rigid constructs of mainstream genre definitions, leftfield DJ sets would often be danceable, just not predictable.
So enter The New Leftfield, a collection of producers that pull inspiration from dubstep, funky (or even funkstep?), wonky, techno, garage, you name it. Here's my selection of these outlier tracks and producers that challenge me to follow the rhythm and move me towards the dancefloor.
Location: san francisco, california, United States
selections from the audience...
thoughts about defining how music comes to me, the ebb and flow of sounds...
thoughts about palimpsests. about the happy medium between creation and erasure, about redefining lines, edges...
thoughts about remembering how to listen...about listening so hard for things that ear wax melts (you know pauline oliveros?). you know that feeling?
thoughts about how music steps across genrifications to be about the everyday, the mundane, the routine. for me it is. in all moods. always moving me.
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