Pont de Tolbiac, Paris, France, 19/07/1992 from Combe on Vimeo.
Interview coming up soon with this French legend. Watch this space.
Interview coming up soon with this French legend. Watch this space.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Old Records: Fragments Of A Debate
Much is currently
being made of the relevance of digging for old stuff. This is not to the
detriment of the new, rather an act of both rediscovery and research. Today
Resident Advisor published a piece on the Berlin-based collective Slow Life,
whose modus operandi seems to be one
of unhurried evolution. Their oldest collaborators come from Italy, the
birthplace of the slow food movement. Significant connection or tenuous link?
I’ve yet to read the interview and look forward to doing so, but I have the
feeling that the rediscovery of old sounds while relevant to the collective is
nothing more than them wanting to do things on their own terms and nothing
more.
If music is good
it deserves to be heard and shouldn’t be considered as finite. The Slow Life crew seem to be a little bit remote from current trends. This has served them
well as far as house and techno is concerned, because although the genres are
very malleable, they still work within a very defined structure, which apart
from production techniques and the accompanying technology, really hasn’t evolved
at the same pace as the composite artistic imagination. The dawn of rave all
the way through to the mid-nineties is still viewed as the most fertile period
for house and techno by many, but have their been any major developments twenty years on?
There is a
polarization of conservative thought on the one hand almost abstract on the
other, and a mass of those for whom anything goes holding sway in the middle.
And it’s in the centre ground which is by far the most interesting place to be
as far as being a DJ is concerned. Others that have been labelled as diggers
recently include the likes of Nicolas Lutz, Voigtmann, Binh and Andrew James Gustav. It’s interesting to listen to their sets, all of which are very much
the sum of their parts. If that sounds negative it isn’t meant to, it’s just
that the music they draw on makes listening a very linear experience. Now I
like a groove as much as anyone, but I’d be lying if I said the most
interesting mixes I’ve heard are simply a consequence of keeping it locked in
the same airspace throughout. Very little stands out for me, but I have the
impression that this is the overwhelming objective. To play clandestine music
which, once revived goes straight back to the realms of obscurity having
unleashed its essence on the unsuspecting. The exact opposite of the northern
soul approach, which was to dish up the obscure and flaunt it.
I suppose the
only thing left to mention is that most, if not all of these selectors have a
strong attachment to vinyl. To the outsider this may feel like they consciously
wear their affinity as a badge of honour, inasmuch as the eschewing of anything
remotely digital in format reinforces their standing. It doesn’t feel in any
way contrived though, because I’ve yet to come across an article or interview in
which there is any negativity to CDs or laptops. The irritating vinyl v digital
debate never raises its head, which is nice as it could so easily be revived
every interview. Not just with these guys, but a load of others too. It’s good
that we’ve moved on.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Saturday, January 09, 2016
Classic Melodies From The Motor City, Or Not
As just heard back to back on Deetron's New Year's Day Rinse FM programme.
Tuesday, January 05, 2016
Zadig Interview
Here's a link to a chat I had with Zadig just before Crimbo.
These are three of his most recent mixes. The most recent one on his Soundcloud page is incorporated into the Ibiza Voice page.
The above are the five pieces of music I asked him to name as major influences. They are more than the sum of their parts, and I thought it would be good to embed the whole of the Led Zep film, rather than just the OST.
Sunday, January 03, 2016
Day Job
It’s all about priorities I suppose, so I
aim to make this year a decisive one for myself. I’m well aware research has
been done which proves that talking about one’s objectives makes them much less
likely to happen, so I intend to keep my ambition silent, and start the ball
rolling now.
Flashback to just before Christmas and one
of Detroit’s most out-there voices, Terrence Dixon, waffling on about the needto “keep it real” by being devoted to your art and craft 100%; eschewing the
need to work in order to support yourself, eat, drink have a roof over your
head and do the same for your family, that’s if you’ve been unfocussed enough
to have one, I suppose. I’d like to think that Dixon’s words didn’t come out
quite as he intended them to, so I’ll try and give him the benefit of the
doubt. However, he does have a history of not engaging his brain before he
posts on social media. This hasn’t stopped him from releasing some of the best,
most complex techno of the last few years though, so keep on with that
Terrence, and stop announcing your retirement. You’ve had more comebacks than
Status Quo.
If there’s one person who feels trapped in
a vortex of gainful employment butting its head against unrequited artistic
potential it’s myself. Blogging for around ten years now, writing reviews and
interviews for other websites since 2007, but giving over the majority of my
time to a job which doesn’t recognize experience as an asset and is part of a
fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants industry which is incredibly self-perpetuating, I
really see this year as one in which I need to do something. I’ve been DJing
for twenty years, since 2004 on community radio. This will be coming to an end
this Saturday, as the show I have been helming with Harry Sword has fallen
victim to the creeping gentrification of the local airwaves. We don’t know how
many people listen to our show, which goes out once a month, but I do know that
the fact that we broadcast electronic music has seen it lumped lazily into a
category which can’t tell the difference between bland, formulaic
Beatport-inspired fodder and something far more relevant.
I shouldn’t be too surprised though. I
remember a local Cambridge DJ, one who doesn’t live there any more, being
dismissive of my show when I broadcast for 209 Radio as one which just played
minimal. This blog was originally set up to accompany it, but has flopped
around somewhat since and evolved into a series of links to other things. It’s
tempting to wind it up now, as the radio is coming to an end, even if there was
a two –and-a-half year hiatus, but there’s life in the old dog yet. The most
important use for it is to give me some hope for the future by me using it to
document my thoughts in music and also to have a record of those thought and a link with the past.
It could be said to be one-dimensional,
inasmuch as there is a specific ficus on the music I buy and listen to, but
it’s also there to show that I’ve never grown out of this and I regard any
notion that I should as patronizing. DJ culture has always fascinated me, and I
suppose there are some obvious reasons for this. One of my greatest regrets is
that I’ve never learnt to play an instrument. Ergo, I don’t want my youngest
son to ditch the piano he’s been learning for the past year or so. Another side
to this though is that I’m not even sure I possess the concentration necessary
to play anything, but I’ve always been in love with playing records, and have
seen its infinite variety as much more interesting and entertaining than
playing an instrument anyway. All slightly contradictory I know, and I’m not
knocking musicians here for being mundane, indeed, the hours spent practicing
and rehearsing to reach perfection are admirable, but probably not for me.
So, how to climb out of this wormhole of
inhibition I’ve built for myself over the years? I need to find a few different
angles and get my finger out of my arse. I’ve always had ideas but rarely acted
on them. That will hopefully change this year (note use of “hopefully”; must be
more assertive).
Expressing Dark Matter EP -Fred P (Rex Club Music)
Title: Expressing
Dark Matter EP
Artist: Fred P
Label: Rex Club
Music
Cat Number: RCM002
Genre: Deep House
01: Wave Patterns
02: Continuous
Sensations
03: Unbroken
Circle
Fred P continues
to do what he does best on this EP. ‘Wave Patterns’ is a ten-and-a-half minute
minimal, percussive, cosmic soundscape which could easily prove to be the foundation
track for all deep, driving, thinking people’s stellar sets from now on. ‘Continuous
Sensations’ involves flanged percussion enveloped by filigrees of fragility,
while ‘Unbroken Circle’ is a low-end tracky composition which sounds like an
arctic wind. All in all, three very useful deep DJ tools from Mr P, which will take likeminded music to another level.
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