Track Of The Day: Gil Scott Heron - Angola, Louisiana (Arista)

 

‘Angola, Louisiana’ comes from the album ‘Secrets’, an album I used to own but sadly don’t anymore. And the reason I’m posting this is because when I looked at the track list I had a bit of a Prussian rush. Honestly, there are a hatful of tracks I could have posted, but this one stands out. ‘Angola, Louisiana’ references a high security prison. More specifically, it is “A courageous message about the unfair trial against Gary Tyler who supposedly killed 13 yrs old Timothy Weber during the assault by white students against a black student's minority recently integrated thanks to new antiracial regulations in '74...GT is still in jail”. That was cut and pasted from a YouTube comment, so it’s a bit all over the place, but you get the picture. Black American music is full of such references. People literally getting away with murder and framing others if they can. “There are more than 6,000 men currently imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola—three-quarters of them are there for life, and nearly 80 percent are African American. It's the end of the line for many convicted criminals in Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the U.S.”

Vass The Mudd Show

Eli Verveine @ The Lot Radio 05-16-2026

The Lot Radio · Eli Verveine @ The Lot Radio 05-16-2026

Ransom Note @ The Lot Radio 01-24-2026

 

The Lot Radio · Ransom Note @ The Lot Radio 01-24-2026

Tia Cousins & Manuol Bone @ Kiosk Radio 15.05.2026

Track Of The Day: Rhythm & Sound - Mango Drive (Wackies)

 

There’s not much to say about this track except that it’s possible to listen to it forever and not get bored. In spite of what feels like a simple structure, dub like this has the ability to suck you in and keep you transfixed. This is anything but smooth though. Because although there are tight boundaries, within those walls there is an elastic reality. 

Robert Hood - Spectra (M-Plant)

 

Title: Spectra

Artist: Robert Hood

Label: M-Plant

Cat Number: MPM52

Genre: Techno

A1: Spectra

A2: E. Dark

B1: Untitled (Spectra)

B2: Fiend

Even though it was released back in 2001, ‘Spectra’ may be a new tune to me as, although I bought a lot of the M-Plant stuff on sight, I think I’d stopped by 2001. Why, I have no idea. I mean I’ve got a lot of records so it could be in there, somewhere. In any case, in his heyday Hood was the innovator, alongside Mills. They both followed different paths though. Both onto their own specific artistic vision and while Mils pursued a sort of sci-fi aesthetic, Hood was gazing more inward. His minimal vision has always been a singular one and his production so crisp and physical that it is still amongst the most forward thinking music of its type today. On the face of things that may not be immediately apparent. However, once you’re locked onto the demented machine funk accordion of ‘Spectra’, you soon realise that this isn’t just any old process. There are myriads of different layers and inflections laid out which mutate with every different listening. It’s not all like that though. Both ‘E. Dark’ and ‘Fiend’ loop the loop and plough a relatively one dimensional furrow. They’re great at what they do however. And the quality of the production as well as the measured way that they let off steam means that they aren’t to be categorised with the normal fare enjoyed by the sweaty techno masses. ‘Untitled (Spectra)’ has a lot more about it. There are swirling phantom noises, for example, and even though it feels linear, there are small indentations  which emphasise the fact that it is a coalition of off-beat chaos. The keys are pure Detroit, and then there’s a violin. This isn’t an easy thing to imagine, let alone make. No problem for Mr Hood though. The devil in the detail.

Track Of The Day: Jun - B1 Outergaze 2 (Capricious)

 

This track comes from someone called Jun, of whom I have no more information, and is on Capricious, a Japanese label. This has atmosphere. Composed primarily of a lilting sub bass and syncopated urgency, along with the inevitable beat to hold it together there is an atmospheric interloper in the form of whirling synth swathes. These elements combine to form a percussive tech monster which threatens to burst once it plateaus, it never quite does that thankfully. It would sound great coming out of yesterday’s TOTD, or the reverse.

Track of The Day: Levon Vincent - Invisible Bitchslap (Deconstruct)

One of the best and most menacing pieces of dance floor focussed dub techno in existence. I doubt there’s anything to beat it, but what do I know. Such a large full sound that would be equally at home in a big room or a front room. Has to be heard on the right sound system though. No half measures with the equalising. This was the first release on Deconstruct, a label Vincent set up with Anthony Parasole which, while it had a short existence, contributed more than the sum of its parts. Vincent’s insistent, linear and tribal beats remind me a lot of what Octave One have always done. And, coming from New York, there’s also the shadow of Danny Tenaglia in there as well. These are Levon Vincent’s beats though, and it’s a pity he’s not still churning them out.

Hamish & Toby B2B XDB - Recorded live from fabric

 

fabric · 031 - Hamish & Toby B2B XDB - Recorded live from fabric

Truancy Volume 365: Mariiin

 

TRUANTS · Truancy Volume 365: Mariiin

Track Of The Day: B(if)tek - Wired For Sound (Murmur)

 

B (if) tek, an all-female group out of darkest Australia who I’m just discovering, released this, an homage to Cliff Richard’s tune of the same name, back in the year 2000. I wonder if it sounded as futuristic then as it does now. I mean Cliff’s original back in 1981 with its roller skating video was avant-garde enough, but this. And as Australlia take part in Eurovision, why not B (if) tek? This would sweep the board. It might even be enough to get Cliff to crawl out from under his carapace and slither into the audience to beam his positive waves towards the stage. 

Track Of The Day: Dorau/Kohncke - Durch Die Nacht (Geiger Mix) (Kompakt)

 

I randomly grabbed this from the shelves and played it for the first time in ages. It comes with a couple of remixes, the other by Wolfgang Voight. This is the one I prefer though. The filtered looped vocal played over the wistful, bittersweet beats. It’s got great chug potential too. Well, almost everything on Kompakt with the schaffel stride has. Great track that takes you somewhere.

Plant43 - Spells For Warding Off Evil (Silver Threads)

 

Title: Spells For Warding Off Evil

Artist: Plant43

Label: Silver Threads

Cat Number: 

Genre: Ambient/Drone

1: Spheres Of Protection

2: The City Lies Silent

3: Broken Hex

4: Music For Surgery

5: Dreams In Viridian

6: Resisting Infernal Gravity

7: Haunted Fields

8: Prey Of The Nocturnal Raptor

9: Bittersweet Tears Fall

10: Dreams In Vermillion

11: Buried Codex

12: Embers Of The Old World Fade

Well, if it’s an immersive experience you want, listen no further than ‘Spells For Warding Off Evil’. The sound design of this album feels like an experiment in expressing a stream of consciousness through the layering of undulating drone patterns against a backdrop of emotive, sonic dissonance. The tracks seem to have the potential to overlay themselves as well, with each of them occupying a specific region of sound that is prone to movement and, as a result, containment. Some tracks are more robust than others: ‘Bittersweet Tears Fall’, for example, feels concrete and onomatopoeic. ‘Haunted Fields’ is the soundtrack to a Battle Of Britain dogfight in a parallel universe, while ‘Dreams In Vermillion’ is the soundtrack to demons being invoked through a short wave radio. That these frequencies operate in regions of the subconscious which have suddenly been rendered concrete. From the ominous, subdued, opening of ‘Spheres Of Protection’, the sound design of which is subtly augmented by ‘The City Lies Silent’. Through to the twin pillars of ‘Buried Codex’ and ‘Embers Of The Old World Fade’, the confrontational former blending into the uncertain and unsettling latter. This is a voyage into sound.

Track Of The Day: Surgeon - Optic (Downwards)

 

This is a cut from Surgeon’s debut album, ‘Communications’ and seems to blend the minimalism of Robert Hood with the scything bleeps of Neil Landstrumm. What’s goos about it is the way the bulk of the track retreats into the distance whilst the bleep remains in the foreground, only to come back of course, but maybe not into as sharp relief as the listener might like. It’s a lovely track to have on the headphones, in spite of its viscerally uncompromising stance and slices up the senses from a different angle compared to its Detroit overseers.