Low Life was a collaboration between Ben Sims and Mosaic boss Steve O’Sullivan, and the three tracks on here do veer slightly away from the standard minimal Mosaic sound. That is both good and bad. Good for trying something different, bad because it’s a sound I really like. I chose this from the release mainly because I love the sound of the drums. There’s also the underlying spoken word sample, which has a shelf life of fragrant smoke. I’ll wager that the driums are at the newest of Ben Sims, and most of the rest is the work of Steve O’Sullivan. Of course I could, and usually am, wrong. Off on my hols tomorrow so more posts in a week or so. Also a new mix coming up. Hold on to your hats!
Saturday, July 25, 2026
Friday, July 24, 2026
Track Of The Day: Electrospy - Voice (Mix 1) (Brain Coral)
A great piece of groovy proto tech house. Rare as hen’s teeth nowadays, hence the high Discogs prices, but sanity has prevailed and it can be found digitally. It comes in two mixes and I prefer this one as it’s groovier and more linear than the other version. A pitched up version is the second track on Terry Francis’ ‘Architecture’ mix. One of the fruits of the Wiggle heyday. Anyway, I prefer it at the speed it was recorded at. Horses for courses and all that. An underrated tune and one that someone needs to rerelease.
Track Of Yesterday: Infiniti - Walking On Water (Tresor)
A piece of dub techno from Juan Atkins who, even though he isn’t necessarily known for churning this stuff out, produces something fresh and a little bit different. It feels like quite an organic piece of work, which is something rare in the synthetic world of a genre which, apart from obvious influences from other areas, seems to have arrived zipped up and ready to go from nowhere. Maurizio was doing it before I guess, and everyone else has been producing facsimiles. This is ok if you like it, which I do.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Track Of The Day: Sunrise Society - Astral Travel (Sterac Mix) (Pacific)
One of those tracks where what isn’t done plays as much of a part as what is. Sterac has always been very good off the ball, and this remix is all about patience and construction. In that sense it is as great a stand out peak time tune as a mixing tool. The drums are particularly pleasing. There seems to be exactly the right weight on every beat. And when the cymbals come in they sound like a deluge. However, it’s by no means Rachmad’s best work and one can be forgiven for thinking there’s not much to it. Not a bad piece of ordinariness though.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Track Of The Day: Dawl - Asylum (Tone Dropout)
I love everything about the Tone Dropout label. The analogue purity and depth of the productions, (now I’m going to find out that they’ve all been made on Ableton). The logic and the graphics. Most of all though it’s how the music makes me feel. They hearken back to a rave I was at, or was I? Break beats and acid rule the roost and the tracks slip into more groove-laden tunes to rock the boat a little and remind you that, even though the music is top notch and takes you back, a little bit of chaos in the mix is always a good idea. ‘Asylum’ is typical of the label. Everything I’ve already described as well as a reliable functionality which is much more than the sum if its parts. Lovely stuff.
Track Of Yesterday: Maurizio - Domina (Carl Craig's Mind Mix) (M)
One of those Carl Craig remixes that makes you regret he’s still not churning stuff this good out. I guess we all change. Different priorities, etc. This is amazing though. A little bit like his later remix of ‘Johnny L’. It has an eponymous, repetitive vocal allied with a bittersweet backing. An embryonic exploration into the possibilities of sound. A track where Detroit techno collides with IDM, (WHATEVER THAT IS), and an emotive dose feeling borne of an explorative sensibility is sprinkled on top. I posted the other side of this a few years back. Something much more conventional, in spite of it being distilled straight from Maurizio’s creative juices and having featured on Eddie Richards’ ‘Essential Mix’ back in 1996. Something that the late Peter Pulford recorded for me. This is out on it’s own though. A more wistful piece of electronic music you will never hear, let alone one that can do it on the dance floor. Beautiful.
Monday, July 20, 2026
Track Of Yesterday: Faze Action - In The Trees (Nuphonic)
At the tail end of the twentieth century, one of the sounds that dominated deep house clubland, particularly in London, was that of Nuphonic. And Faze Action was its standard bearers. ‘In The Trees’ is one of those tracks that probably invented the term ‘nu-disco’. Now that category has mutated to become a byword for Balearic in more recent times. This track, however, could only have come out of The UK. There’s great attention to detail and a reverential use of orchestration that typifies the times. London was very much the centre of the dance music universe at that time and tracks like this helped to put it there. And, even though it wears its influences on its sleeve, there is more than a whiff oof the timeless about it. Funny that the track it most reminds me of is ‘Clubbed To Death’, the downtempo classic which also indulges itself in the symphonic.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Track Of The Day: Chuggernaut - Darkstrut (IMIX)
This is one of the most genuine tracks of the day I’ve posted. Reason being is that I only discovered it today. I’ve just posted Grant Dell’s session on The Mudd Show and, looking at the comments pin YouTube somebody decided to do everyone a favour by trying to compile a trackless. They didn’t get very far. However, they did manage this and open or two others. What’s more, the people behind this are DJ Catt, DJ Rico & Wyatt Earp, late of Casa del Soul fame (well, not DJ Rico). Now as explained in a post earlier this week, I’ve jus offloaded a few from that label. I did keep some though, and this release of a similar standard to that label’s best work. This track is from the ‘Casatek’ EP, so it’s hiding on plain site. And selling for a pretty penny on Discogs. It’s got what you want. Sleazy spoken word vocals over a deliberate chugging bass. Not chugging in the ALFOS sense, but I see no reason why this track couldn’t cross over into the world of pre 122 bps given the chance. It’s woozy, messy and magnificent. Say no more.
Friday, July 17, 2026
Track of The Day: Dr. Timothy Leary Meets The Grid – Origins Of Dance (Electronic Future Mix) (Evolution)
A track that is so full of Timothy Leary token word snippets that he gets an artist credit. It’s like a bleep lecture crossed with a heavy dose of orbital rave ambience. This is one of those tracks that typified the era, whether you heard it at the time or not. It’s so much of its time that a mere listen will have you spinning back through the time tunnel into a world of long sleeved t-shirts, bucket hats, good pills and sleepless nights. Listening to this really takes me back and fills me full of regret for not having maximised my hedonistic youth. I did a lot tbf, but there was always room for one more tune.
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Track Of The Day: Cabaret Voltaire - I Think (Apollo)
I’ve probably featured about half of ‘The Conversation’, Richard H. Kirk’s Masterwork under the name of Cabaret Voltaire. It’s not clear whether or not he would be touring with them if he were still alive. However, what is is that the album this track is taken from is an amazing piece of work. It is one of the most haunting and prescient works I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. Was Kirk a genius? I think so. And this track along with all of the album this is from, is as good an example as any of his unerring knack to reach inside the mind and lay bare the paranoia that lies within.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Track Of The Day: Donato Dozzy - Aquatica (Palinoia Ltd)
A double artist release, with label boss Eric Cloutier’s ‘Ekpyrosis’ on the flip. This came out a month or so into lockdown, a period that already feels like a world away and a boundary of sorts. Here we find Dozzy on deep, dawn of time soundtrack form. It’s a ill-named tune, emitting liquid and expansive vibes. An atmospheric composition that hints at more powerful thins to come. Itsounds like a newly - resurrected symphony designed to accompany the exploration of an abandoned brutalist power station on the outskirts of Grozny. There are primitive lifeforms within however, Here be monsters!
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Track Of The Day: Remote - The Swarm (UR)
This is the ultimate insect menace track. A piece of Funkadelic-inflected electro built around a squiggle of synth with what sounds like pots and pans being rattled in the background. Then the handclaps come in and it takes off. And underlining everything is the constant menace of the bees. Of course they’ve got to be African or Asian bees. None of our nice European bees would ever be as funky as this. And with that in mind: “Artium Instruments The Swarm is a portable, hybrid 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer and standalone stereo multi-FX box. It is highly regarded for its massive "super saw" oscillator—comprising seven individual, detunable saw waves stacked together to create huge, lush, 80s-style vintage sounds.” Meanwhile, Remote is Mike Banks and Buzz Goree. They got the funk!
Monday, July 13, 2026
Track Of The Day: Can - Vernal Equinox - Live at BBC The Old Grey Whistle Test 1975
This popped up on my”my feed” this morning, and it’s a belter. It comes with caveats though. I know next to nothing about Can. Although I’m as old as Nebuchadnezzar, when this was being played I wasn’t into anything like it. It just wasn’t in my orbit. It was glam rock and anything weird on Top Of The Pops. I’m sure that if Can had been the subject of our Friday morning walk to school conversations we would have been even weirder than we already appear. That would have been great, but it didn’t happen. One of the lads liked Billy Cobham, on account of an older brother. That was as avant-garde as we got. So all of this appreciation is retrospective. Better late than never, because this is amazing. Great flow. The guitars solo but they’re never alone. Everything just gushes at you in a long, untrammelled wave. The backbone is the incredible drumming of course, and the weird, off-key keyboard flourishes. It sounds like nothing else because it is something else.
Sunday, July 12, 2026
Track Of The Day: .xtrak - Multiplexor (7th City)
Take kick, some handclaps, an undulating synth line, bass, flange it! Let the percussion’s intensity fluctuate and once these elements are bouncing and somehow, like two giant out of time skipping ropes being brought into an unholy alliance everything coalesces, you have a piece of minimal magic. Dan Bell and Todd Sines anticipate some of minimal’s best moves by around ten years here. A sound which was particularly amplified by the Minus stable of artists, but not improved on. This is one of those tracks which is so well produced that it is far more than the sum of its very easily-recognised parts. Play it loud and listen to it fill the room.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
Track Of The Day: DJ Sense - Ritual One (The Chant) (Casa Del Soul)
Casa Del Soul was a house label that emerged out of Denver at the arsenal end of the twentieth century, and I had all of the releases. That was until I put the majority of them on Discogs last year. Still, they sold well. I didn’t sell all of them though, and this is one I kept. Elemental tech house innit. Haunting overtones and solid percussion driven by a dominant bass. It has just the right amount of everything. Which isn’t an easy thing to produce as quantifying the sound and the effect it produces isn’t easy. This would sound great with a Pure Science track being expelled from its rear end. So make it happen.
Friday, July 10, 2026
Track Of The Day: Dopplereffekt - Limit Zero (Skynet Supersonic)
‘Limit Zero’ is one of two tracks on the recently-released ‘Eonfield’, the latest Dopplereffekt release which is, for some unfathomable reason, very difficult to get hold of. I guess that’s because label bosses are twigging that this stuff is very collectible and why not? Dopplereffekt make techno/electro/ambient, call it what you like, of an unworldly variety. Spectral, needle shop keys haunt their tunes (having said that, I’m never sure exactly who or what Dopplereffekt is, besides Gerald Donald.) Anyway, there’s nothing else that sounds quite like this. Can you dance to it? Being double-jointed everywhere would help, as well as being a contortionist.
Thursday, July 09, 2026
Track Of The Day: Karim - In My Mind (Acid Pink)
Acid was a sub-label of Classic and, for my money, didn’t release a dud track. This one from Karim, aka Rob Mello, is a typical piece of very danceable, wonky deep house that still sounds fresh today and, because of it’s long length, would easily fit in with a minimal percussive Villalobos groover. Some of these tracks have found their way into the sets of like-minded groovers due to their linear approach and moderate, but incisive inflections. That Phillipe Maurice III release on Classic for example is much loved by those Romanians. Anyway, Rob Mello DJed at a party myself and my mate Kev put on down at Herbal, a bar in Shoreditch. It was a grand night and we made about £10 each. Which was nice.
Track Of Yesterday: Paul Mitchell - Ceres (Ohm Series Digital)
A random pick from a digital-only release from around a year ago. Paul Mitchell, a producer whose genius has been featured before on this blog, rises to the occasion once more with a piece of shimmering dub techno in the form of ‘Ceres’. And while this, like probably every dub techno record I’ve featured, is no radical departure from the norm, it “does” something on a certain level that will forever defy mere words.
Tuesday, July 07, 2026
Track Of The Day: Anton Lanski - Cyanogaster (Berg Audio)
Great track by Anton lanky on the excellent Berg Audio. A label which spans the whole spectrum of deep, dubby goodness, rarely putting a foot wrong even when it occasionally drops its guard and goes slightly off piste. Anyway, this is a great piece of dub techno, a genre which seems to have evolved in one fell swoop as a result of Maurizio’s doodling. Tracks which will remain unique and separate. The rest of the genre is different, owing a debt to Von Oswald, but developing in a different direction. This track, due to its interesting percussive patterns feels a little bit more original than most.
Monday, July 06, 2026
Track Of The Day: Le Dust Sucker - Mandate My Ass (Carbon Recordings)
This takes me back. More than 20 years old now, and wrapped around an eponymous spoken word sample from Gil Scott Heron’s ‘B-Movie’, this track was big when it came out. Listening to it today however, for the first time in a long time, it has great chug credentials. Lovely monolithic undertow with a euphoric upper layer. One of those that rode the electroclash fad, even though it’s quite unique. It popped into my head today unsolicited, as a lot of these tracks do, so here it is.
Sunday, July 05, 2026
Track Of The Day: LRNT - Recovering Conditions (Sintope vinyl Series)
Tracks like this really hit the sonic g spot. Low slung, minimal and moody. It just pootles along in a sinister way. There’s only one reason that a tune like this is made and that’s to enhance the messiness on the dance floor. It’s not just about feeling good. Sometimes that’s not enough. You need to dig deep into your consciousness as well. This is the type pop stuff that Barac builds his sets from. Deep, dark and mind-expanding. So much going on here between the grooves and the beauty of it is that everybody will take something different away from it.
Track Of Yesterday: Unkle G & Gavsborg - Riding My Bike To The Studio (Equiknoxx Music)
I’ve just come across this track on a Coyote mix I posted a week or so ago and, although it
sounds like reggae, I suppose that’s just because of the spoken word vocal. The whole vibe is a pastoral, hippy one, which fits in with a roots feel. However, it also feels like a bit of a novelty record. We’re not talking on the same level as ‘The Birdy Song’, rather something more stoned and out there. Certainly a head turner though
Friday, July 03, 2026
Track Of The Day: DJ Compufunk - Beyond Mind (Beltran's from Detroit with Love Mix) (Vibes & Pepper Records)
DJ Compufunk is a Japanese producer from Osaka whose reverence for deep house, and particularly Detroit, runs deep. And in order to crystallise that devotion, who better to enlist for a remix than John Beltran. The analogue warmth is tangible, as is the evocation of that timeless techno ambience that here nods heavily to the type of emotive machine funk that was augmented by a host of British producers throughout the nineties. The label art nods to that of the Underground Resistance ‘Interstellar Fugitives’ releases that straddled this century and the last. And an embellishment of the vintage electronic ambience on show here comes in the form of a spoken word vocal that lifts the track into the realms of some of the best on the DNH label. Lovely stuff.
Thursday, July 02, 2026
Track Of The Day: Metal Urbane - Paris Maquis (Rough Trade)
Metal Urbaine were standard bearers for French punk, and with ‘Paris Maquis’ they give a great account of themselves.They also have the distinction of this track being the very first release on Rough Trade. The catalogue number is 001, so I suppose it must be? Anyway, ‘Paris Maquis’ is a great ;piece of work. The guitars sound great. Loads of fuzz, and a drum that sounds like it’s being hit with balsa wood. The group were relatively ignored in France, with arguably a bigger audience in The UK. They also used a synth, which was pretty unique at the time. This probably contributed to a wall of sound approach. Sounds great through headphones.
Wednesday, July 01, 2026
Track Of The Day: Fusion - Jack The Voltage (Ferox)
Ferox, a label that never released a bad tune. Some are better than others, obviously, but quality control was high. And this one comes in from Fusion, aka label boss Russ Gabriel. A great track that predates the minimal boom of around ten years later and, for the most part, surpasses most of it. The exact type of track that I used to love to play out and layer with complexities. More than just a whiff of Dan Bell about it. Lovely stuff!
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Ticket Memories 1
Finding this on the floor of my wardrobe prompted the previous post. A trip into nostalgia, a simpler life and one which was probably my happiest time. I have been told on good authority that the other DJs were Andy Wevvers and Adrien Sherwood. I remember nowt unfortunately.
Track Of The Day: The Soup Dragons - I'm Free (Big Life)
One of the stand out records of 1990, no matter how underground your tastes were. It was impossible not to like this cover of a Rolling Stones song from Out Of Our Heads.’ And while it definitely surfed the poppier edge of taste, it summed up a lot about why that year was so ace. Lacking the bite of The happy Mondays, but in reality not that different from ‘Step On’, another cover resurrected for the No Alla Violenza generation. Always a positive touch to get some proper vibes courtesy of Junior Reid in as well.
Monday, June 29, 2026
Track Of The Day: Drexciya - Bang Bang (UR)
I don’t think electro gets any funkier than this. A slo-mo beat enveloped by hi-tec effects. It’s the sonar, subterranean soundtrack to deep sea exploration. Going down the Mariana Trench with this playing in your dodgy sub bought from the back page of a 1970s Marvel comic, along with a health supply of sea monkeys. Either that or its a slow glide through the Detroit boondocks during a hot and humid night. In a large car. Sansibar and Reptant have recently paid homage to this ‘Sansibar - My Boom (Reptant’s Lizard Tech Mix)’. It’s not the same but you get my drift I think.
Track Of Yesterday: Module One - Animation (Luck Of Access)
This is taken from the latest release on Andrei Pushkarev’s Luck Of Access, and it’s a banger. As much as dub techno can produce bangers, then this is one. Comes on some sort of cloudy black vinyl, which makes me thin that whoever pressed it offered the label a sloppy seconds deal. Anyway, it’s great. All dub techno needs momentum, otherwise it’s just dub innit? This belts along nicely, eschewing the need for eqing and farting about with the mixer. Just let it play. It’ll blend itself. Tracks like this need to be used strategically, underlaying something more idiosyncratic in order to make it more palatable. And we’ve all bought tracks like that!
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Track Of The Day: Hal - Parallax Attractor (A.R.T.L.E.S.S.)
This lovely, deep acidic journey arrived at my house a few days ago. Hal is a new name to me, but on the strength of this release I’ll be checking his other stuff. One quibble. It needs to be pitched down. It just sounds better. Funkier and warmer. It’s personal preference of course. I think that all of the Wiggle releases, as well as associated croydon-based house labels, used to put out great stuff but would all have benefitted from dropping the bpms somewhat. Anyway this is great. Almost Jean Michelle Jarre like in its analogue feel. And as I was at Hardwax this time last week. TIP!
Friday, June 26, 2026
Track Of The Day: Nate Krafft - Mirror / ɿoɿɿiM (Musique Pour La Danse)
I’ve only recently come across Nate Krafft. He’s probably one of this names that I should be able to confidently throw at electric music nerds and geeks in conversations about real techno. So better late than never. This is from his album which has just been released on Musique Pour La Danse, a label that has it’s own section in Hardwax no less. (I know because I was there last weekend). ‘Mirror’ is a great cut. To be honest the whole album is great, so this is a bit random. It feels like a pinnacle of sorts for the genre. Very emotive and deep, but eminently danceable as w3ell. He had a handful of releases in I think the mid nineties, two of which appear to have been rereleased on MPLD. Some lovely electro on there as well. Buy it!
Track Of Yesterday: Stojche - Granada (Convextion Remix) (Syncrophone)
This came out a few years ago and, as far as a Gerard Hanson remix is concerned, slipped under most people’s radars. However, on yet another day when the June temperature record looks set to be broken in The UK, I’m here to remind you that this isn’t just another piece of looped techno. No. There’s a lot of hidden detail and nuance in this track. What drives it more than any other element though, is Hanson’s love of the deep crescendo. This is more subtle than your general “in your face” euphoria. Because as already eluded to, this doesn’t feel like a particularly sophisticated track. Stick the headphones on and go for a ride with it and journey deep into its psyche. Ten minutes passes by in an instant and you’ve been to the Kuiper Belt and back.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Track Of The Day: Alton Millar - Progressions (Guidance)
When in doubt, reach for Guidance, and what better than this under the radar production form Alton Millar, I have memories of watching him DJ in the final Soma (nothing to do with the still going strong Glasgow based label) party I went to in Paris in 1997 at then Bois de Vincennes. Some pavilion where Andy Weatherall had been booked to play, but he didn’t turn up. The excuse which was doing the rounds was that he’d gone to the dentist to have a tooth out, or something like that.Anyway, Alton Millar was playing in some sort of open area, while whoever had filled in for AW was somewhere else. Millar payed some choice deep house. No funkin’ around, just the good stuff, rather like this piece of percussive goodness.
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Track Of The Day: Honey Bane - Girl On The Run (You Can Be You)
This was bought as a consequence of coming into contact with Crass, and as far as a punk single is concerned, it’s got it all. Wailing voice, great, clipped guitar riff and an overwhelming feeling of dread. I mean what more do you want? It came into my head while I was in Berlin over the weekend. No idea why. Maybe I clocked someone whose appearance took me here. Who knows. It’s a great track though and couldn’t have come from anywhere else but The UK. Great tribal drumming to play it out. Having said all of that, it’s the repetitive siren like motif that sticks in the head the most. It’s a meeting of audio landmarks if nothing else.
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Track Of The Day: Dollar Brand - Blues For A Hip King (The Sun)
The last one before Berlin. Brilliant from Dollar Brand, aka Abdullah Ibrahim, who has just slipped off this mortal coil.
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Monday, June 15, 2026
Track Of The Day: Ron Trent - Seduction (Subwoofer)
If there’s one track that typifies Ron Trent’s sound, then for me it has to be this one. It’s not my favourite from him, but it is unforgettable. It manages to be deep, driving, soulful and woozy at the same time. And the percussion, that sounds like a slick, air-dampened batacuda barrage. One of the great deep house tracks and long enough to support two or three lesser tunes on the mix.
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Track Of The Day: Metamatics - Bodypop (Shipwrec)
A great track of weighty, slo-mo electro from Metamatics, aka Lee Norris, who has been releasing stuff from the mid nineties, but nowt since 2024. ‘Bodypop’ is electro suspended in amber. A track to gauge the retro in vitro. Cryogenically frozen beats inhabiting a strange funk hinterland where B-boys breakdance on elevated Persian rugs, levitating above their dreams to decompose and then regenerate, their body parts taking on new meanings and motions in the process.
Tracks Of Yesterday: Erik Satie - Gymnopedies 1, 2, 3
In the nineteenth century ambience with rhythm was being produced. Erik Satie’s ‘Gymnopedies’ are almost certainly the precursor of the type. The first time I heard this was probably while watching ‘Diva’, when ‘No. 1’ is used in the scene in, I think, Le Jardin des Tuileries. Lovely stuff.
Saturday, June 13, 2026
Friday, June 12, 2026
Track Of The Day: Defunkt - In The Good Times (Hannibal)
‘In The Good Times’ comes from Defunkt’s eponymously titled debut album and is, not surprisingly, inspired by Chic’s more famous track of nearly the same name. It’s a documentation of singer Joe Bowie’s drug addiction at the time and is a great piece of bass-driven heavy avant funk. The guitar work and effects burst out all over the place, kept in check by the vocals, bass and horns. It’s another one that takes me back to the smoke-filled bedrooms of my youth and hearing it now brings on a Proustian rush. Defunkt’s first two albums are brilliant, and I was lucky enough to see them at the New Morning in Paris in the mid nineties. And I think I touched Joe’s trombone.
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Track Of The Day: Idealist - Immersion (Mojuba)
This is from the just released ‘Hidden World’ EP from Swiss artist Idealist on Mojuba. And it’s a nice slice of dub techno which, while eponymous its intentions, isn’t as obvious as you might think. It has a dusty, organic feel and feels like an updated take on ‘outsider house’, whatever that was, or is. It’s as laid back as piece was you could wish for, with a dreamy feel that sets it apart and gives it an extra dimension. Very nice, and on red vinyl too.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Track Of The Day: E-Dancer - The Human Bond (KMS)
I’m amazed I haven’t already posted this, well I have in a manner of speaking, around 15 years ago, with a WAV. Not in the modern world though. This for me is far and away Kevin Saunderson;s finest moment, along with the other side, ‘Heavenly’. This is the one that I come back to more, just for the weird vibe and bass. I bought it in IQ Records on Lexington St. Soho, in the late 90s, ’97 I think. It was a huge Wiggle tune, following on from ‘World Of Deep’, which had been released earlier. As already mentioned, this one is all about the growling bass, and to a slightly lesser extent, the raw percussion and what sounds like a sort of somnolent wailing. It’s a great combination.
Tuesday, June 09, 2026
Track Of The Day: James Blood Ulmer - Jazz Is The Teacher, Funk Is The Preacher (Rough Trade)
I can’t remember where I was a when I first heard James Blood Ulmer, either Vinny or Dave’s bedroom. Once heard never forgotten though. And I wanted to post ‘Are You Glad To Be In America’, as that seems strangely appropriate at the moment, with the World Cup approaching, and the Somalian referee being refused admission, as well as the Senegalese team being searched publicly on arrival. The Iranian fans being denied visas, the Iranian team having to hole up in Mexico, etc. The list goes on. Anyway, ‘Jazz Is The Teacher, Funk Is The Preacher’ is four or so minutes of unrestrained raw mayhem. I think being on Rough Trade was probably the main conduit for JBU’;s entrance in to my, and my mates lives and, although I wouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination call myself an obsessive, the two tracks named here, particularly this one, 2have been regular eagworms for the last 40 years.
Monday, June 08, 2026
Track Of The Day: Two Smoking Barrels - Basses Loaded (Late Night Dub) (Yoshi Toshi)
This is one I haven’t played for a long time. A collaboration between Terry Francis and Tony Hewitt, ‘Basses Loaded (Late Night Dub)’ is a deep, pulsating piece of after hours house. The bass takes centre stage, allowing the vocal sample, skittering percussion and synth stabs, which aren’t a million miles away from the wild pitch aesthetic, free rein. Terry Francis’ productions still more than hold their own. A lot of what he made in the second half of the nineties and the beginning of the noughts was very minimal, pitched up huge with a n implicit wonkiness. This is, by comparison, straight forward and more derivative. Still does damage though.
Sunday, June 07, 2026
Track Of The Day: T Dave - Bilatarale (We're Going Deep)
There really is some lovely electro being released right now so, following on from yesterday, here’s another which has just hit the shelves. T Dave is an Italian producer who is responsible for the latest release on We’re Going Deep, a label that operates out of Bristol under the stewardship of Paul Wise, aka Placid. The back catalogue is growing and becoming ever more impressive, with release from James Shinra, E.R.P. and Carl Finlow amongst others. Anyway, the featherlight beats cascade before finally exploding on this track. And as you listen you can’t come to any more rational conclusion than you’re listening to some sort of regenerative sonic entropy. At least that;’s what I think, and I know what I’m talking about.
Saturday, June 06, 2026
Track Of The Day: Sound Synthesis - Emozzjoni (Aanalogical Force)
This has just come out on the ever essential Analogical Force from Madrid. Sound Synthesis comes from Malta where, no doubt, the cross-cultural ambience, as well as a unique geographical location, both positively contribute to productivity and imagination. Proof, if any were needed, that you don’t necessarily have to be in the midst of activity in order to invoke creativity and ideas. It can help immensely of course. The whole EP flits between drum and bass, electro and acid and so is a great example of what the label puts out. I think that this producer is best represented by his dreamy take on electro, which in many ways is similar to that of Plant43. Somewher on the spectrum between ghettotech and ambient.
Friday, June 05, 2026
Track Of The Day: Chris Mitchell - Nibiru (Annunaki Cartel)
This absolute beast of a track drifted into my consciousness during the wee small hours a few hours ago and I have to try and find it amongst the sonic Din Gir Dialect that lies on my many shelves. The label was set up by Amir Alexander, and this is the nest release on it. Grandiose, transcendental and deep, it’s got everything. Especially that well-planted vocal sample and the growling bass. This is spaced out house music of the highest order and it is absolutely criminal that it was slept on. Every time I listen to music like this I try to imagine what could have been going through the mind of its creator. What is it that pushes someone to make music like this and, equally, what is in Ed Sheeran’s mind when he put together ‘Shape Of You’? It’s a tough nut to crack, but I’m working on it.
Track Of Yesterday: Prime Minister Of Doom - Deep In Your Heart (Planet Uterus)
I came across this album after having track searched an old Eli Vervain mix and finding something from it on it. The whole album is a series of dreamy, deep trance/tribal workouts and, for my money at least, hits that sweet spot better than almost any other album I own. That’s not to say it’s the best album I Owen, rather that every track on it does exactly what I want it to do when I want it to do that thing. ‘Deep In Your Heart’ straddles that hazy house middle distance where depth and minimalism give way to soul and emotion and, as such, it’s unsurpassable.
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