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This month's most unusual mix—or pair of mixes, actually—comes from a record store in the Hague in Netherlands called Wichelroede. It’s a mixtape published on an actual, honest-to-goodness cassette, and it makes the most of its format by including two very different sets: a purposeful, propulsive mix from Hessle Audio co-founder Ben UFO, and an eclectic, horizontally inclined set from the experimental producer Beatrice Dillon.
By chance, this month’s selection of mixes fall along similar lines, with floor-fillers on one side and pillow-fodder on the other. In the former category, rave revivalist Lone delivers old-school house dripping with emotion and Belgrade’s Tijana T condenses an all-nighter into 90 action-packed minutes, while Kornél Kovács celebrates his new album with a breezy set and Ocobaya (aka Protect-U) go spelunking in the land of lo-fi. As for the non-clubby sets, Giegling’s Sa Pa gets seriously abstract, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani survey electronic music’s masterworks, and Hunee pays tribute to some soulful folkies called Air—not Sofia Coppola’s favorite band, but a ’70s group from Long Island (whose music, come to think of it, would still sound pretty great in a Sofia Coppola film). Tying the two ends of the spectrum together, Kompakt’s Tobias Thomas schools us in the art of the warm-up set.
Lone – Dekmantel Podcast 084
As far as I can tell, Lone doesn’t play any of his previously released tracks in this hour-long set for Dekmantel, although that’s almost certainly his handiwork on the as-yet-unidentified opener, in which sunrise chords cast a pastel glow across classic Roland drums. But the whole set is an obvious extension of the UK producer’s style, with a rose-tinted view of rave nostalgia. Aside from the odd chestnut like Joey Beltram’s “Energy Flash,” he sticks largely to new music, but most of it—like L.M.Y.E.’s battered Rhodes-and-sitar jam “Cali 76” and Byron the Aquarius’ sleek “The Sun”—is unrepentantly vintage in vibe. And aside from that brief, Beltram-led detour to the dark side, it’s all as colorful as house music gets, and not unlike a geode: rough around the edges, but luminous inside.
Kornél Kovács – RA.535
Kornél Kovács’ debut album, The Bells, is one of this year’s most pleasurable dance music long-players, and he brings the same carefree spirit to this fleet-of-foot, light-of-heart mix for Resident Advisor. Bookended by a pair of cloud-gazing ambient sketches—first a bittersweet slice of string-infused folk, and lastly Batongo’s blissful “Say Yes”—the set wastes little time in hitting its stride, balancing dreamy atmospheres (check the flutes around the seven-minute mark) with crisp drums. Brisk tempos, an elastic sense of swing, and richly colored chords are the name of the game, as he balances new releases (Beesmunt Soundsystem’s “First Timer (Mosey Remix),” Pop District’s “Red Eye,” his own “Szív Utca”) with loosey-goosey congas and chestnuts like Age of Love’s “Age of Love” and Winx’s “Don’t Laugh.” He takes the latter track literally: It bubbles away, deep in the mix for a minute or two, but as soon as its instantly recognizable laugh track bursts cackling into the foreground, he cuts away, leaving the listener hanging. It’s a great example of Kovács’ teasing way on the decks.
Tijana T – RA.533
To get a proper sense for Tijana Todorovic’s expansive musical tastes, catch her digging through the deepest recesses of her record bag at Belgrade’s 20/44 club, where for the past half-decade she's been playing all-night parties that go until the sun glints on the river outside the club, a repurposed boat anchored along the riverbank. Todorovic plays it straighter in her mix for Resident Advisor, which makes sense; she only has 90 minutes to work with, instead of her usual seven-plus hours. One of the striking things about her RA mix is how intensely she maximizes that limited running time: At any given moment, it seems there are two tracks in play, and even if you’re well acquainted with her song selection, it can be hard to figure out where one cut ends and the next begins. Intricately layered, tightly mixed, and with an emphasis on dark, propulsive techno, the set is full of satisfying juxtapositions—when was the last time you heard someone play Dance Mania with Border Community, and make it work? My favorite passage comes late in the set, as Floorplan’s “Basic Principle” seamlessly gives way to Tobias.’ “I Can’t Fight the Feeling,” the former’s organ stabs pivoting unexpectedly into the latter’s fluttering chords and disembodied vocal loop. From there until the end, the adrenaline runs high; from the set’s tweaked-out acid finale, you’ll just have to imagine what the comedown portion of the night would sound like. (Direct download / iTunes download)
Beatrice Dillon – 43:44 / Ben UFO - 44:32
Bless the good folks at the Hague’s Wichelroede record store. As they near the end of the second pressing of a lovingly designed split mixtape from Beatrice Dillon and Ben UFO—if you’re quick, you can get your copy here—they’ve uploaded the whole thing to SoundCloud. The format is a nifty idea, with each artist staking out a side to lay down a 45-minute mission statement of sorts. As different as the two sets are, both sides end up being strangely complementary.
Ben UFO’s is pure techno—in spirit, anyway—from its gleaming, beatless intro (courtesy of Detroit’s Optic Nerve) all the way through its various twists and turns, including linear, electrifying cuts from Ploy, Monobox, and Mono Junk, along with curveballs like Eduardo de la Calle’s gorgeous “I Think I Love You” and a long passage pairing Timbaland’s “Bounce” with African chants. Dillon, on the other hand, largely avoids beats in favor of spongy ambient cuts (like Slow Riffs’ perfectly titled “Gong Bath”), dub reggae, and jazz—including McCoy Tyner’s stunningly beautiful “His Blessings,” a calmly ecstatic piece featuring Alice Coltrane on harp. Look to Ben UFO’s side to power you through the day; Dillon’s set is as perfect a morning mix as you could ask for.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani - FADER Mix
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani represent different generations of electronic music: Ciani put out her landmark album Seven Waves in 1982, five years before Smith was even born. But the two share more than just a zipcode in Bolinas, California; they’re also devotees of the Buchla, an arcane modular synthesizer system that looks like the console of a spaceship and sounds like the music of the spheres. Andy Votel’s Finder’s Keepers label recently released a set of recordings Cianci made on the Buchla way back in 1975; Smith used the Buchla 100 Series extensively on her recent album EARS.
On September 16, RVNG Intl.’s FRKWYS series will release Sunergy, a new collaboration between the two musicians. In anticipation of the recording, they teamed up on a 40-minute mix of selections from across the electronic spectrum: pastoral ambient from Kraftwerk’s 1973 album Ralf und Florian, spooky electro-acoustic and tape music by the experimental composer Alvin Curran, shimmering arpeggios by Japan’s Yasuaki Shimizu. Fittingly, pieces divided by decades flow into one another: The patient pulses of Nine Inch Nails’ Alessandro Cortini seamlessly give way to Morton Subotnick’s bubbling electronic textures from 42 years ago. By the time Vangelis’ Blade Runner theme sidles into the picture, it’s like an unexpected glimpse of an old flame across a crowded room.
Ocobaya (aka Protect-U) – Extended Fam Mix
Ocobaya is the duo of Mike Petillo and Pitchfork contributor Aaron Leitko, otherwise collectively known as the Future Times-related act Protect-U. They debuted the new alias earlier this year with an EP for D.C.’s 1432R label in which house rhythms dissolved into buzzy abstraction, and the same aesthetic governs this live set. Quick-stepping machine rhythms kick up a dusty haze while synths give off a queasy gleam. Drainpipes clank, bells toll, and subtle acousmatic effects may leave you wondering if there are sirens racing down the street outside your house. It wraps with reverberant chimes that recall Autechre in their sentimental prime.
Sa Pa – Enter Sa Pa
Weimar’s Giegling label already tends to run pretty far under the radar; Sa Pa might as well be a submarine. The unidentified artist’s debut album last year, for Giegling’s Forum sub-label, explored a shadowy netherworld of rustles, clicks, and resonant dub-techno—think Vladislav Delay, Chain Reaction, or Pole’s first three records. Here, Sun Pa draws out that abstracted aesthetic across nearly an hour of pulse and ping. Aside from a handful of cuts from the album and from Sa Pa’s lone 12”for Marcel Dettmann’s label, the set appears to be mostly unreleased material. Not that you’d be likely to recognize even the previously released cuts; it’s all about as substantial as a dandelion tuft dusted with volcanic ash. To fully soak up its subliminal splendor, headphones (or really good speakers) and a quiet room are recommended. And for more Giegling in mixed form, don’t miss Gaia, the new album from Desert Sky, the minimalist side project of the Krautrock-sampling artist simply known as Edward: The 2x12” is available as a seamlessly mixed, single-track version on Bandcamp, and it’s pay-what-you-wish, to boot. (Listen / direct download)
Hunee – In Our Time
Long before a pair of Frenchman picked up the name and ran with it, there was a group from Long Island called Air. Their lone album, from 1970, is a diggers’ favorite for its deep-in-the-pocket funk and its ethereal, folk-infused soul. To mark Be With Records’ reissue of the long out-of-print, astronomically expensive record, the Amsterdam DJ Hunee has put together a mix of songs from the album, fleshed out with complementary period pieces like Terry Durham’s “Crystal Telephone” and Caroline Peyton’s “Just As We.” The closing tune, Archie Whitewater’s “Cross Country,” may leave you slack-jawed. A lovely, wistful soul-jazz soundtrack for late-summer porch sitting.
Tobias Thomas – My Dear 2015-09-26
Some DJs were made to play warm-up slots, and Tobias Thomas is one of them. The Kompakt long-timer’s heart and talents lean toward setting moods and rewarding curious early arrivals—particularly those who show up solo and aren’t much interested in socializing—and to do that, he comes prepared with a bag brimming with ambient music, film scores, and assorted curveballs. Freed from the dance floor’s demands for functional beats, a good warm-up DJ gets to concentrate on other things, like texture and tone color and air temperature, and to follow accidental wormholes that open up, like skipping records that turn into slow, looping grooves—as happens around the 25:25 mark in this three-hour set recorded at Cologne’s Gewölbe club. Thomas doesn’t indulge his first beat until close to an hour into the mix, and even then, we’re treated to the kind of tunes, like Closer Musik’s “Closer Dancer,” you don’t often get to hear played out. It’s all super low-key, even when he nudges the energy up to “808 The Bass Queen” levels, and while the technique here isn’t anything to marvel at, the selections speak for themselves. Tobias Thomas mixes only come around once in a blue moon, which makes this one required listening for fans of Kompakt and the Cologne sound.
And have a look at last month’s Best Mixes column.