Tagged “music”
April 2022 mixtape
I put together a fairly spacey and mellow selection of laidback electronic sounds with a little nod to summer.
Plant43 – Light Pollution
Having a nice moment revisiting this amazing 2006 Ai records double-header from @datassette and @plant43_ and remembering pre-lockdown Glasgow life.
Guest mix for Multiverse Sessions, December 2020 by Tom Churchill
Kicking off with an unreleased interlude by yours truly, it covers various shades of techno and electro from artists including @tapesjamaican, @pearsonsound, @reedalerise, @datashat, @legowelt-official, @cygnus and more.
Being – Broxburn Funk
Being’s Broxburn Funk arrived in today’s post and it’s a thing of beauty.
Enjoying it now with a ☕️. Amazing work all round—music, sound, artwork, the lot. Big up @WeeDjs for the stellar tunes and if @firecracker_rec’s 50th is their last, then they’ve finished with a bang.
Music For Programming
Feel like I’m probably really late to discover this website, but here’s “Music for Programming” from Datassette. Hopefully this’ll be of use to fellow programmers who like music, although I daresay you can probably enjoy it if you’re a normal person too.
Through years of trial and error - skipping around internet radio stations, playing our entire music collections on shuffle, or just hammering single albums on repeat, we have found that the most effective music to aid prolonged periods of intense concentration tends to have a mixture of the following qualities: Drones, Noise, Fuzz, Field recordings, Vagueness (Hypnagogia), Textures without rhythm…
07/01/21 DJ Mix – Manifold
First in a series of mainly short, off the cuff mixes where I just hit record and see where it goes. This one’s on the Electro tip, having kicked it off with Versalife’s Manifold from last year.
I’ve started reading Andrew Weatherall – A Jockey Slut Tribute.
Merch Table
A neat online tool (with a positive goal) which lets you paste in a link to one of your Spotify playlists then lets you know which of the tracks or albums are available to buy on Bandcamp.
Small Axe - Series 1: Red, White and Blue (on BBC iPlayer)
One of several fantastic films from Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) described as “Love letters to black resilience and triumph in London's West Indian community. Vivid stories of hard-won victories in the face of racism.”
This one tells the story of Leroy Logan, a young black man who joins the police in an attempt to effect change “from the inside” as a consequence of seeing his father assaulted by police officers. He is faced with both his father’s disapproval and institutional racism within the police ranks.
Autumn 2020 Records Round-up
Linkwood & Other Lands – Face the Facts
Lovely double-vinyl LP that sees three of Auld Reekie’s finest producers and labels join forces. Breezy laid-back jams with smooth keys rub up next to darker, Theo Parrish-eque moments to give it a fine balance. Favourite track: Shapes. Grab a copy on Bandcamp
Om Unit meets Seekers International – Secret Location
Was excited to hear about this collab, and it doesn’t disappoint. 7 tracks of deep, digi-dub bass, hazy textures and dancehall samples and it sounds amazing. Favourite track: Krnch. https://bit.ly/33g6xOE
Looking forward to Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone show on 6Music tonight, talking about Plaid’s Not for Threes LP plus other experimental electronics. https://bbc.in/3nMeOS5. Headspin is still killer!
Various – Buena Onda Balearic Beats
Lovely four-tracker of slow and atmospheric late-night grooves from Italy and elsewhere, as heard on Denise’s radio show. Favourite track: Lucas Croon – Japon. Grab a copy on Bandcamp
Nat Birchall meets Al Breadwinner – Upright Living LP
Real nice roots reggae and dub from sunny Manchester. Favourite track: African Village Dance / Village Dub. https://bit.ly/3feSzRP
Choosing between online services
A recent issue of the dConstruct newsletter about choosing more ethical online services really chimed with me at a time when I’ve been reflecting on my online habits.
Satoshi & Makoto – CZ-5000 Sounds & Sequences Vol. II
Beautiful ambient textures and downtempo electronics with that typically quirky Japanese flavour. if you like Ryuichi Sakamoto or Apogee & Perigee, you’ll love this. Favourite track: Correndor. https://bit.ly/2Hpu8ol
Lothian No Borders – Ep 2 – Being & Firecracker Recordings
Lovely radio show including an interview with @firecracker_rec and mix from @WeeDjs.
Rodney P’s Jazz Funk (on BBC Four)
UK rap legend Rodney P reveals how the first generation of British-born black kids was inspired by the avant-garde musical fusions of black America in the 70s to lay the foundations of modern-day multiculturalism by creating the first black British music culture with the jazz-funk movement.
Isolated Moments: March 2020 Records
Storm Music: February 2020 Records
Bobby Gillespie remembers Andrew Weatherall (The Guardian)
I think of him as a true bohemian; he made etchings, he wrote, he read a lot. Andrew always had a book on the go, maybe two. I remember he gave me his copy of Hunger by Knut Hamsun when I told him I hadn’t read it. There was this other side to him that was deep, curious, well-read. I guess he was a classic autodidact, hungry for knowledge.
Record Shopping, January 2020
BBC Four - Primal Scream: The Lost Memphis Tapes
The sessions recorded by the band in Memphis with the legendary record producer Tom Dowd, along with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section musicians Roger Hawkins, drums, and David Hood, bass, did not make the light of day, because some of the mixes were not suitable in the musical climate at the time.
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (on BBC Four)
The story behind Blue Note Records, founded in New York in 1939 by two German Jewish refugees who allowed their musicians complete artistic freedom, revolutionising jazz in the process.
“Long Shot” DJ mix by The Nuclear Family
A mix of electronic, house and techno records I recorded at home in November 2019.
“Gil Scott-Heron Saved Me”
From The Guardian in 2011, shortly after Gil Scott-Heron’s sad death, here’s a beautiful and moving account of how the musical legend offered hope and mentorship to a young man from Liverpool and in so doing turned his life around.
Original 1979 copies of Garden of Eden’s Everybody’s on a Trip regularly sell for £200+ so I was pretty happy to hear that it had just been reissued on Backatcha records… and even happier when I managed to snag a copy.
I first heard this stellar slice of deep funk a few years back on Kon and Amir’s compilation Off Track Volume One: The Bronx, and have been hankering after a proper copy ever since.
Check it out!
In second year a nice school pal introduced me to The Cure when I was on an otherwise strict diet of rave tapes. Mixed Up with its dubby extended mixes sealed the deal. Shamefully haven’t yet seen them live so I’m at fever pitch for tomorrow’s gig at Bellahouston Park. Hopefully see some of you there!
Must have missed this track (from the LP The Sorrow of Derdriu) on previous listens. A Bladerunner-esque beauty!
Everybody in the place
Enjoyed this acid house history lesson from Jeremy Deller – especially some of the footage from the early Manchester scene which I hadn’t seen before.
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
I’ll tell you wot – that woz a propa’ poolside page-turner and no mistake. Nice work Russ Forman.
Guest reggae and dub mix on Vic’s Sunday Soundclash
A couple of weeks ago I was kindly asked to provide a guest DJ mix for the Vic’s Sunday Soundclash show on Radio Magnetic.
You can listen to the show on demand.
The Art of DJing: Jeff Mills (on Resident Advisor)
Fair play, Jeff – once this interview gets going it’s pretty damn good.
Surface Noise
Into The Outer feat. Other Lands, 27th October 2018 on NTS
Magical sounds in the mix, from Auld Reekie’s finest.
When in Chicago, buy #house
DJ Gig at Max’s Bar, Glasgow with Jamie Porter (21-07-18)
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