Tagged “techno”

Yesterday was the celebration of the life of Ewan (Ginny). It was a beautiful service held at The Hurlet crematorium then at No 10 Hotel.

His was really a unique life and it was wonderful to hear from Sally and others about his family life, his time at university (we were at Strathclyde Uni at the same time), good times with friends, his love of music, his inspiring career, the way he handled his medical condition and more. I’ve also never heard music I love such as Carl Craig’s A Wonderful Life and Underground Resistance’s Journey of the dragons played in the context of a funeral and I found that aspect (and how Marty had thoughfully chosen those pieces) very moving.

It really was a mixture of sad and happy. I hope Ruth was happy with how everything went – I think she was. A fitting send-off to a great person.

I was recently sorting through some old stuff when I found a tatty old poster I used to love and that brought back good memories. It shows the gated basement vault of the original Tresor nightclub at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. Smoke is billowing out of the room dramatically and it includes the text The Extremist. I bought or otherwise acquired this poster on a night in 2005 when me and friends Davie and Tom visited the famous club during a trip to Berlin.

That was a great trip. While Davie wasn’t in the best of health at the time, we still got up to a variety of high jinks, including a memorable drinking session with techno legend Dan Curtin who was releasing music on Tom’s label at the time. (I think that was my introduction to strong Belgian beer, and I remember being mightily impressed when Dan cycled off at the end.) I also remember we stayed in Prenzlauer Berg, at Transit Loft if I recall rightly.

Anyway while reminiscing I embarked on a little bit of internet spelunking. It turns out that there is some interesting video and audio footage from the time we were at Tresor.

I remember that the DJs/acts playing in the Globus upstairs area of the club that night included Blake Baxter and Abe Duque. And guess what, here’s a cool video Abe Duque made that very night. It shows him walking through Berlin, arriving at the club (you see that striking Tresor logo projected on the building) then entering. There’s also some cool footage of the vibe in Globus.

One of my strongest memories of the night was hearing Vainqueur’s Lyot while we were downstairs in the basement. The track is a Basic Channel classic and, while on the harder end of their output, it feels to me like it was tailor-made for environs such as the one we were in. What a moment! So imagine my delight when I found a live recording of that set by DJs Julien & Gonzague with Lyot at 46 minutes. So good to be able to relive the moment!

Lastly, here are some excellent articles (with photos) I found on my internet travels which are worth a look.

• Tresor by BLDGBLOG
• Tresor: A History of Berlin’s Iconic Music Venues on the Love from Berlin blog

Pitchfork’s review of Jeff Mills’ seminal mixtape is the best-written and most enjoyable music article I’ve read in years. The mixtape in question is also very close to my heart.

this is a mix without equal, the Techno Bible, unequivocally The One.

Then, as now, Liquid Room stands as a high-water mark of a Black artform built around space travel and the necessity of forward motion: ’90s techno at its most unyielding and free.

Agreed! Fun fact: in 1996, having played the shit out of my cassette copy for a few months, I went to see Jeff DJ at the Arena in Glasgow in 1996 and he signed the inlay! I would normally be embarassed at having done this… but not in this case.

Over the years I’ve seen Herr Henke (of Monolake fame) doing variously-themed live shows and in a variety of locations. I loved this particular show and it was made even better by catching him at The Tramway Theatre, one of my favourite venues and just 10 minutes walk from home.

Here’s a little about CBM 8032 AV in the great man’s own words:

CBM 8032 AV is an exploration of the beauty of simple graphics and sound, using computers from the early 1980’s. Everything presented within the project could have been done already in the 1980, but it needed the cultural backdrop of today to come up with the artistic ideas driving it. On stage are five carefully restored Commodore CBM 8032 computers, running custom software developed by the artist and his team. Three computers create sound, one machine is responsible for the graphics and one is controlling all the others, with their green cathode ray tube displays facing the audience, operated by the artist during the show.

I was there with Tom and Simon. Here’s a little phone recording captured by Tom.

We left in agreement that Robert really is a genius. I’ve always loved his music and he is still doing fresh, inventive and wonderful things.

Additional info:

• Tramway event page for CBM 8032 AV

It’s important to set the record straight. Normally when people talk about the early UK scene the same few things get mentioned. The real underground never gets talked about."

I loved this! It tells the stories behind many of the lesser-reported UK scenes and record labels. And it really helped to join a lot of musical dots for me, covering music I first heard on cassettes as a teenager thirty years ago. (That includes fairly obscure labels such as Chill – that brilliant quote about “setting the record straight” was from their A+R man Tim Raidl).

I also loved Matt’s passion for telling the stories of these people and communities.

Highly recommended.

Loved this thoughtful and insightful interview with Jeff Mills by Marcus Barnes.

Among the highlights were Jeff’s thoughts on whether his music could viably still be described as “Detroit” given how long he’s lived away from the motor city, and also his reflections on the impact on his peer group of the 1980 film American Gigolo.

Having a nice moment revisiting this amazing 2006 Ai records double-header from @datassette and @plant43_ and remembering pre-lockdown Glasgow life.

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.

Lovely mix of mellow electro and techno vibes by my friend Tom.

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.

Grab a copy at Rubadub

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.

Tracklist:

1. Versalife – Manifold
2. Carl Finlow – Components
3. Sedgwick – Rhythm & Isolation
4. ESB – Tethys
5. Reedale Rise – Transluscent
6. Anthiliawaters – Barcelona
7. Turner Street Sound – Dunes (Oceanic Mix)

The mix was recorded on two Technics SL1210s and an Isonoe ISO420 mixer.

If you like talking music feel free to give me a shout on Twitter @fuzzylogicx.

A mix of electronic, house and techno records I recorded at home in November 2019.

2019 has been a fairly quiet year for my and Tom’s record label The Nuclear Family. However with a couple of winter events coming up I wanted to share a little teaser mix to whet the collective appetite.

Inspiration

Earlier in the year I joined a fine bunch of pals on a night out at 69 at The Club, Paisley to hear resident DJs Martin and Euan plus a live performance from guest John Heckle. It was a fantastic night and particularly memorable for a couple of stellar tracks played by Euan. I tried to describe them to him afterwards but wasn’t sure if I was making much sense. Cut to a few months later and a mysterious parcel containing records I’ve never heard of arrives at my door. I was convinced that someone must have sent them to me in error until dropping the needle on the grooves and realising they were the tracks from that night at 69! Channeling Sherlock Holmes, I deduced that Euan – being the all-round good guy that he is – had bought and posted them to me as a souvenir of the night. What a guy!

And they are brilliant.

The first is Ricochet by Bambooman (a new name on me) on Matthew Herbert’s label, Accidental Jnr. It features a stuttering, percussive riff complimented by searing synth stabs – proper machine funk but with a heart. The second is a double-pack by the more familiar name of i:cube, with my favourite track Fractal P a dark, winding, bass-heavy trip reminiscent of ’91 classic Pressure Dub by Ability 11 but with its own distinct flavour.

I knew I definitely wanted those tracks in the mix.

Around those touchstones I added recent favourites from Joy O (under his Sin Falta alias), Phillip McGarva (the artist formerly known as Microworld) and Dego, plus a few oldies including Isolée’s Hermelin and Modern Tribe by Jellybean (AKA Glenn Underground).

In terms of kit, I recorded the mix on a pair of Technics 1210s and an Isonoe 420 mixer.

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.

Fair play, Jeff – once this interview gets going it’s pretty damn good.

Amongst other ground, it covers:

• The technique of “Subtraction”;
• the last quarter of records being the best;
• the bar for electronic music being set too low;
• the complexity of the art form of DJing; and
• thinking about other things while DJing in front of 2000 people…

Plenty of good bits to chew over!