Tech Tonic

First of all, apologies for the extended hiatus but to say that we've been extremely busy would be a huge understatement. We'll kick off with what's been going on on the TAPE front since our jaunt to Gothenburg (thanks go out yet again to everyone that we met during our highly enjoyable stay). So, where do we start? Ok, so we've found a new venue to host Mutant Pop; Bristol residents will know Native as an intimate, 200 capacity club with a fantastic soundsystem and we're now going to be doing a night every two months there, joining the likes of Dubloaded (Pinch's monthly dubstep hoedown that unfortunately ALWAYS clashes with Mutant Pop at the Arc Bar) and Byte in their Friday night roster. As we should have a bigger budget for these nights, we'll be bringing you the crème de la crème of the international DJing circuit that we just can't afford to book at the Arc. We will, however, still be doing our monthly nights at the Arc Bar, and June will see the author, DJ, journalist, scholar, and gentleman that is Bill Brewster grace the decks. You may know him best for his co-authorship of the tome of knowledge that is 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life', and if you haven't read it already, pick up the latest edition that hit the shelves a few months back. Next month (May 4th - get the date in your diary!), as you should already know, we've got Trapez and Resopal's melodic minimal wunderkind Florian Meindl, and two weeks after that we kick off our bi-monthly residency at Native with an exclusive for the people of Bristol. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Axel Bartsch...

Our opening party at Native will be the first time a producer that's released on Kompakt Extra (home of their now legendary Speicher series) has ever played in this fair city. His 'Galaxy', 'Was Bleibt Ist Die Musik', and 'Deal/Shifting' releases on Kompakt Extra were lapped up by discerning techno fans worldwide, and he's also the owner of the Sportclub label, who've just reached their milestone tenth release this April. He's no new pretender, however - the man's been producing in various guises since 1993 on luminary labels like Frisbee Tracks, Spiel-Zeug, and Planet Of Drums. One thing's for sure - with this man at the helm it certainly promises to be a night to remember.... Or should that be forget?

All these dates and venues are probably confusing you, but they're neatly displayed to your right for ease of browsing. So in order to confuse you even more, myself and Puffin Jack have just started a new residency alongside iDJ magazine editor Matt Anniss (more commonly known by his DJing moniker 'Sell By Dave'). The night, 'best before:' (yes, that's right, all lower case and ending in a colon), takes place at our favourite boozer in Bristol, The Bank pub (where we've been hosting the last couple of TAPE parties), where we've been given free reign to play whatever the hell we like (which was the TAPE ethos from the very beginning) alongside fantastic guests that have been willing to play for a few pints and a bag of nuts. First up, on Friday April 27th, we've got the first ever performance from Bristolian disco editors Thumbs Aloft, who'll be launching their debut release on their own Pointless Edits label. The banner's a little to wide to fit in properly, so click on it to enlarge it.

Future guests include SWAG's Chris Duckenfield, and Rong Music's Mudd (which I'm really excited about - scroll down to check out our interview with the man himself), who's Claremont 56 LP should be dropping on these shores imminently, so if you fancy checking those guys out in the intimate confines of the tiny pub that is The Bank, check the dates out to the right. We've also got a couple of things going on in both Bristol and Nottingham this weekend, but I'll do a separate post about that in a bit.

So now, some audio! That's what you've been really waiting for, haven't you? Well, we've got a new radio show brimming with juicy goodies for you to sample. No, it's not an mp3, but all you iPod lovers can grab my mix below if you're that way inclined. There's new stuff from My My, DJ Koze, Luca Bachetti, and Future Beat Investigators amongst other bits'n'bobs, and also a couple of cuts from Ostgut Ton's forthcoming 'Shut Up And Dance! Updated' collaboration with the Staatsballet. I've written a great piece (if I do say so myself) on this release regarding the acceptance of techno in the world of supposed 'high art', but I'm not sure if it'll actually be published by the people I've done it for. I should know in the next week or so, but if not then I'll whack it straight up here for you guys. The radio show's already been played live, so it'll be in the archives ready for you to listen immediately.

TAPE Radio - Show #24: 'Tech Tonic'
1) Substance & Vainqueur - Reverberation // Scion Versions
2) Sleeparchive - Perspective // Ostgut Ton
3) Future Beat Investigators - Forthosewhoknow // Raw Fusion
4) Mock & Toof - Tomcat (Mock's Mod Mix) // Tiny Sticks
5) Superpitcher - Superjam // Kompakt Extra
6) I:Cube - Oblivion (Dixon's Edit) // Versatile
7) October - There's A Glitch In My Soup // CD-R
8) Kerri Chandler - Moon Bounce // Deeply Rooted
9) Motorcitysoul - Kazan (My My Remix) // Aus
10) Par Grindvik - Do Us Apart // Drumcode
11) Luca Bacchetti - Flat Mates // Wagon Repair
12) Battles - Atlas (DJ Koze Remix) // Warp
13) The 7th Plain - Symphony For The Surrealists // Ostgut Ton

Listen:
TAPE Radio - Show #24: 'Tech Tonic'

Phew. Hope that keeps you satisfied for a while as we're busy boys this weekend. I'll post up full details of our dates in a bit. Take care of yourselves, and make the most of your time off.