Mix Me Up

Before I start, I'd just like to thank everyone that came out to any/all of our best before: birthday weekender last weekend. Phil Banks warmed things up nicely for Rune (and also pulled out the first Gatto Fritto record that I've been trying to lay my hands on for an age now - bloody 200 copy records when I'm skint!), who absolutely spanked it and managed to get a three minute round of applause at the end of the night. Saturday's shenanigans were even more debauched - Thumbs Aloft had our room in rapture before I'd even hit the club, and me and Puffin followed them with (what I'm told was) one of the best sets we've played together in an age, rinsing out the hi-nrg disco, italo and house. Sell By Dave and The Kelly Twins brought things to a messy climax by spanking the hip-house and acid until the plug was sadly pulled. One of the best night's I've had out in ages though! The hardcore contingent were still around for mine and the Kelly's sets down at The Park on Sunday, and things ended suitably with remaining faithful doing the can-can to 'Happy Together'.... Yes, it definitely had to be seen to be believed... The previous week was also a highlight, with us following up JD Twitch's incredible three hour set at Native. Any man that can rock a shirt that looks like it's got a waistcoat stitched onto it is obviously a total legend.

Anyway... I've been promising this for a while (and to be fair, some critical writing on these pages is long overdue), but now I'm finally going to get round to it. There seems to have been a splurge of great compilations over the last month or so, so I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of the ones that are worth your hard earned cashola, which is something that I'm quite short on at the moment seeing as some cunt - and I don't use that word lightly - has just fucked off to Germany without paying me the 400 smackers that he owes me. Ouch. And it wasn't for the techno, either - that I would've understood! Anyway, enough of my troubles - here's five of the best:

V/A - From Antenna To Antenna // Sender
I have to admit that with the exception Andre Crom's 'Ambulanz EP', I've been pretty lax in checking out Sender's output this year. If, like me, you've been too occupied drowning in a sea of mediocre minimal techno records, this mix from label boss Benny Blome will definitely set you back on the right track. Opening with the boompty reductionism of Bloody Mary's 'Emma Pt. 1', Blome weaves the label's last 12 months of output into a satisfyingly trippy whole, whilst peppering the selection with surefire jackers from Error Error and Frank Martiniq. Minimal fans looking for a suitably wonky afterhours selection to put on when they're too battered to man the decks should look no further...

V/A - Cadenza Contemporary 01 & Cadenza Classics // Cadenza
...that is, unless they prefer their sprawling organic grooves to Sender's metallic techiness. Luciano and Serafin's Cadenza imprint provides the perfect counterpoint to Blome's label, whilst being equally suited to mangling your cerebrum in the early hours. As with the 'From Antenna To Antenna' mix, the focus of the 'Contemporary 01' disc (mixed live by Luciano, of course) is on the label's '07 output, and whilst it would've been nice for him to feature some of their earlier 'hits', it only goes to show that the material being released by them at the moment is incredibly strong. One thing that's been niggling me about M_nus at the moment is their tendency to release highly unnecessary and expensive double packs that are lapped up by the faithful in their thousands. I mean, come on - even the most ardent M_nus fan has no need for seven substandard remixes of 'R U OK', do they? Even Troy Pierce's highly anticipated 'Gone Astray' was a huge letdown for me. Cadenza, on the other hand, have no issues with quality control on this type of release (actually, on any of their releases!). Petre Inspirescu's 'Tips' and Digitaline's 'Honolulu' both have two tracks featured on here, and all are twisted masterpieces with irresistable grooves and wonderously idiosyncratic hooks. If by the time that Andomat 3000 & Jan's TAPE anthem 'L Delay' hits home, you're still not locked into the action, you'd better start checking your pulse. The 'Classics' disc contains a unmixed selection from the label's first six releases in chronological order, so if you've been snapping up the vinyl like me it might not appeal to you as much as Luciano's mix. However, if you haven't heard future classics like 'Orange Mistake', 'Max Binski', and 'Bomberos' yet, it's an ideal way to ease yourself into the joys of techno psychedelia.

Will Saul - Simple Sounds Vol. 1 // Simple
Will Saul's Simple imprint really has gone from strength to strength over the past couple of years, with his savvy A&Ring providing much joy for DJs and dancers alike across the globe. Here he showcases Simple and sublabel Aus over the duration of a two disc set, and as with the Cadenza package, you get both a mix from the label boss in addition to an unmixed disc. This time, however, you get a bunch of new productions from Saul himself alongside some freshly commissioned remixes from Gui Boratto, Partial Arts, and Aus signing Sideshow amongst others. Will's new tracks are amongst his strongest and most diverse yet - '3000AD' twinkles atop a sparse yet bouncing bass progression to die for and should find favour with fans of Lawrence et al, 'Out There' is a gorgeously deep rolling tech-houser, and the remaining two showcase his obvious love for the nu-disco sound of the moment. Out of the remixes, it's Sideshow's dubbed out interpretation of Will & Tam Cooper's 'Sequential Circus' that really stood out for me but that probably won't surprise you seeing as I've been banging on about his material for a good while now. If I had my way I'd make Fin Greenall ditch his Fink project for Ninja Tune to concentrate on this stuff full time! Sideshow also features heavily on the mixed disc - an uncredited beatless version of 'Scary Biscuits' leads into a sublime double whammy of My My and Lee Jones at the start of the disc, and it's very hard to imagine a better way to kick off the first quarter of an hour. All this cosmic house makes way for Sideshow's respective disco and dub tributes ('Philly Soundworks' and 'African Cheri') and the quality remains until the disc is closed off with Motorcitysoul and Alexkid's galacial wonk. If you like your electronic music deliciously deep whilst looking to both the past and the future for inspiration, then the answer is Simple - Will Saul's your man.

Donnacha Costello - Colorseries // Minimise
We're massive fans of Donnacha here at TAPE, and whilst this CD isn't going to be of much use to Puffin Jack (he's proudly got the full Colorseries set neatly stacked in the gentlemen's lounge), it might be to you if you missed out on it first time. Majestically melodic analogue techno from a man who doesn't nearly get enough praise that he deserves. It's worth buying alone for the b-side of the 'Mustard' release - proper bleep euphoria.

James Murphy & Pat Mahoney - Fabriclive 36 // Fabric
Now I'm not normally a massive fan of the Fabriclive series, but this is definitely one of my favourite mixes of the year. Much respect goes out to James 'Bear Chops' Murphy and LCD cohort Mahoney for using their pedestal of popularity to thrust disco into the consciousness of Fabric's subscribers and LCD fans, and also for having the balls to whack a whole load of unofficial (and therefore uncredited) edits onto a mainstream mix CD. Sure, the mixing isn't spot on sometimes, and the Still Going/City Of Women section seems like an unnecessary curveball, but I love the fact that it possesses the energy and vibe of a live club set. Great selections too - there's not a single track on there that isn't absolutely astounding (choice cuts include Theo Parrish's edit of GQ's 'Lies' and DJ Dimitri's edit of Love Committee), and there's a good mix of classics and obscurities. Disco fans - get dipping in your pockets.

I should hopefully be back soon with a selection of some of the 12" singles that I've been enjoying over the past couple of months, and if I've got time on Thursday night I'll update this post with audio samples from some of these mixes.

If you're in Bristol over the weekend, this Friday sees me headline Bleeep down at Sublime on King Street, so pop down if you fancy a bit of TAPE stylings to kickstart your weekend. Things go down from 8 til 1, and best of all it's free, so if you're skint like me you've got no excuse! Detriot legends Octave One bring out their racks and racks of analogue equipment to play live at Kingpin afterwards (Kingpin's Dave Gecko joins me on the decks at Bleeep beforehand as well - he played a quality deep house selection last time I saw him) which is going on at Warehouse. If you've got the cash it should be well worth checking out as they were great last time around when they played at Timbuk2. Also, make sure to pick up your tickets for our party with Andrew Weatherall on the 16th at Native as we're getting a lot of local press coverage in a week or so which may make getting in difficult if you try on the door. We've held back around 80 tickets for the door, so if you're down on the night make sure you get down early if you're without a ticket. Until next time...