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PETER VAN HOESEN
Leave the Land Untouched
The starting point for this mix was a question, a sort of challenge. How does one create an interesting, coherent mix going from Jimi Hendrix's 'And the gods made love' to Basic Channel's 'Enforcement'. These two tracks are somehow special to me because of the memoires attached to them. It's a challenge to bridge the space between these two tracks. The first is a short, psychedelic sixties intro tune to a classic album, the second is trance-inducing repetitive techno of the highest order, a classic in its own right. Originally I envisaged going from Hendrix into an abstract musical trip, slowly introducing rhythm to build my way up to 'Enforcement'. In other words, I thought I had the process mapped out quite clearly. Finalising the track listing took a very long time, a lot of it spent going over lists in my head, combining songs and moods. When I started putting the elements together it proved unsuccessful. Several versions of the mix were tried out, none of them worked for me. Either they sounded forced, or they evolved too fast, or too slow.... I decided to perceive this issue from the point of view of the process itself: if it takes me into a different direction than originally planned, then I should go with that and not fight it. After that everything fell into place, abandoning 'Enforcement' as a final goal to this mix and going for a more circular approach, with the mix starting and ending in the same style. It became very clear that there was a mood emerging, one that was emotional and charged with meaning, something I usually don't go for in a mix. When I listen to the mix now, after its completion two weeks ago, I feel like this is one of the more emotional mixes I have done so far. There is no tracklisting as I believe it's not important here, one needs to listen to the whole to understand what's there, too much literal information would take away the enjoyment. Finally, I'd like to say that I'm very happy to have been able to present a longtime musical passion of mine, which is the more experimental side of electronic music. Many artist are producing some incredible music in this field, always searching and probing for the new, the exciting, the refreshing....it's great to present this here.
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SHOGGOTH (aka DJ PUSSY KONTROL)
When I started to read the horror stories written 80 years ago by H. P. Lovecraft I realized how literature can transmit emotions through centuries (maybe even millenia). That is because human nature has not changed much in the last 5,000 years or so. With Lovecraft's timeless sci-fi fantasies, it is doubly so. While reading the story titled, "The Call of Cthulhu," I realized that my brain started to evoke not only images and the described situations, but also some kind of a background music. As a DJ of electronic leanings, I instantly thought of a mix made up of records that I considered to be appropriate. Something that is equally dark and suggestive, something that would add the right colour and flavour. For this mix, I have chosen a moniker "Shoggoth" (for the fun of it), which is a creature from outer space invented by Lovecraft. As I have a collaborative nature, I thought of inviting my friend DJ Sensu to mix his own musical interpretation of the story. These have been later merged into one mix named in the Lovecraftian way "Unspeakable Horrors from the Outer Space".
SENSU
In 1995, the English magazine, The Wire published an article in which legendary composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and four electronic music producers listened to and commented on each other's music. Although some gigantic generational gap prevented real understanding of one another's work, it showed the different state that electronic music was in in those days. There was a greater willingness to see electronic music as a continuum that started with the sound boxes built by Luigi Russolo right up to techno music, etc. My mix for this Lovecraft idea tries to be an amalgam of sounds of distant and more recent pasts. In fact, there are only two really recent tracks in the mix. Combined with the narration, it aims to provoke something mysterious. But also, it is a reaction against the state electronic music is in these days. I'm tired of dj's that have started (or contemplate starting) dj'ing with their laptop because, "I should start using Serato as well, everybody's doing it, " or "It is so easy. I have all my tracks here and I do not have to carry anything...". Well, playing a dj set and/or performing at a party is not like going to a business meeting with your briefcase. In the nineties the power of classical music companies imploded with the arrival of the cd-format. Look around and ask yourself if Serato could do the same with techno and electronic music in general.
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Additionally, we found the Call of Cthulhu narrated as an e-book ("The Call of Cthulhu" {1928} by H. P. Lovecraft - narration by Garrick Hagon on GPod Audio Books). Our merged mixes were combined with this narration. Finally, literature met background music matching it.
Shoggoth (mixing from the beginning to approx. 47:30 min.)
01. STL - Rainwalker (Something Records 01)
02. Gyorgy Ligeti - Atmospheres (2001:A Space Odyssey, MGM)
03. Monolake - Frost (monolake/imbalance 007)
04.Gyorgy Ligeti - Lux Aeterna (2001:A Space Odyssey, MGM) in a reverse mode
05. Arpanet - Grossvater Paradoxon (Record Makers)
06. Madteo - Head Quarters (Morphine Doser 006)
07. Plastikman - Disconnect (Nova Mute 100)
08. NSI - Clara Ghavami Extended (Cadenza 5.5)
09. Shackleton - Blood On My Hands -Villalobos remix (Skull Disco 007)
10. Depeche Mode - The Darkest Star -Monolake remix (Mute Records BONG 37) at 33 RPM instead of 45
11. Arpanet - Chandrasekhar's Limit (Record Makers)
12. DJ Jus-Ed - Teckno Minimal pcatsss (Underground Quality 016)
13. Arpanet - Twin Paradox (Record Makers)
14. Newworldaquarium -Sign of Brady (NWA 01)
Sensu (mixing from approx. 47:30 min. till the end)
15. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Vorstellung (from Sirius) - Deutsche Grammophon
16. Electric Birds - Strata - Inc. us
17. Senking - Bones - Karaoke Kalk
18. Ekkehard Ehlers - Plays John Cassavetes
19. Decoside - Reload 2 - Eclipse Music
20. Stewart Walker - Granular Synthesis - Mille Plateaux
21. Pierre Henry - Souffle 1 (from Le Voyage) - Philips
22. Mike Ink - Soul Desert - Art of Perception
23. Kurt Gaulhofer - Ein Gewittertraum - Vollmond Records
24. Signer - Coidal - Inc. us
25. Zulutronic - Hong Kong Phui - Mille Plateaux
26. Slap - Eden Now - Macro
27. Ø - Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun - Sähkö
28. Wolfgang R. Kubizek - Laura - Extraplatte
29. Mordant Music - Olde Wobby - Mordant Music
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STAR EYES (TROUBLE & BASS, NYC)
BadMind
The day I made this mix, I woke up in a really shitty mood for no good reason. Too many late nights? Too many chemicals? Too many carbs? Who knows. I was at a weird crossroads between bored/sad/pissed off and even more annoyed having to get all the speakers and levels and things set-up properly to record. Once I actually got into the music, all that evaporated and everything I was feeling just sort of came out in the music, reminding me of why I do this in the first place.
Even though I barely smoke weed anymore, the whole experience and vibe really reminded me of a weed trip, especially getting insanely focused and going in and out of these different shades of darkness. For a lot of reasons–the weed connection, the obvious influence of jungle on a lot of these records, the g-funk sound of the opening tracks–doing this mix also took me back to being 15 again and growing up in L.A. I've always liked really aggressive music (jungle, punk, gabber) and also really emotive sad music (goth, shoegaze)–maybe these are emotions its hard for me to express, so I'm happy I've got music to do it for me.
Typically when I play with Trouble & Bass it's all heavy bass bangers, so it was nice to lay down a few other things I'm feeling (still not too mellow tho...). I debated re-recording this mix over again to correct all the fuck-ups but I was worried I might lose the essence of the time when I made it. Maybe in the age of Traktor and Ableton, it's nice to hear some imperfections to remind you that a person was there doing the mix (or, for some of you, maybe not!) Anyway, this is really reflective of a mixtape I would make for myself or a friend–no worrying about it banging in the club, no perfectionism, just let things roll like I've got my own little pirate radio station.
01. Rustie & Joker - Play Doh: Don't really like this term wonky, especially cos this shit is totally danceable. This track reminds me of g-funk and hydraulics and also Clipse "Grindin." Tried to mix that in initially but it was overkill.
02. 2000F & J Kamata - You Don't Know What Love Is: More L.A. g-funk. Cruise that shit on Crenshaw!! I wish Snoop Dogg was singing over this instead of rapping over "Eastern Dub." People either love this song or hate it. I hated it at first and now I am so 'bout it 'bout it. Usually this kind of track would go at the end or last 2/3 of a mix but screw it, let's get mellow and sexy up front. Crashed the mix a little here cos I got too excited.
03. Pinch & P Dutty - War Dub: Wow...Just killed your grown and sexy vibe with some war dubs. Good weed trip gone dark with all these techstep drum & bass noises.
04. Bar 9 - Murda Sound (Cluekid Remix): This track is cracking out with the feedbacking stabs. Sorry speakers! I really like the old-school jungle vibe here: laser sounds, police sirens, classic ragga samples. Serious. This reminds me of being 15 stoned in my bedroom playing Marvellous Cain records.
05. Roska - Our Father: One from the new direction of UK funky house. Ruffneck church choir vibes sending chills down the back of my neck, with some tropical voodoo beats underneath. I really love the title too. Speaks to my weird Catholic side (supposedly I was a nun in a past life).
06. Loudmouth - Suck Out!!!: So simple, so effective. Slap! Smash!
07. Tempa T: Next Hype: I am obsessed with this song right now. I think this is probably the natural successor to Jammer's "Murkle Man." Some nonsense Muppet carjack rap. Tempa T is about to vamp all the shit from your fridge and your CD rack, and you "won't get none of your CDs back." So hard, yet I crack up every time I hear that line about the CDs.
08. Mark One - Fight: Still punching imaginary enemies. Oh shit, more darkness. We beat everyone up now let's run away while videogame grime plays in our headphones.
09. Maniac - Star in the Making Remix: Grime producers really know about string samples and drama. More furious anger right about now. The music cuts out for a second as I get too excited and hit the crossfader.
10. Wiley - Gangsterz: Along with "Bow E3," one of my favorite Wiley tracks. I've been obsessed with London since I was like 13 and it still gives me a thrill listening to him namecheck all this British stuff: Sidewinder, HMV. Wish I knew what "zampers" meant.
11. Spyro - Rhythm & Gash: I could listen to this loop forever. I am sad and I want to kick someone's ass at the same time, and I think this pretty much expresses that.
12. Zomby - Rumours & Revolutions: A smoky, spooky cut from one of my favorite producers at the moment. He really captures the goth dubstep mood I find myself in on a pretty regular basis.
13. Digital Mystikz - Anti-War Dub: The world is a dark, dark place, but here comes this inspiring dub cut for us to nod along to while we chant down Babylon.
14. LD - Woodblock: A moment of triumph in the drums here with this trancey Hyperdub number. This one has really grown on me and now I have to play it all the time.
15. Cardopusher - Double Dragon Dub: When I used to get high in high school, I used to always see animated movies and videogames full of forest animals running and screaming in my head. This track kind of reminds me of that. But I like how it goes from real hectic to this really dubby chilled out breakdown.
16. Math Head feat. Sylvia - Come To Me: I held this mix way too long but what can I say... I was wrapped up in the moment. I wish I made this track. Friends Math Head and Sylvia from Kudu on a spooky dubstep tip traveling through portals to pyramids and having cosmic tantric sex in the middle of the cosmos. My third eye is glowing.
17. Synkro - Hold Tight: Plenty of adjusting and readjusting to get this one in. More old-school samples. You can hear me teasing in La Roux for a second but decided to wait on that to bring you...
18. Plastician - Japan: Don't think I ever put this mix with "Japan" and Lil' Wayne anywhere and thought I needed to. Plastician nails that sad longing feeling with some kung fu movie/Wu-Tang shit and it goes so good with this Lil' Wayne track. Some backspins yield satanic vocals and whooshing sounds. Full head-nod.
19. Lil' Wayne - I Feel Like Dying: I've done this mix with "Japan" at the end of DJ sets twice but it's got to be the right crowd. It's such a good mix but I don't want everyone on drugs to actually get bummed out. Lil' Wayne really nails what it feels like to be shattered here. End of a long weekend and my cone is toasted.
20. La Roux - Going In For the Kill (Skream Remix): Definitely the track of 2009 so far (make sure you check the triumphant minute of drum & bass at the end). Botched the mix a bit; mental mess. By the time the track drops, I'm crying and standing in the middle of the room singing at the top of my lungs. Music is my life, and this is my version of church.
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KING ROC
on Creativity and Inspiration vs Writers Block – The Chapters Album and EP's
If you eat your favourite meal every day for a month you will be sick of it by the end of that month.... I must have said that a thousand times to people when talking about how hard it is to keep something you repeat interesting time and time again.
The downside with becoming good at a specific skill such being a musician or producer is you have to repeat yourself many times before you really learn how to get things right. By sheer repetition you train your brain how to do things a certain way. You have to except the fact that this is just the nature of the way we work as people. As a result I think it would be safe to say most electronic producers have a specific sound and they stick to it. I don't have any problem with this in principle but I do feel that you need to step outside creative box if you are going to write an album.
A couple of years ago I found out what it feels like to completely lose the motivation to work on music. This had been the first time I had ever experienced this in the 10 years I had been living in London. The trouble I was having is that I had been repeating the creative process for the last couple of years. Off the back of my first releases under the King Roc moniker I started to receive work offers to do a few remixes. The great thing about remixes in the industry is you get paid straight away – something I find 99% of the labels I have released with are not so good at when it comes to sending you a royalty statement every 6 months. The down side to remixes is you have to be careful not to just roll them out for the sake of the fast buck. Having done a series of remixes in a row that I really put my heart into I suddenly felt musically flat. I no longer wanted to write club music because as I didn't enjoy the time in the studio. My obsessive passion that I had known for so long pretty much disappeared over night. I think in the following year wrote about 3 tracks and just lived off DJing. If it were the 90's I could get away with that but these days you must be releasing records because it keeps your profile up there on an international level. You could say releasing a record is like handing someone a business card – it is a tragedy to say this but it's a fact now - I believe.
So during this time I started to look at myself to try and work out where my source of creativity and inspiration comes from. This was when I realised that almost every track I had written in the last 3 years had been created in the same step by step process. That would be – Kick – Drums – Bass – Topline / Hook. Everything I had done had been written for the dance floor and I was sick of it. I knew I needed to get back into writing music for the song and not just the groove. This was when I came up with the Chapters concept. The basic plan was to create a platform that I can release music on that wouldn't need to be just 4 to the floor but could be more alternative. This gave me the opportunity to write music but not always start with a kick drum. Essentially I realised I needed to approach each track in a different to keep me interested. By alternating the creative process I found I would be more enthusiastic because there was so much more uncertainty about what the final song would end up sounding like.
This meant that I would make a very specific point to start some tracks with a melody I made on the piano or guitar and I would ignore the drums altogether until the core of the idea was laid down. Then on the next track I would do something completely different like starting with effects loop and sounds and build the rhythms using these rather than standard drums sounds and other tracks would start with a drum loop that I would make sound different by using samples or live percussion recorded I a mic to get a completely organic feel instead of electronic. Whatever would be the core of the track had to be the thing I would focus on first and foremost. The result of this process is I started coming up with songs that I felt had a real creative musical content and I knew this was important to make the final album something that would stand up on its own and be an individual record.
What I ended up doing was writing four EP's – or Chapters as I ended up calling them – and then using the best bits from all of those tracks to create and album that would be something I would want to listen to when I am at home or on my iPod. An obstacle that took me a long time to overcome was the fact that I don't listen to club music as home and so I knew I wouldn't want to do that kind of record. I hear and know of quite a few producers who see writing an album as a stepping stone to get more PR so they get more gigs. I understand this in principle but its just not what I feel an true album is about. Personally I think it makes for a crap listening experience if all you are thinking of is trying to write a bunch of club tracks, put them on a CD and call it an album. That doesn't cut it in my opinion. An album is the ultimate platform to express your creativity at that moment in time. It should be a musical journey full of variation. Who wants to listen to 10 club tracks that are all quite similar. The only people who would be into this are other DJ's – but what about everybody else?
So what is my advice to any other producers out there.... I guess I would say when you are next going to write a track in the studio, make a very specific point of trying something different. Try recording live percussion for once or forget about the drums and just work on the musical elements. Basically whatever you normally do – DONT. Do something different. If you normally write house music then try something different just to be creative for the hell of it. It will help keep your ideas fresh purely by the fact you are doing something different.
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SMA
I remember Ronan Fitzgerald writing something along the lines of "I have to record a mix with all those slow records" on his blog a while ago. Slow, to me, is something that does not come from the speed of a record or track only; in addition to that, it's got to do with the whole atmosphere it breathes. As an attribute that can be labeled to different kinds of electronic music, "slow" has been - more or less involuntarily - debated a lot over the last couple of years, whether in the realm of the debate around minimal techno or, more recently, when house music got more popular.
I have liked slow music for a long time now and I can still remember browsing through all the new releases in Boomkat's "Home Listening" directory week after week for new, slow music. As I was asked to do a mix for this series, I didn't really know what to record at first. After thinking about the track selection for a couple of days, I remembered that a friend of mine told me that he would have expected something slower, something less driving from me as feedback on a previous mix. As I wanted to record a mix with slow music for quite some time anyhow, I began collecting tracks I enjoyed listening to in the past that were more on the slower, moodier side of techno.
In addition to going through records and tracks that were already part of my collection, I did some virtual crate digging for tracks that were new to me aswell: two real gems I discovered quite late this way that were both released on the fine German label Styrax Leaves are "Release" by Leftover as well as an untitled track from David Hausdorf. I also stumbled upon an early remix by Mike Huckaby from 1993 that I tried to fit in at the end of the mix to have something a bit more uplifting before ending with a track on the new BVP label that was only released a couple of weeks ago.
In the end, I am never a hundred percent happy with my recordings, but I still like this mix very much, as it has some great tracks in it and reflects what I enjoy listening to in a good way. I also kept playing the mix on different soundsystems and different headphones for about two weeks to make sure it wasn't something I would get tired of after listening to it for a couple of times.
01. DJ Bone, Music (Subject Detroit)
02. Atheus, InChain FX (Millions of Moments)
03. Rhythm & Sound, Music A Fe Rule (Rhythm & Sound)
04. Ernie, Humanoide Oxidado (Deep Explorer Digital)
05. Jackmate, Gothan (Philpot)
06. Sigha, Expansions (Hot Flush)
07. Pinch, 136 Trek (Punch Drunk)
08. Oracy, Rewound (Mojuba)
09. STL, Hidden Dope (Something)
10. Kassem Mosse, Untitled (B2) (Workshop)
11. James Duncan, Untitled 3 (Le Systeme Records Digital)
12. David Hausdorf, Untitled (Styrax Leaves)
13. Patrice Scott, Nuonce (Psychostasia Recordings)
14. Leftover, Release (Styrax Leaves)
15. Madteo, Alan Greenspin (Morphine Doser)
16. Chris Simmonds, Work It (Mike Huckaby's Reworkin It Remix) (Definitive Records)
17. Tony Rodriguez, Black1a (BVP)
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