Xpldr Sessions #4

Live session from the attic with special guest Farlie my sister, it’s a send off special as she’s moving to Bristol. She’ll be hosting, picking some of her favourite tracks for the mix and giving shout outs. Tune in @ 8:00-ish bellow or here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/xplodersessions Stream videos at Ustream

The Hundred In The Hands – Dressed In Dresden (Kyle Hall Remix) [Warp]
Martyn – Seventy Four (Redshaped Remix) [3024]
SCB – 20_4 [SCB]
Al Tourettes – Sunken [Apple Pips]
Roman Lindau – Keppra [Ostgut Ton]
MMM – Nous Sommes MMM [MMM]
Egyptrixx – Everybody Bleeding [Kingdom Remix]
Kode9 ft. Spaceape – You Don’t Wash [K7!]
Altered Natives – Believe In Me ft. Sacha Williamson [Fresh Minuet Music]
Karizma – Necessary Madness [R2]
DJ Rush – Cruising [Dance Mania]
DJ Naughty – Firepower [Roska Kicks & Snares]
Jam City – Ecstasy Refix [Night Slugs]
Ramadanman – Grab Somebody [White]
DJ C – Jump Up & Bounce [West Norwood Cassette Library]
Lady Saw & Cecile – Loser (Bubblez Refix) [White]
MJ Cole – Volcano Riddim [Prolific]
Bowly – Idee Dun Tropique [Berkane Sol]
Kidkut – Ilove04 [Apple Pips]
El-B – Lyrical Tempo [Tempa]
FaltyDL – Phreqaflex [Planet Mu]
Blackstreet – I Need a Dub (Jeremy Sylvester Remix) [White]
Basement Jaxx – Red Alert (Steve Gurley Remix) [XL]
Geiom ft Marita – Sugar Coated Lover [Berkane Sol]
SBTRKT & Sampha – Break Off [Ramp]
Shortstuff – Herb Face [Ramp]
Ill Blu – Dragon Pop [Hyperdub]
Bakongo – Amhara [Brainmath]
Jackal Youth - Let Me Be [Reduction]
A Made Up Sound – Alarm [A Made Up Sound]
Ramadanman – Work Them [Swamp 81]
DVA – New World Order [DVA Music]
Martin Kemp – Fix [Blunted Robots]
Mr. Mageeka – Different Lekstrix [Numbers]
Marcus Price & Carli – Var E Näääken (Girl Unit Remix) [Palms Out Sounds]
Girl Unit – IRL [Night Slugs]
Addison Groove – Dumb Shit [Swamp 81]
Ramadanman – Glut [Hemlock]
Joe – Claptrap [Hessel Audio]
James Blake – CMKY [R&S]
Guido – Mad Sax [Punch Drunk]
SRC – Ryouku [No Hoods No Hats]
Joker – Gully Brooke Lane [Terrorhythm]
Terror Danjah – Space Traveller [Planet Mu]
Starkey ft Durtty Goodz – Gutter Music [Keysound]
Kuedo – Star Fox [Planet Mu]
Maniac - Thug [Terrorhythm]
Zomby – Kaliko [Hyperdub]
The Bug ft. Killa P & Flow Dan – Skeng [Hyperdub]
Blawan – Iddy [Hessel Audio]
Mala – Eyez [DMZ]
Effdem – Acid Bells (Martyn Bitter Sweat Remix) [Curle]
UR – Transition [UR]
De La Soul - All Good (MJ Cole Remix) [XL]

Pariah – Safehouses EP [R&S]

Pariah drops a double pack on the recently refreshed and vibrant R&S records, six tracks of pure Pariah. He shows us some breadth and flexes his production muscles in all directions, from tribal dance floor workouts to deep house textures and tweaked out hip-hop variants all with a slight garage strain rolling through it.

Percussive roller ‘The Slump’ drops hard, from tribal accented beats into an almighty bass pulse that would make Untold and Ramadanman proud. Eski-like beats stomp under the building layers of percussion and bass weight until a release comes in the form of melodic soulful vocal samples and twilight pads. Like a garage cousin of Rishi Romero’s 'African Forest' in a head on collision with Pulse-X and a healthy does of melancholic melody. It’s a big one. With its deep and housy vibes ‘Prism’ is a welcome addition to the front end of this EP, where the dance floor takes front stage. It’s a subtle number mind, keeping it close with a tight and bumpy percussive roll. Synth’s refract and spin off in different directions over building wide screen pads before a pulsing bass line gets things moving.

The late night vibes of ‘Railroad’ get things nice and blissful, Pariah flexes his off-kilter atmospheric hip-hop muscles. He merges that vibe with a slinky garage bump with ease, its like you’re stuck on a bus mid summer, heavy with sweat. Sweeping melodies with an emotional pull get pushed into shape by deep bass flourishes and junglist breaks before it all melts into field recordings and the next track ‘Crossed Out’ which takes off where ‘Prisim’ left but with a rattling garage bump more prominent… you could fit it next to recent efforts from George Fitzgerald or Hyetal with ease.

The final two see Pariah in atmospheric mode, first up is ‘C - Beams’ where he brings out his inner Dilla, which he plays out under field recordings, bittersweet soundtrack pianos and computer game lilted funk. Things go deeper still with atmospheric drones on the closing track ‘Safehouses’, its almost reminiscent of GAS in some ways, its layers of sound wrapping itself around your ears before it engulfs you in a bed of looping tones. A solid EP that has range and scope, taking in different moods and atmospheres, the dance floor tracks will be in people’s bags for a while yet and the rest will mesmerise on those late nights.

http://www.myspace.com/pariahbeats
http://www.rsrecords.com/

Sonic Router Mix

Originally written for Sonic Router.

Onra – Long Distance [All City]

Shimmering 80s nostalgia channelled through off-centre hip-hop beats and an infectious wave of boogie enhanced synth funk. This is the latest album from French producer Onra, Long Distance echoes the late night cityscapes on its front cover. Hinting at DâM-Funk’s retro boogie, but with hip-hop beat tape style rather than a live jam, or Hudson Mohawke at his least ADHD, maybe even an off-kilter Discovery era Daft Punk if they kept up break-dancing a lowered the tempo. Onra likes a concept, his last LP Chinoiseries was made up of samples he picked up on a trip to Saigon and this one switches it all together to concentrate on a wave of 80s funk, boogie and R&B.

The cosmic mantra ‘I want to hear future funk’ on ‘My Comet’ ushers in the first wave of spectral soul. ‘Rock On’ brings the boogie, with crunchy snare hits and lilting bass. ‘Send Me Your Love’ manages to both sound like Phil Collins soaked in cheese and woozy nighttime cool all at once, straggling the line between the two brilliantly. Another highlight, ‘Moving’ feels like a DJ Screw take on Cameo, mellow slowed down syrup funk.

When Onra works with vocalists it all comes together brilliantly, ‘High Hopes ft. Reggie B’ echoes new jack swing and 80s soul. ‘The One ft. T3 of Slum Village’ spits some verses over old school clattering electro breaks. Its Hudson Mohawke collaborator Olivier Daysoul that stands out with his Outkast-esq soul, this works best on title track ‘Long Distance’ where we see him at his most subtle.

The woozy-tape-warp soul of ‘Don’t Stop’ is another highlight; you can just sink into this one and vibe off the space and funk of it all. The phasing hypnotic soul of ‘Wonderland’ keeps driving forward, windows down, sleeves rolled up into the sunset. ‘L.I.A.B.’ keeps the cut-up grooves coming that’ll make your head nod before oozing into the final cut ‘Cherry’, which shimmers with a late night vibes.

Long Distance is a fine album Onra commits himself to the 80s R&B boogie concept and pulls it off in fine style. Put this on during a hazy summer evening, put on some shades even though its dark, it’ll protect your eyes from all the umbrellas in your cocktail when you’re nodding your head to these jams.

Onra - Long Distance - New Album (Teaser) from enozoib on Vimeo.

http://www.myspace.com/onra

V/A – Dark Matter: Multiverse 2004-2009 [Tectonic]

You may know Multiverse without even knowing it, they’re an umbrella organisation and studio in Bristol that has helped many artists and labels get their music out there. The network of labels alone is pretty special, with: Pinch’s Tectonic that’s been rolling deep at the forefront of dubstep since day one and it’s diverse sister label Earwax, Joker’s Kapsize with its purple hyper-funk, October’s techno offshoot Caravan and Baobinga’s rough house imprint Build all on the roster. As you can imagine a lot of ground is covered on this Dark Matter retrospective.

Storming out of the blocks comes Vex’d with their tough, breaky style. Ravey bass pulses with a ton of energy and dub accents. It’s an early highlight. October shows an early dubstep production off by remixing Circuit Breakers, if you ever caught that Immerse 12” last year where he really goes in with two grimy hard hitting raw slabs of it you’ll know what to expect here. Later on the compilation you’ll catch more of his techno-oriented stuff he’s doing at present… You’ll be in for a treat. Pinch makes his first appearance with a weighty number in collaboration with P Dutty, its full of space, bass and a pent up aggression. Skream turns in a big dubby production with some serious bass weight. But its Joker’s ‘Stuck in the System’ that really grabs you, the grimy favourite twists computer game strings and a dirty south aesthetic into a twisted synth workout, it’s a real peak. He smooths out that style on his collaboration with Ginz on ‘Purple City’ here too, with real sing along synths. A personal favourite of mine ‘Techno Dread’ by 2562 still hits hard, with its relentless bass line and skippy, addictive drum patterns. Bristol legend RSD offers up his sublime remix of Pinch and Yolanda’s ‘Get Up’, the smooth vocals ride his dubbed out basslines perfectly, it’s a track that keeps rolling with a joyful soulful vibe. The first CD ends on the tough broken house of Baobinga & ID which really pops and swings.

The second disc really takes off with Vex’d dropping ‘Pop pop’ a heavy skippy number. Loefah & Skream come together on the fantastic ’28 Grams’, which has a weightlessness to it, the wobbly bassline ricochets off into orbit while a solid slab of sub keeps it tethered to the ground. Cyrus follows that up with the sublime ‘Indian Stomp’ with, as you’d expect Indian samples and killer percussion that rolls and bumps hard, its one of the highlights of the compilation for me. If that wasn’t enough already Pinch comes and drops ‘Qawwali / Brighter Day’ which is just pure bliss. Its got that deep meditative vibe about it that’s so addictive and appealing about early dubstep. The bassline drones and pulses with a weighty pressure that draws you in deep as the drums, pads and melodies get your head nodding. Loefah turns up on his own this time with the spacious and powerful ‘System’. ‘Uranium’ by Moving Ninja shows off similar space but with added atmosphere, they really know how to build it from raw field recordings and synth pads. October is back and in techno mode, tough four to the floor kicks and microscopic samples get cut into bumpy shapes all over the place on the addictive ‘Three Drops’, which drops into as the name suggests a three drop synth loop that really gets things moving, and when it melts into wide screen synths its something else. He pulls off another highlight with ‘Euro Dance Hit’ which comes on like a lost Daniel Bell production fighting its way through a crowded room, its all space and tension. A killer 2562 track from his last album ‘Unbalance’, which is full of colour and presence gets book-ended by two impressive productions from Emptyset to finish off the compilation, the dub techno duo really bring it with the heavy ‘Gate 4’ which sounds like it could flatten a house and the more laid back ‘Demian’ which is so smooth and full of vibes its unreal.

The music speaks for its self really, a diverse bunch. Many of the tracks sound as fresh as when they first dropped. It’s a retrospective you can really get involved with and a good jumping off point for exploring the artists and labels involved. The Multiverse really shows what presence it’s had in the scene with this compilation; it runs deep to the roots of the genre and all its factions as well as showing how important it is to the city it occupies.

http://www.multiverse-music.com/