I'm in the mood for techno

Minimal techno might have edged techno towards the mainstream, but I’m talking about the old stuff, proper Detroit techno. Techno has always had a image problem in that the vast majority think it’s the type of awfull music that’s played to a scary warehouse full of skinheads and sounds like having your head smashed against a concrete floor,of course anyone with the slightest knowledge of real Detroit techno knows it can be highly intelligent music both funky and futuristic at the same time ‘Kraftwerk and George Clinton stuck in an elevator’ to paraphrase Derrick May.

In the documentary High Tech Soul detailing the history of the Detroit techno scene, the music comes across a little po faced with lofty ideals of artistic integrity. Can a form of music that while remaining resolutely underground yet fills clubs the world over be considered an artform? Certainly techno more than any other form of dance music has its canonised works, go to see any techno night and I’m sure you will still hear the likes of Strings of Life, Big Fun, Energy Flash played, records that are around two decades old. House reocrds of the same time don’t sound nearly as fresh and indeed futuristic today as the aforementioned Techno records.

Of all the Detroit techno artists striving for artistic credability Jeff Mills stands out a DJ and musician always looking to push the boundaries of what he does. Be that his Detroit radio mixes as the Wizard in the early days or setting up Underground Resistance, following Giorgio Moroder in creating a new score for Fritz Lang’s classic silent film Metropolis or having his work reinterpreted to be played by an orchestra as he did with his Blue Potential project. As a DJ he demands you dance, rapidly cutting from one record to the next, rarely playing anything for over a few minutes treating his techno drum loops like a hip hop DJ juggles beats. As an artist he tries to make you think as well as dance.

Below is an excerpt from Blue Potential that saw Mills teaming up with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra under Alain Altinoglu. Perhaps most effectively with this version of Mills most famous track the Bells.

Jeff Mills & Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra - The Bells


Jeff Mills & Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra - The Bells

Here is a Jeff Mills mix originally broadcast on Mary Ann Hobbs Breezeblock radio show in 2005.


Jeff Mills - Breezeblock Mix

Axis Records

I'm in the mood for ska

Not the two tone stuff by the likes of the Specials above, but the original Jamaican flavour. If your down in the southern hemisphere I hope it’s a lovely summer, here in Britain it’s rained all week so here’s a little Ska mini mix (five tracks twelve minutes) to help the sun shine! All these tracks are off the Trojan compilation Young Gifted and Black, a brilliant ska, rockers and reggae primer that was released a few years back. A great investment if your music collections lacking some roots.

Ska Minimix - Tracklisting

Lorn Tanamo - I’m in the mood for ska
Prince Buster - Madness
The Skatalites - The Guns of Navarone
The Ethiopeans - Train to Skaville
The Upsetters – The Return of Django


Skamix

Trojan Records

Essential

Radio One’s Essential Mix is always going to hold fond memories for me. Back in what some call ‘the day’ it was the only place to go for decent dj mixes, tunes didnt have to be licenced like on a mix cd. You could buy rave tapes from record shops in ghastly packaging, normally a huge plastic box that seemed to always fall to pieces and would have some kind of Mandelbrot design on it, with 'live' normally meaning poor quality or there was trading tapes with your mates which meant whichever tunes the local record shop said Sasha was currently playing mixed together on a pair of beltdrives by a friends older brother. Then there was a third option - the Essential Mix. ‘saturday night through to Sunday morning’ the comforting tones of good ol’ Pete Tong introducing the nights entertainment.

The essential mix soundtracked the drive home or the after party, a night in with mates or on making a morning commute seem more bearable. I have tapes that were played to destruction, copies of copies of copies, favourite sets - from the trance of Oakenfold and Sasha, to Daft Punk playing Chicago house and David Holmes mix of funk, soul and sixties psyc to Unklesounds and the Psyconauts mixtapes. In fact away from the Essential Mix live sets from Ibiza or Creamfields etc. the more obscure mixes by the like of David Holmes, digging the crates and introducing a new audience to the likes of Marlana Shaw, Anandra Shankar or Nancy Wilson could almost be seen as upholding the BBC’s Reithian model of informing, educating and entertaining, but I digress - there were some banging tunes an all!

Of course the Essential Mix is still going with an international listenership and mp3’s of each show almost immediately available. Once in a while there might be a more interesting mix, Diplo put out a decent one last year, but it mostly seems to be pretty boring trance or electro house stuff. They still select the Essential mix of the year which brings me to the reason of this post. It didn’t win but you will hard pressed to find a better two hour selection from last year than this mix. For anyone who didn’t get it at the time, here is the excellent Lindstrom and Prins Thomas Essential Mix. We continue….

Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - Essential Mix 05/05/07

Al Usher ‘Her Today’ (Misericord)
Aeroplane ‘Aeroplane’ (Eskimo)
Lindstrøm & Solale ‘Let It Happen’ (Azuli)
In Flagranti ‘Bipolar’ (Codek)
No Theory ‘Devils Dance’ (Sin&Soul)
Lindstrøm ‘Musikal Overtones’ (Feedelity)
Sneak Thief G-String Orchestra ‘My Sullen Mistress’ (Klakson)
Ytre Rymden Dansskola ‘Kjappfot(PT Edit)’ (Full Pupp)
Runaway ‘Shadows’ (Wurst)
Max Mohr ‘Assonja Swynja’ (Playhouse)
Dettman Vs.Moroder ‘Quicksand/Utopia Mash’ (White Label)
Faze Action ‘Stratus Energy’ (White Label)
M-D-Emm ‘Get Acidic’ (Transmat)
Centrific ‘Somebody Went To Detroit And All I Got Was The Itchy Hawtins’ (Drop Bass Network)
Fleetwood Mac ‘You Make Lovin' Fun (Trailmix)’ (White Label)
M E ‘Rnb Drunkie’ (Golf Channel)
Wild Rumpus ‘Musical Blaze Up (Rub & Tug Bitches Remix)’ (Bitches Brew)
Chairmen Of The Board ‘Party’ (Invictus)
(Interlude) Rare Earth ‘Get Ready(Live Version)’ (EMI/Motown)
Niagara ‘Sangandongo Part 1’ (White Label)
Solomun & Stimming ‘Eiszauber(Diynamic’ (White Label)
Still Going ‘Still Going Theme’ (DFA)
Lindstrøm ‘Contemporary Fix (Bjørn Torske Remix)’ (Smalltown Supersound)
Nick Chacona ‘Mariacha’ (Internasjonal)
Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas ‘Nummer Fire En’ (Short Edit)



Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - Essential Mix

David Holmes 1997 Essential Mix from newmixes.com

Dipplo Essential Mix from filter27.com

Scotch Mist

Also over new years Radiohead put out a special live broadcast on line and via Al Gore’s Current TV, in the shape of a one hour film called Scotch Mist. Nice to get an idea of what some of the In Rainbows material played live.

SFA New Years

A belated happy new year to all, the hang over is finally out the way so time to look forward to what will hopefully be a great year. I saw the New Year in at the auspicious surroundings of London’s Royal Festival Hall for a Super Furry Animals gig. The Furries are one of those bands that keep going, are a solid live act and seem to stand for doing thing there own way, last years album Hey Venus didn’t get the attention it deserved despite the band touring pretty solidly. they have a large US tour lined up for this year.

The high light of their live act is always the storming The Man Don’t Give a Fuck, as the song ends it merges into some dirty acid techno. On new years this played out for what seemed like quarter of an hour before the boys came on to finish the song, turning a venue more used to mostly higher brow arts into a bit of a rave. The Furries, Gruff Ryhs last year released a great solo album called Candy Lion that’s a gentle acoustic contrast to some of the Super Furrys more psychedelic adventures. Here’s Candylion from the Gruff Rhys album of the same name and Neo Consumer from SFA’s Hey Venus.


Gruff Rhys - Candylion


SuperFurry Animals - Neo Consumer

S.F.A. website