CRUSH does it again at Sunset, on January 15th:
Myself and the legendary Davin ‘AFK’ Greenwell will be tagging from 10 to 0200, followed by Nima, then Toby. If you like the technos, this one is for you.
And then, only slightly related to techno, I recorded a new set for you!
Fractal – Bristol
It’s the shining, synthetic side of current dubstep, obviously represented here by Punch Drunk, straight outta Bristol. My mother was born in Bristol, and I’m sure she’d dig this. Isn’t that right, Mom?
1: Guido – Beautiful Complication [Punch Drunk]
2: Forsaken – Hypnotise [Punch Drunk]
3: Wedge – Runnning Away (Guido Remix) [Punch Drunk]
4: Joker – Stuck In The System [Punch Drunk]
5: KZSS – You & I []
6: Guido – Cat In The Window [Punch Drunk]
7: Guido – You Do It Right [Punch Drunk]
8: Hytael – Pixel Rainbow Sequence [Punch Drunk]
9: Phoenix – Girlfriend (Limbo Remix) []
We could subtitle this one: “oh god, Berlin”, really.
Sub:stance Two Year, Berghain / Panorama.
Did you see that lineup? No, look again. Did you see that lineup? Appleblim might be my favorite DJ of the last two years, Mount Kimbie have a boring live show but make beautiful music, Mala killed it, and Monolake played jacking, jerking metallic techdubstepsocano on two laptops in six point surround on Berghain’s immaculate soundsystem, followed by Scuba himself bringing the depth…but by then I was upstairs sweating it out to the end MJ Cole’s perfectly shameless set, which closed with my first experience of the Panorama Bar curtains. An amazing night.
James Holden & Margot, Watergate
I must big up mr. Hrdvsion for getting me into this shuffletech freakout. Margot did their massive, massive live thing, then Jimmy got on the decks for three hours and blew my mind inside and out using a prototype of the Traktor controller he’s been working on. The important lesson to learn from Holden is restraint: you don’t have to kill it all the time, especially not from 0400 to 0700.
Nick Hoeppner, Dan Wang, DJ Harvey, Panorama Bar
And then this was the day I went to bed, woke up and walked through Treptow, then went to Panorama at 0900. Caught the last 15 minutes of Alex Under’s neotrance set, and then got lost in the amazingly varied deepness of Nick Hoeppner, who played maybe the best single DJ set of the year, laughed and boogied at Dan Wang’s old disco, and stood and nodded for an hour and a quarter of DJ Harvey’s long-term planning. Then I left at 1515 and went to flea markets for the rest of afternoon. Oh, Berlin.
Honorable mentions to the Wagon Repair record release birthday party on a train, Hybrid Live in Budapest, and countless nights at Badeschiff, Der Visionaere, Farbfernseher, and Kleinereise. (Special bonus mention to the mojitos at Kleinereise, to the Irish girl who I accidentially offended, and to Mano, Mark, Dara, and Paul for being wonderful to me in general.)
So much mind-shattering music:
Janos Sandor – Orchestral Favorites
When a concert has the finale of Beethoven 3 as the second piece on the program, well, that could just be luck. When the first half ends with the finale of the Firebird, we could still be in the realm of coincidence. When, however, the second half is a custom-built symphony that goes from Mahler through Brahms to the jaw-dropping clockwork majesty of Sibelius 2, you can be sure that you’re at Janos Sandor’s (first) farewell concert, and that you will be doing a lot of clapping for a rightfully legendary conductor.
Heather Harker – Graduating Recital
My friend Heather has my favorite voice and sings all my favorite songs to utter perfection. (Ave Maria, Barber’s Hermit Songs, Ain’t Misbehavin’, etc).
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 15
As played by the Konzerthaus Orchestra in Berlin, Shostakovich’s final symphony is exactly the sound of a old man dying alone in Soviet Russia. It’s soaring, tragic, and heartrending, to say nothing of being a tour de force of quotation, allusion, and orchestration.
Nick Piper – Locus Iste / Daniel Brandes – Different Windows
A graduating recital by two of UVic’s composition grad students: Daniel’s piece was intimate, personal, quiet, and subtle. Nick’s was exactly the opposite. Daniel’s was performed in the nave of Christ Church Cathedral, and had the audience holding their breath for the whole thing. Nick’s was performed in the hall, complete with organ, bells, and a surround sound ensemble, and had us sitting with our mouth’s open in awe.
Margaret Ashburner – They Let Their Brushstrokes Show
Not to be outdone, Margaret put her piece across three rooms of Victoria’s art gallery, with blown-up pieces of the score as artwork. I had the honor of recording it, and let me tell you, it’s a bit of a wonderful piece.
Honorable mentions to: Max Murray & Mason Koenig’s grad recital, Alex Granat’s grad recital, Ensemble Modern’s Different Trains, and the youth orchestra / conducting party that did the Concerto For Orchestra and a monumental Beethoven 5.
So much to talk about!
Best Stuck-In-Your-Head-Vocals: KZSS – You & I
The vocal was in my head from about March to July, nonstop, at which point I remembered where I had heard it, and why I was remembering it. Yes, it’s earthshattering dubstep, yes dubstep is “over”, but hell, what a tune.
Best Nostalgia For The Future: Moa Pillar – Water Lilly [Error Broadcast]
NASA samples, gleaming 8-bit synths, crunk-as, post-everything drums, and actual song structure. It’s also a bit of a bomb. Who knew that Russians got down like this?
Best Oh My God: Michael Jackson – Scream (Neon Tetra Aquarium Astronaut Remix) []
Came out last year, but my man Liam deserves lots and lots of post-hop love, because it’s amaaaaaazing.
Best Use Of Silence: James Blake – Limit To Your Love [R&S]
I don’t even have a copy of this yet, but whenever I put it on the youtubes, I have to listen to it ten times in a row.
Honorable Mentions:
Maetrik – Paradigm House [Treibstoff]
Steve Bug – Trust In Me (John Daly Remix) [Poker Flat]
Agoria – For One Hour [InFine]
Four Tet – Angel Echoes [Warp]
Caribou – Bowls (Holden Remix) [City Slang]
Washed Out – New Theory
Avus – Reality Itself [Border Community]
Fewer this year, oddly enough. Probably because I was at SoundCloud listening to that every day for four months. Makes it harder to keep track of things. Regardless:
James Holden – JUNE XLR8R PODCAST
Jimmy The Hamster Holden may never touch his insane Loft set from a few years ago, but this summer psy-cosmic-tech romp comes pretty close. It may take a few listens, but you’ll find that the middle six deal with everything that is good about DJing.
Kenzie Clarke – KENZIE
Kenzie hits this list for the second year in a row, this time with the simplest, most personal of mixtapes.
Ok, it’s a live set. It’s also one of the most heartrendingly beautiful things I’ve ever heard (Deep, bitcrushed breaks, soaring melodies, tragic pads, etc), so go and listen to it just the same.
Honorable mentions to: Gobe – Subdivision Podcast, Wood & Soo – The Vault, The Big Reds – Live @ Rifflandia, John Talabot – Summerized, Chris Longshanks – Subdivision Podcast, and Mano Le Tough – Noice Podcast.
Bethi Ferguson – NEWVEMBER SONGS
Yeah, so my friend Bethi finished this song-a-day-recorded-into-Garage Band last November. Yes, the audio quality is often awful. Did I listen to anything else more this year? Not even close – I cannot recommend all 32-some songs enough.
FlyLo keeps providing justification for electronic music as a celestially high artform. That he does so while keeping things funky as fuck is just more testament to his genius. COSMOGRAMMA takes off from where L.A. left off, and goes further, futher, and further again.
Again from 2009. I am slow and stupid, please forgive me. But this one sure is worth listening to again. Drowned in folk noises, foundsound, and gorgeous instrumentation, AMBIVALENCE AVENUE proves, again, that us techno people can steal from wherever we want, whenever we want, and make it sing.
Honorable mentions to: Clark – Growls Garden, Luke Abbott – Holkham Drones, Hrdvsion – Where Did You Just Go, and Four Tet – There Is Love In You.
Happy Solstice – we made it ’round one more time, somehow.
I will be playing briefly (8 to 9) at Whitebird this Saturday, with the mighty Natron, for his and Mr. B’s Common Ground deep house / lounge soiree. My set is so short because I then have to sprint to Hush to judge the Hush DJ Contest finals. Life is hard.
Then, in DEEPEST JANUARY, the 15th to be exact, I am tagging with Davin ‘AFK’ Greenwell at the third volume of CRUSH at Sunset room. Also on the bill are Toby Emerson and Nima Saeedi from Lotus in Vancouver. More on that as we move closer to it.
This is a mixtape that I just had to get out. It’s short, it’s simple, it’s sad, and it’s for people I miss. Get it here.
1: Ralph Vaughan Williams – Wither Must I Wander (Alex Granat & Bethi Ferguson)
2: Samuel Barber – The Desire For Hermitage (Heather Harker & Karl Hirzer)
3: Olivier Messiaen – Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (Tashi Quartet)
4: Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird – Berceuse (Janos Sandor & the UVic Orchestra)
5: Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird – Finale (Janos Sandor & the UVic Orchestra)