Recommended mixes and playlists

C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
A concept: This stuff was already nowhere near as popular as it once was when it was marketed outside Chicago via the comps and albums.
 
S

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
Re. pure footwork

Pre-2010

Clap/snare emphasis is for the most part on the 2 and 4, which has a certain bounce and propulsion to it and as such sounds similar to Ghetto house.

2010-2012

The planet mu releases (and the stuff that came after) tend to have clap/snare emphasis on the 3 (like one drop rhythms), which is the same as a half-tempo 2 and 4. The samples and drums are frenetically going at normal speed so you get these 2 pulses happening. A lot of the time the snare will drop out, or there will be these weird syncopations, all of which adds to a strange, dissociative feel of the music.

I think this transition to more experimental rhythms is endemic of the music changing from populist, localized dance music to an international, hipster, chin-stroke music.

2013 Beyond

Double cup introduces a particular structure, which you now also get in footwork DJ sets. Tension is built with 2010-2012 style rhythms and then it is released as the kick/bass drops to half the tempo, accommodating the snare in a trap style rhythm. This tends to echo a verse-chorus structure.
 
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droid

Well-known member
Seems amazing to me that in 2016 there is still almost no credible 'all Aphex twin' mix, or barely any credible electronica mixes at all.

I gave out about this about 10 years ago and nothing seems to have changed. There's still virtually nothing, and the ones that do exist are generally shitmixed, or just one tune played after another.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
droid said:
Seems amazing to me that in 2016 there is still almost no credible 'all Aphex twin' mix, or barely any credible electronica mixes at all.

I gave out about this about 10 years ago and nothing seems to have changed. There's still virtually nothing, and the ones that do exist are generally shitmixed, or just one tune played after another.
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Surely this can't be true? Every cunt with a warp compilation must have had a go. You must have had a go yourself
 
D

droid

Well-known member
Yeah, you'd think that after 20+ years of nerdy internet obsession the WATMM types would have collated every tune's bpm & key, warped them all to a grid for DJng and catalogued the whole thing - but it hasnt happened. I have a bunch of theories as to why this is - mainly relating to lack of physical scenes, type of fan, approach to listening etc... This is what I said about it a decade ago:

...my other gripe is slightly more prosaic, and concerns the low expectations people seem to have when it comes to DJ’s who work in this genre. I’ve lost count of the amount of live sets and mixes I’ve heard that we either full of trainwrecks, or featured no mixing at all - and when this is pointed out, the response is invariably something along the lines of “It doesn’t matter if this music is mixed or not”. I find this attitude completely baffling considering the roots of electronica lies in the mutation of late 80’s/early 90’s acid house and techno, and probably the two most influential labels in the genre, WARP and Rephlex both started out as dance labels. When the scene splintered in the mid/late 90’s, there were still 3 main strains identifiable by their derivation from either a techno/electro, jungle or hip-hop template, and a huge amount of material still qualified as ‘dance’ music despite the fact that it may not necessarily have been made with the dancefloor in mind. Even with deliberately downtempo material, there is still in my mind a functional relationship with the listener – to entice them to lie down rather than step up, and as the music is generally sequenced and quantized – why not mix it?

If anyone’s to blame for the devaluation of the role of the DJ in electronica circles it has to be the audience. Of course the fact that newbie DJ’s don’t really have a chance to learn their art in club environments doesn’t help, but, as in many fields that straddle the line between the commercial and the aesthetic, without expectations of excellence from the audience, there is little or no motivation to produce something excellent. As a result good electronica mixes are like hen’s teeth. This is a real shame in my opinion. Electronica is unique in that it’s a blob of the post-rave genres, endlessly absorbing and regurgitating other styles, which makes DJng it a particularly rewarding experience. If genre mixing is monochromatic painting in shades of 1 colour, then mixing electronica is like having a full palette of colours. Sure it might be a bit more difficult than mixing music that’s been made specifically with the DJ in mind, but that’s also what makes it so interesting...
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You will find people like Surgeon throwing in the odd Aphex tune into a techno set, and label bosses/producers doing occasional credible mixes, but generally there's no emphasis on mixing in electronica - Id say we were up there with a very small handful of DJ's who used to regularly play this kind of stuff out and attempt to mix it, and even then it would be a special occasion when we managed to pull off a good mix with an Aphex Tune.

It also doesnt help that a lot of this stuff is just really, really difficult to mix. Heavy on melody, little or nothing in the way of predictable structures, lack of breakdowns... they could generally be classed as songs, not tracks. I asked Paradinas and Aphex the same question years back -'why is your stuff so hard to mix' - and the answer was more or less the same 'its not meant to be mixed/its not for DJ's', though the rise of digital Dj'ng should really have remedied this.

Not to spam, but we have made a few attempts down through the years with varying levels of success:

http://www.weareie.com/2008/09/blogariddims-49-dubtronics.html
http://www.weareie.com/2007/01/blogariddims-13-electronicack-1.html
http://www.weareie.com/2006/02/droids-first-mixtape.html

I also have about 40 hours of pirate radio tapes of mainly hardcore electronica from '98 - '03 which may make it online in some edited form at some stage.

This is at the forefront of my mind as I'm and hour and a half into on a digitally mixed Magnum Opus of classic 90's electronica: Aphex, Autechre, B12, Cylob, Bochum Welt, FSOL, Disjecta, Vendor Refill etc. and there's literally no reference points out there. Its basically uncharted territory...
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
droid said:
Yeah, you'd think that after 20+ years of nerdy internet obsession the WATMM types would have collated every tune's bpm & key, warped them all to a grid for DJng and catalogued the whole thing - but it hasnt happened. I have a bunch of theories as to why this is - mainly relating to lack of physical scenes, type of fan, approach to listening etc... This is what I said about it a decade ago:



You will find people like Surgeon throwing in the odd Aphex tune into a techno set, and label bosses/producers doing occasional credible mixes, but generally there's no emphasis on mixing in electronica - Id say we were up there with a very small handful of DJ's who used to regularly play this kind of stuff out and attempt to mix it, and even then it would be a special occasion when we managed to pull off a good mix with an Aphex Tune.

It also doesnt help that a lot of this stuff is just really, really difficult to mix. Heavy on melody, little or nothing in the way of predictable structures, lack of breakdowns... they could generally be classed as songs, not tracks. I asked Paradinas and Aphex the same question years back -'why is your stuff so hard to mix' - and the answer was more or less the same 'its not meant to be mixed/its not for DJ's', though the rise of digital Dj'ng should really have remedied this.

Not to spam, but we have made a few attempts down through the years with varying levels of success:

http://www.weareie.com/2008/09/blogariddims-49-dubtronics.html
http://www.weareie.com/2007/01/blogariddims-13-electronicack-1.html
http://www.weareie.com/2006/02/droids-first-mixtape.html

I also have about 40 hours of pirate radio tapes of mainly hardcore electronica from '98 - '03 which may make it online in some edited form at some stage.

This is at the forefront of my mind as I'm and hour and a half into on a digitally mixed Magnum Opus of classic 90's electronica: Aphex, Autechre, B12, Cylob, Bochum Welt, FSOL, Disjecta, Vendor Refill etc. and there's literally no reference points out there. Its basically uncharted territory...
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interesting point droid.

yeah - basically the aphex twin was music for students who couldn't dance. not knocking that particularly but that's why there are no beat mixes of it. they probably thought beat-mixing was insufficently avant-garde or summat too.

ALSO on decks mixing techno properly is much more unforgiving than jungle. beat has to be absolutely bang-on. but of course you know this.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
This edition of Josey Rebelle's Rinse FM show more than ably soundtracked a day by the pool on my holiday last week. One of the most personable hosts on radio and she plays great records. Disco, soul, house... that sort of thing.

(I doubt this show was particularly better than any of her other shows; not making a habit of listening to ANY mixes these days, however, it's can't be denied that it's certainly the one I've heard.)
 
D

droid

Well-known member
Woebot said:
interesting point droid.

yeah - basically the aphex twin was music for students who couldn't dance. not knocking that particularly but that's why there are no beat mixes of it. they probably thought beat-mixing was insufficently avant-garde or summat too.
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I think that's a touch harsh, after all, early WARP & Aphex type stuff was played out a bit at the time - but I reckon that once electronica divorced itself from the dancefloor and any particular club oriented scene then that aspect just died out, though you would still find the likes of Mixmaster Morris playing it out amongst all the downtempo ninja type stuff.

ALSO on decks mixing techno properly is much more unforgiving than jungle. beat has to be absolutely bang-on. but of course you know this.
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I would have passionately disagreed with this once upon a time - in relation to 4 to the floor in general, and I think a lot depends on your ears and other factors. Im basically a waver detecting machine at this point, which is not so great in many ways. Also, the environment and the method of listening has a huge effect. I had a set of the infamous Yamaha NS10's in the studio at one point and I just couldnt seem to get my mixes tight enough - listened on headphones and they sounded fine...

Thing is, it's swings and roundabouts. Jungle has less space between the beats so you hear things drifting more quickly - but so can your audience, plus you have much fewer opportunities to tweak the mix. Techno on the other hand has more space (depending on the high hats), so there's potential for more drift before you realise it, but also more opportunity to correct it. There's a ton of other factors as well, but i still think if you learn to mix well with jungle then you can pretty much take on any other genre of dance music*, if only because there is so much variation in structure, instrumentation & styles which demand the development of a wider range of skills and approaches. Also to note - jungle is still the only type of dance music which consistently confounds auto-bpm's and auto-detected beat grids. Its immune to automation.

*Except for garage. That f***ing high-hat swing forces you to unlearn everything you know.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
droid said:
Thing is, it's swings and roundabouts. Jungle has less space between the beats so you hear things drifting more quickly
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i dunno - maybe it's a personal thing - but all those breakbeats clattering around always seemed to me a more forgiving environment.

perhaps it's because i learned to beat mix techno - and by the time jungle came along i was a bit better at it?
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The beat has to be bang on, but all the beats are the same. Is that what droid is saying?

The way youse two are talking about this has me fiending for my decks back :(
 
D

droid

Well-known member
I think it depends on what style - definitely a bit more leeway in the hardcore era - though you then have to deal with tunes being out of key with themselves, breakdowns every 16 bars and lack of quantisation in breaks...

Listened to your London techno mix btw - couple of nice tunes on there I hadnt heard. Reminded me that Im going to have to get some global communication into my mix.
 
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Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
When I graduated from mixing DNB to jungle it was difficult to deal with cos jungle was quite structurally inventive. DNB was anything but, which explains the phenomenon of DJs who double and even triple drop tunes, tease in tracks, etc.

What with the rise of Ableton/Serato, etc., has the idea of the virtuoso DJ died out too?
 
D

droid

Well-known member
One good thing about learning the traditional way - it forces you to put in the hours, get deep inside the tunes and really pay attention to what's going on... TBH, most of the DJ's I rate still come from that background anyway.
 
T

TNT

Showerlip
T_! - "Since Day" Oldskool UK Garage Mix 2016- 100% vinyl



run time 63 mins, downloads enabled


Zed Bias- Been Here Before
Masterstepz- Melody
Nu Design- So Long
Same People- Dangerous
Y-Tribe featuring Elizabeth Troy- Enough is Enough
Y-Tribe- Baby (Kensal Rise Speed Mix)
Nu Horizons- Find The Path
Colour Girl- Joyrider (Y-Tribe Underground Mix)
Groove Chronicles- Masterplan
United Grooves Collective- I’m Glad You Came To Me (Steve Gurley Mix)
TJR featuring Xavier- Just Gets Better (TJR Dub)
Sample Choir- The Praise (Todd Edwards Mix)
Dj Luck & Shy Cookie- Troublesome (Vocal Mix)
Wookie- Back Up Instrumental
Corrupted Cru vs Dj Luck & Shy Cookie- Poison (Mix 1)
Dj Dellar- Romantic
Once Waz Nice- Messin Around (Wideboys Mix)
Allstars- Walk On By (Steve Gurley Mix)
Dj Double G featuring Anita- Special Request (Vocal Mix)
Colours featuring Eska- What You Do (10*° Below Mix)
Richie Dan- Call It Fate
The Jam Experience- Feel My Love
Ramsey & Fen- Love Bug
KMA Productions- Cape Fear
Pink- There You Go (Sovereign Remix)
187 Lockdown- Gunman
JJ Louis & Jade Lion featuring Mc Banton- Ruff, Tuff & Ready
Dee Pattern- Who’s The Badman?
MJ Cole- Sincere
 
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