Mixes - A Running Melody

MPX is yet another project from Geoff Kirkwood, the creative mind behind Man Power, Bed Wetter and MEMEME. This alias focuses on high octane, club-focused and driving sounds. We had an in-depth chat with the man of the hour over on our new website: www.ape-x.club 

Kirkwood has touched down in every significant club across the globe, spinning tracks in Berghain, Topazdeluxe and Saule (too only name a few). We can see his armoury of influences grow deeper year by year, as he undertakes new projects, each offering us an insight into his vast musical world. 2021 brings an exciting turn for MPX as he prepares for a release on Kneading Pains, keep an eye out for that one. 

This is a person who consistently reinvents and re-contextualizes what it means to be an “artist”, we’re happy to host him as our 12th APECAST guest. Check out our full interview with him at our new website ape-x.club.

MPX / Man Power:
@manpower-1
https://www.instagram.com/manpowermusic/
https://soundcloud.com/kneadedpainsrecords/mpx-victim-gallery-clip

Ape-X:
www.ape-x.club
www.instagram.com/apexncl/
www.facebook.com/apexnewcastle
ape-xrecords.bandcamp.com

APECAST012 - MPX

Finally got round to making this version of "I'm not in love" that's been rattling around my head for years. Big Boys should cry.

DL -  https://bit.ly/37WRxqM

10cc - I'm Not In Love (Midland Dream Within A Dream Mix)

B.P.T. Radio 036: Tornado Wallace

DJ Lloyd @ Making Time 09-23-2023

Stay left and take a trip with Macca's Saturday breakfast show on NTS. Weekend musings and eclectic cuts from all over the place, it's a low-key affair and you're all invited. ONE GLOVE!!!
 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/macca/episodes/macca-13th-april-2024

The One Glove Breakfast Show w/ Macca & Stu Clark 130424

Reggae and dub from the German countryside. 

Download and interview: https://bit.ly/XLR8Rpodcast_MaxGraef

@max-graef

XLR8R Podcast

Download & Interview

XLR8R Podcast 861: Max Graef

OFF DAY reached out to us with a cryptic message on Instagram, and we were instantly hooked on his genre-bending, ear-pleasing EP: DAY ONE, which dropped on Feb 28th. 

Nothing about it is standard—not the artist’s communication, the 20-minute mixtape-style format, or the surprising juxtaposition of genres (Drum & Bass, Jersey Club, Hip-Hop, Techno...).

Today, OFF DAY plays DAY ONE along with 40 minutes (!) of unreleased original music. 
https://tigersushi.lnk.to/DAYONE

Tigersushi with OFF DAY - 19 Mars 2025

Andrew Weatherall's first official posthumous mix. The only b2b DJ Harvey ever agreed to. Six hours at Trouw. This one's special.

When mulling which direction to go in for RA's 1000th mix celebrations, many options came to mind. Some shadowy character 2-stepping around the fringe of our collective consciousness? An impossible-level IDM icon?

All tempting. But, ultimately, we are a DJ-forward publication and this is a DJ mix series. It felt truer to the history of the RA Podcast to release deep vault material from a time when the world of niche records felt different, tighter, more discrete.

The fourth-longest mix in the series' history is an unrepeatable marathon set recorded in 2012 at a superclub that no longer exists. 2012, incidentally, is farther away from 2025 than 2012 was from 2000... if we have to clock it, so do you.

It's the coming together of one British icon who passed away in 2020, and another whose time on the road has scaled back considerably as of late. DJ Harvey agreed to exactly one b2b set in his life: this one, with Andrew Weatherall.

The night took place at Trouw, an Amsterdam club already considered legendary before it shuttered its doors in the opening hours of 2015, as part of an RA series anchored around start-to-close combinations. Harvey was at the peak of an irresistible career second act, which dovetailed with a disco revival that dominated clubs for years. Weatherall, with infinite brownie points stockpiled from the '90s, remained everyone's favourite debonair psychonaut. 

What follows is 385 scintillating minutes of arpeggiated chug and slow-cresting climaxes: a moment when the resting heart rate of dance floors plunged lower than any comparable point in the 21st century. A masterclass, entirely self-contained in audio form.

If you've got time to spare, a fun side game is sussing out who plays what. A disco-dub cover of Echo & the Bunnymen? Smart money's on Weatherall. Exuberant EQ'ing of The Isley Brothers? Gotta be Harvey. As for the low 'n slow, lightly spangled house that was all the rage in the early 2010s (think Maxxi Soundsystem, Disco Bloodbath, Rub & Tug, C.O.M.B.I. and Full Pupp), it's anyone's guess. 127 BPM feels practically like an F1 car.

When we kicked off our RA.1000 campaign, we outlined a few goals: tick off a handful of long-awaited dream guests, honour architects who shaped the world around us and deliver recordings you truly can't hear anywhere else. Full send.

DJing and the mythmaking around it has undergone a quantum leap since 2012, let alone 2006, 1996 or 1989. For those of us who were kicking around in the former, there's a creeping melancholy that our prime is fast becoming a matter of historical record. The killing moon really did come too soon. 

Where will electronic music, DJ sets or any of this be in 2044? Hard to say. Best not to overthink that one. Instead, we want to say thanks to all contributors on the series so far. Now enjoy luxuriating in the company of two of the greatest to ever do it, together, for the first and last time.⁠ – Gabriel Szatan (Editor, RA)

@andrew-weatherall

Read the interview with DJ Harvey and Andrew Weatherall's family at https://ra.co/podcast/1016. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 DJ Harvey & Andrew Weatherall

**Tracklist**
Rene & Angela - Secret Rendezvous
Willie Hutch - Easy Does It
The Controllers - Stay
Change - Let’s Go Together
Byron - Too Much
Kleer - Tonight
Intrique - Fly Girl 
Oliver Cheatham - Just To Be With You
The SOS Band - High Hopes
Ca$hflow - Party Freak
Cameo - Back & Forth
Wham! - Everything She Wants
Thelma Houston - You Used To Hold Me Tight
Bobby Nunn - Private Party
The RAH Band - Messages From The Stars
Level 42 - Starchild
Luther Vandross - You’re The Sweetest One

The first episode of A Running Melody comes from London based label, WOLF Music.  WOLF was started back in 2009 by Matt Neale and Stu Clark, two house and disco fanatics who were looking for a creative outlet.  They've had amazing releases from the likes of Bicep, Session victim, and Francis Inferno Orchestra, along with a steady stream of music from their core roster of Medlar, Greymatter & KRL.  

After meeting Matt & Stu at The Garden Festival in Croatia several years back I've seen them play sets around the world.  They're real selectors who appreciate the history of house & disco.  

When I told them about the concept of the series and asked for a mix, Stu said "Get ready for Mid-80's Funk Overload!"   And that's exactly what we got.

A Running Melody 001 - WOLF Music Part 1 (Stu)

Up next for A Running Melody is the talented John Malcolm Moore, one half of London's Sisterhood and an all around good bloke.  With a couple of really strong releases on TIEF, remixes for Let's Play House and top notch DJ sets, Sisterhood's been pumping out quality tunes for a few years now.  On top of the synthy productions and DJ sets, John's a true music lover and someone I was super excited to have as part of the series.  Some words below from the man himself on what to expect...

"This mix is a collection of records I wouldn’t usually play out when I DJ as Sisterhood. I set out to make something I would want to listen to whilst working my day job animating. Its a mixture of ambient, krautrock, disco, italo, electronica and just records I really love but don’t get to play often. Hope you enjoy it."

A Running Melody 002 - John Malcolm Moore (Sisterhood / TIEF)

Episode 003 from the man, Kris Guilty.  Super excited to have Kris throw together this gem for us.  He's a dope DJ and real selector who blew me away when I saw him for the first time up in Montreal at Le Bleury-bar à Vinyle.  Give it a go.

A Running Melody 003 - Kris Guilty

Some words from @blackfan on the mix:

A Running Melody, a pleasure to be asked to contribute to a mix series with a refreshingly different concept.

My initial response was great, a chance to do a disco Boogie mix for a change, then that thought quickly morphed into doing something that goes all over the place, but is set in a certain period of club culture development in the UK, 87-91, and represents the many styles and sounds that were prevalent throughout that period.
A period that in personal terms saw me go from an enthusiastic teenager cobbling together all the cash I could to buy 'import' records to fumble around with on two second hand belt-drive turntables (only one with pitch control) through a Tandy (Radio Shack) mixer in my bedroom, to professional DJ on the Rave and club scene in the UK, sharing the music I loved with a passion, to like minded people who week in week out would often travel miles to let loose and dance all night.

As I started to dig, it seemed there was a sound that had fallen out of favour in European clubs today.
Through the multiple genres of club music that had made their mark over that time, Hip Hop, House, first wave Detroit, Acid, Italo House, Belgium Techno, Balearic to Hardcore, there was one sound standing out as forgotten.
"We used to call it Garage"

New generations have retrospectively explored Disco, Chicago House, Acid, and 90's House even became a thing, but that beautiful sound we called Garage is for most part left on a well played mix tape in a box in someones attic, some records down the charity shop, or a youtube channel of a nostalgic 40 something ex raver like myself, though I'm pleased to say still retaining the moral high-ground over Hip-House for most.
Perhaps it's the sometimes dated, dare I say in some cases 'cheesy' lyrics, perhaps the more traditional arrangements and song structure, or perhaps just the legacy of a washed-out Soulful House scene that overstayed it's welcome, and left one too many people "waiting anticipating", whilst someone took something "like a thief in the night" again, that doesn't resinate with todays generation so much.

OK, so the genre title is arguably a puzzling anomaly given that it pretty much came to the fore the year The Garage closed, and although very much a progression of the later years of The Garage, in reality if you wanted to pin 'that sound' to any one club, it would have to be The Zanzibar.
However name debate aside, for a small, and about to explode underground UK club scene that had embraced Hip Hop, and Chicago House, that distinctive vocal heavy, usually string/piano laden, up-beat sound struck a chord for sure.
Songs of unity, songs of hope, anthems for an army of music hungry dedicated club music fans, a disaffected, disconnected youth growing up in a class divided country, a country watching it's industrial cities get decimated, and communities destroyed
The 88/89 summers of love, the big Raves of 90, 91, the seminal underground clubs, this sound was a key part of the rich musical tapestry that made all that happen.
We had our music, we had our community, all we wanted to do is dance all night, and we did!

So soap box over, and onto the mix.
From a short list of about 60 records there are plenty that unfortunately have been left out.
No Kym Mazzelle, no Shay Jones, and not as much Blaze as I anticipated.
...

A Running Melody 004 - Black Fan's We Used to Call it Garage 87-91

Episode 005 comes from a super talented DJ and Producer hailing from Leipzig, Germany - Martin Hayes.  Martin runs his own Rose Records and has had a couple of great releases on Razor N Tape in the last year.  I knew right when I asked him to participate in the series that he would throw something special together, and he did.  It fits the vibe of the series perfectly and from start to finish exposed us to tracks we'd never heard before.  

Check out what he had to say about the next episode, then sit back and listen a few times because it's fantastic!


OK, so the idea of A Running Melody is to encourage one to re-think the art of mixtape and to dig out records and record one hour far beyond the usual podcast mass, i thought it would be a good idea to come up with a mostly soundtrack based podcast.  So, here we are with funk, disco and library sleaze from obscure films with added snippets from 70/80s adult film galore to maximize the climax.   

A Running Melody 005 - Martin Hayes (Rose Records)

Up next, we have FOTO Recordings head honcho, @aliooft OOFT!.  Ali has had a hand in labels such as L.E.S.S. Productions alongside The Revenge and DJ 2Three, has released on labels like Delusions of Grandeur, WOLF Music, and Instruments of Rapture, and has held residencies at places you may have heard of named Sub Club.  He's got deep roots in the Glasgow music scene and his productions & DJ sets have a ton of breadth musically, so we were really excited to have him as part of the series.

Some words from the man himself...

"So, after being asked to contribute to the mix series and come up with something interesting my first thought was - head straight to the 80s boogie/soul section for a smooth but popping mix. However on checking the previous episodes in the series I noticed Stu from Wolf Music had already rinsed that idea! Next my thoughts turned to selecting some nice pitch-down / slo-mo records that usually sit as track B2 on an EP and perhaps don't get as much love as they should. I'm a real sucker for slowed-down house sounds so had plenty to choose from. That being the case I decided to keep it pretty current in terms of releases, and popped in a few OOFT! jams for good measure too. I've spent the last couple of years slowly working on the debut OOFT! LP so have plenty of demos in various states of completion, and have managed to fit in 3 tracks that may (or may not) appear on the finished album. There's also an unheard OOFT! Edit in there too. The mix itself was recorded in my favourite way - at home in one take with my trusty DJR-400 mixer and a Space Echo delay pedal for extra dub-outs."

A Running Melody 007 - OOFT!

Erol Alkan - A Bugged In Mix

1 – Passing Through – Rare Bird
2 – Love Me Now – And The Left Handed
3 – Miss You – Concretes
4 – Willow’s Songs – Magnet ft Paul Giovanni
5 – Your Hidden Dreams – The White Noise
6 – End Of A Love Affair – Julie London
7 – Overnights – Gonzales
8 – Obsessed With Gloom – Campag Velocet
9 – Vapour Trail – Tresspasser Williams
10 – Lollipop Minds – Wimple Winch
11 – Rainbow Chaser – Nirvana
12 – Birds – M83
13 – Kushelrock – Dj Koze
14 – Love Movement – Justin Robertson presents Revtone
15 – Just An Illusion – Imagination
16 – Holland Tunnel Ride – ImpLOG
17 – Come Into My Room – Clinic
18 – Big City (Remix) – Spaceman 3

Originally part of ‘A Bugged Out Mix with Erol Alkan’ released in May 2004. 

I have an ongoing Spotify playlist of other songs influenced by this mix which you can listen to and follow here: http://bit.ly/ErolAlkanBuggedIn

www.facebook.com/erolalkan | www.twitter.com/erolalkan | www.instagram.com/erolalkan

2019 Selections

Erol Alkan Presents 'A Bugged In Mix' [Free Download]

Download the set here: 
https://corenews.me/andrew-weatherall-essential-mix-2020-02-22/
Tracklist over here:
https://tracklists.thomaslaupstad.com/andrew-weatherall-essential-mix-2020-02-22-tracklist-playlist/

Andrew Weatherall - Essential Mix 2020-02-22

www.ARunningMelody.com
Andrew@arunningmelody.com

A Running Melody 007 - OOFT!

A Running Melody

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