Long time pal and driving force behind Invisible City it's Gary Abugan (@invisible-city) from Canada serving up the 29th mix in the series. Interview (excerpt) down below.

www.musicfrommemory.com

MFM: Hey Gary. How's life in Toronto today? Did you manage to do some more gardening? :)

IC: We have a really nice garden in front of the shop and also at home in my backyard, both get some nice sun and shade and are where I spend all my time. So yes, gardening everyday ;)

MFM: (Before the pandemic hit) You've seen quite a few bits of the world by now while touring. How would you describe Toronto as a city if you had to promote it to the readers who haven't been there yet? 

IC: It’s summer here now in Toronto and we’re in the middle of a heatwave. We’re lucky to have an island with nice beaches as a nearby getaway via ferry. Toronto is a very large sprawling city compared to most European cities. Our multiculturalism definitely sets us apart. We have heaps of reggae and island music here along with lots of record shops, and the variety of food here can’t really be beat. I miss giving guided Invisible City tours of the city to any traveling DJs passing through.

MFM: Would you say it's a good place for an artist to be, whether being a young upcoming talent or professional and all in between?  

IC: Sure you can make it here if you’re skilled/talented and not overbearing, the problem is that there isn’t that many music venues to play. Between the crazy expensive visa you need to play the USA and the costs of flights to Europe, we are kind of isolated musically. Rent is crazy expensive here and most artists have another job, but I’m not sure if Toronto makes it specifically harder or easier compared to other cities. 

MFM: People may know you as the driving force behind Invisible City, the record store and label. How much time do you spend with the one compared to the other? 

IC: I would say pre-Covid more focus was on the shop and getting that to a sustainable level and stocking the store. We didn’t even have a sign for years until recently. During Covid, when the shop was closed for about a year and a half, a lot of focus was on development and signing artists paying advances and getting back into production. I learned alot about Music Publishing too… Laura helps me a lot with organizing everything, label and shop, I would be lost without her.

MFM: Looking back on running a record store and label for over 10 years now, what would you say are some key changes that took place over time?

Back then there were not that many reissue labels and it wasn’t as competitive or extensive, now everyone has a reissue label. I only wanted to put out records that I was strongly connected to or somehow found on a whim. If someone showed me a record, I would ask them if they were planning on reissuing it, now people just go ahead. It’s crazy how many reissues there are so it’s challenging now as a label to dig even deeper. The record shop also was really niche and specialized in the past and now there’s just more in each genre. It’s still pretty curated, but I am finding that I didn’t know a lot of good common records, so we like having “high end cheapos”. I like that most people can just come off the street and buy records now, although we still have some niche stuff too. It feels overall more balanced and varied and for the people.

MFM: The label seems to run at a nice and slow pace. Is it on purpose to not have a heavy and steady output? 

IC: I like to only do a couple records a year, it’s only me and Laura who do it all and it takes me ages to figure out artwork, I’m very picky. The shop, DJing, and occasionally throwing parties also takes up a lot of our time. We always have a lot on the go. I also like to focus on one or two artists at a time, but also it costs a lot of money to make a record! Now things are totally slowed down and our plant says I can’t get pressings out till next March!

MFM Mix 029: Invisible City

Interloper - full album.
Third full length release by Carbon Based Lifeforms.

Central Plain

Xylum

I:CUBE special mix for the "get a room" show on Radio Nova, Paris, 19/2/2023.
Some upcoming unreleased tracks, some classics and rarities, for your listening pleasure.

i:cube special mix for the "get a room" show on radio nova, Paris, 2023

I:CUBE special mix for the "get a room" show on radio nova, Paris, 2023.

I:CUBE special mix for Radio Couleur 3 (i:cube’s release party).
Part 2 of 2.
For your listening pleasure !
The album « Eye cube » is out now on Versatile records.
https://soundcloud.com/i-cube

I:Cube mix for radio Couleur 3 (2023/03/07)

GARSI - Live @ Galerie Arnoux, Paris / Melodic Techno & House DJ Mix 2024

Whopping three hours of atmospheric deepness from Turku (FI) based Juho Mieto - @user-200573817

Interview: https://www.deeprhythms.com/guest_mixes/136_juho_mieto_for_deeprhythms

"This mix came together just like every other set I play: on the fly. At home I like to keep a stack of my most recent/current favourite records in a stand, so it’s easy to just start mixing. One free evening I hit record on Audacity -  and 3 hours later I had this mixtape down. It’s not every session I play for that long, but why stop when you’re having fun? :)

The mix is a pretty accurate take on my current tastes and how I like to build push and pull into a set. My aim was to capture an atmosphere of timelessness, while a constant sub bass guides the listener through changing rhythms and sensations. I hope your 3 hours with the mix will go as quickly as mine did! "

deeprhythms guest mixes

Guest mix #136 || Juho Mieto for Deeprhythms

Brother Sanjiv is in the studio for a post-We Out Here special with positive, uplifting and energetic jazz, house, and sounds from around the globe

Brother Sanjiv 20/08/24

Part two of RA.999: two NYC Downlow favourites go back-to-back for the first time with a jubilant homage to classic house.

The RA Podcast launched 19 years ago in 2006, making it one of the world's longest-running online mix series. As we gear up to celebrate the 1,000th episode, RA.999 lands with five mixes across five days with a cohort of artists who've left a singular mark on electronic music over the past few decades. The chemistry and legacy of these duos make for something very special—and worthy of such a huge milestone.

First up was 1morning and Regal86 with a live recording from New York's Bossa Nova. Next up? We move to NYC Downlow, and who better to capture Glastonbury's beloved queer utopia than Prosumer and Peach, going back-to-back for the first time.

If house is your thing, then Prosumer and Peach going one-for-one on the decks is nothing short of a treat. With Glastonbury still just about in the rearview mirror, this mix captures the spirit of NYC Downlow. If you're familiar, you'll know this means steamy euphoria all-night long, sweat dripping from the ceiling and an intoxicating feeling in the humid air.

And Prosumer is a true Downlow darling—a treasured custodian and storyteller of dance music who delivered his first RA Podcast way back in 2007. "If a record doesn't move me emotionally or physically, I won't play it out," he said at the time, befitting of the impeccable curation and irresistible body groove that became his trademarks. He is, in the words of the Johnny Dangerous track in the mix, the "King of Clubs."

For Peach, RA.999 marks a full-circle moment: Prosumer's 2019 closing set in the Downlow is one of her all-time Glastonbury memories. Since her first RA Podcast in 2021, the London-based artist has only grown more in-demand, with sets that typically traverse the house and techno lexicon—and occasionally R&B—with a distinctly peppy energy. "Neither of us are afraid to go deep," she said about playing with Prosumer. "We just had fun with it."

@ohpeach
@prosumer
Read the full interview at ra.co/podcast/1006

RA.999 Prosumer & Peach

Something I did from the original master tapes back in the mid 90's

Xylum

Bergs

Related tracks