As the bells ring out for Christmas, please enjoy this little sonic festive morsel in the form of an ALTC Socialist mix. It’s a perfect little gift just in time for Chrimbo!  All the individual head spinning edits that make up the mix can be downloaded for free here:

https://44100hzsocialclub.bandcamp.com/album/social-ist-edits-vol-6-altc

Though anything you pay goes directly to Aid Box Community, helping Refugees in Bristol. Merry Christmas everyone!

Special thanks:
Tom Colebrook: @user-85698967
Label: @44100hzsocialclub
@iamkgbk for sound engineering
@user-171330870 for cave painting

ALTC (aka Alexis Le-Tan & Tom Colebrook) - Social/ist/ Edits For The People

It's come to that time of the year again, well a bit later, but you know what they say... Time to unleash the beast once more yet a different one it is. Still following the same thread: moving forwards whilst looking backwards, continuing the explorations and the excavations to and from Knowhere. Unexpected blends and mash-ups which will hopefully give birth to new ideas for some, inspirations for others. Well, they have for us as we can now turn this page and move on... As you might've guessed by now, this message can be seen as an announcement: a new episode, airing soon on Good Morning Tapes. So, keep your eyes peeled and enjoy what you have whilst it is still here, who knows what will happen next!

Full Circle - Further Knowhere (GMT 61)

On May 25th 2024, to accompany the launch of his Arthur Russell book "Travels Over Feeling" Richard King put together an event at London's Barbican celebrating Arthur's life with an all star musical cast recreating and reimagining his music.

I was thrilled to be invited to play a DJ set in the foyer afterwards. I have been an Arthur Russell devotee for 30 years and decided to play an all Arthur Russell DJ set*. The atmosphere was very special with lots of love transmitting back and forth from the DJ booth to the dancefloor. I really felt a freedom to slowly build it up playing so many of my favourite AR tracks and it was one of my very favourite DJ gis of 2024 so far.


*Full disclosure - there was an additional 30 minutes finale of this set that didn't record where I played non Arthur Russell, disco / disco adjacent records.

JD Twitch - All Arthur Russell DJ set, live at The Barbican, London 25/05/24

Dublin's Wah Wah Wino crew jump on for a regular session of oddball selections... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/wah-wah-wino/episodes/wah-wah-wino-21st-february-2025

Wah Wah Wino w/ Morgan Buckley 210225

Broadcasted live at Radio Tempo Não Pára (30.05.2025)

Artist: DJ Conky

DJ Conky Records & Tapes @ Radio TNP 30.05.2025

1-hour monthly show with composer and musician Astrid Sonne. Sharing everything from rock to dub to classical to pop.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/astrid-sonne/episodes/astrid-sonne-20th-august-2025

ASTRID SONNE w/ Molina 200825

The ghost of Shane's Brother graced The RH Basement with a 1 hour mashing of Wah Wah Wino past present and future..plus a bit of other nonsense. No Tracklisting for this one.

Shane's Brother (Wah Wah Wino)

Materialism

This Was Belgium 1987-89 - 2 hours of New Beat favourites

New Beat was born and initially exploded in 1987, went supernova (in Belgium) in 1988 and then the formula morphed a bit and was declared dead in 1989. It was slow and initially all about the atmosphere with industrial strength beats - the main form of rhythmic propulsion being the pounding kick and heavy snare. It was often mainly instrumental and when there was lyrical content it often became more about slogans and giving commands - "Move Your Ass And Feel The Beat!", "Let There Be Brightness!", "Shout Out Loud!". While not really New Beat, it's no surprise Technotronic's "Pump Up Jam" was produced by a crew who had produced a ton of New Beat gems.

In 1989 one of New Beat's founders, Marc Grouls said "New Beat is atmosphere, beats, no lyrics, and sure as hell not commercial!!!!!" But, it was already too late. A zillion bandwagon jumpers had diluted the music and flooded the market with too many sub standard 12" singles. New Beat temple, the legendary Boccaccio nightclub, in Destelbergen, near Ghent, had been closed down and it looked like it was all over, but really, it was just the beginning. New Beat morphed into Hard Beat (many of the tracks on this mix are from the Hard Beat era) which quickly morphed into Belgian Rave, which was huge and hugely influential in the UK and is an often overlooked part of the DNA of UK Hardcore, and all that came after. Then from Ghent, R&S Records established itself as thee European Techno label and a huge wave of incredible Techno records emanated from it and many other mighty Belgian labels, but that is another story. 

New Beat arrived just as I first started DJing and I played a lot of it in my DJ sets and built up connections with several of the leading Belgian labels who would send me 12" singles so I had records nobody else here had any idea even existed. I would compile New Beat charts for the music paper The NME which may have given the impression there was a thriving New Beat scene in Scotland. The reality was very different; people here, many of whom would embrace the rave just a little while later never really took to it in a big way.

This mix is comprised of many of my personal favourites that I have loved since they came out (and two I missed at the time and only heard later). I think the tracks have aged like a fine wine, often sounding as good if not better today as they did then. There is definitely a faint whiff of fromage and a big dollop of stoopid in several of these tracks. Of course, it is not all about the cheese and many of these adhere to the "atmosphere, beats, no lyrics, and sure as hell not commercial" rule mentioned above. Some of the best programmed 303 Acid basslines ever made can be heard here along with transcendental hypno synths and those Belgian beats going on and on....! Slow and low, from under 100bpm up to 116, New Beat doesn't chug, it swings in a very distinct way. If you get to see any videos of Belgian clubs of the era, the way people moved to this music is incredible and so different to any dancing we see today.

Many of these tracks are made by the same people under various aliases, which will perhaps be audibly evident. Most of the names have been forgotten, if they were ever even known outside their native Belgium at all, but all are legends to me. 

This mix isn't any kind of attempt to tell the story of New Beat but rather a mix 33 of my favourite 12" singles from that era showing many of the various strains of the New Beat and Hard Beat sound. A lot of love went into this and I hope someone somewhere discovers this music for the first time and falls in love with it as I did way back when. This was Belgium!

This Was Belgium 1987-89 - 2 hours of New Beat favourites

10" FORTHCOMING
OUT ON DEC 4TH. READY TO GO.
PRE-ORDER HERE>>
https://5gatetemple.bandcamp.com/album/yantlet-grain

@junior-loves

...ON THE TIDES THAT BROUGHT US HERE.

Materialism

david thomas