TASCAM DR-40

Live At Power House (DJ Pete, Finn Johannsen)

Voices from The Lake hybrid live at Draaimolen Festival 2024

"I'm like a collector—everything I come across makes it into my music." The dance music don talks about the music that shaped him and his recent L.B. Dub Corp album on Dekmantel.

Luke Slater, the British DJ, producer and occasional drummer, has been making music under a slew of monikers since the '80s: Planetary Assault Systems, L.B. Dub Corp, LSD, The 7th Plain, Clementine—the list goes on. While he's put out an excellent range of dynamic analogue music that runs the gamut of house, acid, breakbeat, electro and even spoken word, he's probably best known for his productions and live shows that focus on sleek and solid techno, as showcased on Ostgut Ton and his own imprint, Mote-Evolver.

In the latest instalment of our flagship live series Playing Favourites, Slater unpacks the tracks that, for him, best illustrate the history of techno at large, as well as the records that define his creative process and career trajectory. He speaks with Chloe Lula live from Polifonic festival about his love of Detroit and Underground Resistance, as well as the abiding influence of hip-hop on his early work and his love of intentionally integrating mistakes in his music. He also reflects on how he became the first non-German artist to release on Berghain's esteemed record label, as well as discussing his most recent release, Saturn to Home, for Dekmantel. The double LP saw him return to his drumming practice and introduce surprising and powerful collaborations from electronic music contemporaries and vocalists like Kittin and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.749 Luke Slater

recorded live at Brandwerk in Aachen [Germany]

https://soundcloud.com/donwilliamsofficial
https://soundcloud.com/mojubarecords

[rauh_x 065] Don Williams

Recorded Live at Unmute Hanoi on Dec 2024

Erik Luebs is a US-born musician and sound designer based in Japan. Eschewing typical genre tropes, Luebs approaches techno with a playfully disruptive technique, reinterpreting the fundamentals using built-from-scratch patches and labyrinthine sequencing. While the labor-intensive process is inspired by a wide range of luminaries such as Mark Fell and Rrose, the resulting music is firmly tied to the dance floor.

Luebs engages in minimal promotion, focusing his efforts instead on producing a series of monthly singles on Bandcamp. Through word of mouth, his unconventional approach to dance music has led to releases on labels such as The Bunker New York, Nous'klaer Audio, performances at DJ Nobu's Future Terror party in Japan and at Draaimolen Festival in Holland.

MIX075 - Erik Luebs (大阪) [Live at Unmute]

Regis and Function's first mix in over 10 years is a unique paean to Silent Servant, heavy on unreleased material.

When it came time for RA to compile our Albums of the 2010s, one record with a tauntingly limited availability of 500 copies was never in doubt: Sandwell District's era-defining 'Feed-Forward'. Encompassing Karl O'Connor (Regis), Peter Sutton (Female), David Sumner (Function) and Juan Mendez (Silent Servant), Sandwell District had the underground in a vice grip for over a decade.

The collective imploded in 2013, with Sumner and O'Connor's relationship appearing beyond repair. And yet, an unlikely second phase is here, featuring imminent comeback LP 'End Beginnings' and their return to the RA Podcast after 16 years. In 2023, the trio of Function, Regis and Silent Servant had been performing and laying down new material before the latter's shock death last January. It's in the shadow of loss that this unique mix was forged.

Founded in 2002 as a spiritual sister to seminal Downwards, Sandwell truly began to hit its straps in the late '00s, as shadow-stalking cuts sliced through clubland orthodoxy like a switchblade. In parallel, the label's artwork—a noir recombination of Burroughs cut-ups, DIY zines and arthouse amour that Silent Servant made his own—helped fortify a movement which placed an aesthetic premium on grit, grain and sadism.

By the early 2010s, this fixation on the dark arts had utterly permeated the mood inside techno's masonic temples. Labels like Blackest Ever Black, Stroboscopic Artefacts, Avian and Modern Love were in their pomp, razorwire legends like Severed Heads and Chris & Cosey benefited from second winds, and it was briefly a jailable offence to not have a press photo in black and white. 'Feed-Forward' was the exceptional coronating statement.

RA.978 features a stack of unheard recordings from each of the trio, as well as close allies Stefanie Parnow and Tropic of Cancer, while also gathering many of Silent Servant's all-time favourite songs, including Psychic TV, Grace Jones and Galaxie 500. It's a strikingly vulnerable listen, one without many parallels on the Podcast. We're glad to run it. – Gabriel Szatan

Read more and find the tracklist here: ra.co/podcast/978
Read our new feature with Sandwell District here: https://ra.co/features/4426

RA.978 Sandwell District

Polygonia (House Set) | Blitz, Munich 2025

@gigi-fm at Floresta

foto: fofo.altinell

GiGi FM at Floresta - Waking Life '24

@marco_shuttle recorded at the Mizz Softee & Golden Record party in Brooklyn, NY.

December 6th, 2024

Favorite Flavor: Sicilian Pistachio

MS 15 - Marco Shuttle at Mizz Softee 6 December 2024

Full Tracklist: https://bleep.com/bleep-mix-297--sandwell-district

For our latest Bleep Mix instalment, Sandwell District come through with a hefty programming of dark rollers fulfilling that promise of reinvigorated purpose they mentioned before: “Having a good time”. And with a wealth of exclusive unheard material it’s hard to refute the mission statement. Dropping straight into the cavernous environs of an unreleased Regis side Frosty Jack’s, the selection rides a restrained line building tension through a number of Nastia Reigel tracks deployed with utmost precision before upping its stride with Luke Slater’s Planetary Assault Systems and quickly landing first peak from The Wizard himself, with Jeff Mills' slamming ‘93 cut Step to Enchantment (Stringent). Taking in a track from their comrade Surgeon’s forthcoming album, as well as the simmering acid of their own tune Hidden, Sandwell District bring it back round full circle via two further unreleased reworks of heroes Meat Beat Manifesto providing a breakbeat singed rupture to close out the proceedings with the vocal snatches of MBM’s Helter Skelter summing it all up really: “It's in my brain now. This is it!”

Bleep Mix #297 - Sandwell District

LET'S WORK

Finn Johannsen is a DJ and writer for numerous print and web publications. He also co-runs the label Macro Recordings, used to work at the Hard Wax store, and is now acting as impresario at the clubs @palomabar and @kottimonarch.  

Booking: booking@finn-johannsen.de

https://linktr.ee/finnjohannsen

For mix playlists (except live recordings), check my website:
http://finn-johannsen.de/category/mixes/

Member of the @druffalohitsquad

Live At Power House (DJ Pete, Finn Johannsen)

Finn Johannsen

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