Pulling them Latvian vibes. Respect ❤️‍🔥

Freeform live from the heart of Hackney on May 3rd, 2025, 15:00 - 17:00 

Netil Radio, London’s community voice broadcasting live from a converted shipping container atop of Netil Market.

Thank you Alba, Hanna, Nick and Miro. 

Vladimir Ivkovic live on Netil Radio 3 May 2025

Twice does not lead to a tradition - but it feels like playing for @swimsupply 🏊 . Whenever the community organisation focusing on lysergic sounds calls, I am more than happy to meet beloved Ellen, Mark Lando and Tesdorpf and to play for their fine events.

So here is a 2h recording from my gig at Wurm in Basel / Switzerland a few months ago where I met and played with fantastic @sellyourmania and @sprtsmanship and its a rare past forward 🦦💃.

15.03.25 Philipp Otterbach @Swim, Basel / Switzerland

Benedikt Frey - Troubled Funk MixX #5

Another snapshot from our night with @escalator-to-nowhere in May 2025. Half-human, half-AI hallucination, @dreamsoftwarecorp floats in like a digital cloud formation. The first half rains down pixelated cascades of ambient techno, while the second introduces heavier textures with wriggling 303s pulling you through like cilia to the other side.

wh002: Dream Software

It is our pleasure to share our latest podcast, this time from Full Circle’s Alexis Le-Tan.  The mix is a live recording taken from Bakk Heia at The White Hotel earlier this year. Alexis began playing around 3am, just as the club had reached capacity. Energy that was simmering under the surface began to be released, the initial hustle and bustle was over and people had found their place on the floor. As such, this mix expertly demonstrates Alexis’ ability to hook dancers in, giving them a playful push before engaging them into full mind melt mode. Starting with genre defying mid-tempo dubby sludgery, it moves into angular strains of new beat adjecent trancers before unleashing the Goa dragons on the rapturous mass of entranced bodies.   

Enjoy this trip friends :)

Bakk Heia Podcast 006 - Alexis Le-Tan (Live from Bakk Heia @ The White Hotel)

This is the first recording of me entering a new decade and it happens to be at one of my favorite parties: Buka in Milan. Over three hours of mixed intensity and emotions exploring all the fine nuances of Trance under a disco ball with my back to the dancefloor and the crowd by my side... Thanks to Stefano, Alessia, Enrico and the rest of the team for putting on such a great party and to all the dancers that made it what it was, looking forward to the next one!

Live @ Buka, Dopo? Aperiafter?!, Milan 25/10/25

die with me (fish still sad)

ddosyn

Introducing [GIFKIKKER011]. The debut of Blossoms Overnight, that sits you down in a euphoric, soft-tinted atmosphere from the get-go. While vibrant scapes get interwoven, accessed, or accompanied by smooth percussion, the listener is exposed to the act of exploring sounds underneath what’s already there.

Metaphorically, this album is cleansing, as foam gliding over a windshield in a brush-style carwash, resembling crashing sea waves as seen from underwater. It prescribes a mesmerizing softness and dense relaxation, while the mind and soul are carelessly taken on a sweet ride through dubby hypnoticness with breaky features.

Topping off this stellar release is a beautiful remix by a. brehme, aligning with the inner feel of the EP.

linktr.ee/gifkikker

Support 

Blossoms Overnight - 3 - Shunarei - [GIFKIKKER011]

20 years later...

In recent times there has been a lot of looking back to the early 1990s in house music which made me curious about what my dj sets actually sounded like back then. As it's 20 years on I thought it might be fun to put one up as an Optimo podcast, but sadly I had no recordings of that time as I had long given away or lost any tapes i had from then (everything was on cheap C90 cassette tapes in those days). Then, last week a local producer sent me his album to peruse and mentioned that he had a couple of mix tapes of mine, both from 1991.

So, here is a genuine 1991 mix recorded in that year when I was co-resident at Pure in Edinburgh (which ran from 1990 - 2000) when i was known simply as Twitch rather than JD Twitch (the JD was added many years later to stop people billing me as DJ Twitch, which I loathed).

Although I started djing in 1987, I didn't start mixing records together until 1990 and couldn't afford turntables until the end of that year, so initially when i was djing at Pure I was literally learning on the job. Thankfully the euphoria of those times coupled with the fact it was all so new and exciting to so many meant that I got away with it as audiences were a lot more forgiving than they are today. Requests were fairly rare and usually a lot more oblique, often along the lines of "Can you play some "E" music?" Heckling or shouting "come on!', "harder!", "techno!" was non existent. it wasn't a better time, just different, but audiences in general were a bit politer and more patient.

This mix is two sides of two different C90 cassettes stuck together. The first half is from late 1991. It has a lot of that "E" music people were asking for on it. The mixing ranges from pretty good to the odd "ouch" moment but overall is not bad for a beginner. The second half is from earlier in 1991 and the mixing is a lot more, uh, "freeform" and gets through a high number of tracks in a short time. I think this section may have been recorded live at Pure although I can't be sure as despite running for ten years we only ever made a tiny number of live recordings. There are a couple of massively cheesy and seriously dated rave anthems on here and a couple of tracks I have absolutely no recollection of ever having heard in my life, but there is also a lot of music that I still play to this day and indeed have never stopped playing since, and some, such as MK's "Burning", Mike Perras and CLS that are enduring classics. To use the parlance of back in the day, the mix gets a little "mental" towards the end. The tape begins with a live recording of a bit of chat from the Ragga Twins live at Pure in early 1991 and ends with a particularly twisted take on David Lynch's "Lady In The Radiator Song" followed by a blast of Throbbing Gristle. Sometimes I'd drop in things like that at Pure which maybe helps explain why a few regulars ended up with mental health issues! Pure had a reputation for being a techno club and in the early days a temple to all things rave but it was always a lot more than that (as well as those things too of course) as this podcast demonstrates. Despite the sound (and mixing) limitations I think it's an interesting document of what was going on in my world 20 years ago. 


The audio fidelity of this podcast is not high, particularly in the second half. The original cassette tape was probably copied multiple times as it was passed around from person to person. Richard Chisolm who excavated the tapes has done some remastering to improve the sound but old multi generation tapes rarely sound good and it was probably quite lo fi to begin with. It was mixed live using a cheap mixer through a cheap amp. Back then the vast majority of dj mixers were very basic - no eq, no gain and no gizmos whatsoever; just a volume fader, a crossfader and phono / line switches which I used to flick to cut tracks in and out. The mix is 85 minutes long and is a 192kbps mp3 (118mb). 

Thanks to Richard aka Restless Native.
 

Optimo Podcast 11 - Twitch 1991 (recorded in 1991)

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

+ @riolabel @initinit

Benedikt Frey is many. Or just one? He is a composer. An arranger. A DJ. A Liveact. A ghost producer. A fan. He also plays in bands like INIT, or Dolphins or KEYS +++ produced the last two albums for Chris Imler. Downbeat in experimental dub zones. The goat for Edits and remixes. When house was his nation, he used to listen to pen names like Suedmilch or Venedikt Reyf. He still likes the music formed under their umbrella, but today his tomorrow is not echoed in yesterday. His sound signature moved on. Into the open. He founded labels like R.i.O. or Serious Trouble. 

He lives in Berlin. Physically. In mind Benedikt Frey is at many places. Traveling far thru his home studio that is a flat a studio a flat an instrument a record collection a flat a studio. Everywhere gear, vinyl, tapes, instruments, rooms for spontaneous sonic notions, these moments, when a sudden strike of stimulation falls. He is inspired a lot. For music to dance. Music for films. Music for live shows. Music for dancing glows. Techno, house, downbeat, ambient, jungle, electronics outside the norms. Those transportive ones. Jamming with others. Jamming with his mind. In Berlin Wedding, North of the town, where the lights dimmed low, neighbors share the flow, and a small river runs slow.  As a DJ he plays here, there, everywhere. Big clubs, small shacks, festivals, gatherings. From fast to 90 BPM - as he feels. 

For himself. For the crowd. In the spur. He still remembers his club kid days. Going to dance with friends. Down there in Offenbach. Doing the Robert Johnson. Collective emotions for a better tomorrow. These he still seeks. In his music. His shows. His collaborations. You can book him for a party. For enlightenment. For ecstasy or introspective perspectives. Dancing slow, whilst pirouetting a high-pitched show. 

Since more than a decade. His own music is out there, too. Bringing his spirits in sound. On his own labels. On international imprints like ESP Institute, Hivern Discs, Craigie Knowes, or Emotional Response. Solo works. Driving ones. Slow drills. Teased during his DJ dates around the planet. 

The music plays day and night. Inspiration comes. From a simple kick drum. A movie sequence. A bird on the sill. A picture, totally still. Can’t kick that feeling when it hits. Benedikt Frey. In dreams. In streams. In music. Emotions. Situations. At night. In those flashy lights, when it bites.

24.5. b2b with NVST, Kauz Zürich
10.05. Säälchen, Berlin
26.04. Zentralwäscherei, Zürich
25.04. b2b Philipp Otterbach, Arkaoda, Berlin
04.04. Sameheads, Berlin
13.03. Säule, Berlin
22.02. Kegelbahn, Luzern
21.02. Fribourg, CH

---- BYE24

17.12. Kiosk Radio,  Bxl
15.12. Curly Teeth b2b w. NVST, Bxl
30.11. Panorama Bar, Berlin
16.11. La Culottee, Paris
19.10. LAF, Pforzhyme
05.10. Sameheads, Berlin
28.09. Buka, Milan
21.09. Chemiefabrik, Zürich
14.09. Ausland, Berlin
16.08. Salon Des Amateurs, Düsseldorf
21.07. Am Bach Festival, Lucerne
05.07. Kappa Futur Festival, Turin
14.06. Masters, Zagreb
18.05. Outracena, Lisbon
27.04. Arkaoda, Berlin
24.02. Macadam, Nantes
26.01. Sameheads, Berlin

Benedikt Frey - Troubled Funk MixX #5

benedikt frey

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