Hot on the heels of Apply the Pressure, his collaboration with Kat Five, Misled Convoy brings you Translations II, a collection of his remixes drawn from a wide geographical and musical net: breakbeat pioneer FreQ Nasty; Auckland based singer and songwriter Sandy Mill; old school Kiwi producer The Nomad; downtempo duo Deep Fried Dub; Weston and Frizzell’s art project Cardboard&Computers; Michael’s collaboration with Paddy Free, Pitch Black, and East London duo Feral Five.

Also featured is his remix, with the assistance of audio maverick Uncle Fester on Acid, of Dub Syndicate's cover of Lloyd Parks’ “Mafia”, featuring the late Bim Sherman on vocals. Michael and Fester created their version using samples culled from DATs of the original recording sessions at The Manor studio in Oxford, which the duo had been archiving for On-U Sound.

For years Misled Convoy has made syrupy bass-heavy, predominantly instrumental dub tracks, but Translations II is awash with vocals. “I’ve spent the last year tucked away in my studio, hearing nothing but the haunting and powerful voices of Kat Five, Bim Sherman, Srikala, Luminahdi and others flowing around my studio, creating a connection to the wider world. Bring on the layrnx!”

As you might expect from a Misled Convoy release, the collection traverses a wide variety of genres, from electro house to dub techno, industrial ambience to broken beats, all now awash in a sea of dub effects, delay and reverb in his distinctive style. Some of the remixes simply re-present a new way to access and appreciate the original track, sometimes they produce completely different songs completely reimagined. 

 “I really love taking other people’s melodies and ideas and working them into completely new tracks with my production process. Because there is already a body of work, and the challenge is not having the original concept, but in the how I re-imagine that track into a new work, a new sound, a new state.

Feral Five - Get A Grip (Misled Convoy's Don't Click On That Link Remix)(preview)

Cardboard&Computers - TheBestOnes (MIsled Convoy's Fragmentation Remix)(preview)

Deep Fried Dub - Shine (Misled Convoy's Luminosity 2020 ReRub)(preview)

The Nomad - Mr Selector (Misled Convoy's Waiting For Your Sound Remix)(preview)

Sandy Mill - Let It Go (Misled Convoy's Let It Flow Remix)(preview)

Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals (Misled Convoy's 2020 ReRub)(preview)

FreQ Nasty Feat Srikala And Luminahdi - Transform (Misled Convoy Remix)(preview)

Misled Convoy x Uncle Fester On Acid feat. Bim Sherman - Mafia (Dub Remix)(preview)

Zoviet France were a big part of my life in the late 80s in New Zealand, releasing remarkable music with remarkable packaging. I was lucky enough to see them in 2012 on a boat in London, my favourite part was to see a sound being created but it taking ages to appear in the mix and travel for minutes through the track. My remixes are a homage to this idea. The tracks are a response to this project - https://soundcloud.com/zoviet-france/sets/hidden-by-the-wall-open-remix

Zoviet France - Hidden - By - The - Wall (Misled Convoys Whats On The Other Side Remix

Zoviet France - Hidden - By - The - Wall (Misled Convoy's In The Permafrost Remix)

soundcloud.com/katfive and I were thrilled at the reaction to last year's Apply the Pressure - Chris Hawkins described it as "being like a space age cosmic Specials and being in a rave at 3am" on his BBC Radio 6 Music show, while Get In Her Ears tagged it "a futuristic sonic gem" and Turn Up The Volume likened it to “the missing link between two vibrating hallucinations, Massive Attack‘s Teardrop and Leftfield‘s Original".

We were equally excited when fellow musicians and producers asked if they could have a go at remixing, and today's release reflects the breadth of sounds they've created from our soundset.

Berlin’s legendary soundcloud.com/southlondonhifi takes us back to the future with their retro breakbeat bass cut, while Oregon’s soundcloud.com/bodiedubs drops heavy sub frequencies on his dub mix. British electronic composer Xqui’s synthtastic soundtrack nestles up to New Zealander soundcloud.com/lilyunsub’s relentless energy, while fellow Kiwi soundcloud.com/modulehq’s cheeky little number brings this EP to an optimistic close.

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (Module's Do The Aye Eye Remix)(preview)

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (Unsub Remix)(preview)

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (Xqui Remix)(preview)

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (Bodie Remix)(preview)

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (South London HiFi Remix)(preview)

1. NeuroTrash (Misled Convoy's Enter the Scanner remix) - soundcloud.com/feralfive 
2. You are Supernova (Misled Convoy's The Earth will have two suns remix) - soundcloud.com/stuart-warren-hill 
3. Do You Know Where Your Going (Misled Convoy's Borrowed time Remix)  - soundcloud.com/supercozi feat Reason
4. Please Wake Up (Misled Convoy Remix) - soundcloud.com/jontoogood 
5. Sufi (Misled Convoy remix) - soundcloud.com/fliesandflies
6. Lost in the Valley of the Scintilla Strings (Misled Convoy Remix) - soundcloud.com/animat 
7. Wimble Toot (Misled Convoy's Pastscape Remix) - soundcloud.com/bancodegaia
8. Leap Beneath (ReRub) - soundcloud.com/misledconvoy

Wimble Toot (Misled Convoy's Pastscape Remix) - Banco De Gaia (preview)

Lost In The Valley Of The Scintilla Strings (Misled Convoy Remix) - Animat (preview)

Please Wake Up (Misled Convoy Remix) - The Adults (preview)

Misled Convoy - Chromosentric (preview)

Misled Convoy - Leap Beneath (preview)

Misled Convoy - No Ganja Required (preview)

Misled Convoy is back with the sublime new album “Sixteen Sunsets”, alive with sonic ideas and influenced by the multitude of sounds he's gathered as he travels the world. ‘Found sounds’ recorded in Iceland, Sweden, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Greece, England and Austria have been woven together into delicate yet sophisticated pastiches, layered and twisted with beats and melody, leaving the listener to sense the world around. The cicadas of a Greek island, the automated voice of a Stockholm bus, rubber on cobblestones at a Roman roundabout, the unusual chug of a narrowboat on a London canal – all are drenched in effects and underpinned with Hodgson’s signature dub and bass.

Five out of the nine tracks feature the emotional harmonies and melodies of young songwriter Ines Dunn. As an established music producer wanting to support and encourage women in the industry, Hodgson has spent time with Ines to show her a different approach to music making. His investment has been repaid in spades, as Dunn’s simple touches on the album have added powerful melodic punches in all the right places.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the opening track "Blind Light", with samples referencing the last Misled Convoy album "Tickling the Dragon’s Tail". Dunn tickles the keyboard while Hodgson weaves the industrial sounds of a plastic bottle making machine.

The beats and layers grow over the three following tracks until we come to the fifth track, "I am Full of a Thousand Holes", one of the standouts on the new album. In the hands of most modern dance producers, the monstrous bass riff that underpins the track would be rinsed and repeated, ad nauseam, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. In Hodgson's hands, it slips and slides through the melody, ducking and weaving around the beat, and then, just as the tune reaches its peaks, he drops everything and reduces the track to trails of sound. A dancefloor killer in every sense!

Trails of sound are how Hodgson’s music making often begins. After finding a Russian language vowel sounds 7” box set in a charity store, Hodgson researched which nations had sent astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The 7'' became the vocal bed for the title track "Sixteen Sunsets", which was then augmented with vowel sounds from the other nations who have also inhabited the ISS. The title is inspired by the phenomenon that, every day, due to orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, the residents of the ISS witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets. To complete the concept visually, Hodgson has worked with artist Hamish Macaulay, who also designed his previous two albums.

From the top of the album to the last note an hour later, this is a non-stop sonic journey around our planet from the streets of a metropolis to the mountain tops and valleys where the insects being to hum in the morning sun. It is a journey where the frequencies provide a twisted commentary on our 21st century world, melding organic, industrial, dub and electronica into one beautiful album.

Recommended listening requirements: eye patch, cushion, surround sound and big bass.

Misled Convoy - Subject To Chance (preview)

Misled Convoy - Poles Apart (preview)

Misled Convoy - Another Time (preview)

Misled Convoy - Not This Route (preview)

Misled Convoy - Sixteen Sunsets (preview)

Ahead of the release of "Twilight 32", maverick Dutch producer Uncle Fester on Acid's re-arrangement of the "Sixteen Sunsets" album,  here are two dub mixes of the title track, one by the Uncle himself, the other by UK dub legend Adrian Sherwood.

Misled Convoy X Uncle Fester On Acid - Dawnstar 17.3 (preview)

Misled Convoy - Sixteen Sunsets (Adrian Sherwood's Enter The Void Of Sound Delerium Mix)(preview)

Ready for change?

So are soundcloud.com/misledconvoy and soundcloud.com/kat-five in their latest release, “Apply the Pressure”, out January 22nd.

The future has never sounded so poised on the cusp of positive transformation as Kat Five prophesies thoughts and words of change over Misled Convoy's bass heavy soundscape, inviting us to apply the pressure and “tip the world back round rightly”.

Inspired by the echoes of a conversation found on a Soviet-era spying device bought at a boot sale in East London, but with no idea of its origin or timeline, Michael Hodgson AKA Misled Convoy decided to create a track and invited Kat Five, of soundcloud.com/feralfive fame, to join the narrative.

With Kat delivering vocals, synths and guitar, Michael reached back to his New Zealand roots and invited Greig Bainbridge to drop a bassline, which arrived driving and futuristic. Dave Fullwood, from the Ital Horns, provided a haunting brass accompaniment, trumpeting in a new dawn.

Finally visual artist collective kennardphillipps provided an arresting image that represents the state of a planet barely coping with its human inhabitants.

Apply the Pressure is a clarion call from the people of the planet seeking a new direction.

“Out of the darkness
The new light comes”

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Dub (preview)

Apply The Pressure

Misled Convoy X Kat Five - Apply The Pressure (preview)

Misled Convoy is Mike Hodgson from Pitch Black

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