K-30 is closed until next season, but the music is forever. The author of the sixth K-30 REC. podcast is @ryan-elliott. Listen to the best hours of our yard's September night spent with the star of Berghain / Panorama Bar.

K-30 REC. #6 RYAN ELLIOTT

On Oct 6th 2021, about 2 years after my last set in London, I played from open to close (11pm to 5am) at Village Underground in Shoreditch. Here's a recording of the whole night with a bit of the crowd noise. 

Perhaps a full tracklist at some point... some unreleased stuff in here. 

Even though it had been a while, we had all night so no use in rushing things! I came across a lot of lovely music this year, but it mostly lived in my rekordbox or in a radio mix. I actually record a lot of my sets but it always feels like they're in a constant state of iteration, making it hard to pick just one "version" to release. Over the years I feel like this has led me to only very sparingly drop live-recorded sets. A "party" doesn't often lend itself to the archivable realm, maybe the memories are best suited to the ephemeral. 

Anyway, eternal gratitude crystals to those who came and those who danced, and to those listening now.

-av

Avalon Emerson Live in London (6 hour dj set) Oct 2021

Kyoto-born, Berlin-based DJ, producer and artist, Alex Kassian has become a firm favourite of ours over here at Phonica over the past couple of years. His sophisticated, lush and organic sounding productions have been picked up by labels such as Paramida’s Love On The Rocks and Alex Bradley’s Utopia Records in recent years. His most recent release, Leave Your Life, was released in 2021 via Pinchy & Friends, and we can safely say it was one of our most-played, and bestselling, records of the year.

Together with Hiroaki OBA, Alex is also one-half of Opal Sunn, who have been operating their own imprint Planet Sundae since 2017, through which they self-released a number of EPs, catching the attention of and support from dance music luminaries such as Andrew Weatherall and DJ Sprinkles.

Check out the full feature & interview over at offtherecord.net

Full Feature

Phonica Mix Series 93: Alex Kassian

September

HÖR - Love On The Rocks - Paramida - September 19 2022

John Talabot — live from Boiler Room x Sugar Mountain 2023.

John Talabot | Sugar Mountain 2023

A 3 hour mix of Motown, Soul, and Hip Hop recorded live in Brazil
—
The Hollies - Draggin' My Heels
The Impressions - We Must Be In Love
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - New York City
Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle
Steve Spacek - Let the Dollar Circulate
Grand Pubah - I Like It (I Wanna Be Where You Are)
DJ Dez - Untitled Beats A
Azymuth - Morning
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me
The Temptations - I Need You
Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
Smokey Robinson - More Love
Ebo Taylor, Uhuru-Yenzu - I Need Your Love
Rolando Rasteiro - Ain't No Sunshine
Marvin Gaye - I Want You
Afro Cuban Band - Something’s Got To Give
Brothers By Choice - Baby, You Really Got Me Going
Coke Escovedo - I Wouldn't Change A Thing
Evelyn "Champagne" King - Love Come Down
Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
J Dilla - Track 30
Outkast - SpottieOttieDopaliscious (Damn James)
Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
Sade - Paradise
Outkast - Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1)
Otis Gayle - I’ll Be Around
Darondo - Didn't I (Florent Rework)
The Rolling Stones - Miss You
Kindness - Swinging Party
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
Steely Dan - Go Back Jack Do It Again
Lamont Dozier - Going Back To My Roots
The O’Jays - I Love Music
Paul Pills - Young Americans
The Spinners - It’s A Shame
Dabrye - Tunnel Vision
DJ Dez - Untitled
Post Malone - White Iverson
Big Pun - Still Not A Player
Lumidee - Never Leave You
Diggable Planets - Nickel Bag
Slum Village - Players

Ryan Elliott @ Matiz Bar Sao Paulo

Tornado Wallace B2B Telephones All Night Long. Recorded live at Savage in Hanoi on 01.11.2024. Huge thanks to the Savage and (RE)TREAT Festival crew 😍

Tornado Wallace B2B Telephones All Night Long @ Savage, Hanoi - 01.11.24

Leïday- FTHR edit

► Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Mr. Flagio – we knew having this legend back would pay off. Delightful carnage straight from the Murder Capital to your door.
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I-F Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival DJ Set

The Chicago DJ introduces us to the Motherbeat.

Read more: https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=604

RA.604 Eris Drew

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

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