wut?

I Survived, It's Over

Taken Back

Desensitization and Reprocessing

Lizzie

From the forthcoming 12" on Bucky Skank (BS 002), due October (ish). Vinyl only. Distribution by Rub A Dub. Mastered by James Savage.

12" will also feature - 

 Jabru - Whiteboard Jungle
Richmond & Lord Sheraton - Under Me Flat Cap
Richmond & Lord Sheraton - Flat Cap

JD Twitch & D. Jah Clark - Soul On Fire

Autonomous Africa - AA Bonus 10 - Limited edition one sided 10", due 15th September 2014. Vinyl only release. Distributed by Above Board.

This edit (originally created in 2008 for my dj sets) was supposed to be included on the recently released third Autonomous Africa 12". Unfortunately I didn't get permission to use it in time for that release but permission has now been given, so rather than wait for AA 004 in 2015 it is going to come out as a limited edition hand stamped 10" as soon as possible. All proceeds will once again go to the Mtandika mission in Tanzania - http://www.actioninafrica.org/about-mtandika.php

Mastered by Matt Colton. 

A big thanks to Ben UFO and Midland for championing this edit. The interest they generated directly led to the motivation for this release.

Amadou & Mariam - Ce N'est Pas Bon (A JD Twitch edit)

We are happy to announce the first in an occasional series of fully licensed 12" releases on Autonomous Africa exploring the influence of music from Africa across the globe.

The first release comes from Colombia's Wganda Kenya with three tracks recorded in the mid 70s. The Caribbean coast of Colombia has a long relationship with Africa stretching back hundreds of years. Strong trading links and migration from West Africa to Colombia led to a distinct African influence on the music in cities such as Cartagena and the local music (cumbia and champeta) absorbed these influences. This was  particularly notable in the 70s as records by Fela Kuti amongst others arrived in Colombia. One of the leading practitioners of this Afro Sound were the mighty Wganda Kenya who were huge there in the 70s and 80s and whose music is still highly regarded to this day. 

While their music has appeared on compilations, there hasn't been a big fat 12" vinyl release since Island Records offshoot, Mango put "Shakalode" out as a 12" way back in 1989.

"Shakalode" on the A side is a powerful reworking of the Fela Kuti classic "Shakara" which was much covered in Colombia in the mid 1970s. It's a transcendental Afro Colombian funk bomb.

On the other side are two other Wganda Kenya gems; the call and response percussive and organ grooving "Pim Pom" and the more traditional Colombian cumbia singalong anthem "La Botellita".

Originally this was going to be a 2 x 12" featuring some other Wganda Kenya magic but sadly the masters to many of their tracks have been lost. There are plans to put out a second 12" of reworkings of these tracks aimed at djs who won't play records unless they can mix them, but of course, these 40 year old tracks will still rock any open minded dancefloor just as they are.

All proceeds will once again go to the Mtandika mission in Tanzania - www.actioninafrica.org/about-mtandika.php

Release date April 2015. Distributed by Above Board.

Autonomous Africa is a collaborative project run by JD Twitch, Midland and Auntie Flo.

Autonomous Africa Vintage  01 - Wganda Kenya - Afro Colombia 12" EP (sampler)

Listen, the Snow is Falling

Raga Tala

Raga Gara

The mysterious collective known as Man or Astro-Man? hail from the lowdown depths of Alabama, though their sound is hardly Southern, or American, or even terrestrial. Having released music throughout the ’90s and ’00s on garage punk stronghold Estrus Records as well as the legendary Touch and Go Records, they have wasted no time earning their places as mainstays in the American rock underground. Although they’ve released 10 full-lengths to date, chronicling quasar-hoppingquests and intergalactic misadventure in every direction, the centerpiece of their tenure will always be the band as they are on stage, frenetic, focused and swaddled in literal lightning from a homemade Tesla tower. Naturally, when the fine folks at Third Man Records began planning festivities for Record Store Day 2016, they could not help but indulge in the surf madness of Man or Astro Man? No doubt a signal of things to come—namely the first vinyl record played in space. The result is a retro-futurist surf riff bombast. The career-spanning set (which did include a Tesla tower and, ultimately, a charred drum set— yikes!) was a thermonuclear drag race and a welcome addition to a world-class live series.

Although there’s never a perfect substitute for being in the room when an artist owns the stage, Third Man Records continues to bottle the iridescent magic of the Blue Room with Man…Or Astro-Man? Live.

Man or Astroman Live at Third Man Records

Man... or Astro-Man? - Transmissions From Venus

Man... or Astro-Man? - Put Your Finger In The Socket

Man... or Astro-Man? - Antimatter Man

Man... or Astro-Man? - Evil Plans Of Planet Spectra

Man... or Astro-Man? - Inside The Atom

Music of India - Ragas and Talas

Rupak Tal

** Part 1 now available from here - http://soundcloud.com/alexchase/ohm-dedication-series-2-jd **

For my ears, Adrian Sherwood is the most sonically innovative producer the UK has ever given birth to. If you don't know anything about Mr. Sherwood or his ON U Sound label, either do a bit of Googling, have a listen to this mix or read this interview I was fortunate enough to conduct a couple of months ago (when he was in Glasgow) that is on the Racket Racket website - http://racketracket.co.uk/music/jd-twitch-meets-adrian-sherwood/

This mix covers music from the years 1979 - 88 and focuses on Adrian Sherwood's dubwise productions, most of which were released on his ON U Sound label (a great overview of the label can be found here - http://www.skysaw.org/onu/)

The mix is DUB in the widest (and wildest) sense of that word and veers from beautiful, heart-melting songs to cavernously deep, hard bass pulsations to the odd bit of brain melting sonic radicalism. To this day I don't think any other producer has pushed the envelope so hard which is partly down to a general lack of balls on the part of other producers and partly due to the fact that these productions were all recorded to tape and mixed on a desk with 100% outboard gear, so that pushing the tape way beyond its intended limits forms a large part of the character of the sound. His totally deranged dub techniques are perhaps a little more prevalent on part 1 (see below) of this podcast while this part is in the main more of a continuous heart throb with odd moments of sonic destruction, offering a masterclass in dub mixing techniques many of which Adrian Sherwood pioneered.

In my late teens and early 20s, Adrian Sherwood's work impacted on me more than anything I had previously heard and made me think about sonic possibilities in a completely new way. I would buy any record he had been involved with unheard and got into a lot of other artists purely because he had been involved with making their records. Indeed, my nom de plume "Twitch" came from a record he produced and our Optimo slogan "We Love Your Ears" came from the sleeve of a record he remixed. I hadn't listened to a lot of these records for many, many years and fell in love with them all over again while putting this together. It was a complete labour of love to do and a revelation to hear how fresh and wild this music still sounds.

The tracks are mostly mixed together but this podcast really isn't about my mixing at all - it's all about the 25 sonic missives included on it (several of the tracks are different versions of the same rhythm edited together). All the tracks were taken from vinyl so any unintended sonic imperfections are a result of the source records having been played countless times in the past.

This is part 2 of this podcast. Part 1 which focuses on his more electronic wild side (Tackhead, Fats Comet, Keith LeBlanc etc.) is now available here - http://soundcloud.com/alexchase/ohm-dedication-series-2-jd
Should you so desire, the 2 podcasts can be synced together to provide one continuous mix of around 3 and a half hours.

As usual we aren't making a track listing available for the podcast, simply because we feel that knowing the contents often precludes actually listening to it. But, if you want to know what anything is, feel free to get in touch and I will let you know. The mix is a 320kbps mp3 (230mb) and is 101 minutes long.

Optimo Podcast 12 - Adrian Sherwood On U Sound mix part 2 (dub)

The A-Moms/Algebra Mothers were formed by four like-minded misfits/artists/musicians/friends (Gerald Collins, Ralph Valdez, Diana Balton and Kirsten Rogoff) from Detroit’s Cass Tech High School. They made their professional debut in 1977, and in 1979 they released the weirdly incredible “Strawberry Cheesecake” b/w “Modern Noise” 7” on their own Aftertaste Records (TMR reissue imminent). They played around Detroit and the country with everyone from Destroy All Monsters and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band to Pere Ubu until 1984. Several decades later Third Man Records contacted “head Mothers” Gerald Collins (Jeecy and The Jungle) and Ralph Valdez (former WDET Disc Jockey) and discovered they were sitting on at least an LP’s worth of home studio demos and live recordings.

From that discovery, Third Man Records presents “A-Moms = Algebra Mothers” LP — 14 never before heard tracks recorded between 1977-1984 in various home studios and clubs. It will be their first release in nearly 40 years and only their second release ever.

Man... or Astro-Man? - Transmissions From Venus

Third Man Records

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