Chilled Mixes

For the fifth instalment of our podcast series, we have Bath based Origins Resident DJ, Mantissa Co-Founder, and all round mr nice guy Tom Allman.

- Good morning Tom! The mix is incredible, thankyou! Tell us more about it, how you made it, what records you included, the title, the photo and so on. 

So I liked the idea of having to give your mix a title and creating it around that, so I used the title “Space” for mine. I like to think the mix is quite an open interpretation of that word, with some tracks reminding me of wide open natural spaces (like in the artwork for the mix), and some other tracks being a bit more ‘futuristic’ and more reminding me of Outer Space – with the focus on this being a mix ‘not for the club’ as such. The first track by Midori Takada is my favourite from the album it’s off – Through The Looking Glass; I found that album a couple of years ago and find its really nice to listen the whole way through when you just want to relax, so I thought it would be great to start this mix with it. I then go through a lot of tracks I really enjoy when chilling out that I wouldn’t normally play. I also put in a track that my mate Jake made, it’s got no name but I think it’s a sick track that works really nicely at its intended pace or slowed down, and for this mix I slowed it right down and think it fits really well. After that track, which is kind of the crescendo of the mix, I take things down a notch again with some tracks from Matt Tolfrey, DJ Sprinkles, Huerco S, and finishing on my favourite Black Sabbath tune, Planet Caravan.

- You’re the first special guest to do our podcast, your not releasing music with us, but you are pretty close to the label. What is your relationship to Oleeva?

So I’ve known Will (head of Oleeva) for a number of years now pretty much ever since I moved to Bath for University. I can’t exactly remember how we met to be honest, but Will has always been a very good friend, and he’s always so cheerful and helpful which is great! When he first told me he was going to start his own label/project you could just tell it was going to work because of his enthusiasm and positivity – and although I don’t produce music I’ve tried to help where I can in other ways, and I’ve always been itching to contribute in some way musically to Oleeva.

- Your a busy man, as we've found out when trying to get together to play records, what have you been doing these past few months? 

Yeah we’ve both been pretty busy which has made it hard to play some records together. Over the last few months (well more than a few months now) I’ve been finishing Uni and putting a lot of my spare time into a music project I co-founded with my friend James Glover called Mantissa, and Djing pretty regularly at Origins too! Mantissa is a project we started when we were both at Uni but have really put more emphasis on it since September just gone. It’s basically a project we founded with the intention of showcasing our interpretation of forward thinking music; we do this through a weekly mix series where we ask DJ’s/producers we like to create a mix for us with the emphasis on playing what you want and not feeling restricted by genres or anything, and it seems to be going pretty well and getting some traction which is great! We also have a monthly radio show on 10 Twenty Radio based in Bristol and have started running nights in London which, so far, have gone really well. Alongside this we also write some reviews of nights we go to and try to interview people we find interesting, we use our website https://mantissamix.wordpress.com/ as a hub for all this really! So yeah I guess quite a few things really haha.

- Last but not least, your dream DJ gig, if you could play alongside anyone, anywhere. Tell us.

Urm, that’s a pretty tough question as there is so many talented DJ’s out there but for me it probably would have to be Ben UFO either in Studio Spaces in London or The Island in Bristol, they’re some of my favourite venues.

Oleeva Podcast Five: Tom Allman - Space

Rinse FM Podcast

Download

Phuong-Dan - 12th June 2018

Phuong-Dan - 10th July 2018

"For this mix I wanted to create something much more relaxed, showcasing tunes which are generally not going to be heard in the club - and so with that in mind I've put together some of my favourite ambient and chilled tracks that help me unwind.
I hope you enjoy :)"

Tracklist -
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Feel
Huerco S. - Struck With Deer Lungs
DJ Richard - Stygian Freeze
Skee Mask - Session Add
Aphex Twin - #3
Laksa - Hallyah
Young Male - A Shaft of Daylight
Nils Frahm - Says
DJ Healer - At Last (Becalming the Storm)
Joey Anderson - The Vase
HVL - When Rivers Flow
Pariah - Here from Where We Are

Mantissa Mix 104: Tom Allman (Side B)

Mantissa (https://soundcloud.com/mantissa1) co-founder, resident and writer, Origins resident, https://soundcloud.com/coopaudio resident
https://www.facebook.com/TomMantissa/
Contact Info: tom_mantissa@outlook.com