A MicroMovement going Macro

Functions of the Now: http://truantsblog.com/tag/FOTN/
Artwork: Joe Jackson @ http://deadgoodshit.com 

Functions Of The Now is a mix series charting modern developments at the innovative edges of dance music. Originally conceived in 2013 to shine a light on the once-again fertile grime production scene and its influence, the remit of the series quickly widened to incorporate all manner of interesting manipulations of existing club modes. Whether it's Air Max 97's "oblique club trax", E.M.M.A.'s baroque grime or DJ NJ Drone's hyperkinetic take on Jersey Club it all has a home in Functions Of The Now. We hope to draw connections between these often disparate forms. 

Functions of the Now

Two of the top music producers in the biz, Fatima Al Qadiri and Venus X, came together for the first time, destroying their egos to create the score for Hood By Air's Superego SS15 presentation. See if you can catch any of their references: 

Paris is burning, evil spirit cunt, spectacle dread, surveillance sorcery, abandoned skyscraper, concrete skincrawl, office antechambers, and medieval shade...

http://bit.ly/superegohba

VENUS X and Fatima Al Qadiri - Superego

After a heavyweight entry by Bloom we now shift our gaze back down under, where Air Max ’97 has been hard at work creating new spaces and possibilities for the club. With an open-ended, exploratory process, Air Max’s work hones in on lush texture and rhythmic imbalance, on the dancefloor its felt as confronting, challenging yet undeniably fun and playful. These themes were fully explored in his label-debut ‘Progress and Memory’ on Liminal Sounds, though traces can be found in his earlier self-released material (‘Recurse’, a sleepy-eyed wake-n-bake soundtrack, is a personal favourite). On January 26 we’ll be taken deeper down the rabbit hole with his follow-up Liminal EP ‘Fruit Crush’, 3 tracks of twinkling dancefloor magic in which his unique approach fully crystalises. These dense rhythmachines are instantly recognizable as Air Max’s, they are a Galapagos island of images and iterations. Again we find only a tangential connection to grime, an admiration of its sonic and spatial magic and a knowing respect for its historic and current communities, contexts and localities. The impact of grime is felt as sonic philosophy, as process and possibility.

READ MORE: http://truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-xi-air-max-97/

Functions Of The Now XI: Air Max '97

notget (lotic keptsafe version) from vulnicura remixed - part one

itunes: http://smarturl.it/notget-keptsafe

“lotic is the one of the first musicians alejandro introduced me to autumn 2013 with piles of enthusiasm : i got immediately obsessed enjoying how always total nature he was !! the most clublike flamboyant anthems of his always seem like shrieks of beasts , dark insects and pagan birds displaying their feathers in a territorial way : a colourful celebration !! the reason why i asked him to do notget was there are certain suspension like elastic gravity defying beat structures that him and alejandro share ( each in their total idiosyncratic way though ) that notget has and i had a gut feeling he would take further . which he did .” – björk


Notget

Notget (Lotic Keptsafe version)

Buy on iTunes

Soundcloud: @r-i-p-dj
Artwork: Joe Jackson @ deadgoodshit.com
Read More: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xiv-dj-nj-drone

DJ NJ Drone has been occupying precarious borderspace for some time, tip-toeing around genre in his production of frantic, hi-speed abstractions. Overdriven, overloaded, NJ Drone is like déjà vu, an anomaly simultaneously familiar and distant. Travelling through his ‘mind club’ at 150+ bpm gives the sense of breaking through space-time, of continuous momentum accompanied by bizarre vocal incantations that affect the mind like the hideous but kinda cute soundworld of Fitch and Trecartin. But at the end of the day, we break through the mind to find a body lurking beneath, we find embodied ritual beyond weltschmerz, beyond acidic regurgitations of technological positivism. While NJ Drone’s speed may lend itself as a metonym for accelerationism’s privileged desires for cyber-disembodiment, ultimately we are directed towards a firmer politics of the body as resistance in real space (that some of the more optimistic amongst us might hope to find on the dancefloor). In the words of Laboria Cuboniks: “no more futureless repetition on the treadmill of capital, no more submission to the drudgery of labour, productive and reproductive alike, no more reification of the given masked as critique.” Rediscover yr bod with DJ NJ Drone!

Functions Of The Now XIV: DJ NJ Drone

@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)

@IAMYOUNGROC -  FROZEN MOMENTS (prod. by YOUNG ROC)

Tracklist/Interview: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xv-e-m-m-a
Soundcloud: @oiiemma

For the fifteenth edition of Functions Of The Now we're extremely pleased to present a long time Truants favourite: E.M.M.A. Although E.M.M.A’s release schedule has slowed since her debut album Blue Gardens landed, her Functions Of The Now mix hints at the wealth of dubplates waiting to be unleashed, including the exquisitely titled Magna Kanye. Elsewhere, E.M.M.A finds common ground with producers on the dreamier end of grime: rising star Iglew, Gobstopper Records label head Mr Mitch and Coyote Records affiliate Tom E. Vercetti (solo and together with his production trio Silk Road Assassins) all make an appearance.

Functions Of The Now XV: E.M.M.A.

Soundcloud: @Rushmore
Full interview/tracklist: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xvi-rushmore

For Functions Of The Now XVI we tapped up House Of Trax/Trax Couture boss Rushmore, who ably supplied us with a potent mix of percussive heaters. Today sees the release of the latest edition of Trax Couture's World Series: a singular set of inventive rhythm tracks from Malaysian producer Moslem Priest. Rushmore's mix taps into the same energy, with upfront material from the extended World Series family as well as the man himself.

Functions Of The Now XVI: Rushmore

Tracklist/Interview/Download: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xvii-malin
Soundcloud: @malinss

For the seventeenth edition of Functions Of The Now we travel to Sweden to meet Evolver co-creator Malin. After a series of incredible mixes for Rodeo, Sister and Tobago Tracks we were desperate to get her on board for FOTN, and we're thrilled with what she came through with. Malin's mix taps into an aesthetic that's been sorely missing from the series so far, joining the dots between Quantum Natives’ noisy abstractions, the more deconstructed end of Non Records and the sound art of E. Jane and plus_c’s SCRAAATCH project - and of course, a hefty helping of dark ‘n’ doomy club tracks for good measure.

Functions Of The Now XVII: Malin

Tracklist + Download + Interview: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xviii-dj-haram

Soundcloud: @djharam

For the final Functions Of The Now of the year we travel to Philadelphia to meet Jersey club experimentalist DJ Haram. Splitting her work between the DJ Haram and Abdul Kadir aliases, her music encompasses everything from noise to club bangers, via fiercely political collaborative work and Middle Eastern bootlegs. Excitingly her mix is one of the wildest we’ve had, with lots of new DJ Haram/Abdul Kadir productions, a collaboration with Fade To Mind rising star Rizzla and mind bending noise from exciting new face N-Prolenta.

Functions Of The Now XVIII: DJ Haram

Living With You is the third track to be aired from John Cale’s Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (released October 2012). Its craftsmanship and artfulness belied the unparalleled career experience of John Cale, and many heard it as rock music at its most sublime.

Living With You is built on Cale’s trademark viola drone with some of the most delicate nylon guitar picking he claims to have ever heard. He also says that here he ‘found a way to write a nice feeling and not be terribly sappy about it. I do have an occasional moment of happiness, but they never last too long!’ he laughs. 

The single bundle comes with an ‘Organic Mix’ of the track, which is a more stripped down version made by Cale that revels in the stark and nakedly emotional nature of the song and a Laurel Halo Remix. This remix comes after a defining year for Laurel who was awarded Wire’s album of the year in 2012 after the release of her critically lauded debut full length ‘Quarantine’.

Out Now on iTunes: http://bit.ly/13IwP3v and all good digital retailers.

Living With You

John Cale - Living With You (Laurel Halo Remix)

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