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

Strict Face’s mix embodies the worldly approach, with the first track revealingly marrying ballroom’s hard, skipping kicks and cathartic Ha crash with the dismembered spectre of the classic Rhythm n Gash vocal. With one foot in the club and one in the sky, one in the past and one in the future, Strict Face reveals the many faces of the 2013 sound. No tracklist for now, just let the new wave wash over you. He was also kind enough to sit down for a quick chat with us.

http://truantsblog.com/2013/functions-of-the-now-strict-face/

Functions of the Now I: Strict Face

Glasgow is a city of people with vociferous musical appetites, but there are a few individuals and collectives that excel in particular fields of expertise. The staff at Rubadub are pretty much walking encyclopaedias when it comes to techno, and a night of classic dubstep wouldn’t be complete without a set from one of the Fortified family. But if you want an expert on grime? Look no further than Inkke. Nothing if not multi-talented, the Scottish producer has had stints presenting on both Subcity Radio and Nasty FM, hosts club nights as part of Likwit Fusion and more recently I Hate Fun, and even has a side-hustle as an illustrator. For a while he was known as Jinty, and it was under this name that he earned a reputation as Glasgow’s grime aficionado.

Read more: http://truantsblog.com/2013/functions-of-the-now-inkke/

Functions of the Now II: Inkke

Murlo’s mix rolls through new bits from the man himself as well as dubs from those on the same page, with JT the Goon being particularly notable in that respect. Murlo is exemplary of what this series is interested in, those blending spheres, pushing boundaries, and staying true to grime’s ethos of progression, musical expansion and banger melodies. It is an absolute pleasure to have Murlo bring us the third instalment of our fledgling series. Murlo was also kind enough to answer some questions for us, so read and listen on: 

http://truantsblog.com/2013/functions-of-the-now-murlo

Functions Of The Now III: Murlo

Functions of the Now: truantsblog.com/tag/functions/
Artwork: Joe Jackson @ deadgoodshit.com

"While the first few tapes in this series focused their orbit around the Boxed massive, we now turn to those honing in on a skeletal, highly percussive, Jersey-inflected take on grime. Miss Modular and Sudanim of Her Records have presented us with exactly that, for the most part leaving behind grime’s evil sound palette and instead focusing on its relentless structure and searing rhythmic energy. Hailing from South London, the two are joined by Fraxinus and CYPHR to form the core of Her Records, with a variety of releases available here. Seemingly inspired by Jam City’s incredible Club Constructions appearance, Miss Modular and Sudanim (along with Neana and Georgia Girls) have Jersey’s ferocious kick as the pumping pistons in their motor – the engine around which grime’s rapid-fire claps and techno’s mechanic soundscape revolve. While others, such as Neana, display an industrial, factory-in-motion style within a similar framework, Her have taken a more melodic, synth-heavy approach. The result feels, when heard in conjunction with Bok Bok’s RA mix and Neana for the Astral Plane, like a strikingly new sound. It’s crucial that most of the producers featured on this mix had their moments of revelation not at Fantazia or Metalheadz, FWD or Sidewinder, but at Night Slugs and Hyperdub raves, replacing Slimzee pirate tapes with Total Freedom mixes off soundcloud. Hence those, like MM and Sudanim, coming of age during the reign of labels like NS, Hyperdub, Hessle and Livity are schooled in a genreless mess of dance music history rather than a unified sound. Here, kuduro shares the floor with funky, with juke, kwaito, ballroom, bmore, ghetto house, RnB, whatever. As all these musics come together and speak to each other, new ideas, new concoctions, new sounds emerge - this mix is one of them." Tobias Shine

Read more:
http://truantsblog.com/2013/functions-of-the-now-miss-modular-sudanim

Functions of the Now IV: Sudanim & Miss Modular

The fifth mix in this series comes from Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf, ram-jam full of his remarkable original material. Again we take a step back from grime’s purer strains, instead honing in on the international peripheries of a style that continues to force us to consider the limits of sound, music and dance. The mix provides a fitting counterpoint to Miss Modular and Sudanim’s lusher installation,  JGB works with many of the same styles as the Her gang - Jersey and grime most prominently – yet smothers them in industrial gloom and concrète austerity. It’s obvious that this is a producer who has learnt the lessons of 4’33”, Russolo, Stockhausen, Black Dice, Wiley, DJ King Tiger-Z. In Actress’ plain words, people who “[develop] a sense of space and a sense of ambience through noise." Not only is the mix shrouded in ambient sounds – fire crackles, running water, someone weeping, birds chirping - but his own trax are imbued with a distinct spatial awareness and a strong emphasis on sound design. This makes for a vivid experience in the mix, it's cinematic, both in structure and visual lucidity.

For tracklist and interview follow link: http://truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-jacques-gaspard-biberkopf/ 

Functions Of The Now V:  Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf

For the sixth edition of our series we check in with the hotly tipped Gage fresh from the release of his unhinged Crazylegs debut 12". After Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf's incredible set of weightless abstractions Gage moves us firmly back into the club with a percussive workout that matches the unrestrained energy of Telo/Shiftin. In true enigmatic fashion this edition’s mix comes with no tracklist, but look out for some special Gage edits & VIPs, dancefloor-destroying pulses and a very Bristolian remix of a Drexciyan classic. Trainspotters, your time!

For a full interview with the man himself head to: http://truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-gage/ ‎

Functions Of The Now VI: Gage

Our seventh Functions of the Now mix comes from Berlin’s M.E.S.H. –  a thick and sludgy, irrepressibly restless collage of modern club sounds that beautifully represents Janus’ anarchic soundworld. Having released his first EP on Dyssembler, this month will see the release of “Scythians”, an incredibly diverse and lush sonic ecosystem released through Berlin staple PAN. A host of remixes can be found on his Soundcloud, and have fortunately satiated followers along the way. Together with Kablam and Lotic, M.E.S.H. holds a residency at Janus, a legendary party at Chester’s and radio show on Berlin Community Radio with a history of booking underground heroes.

M.E.S.H.’s tunes feel like they are being summoned out of raw electricity and thrust directly into hyperreality. It feels almost subliminal, sounds are more suggestions than anything concrete as origins are constantly deferred and obscured. “Imperial Sewers”, off the forthcoming EP, toys with hardstyle tropes but only obliquely – they are romanticised and rewired through a myriad of other influences. These exquisite corpses are littered throughout the mix, throughout the hell Janus have created.

Read the full interview and tracklist at Truants: http://truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-m-e-s-h/

Functions Of The Now VII: M.E.S.H.

For the next edition of Functions Of The Now we travel to Portland to meet Club Chemtrail's SPF666, the producer responsible for one of 2014's most potent collections of club traxx: Scorpion Cache. Largely comprised of his own percussive workouts and edits, the mix effortlessly weaves weirdness with the grime and ballroom tropes we've been touching on throughout the series whilst always keeping the energy level maxed out.  We caught up with SPF666 to talk at length about deviance, dance floor politics and grime's legacy.

Full interview/tracklist: http://truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-spf666/

Functions Of The Now VIII: SPF666

After a long hiatus Functions Of The Now returns with someone who has been bubbling up with some of the most idiosyncratic soundcloud transmissions to come from the nebulous grime-ish scene we've been covering. Suitably, Sharp Veins' addition to the mix series is utterly unlike any other we've had to date, eschewing the dance floor entirely for a 45 minute introspective journey down the rabbit hole of his non-grime influences. Taking in classic ambient in the form of Gas, key influence William Basinski and some of his own noisier productions, Sharp Veins gives a hint at the building blocks involved in the construction of his unique instrumentals.

For the full interview/tracklist: http://www.truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-ix-sharp-veins

Functions Of The Now IX: Sharp Veins

Following Sharp Veins' spectacular ambient instalment, we're excited to bring you the latest edition of Functions Of The Now from an artist we've had in our sights for a mix since before the series even began. Hot on the heels of his Hydraulics EP - perhaps his most well-realised release to date - Bloom has provided us with a companion piece that contextualises his future-facing, mechanical take on grime. The mix is comprised of almost industrial re-imaginings of classic grime tropes and barely offers a moment's respite as it barrels through FOTN alumni Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf, Sharp Veins and Gage - in particular watch out for his highly sought-out dubplate with Kevin Jz Prodigy - as well as rising stars like Janus' club agitator Lotic and recent Truancy Volume mixers Victoria Kim. Needless to say, it's one of our favourites in the series to date and we think you'll agree.

For full tracklist and interview head to http://www.truantsblog.com/2014/functions-of-the-now-x-bloom

Functions Of The Now X: Bloom

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

For our next session of Functions of the Now we’ve tapped LA local Guy Fridge, a character who has been quietly hard at work behind the scenes at some our favourite labels. After a stint working as A&R for Fade To Mind (where he was instrumental in bringing Neana into the fold) and Private Selection, Fridge has turned focus to his own methodologies and practices.

The mix tracks interaction between these artists’ vivid, grimey soundscapes and the humanoid contours of modern RnB and grime. What makes this instalment unique is a specific focus on vocal-led club music, one that refreshingly denies the empty and reductive ‘instrumental’ tagline that often accompanies new grime. Like many other apophenic mixes in the series, Fridge gathers data from a wide range of geographies and has them hit with the same reflexive, globalized energy. But here the cyborg collaboration, evident particularly in modern RnB, between human and machine is highlighted, spitting flames at the sacred binaries of yesterday and embracing a more ambiguous transhumanism.

Full interview/tracklist: http://www.truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xii-guy-fridge

Functions Of The Now XII: Guy Fridge

After meeting LA native Guy Fridge for the last edition of Functions Of The Now, we move across the Atlantic to hit up Paul Purcell in Dublin, the man behind one of our favourite labels: Glacial Sound. On the cusp of its fifth release, it’s testament to Glacial Sound’s precision that with just a handful of records scattered across the last two years it’s become one of the most essential labels in the current grime landscape. Thus far it’s been home to the EPs that solidified Rabit and Murlo’s respective sounds as well as pushing them to the forefront of the modern grime scene, a white label containing Logos’ most potent dancefloor cuts to date and of course legendary MC Riko Dan’s underground anthem Black Dragons. On his FOTN Purcell has crafted a companion piece to the forthcoming Sharp Veins debut Inbox Island, whilst dropping some hints as to where the label might go next: you'll have to hunt though, as the tracklist is heavily redacted. Good luck!

Full interview/tracklist: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xiii-glacial-sound

Functions Of The Now XIII: Glacial Sound

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

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

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