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CCL (@ccl-url) has many tricks and plenty of surprises up their sleeve. London-born, US-bred but now Berlin-based, they are playful in what they play but serious about how they play it, whether that's head spinning 160bpm cut, "cowgirl-breaks or wiggle steppers." The key for this multidisciplinary artist and former New Forms festival curator is to find the similarities and differences between shades of sound and rhythm and exploit them to spellbinding effect. As a producer, they are no different and have always managed to find fresh in-between sounds on labels like Fever AM and Discwoman. 

The singular DJ steps up this week with almost two hours of pure sonic adventure. It's a perfect showcase of how they can soundtrack imaginary worlds from humid future jungles to robot dances in the sky. You'll hear rhythms you could never imagine and contort your body in impossible ways, all while admiring the dexterity of the DJ who has threaded together such a trippy trip.

Dekmantel Podcast

Dekmantel Podcast 427 - CCL

Available on Audio Cassette and digital download directly from the label’s Bandcamp: https://cclurl.bandcamp.com/album/a-night-in-the-skull-discotheque

Side A: Bass is Eternal
Side B: 2-step Mutual Dream

A Night in the Skull Discotheque by the beloved underground selector CCL is the latest offering in the T4T LUV NRG label’s highly limited DJ mix series of cassettes. This immersive journey through a wonderland of proto-dubstep sounds from the late 1970s through the year 2000 is a sonic sibling to CCL’s acclaimed 2018 mix Ode to Queer Steppas.

Inspired in part by Eris Drew’s use of “old records to create new styles out of fragments” on her Raving Disco Breaks Vol. 1 mixtape (T4T LUV NRG, 2019), CCL approached this recording with a parallel frame of mind. Created with 3 CDJs, one Turntable, and a Boss Digital Delay 200, the tracks included in the mix are deconstructed from their whole, and constituent parts are intertwined, sampled, and dubbed out while being further stretched beyond their physical limits. CCL mixed many tracks at the 'wrong speed', pitched beyond their original recognizable tone; others are recontextualized through imaginative layering.

With a solid nod to seminal mixtapes of the early 90s, CCL references the namesake for Side A, Bass Is Eternal, an unreleased 1992 mixtape by influential Bristolian producers Smith & Mighty, an important sonic fulcrum amongst the musical tributaries of the hardcore continuum that continues to reverberate to this day. CCL experienced the after-effects of this ‘proto’ sound genesis in 2008, while living in Bristol, by which point its emergent whispers had coalesced into what became known as dubstep. Tracing a rich history of reference through the samples, basslines, moods, and drum patterns emanating from Bass Is Eternal while looking for connections that predate it became a long-term fascination for CCL. The result is a DJ mix that connects the oft-forgotten dots between proto eras and modern developments in bass and dubstep.

For the resulting sonic ride on A Night in the Skull Discotheque, CCL leads us to a fantastical place of timeless surreality – a majestic haunted dancehall soundtracked by a giddy rush of steppers and dubbed-out delights. Subs rattle through syncopated percs, and moody synths glisten in macabre glory. Fantastical dancers wriggle in wispy eternity, liberated from their corporeal forms in all their greatest spiritual wonder. Both extravagant and dusky, A Night in the Skull Discotheque is a world of seductive in-betweens, a place caught between the moodiest depths and the highest exuberance – A love letter to one of the most impactful formative sounds of the last decades.


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A portion for the proceeds from this release will go to fundraiser "SUPPORT PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY IN EUROPE!". You can also directly donate via:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-palestinian-solidarity-in-europe
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Tape design: Nina Muro
Mastering: TJ Hertz
Additional tape mastering: Eris Drew
Photography: CCL 
Linear notes: Nevan Jio

A Night in the Skull Discotheque [T4T015]

CCL - A Night in the Skull Discotheque

Actress' highlight reel needs little exposition. Darren J. Cunningham has been a prominent yet inscrutable figure in electronic music since the late 2000s, typically flickering to life from the margins before receding into the shadows. Beloved albums like R.I.P., Karma & Desire and Splazsh may switch up the template, but the Actress hallmarks of haze, murk and showstopping beauty remain.

As you'll see in the interview below, he's a man of few words—that's in character for him. What's characteristic, too, is a taste for surprises. Ahead of the release of tenth studio album Statik on esteemed Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound next month, here's the "Дарен Дж. Каннінгем RA Mix"—a tapestry of 100 percent original and exclusive Actress music you won't find anywhere else. Flowing between pensive, rugged and stargazing moods across an album's worth of unaired tracks, Actress' first time stepping up on the RA Podcast was clearly worth the wait.

@actress1

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/938

RA podcast

RA.938 Actress

upsammy at Praia - Waking Life '24

Dubstep-tech hybrids from one of 2024's most forward-thinking breakouts.

Born in France to English parents, Beatrice M. is a product of two environments. And like many third culture kids, this lends the Rinse France resident and Bait label head a knack for seeing the realm of possibility beyond arbitrary borders and binaries.

Beatrice M. is a part of a wider cohort of artists spearheading an elastic take on dubstep: take Carré and Introspekt in the US, EMA in Dublin and Mia Koden in London, to name a few. Collectively, they are not only pushing greater representation and diversity, but ensuring a broader palette of sounds find home within the genre's renaissance.

Where dubstep got trapped down a brostep cul-de-sac in the early 2010s, 2020s already seems to be all about a charming phrase Beatrice M. employs: siblingstep. Their RA Podcast, a "full femme, non-binary, trans productions set," is testament to that.

RA.961 finds Beatrice M. embracing the softer, more intimate edges of their sonic world. There's cuts from Grace Jones and rRoxymore, a fresh tech-house venture under the alias B. McQueen and heaps of siblingstep. All in, it's an hour of past reverberations, present rhythms and glimmers of future horizons.

@beatricemasters

Read more at ra.co/podcast/961

RA.961 Beatrice M.

Recorded live from @RefugeWorldwide - this show inspired by Mist, all things deep, atmospheric and spacious, with some warmth and soul -- dub techno, deep house, dub-wise tracks.

𝙡𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 w CCL #12 Mist @refugeworldwide

The in-demand US DJ unfurls dubby, dance floor poetry.

Where does sentimentality fit on the dance floor? For Liv Klutse, AKA livwutang, the answer is everywhere. The New York-based DJ is guided by a deep desire to stir connection, finding themes and points of correspondence across an impressively broad range of sounds, tempos and eras. 

This emotional intuition lends Klutse's sets a depth few others can match. Her selections can seem unpredictable, rooted in an appreciation for feeling over genre—hard and soft sounds are carefully balanced with surrealism and bursts of nostalgia (for instance, the Lazy Dog bootleg edit of Everything But The Girl's "Tracey In My Room"). But as versatile as she is, a few signature traits colour her style, such as a love for dubwise music and rhythms from across the Black diaspora, alongside a refreshingly introspective energy that invites dancers to find moments of meditation—even during peak time. 

A former staffer at our New York office, Klutse has long merited an RA Podcast. Her slow-burning blends and mystical selections have graced near-enough every major festival and club out there, from Dekmantel and Sustain-Release to Nowadays, where she's been a resident since 2022. Despite this cross-continental touring schedule, she still plays plenty of grassroots venues—testament to her days with TUF collective and Orphan Radio in Seattle, as well as her enduring belief in the power of DIY, community-orientated dance music. 

"How did you come down off life?" James Massiah asks at the beginning of RA.975. Across nearly 90 minutes, Klutse's downright beautiful mix seeks answers to this question, reflecting on hedonism in times of political decay. She's in full-on dub mode, moving through meditative bassweight, glitchy house and flat-out weirdo techno with a deftness we've come to expect from one of the most promising, singular voices in dance music right now. She's got there all on her own terms—and we couldn't be prouder.

@livwutang

Read more and find the tracklist ra.co/podcast/975

RA.975 livwutang

(Full recording) inspired by the Sea of Clouds in Alishan National Park (Taiwan)

𝙡𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 w CCL #14 Sea of Clouds @refugeworldwide

Throw some shapes to this one. Enjoy, Peace Seltay ;)

Listen up

Blow My Horn 🎺

Rising Dutch star upsammy opened Resident Advisor's first-ever stage at The Crave Festival with nearly two and a half hours of trippy oddities, mellow dub and atmospheric drum & bass.

@upsammy
@thecraveofficial

RA Live - 01.06.19 - upsammy, The Crave Festival, Netherlands

Recorded live at Nuits Sonores 2019, 15:00 - 18:00, before Donato Dozzy took over.
Marissa Cetin from Resident Advisor wrote about the afternoon:
"Unlike the other daytime curators, Lena Willikens chose to open La Sucrière's impressive main hall on Friday, playing alongside her usual back-to-back partner Vladimir Ivkovic. The two looked relaxed behind the decks, swaying, smoking and sometimes smiling. The crowd, less dense than during the other headliners due to the early start, were also in a good mood, using the extra space to feel out each beat of the slower selections. Much of the two hours felt like existing in the lagging moment of a sci-fi movie, just before a spaceship launches into warp speed (in a good way, I promise)."
https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/23893
https://www.nuits-sonores.com/

Willikens & Ivkovic live at Nuits Sonores June 1st 2019

Seattle-based CCL (@ccl-tuf) is a DJ, promoter and curator. They’re a founding member of TUF, a local collective focused on community-building and creating visibility for underrepresented artists in dance music. Known for bold musical choices, CCL blends a caleidoscope of rhythms, usually playing a mixture of deep, immersive breaks, electro, techno and bass music. Ahead of their Unsound Kraków 2019, CCL has prepared an exciting mix full of deep sounds, bookended by experimental Polish music from past and present. Enjoy!

Unsound Podcast 56: CCL

On the last day of our Hyperdub takeover, we’ve got a double-bill of exclusive mixes, starting with Proc Fiskal.

See the tracklist here → https://crackm.ag/2BoVggB

Hyperdub Takeover: Proc Fiskal

Proudly presenting TPF–007 from upsammy, the singular Dutch artist with ears trained on the unknown.  

When we asked rising (and rising) star Peach to curate a night with us on November 1st 2019, she reached out to long-time friend and fellow Torontonian Club Fitness, and De School resident, upsammy. The latter, whose refined taste and genre-elasticity has been quietly garnering her a cult following in recent years, steps up to the plate from TPF–007, a live recording from her three hour warm up set that night. 

The result is one of the most imaginative and masterful early door sets we've had the pleasure to host at Pickle. Departing from the high-octane / tempo sounds upsammy often champions, expect a winding journey through dub, experimental bass, oddball techno and plenty more besides.

TPF–007: upsammy

An amorphous global-minded festival and creative platform dealing with music, sound, words and related visual arts. Founded in Krakow in 2003, Unsound has taken place in 30 cities around the world.

Unsound Podcast 56: CCL

Unsound

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