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Recorded live at Waterworks Festival 2021, Gunnersbury Park, London on 25 September 2021

Pressure stage

Live at Waterworks Festival 2021 - London

This mix is all music from 1984. It is a special live vinyl mix that I recorded on July 19, 2011 as a promotion for the A.D. (After Disco) series of parties here in Chicago.  The mix has been hosted for a few years on the Loves Podcast and I decided to upload it here to my Soundcloud for the first time.  Here’s a few words I wrote to go with the mix:  

1984 is an amazing year in music. At the time, "house" was still a colloquialism for the music played by Frankie Knuckles at the Warehouse. House was not yet a music form in its own right. "Fresh," on Vince Vince Lawrence’s fledgling label Precision, is the only house-qua-house track on the mix. The other tunes are properly considered proto-house -- the music which formed the milieu of dance music which we now describe (rather clumsily) as:

*Electro (e.g., Solo – “Girls, Girls” produced by John Robbie; JellyBean – “The Mexican”); 
*Garage (e.g., Circuit - "Release the Tension" a Timmy Regisford production; Colonel Abrams – “Music Is The Answer”); 
*Italo (e.g., Stop – “Wake Up”; Pancho Ballet – “Dancing Shoes”); 
*Synth and industrial dance (e.g., 52nd Street – “Can’t Afford” produced by New Order’s Stephen Morris; Palais Schaumburg – “The Beat Of Two” produced by Gareth Jones who also produced Depeche/Nitzer Ebb); and 
*Post-disco (e.g., Stephanie Mills – “Medicine Song”).

This music from 1984 is ‘proto’ in the sense that it was establishing the necessary elements of house – e.g., use of certain instruments (drum machines, synths, samplers) – but there are some stark differences.

Although much of the music in 1984 was released on small independents and remained quite underground, there were major successes for dance music at the time and investment in dance music by major labels. There was A&R structure at all record labels and radio play. "Trapped" (1985) by Colonel Abrams sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Earon’s “Land of Hunger” hit the top 40 on the soul singles chart. John “JellyBean” Benitez placed nine songs in the Top Ten of the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

The democratizing force that would be house music had not been fully realized. It was still expensive to make dance music. For example, most of the tracks on the mix feature vocalists, session players or a full band. Although the epic ensembles of the disco era had long passed in fashion and economic viability, dance records were still recorded in professional studios and engineered by individuals like Bob Blank and Herb Powers. The E-max Sampler hit the market in 1984, but the studio standard were samplers like the Fairlight and Synclavier (which had more than $100,000 price tags), each of which were prohibitively expensive for use by most musician/producers.

By 1984 the relatively inexpensive Roland gear was just finding its way into the hands of Chicago, Detroit and New York’s new roots musicians. A year before, Larry Sherman acquired Musical Product’s pressing plant, the only one in Chicago. Ron Hardy was playing "Penthouse and Pavement" by Heaven 17 and "DumDum" at the Music Box. Dance music was about to fall off the edge, for better and for worse.

1984 Track List:

1. Citispeak Featuring Jeanne Harris – I Don't Need Your Handouts (Inst.) – Partytime Records 
2. Pancho Ballet – Dancing Shoes (Instrumental) – Best Record 
3. Jellybean – The Mexican (Funhouse Mix) – EMI America 
4. Nuance Featuring Vikki Love - Take A Chance (Dubapella) - 4th & Broadway  
4. Samson & Delilah – I Can Feel Your Love Slippin' Away (Long Mix & Inst) – Saturn Records 
5. Hugh Masekela – Don't Go Lose It, Baby (Stretch Mix) – Jive Afrika 
6. Colonel Abrams – Music Is The Answer (Dub Version) – Streetwise 
7. The Earons – Land Of Hunger (Extended Version) – Island Records 
8. Wet – That's The Game (Instrumental) – Bellaphon 
9. Circuit – Release The Tension (Dub) – 4th & Broadway 
10. Stephanie Mills – The Medicine Song (Dub Version) – Casablanca Records 
11. Anne Clark – Our Darkness (Remix) – Ink Records 
12. Solo – Girls, Girls (Ah-Ah-Hi) - Next Plateau Records Inc. 
13. 52nd Street – Can't Afford – Profile (on license from Factory) 
14. The Bridge – Love Dance (Industrial Mix) - Second Vision 
15. Stop – Wake Up – Damabi International 
16. Fresh – Dum Dum – Precision 
17. Palais Schaumburg – The Beat Of Two (Extended Version) – Mercury


1984 After Disco (A.D.)

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Pushback w. Cáit - March 2023

Recorded at The Lubber Fiend, Friday 24th March 2023.

Kenny Campbell DJ Set - Mutations - 24/03/23

A one hit mix at TD Towers, for the Birthday Boy, Diz. Many of the tunes I played at our party on Saturday 18th November 2023, "Up The Dancers".

Done in the sanctuary of home and a mix that was gonna be an hour or so, but just ran and ran and ran. Hey! why not?. It's ended up being 3 hours, so an hour for each decade of Diz

Happy Birthday Youth. Thanks for all your hard work and fighting the fight, for 586 

X

Tony 586 3 Hours For 30 Years Of Diz 20.11.23.MP3

Newcastle 2 U 🌍
24/7 weirdo radio 👽
Live from The Lubber Fiend 📡

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A9wat w. 7asassiyeh - November 2023

Recording of Ben UFO's set at Dekmantel Festival 2023.

Ben UFO at Dekmantel Festival 2023

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.


***************************************************************************************
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
***************************************************************************************

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

This is Part 2 of my Mystery of the Motherbeat series of DJ mixes. I’ve wanted to record this mix for a long time as a follow-up to my 2018 mix by the same name. Both are a fusion of styles used to build a psychedelic hypnotic soundscape for deep listening and personal synchronization with the heart of Motherbeat. No big hands in the air moments to speak of here, just deep mixing and some of the most beautiful records in my collection. My Journal of the Motherbeat Substack explores the selections and intentions behind this 2 hour and 19 minute mix: https://journalofthemotherbeat.substack.com/p/notes-on-a-dj-mix. The track list is below.

1. LaTour - Blue (XX Records, 1992)
2. @geotaguchi - Deep Blue  (Coymix, 2023) 
3. Caldera - 30 Friends (Freude Am Tanzen, 2022)
4. Y.M.C. - Subway (Yoshitoshi Recordings, 1998) 
5. Brian Tanseau - Relativity (Carl Craig Urban Affair Dub, 1993)
6. @satoshi_tomiie - Un Peu (Abstract Architecture, 2023)
7. @edmondsonandon - On & On (Lissoms, 2023) 
8. Cris. P - Lemon (Psy Section, 2021)
9. @dreamcycleuk - All the Things (Idle Hands, 2021) 
10. Yaw Evans - Only Spirit (GD4YA, 2022) 
11. Todd Edwards - Winter Behavior (i Records, 1995)
12. Toka Project - One Day (Filter Flow, 1999)
13. Brian Eno - Fractal Zoom  (Mary’s Birthday Mix) (Opal Records, 1992)
14. Thurlow Joyce - Varial (NAFF, 2023)
15. Hoodwink  - Trip From The Hip (Mute, 1997)
16. The Heavyweight Kru  =  The Drea-mm (Not On Label, 1999)
17. @perkopair - Prang (Numbers, 2023)
18. Way Out West - The Gift (album version) (Deconstruction, 1997)
19. Anunaku @gu_tsvi - Celeste (WHYT, 2023)
20. Head High - Break Away (Power House, 2023)
21. Kenny Dope - Tom Beat (Dopewax, 2005)
22. S.R. - Dosemeter (Ruffset Records, 2022)
23. Knopha - Corundrum (Mood Hut, 2023)
24. Molen - Molecular Machine (Flight Mode, 2023)
25. Satoshi Tomiie - Proody-106 (Phonogramme, 2023)
26. DJ Tonka - Radical Noise (Force Inc., 1995)
27. Ruffneck Revival - My Knight VI (Not on Label, 1999)
28. Ruffneck Revival - My Knight VII (Not on Label, 1999)
29. Transformer 2  - Fruit of Love (Profile, 1992)
30. American Freedom Train - Cab Ride (Soundbird, 1975)
31. Way Out West  - Earth (Deconstruction, 1997)

Eris Drew’s Mystery of the Motherbeat Part 2

Cassini X Desert Sound Colony - February 2024

etiquette returns, wiinter

jazz-inflected and globally inspired dance music

http://www.instagram.com/barrycantswim

Barry Can't Swim @ The Lot Radio 02-14-2024

Baltimore City based selector Jacq Jill gives an afternoon of grimy club sounds, joyous house glistening, and liquid sound design. Their sound is thoroughly queer, tapping into dance music’s radical and transformative potential and leading listeners on a psychedelic dreamride.

http://www.instagram.com/itsjacqjill

Jacq Jill @ The Lot Radio 02-22-2024

CÁIT @ ADONIS NYD 24

GARBO // Shy Bairns @ Cobalt Studios 9.3.24

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sazzle subtle 6

Full Body Movement w/ Sazzle & Kofi - Subtle Radio - 12/03/2024

@2shy2dj
www.wakinglife.pt
19 - 24 June 2024

📸 antoine grenez

DJ Fart In The Club at Floresta - Waking Life '23

Read about Nicky Siano at Wax Poetics:

http://www.waxpoetics.com/news/contests/nicky-siano-brings-back-gallery-one-night/

Part 2:

https://soundcloud.com/wax-poetics/nicky-siano-live-at-the-gallery-october-1976-part-2

Nicky Siano Live at the Gallery, October 1976

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