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Thomaas Banks

Long time pal and driving force behind Invisible City it's Gary Abugan (@invisible-city) from Canada serving up the 29th mix in the series. Interview (excerpt) down below.

www.musicfrommemory.com

MFM: Hey Gary. How's life in Toronto today? Did you manage to do some more gardening? :)

IC: We have a really nice garden in front of the shop and also at home in my backyard, both get some nice sun and shade and are where I spend all my time. So yes, gardening everyday ;)

MFM: (Before the pandemic hit) You've seen quite a few bits of the world by now while touring. How would you describe Toronto as a city if you had to promote it to the readers who haven't been there yet? 

IC: It’s summer here now in Toronto and we’re in the middle of a heatwave. We’re lucky to have an island with nice beaches as a nearby getaway via ferry. Toronto is a very large sprawling city compared to most European cities. Our multiculturalism definitely sets us apart. We have heaps of reggae and island music here along with lots of record shops, and the variety of food here can’t really be beat. I miss giving guided Invisible City tours of the city to any traveling DJs passing through.

MFM: Would you say it's a good place for an artist to be, whether being a young upcoming talent or professional and all in between?  

IC: Sure you can make it here if you’re skilled/talented and not overbearing, the problem is that there isn’t that many music venues to play. Between the crazy expensive visa you need to play the USA and the costs of flights to Europe, we are kind of isolated musically. Rent is crazy expensive here and most artists have another job, but I’m not sure if Toronto makes it specifically harder or easier compared to other cities. 

MFM: People may know you as the driving force behind Invisible City, the record store and label. How much time do you spend with the one compared to the other? 

IC: I would say pre-Covid more focus was on the shop and getting that to a sustainable level and stocking the store. We didn’t even have a sign for years until recently. During Covid, when the shop was closed for about a year and a half, a lot of focus was on development and signing artists paying advances and getting back into production. I learned alot about Music Publishing too… Laura helps me a lot with organizing everything, label and shop, I would be lost without her.

MFM: Looking back on running a record store and label for over 10 years now, what would you say are some key changes that took place over time?

Back then there were not that many reissue labels and it wasn’t as competitive or extensive, now everyone has a reissue label. I only wanted to put out records that I was strongly connected to or somehow found on a whim. If someone showed me a record, I would ask them if they were planning on reissuing it, now people just go ahead. It’s crazy how many reissues there are so it’s challenging now as a label to dig even deeper. The record shop also was really niche and specialized in the past and now there’s just more in each genre. It’s still pretty curated, but I am finding that I didn’t know a lot of good common records, so we like having “high end cheapos”. I like that most people can just come off the street and buy records now, although we still have some niche stuff too. It feels overall more balanced and varied and for the people.

MFM: The label seems to run at a nice and slow pace. Is it on purpose to not have a heavy and steady output? 

IC: I like to only do a couple records a year, it’s only me and Laura who do it all and it takes me ages to figure out artwork, I’m very picky. The shop, DJing, and occasionally throwing parties also takes up a lot of our time. We always have a lot on the go. I also like to focus on one or two artists at a time, but also it costs a lot of money to make a record! Now things are totally slowed down and our plant says I can’t get pressings out till next March!

MFM Mix 029: Invisible City

While dropping their self-titled debut LP with us in August, Anya and Izaak from Loveshadow (@loveshadowdjs) were kind enough to also record a lovely mix and answer a few questions. Interview (excerpt) down below.

www.musicfrommemory.com

MFM: Hi Izaak and Anya, nice to have you on board. Both living in Bay Area, how would you describe your daily surroundings? Is it a nice place to be as an artist?

LS: Right now we live in SF. We grew up one town away from each other near the airport, though we didn’t meet until much later. The landscape is inspiring for sure- we spend as much time as we can out in the parks and wild areas and draw a lot from that. The art and music scenes here run deep, though the cost of living and of course covid have made things tougher.
 
MFM: The songs on your debut album as Loveshadow -which will be out in August- sound incredibly fresh where they also remind to certain pop, boogie, funk and even house from the mid and late '80s. What were some of your main influences for this project? 

LS: Thanks! We have to mention the UK act Fashion after whose song we named the group, but our tastes range all over. You could say that Loveshadow is kind of a lap around the 80’s prehistory of today’s dance music, when things were still firmly rooted in pop songwriting but had a simultaneously psychedelic and funky sensibility- one that grew out of dub/disco/punk counterculture. Getting more serious about learning the records at the roots of the whole thing allowed us to see how we might contribute something new to it in a way that was more than a style exercise.

MFM: Of course also the use of specific instruments ad up to that flavor - it seems that for example the Linndrum plays an important role. Did you aim for that sound and gathered the instruments around it, or the other way around maybe?

LS: We had an overall idea in mind that definitely informed the instrumentation but we’re not purists. A lot of the sounds on the record are replications of or deviations from the iconic originals. Those famous drum sounds in particular are like symbols, they impart a particular meaning and we use them to set a mood.

MFM: What's the dynamic between the two of you like in the studio? Is there a certain steady structure or does this change all the time? Maybe you could tell a little about your writing and recording process?

LS: It changes all the time- we’ve lived and worked in so many places separately and together since we started recording. Either one of us might come up with an idea that we’ll design sounds around, demo, arrange, and then throw it all in the trash and start again. Most of the songs on the record have had a few lives.

MFM: It feels that the music from the LP could work really well live on a stage too. Are there any plans for you to go touring? 

LS: We’re going to play a gig in Detroit later this summer that will be sort of a test run! After that, we’ll see. The project started out as an interest in records and recording, but anything’s possible.

MFM: Thanks a lot for contributing! It seems you quite regularly record a mix. Have you both always been busy collecting and sharing records? 

LS: Our pleasure, thanks so much for asking us! We’re always looking for new music. Sharing mixes online has helped us organize our favorites but playing parties is the best. We were gigging around before covid and we’ll hopefully get back to it as things continue to open up. This mix is definitely on the hype side of things- new digs, old favorites, some edits, tunes pals graciously sent our way, and what we’ve been dancing around our apartment to while we were stuck inside.

MFM Mix 030: Loveshadow

We're happy to welcome Munich's digger-extraordinaire and Schatzi Musik head honcho: Le Discoboulet. He's taking us on a two hour trip through his record collection for Bordello Radio: Camp Cosmic Fever Part 7. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/le_discoboulet
https://soundcloud.com/schatzimusikrecords

Camp Cosmic Fever Part VII

Bordello Radio #80 - Le Discoboulet (Camp Cosmic Fever Part 7)

DEEJAY 007 "Mr I LOVE MY JOB" is at it again with a 60 min mix of your favorite classic soul jams. 

As he says...... If You Grew Up Like I Grew Up you should know this!!! 

Some would say this is the music you heard playing when you had to wake up on Saturday morning and clean the house, lol. 

Regardless we ALL know it as GOOD MUSIC. 

FOR ALL BOOKING INQUIRIES for DEEJAY 007
E: Jeff@UntouchableEntertainmentGroup.com
P: 609-346-6668

DEEJAY 007 "#MrILoveMyJob" - Classic soul mix

A special live recording from the boss of all final bosses @antalrushhour taking us through a sunset for the books.

Big thanks to our dear friend @hosca for the recording

ANTAL DJ set @ Planet Trip & Crown Ruler Open Air Dance (7.1.23)

Mystic Night

Disco Dancing

HYPER x KCHUNG: EP#8 feat Thomaas Banks, Privacy

Selection of ex Yugoslavian reggae mostly from period from 1977 to 1991.
There is no playlist for this selection.. you have to discover and dig that beautiful scene by yourself. You can always write questions on positive.reality.sound@gmail.com

Yugoslavia Reggae VA. (1977-1991) selected by Haris Pilton

Joining the Roam Recordings Mix Series is the very talented Thomaas Banks (one half of the prolific UK duo Psychemagik). His remix of K-Effect's Heisenberg for us is a head turner and simply perfection. We are thrilled to have his addition to our mix series.

@thomaasbanks
@psychemagik

Thomaas Banks - Roam Recordings Mix Series 007

DJ Biscuit https://soundcloud.com/goodmorningtapes for https://soundcloud.com/the-trilogy-tapes.

'Mushroom' Mixtape – Side A (2017)
Shoutouts + big thanks to DJ BISCUIT & WILL BANKHEAD 🙏💚💚💚

A contribution to P.A.M.'s new online resource POSITIVE MESSAGES. Visit https://perksandmini.com/positive-messages for more...

Image :
Ghislane Leung 'SHROOMS' (2016)
Chinese night lights and adaptors
Installation view, Galerie PCP

POSITIVE MESSAGES #3 : DJ Biscuit 'Mushroom' Mixtape (Side A) - The Trilogy Tapes

I'm looking for the name of this remix, it was played in Romania by a local DJ in 2003, and it is supposed to be a vinyl, black whitelabel, most likely a bootleg mix. Thanks in advance.

HYPER x KCHUNG: EP#8 feat Thomaas Banks, Privacy

HYPERNORMALIZATION