0721

35.6631398, 139.7012390

Tokyo legend DJ Trystero (@kirakiramushamusha) prompts us to return to the primordial sauce. He conjures a hazy, nocturnal web of beautifully weird grooves made for the final hour of dusk.

d o w n 2 e a r t h 25 - DJ Trystero

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

Original airdate 02.07.21
They are just having their joint release out on the streetz, now we are celebrating it accordingly by beating down on the EstimuloShow. Please note that this is a special FryDay transmission.
https://soundcloud.com/fl-rist
https://soundcloud.com/nathanmelja
As always, if you ask IDs we would be happy if you could show us some appreciation by sharing this mix on your Soundcloud profile and/or on your socials (IG/FB/etc.). Thank ya!
First two hours: Florist B2B Nathan Melja
Hour 3,4: Florist, Nathan Melja, Estimulo B3B
Rest: Florist B2B Estimulo

EstimuloShow w/ Flørist, Nathan Melja & Estimulo

020- Basso (@growingbinrecords)

Number twenty comes from non-other than Hamburg's legendary, Basso. Arguably one of the best diggers around, Basso is the brainpower behind the always impeccable Growing Bin Records, an online shop, Label, and YouTube channel that has been our first port of call for the past few years.

Basso has masterfully created a delicate yet unpredictable mix of unheard cosmic obscurities' touching Esoteric new age, Balearic Pop, and hip-hop gems for the podcast.

Continuous Movement 020 - Basso

@livwutang


Introduce yourself? Preferred pronouns? Where do you currently reside? 1 fun fact about yourself? 

Helloo, I'm Liv, she/her, living in Seattle. I’ve had 7 pet rabbits growing up (Timmy, Stella, Max, Chloe, Hillary, Flower, and Cinnabun).

How is everything going with you right now?

I’m honestly quite overwhelmed between work, creative projects, big life changes, and the return to more IRL interactions but I’m feeling inspired n positive in spite of the anxiety of it all :)

How did you get your DJ name?

In high school, we had a group project in history and this girl was writing our names in the top corner of the paper and asked me my last name, which is Klutse, but she heard Wu-Tang and wrote Liv Wu-Tang. It’s been my nickname and handle ever since & when I started DJing I was just going under my IG alias and never changed it, lol.

What advice do you have to other DJs to keep sane in the DJ world? 

Have a giggle filled b2b with your besties at least 2x a month to maintain your playfulness ~

What change do we need in the dance scene post pandemic?

All white lineups 🥴 Also speaking to the PNW regional scene in particular here – prioritizing booking locals to headline & bolstering our community instead of the biggest and best names in Europe with the same 5 locals on rotation as support.

Who currently inspires your music-wise?

Dana Kelley, Gemini, Maurice Fulton, and Larry Heard tracks are endless wells of cosmic inspiration to me and I turn to them in a rut, every time! 

DJ-wise, in no particular order, I’ve been especially inspired in the last year by Wonja, Kia, Kiernan Laveaux, LT, Ron Like Hell, CCL, Peer Review, Powder, Analog Soul, ADAB, NAP, Razrbark :)

What is your most recent favorite DJ mix and why?

https://soundcloud.com/down-2-earth/dj-trystero Subtle ear caress with that enviable breezy effortless style & flow that I can’t get enough of 

What was your first gig? How did it go? 

It was in my friend’s attic I was sitting down playing Kaytranada edits off of a Traktor controller and I don’t think one person listened to my set LOL

Describe your favorite thing to drink and how it makes you feel?

Rose or lavender kombucha because I feel happy knowing I’m tending to my gut health lol

Why do you think it's important to share music?

Because some things you can just say better with a melody:)

Where do you see yourself in 2060? ;) 

As part of my best friend’s commune, splitting my time between shared intergenerational homes with big wide porches on every continent 

What would you like to see in the future for the dance community?

Deeper investments into local scenes, communal care and increased harm reduction, more + diversified (i.e. across platforms) archiving of dance music history <3 

------> For extended interview & OG pi track game please visit our website pipipi.life <----------

livwutang - 64˚

If you know...you know. Music says it all.

Jonny Rock - Alter Disco Podcast 96

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.

0721

Yard-Man