A mid-winter link & recommendation for everyone of some mixes done by Voda aka Jody aka The Brighton/Hove Body Bagger. Friend of mine from the south of England, long time Merck fan, and all around good guy. These were 2 mixes he did in late 2010, with a near perfect track selection profile of stuff straddling the post-dubstep & post-idm genres (I prefer those genre tags over the generic “bass music”). Been playing them a lot throughout 2011, think you all will dig them if you enjoy the idea of the convergence of classic Autechre with the Exit Records sound. And here is to hoping he puts together a few mixes this year for us of some of the gems he collected throughout 2011 (nudge nudge).
Some links to download them and check the tracklists:
I think this is the only vinyl track we released, that was titled the same as the CD version of the track, but the audio was actually different. I believe it came about because in the time between the release of the Squadron CD, and the first vinyl, Lassi had remixed the track, and it had blown us all the hell away. So it was a no-brainer to follow in the lead of the late 90′s IDM labels and put a little secret gem on the vinyl for the fans.
So proud this track was on the first vinyl we released, still blows me away to this day. Put the lights low and the volume high, and lay back and close your eyes. Mmmmmmm.
Here is the digital version for all of you without record players to enjoy. If you do have a record player though, pick up a copy, cause I still got a box of em in my garage.
Was going through my VHS collection today, debating about ripping some, then selling them off. Luckily found rips of all of them through various avenues on the internet. Figured i’d share my search work here below. So you know though, you can also find all of these cut into sections and available on Youtube as well, for those of you that don’t want to waste hard drive space. Also keep in mind on the Megaupload stuff, that without an account you can only have 1 active download at a time. So just open up all of the parts (to kill the countdowns), then download them one after another when each one completes.
Just wanted to pass along a link to an excellent mix done by a fan, in honor of Travis’s new album, containing a couple dozen Machinedrum tracks and remixes. An excellent listen.
Here is a quick 30 minute mix I made recently. I was attempting to test out DJing in Ableton, and putting together some sample tracks from Extrawelt to use for it, but then decided to add a little more content and output a finished mix. Smart, but dancey, melodic techno for summer nights.
Just wanted to pass along a download link, 2 rare tracks, and some info about one of the more mysterious, but one of my personal favorite artists, I ever released. Aphilas.
2 guys from Helsinki, Petri & Niko, that were originally found by Vae (whom you may remember from his track on the Dosage comp with the haunting japanese vocal), who in turn told Erik from Miasmah about it, and he told me. He had gotten them interested in the idea of releasing something through his web label Miasmah, and then hit me up to let me hear the material cause he knew I would dig it. I heard the 6 tracks he wanted to release, loved em, and hit them up to do a 12″ with that material (featuring Erik’s artwork). The rest is some of my fav music I ever released. The record is honestly one of the favorite things I ever released, and its one of my favorite downtempo records I’ve ever heard.
We did begin working on an album to follow it up. They had completed an album previous to the 12″ material, that they sent me, it was strong, but not polished or finished in any way that it was ready for release (even though I was so in love with their stuff by that time, I was pushing to release the unpolished stuff). So they said they’d work on some newer material and maybe rework some older stuff as well. So I sat back (it wasn’t my style to harass artists to finish creative material to meet any kind of commercially motivated schedule) and hit them up every few months to see if they had any new gems I could hear. Unfortunately it never came together, and the album eventually faded away.
I will say now, that the material on the 12″ is the best thing they ever did, so don’t feel you’re missing out on anything by not hearing that prelim album. After the release of the 12″, even though it did well, and they were psyched about it, I think they started to go separate ways. And we had some kind of weird miscommunication falling out as well, that I’m a bit hazy on, but they basically just stopped responding to my emails (I guess they were embarrassed to repeatedly report no new progress). I’m guessing it was mostly because they were going their separate ways, Finns are generally a moody bunch.
A few years later (2006) an ‘album’ did pop up on the internet by them, entitled Prisoners of the Planet. Some of it honestly doesn’t even sound like them (which makes me think some may have been solo efforts), but I can confirm that at least some of it is made by them (as I had some of the tracks from years before). Ultimately I don’t think the album has the flow and polish of the Instrumentally Ill tracks. It may have made another solid 12″ though. If you can track it down, the track “Fires” is amazing, but its some of the worst mixing and mastering I’ve ever heard! As far as more recently, Niko now releases as Kaino, he had a 12″ come out in 2008. No idea what Petri is up to…
Heres a link to download the entire 12″ EP we released on Merck, through the Miasmah web label. They unfortunately took their original site down, but you can still find all the music on Archive.org.
Also here are 2 bonus tracks that are unreleased, and admittedly unpolished and unmastered. Things they sent me around the same time as the release of the 12″. One is an alternate version of the closing track from the 12″, the other was unfinished new material.
I finally found the motivation to sit down and put together a mix of stuff i’ve enjoyed over the last year in a certain style. This is kind of an edgey IDM/Dubstep kinda vibe, not too bassy, very electronic and steppy.
Tracklist:
Full Crate – Thursday
Sepalcure – Feeling That I Know So Well
Zorn – The City’s Collapsing (But Not Tonight)
DFRNT – Tripped
Martyn – Vancouver
Instra:mental – Forbidden
2562 – Dinosaur
Appleblim & Geiom – Shreds
Instra:mental – Tramma
Data – Doors Of Perception
Download it here.
Enjoy, and remember to support the artists involved!
Travis recently pointed out to me how much he loved these 2 mixes I did back in 2000 of some of my hiphop vinyl at the time. He featured them on the Percussionlab site recently, and I’m gonna go ahead and throw them up here. Mixing of course isn’t anything of note, but this was themed around a lot of good hiphop from the recent years at that time that I enjoyed, while watching all the good hiphop go commercial, and overall hiphop really go downhill. Thus the title ‘Real’. If you are a fan of Now You Know.. listen carefully… you may just notice some similarities.
Part 1
K-otix – Questions
Vakill – Tis Tha Seizin
Jigmastas – Original
Breez Evahflowin’ – On The Mic
Jigmastas – Last Will & Testimony
Shadow Huntaz – DJ Screams Medic
Rubberoom – Sector Rush Remix (Rebuilt)
Company Flow – Population Control
Mr. Lif – Triangular Warfare
Thawfor – ? (12″ from 1999)
Hurricane G. & Rishi – No More Prisons
Equilibrium – Windows 98
Scienz of Life – Powers Of Nine Ether
Part 2
Lootpack – Likwit Fusion
Scienz of Life – The Anthem
Originoo Gunn Clappaz – Suspect
No I.D. – Jump On It
? – ?
Raw – Comment #3 (Family Of The Continents)
Mr. Lif feat. Akrobatik – Inhuman Capabilities
? – ?
Thawfor – Touch Down
Raw – Distant Traveller
? – ?
Dan The Automator – My Guru
Some more Syndrone fun facts: The opening track on Salmataxia, Cachexia, was originally twice as long. The story behind the track is that Travis actually wrote it shortly after waking up from losing consciousness from inhaling excessive paint fumes while helping someone paint the inside of their place. I always feel listening to the track, that it sounds so much like the dark, paranoid, frightening world of losing consciousness uncontrollably. He captured it so well.
So he originally wrote this 9 minute version, and was insistent that we use that one on the final cut of the album. As much as I love that track, I thought it would be a complete mind-fuck to open the album with 9 minutes of one of the most intense tracks he has ever made. Eventually he relented (and later thanked me for insisting on it), and we ended up with the 4:35 version on the final album. But for your listening enjoyment, I am providing here the original 9 minute version.
So in 2002 Travis had completed a slew of new Syndrone tracks, Now You Know had been doing quite well, and the Half the Battle 12″ soon after was doing even better. Travis was really cranking out the music at that point in time, which included the majority of a new Syndrone album. He sent me a demo CD of the new tracks in the summer of 2002, around the same time as we were starting to finalize work on the Half the Battle and Urban Biology CD’s (they were released at the same time in September 2002). Though the material was strong in some places, through a combination of distractions with the Machine Drum stuff, and some doubts about the quality of some of the material by both of us, the whole album kinda got put on the back burner. It was about 13 tracks total, quite varied in development level, and a lot of it really felt like a drastic revisioning of Cichlisuite and Chiastic Slide, so it kinda just faded and never ended up coming out. Some of the tracks from it were eventually reworked later and made it onto Salmataxia, those being Cinco, Pan_Ic, and Sloky. Listening back on it now, most of the rest of it sounds rather underdeveloped and probably for the best it never saw the light of day, but there is one track I liked to use for DJing live that I’ve always enjoyed, that I’ll provide for download here. I don’t know if this track ever had a name, but I’m going to call it Shredd3r, in honor of a friend.
