Welcome back to the monthly collection of our favourite mixes, live sets and radio shows from the four corners of the internet.
The world looks substantially different from how it did the last time we shared one of these round-ups. While there’s nothing that needs to be said that hasn’t been already, it would be remiss to ignore it. With that in mind, we hope everyone reading is staying safe and looking after each other, and we hope that some of these sets will serve as a distraction, comfort, or whatever else you might be looking for at this time.
This month’s picks can loosely be arranged with the biggest and brashest at the front, like Juliana Huxtable’s colossal Recognise mix or Solid Blake’s mammoth set at Berlin’s Radiant Love last year; mixes to suspend you in stasis toward the end, like Moonbow’s ode to climate collapse or Kali Malone’s cavernous NTS special; and something warmer in the middle from livwutang or Soraya. Enjoy.
Juliana Huxtable
Recognise for DJ MagThe restlessly creative Juliana Huxtable delivers a mix that serves to capture the vibrancy of New York City’s underground parties as well as the violence and urgency at the heart of the subjects she tackles as a multimedia artist – sexism, technology, the weaponisation of body-image. Hissing, wheezing textures, squiggles and bleeps, tough and concussive breakbeats all vie for dominion in what was quite probably the most powerful listen of the month.
Solid Blake
Live at Radiant LoveA live recording from Glasgow-born, Copenhagen-based Solid Blake, recorded at Berlin’s Radiant Love back in September 2019. We’re big fans of the former Apeiron Crew DJ and can’t think of a better way to soundtrack an entire afternoon than with four hours of her weapons-grade acid, techno and electro bombs.
Ganesa
Groove Podcast 249Ganesa and her label Jelly Bean Farm have been banging the drum for UK-centric bass and techno for years, first in LA and today in San Diego. Her mix is tangle of bleeps and clangs, grime-indebted sounds and twisted, sandy textures. It’s intense and suffocating and you’ll find yourself gasping with relief on occasions where everything falls away, but always ready to dive back in for more.
Sonja Moonear
IWD Mix for Juno Records & FabricGeneva-based Sonja Moonear is one of the most respected DJs in Europe, her 20+ years in the game earning her a reputation for technical wizardry and restrained set-building. Sandwiched between fellow luminaries of understated party fuel Rhadoo and Junkie Inoue, this recording demonstrates exactly why the style of mixing she excels at is so effective, even as it’s popularity outside the devoted fluctuates. The set was recorded at London institution Fabric and selected by Juno Records to celebrate International Women’s day.
livwutang
Livwutang is an up and coming selector from Seattle. The west-coast city has bubbling community of clubbers who know their onions and, at the risk of sounding like a turn-off, there’s an inherent sophistication in the sticky textures and screeching left-turns she draws for with this mix. One for an after-hours wig-out or to focus the mind in times of need.
Soraya
Dummy Mix 582If you’re a regular reader of this column you’ll know that there’s rarely a month that goes by when we’re not throwing love in the direction of Truants. This month we were excited to spot a mix from the site’s founder Soraya at Dummy. With the same impeccable taste on show as with the Truancy Volumes, the mix is made up of an hour of balmy bangers, hitting that home-listening sweet spot between comfort and compulsion to dance.
Émotsiya w/ Katerina
Noods Radio 05.03.20Katerina pulls from natural textures and ambient as much as G-Funk in her music, making for a truly idiosyncratic style when such a thing is hard to come by. Her shows and mixes with Cómeme, L.I.E.S and more recently Noods are great because they land on a balance between eclecticism and a well-thought-out thread. This one last month caught our ear because of a seamless slide from itchy Aphex Twin to woody drone around the midway point.
Proteus
The "Wednesday Alternative" MixLondon promoter and DJ Proteus channels all manner of gothy darkness in her sets and mixes, be that coldwave, EBM, industrial or straight-up techno behemoths. This mix finds her in a slightly different mood, removing the propulsion of a kick drum for the most part to bask in a discordant throb.
Kali Malone
NTS Radio 24.03.20American composer Kali Malone’s recent guest show on NTS is a blissful hour of thrumming drones and piercing folk, along with several of her own haunting compositions. Amidst the indoor setting most of us currently share, the sense of space conjured with these tracks is invaluable, evoking the expanses of the Swedish wilderness that surrounds Malone’s Stockholm home.
Moonbow
Echo of Species 10London-based multidisciplinary artist Moonbow supplies a weightless ambient mix for the nascent Echo of Species series. There are several reasons to love this mix, the tracks are rich and avoid the slips into drudgery that can befall some ambient sets, and the artist’s relationship with the medium, explained candidly here, is a heartening one. The series is based around artists’ responses to climate collapse, in this case using the words of Donna J. Haraway and her “Chthulucene” concept. A powerful 90 minutes.
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