BC072 – Five Mixes: March 2024, con’t
Dancing past dawn with heads held high
Kangding Ray, via Raster Media
Yes, I’ve read that Baffler piece, and yes, I can smell the singe from here, but that can be dealt with some other time. No grand theme follows, just goodies that repay revisiting. Paying work got in the way, as it sometimes does, so thanks for your patience. Plenty still on deck, seen.
You can hear all five sets on this SoundCloud playlist.
Paul Wolsch, Honcho Podcast Series 126 (March 1)
I figured I was in good hands when this grabbed and held right off, and it didn’t take long to hear the timeless “Feel My MF Bass” vocal being reconfigured over beats far slower than the original’s 135, but equally strutting nonetheless. That’s the whole mood: bouncy and bubbly but with a steely exterior, dancing past dawn with head held high. All the serrated acid lines help.
Sputnik One invites Sloucho, Rinse FM (March 12)
Now here’s a new twist—“invites,” rather than “vs.” or “b2b” or “tag team.” Gives it a sophisto air, or something. But this hour isn’t sophisto at all—not unsophisto, either; it just bustles nonstop, rendering the concept irrelevant. It’s not really “breaks,” to my ear—at least not until the final third or so, when it morphs into jungle—but at no point along the path does it settle for a straight, unfettered four. It’s frequently lovely, and it’s very re-playable.
Pearson Sound, Hessle Audio (Rinse FM, March 15)
Remember this guy? Clearly so—but what puts this set on par with any of his others, and pushes it beyond them, is that it’s the selector at his most garrulous. The final half, in particular, is downright giddy in places—not the usual adjective I search for with him. I know, I know—it’s mostly (though not all) new stuff, and so many of these programs are. If that were the whole of it, though, every DJ set would sound alike. Well, they don’t, certainly not in Pearson Sound’s case. This one exudes playfulness from start to finish; in particular, the chant-with-tom-tom (@ 45:00) and the neo-L’Trimm booty number (@ 1:30:00) are sterling change-ups that keep extending the line. Also, and not to get cute about it, you’ll be hearing more about this precinct in these parts soon.
Nina Kraviz, Tomorrowland Winter 2024 (Alpe d'Huez, France, March 20; uploaded April 2)
I’ve found over the years that you never know what you’re going to get with her. Here it’s schmutzy and low-key, almost lo-fi except I just mean not super high-res, rather than the vinyl-surface-noisy stuff that often passes under that rubric. The low end, rest assured, is in heavy supply. It snarls, it gets ravey in the synths and claps, the snares often sound like anvils being clanged, the BPMs seem impatient. Things get airier on the back end, but even there it’s foggy rather than sunlit.
Kangding Ray, The Lot Radio (March 23)
I do a lot of jumping around as a listener so when someone connects every time, I notice, and that’s been the case with this French-born Berliner for a long while now. I’m particularly struck by something he said while discussing his label, ara, in 2019: “I just want to distance the label sound from any sterile, simplified, prefabricated, or testosterone-based approach of club music.” This hour exemplifies it—cadmium hard but porous like pumice, plus he like the same kinds of hi-hats that I do.