Filip and Johnny, photo by Clayton Hauck

If Johnny Love (of Guns ‘N’ Bombs) took one thing from Chicago, it was the artform of the Chicago Hotmix — a blitzkrieg-style of live mixing known for its high track/mix length ratio. When I talked with him and Filip back in December for a forthcoming Alarm Magazine piece, he was unafraid to acknowledge the level of difficulty accompanying the execution of a electro house/French touch mix with that format: “A lot of the songs from that genre really aren’t made for quick mixing. When you play minimal techno you can do that because they’re not much going on; there’s a hi-hat coming in every two minutes.” Listening to the mix will help put this all in context, even if this one is a little less “Hot.” G’N'B’s nuanced and ultimately efficient mixing provides a new road map — hot off the press — of what’s going to be hot in the Justice/MSTRKRFT/electro rock scene in the next month or so. Though I don’t care for the Felix Cartel cut, even when they consult the Daft Punk handbook, this mix (especially the G’N'B’s material) seems to foreshadow a budding career.

Guns N’ Bombs - Mixtape #2

Tracklisting:

datA, “Aerius Light”
Does It Offend You, Yeah?, “We Are Rockstars”
Guns’N'Bombs, “Crossover Appeal”
MSTRKRFT, “Street Justice” (MSTRKRFT 07 remix) [mixtape EXXXCLUSIVE]
Felix Cartal, “Moss vs Tree”
Boys Noize, “Feel Good (TV = Off)” (Shinichi Osawa edit)
Yelle, “Short Dick Cuiz” (Tepr remix)
Christopher + Raphael Just, “Disco 128″
Surkin feat. Vyle, “Toxicoman”
The Futureheads, “Worry About It Later” (Al Dare Half Done refix)
The Teenagers, “Homecoming” (Guns ‘N’ Bombs 1996 XTC remix)