Curator’s Cuts is a new LWE podcast series in which our reviewing staff mixes together recent favorites and provides explanations for their selections. We’re kicking off the series with a podcast from LWE editor-in-chief, Steve Mizek, which first debuted earlier today on Modyfier; there you can read a full explanation of the process behind the mix. We won’t be posting the tracklist until a few days after publishing, as each curator discloses and describes the tracklist as part of the podcast. We hope you enjoy Curator’s Cuts 01 and encourage you to comment with your thoughts on the series.
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LWE Podcast 29: Black Jazz Consortium
September 7, 2009 – 12:01 AM
For many listeners, Fred P. was one of 2009’s major discoveries. Less a young upstart than a veteran finally getting his due, Fred Peterkin has become one of the key players in New York City’s resurgent house scene. His affiliations with Jus-Ed and Move D — both of whom are contributors to upcoming releases on Peterkin’s Soul People Music imprint — hint at his elegant deep house style, but his releases for the past two years as Black Jazz Consortium have established his unique voice. Fred took off from working on his ever-expanding label and his own productions not only for an in-depth discussion, but to provide us with our 29th podcast as well: an exclusive two hour journey through the deepest house — including some unreleased cuts.
LWE Podcast 28: Paul Brtschitsch
August 31, 2009 – 12:01 AM
Don’t let the consonant-laden name trip you up, Paul Brtschitch (like “bridge-itch”) has too much to offer. The Berlin-based producer has been on the scene since 1996, both as a collaborator (André Galluzzi was his most frequent production partner) and solo, crafting knotty, floor-tested techno for Frisbee, Music Man Records, Ongaku, Leena Music and Ostgut Ton (in fact, his “Twirl/Under” was the label’s second ever single). These days, though, he’s concentrating on his own label, Rootknox, having just release his fifth album, Me, Myself and Live and its attendant singles. As you’ll read below, the focus of Mr. Brtschitch’s album is how his music works when being performed live without the aid of computers. In kind, our 28th exclusive podcast highlights a propulsive live performance from one of techno’s more underrated artists.
LWE Podcast 27: DJ T.
August 16, 2009 – 10:01 PM
In many ways Thomas Koch is living the techno pundit’s dream. After nearly a decade developing a following as DJ T., the Frankfurt-based jock founded Groove magazine, a vastly influential voice in techno/house journalism, in 1989. Serving as its publisher (as he still does today), Koch also found time to operate the Monza club in Frankfurt, launch the eventually massive Get Physical Music (with Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y.), and begin releasing his own tracks. As Koch reveals below, these accomplishments were long in coming and seem developed with the same audience-attuned approach informing his sought after mixes. T was kind enough to provide us with more than a morsel of his signature, light and groovy tech-house blends for our exclusive 27th podcast. Don’t miss this one if you’re craving summer spirits.
LWE Podcast 26: Ripperton
August 2, 2009 – 10:00 PM
Like many techno and house producers, Raphaël “Ripperton” Gros first laid down musical roots as part of a band. Though his groups Soul Merge and Reasons mined the live dance territory that was his calling (and even garnered critical renown in his native Switzerland), the appeal of coordinating eight members and their ideas wore off in favor of solo production. Soon his sleek, tech-house tracks adorned Connaisseur, Systematic, Sthlmaudio Recordings and liebe*detail singles, and he paired with Mirko Loko to form Lazy Fat People. While the pair’s project yielded their most widely received tracks to date (for Planet E, Border Community and Wagon Repair), Ripperton once again rides solo, dedicating much of his time running Perspectiv with Sam K and DJing around the world. The Swiss label boss and top notch jock curates LWE’s 26th exclusive podcast, offering a peak into his monthly residency at Lausanne’s D! Club.
LWE Podcast 25: Peter Van Hoesen
July 20, 2009 – 1:56 AM
His name on the tip of many a techno aficionado’s tongue, Brussels’ Peter Van Hoesen is accountable for quite a few of the year’s most heart-racing records. With their reanimated bass lines, unremitting kick drums, and penetrating atmospherics, his productions have a functionality that can’t be denied and a presence that can’t be shaken — the perfect pairing for the “dark, sweaty venues” he mentions in the interview below. Meanwhile, choice remix recruitment and the recent release of Donato Dozzy and Cio D’Or collaboration “Menta” have upgraded his fledgling Time To Express imprint from Van Hoesen home base to a growing leader in harder techno. The busy producer, DJ, and sound engineer generously took the time to talk with LWE about his label, his work with Brussels’ contemporary dance community, collaborating with Donato Dozzy, and his upcoming album. Our 25th podcast, meanwhile, offers an exclusive example of Van Hoesen’s propulsive live sets and an ideal primer on the producer’s latest work.
LWE 2Q Reports: Top 5 Downloads
July 10, 2009 – 10:32 AM
2009: Another year, another plethora of podcasts. Lots of amazing freebies have come out since the beginning of the year, and though many of them are nothing to write home about, quite a few are really exceptional. In addition to LWE’s nifty collection, you’ve got mnml ssgs churning out heady techno gems on a weekly basis and RA raising the bar higher than ever before (DJ Koze’s podcast still hasn’t lost its magic). But really, who’s got time for all this? With each one at least an hour long and weighing something near 100mb, the sheer volume of content means a lot of great stuff just falls by the wayside. So to help you sort through all this noise, here are five mixes you won’t regret right-clicking and saving-as.
LWE Podcast 24: Arnaud Rebotini
July 6, 2009 – 8:19 AM
One of the reasons we love doing LWE is that at any time, someone we admire could send us something incredible out of the blue. Recently we were graced with an exclusive mix from Arnaud Rebotini, the analog giant behind Black Strobe and well-versed solo producer, whose churned out raw house, banging techno and leather-clad electro for labels such as Versatile Records, Artefact and Source Records. Tomorrow his debut solo album, Music Components (which if you haven’t heard, do yourself a favor and check out this album mix), arrives digitally on iTunes and in American shops. In this mix, for which we haven’t even yet received a tracklist, Rebotini jumps from disco flavors to more chugging beats and back again. It’s a great mix and we’re excited to share it with you. We’ll post a tracklist when we receive it.
LWE Podcast 23: Aki Latvamäki
June 28, 2009 – 10:45 PM
Few artists come from as genuine and distinct a perspective as Finland’s Aki Latvamäki. In his bio he speaks of dirt, and in the following interview, he speaks of love. Working at the distant boundaries of what can only ostensibly be described as “tech-house,” Latvamäki (who also records as Artificial Latvamäki) offers up sounds that are more closely tied to experience than invention. Latvamäki’s esoterically titled tracks have appeared on Cocoon’s G compilation, Ellen Allien’s Fabric 34 mix; EPs for Trapez, Mezzotinto, and Budenzauber Recordings; as well as split recordings with LWE favorite Mark August and Dub Kult on Curle Recordings. Latvamäki is also a member of the “junk percussion” group Transistori, who have recently posted to Youtube a documentary of their live work, Transistori Play Toppilan Tehdas, at the factory of Toppila in Latvamäki’s home town of Oulu, Finland. What Latvamäki specializes in is a sound that combines melodic daring, dizzying introspection, and propulsive movement, and this talent is on display both here in this stunning exclusive “mixtape” of unreleased/forthcoming material.
LWE Podcast 22: Portable vs. Bodycode
June 22, 2009 – 12:08 AM
Alan Abrahams maintains that traditional African music and house music are much the same thing. In his music as Portable and Bodycode, Abrahams acts a living link between the indigenous sounds of his youth in South Africa and the first Chicago house records whose futuristic aesthetic broadened his horizons. Since leaving South Africa for London, Lisbon and now Berlin, Abrahams launched the Süd Electronic label with Lerato and released on ~scape, Spectral Sound, Karat and Perlon (among others). Tomorrow sees the release of his second album as Bodycode, the spectacular Immune on Spectral Sound. Full of fuzzy organ chords, needling percussion and Abrahams’ emotion-filled vocals, the album finds his sui generis sound in its most realized state. Our 22nd podcast pits Abrahams’ Portable and Bodycode monikers against each other, providing an exclusive look into the sounds bouncing around this talented producer’s head and computer.
LWE Podcast 20: Stefan Goldmann
May 21, 2009 – 10:46 PM
It’s somewhat of an anomaly that Stefan Goldmann’s profile isn’t writ as large as his thrilling productions. The German producer and owner of the Macro label inhabits a special place in electronic music, constantly wowing with each subsequent release, be it twelve inch, full length album, remix, or concept re-edit of Stravinsky. Even from his earliest beginnings on Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon’s Classic label it was evident Goldmann stood out from the pack, not afraid to move in his own direction and moreover always pushing himself further. It was 2005’s “Sleepy Hollow EP” that finally awakened many to his unique musical charms, and since then he hasn’t put a foot wrong, releasing a string of twelves culminated in an album that housed them all (The Transitory State) and notching up a slew of remixes that eclipsed the originals (Force of Nature’s “Sequencer” and Sideshow’s “African Cheri” immediately spring to mind). It’s less surprising, then, that the scope and sheer quality of Goldmann’s work earned him a nomination for the German equivalent of a Grammy award. But then rather than keep reading about how great we think he is, it would be much easier to check out his exclusive podcast mix and hear for yourselves.
LWE Podcast 19: John Daly
May 7, 2009 – 9:41 PM
Only three years ago John Daly was just an upstart from Cork, Ireland, whose raw and ready tunes on his own Feel Music made small waves. These days each highly anticipated Daly release (and there are a lot of them) rocks the boat, as his dubbed out grooves for Francois K’s Wave Music, IRR, Plak and Drumpoet Community becomes a fixture of many house and techno DJs’ sets. The effortlessness of his inviting and varied productions have well earned the crate space. In kind, we wanted to hear what’s pulling its weight in Mr. Daly’s crates, and thus was born our exclusive 19th podcast. Moving from hypnotic deep-house to interstellar disco and future primitive techno, Daly’s set speaks louder than his tight-lipped interview. Strap on your headphones and absorb what the man has to say.
LWE Podcast 18: Patrice Bäumel
April 23, 2009 – 10:16 PM
Patrice Bäumel often cuts close to the bone when crafting his floor-ready productions, leaving only the leanest wiry bits to rile dancers. Yet the Dutch producer’s singles for Get Physical and Trapez and remixes for MBF and Systematic, make a big impact with bare essentials. If his exclusive podcast mix is any indication, his DJing style offers a considerably fuller sound while utilizing some tracks as tools. After a successful residency at Club 11, Amsterdam’s (if not one of the world’s) finest and dearly departed, Bäumel has moved on to helm its successor, Trouw. Get a taste of the club’s go-to guy in this stirring new podcast.
LWE Podcast 17: Louis Guilliaume
April 9, 2009 – 8:48 PM
Louis Guilliaume’s debut 2×12″, Soulpoint, tore a hole through everything being played around it, and no one even knew who he was. It is an album that doesn’t really fit in any one period of time, its fidelity waxing and waning across slates of naked, raw techno, thought it always lunged ahead with conspicuous style. Guilliaume’s influences are broad and his experiences perhaps broader; check out tour photos of the Dutch producer on tour with Christian Death as their sound engineer. LWE’s Podcast 17 affords an exclusive glimpse into Guilliaume’s DJing head space which seems as loaded with surprisingly soulful jams as it cuts across great swaths of styles.
Download this: WhoMadeWho, The Plot (The Mole remix)
April 7, 2009 – 8:52 AM
Although The Mole’s productions rarely step outside the comfy confines of house and techno, his often loop-centric style seems at home with less electronic source material. So our ears perked up when we heard he was joining French merrymakers Nôze and Discodeine in remixing the latest from Danish dance-punks WhoMadeWho. His thick and hoary take plays up the track’s foreboding mood with scores of textural elements: shards of metal percussion, hollowed out vocals, sucked in breaths, and tense melodies whining in the background. You might not hear this one caned in clubs near you, but don’t be surprised if you get sucked into its sonic cyclone for a few repeat spins.
Download this new DJ Koze track
March 16, 2009 – 6:02 AM
Download: DJ Koze, “The Spitzer Group” DJ Koze treats his fans right. First he has Get Physical corral many of his best remixes onto one CD, and then he entices the eager and skeptical alike with a free, brand new track called “The Spitzer Group.” Setting the scene with a grainy funk break, Koze’s whimsical […]
Download Paul Frick, “Steal My Heart” (Dub Version)
February 11, 2009 – 7:14 AM
Here’s one rare time when “ask and ye shall receive” actually holds true: After being hounded by enthusiastic DJs and recently egged on by Tape/RA’s Richard Carnage for a dub version of “Steal My Heart,” Paul Frick relented and created one. In addition to trimming Crawford’s clever narration, Frick also fine tuned a few elements […]
Download: Live PA from The Mole
August 27, 2008 – 9:18 PM
Download: Live PA from The Mole (32:58) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] If you’ve wondered what it might sound like for The Mole to lasso an audience with his fantastic elastic loops, feast your ears on this 33 minute live set from Colin de la Plante. Details on his gig at Fabric, Sept. […]
James Kartsaklis in the mix
May 5, 2008 – 10:04 PM
The Body Politic‘s most musically prolific member, James Kartsaklis has blessed us with another DJ mix — perhaps his best yet. He’s keeping the tracklisting close to his chest in order to let listeners’ ears make the decisions instead of a quick scan of his selections. Suffice it to say, though, your ears will thanking […]
Christian Prommer’s Drum Lesson Vids
April 21, 2008 – 10:08 PM
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba6Xg_oS7iA] Josh Wink, “Higher State of Consciousness” My friend James pulled up these videos from the Sonar Kollektiv 10th anniversary party at which Christian Prommer happily schooled the audience. There’s a handful more of them, including “Rej,” “Beau Mot Plage,” and “Can You Feel It.” You can check them all out here. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok7a0UM8ttA] Rhythim Is […]