Whether he likes it or not, Andy Blake exudes an aura of the cultish. His Dissident label has harboured many treasures of leftfield disco, old-school acid and electro and earned him a devout following. Grab them here or find them here. While Blake now releases his one-take, analogue cuts on his new label Cave Paintings, his monthly World Unknown parties in London thrive on his taste-makers qualities. We’re proud to have him on board, as this is a mix that is as good as it gets. It sets off with a live recording from a Rare Earth concert; a promoter warns of electric cables near the water. But you’re hardly electrified here, since this is an open-minded, psychedelic groove zone. No tracklist available, but Andy warmly welcomes your exploring efforts. Let’s take a “little walk in music”.
Nr. 40: Demetrio Giannice (Enterbt, Balance Alliance)
When it comes to deep house, Demetrio Giannice is surely one of Switzerland’s most dedicated proponents of the scene: The Zurich artist has immersed himself knee-deep in the disco-heritage from NYC and Chicago. 2009 saw the advent of a wickedly warbled stunner by the name of «Talk», while his creative mingling with Chez Damier manifested itself both on his vinyl-only imprint Enterbt Records and on Anthony Pearson’s Balance Alliance. This will surely be getting bodies twitching: Demetrio moulds tracks by Kenlou, Prince, Joe Clausell and DJ Duke into a soulful and raw mix.
Nr. 40: Demetrio Giannice (Enterbt, Balance Alliance) by ROOF.FM
Nr. 39: Oliver Hafenbauer (Live at Robert Johnson)
The Robert Johnson club near Frankfurt has never shied away from issuing a healthy dose of electronic pioneering. Here, DJ listings were not made publicly known until two years ago, with the intent that there may be no cherry-picking of venues. Here, Matthew Herbert did his “One Club” recordings a while before the Berghain ventured on a similar project. You may even regard their “Live At Robert Johnson” mix series as a high-brow concept, but in the end it comes down to just one thing: great music. Label manager and resident DJ Oliver Hafenbauer is known for his subtly-building house sets, but in his mix for Roof.fm he betrays a strong liking for classic electro. Did we say classic? Futuristic is probably more the case. A good thing to start 2011 anyway. We flung a handful of questions at Oliver, a habit we would like to stick to. Happy new year to all of you!
Nr. 39: Oliver Hafenbauer (Live at Robert Johnson) by ROOF.FM
Nr. 38: Genius of Time live (Aniara, Royal Oak)
When having to pick the favourite track of the year, what would be your criterion of choice? Complexity, composition, freshness? We like to keep it honest (and voted thusly in this year’s Resident Advisor poll): It’s about that feeling we get on the dancefloor. The spine-tingling experience. The hands up in the air thing. The fucking euphoria. Which doesn’t cease to hit us after playing “Same Old Place” by Gothenborg’s Genius of Time for the umptieth time. So we’re extremely happy and proud to end our year here at Roof.fm with a very special silvester special: Recorded on Christmas eve at an underground location in Geneva, Genius of Time garnered a thousand and one whistles and yeahs for their live performance. The fucking euphoria. A toast to Genius of Time, let 2011 be their year!
Nr. 37: Big Strick (FXHE)
Two years ago, Omar-S appeared on Roof.fm. The mix, which is available here, still sounds fantastic. While we were doing a phone interview back then, Alex O. Smith was actually driving to work with his race-car-like-sounding vehicle and nearly got into a car accident because he was seemingly puzzled for a sec by one of our questions… Detroit! Let’s keep it there: This hi-tech soul mix is from Alex’ cousin Big Strick who has released two fine EPs on FXHE. When we called Leonard Strickland earlier today, it turned out to be his 40th birthday. What a happy coincidence. Congrats! We’re looking forward to your album, Leonard.
Nr. 36: Sex Tags Crew (Sex Tags Mania)
Disco-Renegades. House-Eccentrics. Purveyors of electronic freemasonry. Ok, I might exaggerate a bit here, but the Sex Tags Mania label has been Tagged many things. “They just don’t care”, one fan once said in an interview. Well, they do care, do what they believe in, being die-hard vinyl lovers and all. Ever persistent in their curiosity for new and old sounds, the Norwegians have been running their Bergen-based label since 2004. The brothers Stefan and Peter Anatal Mitterer are also great artists, just have a look at their work. This is a place where the aesthetic of old-school Chicago flyers clashes with black and white mutations of comic heroes of yonder: No wonder their Tag line runs “Graffiti can’t be stopped.”. The mix for Roof.fm is an assemblage of some of their classic house favourites: Be sure not to miss the part where they do their shout-outs in Norwegian.
Nr. 35: Tazz (Underground Quality)
Tazz hails from Montreal, where he is a stalwart of the scene: This man struck our chords with the excellent “Acid Love”-EP out this spring on Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality. “Underground 11 feat. Bacanito” has been on repeat ever since. Chances are fat his new record “The World of Techno“-EP will even top this infatuation: The snippets on Phonica promise four fantastic techno tunes! For Roof.fm, Tazz has compiled a meandering techno-to-house mix offering the likes of Levon Vincent, Moodymann and Main Street. Speaking of the underground: In case you’re in Switzerland on the 29th October, don’t miss our Deconstruction Club at the lovely Cabaret with the one and only Mr. Jus-Ed and Zurichs own Kalabrese.
Nr. 34: Superpitcher (Kompakt)
Defunct monitor speakers. An erratic record player. Somewhat hazardous was the setting under which this mix was recorded earlier this year in Calvi on Corsica. Aksel Schaufler aka Superpitcher must have had a lot of fun though; we were immediately hooked by this quasi-archetypal Kompakt mix. Yes, it took a while to make this happen and happily it did happen: Many thanks to Chrigu from Kompakt for setting this up. And cheers to Aksel for being such a suave musician. Don’t forget to check out Superpitcher’s new album “Kilimanjaro”. It’s wicked.
Nr. 33: Arto Mwambé (Brontosaurus)
I confess: In the early summer of 2005, a record fooled me. Entitled “Girl, You know it’s Arto Mwambé”, it had a low-pitched voice chanting “Cryptoniiite toniiite” over a wicked bassline. Which somehow convinced me that here was an African producer working out the funk in minimal land. Well, in retrospect it seems all so obvious: Arto Mwambé was not some aspiring Burundian producer to peddle the Berlin clubs. It was a practical joke. A tongue-in-cheek-Milli-Vanilli project. By CB Funk and Philip Lauer. And five years later, I’m very glad to see that the two of them have not lost their appetite. Least of all on the dancefloor.
Nr. 32: Justin Vandervolgen (Golf Channel)
“…[Justin] Vandervolgen’s launched into the outer spaces of techno and fallen back through the roof of house music and landed on the disco master bed,” RA scribe Andy Beta wrote on the Brooklyn producer. And there Vandervolgen made himself comfortable under a soothing Balearic blanket, one might add. As his recent release for the Golf Channel imprint makes clear, Mr. Vandervolgen is a hunter of the extraordinary. His “Clapping song” is a genre-defying whirlwind of invention and a hailstorm of bliss for your dancefloor. Besides, any dj mix that features Nicholas’s super-euphoric “No more” cannot go wrong. Well, perhaps it could. But this one doesn’t.