Warmth 3

Another instalment from the Warmth front for you now. All set in time for the big end of January weekend. Couple of great nights coming up – Trouble Vision at Corsica Studios, Balance at Plastic People. Hope this gets you in the mood.

Garage soundboards plastered all over a big house beat in this bouncy, funky number from Mancunian producers XxXy. Got to be one of the nicest build and drops of the last year in this as well. Real fun.

Big, bomping early 90s garage house grooves complete with nasty synth stabs and killer snares. Get your trigger fingers out for Bad Autopsy, bwoi.

Absolutely gorgeous bit of shimmering disco house from Ital here. Put out on the recently created 100% Silk records (a new label from the co-founder of  Not Not Fun and one half of Pocahaunted, Amanda Brown). Practically had this on constant repeat for the last few days. Got immediate classic written all over it.

I kind of think this shouldn’t work. Throwback block party vocal samples layered over what is basically budget bassline house isn’t usually something that would cut the mustard. But shit, when it’s done this well and you can’t listen to it without gyrating your shoulders around like the Churchill Car Insurance dog with ADHD and no more Ritalin you can’t really argue, can you?

Another slice of darkness from Berghain’s Ostgut Ton label here, this time from Rolando. Scratchy, percussive effects, waves of undulating drones and incredibly simplistic downtempo thuds make this the perfect urban, nocturnal soundtrack.

And here’s a brilliantly surprising bit of news to finish it off with – a teaser video to herald the release of Boxcutter’s upcoming album The Dissolve. After catching our attention a few years ago with the incredible Glyphic, 2009′s Arecibo Message was something of a disappointment. However, all seems to be set for new heights with this slice of spaced-out,  Onra-esque dopeness. Fingers crossed the album lives up to expectations.

Video for this is by the brilliant Sabrina Ratté – see more of her stuff here.

Top image is by the incredible multi-talented artist and founder of numerous fantastic online interest thingies, Folkert Gorter. Too many links to provide for this guy, so just have a Google for him and see what turns up.

Add Void’s Ten from 2010 #1

Greetings! As promised, here’s the first installment of our ‘best of the year’ mixes. To kick it off we thought we’d get into the party spirit and share with you what we consider to be some of the finest danceable cuts from the past year, featuring a stunning array of deep, infectious rhythms and basslines from the likes of Four Tet, Luke Abbott, Blondes and Teengirl Fantasy. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la laaaa.

Click here to view the full track listing and to check out our other mixes.

Hunt

To pass the time at work a friend and I (imaginably like most poorly-waged 20-somethings who have more enjoyable things to do with their lives other than entering figures in spreadsheets, proof-reading catalogues and deciding whether spot UV or a fifth colour fluoro would make your brochure more appealing to the target demographic – PUKE) enjoy sending each other music videos off youtube. She’s a fair bit more into dance music than me but has impeccable taste, so it’s always a treat, even if some of it’s not stuff that I’d actively search out myself. In fact it’s probably more so for that exact reason.

Here’s a selection of her recent choicest cuts:

On and On

There are some people who think that liking this type thang (sic) is done purely through irony and therefore deplore it as being another extension of meaningless postmodern borrowing harking back to a non-existent nostalgic past out of longing for any form or semblance of identity. My retort to such an accusation is thus: BORING.

I wish I was black and lived in Queens in the 80s and had disco balls for balls and it was acceptable to wear sequined spandex jumpsuits and multiple afro picks and high-tops and Kanye West hadn’t been invented yet and hip-hop was camp and my dad drove a taxi and knew everyone in the neighbourhood and we’d all get together and be like hey y’all and we’d eat home-cooked food and party in the street and never have to go to work and AIDS didn’t exist and it’d be great.

So yeah, maybe the fake nostalgia thing stands, and maybe I do struggle to feel like there’s a proper identity to 21st century western culture, but when shit’s this smooth I couldn’t care less.

Butter love in a hot tub yo. Daaaaang.

Catch more of him here: http://www.myspace.com/onra