k-punk got inked

[Matthew Thurber/Kevin Huizenga via the awesome Drawn&Quarterly publishing house's blog]

I look at k-punk's blog whenever I wonder what music theory looks like. He makes judicious use of comic book images, but I never wondered what he looked like.

Hot new release on NightShifters from Rampage - the 'War!' EP is out now, and a free high-quality mp3 of 'Lovin U Is Easy' is available for download right here. It's definitely signature stuff for the label, collecting dancefloor hooks and rolling them out together, ranging from soft Goldie-era synth pads to b'more breaks and handclaps, from straight tube-bass spasms to house-flava tone-chimes on the downbeat of the bar. Freshness!

Also on heavy repeat this morning, care of Murkules, is the sneaker-squeak of Lady Stush doing dancehall chatter on a sparse-as-you-like funky production 'We Nuh Run', download it here then flex yerself.

ARC ARC ARC ARC ARC

TWO heavyweight giveaways today.

AA Number One

Here's a mix of tracks which feature the letters A, R and C in their title. It explains itself.

ARC ARC ARC by JoeRuckus

tracklist:

• 'Arktinen / Arctic' - Pan Sonic, KESTO (234.48:48), (Blast First)

• 'Arcadeagle' - 10-20, 10-20, (Highpoint Lowlife) 'Archangel (Leif remix)' - Burial

• 'Pins (Atki2's Architect remix)' - Starkey, NC-17 EP, (Dead Homies)

• 'Arches Never Sleep' - Leafcutter John, The Housebound Spirit, (Planet-mu)

• 'Titan Arch' - COIL, Love's Secret Domain, (Threshold House)

• 'Arcades-Pamelor' - Le Fly Pan Am, Ceux Qui Inventent N'ont Jamais Vécu (?), (Constellation)

• 'Architektur ist Geiselnahme' - Einstürzende Neubauten, Strategies Against Architecture III (mute)

• 'Spiral Architect' - Donna Summer, To All Methods Which Calculate Power (Omeko)

• 'Antarctic Return (Sho by Maymi Miyata)' - Björk, The Music of Matthew Barney's 'Drawing Restraint 9' (One Little Indian)

BB Number Two

Here's a mix straight from our homegrown family of wilful turntablists, Wildabeast c90 on more live than live deck duty at We Wear The Gold 2.

Live and Die Broken In Gold - Wildabeastc90 by JoeRuckus

tracklist (cut'n'pasted verbatim from Wildabeast's crackberry):

• Combo toad fish dmz mud into tone on tfish then Pharoh monch duck sex scratchgagball to beat on gagball links to

• Duck break cunt side lst song duck scrtch sentances

• Oscillator duck scratch

• Drop the toad man compgame scrattch then funky beat and paul nice

• Toadman cold getin dumb

If you want more listening, I got these following recommends on continual circulation right here on the airfoil:

• Infrasonics 12001EP split 12" with Ike Release on one side and Hot City on the other. Some playfully inventive dancefloor workouts here. Both sides reach deep bass frequencies and short out with crackling summer lightning on the top end. 'Misdeeds' from Hot City has a darker rave-stab vibe with a 2-step, sitting on top of an-end-of-the-bar bass pounce, where 'Jenova' uses a hauntology delay to chart a link from this brand new 2-step to the more recent, skippier end of dubstep developments . The Ike Release side has its feet rooted in a dark Detroit/Berlin club, but isn't punishing. Where 'No More' starts off feeling like a Kanzleramt /proto-Tresor slice of techno, it's broken up by swift cuts to lighter sounds; snippets of house pianovocalpercussion, dredges of ravehoover, bit-reduced breakdowns. Similarly, 'Setting Me Free' evidences wider, cross-genre listening. At a more relaxed and bouncier lower tempo, it's able to roll out glitch house microsamples alongside some fun contemporary booty tricks - there's an ascending vocal snippet that's showing up in the post-b'more-breaks booty styles from AC-Slater, A1Bassline and the NightShifters label. Big Release! Go Grab It!

• Erstlaub's new release on Moving Furniture Records is rockin me at the moment - it's an intense but not dense shifting haze, like someone choreographing smoke in an empty swimming pool. Here's what they say about 'Broadcasting On Ghost Frequencies':

Inspired by the Ganzfeld Procedure where the participant is deprived of visual stimulus and bombarded with white/pink noise drawing the mind to form patterns in the chaos often hearing voices from the past or inventing entirely new constructs within their consciousness, this release pays tribute to the parapsychological mind and its many wonders.

• Not a million miles away (since Erstlaub shows up for this one, I think), I'm repeated listening to The Village Orchestra's new release on Highpoint Lowlife, entitled 'I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again'. It's a recording of a live soundtrack to a Japanese manga that I haven't seen - there's a lot going on it, and it works as a collage from sound snippets contributed by several hpll related artists. While live-playthrough-OSTs often have lofty goals ('reimagining the film in a new medium' etc), TVO eloquently describes his humble ambitions and the haphazard process behind the eventual product. It's not deflationary, he just lets it be known that however much you might want to overthink this kind of work, his point was to make some sort of accompaniment that might be suitable. As more and more of these kind of live audio/screening crossovers seem to happen, it's becoming a respectable standalone medium, without any need for justification (or even an apologetic one). Get on to it.

Left A Love A Little A

[labour of love by dj spuddah]

Your call is being recorded for training purposes. I'm away, I'll get in touch when I get back. I value your call. I value you. I value the things you bring, the things you leave. I wish I had more I could pass on to you. I wish I could pass it all off. It's all about me, your call. You called and you got me.

Here's what's past. I passed out of radio land. The colour was trooped to a welter of noise (2hours of static), which passed through the airwaves without getting recorded, so there's no record. The parade's highest ranks was the passage of songs involving the letters A. R. and C. - just like teevo I'm going to replay it, and just like sesame street I'll bring you the letters A. R. and C. in the form of the numbers 1 and zero shortly.

I also wore the Gold, and I Petrocollapsed, in the very best of company.

[stunning mug shot by Majda Dzanic]

Shouts to Taliesin and the lovely crowd he dun brung with him. Massive sounds + fresssshhhnessss!

So yeah, a promissory note on audio, to be paid in full at some point. In the meantime, let me direct your attention to several things.

• A, number 1: An awesome FACT mix by yer man 10-20. Get On This One.  It's a great tracklist, the man's got unbelievable talent, a completely unique sound. Hearty hearty endorsement from rX3.
• B, number 2: Day of X - because every day is an International Day of Something. May 22nd was utterly fecund.
• D, number 4: Spannered uppered a mix of fresh skweeness by Joxaren - feelin this a lot. Roll it. Have one. Eat some.
  

But how coach choke quill

I'm getting out.

I've got out of the R!R!R!routine, so make-upping for it now by double-upping shows. Each comes with a whole HOST of links (as you'll see below), mostly to places where you can grab the stuff I've been playing. Each also comes with a host of NEWS.

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So, first up, Rob!Run!Reach! #18 from April 28th. EXCLUSIVE mix from WeWearTheGold's masterful DJ DERRICK TIBBS. Right in the middle of this set I played a mix that he made exclusively for the show. The man's got a Midas touch on the turntables, and he's a top chief selecta, as you'll remember from his previous appearance on the show. 

The show kicked off with some as-yet-unreleased off-centred-cam-shuffle hiphop, and worked itself through to an EXCLUSIVE Monkey Steak mashup - a collision of Natasja (RIP) and Enur's 'Bonfire Riddim' with N.B Funky's 'Riddimbox'. That clever edit anticipated Gabriel Heatwave's thoughtful think/listen-piece on how Jamaica is waking up to the sound of the UK Funky scene (more on that in #19). Also in this show - Hanuman,  one half of Monkey Steak, sent R!R!R! some EXCLUSIVE new riddims, and I'm hilariously happy to role out 'Yafeh' for y'all. In related news, Monkey Steak have set up their own Steak House Records label, and their tasty new blog features news and free downloads, including that killah track by BitSlap that I featured here on R!R!R! just the week before, as well as an exclusive Monkey Steak remix by WTC...

18 JoeRuckus on ASR 29th April 2009 by JoeRuckus

• Nosaj Thing - 'Lords', Drift (Alphapup records)

• Dr Who Dat? - 'Viberion Twighlight pt2', (Lex)

• Rubi Dan & Chinski - 'Big Boi Spitta'

• Roadside Gs - 'hustlin',  grimetapes.com free download mixtape!

• Mahmoud Guenya - 'Assamaoui', (unknown morrocan label)

• MonkeySteak - 'Bonfire Riddim box', (unreleased mash up)

• Detroit Diesel - 'Freestyle', Dum Trax (Dum Trax)

• Maga Bo - 'Siri ya Pendu', Archipelagoes (Soot records)

• Chris Dooks - 'An ancient piece with primary piano', 1824seconds, (studio1824)

• Machine Drum - 'Freshkids', Want To 1 - 2? (Normrex)

EXCLUSIVE DERRICK TIBBS MIX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Tremorefire Dubz - 'Freak like me' (Unreleased rmx c/o The Best Donut Pics You Ever Did See)

• Busy Signal - 'Tie Dye Face' (ward21 rec?)

• Hanuman - 'Yafeh', (unreleased as yet....)

• Nochexx - 'Mitsubishi', (unreleased as yet...)

• Boxcutter - 'Mya rave v2', Arecibo Message (Planet-mu records)

• Gnawledge - 'Calabazar de Sagua', (unreleased yet)

• Acid Girls - 'Oh my stars', (?)

• Moussa Doumbia - 'Membo Nden', Sounds D'Afrique vol2, (BMI)

• Lloop - 'ETC', 60Hertz (theagriculture records)

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Episode #19 - the penultimate event. What's to be said? We started gentle and got up and about by the end. That 10-20 release on Highpoint Lowlife has got me gripped. The press release says he's a Devon resident, and I guess most of my crew associate that part of the world with Braindance and Rephlex. But this LP has electronics and organics, crackle and decay, slow autumnal places with leafmold, resonators and background hum. I'm hooked: it's a familiar sound even though I've not heard it before - traces that are personal but forgotten, like watching your dreams on someone else's television, reading your own words in print that you hadn't thought you'd gotten round to writing yet.

Another big exclusive from Hanuman, in the midst of a series of mixes including a free download from the above mentioned theheatwave.co.uk post, definitely worth a read/listen. Also in this show, a track by John Cohen on a great new free label called thisisopenmusic. Cohen's Brighton-based, that city of spiralling ideas (iTal Tek, also featured here, comes from the South Downs as well), and new to me, but has put together something epic and unrestrained. The LP is a mature and confident genre-crossing creation, and combines the best of Ben Frost's deliberate pace and tension with LFO/Mark Bell's intransigent ability to structure insistent beats. [The track on this show features a snippet of a Björk vocal, quite appropriately]. It's free, and I simply insist you download it now.

JoeRuckus on ASR 5th May 2009 by JoeRuckus

• 10-20 - 'Unde', 10-20, (Highpoint Lowlife)

• Gultskra Artikler - 'Zaraza proch!', Moreprodukt, (Nexsound) - free download LP

• Blaerg - 'Crepescular Harlotry', Dysphoric Sonorities, (Bottle Imp records) - free download LP

• Lukid - 'Isis', Onandon, (Werk)

• SoiSong - 'Jam talay saig', qXn948s, (Threshold house) [For more on SoiSong/Sleazy's latest stuff, check HERE]

• Bullion - 'Let's Go Away For A While', Pet Sounds: In the Key of Dee - AMAZING!!! free download LP!!

• Six Mullahs - 'Persian Lover', Frankfurt Trax vol2. - The House of Techno, (Frankfurt Trax)

• Nurse With Wound - 'Skapegoat', The Portable Altamont, (Shock)

• Faust - 'Der Baum', Tapes, (Virgin)

• Grouper - 'We've All Gone To Sleep', Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, (Type records)

• iTal Tek - 'Escape', Terminator 2 NL009  (Net-lab.co.uk) - free download

• Kalup Lindsay - 'Fabulosity', Sampled and LeftOva LP,

• Burning Star Core - 'Le violon', TheWire.co.uk web exclusive, free download

• FALSE. - 'Face the rain', 12", Fed On Youth 12" (Minus)

• Murkules - 'RDX Good Set', free download from Murkules' blog

• Donna Summer - 'Evil Doesn't Exist Anymore (featuring Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje)', Shamelessly Exciting, (Sonig)

• Studio 1 - 'Rot 2', Studio 1, (studio1)

• Lady Chann feat. Sticky - 'Your Eye Too Fast', free download from theheatwave.co.uk

• Hanuman - 'bola', (not on label) - Hanuman exclusive!!!!

• John Cohen - 'Lleave', Noise Pollution, (thisisopenmusic.com) - free download LP

• Kanye West / Unknown Souljah - 'Jesus Walks (Mashit mashup)' - free download from Mashit.com

• Black Ham - 'Necron', Urban Collision 12", (ruff / peaceoff)

• DJ Screw / BDP - 'Love's Gonna Get You In The End', Chapter 46 Syrup and Soda

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Final bits of news:

Petrocollapse THIS WEDNESDAY (20th May) is proud to present TALIESIN (dutty artz / theagriculture). It's down at Tunnel1 in Aberdeen, 10-2, it's free entry, and there'll be drinx promotions. Wear Something Bright, bring a whistle, some maracas, get ready to get tipsy and to sway then shake then sweat. EVERSOHYPED about this one! You can grab some of Taliesin's mixes here and here (or even better, subscribe to the dutty artz podcast and get sounds from the whole fam).

Also this week - FRIDAY (22nd May), there's another heavy We Wear The Gold party going off in Sheffield. Rumour has it our ever-astounding scratch heavy DJ Wildabeast is going to grace the decks. Unmissable. Also top action from all the other WTTG catz: Derrick Tibbs, Dj Spuddah, Gag Rephlex etc.

AND AND AND AND AND a couple of BIG mixes that have been on heavy heavy heavy repeat in these earbuds recently: 

• just like an equinox, WordTheCat brings forth a season's transitional mix. Compelling and beautifully crafted, always surprising, it's always about time for some wtc educamacation.
  
• The Village Orchestra, part of Glasgow's Numbers crew, re-ups a podcast/promo-mix he put together. A perfect blend of dancefloor belters and nerdy music-spotterdom - very much R!R!R! material.
  

o prince, o, o

Scavenging, a sever. Tw1tt3r prompts - other people's lives are interesting when and only when they find the words. Example @kkingdomm

Some kids havin a rap battle on the train. One kid kinda spit like Cassidy the other one was a toasting. Lady next to me said "this is some YouTube shit."

I've ridden trains with tinny mp3grime coming out of phonespeakers, yoot pushin each other to try the flow, but in the uk we never get the kinda commentator kkingdomm's carriage got. There's this voice sayin "this is some CrimeWatch shit". I'm at odds with the narrators I keep hearing - I've said it before, I gotta get me a new narrative.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /  / / / / / / / / /  / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The Rob!Run!Reach! radioshow was back on this week - a big lotta fun, genuinely pleasurable to play the rekkids listed below. And the SOUNDCLOUD box on the top right of this here blog channelled some tracks straight from their creators to the airwaves - let's keep that rollin, click it to send me your stuff: label promos, bedroom craftswomanship, whatever you're reppin.

BIG shouts to Bitslap for sending his 8-bit gameboy beats, unbelievably polished pure-nintendo productions. Granada Douba / Gnawledge / Canyon Cody linked me up to his/their stuff thatI'm gonna keep rolling over the coming weeks - you'll find the Knaan remix I played below linked up on his m1c3p@c3 page. Shouts to Bozzwell outa Hiem for sending their Roots Manuva-vocalled track, coming out on an LP shortly/this year. Big love to Thor at Highpoint Lowlife for sending the show the Tigrics stuff - new release gettin aired here next week. ALSO next week we've DJ DERRICK TIBBS' WeWearTheGold part2 MIX exclusive. It's a killah, super excited about his sound. Tune in next Tuesday, 9-11, for that and more...

17 JoeRuckus on ASR 21st April 2009 by JoeRuckus

• Noble Society ft 77Klash- 'The Swarm' (Dutty Artz)

• De Tropix - 'Oi', free download EP

• Rustie - 'Jay-Z Excuse Me Miss'

• Tigrics - 'Igrics', Synki (Highpoint Lowlife)

• Icarus - 'Keet', Sylt (Rump Recordings)

• Mark Morrison - 'Return of the Mack (tiny dread vs. sdp Sonido Martinez remix)', hi5 to whirringcat, h/t GenerationBass

• Omega Y Sambo Violente - 'Si No Me Ama', Mambo de Guerra 3, h/t todo mundo, LP available c/o him here

• Hermanos Barachas - 'Dia Libre', h/t GenerationBass

• DJ /Rupture + Andy Moor - 'Our Enemies Have Watches But We Have Time', Patches (Unsuitable records)

• Knaan - 'ABCs (Gnawledge remix)', Granada Doaba, free download from the myspace

• Chris Gray - 'Chamomille', Vivid | Sensuality, free download LP

• Bitslap - 'Cherryaid'

• Ron&Suzy - 'Salut Alain le Gros', (La Madame Avec Le Chien), free download mp3

• Rumpistol - 'Dynamo', Dynamo (Rump recordings)

• ROM^tmtmPARI - 'Fuzzfactory', View (Planet-mu)

• Venetian Snares - 'Labia', Filth (Planet-mu), h/t to roo at the wirewool

• Animosity & Drumcorps - 'Mobs Over Rob Me', Altered Beast EP, free download EP

• 77Klash ft Matt Shadetek - 'Pressure', (Dutty Artz), free download mp3

• Ghislain Poirier - 'Get Crazy', Soca Sound System (Ninja Tune), free download mp3 from rcrdlbl

• Animal Collective - 'My Girls (El Remolon Cumbia refix)', B-Sides (Zizek records), free download mp3s

• Hiem ft Roots Manuva - 'DJ Culture' (Crosstown Rebels?)

• Shake Aletti - 'The Way He Does (Toddla T remix)', free download from the myspace

• Zinc ft NoLay - 'Killa Sound', (Bingo), I found it here

• Douster - 'For Weirdos Only (Momma's Boy rmx), h/t to birthdaypartybelin

• Collie Budz - 'Blind To You (Haterz)', pick up the FREE Heavy Manners: Sizzla Fire Pon Dem mix made by Chris LemonRed

• Bounty Killer ft Angel Doolas - 'It's Time', DJ Kenny Uptown: Roots Culture Mix vol5

run the rail

YuP, rx3 is on tour 'round the uk for real, so for any of y'all trying to tune in to Rob!Run!Reach! on t'radio, sorry like - back on air on the 21st April. I've hit leeds-shef-leicester-london-shef-swansea. I caught up with David Bryne, numerous philosophers, all saaaf laaandan crew, the sheffield crowd (+2 since Monday - congrats to Derrick Tibbs on the twindom!), last-fm realness (shouts!@sideb0ard), the inside of the Wenlock, the tiptop of Brockwell park, Brixton market (me & GBalmeR got Wire-themed t-shirts made), the first and worst classes of UK trains and the dancefloor of WeWearTheGold. Tonight: sushi, welsh-style.

Another CHARACTER on tour in the UK  (not now, NEXT MONTH: MAY): Taliesin from the Dutty Artz / Agriculture crowd. My headphones've been rockin his previous mix through every station in which I've been kicking heels, and he just got in touch with a new one. You should be grabbing this, and catchin him out on tour somewhere near you soon - details right after the image. [I previously said he was on tour in March - apologies!]

Taliesin - May UK Tour (with a quick trip to Austria)
02. Sibin Festival DUBLIN
09  The Old Bell DERBY
13  Hardknock at The Social LDN
15  Absolutely Free Festival Graz, Austria
16- Nuke Them All LDN
23- Cosies Bristol

MIX URL: http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Taliesin_Samizdat_Mix.mp3

• So So Gutter - Hatescrwen
  
• De Tropix - TapTap
  
• Busy Signal -Murderer (w/ Alborosie)
  
• Lorn - Requiem Ft. Mobb Deep)
  
• Verbal - (Prefuse 73 Dipped in Chrome Cadillac Remix)
  
• Red Cafe- Hottest in the Hood
  
• Viento Calido - Cumbia Titanic
  
• I Get It in (Inst)
  
• Serani - No Games
  
• DJ Miguelon -Cada Vez RMIX Cumbia The Version
  
• Leif- Timbs (Neon Coyote Slow Jam)
  
• Jet Black - Hood Nigga (Lazer Swords Remix)
  
• Sonido Changa- Cumbia De Los Amigos
  
• Earth- Teeth of Lions Rule the Devine
  
• L-Vis 1990 - Flux
  
• I love NY - (Baobinga's Fuck U Mix)
  
• Jahdan - Go Round Payolla (Bye HAters Shadetek Remix)
  
• G-Sidez - Hit Da Block ( Feat Shyft)
  
• Taliesin - Damn
  

It's a killer mix, right where I'm feeling music coming from right now. There's freshness from L-Viz 1990 (Night Slugs represent!) - he's on fire right now, definitely stole the night at Fabric a couple of weeks ago, and his productions are on the mon€y! There's solidity c/o EARTH - hell yeah, EARTH in the mix! And there's a remix of a track I haven't previously heard by Leif - you might know Leif from his amazing remix of that Burial track (better than the original imho), but I've kinda slept and not kept up with his output. Finally, some Taliesin-original-production action - one to watch! Yes, go out and watch him - playin near you UK. Get at it!

I gotta host of other bits that I wanna send at y'all, but I'll keep store some up for the next Rob!Run!Reach! - right now the only other thing that should qualify as this-minute-essential-listening is Shadetek's incomprehensibly raw 'Carbomb' riddim, as versioned by no less a vocalist than 77Klash, coming out as 'Pressure' (download here, h/t Jace). Shadetek and 77Klash and JahDan Blakkamore, you'll remember, put out the punishing 'Brooklyn Anthem', and this one's got the same explosive power (pardon the pun). I first heard it at c90 back in 2005 with Jammer, Skepta and Chronik on the mic, but the 77Klash vocal takes the grime-riddim and flow and ramps it up so it comes out sounding more like a proper JA gun-lyric toast, rather than just a patois-inflected pastiche. BIG!

thingA and thingB

So yesh, two single updatables in one.

Furst up

Lightness and Darkness: We Wear The Gold went like a dash - properly quick, very upbeat. Nice crowd: pretty, smiling faces - f.f.fresh music, lotsa bounce! The only downside on the proceedings came the succeeding morning, when a constable hofficer of the law proceeded to the venue to inform said venue owners that there had been nasal consumption of class-A unmentionables at the event. A slander - for those not in the knows, we're a clean crowd - but from whence, and why? 

Here's the outrage - it seems the SouthYorksPoliceConstabulary have a hotline camera installed above the dj booth (no doubt as some sort of venue-insurance / community-service / licencee blackmail scam), and that throughout the night an erstwhile bobby was employed to watch our medallion-wearing antics. A small, grainy and flickering b&w image of freshfaced youths bouncing in neon glow, stooped in focussed concentration over turntables, laptops, cdjs and record bags - yeah, I *guess* at a stretch you could imagine someone mistakenly thinking that they were banging out lines to hoover up, but it'd be a massive presumption. It seems that SYorks' finest won't release any footage - they just wanted the venue owners to know whatever it was that they figured that they'd learnt. So our loose party collective are faced with having to defend ourselves to the owners - "honest mate, we didn't, we wouldn't" etc. An unfounded accusation has been brought against us, and as a result we've gone down in the estimation of those with whom we were hoping to form a good relationship... Sux, freal.

I'm not at all sure about the legal grounds here - I certainly wasn't made aware that I was being broadcast live by a hotline to the fuzz, and I'm not sure whether the old bill are allowed to go around giving friendly-and-false tips that they've gleaned from the visual equivalent of gossip sourced by chinese whispers. Do the rozzers often share 'intelligence' with bar owners, and does it make any difference if they don't know that of which they speak? [Note: not just a failure of Knowledge, but also a failure of Justification: I think they'd be very hard pushed to argue that they have even prima facie warranted beliefs].

Part B

Lightness: Leafcutter John has launched a remix competition, via his blog, hosting files with highpointlowlife, which you should go and grab and reconstitute into something else. I'm gonna try and get on with it, hahaaa. In the meantime, headover, see what you learn.