Wednesday, January 31, 2018

RIP Tango




Tango interviewed by Droid five years ago and written up for Blog To the Old Skool 
















three years of nuumvolution across three remixes - 91 - 92 - 93








on the ones and twos with Ratty











































Monday, January 29, 2018

rollin' Haigh-ts



love that liquid smoky piano

Saturday, January 27, 2018

lord of the universe



Acen's "River Deep, Mountain High" *

The second-best version:



The best of the rest










The best version again - i.e. the first video, the one at the top with the amazing female dancers - the "Monolythikmaniak Mix"  - only this time without the annoying hiss and the abrupt too early cut-off



* in the earlier Blissblog post I nominate "Window in the Sky (Kingdom of Light Mix)" as the 300th best hardcore tune of all time (this being an unfinished, indeed barely started project - the #300 tune entry was the only installment of it, I'm ashamed to admit).  Having already planned for "Trip to the Moon" to be #1 (ah, but which mix, which mix, eh?), and "Close Your Eyes" at #150, the circularity would place Acen Razvi at the centre of the Canon, its spine). 

At that point I'm not sure I'd heard the "Monolythikmaniak Mix" - or if I had, it hadn't really registered with me - but if I was to re-embark on that lunatic List, I'd be placing that mix high, much nearer the top. Which would mean that "Window in the Sky" appeared twice. (Not a unique occurrence, actually - three, possibly four, mixes of "Renegade Snares" would have to feature, obviously...  and at least two of "Open Your Mind").  

Somewhat unusually - given rave's general tendency towards the purely sonic, its downgrading of the visual component in pop's audiovisuality - this was a dance track whose glory was opened up for me by that promo video when I came across it a few years ago. (Who knew there were actually a fair number of rave promos made back in the day?) . Above all  it was those astounding dancers....  the chaste frenzy of their movements transmitting and incarnating the sheer ambush of rave -  its "something new under the sun" quality -  just as forcefully as Acen's beats and vamps. 

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Switzerland!

I'm in Geneva this Friday 19th January to talk about retroculture + retropolitics, as part of the Innervision lecture series hosted by the bookstore Beckbooks and the record shop/record label Bongo Joe. 

Entrance is free of charge - swing by Le Pneu at 7pm to watch some retrolicious videos and ask tricky questions.

I'm also giving a longer retro-themed video illustrated talk in Lausanne at the Haute Ecole de Musique. Titled 'Everything Isn't A Remix' it starts at at 2pm on Saturday 20th and is open to the general public. Info here

The finest in Swiss antiretro!










The second finest in Swiss antiretro!










Wednesday, January 10, 2018



Here's a piece I wrote for Frieze about Mute's 40th anniversary  - pegged to the recent and  graphically sumptuous book Mute: A Visual Document from 1978 → Tomorrow - and focused on the label's sustained commitment to futurism and Europeanism.



Just some of the futurism and / or Europeanism emanating from Mute and its affiliated subsidiaries (Product Inc, Rhythm King, Blast First, etc) over the years: