Outbox: DJ Harvey

DJ Harvey is more than just a DJ’s DJ. He’s a legendary life of the party, both in terms of his hard-livin’ antics and his impeccable selections and mixing on the 1200s. But despite the fact that the house and disco champion has run the Black Cock label, been part of god knows how many DJ/producer collaborations, and has played an integral role in scenes from Brighton to NYC to SF to LA, he’s never put out a full-length record prior to this month’s DJ Harvey Presents Locussolus. On the occasion of its release, we asked the Cambridge, UK-born Harvey Bassett a thing or two about his last 30 years in music.

Where is your locus solus?
It is a very magical place in my head, and also, of course, the name of my new band project.

From where are you typing/reading right now?
From the comfort of my bathing chamber.

What sounds do you hear as you’re reading these questions?
The high-pitch ringing that only comes from years and years of too loud everything.

So, Black Cock Records…
The black cock is flaccid, as we speak. It’s pretty hard to keep it as hard as it first was, oh, about 15 years ago. The black cock, it seems, was way ahead of its time.

Whose music out there best embodies the Black Cock ethos?
DrDunks’ C.O.M.B.i. Edits seem to be keeping the end up, shall we say.

Fantasy label: White Dick. What does the logo look like, and who do you sign first?
A toon-like effigy of Dick Cheney getting sucked off in a bathroom, and its first signing would be someone that would make money for us, of course.

Favorite Balearic island… go!
I think Formentera would be the spot for me these days.

If you were born in Hawaii, what would your name be and what would it mean?
Umi’Umi’Pahuluhulo. It means “bushy beard.”

Where’s the best house or disco scene that we’ve never heard of?
My new spot on the mainland… watch this space.

Locussolus, Map of Africa… where do you think you’ll find your next literary reference for a music project?
Something between Cormac McCarthy and Kurt Vonnegut.

On that topic, what’s the last book you loved?
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Dials, buttons, or faders?
All of the above.

Any tips on beard maintenance that you’ve gleaned over the years?
Regularly dip, rinse, and repeat your growth in yaks’ milk. I keep a couple in the yard—pain in the ass to tend, but your beard will love you for it.

What’s the best example you can think of of punk intersecting with DJing?
Myself at The Meredith Festival last year, though I paid for my damages. I think if I were really punk rock, I’d have made them pay double for the entertainment factor.

Favorite drum break/sample of all time?
“Apache” by Incredible Bongo Band. Mickey Mouse Club… Oh, lord, I’ll stop now.

Sum up each of the following decades in three words.
The ’80s:
Margaret Fucking Thatcher

The ’90s:
New Hard Left

The ’00s:
U S A

The best surf spot in SoCal is…
It changes everyday, but right in front of my house when it’s working is the best for me.

Ever seen a shark out there?
No sharks in my bay, so far.

You’re at a party with Ken Collier, Arthur Russell, and Bob Moog. Where do you lead the conversation?
They’re all interesting guys. I think we know all about their musical leanings, so it would be nice to learn everything else… history, politics, religion.

DJ Harvey Presents Locussolus is out now on International Feel.

13 & God “Its Own Sun (Antonionian Version)”

Just over a week before 13 & God‘s sophomore album, Own Your Ghost, (the first since its 2005 self-titled debut) hits the streets, labelmate Antonionian (a.k.a. long time Anticon-associated producer and collaborator Jordan Dalrymple, pictured above) has remixed a track from the forthcoming record. Dalrymple chooses to push the original vocals far to the background, even going so far as to entirely remove the verses from “Its Own Sun” and instead focusing on a tiny, hyperactive beat that jumps and skids as if it’s completely ignoring the giant soothing cords that float just behind it. As one can imagine, melody reigns in this version of the tune, bouncing between arpeggiated guitar chords, glistening synths, and a muffled piano before being enveloped by a choir of voices that softly exhale the song’s simple, luring progression. Own Your Ghost is set to be released May 17.

It’s Own Sun (Antonionian Version)

Check Out an Interview With Scuba in Denmark

Denmark club Culture Box recently offered up a little taste of the history behind the career of Paul Rose (a.k.a. Scuba) and his Hotflush label, with this quick 12-minute interview. Once you’ve checked that out, don’t forget to snag Rose’s XLR8R podcast from April, if you haven’t already done so, or catch him at the dates below.

Fri, May 20 Public Works / San Francisco
Sat, May 21 Baltic Room / Seattle
Sat, May 28 Movement Detroit 2011 at Hart Plaza / Detroit
Wed, Jun 1 Nuits Sonores 2011 – Night 1 at Marché Gare / The North, France
Fri, Jun 17 Sonar By Night 2011 / Barcelona
Fri, Jul 15 Sub:stance 4TH Bday & Panoramabar at Berghain/Panorama Bar / Berlin
Thu, Aug 4 The Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Castle / West + Wales
Sat, Aug 27 Voltt Loves Summer 2011 at NDSM Docklands / Amsterdam
Thu, Sep 1 Outlook Festival 2011 at Fort Punta Christo / Croatia

Chrissy Murderbot Women’s Studies

It’s really hard to know how to begin to describe Chrissy Murderbot, or his third album, Women’s Studies. The Chicago-based artist is a virtual walking encyclopedia of the last 30 years of dance music, but this album is about choice quotes rather than sample overload. On “Under Dress,” housey horn stabs from 1986 are paired with slack-talk princess Warrior Queen. “Pelvic Floor” features piano-house chords from 1992 with dancehall MC Rubi Dan riding a fierce flow over top. The music shouldn’t make sense, but it totally does.

The running theme throughout all of Murderbot’s music is the concept of sleaze. And dance music, especially dance music from Chicago, can be particularly good at embodying sleaze. It’s awful. It’s illicit. It’s titillating and exciting. It’s lurid, it’s fun, it’s omnipresent across all cultures, and yet no one wants to talk about it. This is the vibe that holds Women’s Studies together, whether it’s the opening crooned refrain of “Hey girl, when you gonna let a pimp break you off?”, the crazy jacking beats of “Bump Uglies,” or just the plain fact that there’s a song here called “Heavy Butt.” And yes, as others will remark, most of the beats are juke and footwork, albeit composed in a manner that’s wildly innovative, energetic, and very weird. Ignore the sleazy fun of Women’s Studies at your own risk; in the end it’s your own ass that will be missing out.

Tommy Tempa “Now or Never (Mau’lin Jagged Refix)”

The young Somethinksounds label continues to gather steam with its latest release, the seven-track The Quixotic EP by the multitalented Tommy Tempa. Using a host of eclectic field recordings and inventive studio tricks, the artist has crafted a seamless piece of experimental dance grooves for his solo offering, one portion of which is reworked here by London producer Mau’lin (pictured above). The spacious original track is torn apart and wrapped collage-style around a blown-out, fractured dance beat that strains against the confines of its digital husk. “Now or Never (Mau’lin Jagged Refix)” provides a much-needed visceral counterpart to the extremely personal musique concrète of Tommy Tempa’s handcrafted mini-opus.

Now or Never (Mau’lin Jagged Refix)

Now or Never (Mau’lin Jagged Refix)

Grab Ikonika’s New Summer Mix

Seemingly out of nowhere, UK bass music staple Ikonika put together a fresh DJ set for the coming summer months, and offered it to the world for free on her Tumblr blog. The 15-track mix is called, simply enough, Ikonika Summer 2011 Mix, and boasts stellar jams from the DJ/producer herself and her peers, like Jam City, Bok Bok, French Fries, Boddika, Optimum, Egyptrixx, and others. You can download the whole thing here, and check out the full tracklist below.

1. Debbie Deb – Lookout Weekend (Instrumental)
2. Untold – U-29
3. Jam City – Barely A Trak
4. Boddika – Basement
5. Egyptrixx – Liberation Front (Mike Q Remix – Bok Bok Re-Edit)
6. Ikonika – PR812
7. Pangaea – Runout
8. Jam City – Arpjam (Devil Mix)
9. Ikonika – With Your Face
10. Bok Bok – Reminder
11. A1 Bassline – Falsehood
12. Optimum – Afterglow
13. Mensah – The Resistance
14. French Fries & Bambounou – Hugz
15. Ikonika – I Make Lists

Butterz to Release New P Money & Blacks Single, Compiles Top 50 Grime Mixes

Elijah and Skilliam, the tastemaking DJs behind the notable Butterz label, have made a couple announcements we thought we should share. First and foremost, the imprint will soon be releasing its first ever vocal record (pictured above), courtesy of UK grime MCs P Money & Blacks. The single is called “Boo You,” and was collaboratively produced by TRC & Royal T. Two remixes of TRC’s “Oo Aa Ee” tune fill out the record’s flip side, and Butterz will drop the whole thing on May 16. Before then, you can feast your ears on this collection of the best 50 grime DJ sets according to Elijah, which includes mixes from the likes of Boy Better Know, Plastician, Skream, Wiley, Kode 9, and Elijah & Skilliam themselves, among many others. You can listen to those over here, and stream a radio rip of “Boo You” below.

“Boo You”

Video: Battles “Ice Cream (feat. Matias Aguayo)”

If there’s one succinct way to properly describe the mind-bending hybrid of sound that is Battles‘ music, it might be “all of everything, all at once.” That’s at least how it feels sometimes when you’re attempting to wrap your brain around the intricately woven polyrhythms, shapeshifting time signatures, and melodic experimentation of the trio’s latest tune, “Ice Cream (feat. Matias Aguayo),” and this crazy music video for the song follows suit. The director—who apparently goes by the name of Canada—splices together footage of all sorts of randomness and weirdness (i.e. drenched cats, bros doing a beer bong, silly dances, people making out, a karate fight, people licking all kinds of things they shouldn’t lick) with footage of the three-piece doing its ‘musical geniuses’ thing and Aguayo doing his ‘weirdo singer’ thing. If you’re not already bursting with anticipation for the release of Battles’ new Gloss Drop LP, via Warp on June 7, this just might put you over the edge.

Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross “Blacks (Shlohmo Remix)”

Shlohmo has taken this originally midtempo electro-pop tune from Dexter Tortoriello (a.k.a. Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross a.k.a. Houses, pictured above) to a darker, more desolate place than we’re used to hearing from the SF beat head. Slowing things down to a lazy march, Shlohmo begins his remix with delicate twists of Tortoriello’s crooning, turning them into unintelligible, ominous chants that seem to emanate inside an empty hall or a dank underground sewer. Gradually the trademark Shlohmo techniques start to creep in when drawn-out electric piano chords and detailed percussion begin to swell and Tortoriello’s original vocals finally take on a more familiar pitch. Building and brewing the elements together in a dark moody swirl, the remixer deftly walks the line between ominous beat cloud and introspective boom-bap with rather impressive results. Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross’ Blow EP, where you’ll find the original version of “Blacks,” is out now, strangely enough on Mad Decent.

Blacks (Shlohmo Remix)

Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles

To date, the pairing of Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek as Africa Hitech has been an odd one, with the duo previously dropping two EPs on Warp of prickly robofunk hopelessly tangled up in disparate influences. It’s a thicket so obscured that it’s hard to figure out what, if anything, to call this music, and the duo’s debut album, 93 Million Miles, doesn’t get us any closer to the answer. Pritchard and Spacek filter all sorts of ideas and structures through their uptempo dance machine, tickling the Chicago-inspired title track with a downpour of phased handclaps, placing elegant string melodies on top of stomach-churning basslines on “Spirit,” and exploring sunburnt vocoder grime with “Do U Wanna Fight,” a song in which gaudy, synthetic cello stabs duel with blown-speaker snares and bursting bubbles of throbbing LFO. Best of all is their carved-in-stone take on massive, towering juke, as “Out on the Street” quakes mightily in staccato waves of sub-focused energy, its instantly recognizable vocal sample blurring into a screeching alarm. The duo’s immaculate production occasionally comes off as academic and stuffy, however, and when their grooves aren’t cooking, they tend to plod along lifelessly. The problem is exacerbated on two experiments with slower tempos: the robot elegy “Our Luv” and closer “Don’t Fight It,” which both recall old, tribal-esque Cadenza grooves, only with all the fun sucked out. That said, over most of the album, Africa Hitech’s quirky sound is rarely less than intriguing, and these expert musicians offer up some impressive synthesis.

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