After spending years running club nights in Edinburgh, Scotland, Jimmy Wallace (a.k.a Wallace) has put all of his energy into his own musical journey. When his degree ended, he headed back to his hometown of Shrewsbury, southern England, to start making and curating music. He does this through Tartan Records, his own label, and through his productions. Today, you’ll find his music in Sweden’s Studio Barnhus, Rhythm Section, Disco Halal, and Japan’s Mule Music, which is where he released Red, Yellow, Black, his debut album late last year. Spanning nine deeply crafted tracks, the album “represents moments of time I have spent in various outdoor spaces around the world, using sound to try and turn these experiences into musical format,” he says. It was a style rooted in his early years, when he was exposed to classical sounds by his mother, a music teacher, and became enchanted with the French touch movement, which motivated him to learn to DJ and start spinning four-to-the-floor grooves in local clubs. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, Wallace has delivered one hour of left-field house, inspired by a recent trip to Japan and the records he picked up while there.

01. What have you been up to recently?
Having some downtime by the seaside in Scotland, visiting the sensational Tartan exhibition in Dundee, fixing up this year’s releases and just surfacing from a fortnight long musical rummage.

02. What have you been listening to?
Froid Dub, Plastic Machine, Asa Tone, Plastic Machine, Jalen Ngonda, LITIA=LOE, Professor Oz, all unique incredible artists from various times and corners of the musical sphere.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
This was pieced together over Christmas time in my studio at home looking out onto a frosty garden. A sonic hot water bottle for the cold winter.

04. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?
I’d just returned from Japan before recording this so it was loosely driven by those experiences and features some of the records I picked up out there. Thank you AZ Revelation Time and Don Disc Union.

05. What can the listener expect?
Club-leaning sounds ranging from 1989 through 2024 and 109-133bpm.

06. How does it compare to what you play out live?
Similarly. Some form of mood and energy arc is what I’m always seeking out over a set. Trying to select songs from various time periods and styles which sound coherent together. I love creating those magic little pockets in the mix where it’s as if a new song springs out just for that brief moment in time.

07. What’s on your agenda in 2024?
I’m putting out EPs with Rhythm Section and On Loop then playing Fabric for the first time next month and closing Panorama Bar in March. Aside from that, I’m looking forward to getting back in the studio and seeing what comes out.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Salamanda “Mysterious Wedding” (Wisdom Teeth)
02. Antonio Testa “Spiritual Water” (Organic Records)
03. Buck “Untitled” (Leaf Recordings)
04. ススム ヨコタ “Zenmai” (Sublime Records)
05. Holy Ghost Inc. “The Dub” (Holy Ghost Inc.)
06. Walt J “Reborn 1” (DJ Qu’s Journey Towards Birth Remix) (Curle Records)
07. Franck C. “Free” (Original Extended) (Scream Records)
08. Trancesetters “Secrets Of Meditation” (Remix) (First Impression)
09. Jeff Mills “See This Way” (Axis)
10. Detroit In Effect “Work It” (M.A.P. Records)
11. Tom VR “Heart Can Still Somersault” (Ghostly International)
12. Mogwaa “Driven” (Mr. Ho Remix) (Gudu)
13. Wallace “Labyrinth” (Mule Musiq)
14. SHE Spells Doom “Soaked” (Egregore Collective)
15. Schatrax “The Almighty” (Schatrax)
16. 2 Troubles “Come Out” (Checco Boom Dub Mix) (Instinctive Records)
17. R-Factors “G-Explorer” (Touché)
18. Flexible “Somersault” (Offshoot)
19. Etienne de Crécy “Prix Choc” (Different)
20. Javen Souls “Planet Africa” (Nitedance Records)
21. Marvo Genetic “The Fourth Wave” (Vocal Mix)
22. Eden Burns “Quokka Rock” (Public Possession)