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Is there such thing as a Throwback Monday? How about a Mehdi Monday? Because that's what today has become, as someone sent Busy P a recording of Mehdi and A-Trak's 2009 B2B set at Electron.
The names and date alone should be enough to get you excited, and what's not to like. The selection is top notch, and the display on the decks something to behold. There's so many classic bloghaus cuts, and especially at the end a number of rap delights. The final 10 minute flourish from "Robot Rock" through "Hip Hop," "Paper Planes," "Can't Tell Me Nothing" to the double dose of King Hova is enough to leave your head spinning. Further to the physiological impact of this tremendous throwback mix, if "Pocket Piano" doesn't give you heart palpitations, you better check that you actually have one.
Transport yourself back to the late oughts and enjoy the stream below!FOLLOW A-TRAK: FACEBOOKSOUNDCLOUDTWITTER
For this week's installment of my Throwback Thursday series, it gives me great pleasure to re-upload and host, one of my favourite episodes from one of my favourite podcasts ever, the UK's Push Music.
While scrolling through my iTunes playlist looking for inspiration for last week's Throwback Thursday, I came across an incredible grouping of tracks. Wondering what it was that had encouraged me to download these tracks, I headed to google, searched for a tracklist and was instantly reminded of the Push Music Podcast. Bill Shephard, the man behind the Push Music moniker, always seemed to find the perfect balance between electro, house, new disco and indie dance, crafting some of the most forward thinking mixtapes, with just the right amount of retro throwbacks from the Talking Heads to 10cc/Godley and Creme. While many of the Push Music mixes still sound as fresh as ever, it is the third installment of the series that really does the trick for me.
Despite being a Halloween themed mixtape, I believe it could easily be consumed anytime you are looking to turn up. It's also the Halloween style atmosphere that makes this mix such a cinematic movement and journey. The track selection couldn't be anymore awesome and is only magnified by the incredible mixing that Shephard always injects into his podcasts. Starting with the line from Dawn Of The Dead, and a quick taste of Tears For Fears "Head Over Heels," the atmosphere is immediately established as we fall under the spell of Fake Blood's "The Dozens." Obviously Fake Blood's aesthetic is a perfect fit for such a dark, brooding mix and serves as a tremendous foundation to build upon.
Seamlessly, Goshi Goshi's "Ravin Cru," rises from the ashes of "The Dozens." It is Ravin Cru's combination of rough electro vibes and disco tinged guitars that so perfectly play the middleman to Fake Blood and Duck Sauce's "aNYway;" just another example of the organic, flow of Push Music's mix. Being such an electro head myself, I just wish there was a version of "aNYway" that had that raucous Ravin Cru bassline throughout. Regardless, Shepard improves upon the original of "aNYway" adding some depth with his smooth scratching. This helps to move us into DJ Zinc's "Blunt Edge" which is again amplified by some additional scratching.
As the mix continues with D.I.M. & Tai's "Lyposuct," we hear another film clip this time from Watchmen, the ominous and gory entry from Rorschach's journal, adds an even more evil flavour to the mix. Shephard continues to thurst the mix forward with scratching leading so superbly into the turntablist inspired, Riva Starr remix of Malente's "I Like It." Continuing to flow so naturally, Grum's "Heartbeats" seems to come out of nowhere. This section for some reason always reminds me of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, invoking some sort of unholy rave. This is only magnified by the fact that the next track is A-Trak's legendary remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Heads Will Roll."
Furthering the cinematic horror motif, the mix delves further into the darkness of Designer Drugs' Saw aided "Drop Down." Ingeniously, Shephard mixes into Light Year and Jimmy 2 Sox remix of Toecutter's "Best Party Ever," making John Kramer happy by making his listeners grateful for being alive. "Best Party Ever" is a much need reprieve, a breath of funky fresh air. This funk continues through the classic sample in The Count's remix of Trevor Loveys' "Organ Grinder," and into the inescapable magic of Boys Noize's "Jeffer." This is followed by one of my favourite transitions, and while it isn't the most smooth flowing of the mix, there's something about the intoxicating tones of Boy 8-Bit's "Spells Of Deception" remix. It so perfectly mirrors the vocals "cause you're so cold," that the seemingly cold drop in and invasion of "Jeffer," that so wonderfully underscore the next level genius of Push Music's mixing.
Aided by another horror film sample, this time from The Evil Dead, Shephard moves into DJ Mehdi's remix of the Sebastien Tellier track "Oh Malheur," which seems evaporate into thin air. Rather, it evaporates into INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart," which at the classic silence drops into "Hell With Gravity." This time it'sa line from Donnie Darkothat accents the thumping evil of Just A Band, before the incredibly awesome transition into the second Fake Blood track of the mix, "Fix Your Accent." It too plays a perfect middleman between "To Hell With Gravity" and Alex Gopher's remix of the Kid Sister track "Get Fresh." The combination and overlapping of tracks gives the mix more of it's inescapable continuity, tied together so perfectly with the continuous scratching. Pushing through Zombie Nation's percussive "Worth It" and the bleepy Herve and Kissy Sell Out "Everybody," the mix is beginning to feel complete as it reaches the depths of Pepe Bradock's "Deep Burnt." But as a kind of cherry on top of the mix, Shephard blesses us with one final twisted track, in the form of VNNR's room shaking remix of Depuis91's "Erothiq."
It's been such an awesome experience reliving this masterful mix, and I highly encourage you check out more of Push Music's podcasts, and they are plentyful and always live up to his incredibly high level of ability. I've added the m4a file, complete with chapter markings, to my dropbox folder so you can download and listen at your leisure, link here. Get more from Push Music below.
For this installment of my Throwback Thursday series, it is my pleasure to reintroduce the world to one of the most influential, genre destroying, face melting, wall of sound, crunchiest, warbling, synth slaying, powerful popping percussion, insanity inducing, "Variations," from French revolutionary, Gesaffelstein.
I can still remember the first time I heard the track, I was scrolling through the, now defunct, Erol Alkan forum, specifically an endless thread labelled something to the tune of "show off your hottest new tracks" and everyone seemed to be going on about this guy with a weird, unpronounceable name and some track called "Variations." Upon first listen, I was blown away, it was like nothing I'd ever heard before, so in your face and intense; seriously ear popping. The at once, subtle yet jarring progressions throughout, move the track in such a powerful way, and are only the first pieces of the genius that is Gesaffelstein's production.
There is no questioning the beyond brilliant production value on each of the sounds, that come and go at seemingly random intervals, but this is the beauty, Gesaffelstein, who is knowingly setting us up for what's ahead. The transitional effects (at 1:13, 2:03, 3:56, 4:29, etc) act as though they are the beat/melody devolving but it's really his sneaky way of adding movement and setting us up for what can be seen as a drop, changing the sounds and samples. Those sounds, as mentioned above, are clearly chosen and produced with care, in an effort to create the most impact. There's no doubt that he achieves this feat with flying colours.
"Variations" is full of attitude and intensity, and lays a foundation for his future productions, "Control Movement," "Viol," and "Hatred," (among countless others) and paved a path for other producers such as Rezz and Drezo, even becoming so popular that Kanye West had Gesaffelstein produce some of the tracks on Yeezus. Gesaffelstein will always hold a spot in my heart, as I'll always remember literally laughing all the way home to my New Years Eve party, after dropping my family off at the airport, listening to the full Variations EP, as well as seeing him DJ alongside Brodinski at Wrongbar, chanting "Mehdi, Mehdi, Mehdi," when they dropped Carte Blanche's "Gare Du Nord."
