The Magician - Magic Tape 94

Belgian tastemaker The Magician never fails when it comes to his prolific Magic Tape mix series. Each and every time he manages to combine the freshest funk and soulful house tracks. And of course this 94th edition is no different. In just the first four tracks alone, two have been released in November and another, Tensnake's "Rules," is still forthcoming. The quality and fresh nature of the track selection is one thing, but being able to combine it as seamlessly as The Magician does is the true mark of quality.

Since the weather has turned I've felt an urge to play video games, especially when I listen to a good mix. This has been something that occurs to me when I revisit old mixes, as I have been doing lately with Tiga's weekly My Name Is Tiga upload. There are a number of old mixes that I go back to time and time again and always associate with some of my favourite times in university playing Lord Of The Rings Online for hours on end. And I truly believe there is something special about the combination of being focused on playing something while still having enough brain power left to enjoy a mix. It doesn't matter if the mix is new or old, fast or slow, heavy or easy-going, or even whether it has voice over - it just moves along brilliantly as you play. All of this is to say that, serendipitously a childhood friend reached out to me today, sharing a game he created (try it here), and of course I needed something to listen to while giving it a go.

Enter The Magician and the smooth moves of Magic Tape 94. Each worked on the other making both more enjoyable. Early on I suffered many defeats, but as the music kept getting better I couldn't just quit, I had to keep grooving. So maybe you can give yourself the same magical feeling by diving into a game and throwing this mix on. Or at least do something that lets the mix sit comfortably in the background, so as to properly let The Magician's alchemy inspire. Find semi-complete tracklist here.
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Throwback Thursday: SBTRKT ft. Little Dragon - Wildfire (Objekt Remix)

Over the past weeks Tiga has been posting his old episodes of My Name Is Tiga as aired on BBC Radio Six. A foundational show for me thanks to Tiga's inimitable wit and incredible track selections, I've been slowly going through each episode injecting myself with nostalgia and a lot of laughs. As a result I've found myself downloading a bunch of that throwback brilliance and while there's a ton of incredible stuff I could gush about, I've decided that for this Throwback Thursday post I'd focus on the incendiary excellence of Objekt's remix of SBTRKT's Little Dragon aided track "Wildfire." Unfortunately there are no full versions available for streaming so we'll have to focus on the shortened Soundcloud upload below, however the power and brilliance of TJ Hertz's tough techno take is unmissable.

A raucous and ruthless future is the deliriously awesome spin Objekt has offered in this new vision. The percussive power is epic, enough to rattle walls with a small subwoofer, just as the snare is sure to shatter bones. Adding the synths to the mix is quite simply cataclysmic. That said, "Wildfire" does not suffer from sheer weight or unwieldy gravity - it is no black hole. Rather, Objekt succeeds in pitting Yukimi Nagano's heavenly vocals against the unholy backdrop by brilliantly incorporating her at the most opportune times as though sprinkling her in like fairy dust. In fact, Objekt is able to retain much of the captivating quality of the original track, while re-contextualizing it into a techno titan - just as Tiga notes in his remix special with Gesaffelstein's remix of Lana Del Rey. Enjoy below and purchase here.FOLLOW LITTLE DRAGON: FACEBOOK SOUNDCLOUD TWITTER
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Throwback Thursday: Renaissance Man - Stalker Humanoid

For this installment of my Throwback Thursday series, it gives me great pleasure to reintroduce the world to one of the most subtle, spine-tingling, ethereal, finely crafted, percussion driven, pulsating and truly unique productions I've ever encountered, Renaissance Man's "Stalker Humanoid."

I first came across Stalker Humanoid while listening to My Name Is Tiga way back in 2011. In fact that very episode (which you can listen to here, Stalker Humanoid starts approx 22 minutes in) remains one of my most played mixes ever; it's chalk full of world exclusives and Tiga's trademark wit. I was immediately taken when I heard Tiga say Renaissance Man and "world exclusive, " but even more so when I heard the unearthly brilliance of Stalker Humanoid's atmosphere. So fastidiously designed, Stalker Humanoid truly radiates with production prowess, injecting the unease and jitter-ridden anxiety synonymous with a stalker. But of course it is the various percussion elements that Renaissance Man has so painstakingly produced that invoke such distressed heart palpitations.

This however wasn't my first Renaissance Man rodeo, my friends and I were already familiar with their tracks "Brainstorm" and "Mindmap" as well as their tremendously rapturous tracks "Babbadabba" and "Fruit Loop." I highly recommend checking those tracks out, as well as their Kama, Early Man and Call2Call EPs. Unfortunately there hasn't been much action from the duo lately, but we can always hope that Renaissance Man have their very own renaissance.

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