A bit of housekeeping to kick off, by my count this is the 22nd edition of the newsletter, but a couple of weeks didn’t get playlists, so I’m going to skip playlist 21 and bring it into line with the newsletter.
It’s been a hectic week for me this week- I’m in the middle of a huge task to deliver 300+ catalogue tracks into DSPs so I haven’t been able to keep up with the comings and goings of the dance music world as much as I’d wanted. That said, a few things caught my eye recently.
Resident Advisor announced they’ve got a new team in charge. Gabriel Szatan becomes editor and Rachel Grace Almeida becomes deputy editor. What this means for the site I don’t know, and it remains to be seen, but hopefully a move away from the student politics that have defined it over the past few years. For a lot of people (and I’d imagine the majority of people who use RA as a ticketing platform) going out clubbing isn’t so much a statement, but more just wanting to go and dance and get fucked up with your mates. That was certainly the case when I was younger and a more enthusiastic clubber.
On that note, there was an excellent article discussing the gesture politics of dance music (it actually went a bit deeper than that) by Hubert Adjei-Kontoh on The Baffler. I urge you all to give it a read, it certainly got me thinking.
Another great piece this week (and something that kind of ties in to the above) was this piece by Shawn Reynaldo. I don’t always agree with Shawn on everything (he’s definitely more anti-Spotify than I am) but there’s no doubt he’s an excellent writer and his Substack is essential reading. Shawn’s topic this week is the lack of genuine criticism in dance music reviews, something I’ve touched on before, and will probably go back to.
Lastly, Chechnya has moved to ban all music not between 80-116 BPM. Bad times for the Techno, House & Tech-House scenes out there, but good news for their Balearic scene. I jest, it’s obviously a pretty grim move by their authorities, and I’m instantly reminded of the Criminal Justice Act 1994 that came in here to try and stifle the free party scene. I wrote my University dissertation on the subject, and how it actually ended up leading to the massive super-clubs and celebrity DJ culture that all came crashing down at the end of the millennium, but looking at things now you could probably argue that it’s worse than it was then. At least central London still had nightclubs…
Let The Music Play
New music this week then, and if I’m honest I’ve mostly been listening to British Murder Boys all week after their album announcement last week. Checking their Bandcamp I found they’d done a cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Real Good Time Together’ that is probably the most BMB thing they could have done. It doesn’t touch Regis & Annie Hogan’s ‘Temporary Thing’ from a few years back, but it’s still good fun. Alas, it’s not on Spotify but the original is so you’ve got that.
Bochum Welt has reissued his 1996 album Module 2 with some bonus material. This originally came out on Rephlex, but it stands the test of time. He’s not let up either, continuing to release music, a personal fave was his Seafire album on CPU back in 1999 and the remixes that came with it.
Despite my thoughts above I’m not totally against the idea of electronic music being political and a force for good in the world. This new album from Iranian-Canadian duo Saint Abdullah and Irish producer Eomac is undoubtably that, the song titles alone are enough to confirm it. But it’s well worth a listen to, an album that really grows and develops over its runtime with a clever use of source material.
A new project from Richard Chartier’s Pinkcourtesyphone alias is always welcome, and this one is no exception. Their Bandcamp describes it as ‘charming’ and I’m inclined to agree, in a perverse way. Long gestating drones are the order of the day here.
This Delphine Dora album I initially missed, same as the Still House Plants one. I haven’t sat with them for any length of time yet, but on first quick listen they sound up my street.
Finally Gerry Read & DJ Koze. This sounds exactly how you’d expect it to sound really, and that’s just fine. A bit mad, a bit groovy, it’ll probably soundtrack beach bars all over the med. I love the Yayoi Kusama X Snoopy referencing artwork too.
That’s all from me this week. Thanks as always for reading and your feedback.