Each week, FACT trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don’t have to.
This week we found ourselves sinking into a soothing pool of plinky ambience selected by pianist Akira Kosemura, and looked back on the striking musical legacy of the late Muslimgauze.
The deluge of Halloween programming threw up a mix of vintage horrorcore, Antinote boss Zaltan helped us say goodbye to warm weather, and a rising star from the Discwoman stable stepped up.
Ziúr
Discwoman 13
Berlin producer Ziur dredged up some hellishly deconstructed club sounds for her debut EP earlier on in the year, and this hard-hitting mix deals in similarly oblique electronics. Cue: Yves Tumor, Air Max ’97, FKA Twigs, Sky H1 and kunq member Kilbourne, whose hardcore punk-inspired collaboration with Brooklyn’s Kala is worth every eardrum-punishing second.
JD Twitch
Muslimgauze set at Unsound 2016
Bryn Jones’ legacy is as complicated as it is revered, his politically charged, faux-ethnic music as Muslimgauze having become a cult concern since his early death in 1999. Optimo’s JD Twitch has long been a fan of the late artist’s unique combination of ambient, techno, noise and field recordings, and at this year’s Unsound festival in Krakow he was invited to lay down a 100% Muslimgauze set. “Any glitches, distortions, weird audio anomalies, dramatic changes in volume etc. are all part of Muslimguaze’s unique production process,” he notes of the mix, which is also available to download.
Zaltan
Rush Hour Store Mix 013
Quentin Vandewalle, better known as Zaltan, has become a cult favourite among Discogs sophisticates since launching his Antinote label from Paris a couple of years ago. Rush Hour wisely invited him to dig around their Amsterdam store to put together this laidback, gently sun-baked selection of off-kilter soul, disco, deep house and more from years gone by. If you’re barely holding on to memories of summer, stick this on and huddle round the embers.
Mobbs
Horrorcore Special, October 31
Mobbs’ own music tends towards the dark and damaged, drawing on hip-hop, grime, ambient and noise, so it makes perfect sense that his contribution to NTS Radio’s Halloween schedule is a horrorcore special, spotlighting the gothic underbelly of ’90s Southern rap from the likes of Spice 1 and Three 6 Mafia, with the odd horror movie quote thrown in. Warped and dismal, just the way we like it – Halloween never stops round here.
Akira Kosemura
RBMA Choice Mix
Room 40 boss and ambient maestro Lawrence English started a brand new label to release Akira Kosemura’s first album, which is as strong a recommendation as we could ask for. The Japanese pianist, composer and arranger weaves together an hour of gentle piano compositions for RBMA’s Choice Mix, placing some of his own peaceful, evocative music alongside works by Arvo Pärt, Bryce Dessner and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
