Each week, FACT trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don’t have to.
This week’s selection is particularly fine, with Rushmore doing UK funky like you’ve never heard before, Lafawndah digging up treats from the four corners of the globe and Murlo making yet another appearance in this column, this time with a mix sourced from outer space, literally. After that, Warsaw’s Lutto Lento shows us how it’s done with a reassuringly tactile mix that we can’t get enough of.
Rushmore
UK Funky Chopped and Screwed
Now Drake’s cottoned onto UK funky, there’s never been a better time to revisit it. Rushmore’s chopped and screwed mix of UK funky might not be the best primer for those who missed out in 2008, but if you’ve already got all the white labels then hearing those rhythms slowed right down will give you a newfound appreciation for the UK dance genre that should have crossed over into the mainstream – and still might.
Lafawndah
NTS Radio, April 8
Warp’s brightest new star eases us in with a “naptime” selection of traditional music from around the world which shows off her taste for the obscure and wonderful. Unfortunately we don’t possess the musical babel fish that would be required to ID this stuff, but from what we can detect there’s some Japanese traditional music, a concrete vocal patchwork, Tuareg collective Tartit and Malian master Ali Farka Touré. There’s loads more stuff we can’t identify but it’s all pretty great.
Murlo & India Jordan
The Sound of Other Worlds on Radar Radio, April 10
India Jordan’s The Sound of… show on Radar Radio is an absolute beaut this week, with a guest segment from Murlo centred around the theme of “other worlds.” The idea came from a discussion about alternate realities between the pair after Jordan heard him play his edit of a Chrono Trigger track, leading to this one-of-a-kind mix of atomic sounds, womb ambience, insect life and Japanese video game soundtracks.
Lutto Lento
IA Mix 210
Warsaw-based producer Lutto Lento has come up with a stunner for Inverted Audio, easing you in with some placid new age loveliness before heading into more stomping territory. His own love of plunderphonics, tape loops and patchwork mixing shines through in his seemingly haphazard (yet carefully executed) melding of late-night rumbles, sax jazz, itchy broken beats, spoken samples, recent must-haves by Neuroshima and Avalon Emerson and far too many tracks that we’re dying to ID.
Andrew Lyster
Blowing Up The Workshop 58
As an NTS regular and resident at Manchester’s meandyou night, Andrew Lyster has a growing reputation as one of the north’s most interesting selectors. His mix for Blowing Up The Workshop is a fitting showcase of his broad musical taste, placing chilling electronic oddities with experimental club tracks from Bruce, Acronym and Porn Sword Tobacco and unreleased cuts from Kassem Mosse and Joy Orbison’s Hinge Finger label.
Graham Dunning
Honest Electronics Mix 3
Noise artist turned vinyl abuser Graham Dunning, whose “mechanical techno” inventions made our jaws drop when we went to meet him at his studio last year, has pieced together a freaky mix for Honest Electronics. There’s a techno backbone to his selections, which includes AFX, Helm, Jeff Mills, No Pain in Pop’s Sim Hutchins and some of his own tunes and remixes, but all kinds of textural knottiness and sonic gloop is popping off around the edges – it’s a real head’s selection. Shout out to Bandcloud, once again, for flagging this low-profile gem to round off week.
