Each week, FACT trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don’t have to.
This week BUFO takes it back to the old school with live MCs and we get a dose of vintage arcade game music from Peckham.
We also heard Death Is Not The End digging up some amazing Jamaican gospel, an Iraqi producer taking us on a cross-cultural excursion, and Steve Hauschildt drawing for deep, introspective ambient and techno.
Ben UFO ft. SP:MC & GQ
B.U.T.W. 66
The consistently brilliant Blowing Up The Workshop series snags its biggest name yet for its latest mix, which comes from Ben UFO. Recorded at 2015’s Bloc festival on a bill featuring Dillinja, Randall and Source Direct, it’s an hour of jungle selections with SP:MC and GQ on the mic. As the Hessle Audio co-founder says: “I spent my late teens and early 20s dancing to and obsessing over this music – it’s the reason I started DJing and it meant the absolute world to me to have this opportunity alongside some of my heroes.”
E-Saggila
Abyssal 32
Iraq-born producer E-Saggila’s music recontextualises the music of her home country with a blend of noise and ambient. Her mix for the Abyssal podcast series takes this a step further, putting her own productions alongside Arabic and Assyrian folk songs together with music from a dance style known as chobi. Moody, distorted and rhythmically intense, it’ll satisfy an urge for both unusual club sounds and cross-cultural musical exploration.
Ruf Dug x Watson
Arcade Fantasy
Set your telly to channel zero. Last month Ruf Dug and Watson went back-to-back at Peckham’s Four Quarters, our favourite LDN establishment for vintage arcade games and nice beer, to drop 45 minutes of old school video game music “to keep your HP topped up.” How could we resist? It even gets a bit deconstructed club in places. Catch Arcade Fantasy again at Four Quarters on November 17.
Steve Hauschildt
Truancy Volume 160
Former Emeralds member Steve Hauschildt has made one of the year’s best albums in Strands, and his mix for Truants is equally as attuned to the LP’s heady sound. Blending crystalline ambient textures with deep, introspective techno cuts, Hauschildt picks tracks from Pete Namlook, Function, Rrose, Pita and Jochem Paap and creates a mix that feels very much informed by the same influences of nature and the environment that went into the recording of Strands.
Death Is Not The End
Jamaican Gospel Special, NTS Radio
Luke Owen of the wonderful Death Is Not The End label turns his attention to Jamaican gospel this week, digging up some stunning ‘60s and ‘70s artefacts. Two hours of close harmonies, wobbly organs, sunshine licks and lashings of vinyl crackle from old-timey acts like The Marvettes, Joan Creary and Claris & Enid.
