we actually like #34

Systems of Desire – Control/Consumption

(Happy Skull)

Kowton & Hyetal’s new collaboration as Systems of Desire gets off to a thunderous start, and kicks off  Happy Skull,  the new label from The Kelly Twins, in the process. Kowton & Hyetal started on the production together and then went away and individually turned the same piece of music into two very different beasts. A side Control is a sweet slice of raw-machine-jack, while the B side Consumption tips over into hyper intense grime-hued futurism. Heavy, uncompromising, forward-thining music. (JOE)

Mugwump – Boutade

Me + the tune I am about to bang on about have history, but surprisingly recent history considering I only really discovered this about 3 months ago, despite having it in my possession since 2008 but ignoring it.  Then, having felt so proud of myself for the deepest of crate-digs (if CD wallets came in crates, anyway) someone goes and devalues my dig by re-releasing it.

Mugwump – Boutade it is, and it is being re-released by our friends at International Feel, along with a new and blindingly good 11 minute remix which we can’t give you just yet, but you will be more than sated by the original. 

It was in fact when preparing for my set at the R$N Space Dimension Controller/Fox night @ Dance Tunnel that I got on to this.  There was this run of five tunes that I knew would sound genius, but there was one song missing in the middle that was needed to bind it together, and I couldn’t bloody find it.  It was bothering me for weeks.  Not even the 20 odd promos I get sent every day could provide the answers.  So it was the last resort, two days before the set, I look through all of my old CDs for any track that’s around 110pm “Mugwump – Boutade what’s that then? can’t remember that shall I put it in the CDJ to check the tempo?  Nah.  It’ll just be some old jackin’ house or minimal or something.”  I looked at some of the other tracks on the CD and there was no indication whatsoever that this would be up to the Balearic task Yousef & Steve Mac – Circus Parade, Switch – Just Bounce 2 This, Sis – Nesrib, Jesse Rose – ASided “no chance,” I thought.

But curiosity got the better of me.  I put it in the player.  “107 bpm?  What?  I didn’t play any music that slow back then.  I wasn’t old enough to get it.”  And then it proceeded to blow my tits off, firstly as a piece of music but then that double-joy that I had absolutely no recollection of having it, and I simply couldn’t fathom what on earth I was doing with it in 2008, given the style of all the other music that was in that CD wallet.  And of course, to complete the joy, it was the missing link in my genius five-some sequence of tracks.

I’ve been thinking ever since then that the show-stopping strings in Boutade sounded like the news, but what sort of news would this be?  Jon Snow, wearing his suit and epileptic-fit-causing tie, shuffling his papers in the DJ booth at Cafe Del Mar; that’s what I’m picturing.  If there was to be any Balearic News it would have to be Channel 4.  Just imagine it.

“Over to Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who is on the dance floor in our next door studio at Cafe Mambo how are things looking there, Krishnan?”

“Well, real controversy here at Mambo.  You join me as Laidback Luke is absolutely banging it out this is certainly not what the natives have grown accustomed to at Mambo down the years.  More and more questions are being asked about the Pacha headliners’ hostile occupation of Mambo.  Not very Balearic at all actually, Jon.” (MIKE)

Foamo – Sherlock (Kry Wolf Remix)

As of late a couple of stand out garage remixes have been released, Shadow Child’s remix of Alix Perez’s ‘Annie’s Song’ is one that I keep going back to since it’s release about a month ago. However the one that I’m going for today is a Kry Wolf remix of Foamo’s old tune ‘Sherlock’.  Absolute cracker of a track and I can’t stop listening to it. (Jake)

Daniele Baldelli & DJ Rocca – Complotto Geometric (Weatherall remix)
You know me… I’m all about the slow mate.  Yeah mate, slow. It’s not because I’m lazy or because I’m old. It’s because it creates visions of an Adriatic coastline dancing outdoors or on a whitewashed rooftop on some Balearic isle. I’m not saying that’s my life… cos it sure isn’t, well not for more than about a week of the year… but anything that evokes that goes nicely with my ears. Take this remix of Baldelli & Rocca… close your eyes, you’re on the boat with the sun setting already … 

Man Power – Man Power 3 (Demo)
Ooh and this little brooding beauty of a demo from Man Power.  More from the strangely ellusive Powerful Man soon come. For now this is a perfect wind up to what’s looking like it’s going to another mighty fine weekend. (Wil)