I recorded a mix back before Christmas for the mix site mamilo.org, which is run by the Portuguese DJs António Alves & Ka§par, with the help of various guests. My particular favourite from their archives is #19 by Francisco Coelho, which introduced me to the near-mythical Inner Sunset label and somehow had me enjoying a Jimpster remix (of Osunlade of all people – who knew?).

That was two and a half years ago so, having followed the site quite religiously since then, it was a huge pleasure to contribute my own mix:

JOE DELON – MAMILO #34

Paul Mix & Freddie Fresh – Sockapella (Analog UK)
Kate Simko – Soltera (Spectral Sound)
James S Taylor – Vegetables (Volt Musik)
Swayzak vs Roger 23 – Out Of The Planet (Volt Musik)
The Wise Caucasian – Theme (Memory Foundation Remix) (Mosaic)
Pile – Perlipop (Perlon)
Killer Loop – Someone (Juan Atkins Remix) (End)
Furry Phreaks feat. Terra Deva – Want Me (Like Water) (Herbert’s Tension Dub) (Peacefrog)
Savvas Ysatis – Bubblin (Tresor)
Deanne Day – The Long First Friday (Emissions Audio Output)
Rhythm Plate – Prospect Drive (Atjazz Remix) (Mantis)
Boo Williams – Eternal Mind (Rush Hour)
Chris Gray – Yoruba (Fragmented)

The vibe is meant to be slow and smooth – no bleep records here I’m afraid – but then again you can’t deny the hard bottom end in ‘Perlipop’ nor the way Boo Williams manages to be totally banging even at his most cosmic.

I’d like someone to please explain to me how the remix of Killer Loop’s ‘Someone’ can possibly have been made by Juan Atkins (surely something amiss here). And a special thanks goes to Amsterdam’s Distortion Records, whose 1€ bargain bins yielded that stunning Mosaic 12″.

One last note for any Swayzak fans out there not completely put off by Brun whining all over facebook these past few days: download this old track by them on soundcloud. Swayzak basstones in full effect.

I reckon there are only a handful of DJs that even come close to exploiting the full potential of the fabric room 1 sound system – i.e. the Ricardos and Zips of this world. After Saturday I can add to this handful three more in the fresh-faced shape of RPR Sound, who, from our arrival at 3am to our departure 7 hours later, showed that they have horizons broad enough to carve out a niche alongside their forebears.

They certainly had a lot to make up for: a search bordering on molestation at the door (bouncer with hands down my jeans:‘what’s that?’ uh…); the sad realisation that the music in room 3 wasn’t even that good, despite Tama Sumo being behind the decks – she must have brought a special set of ‘fabric-ready’ records, the effect of which was that at times room 3 sounded almost as repetitive as room 1; and the even sadder re-realisation that no matter how good the music is in room 3, it will be flattened beyond recognition by the beaten up sound system, viz. Kelli Hand’s tremendous Project 5 EP somehow managing to be a chore to listen to. It’s an ongoing disappointment to me that proper house DJs rarely get booked in room 1, because ever since I heard ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ in there I know that this is a serious opportunity going begging.

Of course a lot of boring music also gets played in room 1, and RPR Sound at first seemed only happy to oblige – yes it sounded nice, but it didn’t do anything for over 10 minutes at a time. But from 6am or so the basslines became more exploratory, the drums groovier and the layers of detail on top (as clear as ever) more and more outré – even ‘Duso’ got an airing. By the time 9am rolled around they had entered Baby Ford territory, the kind of music that never sounds as good again once you’ve heard it in here. At this time of night, too, the dancefloor becomes less of a cattle market, the sweetspot in the centre more readily accessible for those who like to listen and move.

Allowing that there are three of them, it’s still an endorsement of their collective stamina that the mixing remained as tight at the end as it had been earlier on – call it unexciting, but with music like this you don’t want to be distracted by the DJ. One has to admire their evident dedication to a style that many have little time for, which is groovy minimal house that requires patience and attention to detail. This kind of experience borders on the avant garde – it’s clear that Pedro for one is more austere with every release – and it’s certainly not for everyone, but get in the right mood in the right place like on Saturday and the hours fly by.

Surprise surprise that ‘Solitary Flight’ is my favourite Theo track. What I fail to explain properly on the show is the reason I played it: the Postmodernism exhibition at the V&A features a clip of Blade Runner, which Theo sampled for this track. The Herbert one is off a great 2xLP on Phono which I got last week – there are about 4 timeless Herbert classics on there – and the Random Factor one comes from a look through the 20:20 Vision catalogue for the 5 or 6 bangers that they released. Full credit to Santiago Salazar for the Chez Damier/Metro Area mash-up, which blows my mind every time I try it.

JOE DELON – DANCE SISTER #8, 10/01/12

Grace Jones – Done It Again – Island
Róisín Murphy – The Closing Of The Doors – Echo
Switch – Forever My Love – Total Experience
Santa Esmeralda – Gloria – Philips
First Choice – Dr Love – Charly
Destiny’s Child – So Good – Columbia
Colonel Abrams – Speculation – MCA
Michael Jackson – Burn This Disco Out – Epic
Donna Summer – Winter Melody – Casablanca
Shalamar – I Can Make You Feel Good – Solar
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam With Full Force – I Wonder If I Take You Home – CBS
Theo Parrish – Solitary Flight – Sound Signature
Balil – Nort Route (R&S Remix) – R&S
Lerosa – Lovers_Bleed – Millions Of Moments
Gadgets – Reset – Gadgets
Move D – Sisters & Brothers – Uzuri
Herbert – Go With The Beat – Phono
Random Factor – On The Air – 20:20 Vision
Derek Carr – Dancefloor – Geek
Johnick – A Summer Fling – Henry Street
Inland Knights – 12 ’till 8 – Drop
Mood II Swing – Ooh – Groove On
Paula Abdul – Crazy Cool (Bad Boy Bill’s House Mix) – Virgin
Chez Damier – Untitled – KMS
Metro Area – Proton Candy – Environ
Bim Marx – Stronger – Stilove4music

In fact, being a believer in cheesy track title choices, I intentionally started my set with Steve’s ‘Composure‘, though I had already been suitably relaxed by the disarmingly warm reception from my host, Roger 23 (it’s amazing how a couple of minutes of easy conversation will make up for 24 hours of quietly shitting yourself). Sadly I rather undid the good message of ‘Composure’ by then playing ‘Hardly Breathe‘ by Andrew Weatherall. So much for planning. I got lots of classics in – Cobblestone Jazz’s ‘W‘ and ‘Sean‘ from Klockworks 02 – plus a few personal favourite oddities like Luke Slater’s ‘Are You There?‘ and one particularly harsh track by Cari Lekebusch. Such was the demand from the crowd for banging techno (if not drum n bass) that even during Model 500′s unparalleled ‘Interference Mix 2‘ they were demanding more, faster, harder.

I finished my own set with the Fuse mix of ‘Loop‘, a piece of self-indulgence I do not regret in the slightest. Later, from 6am, I got to play a 2-hour back-to-back set with Roger, which afforded me the opportunity of playing harder than I think I ever have in company before (Zodiac Trax, Spacetime Continuum’s ‘Drug #6‘, Mesak’s ‘Stitch Seq‘ and so on). The icing on the cake was finishing with Kraftwerk’s ‘The Telephone Call‘, in honour of just such a call I’d received from G earlier in the evening, ‘you’re so close yet far away’ the most incontrovertibly happy-sad line of the night.

Hugs all round at 9am, then, and a long and winding return to London, which was sunk under a dirt-brown cloud and seemingly drowning in its own damp emissions. But just as last year my dazed return to London (to stare vacantly at my sitting room all afternoon) couldn’t dissipate the contented memory I had of dancing around at 8am to brilliant music in the company of best friends, so my return in 2012 couldn’t obscure the feeling that I have already achieved to excess in just a few short hours what I have fantasised about doing for a long time: playing records I like for people who like them the same – and getting paid for it.

Who knows if I’ll get to do it more often, but to be able to do it even once is something to remember with great fondness.

******

First up is Hunee’s remix of Virgo Four’s ‘It’s A Crime’, the original of which was on the 5 LP Resurrection boxset released by Rush Hour earlier in the year. I first heard this remix in Hunee’s superb mix for Beats In Space, and it demonstrates how good this track is that it managed to leap out of such a consistently good selection.

Most ‘new classic house’ is so bereft of personality that it ends up sounding merely manipulative; but this track absolutely bursts with energy and humour, the bassline and drum patterns recalling some of the best old house records, and all the other instruments (pianos, strings, trumpets?!) tumbling out of the mix in a way that makes you think Hunee must have made this on his birthday. The odd bit of laughter you can hear is infectious and totally earned. I think this is streets ahead of the contemporary competition, and it even gives a lot of the oldies a run for their money.

Virgo Four – It’s A Crime (Hunee’s Go Underground Remix) (Rush Hour, 2011)

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I’d describe it as a personal tragedy that I will probably never own this record. This is the price I pay for not following the release schedules as closely as I should, because even if you think you can dismiss 99% of new records (and you generally can), there’ll always be that 1% that are worth buying…and before you know it they’re selling for £70 on discogs.

I first heard this (knowingly at least) in a mix by my friend Andrew, and I sent him a message saying: “This one about 51 minutes in sounds in all respects like it could only be Ricardo…except for the vocal samples. Very confusing.” Pretty much sums it up really – it’s ‘Minimoonstar’ as floorfiller (did you say that, G?), a description I’m allowing despite it being completely ridiculous to anyone not already deep into this sort of thing.

I dream of being able to program bass sounds this pliable and drums this tight, and even then I’d be nowhere near because it has a swing to it you’d more readily associate with a Gemini record. I mean really!

Dan Andrei – Trebuie Da, Prima Incercare ([a:rpia:r], 2011)

******

I have to acknowledge that even though I do think most new records are pretty lame, there really is no complaining about a year in which these two records were released. I think they’re amazing.

Once there was a day
We were together all the way
An endless path unbroken
But now there is a time
A torture less sublime
Our souls are locked and frozen

Once we were years ahead
But now those thoughts are dead
Let me go
All hopeless fantasies
Are making fools of me
Let me go
I walk alone and yet I never say goodbye
Let me go
A change of heart
A change of mind and heaven fell that night
Let me go

I tried but could not bring
The best of everything
Too breathless then to wonder
I died a thousand times
Found guilty of no crime
Now everything is thunder

Daytime all I want is
Nighttime I don’t need the
Daytime all I want is
Nighttime I don’t need the

The best years of our lives
The hope of it survives
The facts of life unspoken
The only game in town
I’ll turn the last card down
And now the bank is broken

Found guilty of no crime
They were the best years of our lives
I’ll turn the last card down

Heaven 17 – Let Me Go! (Virgin, 1982)

JOE DELON – DANCE SISTER #6, 15/12/11

ABBA – The Visitors – Epic
Jennifer Rush – 25 Lovers – CBS
Heaven 17 – Let Me Go – Virgin
Vanity 6 – If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up) (feat. Tracy Liu) – Warner Bros
Krystol – I Suggest – Epic
Pam Jackman – Work Your Body – Turngold
John Rocca – Move (Rocapella) – Criminal
Rainbow Brown – Till You Surrender – Vanguard
Mtume – So You Wanna Be A Star – Epic
Sugar Babes – We Rock The Beat – MCA
Mr. Fingers – Steppin’ Out – Housetime
Hi-Ryze – Xylomet – Brainiak
Rhythmatic – Take Me Back (Bio-Rhythms Mix) – 0742
LFO – Freeze – Warp
Homero G. – Shoo Be Do Anna – Inner Sunset
Ben Nevile – Designer Drugs – Nordic Trax
Flabby Vibrator – Paralyzed Jaws – Heartbeat
Jovonn – Satisfied – Kult
Steve O’Sullivan – Composure – Mosaic
Rhythm Plate – Lean (Atjazz Remix) – Mantis
Larry Heard vs Swayzak – Night Images – Mecca
FSOL – Stolen Documents – Jumpin’ & Pumpin’
Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid – Power Move
Zhana – Sanctuary Of Love (Basstones) – Powertraxx
Stasis – Turnstile – Pure Plastic
Underground Resistance – Base Camp Alpha 808 – Underground Resistance
Hardfloor – 4th Dimension Of The 5th Ward (E.R.P. Version 1) – Hardfloor
Morphology – Convince The Computer – Diametric
Model 500 – Interference (Mix 2) – Metroplex
Dominik Woosey – Through The Clouds – Mikki House
Sterac – X-Tracks – 100% Pure

I have to say it was all rather overwhelming, so much so that I completely forgot to namecheck my actual favourite records released this year – so I’ll do that in a post next week some time. But it’s not suprising things were slipping my mind with so many huge choons stacked around my feet…I think I had about 50 candidates and managed to get through 30 of them.

Honourable mentions for those I missed go to Reggie R’s ‘Out Of Control’, The Orb’s remix of Keiichi Suzuki’s ‘Satellite Serenade’ and Auto-Bahn’s ‘Do You Like This Beat’, but each of these have got an airing in various other mixes I’ve made which are still floating about, so I don’t feel so bad for not fitting them in. I also didn’t play Don Carlos’ ‘Alone’ because there are probably only about 3 contexts in which I think it will ever be acceptable to play that track, and in a sloppy radio show is not one of them.

Now I’m sitting here eating peanut butter off a mouldy piece of bread, gazing speculatively at my almost-full Expedit and wondering what next year will bring. As I say in the show, the answer is probably loads of trance records.

Jane Fitz was next, and it’s a source of much reassurance to me that she continues to be one of London’s most popular DJs without a production career or masses of promotion behind her. She’s simply an excellent DJ with a great record collection and, as proven in the final hour of her set last night, the ability to get a relatively sober crowd very excited by 2am. There was a run of about 5 tracks towards the end which were fierce as hell, so, despite knowing there were another seven hours of dancing ahead at fabric, we were all up on our feet going for it. Jane finished with ‘What Is Love?’ by Deee-Lite: cue mad Bleimann dancing and big cheers all round.

Long may our relationship with Life continue, if this party is anything to go by. The next one should be in February.

Prosumer @ Panoramabar, 12/02/11
This is going back a bit. Prosumer opened the Saturday night and played probably the best set other than Ben Klock later in the day. Because he is a very good DJ he did not a) irresponsibly bang it out, b) overdrive the soundsystem or c) play crap music, all of which are to be commended. This probably rates as one of my ‘top nights’ of the year not because it was particularly good, but because the opportunity for self-analysis afforded by the experience has remained entirely unmatched since. I hope it is things like this that help me become a more discerning clubber with every passing year.

Zip @ fabric, 14/05/11
I reviewed this for fabric and would have given it 5/5 if it was me that chose the score, even though all the music that wasn’t played by Zip that evening was total crap. Who cares when the main event is as good as that. I can’t believe people in Berlin get to see him every fucking month at Get Perlonized. I am counting the days until he is back at fabric.

I should mention that Zip DJed at possibly the worst party I went to this year, namely secretsundaze at Village Underground. I have only myself to blame for not having learnt my lesson from the last time with Cassy – so maybe I am not improving as I had thought – but at least I can say I got out within an hour of stepping through the door. Never ever again.

Daniel Bell @ Beyond The Clouds, Corsica Studios, 8/10/11
Daniel Bell is playing at Get Perlonized at the beginning of next year, which could well be one of the best nights of 2012, though I’ll never know. At least I was present for 3+ hours of exemplary music at Beyond The Clouds two months ago, when he saved room 1 from the noise of Shake and made everything alright again. Bring him back please.

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In fact probably the best night of the whole year was new year’s eve 2010/2011, which has hardly faded in my memory for being one of the best parties ever. By contrast, I find myself rather ambivalent towards the year 2011 itself – the year of the schoolboy crush, the fledgeling DJ career and the relentlessly bad skin – so I can only hope that it ends in as spectacular fashion as it began.

The latest DANCE SISTER featured me and…me, interviewing…me and playing…my records. The first part is tracklisted and features some of my favourite songs, namely Norma Jean Wright’s ‘Love Attack’, T-Connection ‘At Midnight’ and Arthur Russel’s second-best song ‘Arm Around You’. The last 45 minutes are an unofficial entry in the JACK OFF TRAX series, featuring one of my most expensive records, Jesse Velez’s ‘Fire 121′, which also has the dubious honour of being one of the worst sounding. You can stream or download the show here.

Norma Jean Wright – Love Attack – Mirage
Alice Coltrane – Something About John Coltrane – Impulse
Minnie Riperton – The Edge Of A Dream – Epic
Terre Thaemlitz – Thirty Shades Of Grey – Mule Electronic
Moodymann – Black Mahogany – KDJ
Arthur Russell – Arm Around You – Rough Trade
Vanity 6 – Nasty Girl – Warner Bros
T-Connection – At Midnight – CBS
!!! – Me & Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story) – DFA
Macho – I’m A Man – Goody
Jost & Klemann – CC01 (Detroit) – Dial
Transparent Sound – Voyeurs Chance (James Taylor-Swayzak Remix) – Orson

JACK GYLLENHAAL IN THE MIX

Back in two weeks…who knows what with.