FMB MIXTAPE 28 | GRATTS

gratts

Next up we got one of our  favourite Belgians in the mix Gratts. Like us he also curates a playlist for 22tracks for the Belgium edition. Now Berlin based together with Dj Kong he’s the founder of ‘ensemble’. He also runs various club nights there, including this party on Friday. We caught up with him to ask what he has on the horizon and what he has been up to.

“I’m moving house, which made me realize that I should probably let go off some records. Also my girlfriend Eluize and I started this new show in which we share some of our favourite records new and old. It’s called ‘Together’ which refers to ‘ensemble’, the name the Brussels based nights / label that Kong and I have been running for a good few years. Other than that I’ve been collecting some more studio bits and try to spend more time recording. October also saw the last edition of my club night ‘Beyond The Clouds’ in Berlin with some of my favourite London selectors, Toby Tobias and Jane Fitz. There haven’t been a lot of long walks on the beach, unfortunately.

The mix was recorded live at Spreewaldplatz on the very hottest day of Berlin summer.

Every day I’m pulling out records which always results in big piles everywhere in the room. One of those contained some dusty vinyls that I hadn’t played in a while and I felt like they could make sense together. So I spontaneously started recording and pressed stop a good hour later. Afterwards I threw in a spoken word favourite that I’ve been using in my dj-sets lately for good measure.”

Up next..

“Kong and I are releasing ensemble003 soon: remixes of two tracks taken from Belgian cult LP ‘Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine’ (1977) recorded by Marc Moulin, Vincent Kenis and Marc Hollander. Actually the whole album was well ahead of its time, with elements of jazz, minimalism, ethnic music, classical and proto-techno. Parisian dj/producer Krikor spontaneously reworked two of the tracks to fit them into his dj-sets and we’re extremely happy to release them with the kind permission of Crammed (Marc Hollander’s own label). 
The last two months of 2015 will be spent at various spots in cold Europe until I jet off to Australasia in January to escape the Berlin winter. There are some cool shows lined up in Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne among other places. I especially can’t wait to take a long walk on the beach.”

FMB MIXTAPE 28 | GRATTS

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FMB MIXTAPE 28 | GRATTS (320 DOWNLOAD)

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FMB MIXTAPE 27 | HEIDI LAWDEN

heidi

Really excited to have the mighty Heidi Lawden turn in a killer mix for us. We had her kill our LA FMB party alongside ESP’s Lovefingers and Omar S! Some of you might also recognise Heidi’s name as not only a dj but also Dj Harvey’s manager and A&R as well as being involved in the brilliant ESP Institute label which is soon dropping a new ep from another friend and podcast contributor Ian Blevins. We caught up with her to see what she’s been up to recently:

“I’m wrapping up the end of my year which sounds silly considering it’s only October – there’s so much future planning involved in my day job that I’m already looking towards about this time 2016. It’s been a busy year I’ve crammed a lot in since I played at The Bicep party for you guys in LA early this year – I just returned from A Day In The Desert the micro festival in Joshua Tree everyone needs to get out to CA for. I played again on Mayan Warrior at Burning Man which is the ultimate DJ toy, It’s my hope they tour that thing so everyone can experience it.  I’ve been opening for some my heroes at Sound in L.A, and playing at and going to great underground warehouse parties – next up is Halloween for A Club Called Rhonda which I think we also both DJ’d at a few years ago too. I’m constantly inspired, if I have a weekend off I’m out seeing whoever is in town with the same enthusiasm I had at 19.

I don’t practice which is completely stupid I know but I have a weekly radio show on dublab (every Weds) which is my testing ground for all the new music I pick up or am sent,  I have music playing all day as I work and I would just pull things as the deadline drew closer. This mix I recorded in the studio/office we’re putting together in Laurel Canyon in one take, I figured there are years of Canyon musical vibes here I could tap into.

I decided not to get too noodly on it but rather just play some tracks I love, selecting from stuff I’ve been hammering this year or that’s been making me feel especially warm and fuzzy – I recorded three and had to tell myself to stop – it’s hard to fit everything you like into an hour to I tried to make it like a slice of me if that makes sense, without going too banging. I had a couple of hairs standing up on the back of my neck moments while I was doing it – hope I’m not the only one.”

Up next..

“I’m increasingly being invited to play Europe and beyond – I think 2016 might be the year for that, Berghain got in touch earlier this year and honestly although I’d probably be in tears of joy and fear the entire time I played, I think it’s time to get on a plane, I haven’t DJ’d in London for years either. I have this thing of wanting to actually go party for a night at the clubs I’m asked to play before I play them – which doesn’t help really either. I’ve also been producing/writing and remixing friends tracks for the experience of it and some of those will be coming out in the near future too – a few people know I sang on Locussolus under a pseudonym but I’m not a singer, I much prefer to write and play music for other peoples voices and do lot’s of pointing and bad synth noise impressions to my studio partner – I guess I’m never gonna stop being the gal that asks what a track is or nerding out on how certain effects are achieved, and dancing, I plan to do lot’s more of that.”

FMB MIXTAPE 27 | HEIDI LAWDEN

FMB MIXTAPE 27 | HEIDI LAWDEN (iTUNES)

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FMB MIXTAPE 26 | MAN POWER

geoff

Up next on mix is good friend and dj Man Power. We all go back quite a few years and have watched him rise up through to now where he is touring non stop worldwide. We will finally cross paths again in Newcastle on the 30th of this month at Ape-X, which promises to be an absolute killer night. We caught up with him ahead of the mix to ask him whats been goin’ on!

“As I write this, I’m halfway through a tour of Mexico and the US.
I’m headlining a full moon party in Tulum this Saturday, then I’m straight off to Burning man (with our mutual friend “Harry the Bastard”… gulp!)
Prior to that I’ve been back in Berlin for the longest period I’ve been able to manage since Christmas, so I’ve started a lot of music (and even finished some).

I recorded this mix during the day at Topaz Deluxe, the club in Monterrey Mexico where I’m now a resident.
Was nice to get in to the vibe of things by recording it with the system up.

Rebolledo is one of the owners there, so you know the sound was thought about a lot!

I’ve just been realising that while I think (or at least I hope) that I’m perceived as a DJ who plays a wide breadth of music, I haven’t really touched on my long time love for punchier Techno with my recorded mix output.

I wanted to remedy that, as I think on a couple of occasions promoters have been shocked (hopefully not in an unpleasant way) when I’ve started getting harder or tougher.

Obviously it’s only ever been done “in the best possible taste”, but it’s definitely another side to the Man Power persona that hasn’t been fully represented in publicly available content so far.”

Up next..

“I’m leaving to play in Tel Aviv in a couple of days, then I’m back for a hometown gig in Newcastle with Bicep and Ian Blevins (the housewives favourite), then back across the pond for another string of dates in the US and Central America, finishing with a festival in Playa Del Carmen alongside DJ Harvey and 2ManyDJs.”

FMB MIXTAPE 26 | MAN POWER

FMB MIXTAPE 26 | MAN POWER (iTUNES)

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FMB MIXTAPE 25 | KICKFLIP MIKE

george

We been diggin’ Kickflip Mike’s recent productions and are stoked to have him pull together a killer mix of his signature low slung grooves. Fans of Voyage Records, Harvey Sutherland & Max Graef will be into this! 

“I just finished my Ep for Money Sex Records. Also we have been recording the album for the Max Graef Band (Im playing the drums) which will come out in December.

I recorded the mix at home with my turntable (worst turntable ever, its so hard to mix haha)

I just recorded the records which i like to listen while I’m cleaning the house or playing Fifa. And of course i had to represent my crew and myself.

Right now my focus is on the Band Project with the Max Graef Band. We have to rehearse a lot because we are planning a tour next summer and we cant really play our instruments yet. But we will figure it out haha.”

FMB MIXTAPE 25 | KICKFLIP MIKE

FMB MIXTAPE 25 | KICKFLIP MIKE (iTUNES)

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FMB MIXTAPE 24 | JOYSTICK JAY

jay

We first spoke to Jay over email around the time of the beginning of the Bicep blog and it was only recently when we discovered some killer rare edits from him that we were back in contact! Crazy how time flies! We’re really happy Jay was up for doing a mix for us, his digging knows no bounds from crazy Moroccan re-edits to sleazed out Brazilian disco! We caught up with him to see what he’s been up to:

“I study at Oslo National academy of the arts, and do a lot of textiles and furniture there. Lately I’ve also been involved with a project called Words of the Woods, which is a crossover between traditional music and electronic elements. It’s a lot of Moog Prodigy’s meeting banjo’s and rhythms made by clapping in water. 

This mix was recorded at an afterparty at a friends house. It has a lot of the tracks that inspired me to make electronic music in the first place. It also has perhaps the first serious track I made. At least the first track I got pleased with. I’ve been looking for an aiff file for that track for ages, but I’m afraid it only exists in mp3 now.

I didn’t have a general idea except to create that warm fuzzy feeling when the clock stretches towards 6-7 in the morning. It was recorded during the summer in Norway so the sun was up for a couple of hours before I did the dj mix.

The plan is to experiment further with music and textiles. Right now I’m recording a sound library from a traditional blacksmith’s workshop at my school. Banging around on pieces of metal’s that gives different pitch, heating up the furnaces, welding, it’s all a lot of fun to record. The next thing I’m going to do is recording the looms, to make some proper loom-techno!! “

FMB MIXTAPE 24 | JOYSTICK JAY

FMB MIXTAPE 24 | JOYSTICK JAY (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 24 | JOYSTICK JAY (320 DOWNLOAD) 

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