FMB MIXTAPE 215 | PHIL LUCAS (iTUNES)
FMB MIXTAPE 215 | PHIL LUCAS (320 DOWNLOAD)
This week’s mixtape guest is Phil Lucas. Phil is one half of Twitch Belfast, one of Belfast’s longest-running and best independent electronic music nights. As usual, we asked him more about the mix & what he’s been up to…
AVA festival at the start of June was a great experience, it’s great to have been involved every year for the 9 years it’s been running. Gig-wise we’ve had Johnny Aux from Paranoid London, Sunil Sharpe, Ben Sims, Hodge, Altern8 and Radioactiveman play this year. We’re just enjoying ourselves at this stage and having fun putting on acts that we love.
Local support DJs this year have been incredible, we’re still working through a backlog of amazing local DJs who broke through around COVID times like Reger, DJ Time of the Month, KEM, Hannah, Lorcan, More Gain, MXN, SPDPK and more.
Aside from that I just started a new job with a really small dog charity, it’s a really high-impact setup which is lovely. Twitch has always been a side-hustle for us alongside full time jobs for the 17 years it’s been running.
The mix was recorded at home in Bangor. I have all the tracks on record but ripped a few of them because of the short intros to loop them, I’ve become really reliant on loops when DJing from normally using CDJs in clubs. I used 2 x Pioneer XDJ700s and 2 x Technics 1210s and an Allen & Heath mixer.
I’m not a huge vinyl collector, I’ve a reasonable size of collection but I do collect James Stinson and Gerald Donald records, it’s just music that fascinates me, some of it still sounds like the future 25 years on and there are really strong concepts to each pseudonym and album, I love that.
There aren’t a lot of artists making proper concept albums now, more collections of tracks and no theme behind it, it’s why I love Space Dimension Controller as well, it’s all very strong conceptually and not many people do it that well. Marion in Sound Advice, the record shop in Belfast has been hugely important in plugging the gaps in my Stinson and Donald collection, her shop is so important and good for Belfast and bad for my bank balance. Marion has been great for sourcing and holding all the Drexciya and side project represses which luckily have been regular in the last few years. I got stung badly on a few where I paid like £75-100 in the past and then they got repressed but I’m just glad to have them so no regrets! But yeah, the mix is hopefully to help others fall in love with this very special music from Detroit.
And up next?
We have some big summer shows lined up with DJ Python, Pangaea and also a really special show with Iain McCready headlining who used to run and DJ with David Holmes in the Art College in Belfast.
