FMB MIXTAPE 172 | TOM JARMEY

FMB MIXTAPE 172 | TOM JARMEY

FMB MIXTAPE 172 | TOM JARMEY (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 172 | TOM JARMEY (320 DOWNLOAD)

For this week’s episode of the mixtape series, we’ve invited Tom Jarmey to take the reigns – Tom is a DJ, producer and co-founder of the Manchester-based party Wax Villainy. As always, we first caught up to hear about the mix & what he’s been up to lately…

I’ve recently polished off my geography degree in Manchester and I’m now spending the remainder of summer at home in the countryside – a much needed rest from the carnage that ensues the final post-exam month at uni. It’s also set to act as a bit of downtime to get stuck into the production grind once more. In terms of DJing, I’ve been playing at a handful of sit down events across the UK—while fun, I’m itching to get back into a proper club environment come the 19th of July! Let’s also hope festivals can go ahead (fingers crossed).

The mix was recorded at my family home in Wiltshire with the aid of 2 XDJ 700’s, a DJM 450 and a pretty view of the quaint English hamlet – keeping things simple. A few heads were turned from passing dog walkers during the final third of the mix, I suppose the residents don’t take too kindly to drumfunk. 

I spent a long time deciding whether to theme this mix around my more ambient tastes, or take things in the grittier club direction. In the end I settled on a bit of both—dedicating the first half to the more atmospheric end of the spectrum, with a bunch of unreleased ambient and drill tracks from both my aliases (Tom Jarmey and Ocean Stirs), and dedicating the second half to the sort of music I’d play in a club set. 

Up next…

On the production side of things, I’ve got a lot of exciting bits on the horizon. Firstly, my good mate Ed Hodge and I have our second record from Mother Of Pearls – our collaborative project – dropping on independent London label Gunfinger Food later in July. Following that, I’m releasing two more Ocean Stirs EPs on Holding Hands and X-Kalay—both adopting more of a jungle-orientated focus, with the latter being blessed by a remix from none other than Tim Reaper. I’ve also recently finished writing and mixing my second Tom Jarmey album which will be seeing the light of day next year.

More generally, I’ll be continuing to play out and relentlessly produce so keep your eyes peeled!

 

Tracklist:

Tom Jarmey – Trill

Hidden Element – A Nice and Quiet Moment

Jeigo – Closed For Subsidence

Kawatin – We Live In The Balcony

Steve Hauschildt – Subtractive Skies

Mansur Brown – Serene

Ocean Stirs – Sightless

Ocean Stirs – Russian Doll

Moodrich – Mystical Crypt

Ocean Stirs – Luminescent (Tim Reaper Remix)

Moodrich – Serve Serve

X Nation – Someting Borrow Someting Screw

Etch – Lurch

Text Chunk – High Time

Coco Bryce – Trust Issues

Priori & RAMZi – Grande Ourse

dgoHn – Monsson Mercenary

Walton – Space Water

Round – Lucky Star

Daniel Avery – Lone Swordsman

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FMB MIXTAPE 171 | ANNA GRAM

FMB MIXTAPE 171 | ANNA GRAM

FMB MIXTAPE 171 | ANNA GRAM (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 171 | ANNA GRAM (320 DOWNLOAD)

This week’s episode of our mixtape series comes from Anna Gram, a Glasgow-based producer, long-standing resident of the city’s hugely popular queer party ‘Shoot Your Shot’ & one half of the beloved DJ duo LEZZER QUEST. With her debut EP coming out soon on Hammer’s label ‘Remmah’, we first caught up to find out a bit about the mix & what else she’s been up to lately…

I started producing last summer when I lost my job and got Covid in the space of a couple of weeks, and suddenly had loads of spare time. In the absence of DJing in clubs I needed to do something musically creative to keep me sane. I also went back to college to study Wildlife and Conservation Management, and am just about to finish my first year. Not being able to road-test my music properly has been a real trip, but I’ve received amazing support from the team at BBC Introducing in Scotland and Jaguar from Radio 1 Introducing Dance. I initially sent my tracks to Hammer as he’s a DJ and producer I really admire and thought he might want them for sets, so I was over the moon when he messaged me to ask what I had planned for the tracks as he wanted to sign them to his new label. The past few months have been a bit of a whirlwind, and it feels like I’ve gone from living a quiet, granny lockdown life to being shot into orbit! I’ve been totally bitten by the production bug and now just need to magic more hours in the day to make all the music I’ve been dreaming up.

The mix was recorded at home using 2 Pioneer XDJ-1000MKIIs, a DJM-700 mixer, an edible, and a positive mental attitude!

I always love having a theme for my mixes as it makes the track selection process much easier. For this mix I was imagining a group of friends going into a forest just as the sun is setting. The mix starts with Octo Octa’s beautiful ‘Spell For Nature’ which represents the friend’s performing a mushroom ceremony and casting a protection spell. ‘I’ll Keep You Safe’ follows, and is the promise to look out for each other, leading into Luca Lozano’s ‘The Afterworld’ which is where things start to get trippy and fun….then they have a massive rave and dance till the sun comes up!

Up next…

My first ever EP is being released on Hammer’s label ‘Remmah’ on the 9th July, and I’ll be warming up Room 2 at Fabric for him on the 10th July. I have a new track being released as part of a VA for Manchester label ‘Mixing Mates’ in August, and I’ll be playing at Riverside Festival in September, which will be a HUGE party as it’s in Glasgow and the same day as my birthday!

 

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FMB MIXTAPE 170 | BORAI

FMB MIXTAPE 170 | BORAI

FMB MIXTAPE 170 | BORAI (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 170 | BORAI (320 DOWNLOAD)

Next up on the FMB Mixtape Series is a mix from Bristol-based producer, DJ and label boss, Borai. As usual, we fired some questions over to find out a bit about the selection & what he’s been up to recently…

I have been working in my day job cutting dub plates for www.dubstudio.co.uk as well as spending as much time in my own studio as is humanly possible. I am aching to get back to some sort of live events and hoping that the clubs can start to open sooner than currently planned (……like thats gonna happen) but when they do we (Club Glow) have a load of nights planned so fingers crossed I will be dancing with my friends before the year is out. 

I used 2 Technics 1210s and an Allen & Heath mixer running the Pioneer DVS system, recorded to a Tascam recorder in my living room in Bristol. I’ve managed to get this all set up so I don’t have to rent anywhere, previously I was using a hire by the hour studio to record my mixes, COVID put paid to that very quickly, so I had to work something out. I’m happy with it, I’ve managed to record lots of radio shows and mixes over the last year or so. I recently switched from Serato as I didn’t like using 2 different apps for my tunes (Rekordbox box for USB, Serato for DVS) and have found the switch ok, there are a couple of functions that are missing in Rekordbox (no 45rpm option) but its nice to have everything all in once place. 

I went with a kind of trancey acid breaks affair, keeping the vibe lower and more subdued than I might do if I were in a club, but still with a bit of pep to keep the listener engaged. I dug deep for this one, there are tracks from as far back as 1991 alongside yet to be released remixes and originals that no ones’s heard before. It starts with the intro from AK Sports’ upcoming Club Glow tape and goes on a journey though the multitude of shades that make up the 130bpm (ish) spectrum. 

Up next…

Club Glow are just about to drop our latest tape, it goes live on the 25th of June and if your quick there might still be some copies for pre-order. It features newcomers to Club Glow, AK Sports and Kesser who have both provided 45min of amazing original content mixed together for our aural pleasure. 

I have an EP of Make Me remixes that is due to go to press (if the vinyl pressing industry hasn’t imploded under the weight of all those Record Store represses) so that should be out later in the year. I have an EP due out on Vivid Records that should be ready soon, as well as several tracks that are slated to appear on VA releases due 21-22. 

DJ wise, I hope to be back in the saddle in the near future, as I said earlier Club Glow have several parties lined up and I should hopefully be getting to dig into my record box that I have been expanding exponentially over lockdown. 

Tracklist:

1. AK-Sports – Intro [Club Glow]

2. Mantra – Craven Park [Club Glow]

3. LSG – Fragile (Vapourspace’s Gravity Fools The Magician Mix) [Superstition] 

4. Jag Limbo – They Had Everything (Borai’s Make It Trance 4 Jerry Remix) [Collective Leisure] 

5. Laidback – Rock Your World [Bolshi Records]

6. Indo Tribe – Bite The Bullet Baby (Jaques Reynoix Mix) [Jumpin’ & Pumpin’]

7. Basscult – Paradise Place (Acid ’93 Mix) [Round & Round]

8. Automation – Tramp On 45 [Triple Helix Records]

9. THC – Surreal [Twisted Records]

10. Frankie Bones – My House Is Your House (Mijk Van Dijk Remix) [Bash Again!]

11. Borai & Denham Audio – Make Me (AK Sport’s Dream Of The Club Mix) [Higher Level]

12. Indo Tribe – Owl (I Can See You Mix) [Jumpin’ & Pumpin’]

13. Dig The New Breed – Who’s No 1 [Cleveland City Records]

14. Force Mass Motion – Fantasy [Rabbit City Records] 

15. Estella Boersma – Highway Hell [Dubplate]

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FMB MIXTAPE 169 | ISA

FMB MIXTAPE 169 | ISA

FMB MIXTAPE 169 | ISA (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 169 | ISA (320 DOWNLOAD)

For this week’s episode of our mixtape series, we have a special live set from Isa – the Polish-born Manchester-based electronic music composer and live performer. With a few years of experience in performing live music in the local Manchester scene, she’s just dropped her first LP, “Ketamine 666”. As always, we first asked a bit about the mix & what she’s been up to lately…

I’ve been quite busy with the release of my debut album. I’m really excited about it as two years of work are coming into fruition just as I type those words.

The live set is done in my home studio in Manchester using both software and hardware synths. The initial ideas were laid down in the album tracks but I wanted to truly explore it further so over the hard punching techno beats I tried to weave in as much improvisation as possible. It was a lot of fun – making an album is exciting but at the end of day it’s a very condensed and polished form of presenting music and very precise. Making a live set allows one to focus more on expression and freedom. So yes, most of the sounds with some exceptions that are exclusive for this piece, I already designed for the album, as well as backbone drumming. It was just the joy of seeing where I can carry those sounds, recording it multiple times and picking the bits that I liked the most.

In terms of gear the core of the set is Roland Tb-03 bass synth hooked up with Dark Matter distortion pedal – you can hear this combo shine on the “Signal” part of the set. Then there is also Model D as well as some little but nice gems such as Pocket Operator PO-20.

Software wise there is Massive that provides the electrostatic drone’y sound in the background that glues all the set together. There are tons of Maschine stock plugins too which are really simple but their limitations allow me to be very creative when sculpting the sounds.

I’ve discovered depths of electronic music only recently, before my music interests revolved mostly black metal, neofolk music and bands mostly. Once I got into certain types of techno music I realised how much black metal and techno have in common. So the set is an attempt to conjure the distorted black metal energy into the electronic dance music realm and so make the synths sound like guitars and with some spaced out riffy progressions, a lot of snare drums etc. That was the initial idea at least, I’ll leave to the listener to judge whether I succeed.

What I’m trying to convey in terms of the lyrics in the intro to the last part of the set, as well as samples and track names, it’s things like questioning the existence of soul, what happens to us after death and thoughts on progressing digitisation of our lives – just searching for a meaning really.

“Inevitable Forever’s End” – the opening piece title is inspired by Asimov’s “The Last Question” short story – a quick read that blew my mind recently. It has Oppenheimer’s famous speech on the nuclear tests sampled in it, but downsampled and tuned down. “Now I become death the destroyer of worlds’ ‘ – it’s such a powerful and dramatic quote and I always wanted to have it in my music but it’s also really overused so I didn’t want to make it sound too obvious..

In “In Death Is Death”  – one of the chapters that follows the “Inevitable..” opens with me quoting Orwell’s 1984, one of my favourite books.  The title itself is inversion of Bhavacakra – Wheel of Life, so belief in reincarnation “In life is death, in death is life”. Is there though? What if death is the final ending?

Umbra Arcana, the closing act opens with a poem that I wrote a while back in a bit of transitional time of my life. I’ll leave the interpretation of this one to the listener.

Up next…

Well, get some sleep that’s for sure. It’s been very busy here so I’ll have a bit of rest for sure. Not too much as like I’ve said before, I’ve got a debut album “Ketamine 666” coming out this week and the physical copies (I did a limited edition cassette release) are coming today (YES!). I will be heavily promoting it (I’m actually doing it now, am I?  lol). Andy and Matt from Bicep really inspired me to do a vinyl record, so I hope the cassette run I did is successful and then vinyl will follow. This and as probably every music performing artist that I know I really hope to get to play live soon and enjoy music both sides of the stage.

Tracklist:

1. Inevitable Forever’s End

2. In Death Is Death

3. Ashes & Dust

4. Signal

5. Sequence Complete – Flesh Obsolete

6. Darkhorse Nebula Dive

7. Umbra Arcana

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FMB MIXTAPE 168 | SUNAREHT

FMB MIXTAPE 168 | SUNAREHT

FMB MIXTAPE 168 | SUNAREHT (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 168 | SUNAREHT (320 DOWNLOAD)

For this week’s episode of our FMB Mixtape Series, we’re happy to welcome Sunareht, the Paris-based DJ, Producer and cofounder of the label Paradoxe Club. As usual, we first caught up with him to find out a bit about the mix & what he’s been up to lately:

Just released my first album Amorama plus a live show to go with. Last few months were pretty intense !

The mix was recorded at home on XDJ-RX and with a few ableton edits of the tracks to fit the mix better. 

Emotional club mix to dance to with your eyes closed. Really big club nostalgia here I just want to go back to dance and sweat in small dark places while getting goosebumps when the synth break hits. 

Up next…

Working on a new EP for hopefully the end of the year and a few live shows this summer.

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