Bassnation presents Blogariddims 5

An excursion into dark hip hop, bass-heavy bleep tekno, dubstep and jungle by marc dauncey.

(Droid sez:) Just a short note to introduce Marc. Many of you may know him from his Bassnation blog, which unfortunately has now closed shop - I was exposed to his work (writing about and mixing up old skool jungle and other strains of dance music) through his blog a few years back, and through various conversations over at Dissensus. Along with many others his enthusiasm for his work was a big factor in getting me up off my lazy metal ass to get this place running. He's bowled me for six with this mix (in a good way), as it wasn't what I was expecting at all - havent had a chance for a proper listen yet, but the style of mixing and combinations of tunes seems pretty idiosyncratic, and contains elements of all of the genres covered by his blog - which is exactly what we want - yes?

Over to you Marc!

This mix was produced using a mixture of decks, sonic foundry acid and ableton live. It's not as densely mixed as previous efforts, instead making the music the focus with long blends and sharp drops into wildly different tempos.

As always you can get the mix directly here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/

Or sign up for the podcast here:

http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogari...ogariddims.xml

Tracklisting:

1. (intro) deadbeat - "abu ghraib"
2. ge-ology - "secret life in the dark"
3. shadow huntaz - "massive"
4. clipse "mr me too" (bassnation edit)
5. (interlude) "people from the other side..."
6. slotek - "electric soul controller"
7. headset - "crasping claw"
8. can - "oh yeah" (bassnation edit)
9. triple six mafia - "smoke a junt"
10. scuba - "plate"
11. timeblind - "flesh wound"
12. loefah - "ruffage"
13. herbert - "foreign bodies" (plaid remix)
14. sleep archive - "bleep 04"
15. white label - "acid track"
16. stereotyp meets al-haca - "born" (feat. mc ras t-weed & dj collage) 17. (interlude) "i've got some bad news..."
18. kemet crew - "stop pushing"
19. undercover movement - "warning"
20. dj pulse - "stay calm" (foul play remix)
21. breakage - "prophecy"
22. (outro) deadbeat - "abu ghraib"

Recently, one of the most famous music bloggers out there bemoaned the state of music blogging - complaining that blogs have slipped into a "homeostatic half-life" filled with "bunkers of genre-patriots talking in enthused but insular tongues".

i have a different view. this is my agenda, my manifesto, my deeper project - an ode to those bedroom djs, those narrow genre bloggers - the people, who despite raves deep untrendiness, are busy resurrecting the free party scene in the UK, against all odds and expectations. to all those who construct instead of simply deconstructing - who produce transcendental music that makes life worth living.

i'd like to pay my respects to people i consider to be the masters at their game, within the sphere of music blogging - paul autonomic, nick guttabreakz, eden & meme and of course droid and the weareie massive - long may you all continue.

(intro) deadbeat - "abu ghraib"

deadbeat is a producer from montreal who specialises in grainy and minimal dub soundscapes. abu ghraib is an angry broadside against the kind of self-defeating and dangerous double standards that masquerade as foreign policy, in the days of the iraq occupation.

ge-ology - "secret life in the dark"

ge-ology is a long-time hip hop producer who despite producing tracks for such scene luminaries as tupac, mos def and talib kweli might be unknown to many. here he produces a smooth jazzlick journey to the darkside that recalls nightlife in the big city filled danger, unpredictability and, ultimately, forbidden pleasure.

shadow huntaz - "massive"

moody acid hip hop - well, normally i steer clear of the idm / hip hop axis but if it sounds serious enough to sit next to "proper" hip hop then give me more.

clipse "mr me too" (bassnation edit)

a perfect example of how chartbound commercial hip hop is now one of the most innovative sounds out there. this tune rinses some darkcore drones and a stilted heavy beat that despite the humourous lyrical content seems to evoke an unplaceable dread.

(interlude) "people from the other side..."
slotek - "electric soul controller"

many thanks to paul autonomic for introducing me to slotek. its all in the name. incidentally some of the other tracks on the "7" ep are broken enough to sound like slowed down dubstep despite the fact they were produced back in 1999.

headset - "crasping claw"

highly unusual electronica featuring the most breathtaking rap in japanese by guest lady dragon. i'd love to know what the lyrics mean but failing that i'm prepared sit slack jawed listening to this flow over and over again. truly sublime.

can - "oh yeah" (bassnation edit)

this tune needs no introduction. this is the german visionaries at their trippiest, pre-empting house and techno by a good twenty years.

triple six mafia - "smoke a junt"

thanks to the dissensus massive for turning me on to this band. evil lyrics, massive subbass and a sinister nursery rhyme delivery make this essential.

scuba - "plate"

jumping forward to the present day, heres another innovative dubstep cut from premier label hotflush. i like the way that hotflush are following a different groove from the halfstep crew. this straddles electronica and sounds refreshingly upbeat and unpurist.

timeblind - "flesh wound"

chris sattingers dubstep alter-ego. its kind of amusing to see the techno and drumnbass producers gatecrash the dubstep party, especially when it causes such consternation on the dubstep forum. they really needn't worry on the quality of this ep - although i'd still be wary of the day renegade hardware decide to do some tech dubstep. this is a monster of a track with tweaked and filtered bass winding its way round the beat. nice to see the always forward looking kode9 rinsing this artist too.

loefah - "ruffage"

my single halfstep tune, the massive ruffage from dubstep god loefah. i tried to resist playing too much dubstep on this mix as its not easy to get hold of lesser known tracks that haven't been played to death by all the big scene djs. i look forward to lots of releases from the scene as it spreads and gets bigger worldwide.

herbert - "foreign bodies" (plaid remix)

some people may be suprised at me including something from herbert here given my oft-repeated instinctive dislike of his insipid coffee table jazz house. however no-one should ignore plaids joyous and very soulful (in the best sense of the word) reworking with its quasi-orchestral stabs and glitchfest beats.

sleep archive - "bleep 04"

bring on the bleeps n bass! inspired by nick guttabreakz article (hope its in the archive somewhere nick) on the band, this is twinklingly beautiful bass-led dance music that recalls the best tracks from the early nineties.

white label - "acid track"

not too much info on this one i'm afraid. its wicked though.

stereotyp meets al-haca - "born" (feat. mc ras t-weed & dj collage)

some great raggified uptempo dance music from germanys al-haca and austrias stereotyp.

(interlude) "i've got some bad news..."
kemet crew - "stop pushing"

deep into the jungle, with this, one of kemet crews more restrained and marginally less nutty jungle tracks.

undercover movement - "warning"

michael james and mark "ruff" ryder (of fantasy ufo, hackney hardcore, M-D-EMM and a million other guises) drop some deep future hardccore.

dj pulse - "stay calm" (foul play remix)

the brilliant steve gurley producing the goods once again. i never seem to stop finding wicked tunes by this man.

breakage - "prophecy"

some contemporary drum and bass by one of the better artists in todays scene.

(outro) deadbeat - "abu ghraib"

I can be contacted at this email address: marc_dauncey@yahoo.com - look out for a new music project from me soon.

Marc Dauncey (bassnation), August 2006