Life Crushed

Metrist - Unknown Ripped via Stray Landings ’Ill...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:11:27 -0700

Metrist - Unknown

Decibel Festival Mix - 1st Round of 2013...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:05:39 -0700

Decibel Festival Mix - 1st Round of 2013 Announcements

We’re very excited to be working closely with Decibel Festival this year. What we have here is a 90 minute mix curated with a track for each individual artist announced in the first wave. The mix was crafted by the festival founder, Sean Horton, aka Nordic Soul.

Viers - 0002 (Apes & Seb Wildblood Remix) With only two...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:36:47 -0700

Viers - 0002 (Apes & Seb Wildblood Remix)

With only two official releases, this one being their third, Church is pushing some of the best contemporary music of 2013. Praise them.

Disclosure - When A Fire Starts To Burn There has been some...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:24:38 -0700

Disclosure - When A Fire Starts To Burn

There has been some mixed feelings spreading around with Disclosure’s not-so-recent explosion into the celebrity realm, and that’s usually the case. Everyone’s got an opinion, and rightfully so. With their new bit, our opinion is of the positive - it has some serious pull. It instantly drags your shoulders in and then shoves them out; an absolute crowd pleaser. Catch them at Sasquatch this weekend.

Isolée - Dennis German-born producer, Isolée, originally...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:22:00 -0700

Isolée - Dennis

German-born producer, Isolée, originally prepared this bit as an intro for a skating movie. As it so happens, Ripperton happened to be in in the crowd during a performance in which a draft of “Dennis” was played out, and after reaching out and getting in touch with the producer, Ripperton was able to score an edit to play during his sets. Almost a year later, we now have access to the immensely intelligent tune, coming out on Tamed Musiq this June. Slow building, but richly layered, Isolée proves to be thorough and diligent in his creations. When heard as a whole however, “Dennis” is refreshingly simple to listen to. Rarely, if ever, are you tempted to turn the volume down, and with each introduction of a new sound comes a heightened sense of comfort and relaxation. Music at it’s finest. You’ll be able to purchase the single June 3rd via Clone.

LѲSTBѲYS - Boyitsu Sometimes we need to express our feelings as...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:39:07 -0700

LѲSTBѲYS - Boyitsu

Sometimes we need to express our feelings as men. Sometimes those feelings can only be expressed through the untainted medium known as music. Lucky for us dudes, we have the Lost Boys to put those feelings into musical notation. “Boyitsu” is the title track off their free EP, available to download via Mediafire. In their words, play it for your boo.

Phon.o - Schn33 (Out Now via 50 Weapons) 50...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:26:15 -0700

Phon.o - Schn33 (Out Now via 50 Weapons)

50 Weapons….always and forever.

George FitzGerald - Nighttide Lover (Out Now via Hotflush) Out...

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:11:25 -0700

George FitzGerald - Nighttide Lover (Out Now via Hotflush)

Out today on the acclaimed Hotflush imprint, FitzGerald’s ‘Thinking of You’ 12” comes stocked with both the title track and this heater of production. The Hotflush veteran continues to propel the labels aesthetic while consistently carving out his own indentation, a deep on at that, in this realm of music. How he manages to consistently release his own high-caliber music, and oversee the quality EP’s and singles coming out on his Man Make Music imprint is beyond me. To say that he keeps busy is a foolish understatement, but FitzGerald does it right, and he does it well. Pick up the EP today via Beatport.

Koreless - Last Remnants (Out Now via Young Turks)

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:49:45 -0700

Koreless - Last Remnants (Out Now via Young Turks)

Jacques Greene & How To Dress Well - LM015...

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:46:00 -0700

Jacques Greene & How To Dress Well - LM015 Teaser

Forthcoming LuckyMe

UPDATE: Jacques Greene - On Your Side (ft. How to Dress Well) (Radio Edit)

Mount Kimbie’s forthcoming ‘Cold Spring Fault Less Youth’. Stream it via NPR.

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:40:00 -0700

Mount Kimbie’s forthcoming ‘Cold Spring Fault Less Youth’.

Stream it via NPR.

Close - My Way feat. Joe Dukie (Dusky Remix)

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:03:19 -0700

Close - My Way feat. Joe Dukie (Dusky Remix)

Viers - 0002 Next one coming out for Church.

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:37:56 -0700

Viers - 0002

Next one coming out for Church.

Dark Sky ‘In Brackets’ EP (Out Now)

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:43:03 -0700

Dark Sky ‘In Brackets’ EP (Out Now)

Kid A - BB Bleu (Eliphino Remix)

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:24:44 -0700

Kid A - BB Bleu (Eliphino Remix)

Mount Kimbie - You Took Your Time (feat. King Krule)

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:08:33 -0700

Mount Kimbie - You Took Your Time (feat. King Krule)

Laszlo Dancehall EP (Forthcoming - Man Make Music, May 20th)

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:59:14 -0700

Laszlo Dancehall EP (Forthcoming - Man Make Music, May 20th)

TeeFreqs - Pyramids

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:42:42 -0700

TeeFreqs - Pyramids

Deft - Paris

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:29:59 -0700

Deft - Paris

GUEST MIX: Borai For close to a decade now, Boris English (aka Borai) has been behind the scenes...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:44:00 -0700

GUEST MIX: Borai

For close to a decade now, Boris English (aka Borai) has been behind the scenes crafting his trade and soaking up knowledge of the culture like a sponge. DJ’ing for over 10 years, apprenticing at a mastering house, and collaborating multiple times with the acclaimed, DJ October - Borai has finally come around to putting out his own solo work, ‘Moonlight on the Malago’. Released just a few weeks ago on the new Chicago-based imprint, Tasteful Nudes, the EP is one of astounding maturity and knowledge. It is extremely humbling and bewildering that such a talent would lend his time to us to cater the 24th installment to our Guest Mix series. Packed with personal favorites, and unreleased tracks that are soon to be highly renowned, Borai’s mix is a flawless and refined piece of work. Take the time to listen all the way through, you won’t regret it.

Download via Soundcloud

Interview & Track List after the jump…

Life Crushed (LC): “Moonlight On the Malago” is a gorgeously crafted EP - both productions. You have been DJ’ing for around 12 years, and have had upwards of three releases with the infamous, DJ October starting around 2009. In all due respect, why then have you just begun releasing your solo work?

Borai (B): There has been no one reason why it has taken this long for me to get my solo work out there, I guess it’s because I’m not that good at promoting myself, and never really took advantage of opportunities that could of helped in the past.

I really enjoy the process of writing and producing and for years that was kind of enough for me, I never really felt that I was writing anything that anybody would be into, or that it wasn’t at a good enough level to be released.

Gradually over the years I started to believe in my own work and it was when I started to work with October that I felt that I was writing music I really enjoyed and had a handle on the finer points of the production process. I set about trying to put something of what we were doing into my own work, and Moonlight on the Malago was the result.

I suspect that without his help, advice and guidance those two tunes would still be on my hard-drive waiting for me to send them to someone. October has been instrumental in getting my solo work out there, and for that I am ever grateful.

LC: Where did music start for you? Has it always revolved around DJ and Producer culture?

B: Music started for me with my parents record collection. Piles of dusty records waiting for me to get stuck in! I had my 1st record player at about 10 (not counting the Fisher Price one when i was a nipper!) and started to rifle through things like Bob Dylan, Kraftwork, Sprit, Bob Marley and lots of other stuff.

Living in Bristol in the 90’s, DJ culture was really big. Drum and Bass was massive and I grew up hearing stories about Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky and all the other “Bristol Sound” groups, the venues they played in, the parties that happened. All the time the collective interest in collecting and playing vinyl and trying to be the next big thing on the scene led to a really healthy record shop and producer scene, so with this all around me I naturally gravitated towards pursuing it in some form.

LC: Working at an establishment such as a ‘Mastering House’ - has this molded or changed your original approach to making music? And can you tell us a bit about how you stumbled into an apprenticeship like that?

B: It has certainly helped me fine tune my mixes, I can hear a track on the super nice speakers, give it a tweak, get a dubplate cut and play it out well before i send it to anyone.

I started by answering the emails and phones and am slowly graduating up to cutting, I approached Henry Bainbridge (the head honcho of Dubstudio) asking if he needed any help with the business, and he said yes!

It all sounds pretty simple but in truth it’s taken a lot of hard work from both of us and it’s a long road to getting fully trained, but I’m adamant I’ll see it though.

LC: How do you begin to mix something like what you’ve prepared for us? Walk us through the steps.

B: 1. Take every bit of vinyl off my shelves…

2. Get a bit flustered trying to sort them out…

3. Give up and have a mix

4. Go back and press Record…..

5. Have another mix.

Joking aside, I wanted this mix to reflect something a bit raw and techno but still be able to listen to it at home..I hope I managed to accomplish it.

LC: Where do you see this culture going within ten years? And where are you when that time comes around?

B: In 10 years I’ll be 40…I hope I’ll be doing something interesting, they say life starts at forty.

House and Techno have been around for years and are pretty much a constant, If you got the time to put in and the passion and drive you can have a career that lasts for as long as your prepared to work for it.

I think that parties will continue to happen and music will be made, and the allure of the the 4x4 beat will continue to draw new writers and inspire people to go and and get involved.

It will change name and the “Cool Kids” will move onto something else but the underground will continue to exist and, as always, dictate what the mainstream picks up on next.

Vinyl will eventually die out in commercial events (it kind of has now…) and those left playing it will be just those interested or bothered to care about it. I will be one of them, but i don’t know how long it will last in the wide scheme of things. Crowds don’t really care what format you use, just what the music is and who’s playing it.

Vinyl will still continue to exist in other ways, white-labels, collectors editions, and vinyl-only labels see to that. But even today with higher than recent record sales its probably only 10% of DJ’s who are using vinyl to play out with. When you weigh up the pros and cons of Digital DJing Vs Vinyl DJing it hard not to pick the easy option.

Track List:

Reckless Rick Cook - Night Moves [7Days ENT]
Amir Alexander - Sonic Weaponry [Vanguard Sound]
Borai - Battle Weapon 008 [Dubplate]
Black Jazz Consortium - Stay [Soul People Music]
October & Borai - Level Abstain [Never Learnt]
Rick Wade - Night Chaser [Dockside Records]
Lamar - Guilty Pleasures [Aesthetic Audio]
DJ Sotofett - There’s Gotta be a Way (Club Mix) [Wania]
Unknown - Battle Weapon 009 [Dubplate]
Patrice Scott - 2000 Black [Sistrum Recordings]
Borai - Battle Weapon 006
Policy - Hit Gone Bad [Argot]