Dilated Choonz: > dilate

Balearic Gabba - Hell Yeah!

The Double K — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:19:00 +0100

A while ago I was asked to put a selection of tunes together for the Hell Yeah! podcast. I was keen to oblige but I’m not really a DJ and despite owning decks I’ve never learned to beat-match. The brief was pretty wide – “something we can listen to in the afternoon, 1 hour” was all the guidance I had – but still enough to worry me as (regular readers here will know) I don’t really do laid-back so much, and while I’m happy to listen to banging jungle and hardcore all afternoon I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea for that time of day.

So I gave it some thought and came up with a set of some of my favourite records that you don’t hear in mixes nearly enough and that I thought would go together tolerably well with my ham-fisted blending from one to the next. It’s really a very mixed bag, with ambient house, acid, techno, dub, jungle and more, starting off mellow and nice, building up to a pretty dark section in the middle and then ending up happier again. The DJ skills are non-existent but I stand by the tunes – each one is great in its own right, you can decide for yourself if they should ever have been put in a mix together!

You can read more and find the tracklist over at the Hell Yeah blog.

And while you’re there check out Hell Yeah’s output – you can listen to everything on the site and pretty much everything on the label is a winner. I’d recommend starting with stuff by Luminodisco, Crimea X and the Balearic Gabba Soundsystem edits. Support them with a purchase or two if you can, they’re an independent label trying to make a living putting out great music.

Also highly recommended are the Balearic Gabba Soundsystem mixes that you can find in various places on Soundcloud – check the links below for a couple and have a search for more if you like them – you won’t be disappointed!

The Hell Yeah! shop :: Listen and buy here!
Balearic Gabba Mix 4 Urban Disorder :: One of my favourite BG Mixes.
Balearic Gabba on Soundcloud ::
Hell Yeah! website ::
Hell Yeah! on Soundcloud :: There are more Balearic Gabba mixes here.

Oldschool ambient trance... and why not?

The Double K — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:59:00 +0100

Nail – Cassiopeia

I’m very much enjoying this right now so thought I’d share, it’s been a while I know. From when trance was still good, this track comes from 1993’s Strictly 4 Groovers, an LP from rave favourites the legendary DiY soundsystem crew.

It’s a slow builder, starting off with some trancey arpeggiated synths, the lush bassline comes in after a minute or so, the spacey atmosphere grows with hints of cymbal until the beat finally arrives three minutes in. even then it’s another minute until the handclaps (my favourite) hit and we’re into full-on gorgeous ambient trance.

Try it, you just might like it.

And if you’re unfamiliar with DiY then there are worse places you could start than the seminal DiY Jack set from 1992’s Castlemoreton festival – check the link below to download the whole set.

File Download (9:46 min / 16 MB)

Music for winter: icicle #2

Hal Berstram — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:16:00 +0000

Altus- Winter Embrace II (excerpt)
The second in what looks like being a rather short series of winter-themed posts, given that the current cold snap has ended (at least where I am). That says, if February is a cold one, there could be many more instalments…

Altus is a guy called Mike Carss based on Ottawa, Canada, who has been making ambient albums for just over 10 years now. Mike has around 35 releases available for free download in either MP3 or lossless FLAC format from his website. This is extremely generous, given that the one album I’ve downloaded so far (this one) is very good indeed… I was put in mind of a more slowed-down, glacial version of Global Communications’ mid-90s effort 76:14, which is high praise indeed. The whole album is one 61-minute track, which I’ve made a 12 minute excerpt from, just to give you a taster. Mellow without being at all boring, and just the thing for those Winter Sunday evenings. I’m downloading some other Altus releases right now and I expect to be featuring more stuff from the increasingly popular free-to-download ‘netlabel’ phenomenon on Dilated Choonz as this year progresses.

Download "Winter Embrace II" :: at the Altus website (free of charge, MP3 or FLAC!)

File Download (12:24 min / 23 MB)

Music for winter: icicle #1

Hal Berstram — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:23:00 +0000

Pete Namlook – Season’s Greetings – Winter

I had an idea for a series of “theme” posts of music inspired by winter and coldness: but of course due to my usual slackness I didn’t manage to get the first post out the door until the present UK cold snap was almost over. However, better (almost) late than never, so here we are: another tribute to the recently deceased Pete Namlook, here is an excerpt from one of the four “Season’s Greetings” pieces he released as full-length CDs in 1994/95. The pieces were then edited down into extracts of 15-20 minutes each for a single “Four Seasons” CD a little while later.

The idea of a musical suite based around the seasons is, of course, as old as the hills: Vivaldi for example, and probably a lot of examples before that too. But Namlook makes the concept his own here. An icy sound and yet strangely comforting.

This is hosted externally because the file was too big to fit on the Dilated Choonz website so I don’t think you’ll be able to preview it – sorry about that.

Buy "The Four Seasons" from iTunes ::
Buy "The Four Seasons collection" :: The full length versions of all 4 pieces on high-bitrate MP3 - long since sold out but available 2nd hand at Discogs

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Space 2010: Namlook RIP

Hal Berstram — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:53:22 +0000

Pete Namlook and David Moufang – Polar Melt

On the continuing Space: 1999 here is a nice ambient track with some samples from the show (the episode “Earthbound”, if I’m not mistaken) which also serves as a fitting tribute to ambient music maestro Pete Namlook, who died last November. A lot of people know Namlook’s v early work – Silence, Air, the Dreamfish collaboration with Mixmaster Morris and From Within with Ritchie Hawtin – but often don’t realise that after those 1993-4 high points, Namlook carried out making good stuff for another twenty years! This track is from 2010 and was on the 19th of 23 collaboration albums between Namlook and David Moufang (who produced LPs under the name Deep Space Network in the 1990s). Including solo and collaborative projects I would be surprised if Namlook produced less than three hundred LPs in his career and it may be substantially more than that. Anyway, very sad to see one of the true greats leaving us at only 52 years of age.

Available from Namlook's Fax records site :: as digital download or double pack DTS 5.1 surround DVD and stereo CD
Nice tribute :: from Control Voltage blog

File Download (10:38 min / 17 MB)

Spaced: 1998 (or thereabouts)

Hal Berstram — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:56:00 +0000

Hal Berstram – Spaced: 1998

From a fictional 1999 to the real 1998 (at least I think it was 1998…) I’ve been playing all my old cassettes into the computer and came across this piece which I made and then promptly forgot about. The equipment list was (I think) a Yamaha DX7 and a Zoom effects unit, multitracked using Cakewalk on my old PC. It’s a bit formless but illustrates some of the sounds that the DX7 was capable of quite well I think – a real travesty that this synth became known for electric piano and marimba imitations in the mid-1980s. I’m particularly pleased with the strange burbly sound that comes along at about 8:13 – sounding very similar to the Synthi AKS loop on Fripp and Eno’s “Swastika Girls”. I had no idea the DX7 was capable of such a weird sound, and still can’t quite work out how I did it, 15 years later. Oh well…

File Download (9:59 min / 18 MB)

Because Of You... I tried Shazam!

The Double K — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 08:43:00 +0100

Michelle Amador – Because Of You (Yoruba Soul Mix)

This is a track that has cropped up for me a couple of times recently – I first heard it about 3 weeks ago on the radio (probably on Flex FM I think) and then again yesterday when I was pointed to an old Rahaan Mix.

Both times it completely grabbed my attention, it’s got a really sleazy, hypnotic groove and this amazing vocal, reminiscent of Nicolette’s voice but with a quality all of it’s own.

So I tried Googling parts of the lyrics to find out what the record is – this works for most songs these days (well at least the ones I’ve wanted to find out about), but there’s not a single hit for this. Next I tried the good old-fashioned way of asking someone who might know – our own Kevvy K – but he didn’t. He did, however, suggest trying Shazam (just call 2580 from your mobile phone, pop pickers) which I’ve not done before. At 50p a go it seems pretty expensive to my innate frugality, but what the hell I gave it a whirl and second time lucky it came up with the goods (it failed the first time but told me to turn it up very loud and try again!).

Turns out it’s from way back in 2007 so sorry if it’s old news to you, it still sounds completely fresh to me, I’ve had it on four times this morning already!

Michelle Amador website ::

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

A new mix

The Mighty Alboy — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:40:00 +0100

It’s pretty scrappy here and there, but I finally got the mixer fixed- and uploaded a 2 hour set to soundcloud

Alboy's Best of 2011: #1

The Mighty Alboy — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:48:00 +0100

Blawan – “Getting Me Down”

###THE GRAND FINALE!!!###

This track is easily the stand-out floor-killer from 2011. I first heard it on Blawan’s mix on FACT magazine- which is a superb and often absurdly deep acid/house workout, linked below- and when this track drops at 26’55” it completely blows up!

Love everything about this track- the grinding muted bass growl, the plucky percussion, and the completely mutated mashing of the original Brandy vocal- even that it was only available as a limited pressing single sided 12” (and I’ve got one!)

Like any self-respecting Yorkshireman Blawan is no one trick pony and isnt tied down to any one style- his releases on Hessle Audio and good old R&S records mark Jamie Roberts out as a man to watch (or listen to, anyway).

Awesome stuff, and no other tune came close to topping it in 2011.

and just for jolly, here’s the original track:

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #2

The Mighty Alboy — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:52:00 +0100

dBridge – “Inner Disbelief”

I know the suspense must be killing our listeners (both of them), so time I brought this pitifully late list of ten tunes that only have anything to do with 2011 because of my own out of whack listening habits, to a close.

At number 2, a sublime piece of drum n bass from prolific and multi-talented producer- and exit records officianado Darren White aka dBridge. A long time producer, dBridge was one of the three original members of Bad Company back in the mid/late nineties, and before that, part of the production crew on Lennie De Ice’s we are ie. So he goes waaaay back.

This track- which was released on Exit Records in Dec 2009- features dBridge on all aspects of the track- including lyrics and vocals. It’s built for the floor, but it’s got a broad streak of the blues running through it. As you’d expect from a track called inner disbelief. As Mr White says:

“The thing about my lyrics is that they do generally start off quite bleak, but I try to resolve them in some ways. As much as I do write about how much of a prick I am, I do want things to be better; there is hope.”

Not a lot of people know…
Darren’s brother is Steve White aka Steve Spacek, of Spacek Sound System fame.

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #4

The Mighty Alboy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:52:00 +0100

Scottie B – “I’m Ill”

This is from 2008, but Scottie B is from waaaay back. This track is a BMore version on Lil Wayne’s a milli, from Scottie’s Mr International EP and it’s proper lairy.

There’s a great interview on auralstates about how they started out coming up with the BMore club sound, and how they were influenced by the UK hip house and rave scene in the early 90’s. They both worked in record stores in Baltimore and would get UK stuff on import:

SB- Anyway the records from the UK were coming. They were hip house, and we were playing the instrumentals. Eventually we started making records just like the instrumentals. Those were the tablets for what we ended up doing. We mostly used different samples, but they used the Lynn Collins too. They relied on sampling notes from famous records, and we sampled words from hip-hop records. Instead of making the track a minute long and then crazy, which is what they started doing, we made the whole three or four minutes work for what we needed.

SC- It’s exactly the same way hip hop started, when you take into consideration we were playing the breaks of these imported records. It was only hot for about 20 seconds, but that drum pattern in that particular break is what started the whole thing. It was all about the drums. These UK records would start with drums, and that would be hot to us. Then is would get into the rave part, which was the shit that didn’t work for us. All those hoover synths.

SB- In fact, we used to take Hoovers and Spray Cans and only play the drums in the beginning.

So that’s the beats sorted…

As for the rhymes, apart from the big bass thump, Miami Bass influenced downbeat thing, I don’t really get the whole dirty south thing. But then I found out about Sizzurp (or “that Purple Drank”) and it kind of made a bit more sense:

Sizzurp original formula:

Promethazine w/Codeine syrup
Any fruit flavored soda
A jolly rancher

Put it all in a styrofoam cup and enjoy

Reckon that would you drawl and want to listen to some slowed-down bass-heavy shit!

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #5

The Mighty Alboy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:04:00 +0100

Active Minds – Hobsons Choice (Boys Mix)

This one definitely not from 2011- but thanks to the present day interest in bass music, UK Garage has enjoyed a bit of a revival of late.

I was reminded of this belter from 1998 (holy moly- that’s 14 years ago!) by 4tet’s very fine Fabric mix, where it features and stands proud among present day output.

Recorded by west London boy (quite liderally- he was a mere 17 at the time) Jess Jackson and put out on a limited edition 500 copy white label. Proper bit of 2-step/reese bass toughness.

He’s now in Los Angeles and looks to be working with Peter Andre. How the world turns…

brand new second hand ::

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #6

The Mighty Alboy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:43:00 +0100

Addison Groove – footcrab

Ok- so back to 2010 (even late 2009) for this release, but being as I dont get out too often these days, it didnt reach me until 2011.

Tony Williams- aka Headhunter and Addison Groove- making a massive contribution to the “post-dubstep” ouevre by taking on the influence of Chicago Juke to create this massive snapping killer tune about crabs that like to nip your toes, and make you dance like this:

Beautiful 808 drums, chic samples and layering make this tune simultaneously a deep, soulful groove and a hyped, pounding, jump-up hype anthem.

My second slab of vinyl of the year…

great review ::
buy it at boomkat ::

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #7

The Mighty Alboy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:20:00 +0100

Joy O- “Sicko Cell”

Aha! finally a tune actually released in 2011!
And this was the first track that made me go out to a record shop, seek out and buy an actual freshly minted slab of vinyl. A very nice slab of 180g vinyl it is too.

Awesome tune from Ray Keith’s nephew David O’Grady- formerly and amusingly known as Joy Orbison, now simply Joy O.

Following in the tradition of a long line of tunes about over-indulgence, for which I have always had a soft spot.

Other greats include:

4Hero’s Mr Kirk’s Nightmare

Reprised on Acen’s close your eyes

Adonis Too far gone

Any others????

get your own slab here ::

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #8

The Mighty Alboy — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Ramadanman- “work them”

So these are the best tunes that I didnt post in 2011. I think pretty much everyone else posted this one (probably in 2010 when it came out), but just for completeness and in case you missed it- a nice bit of “post dub step” goodness from Ramadanman (excellent name!) aka Pearson Sound aka David Kennedy.

Having been for me- as well as every other 30yo+ was-there-back-in-the-day-and-everything-was-better-then commentator- generally (with a few exceptions) dubstep is an undeniably deep, but otherwise poe-faced and joyless genre. 2011 was the year that dubstep- or post dubstep or whatever- thanks to labels like Swamp 81 and Hessle Audio started to become fun, and even fun-ky.

I’ll bang up a couple of others that fall in this category.

buy it here ::

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Alboy's Best of 2011: #10

The Mighty Alboy — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:47:00 +0000

soz adams- “eyes forlon (original mix)”

Ok- so the first thing to clarify is that this top ten is not necessarily of tunes released in 2011, but of tunes that I first heard in 2011. In some cases, demonstrating quite how out of touch I am, and also my more solipsistic tendencies, but those are the rules.

Which is as well, else I wouldnt be able to start with this- from June 2007.

I know next to nothing about it, except that it’s minimal, bleepy, weird, almost not music, and I like it.

And that’s what matters, really- it is my top ten, after all…

buy at beatport ::
myspace page :: ???

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

6 Hour SEBA mix !!! Merry X-mas

T Pot — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:08:00 +0000

As the title suggests. A downloadable mix full of tunes by one of my fav all time dnb producers here !

Mav @ Scientific Radio – Show 023, 024 & 025 – Through The Eyes Of.. Seba (Full 6 hour mix) by Mav

Wicked man in Madenabena!

The Double K — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:12:00 +0100

DJ Dextrous & Rude Boy Keith – Wicked

Here’s one from the golden age of Jungle, 1994 to be precise. It comes from an EP called “The Kings of the Jungle Part One” on Suburban Base, but at the time I had this track on a mixtape bought from a man with a suitcase full of tapes outside Brixon tube station with nothing written on it except “Noodles – Razor Jungle Dub”.

The tune kicks off with the familiar “Ring the Alarm” reggae bassline and horns combined here with absoulutely tearing distorted and chopped breakbeats. The reggae then gives way to some absolutely devastating pure dark jungle bass with snippets of various vocal samples. The relentless beats carry on, there are a couple of great breakdowns and some spacey off-key synths add to the ruffness. Eventually the Ring The Alarm b-line and horns return as the tune draws to a close.

Pure ruffness – razor jungle dub indeed.

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Really creepy electro

The Mighty Alboy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:37:00 +0100

Instra:mental – “Voyeur”

Been out a while but only just crossed my ears- and shortly after my turntables. This is an understated, sinister, belter of a tune.

The duo behind it- Alex Green and Damon Kirkham- have been producing quality electronic music for a good long while now, and have a bunch of strings to their musical bows, releasing electro, acid, dnb and non-classifiable things that get filed under “post dubstep” (whatever that is) going by a variety of pseudonyms and project names, including Boddika (Al Green), Jon Convex (D Kirkham).

It’s all well worth checking out, but this tune stands out cos it’s so thoroughly moody and not a little creepy.

File Download (0:00 min / 0 MB)

Curious Hardcore

The Double K — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:54:00 +0100

Haute Control – Dream Series

A couple of tracks here from the rare-as-rocking-horse “Future Stylin’ E.P.” from 1993 (only 24 people have a copy on Discogs, 113 want it, including me, and Hard To Find Records haven’t had a copy in since 2001).

Dream Series is an odd track, it’s hardcore but not quite as we know it… The combination of crisp breakbeats and heavy bass with really quirky samples and synths reminds me very much of the Wagon Christ sound. I have no idea who Haute Control are (this rare 12” is their only release), but the production quality on the EP is really very high throughout and I’d be surprised if this is the only release from whoever made it. You never know, it might even be one of Luke Vibert’s many pseudonyms.

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