I've basically rebuilt my entire set, out of a 2 hour 25 track set, I've only ever played 3 tracks before so working out some sort of flow and how to mix this set has taken a few hours but I think it's my most coherent and cohesive set so far and easily the one I'm most proud of.
It's a little more difficult to choose favourite tracks from this set as I really feel the output of electronic music has excelled this year; there has been some mind blowing ingenuity and creativity with artists excelling on very limited output so far. Acts such as Gold Panda, Joy Orbison and most recently Mount Kimbie, are all yet to release a full-length effort but are already regarded as top of their field and rightly so.
If I had to pick two songs that really standout for me and I cannot wait to hear on a soundsystem you can FEEL, it would be Mount Kimbie's Maybes and the simply brilliant Boogaloo Crew Bootleg mix of Jose Gonzalez' Crosses.
Mount Kimbie are the latest emergers of the dubstep scene with every review struggling to classify them, the most accepted seeming to be post-dubstep. Stretching guitar lines, chopping vocals and the same swaggering off-kilter beats without the heavy heavy bass noise, Mount Kimbie's Maybes is aiming for that post-rave feeling but not in the still dark sense of Burial, perhaps in the pizza arriving, film on moment of the day when the sun isn't intrusive, your stomach isn't flipping and the world (almost) makes sense again.
It's built around 4 repeating guitar scrapes that have been warped and distorted beyond recognition but still provide a melodic structure. As the song introduces it's skipping clicking rhythm and the pitch-shifted emotive vocal hooks the full scope of Kimbie's songwriting is almost overwhelming as each piece fits alarmingly well together and creates a sound that is genuinely unique.
It's a stunning mix of post rock, 2-step and ambient electronica taking queues from a number of their contemporaries but rather paying homage as opposed to ripping them off.
If I could be in a band, they'd sound just like Mount Kimbie.
The second track I'm most looking forward to retains some of the ideas introduced by Mount Kimbie but is much more dancefloor friendly.
Built around a speedy two-step beat, The Boogaloo Crew turn Crosses into a genuine dancefloor song with a mixture of syncopated phased synths and some big bass dives built around samples of the original guitar lines and Jose Gonzalez's beautiful lyrics.
The song really feels like it's own creation as opposed to a just a horrible beat shoved behind the song. Building it's own momentum through new and clever melodies and not sticking to the song's original structure really makes this a standout mix.
There's a Spotify playlist of my mix here and if you're missing any of the tracks that Spotify doesn't have, send me an email and I'll point you in a direction in which you can find them.
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