Industrial Complex

Tracklist

Bulwark Bits: “You Are VILE” (Sam Stein and Tim Miller)

* I’d like to remind everyone of my world-leading arrangement of Tim’s rendition of O Canada

J.J. Fad - Supersonic

He’s the freshest DJ from coast to coast. Now, he’s the freshest DJ and can cut to boast. He may be a little light. He may be OK. ‘Cause we butt the soul, ‘cause when we be a little light, it sounds this way.

Now you party people know what Super Stonic Styneenns.

We didn’t come correct ‘cause J.J. Jazz just too poopy. Now baby, don’t you know that our rhymes are too bayonza?

Listen to her. Don’t be supersonic.

Boogie Down Productions - South Bronx

Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes

Pat Travers Band - Born Under A Bad Sign

Steve Miller Band - The Joker (Pompetus of Love)

JVC F.O.R.C.E. - Strong Island

Justified by Virtue of Creativity — For Obvious Reasons Concerning Entertainment (en.wikipedia.org)

Stone Roses - Fool’s Gold

Cardi G - Lovefool

Break Machine - Street Dance

* This was put together by the Village People’s producers. It charted higher in Europe than in the U.S.

Bobby Brown - My Prerogative

* Wrote this after getting flak for leaving New Edition

Teej - Slick Rick (Original Mix)

Teej - It’s A Feeling (Original Mix)

Korni Grupa - Moja generacija

* Yugoslavia’s 1974 Eurovision entry, the year ABBA won with “Waterloo.” Korni Grupa were a prog-rock band. Strange for Eurovision but good tune.

The Furby Fans - Furbies Op De Radio

* The most incredible thing. I uploaded the whole album.

Temptations - Ball of Confusion

* This song freaked me the f**k out when I was little.

The Furby Fans - I Love My Furby (English Version)

Samira Bensaid - Bitaqat Khub

* Morocco’s only Eurovision entry (1980). The country never returned, making the song a Eurovision trivia staple.

Nilüfer Yanya - Like I Say Really Fast

Teej, J.D. REID - Too Much TV (Original mix)

Jeep Beat Collective - B-Boys Breakdance Forever (Extended remix)

* From the album “Technics Chainsaw Massacre”

Bambaata Zulu Nation Soul Sonic Force - Zulu Nation Throwdown

Jody Watley - Looking For A New Love

* She said “Hasta la vista, baby” four years before Terminator 2.

Biz Markie - Vapors

* Biz’s morality play about clout and fair-weather friends

Pete Rock - Collector’s Item (Instrumental)

BONUS

For Luke Beasley

Advances in autoaudiomnemonic recording of “imagined” sound

We describe a pipeline for real-time reconstruction of imagined sound and its projection into an external auditory scene—Audio-Mnemonic Respatialization (AMR). The approach integrates neural signal acquisition, representation learning, and spatial rendering. We treat “imagined sound” as a latent trajectory in an auditory-mnemonic state space estimated from neural correlates of auditory imagery and recall. The resulting system decodes symbolic and sub-symbolic descriptors (timbral, phonetic, rhythmic, and spatial) and renders them through a parametric synthesizer and scene simulator. We outline acquisition strategies (EEG/MEG/ECoG/ear-EEG), decoding architectures (encoding/decoding models, state-space inference), tokenization (neural codecs), rendering (neural vocoders + HRTF/BRIR convolution), calibration protocols, latency budgets, and evaluation metrics. We close with risk analysis and governance notes.

1. Motivation and Framing

Auditory imagery—internally generated percepts with measurable correlates in auditory cortex, STG/STS, motor planning areas, and hippocampal networks—exhibits structure homologous to perception and performance. Empirically, imagery recruits tonotopic maps, rhythm-tracking networks, and language circuits with attenuated amplitude and altered phase relationships. The present aim is not a general brain-to-waveform translation, but a practical tool that:

* estimates a compact description of a user’s intended sound in real time;

* renders that description to audio;

* situates the audio in a scene consistent with the remembered or intended spatial context (the “mnemonic” component).

2. System Overview

The AMR system comprises five subsystems:

* Acquisition: continuous neural and kinematic streams.

* Preprocessing: artifact rejection, alignment, and feature extraction.

* Decoding: mapping neural features to audio tokens and scene parameters.

* Synthesis: token-conditioned neural vocoder + parametric instruments.

* Respatialization: room/position modeling (HRTF/BRIR/propagation) with head tracking.

A control plane coordinates calibration, confidence estimation, and user feedback.

3. Acquisition

3.1 Modalities

* Noninvasive: high-density EEG (64–256 ch), ear-EEG for practicality, and optional MEG in lab settings.

* Semi-invasive/invasive (research): ECoG/SEEG yield higher SNR and bandwidth but are not assumed for consumer deployment.

* Ancillary: IMU for head pose; eye tracking for attentional state; optional EMG (orofacial) to exploit covert articulation during imagined speech/song.

3.2 Sampling and Synchronization

* EEG/ear-EEG at 1–2 kHz, anti-aliasing per montage.

* Hardware timestamping and PTP-like clocking to bound inter-stream jitter <2 ms.

* Sliding windows of 200–500 ms with 50% overlap balance latency and stability.

4. Preprocessing

* Artifact handling: band-limited regression for EOG/EMG; ICA/AMICA where feasible; spectral gating for mains interference.

* Feature stacks:

* Rhythmic: delta–beta phase, inter-areal phase-locking value (PLV), and amplitude envelope correlations with perceptual rhythm templates.

* Tonotopic: spatial filters aligned to estimated frequency gradients in auditory cortex (data-driven beamformers).

* Linguistic/prosodic: Riemannian geometry features of covariance matrices on SPD manifolds; CCA with articulatory priors.

* Self-normalization: subject/session drift handled via adaptive whitening and online affine recalibration using a short moving baseline.

5. Decoding Architecture

5.1 Learning Strategy

A two-stage model:

* Stage A: Encoding models (perception mode). While the user listens to a stimulus battery, we learn mappings from audio features → neural responses (ridge/ARD regression or shallow convs).

* Stage B: Inversion/decoding (imagery mode). We invert the learned models under a sparsity/low-rank prior to recover token probabilities and continuous controls from neural data. A controlled state-space model (SSM) with a Kalman-like update or neural SSM (S4/SSM-Transformer) yields streaming stability.

5.2 Target Representation

We avoid direct waveform regression. Instead we decode:

* Neural-codec tokens (e.g., residual vector-quantized units): compact, perceptually aligned, streamable.

* Symbolic descriptors: pitch class/contour, tempo, meter, onset patterns.

* Phonetic units for imagined speech/song (phones or discrete self-supervised units).

* Scene parameters: azimuth, elevation, distance, source width; room size, RT60, early/late energy ratio; absorption profile.

* Confidence per unit and per channel.

Posterior over tokens is tempered to manage hallucination; a small beam (B=4–8) preserves diversity without destabilizing latency.

6. Synthesis

6.1 Neural Vocoder

Tokens → waveform via a lightweight, streaming neural vocoder (multi-band, multi-period discriminator).

* Frame size: 20–40 ms, stride 10 ms.

* Runtime on laptop-class GPU/Neural-NPU ≤ 10 ms/frame; CPU fallback ~25 ms/frame at 22.05 kHz.

6.2 Parametric Layer

Symbolic descriptors drive parallel generators:

* Monophonic pitch with differentiable oscillators;

* Drum events via sample-select + micro-timing jitter;

* Articulatory TTS for phonetic units when a voiced output is desired.Blending weights are derived from confidence; the mixture regularizes the generative model when the token posterior is diffuse.

7. Respatialization (Mnemonic Component)

7.1 Source Localization from Imagery

Parietal and posterior temporal features carry coarse spatial intent. We regress:

* Azimuth/elevation (spherical),

* Perceived distance (log-scaled),

* Apparent width (coherence proxy).Outputs are smoothed through the SSM to avoid discontinuities.

7.2 Scene Construction

Three tiers, selected by compute budget:

* HRTF-only: individualized HRTF (or K-means cluster HRTF) with binaural panning and late-reverb approximation.

* Parametric BRIR: image-source model with frequency-d…

Today, at about 12:30, a beam of intense pink light entered my temple.

It expressed to me how today’s show should be structured.

I immediately went to the decks and tried to conform to its guidance — to the best of my ability without editorializing or inflecting.

But whatever! Enjoy!

This week we’re emotional about the future of the Republic.

To buoy our faith in humanity, join me in revisiting some important and to be honest shockingly relevant and inspiring voices from the past.

First, though, the inimitable RM Brown says “arrivederci!” with a clip from Arun Brown broadcast video product.

The audio should sound better today. I apologize for the recent bad finalizing.

If you have advice or want to talk about mastering and all that crap, call my beeper. I’d love to hear about how the audio sounds on whatever you’re playing it on. I mix on a PA, which I realize is dumb, but it’s so convenient and good-sounding in the room. I could master in monitors or headphones if you think it’d improve what you hear.

Let me know! And enjoy the progrum.

RM Brown - “Bill Burr, Theo Von, and Tucker Carlson Are In Big Trouble” (Excerpt)

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Every Day I Write The Book (Instrumental)

Guy Debord - Critique of Separation (1961) (Excerpt)

Boston - More Than A Feeling (A capella)PSY - Gangnam Style (A capella)Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen

Yeah, [QUIRKY FRIEND] might think this is interesting, I’ll share it with [PRONOUN]

ESG - What She Came ForKraftwerk - Das ModellPrince - Traffic Jam (Ron Hardy Re-Edit)

Gene Farris, Matt Sassari, Maesic - Nothing Is Real (Extended Mix)

This is not a Story. This is real life. You hear me? I don’t care about how many followers you have. What the f**k does that even mean?

Open your eyes and look around. These are real people. What are you really doing?

I don’t give a f**k about your IG or your TikTok. - Gene Farris

Chelley - Took The Night (Amine Edge & DANCE Remix)

Chris Lake, Sammy Virji, RoRo - 925 (Extended Mix)

Folamour - Ça Va Aller (Original Mix)

Nikki Nair, Nala - The World Is Always Ending (Original Mix)

Skream - Thinking Of You (Original Mix)

Hello you.

Hope you’re all right.

It’s a bit scary right now, innit?

I know you’re probably thinking things are pretty s**t at the moment. But trust me, that’s normal. A wise man said to me when I was younger that things can only get better. And that’s true.

I know this sounds bad but you see… Alicia, Will, Stacey, Laura, Tyrone —they’re probably not going to be your friends in 25 years. Please just know that… that’s normal, and that is life, unfortunately. Everything you are going through right now is normal. It is!

It’s what you have to go through to get to ultimately the place you want to be. And also, it’s all right to be confused, to be angry, to not know what’s going on. Because that’s what life is. You’re not going to know everything.

I might act like I do, but I promise you now… I don’t. But I do want you to know that you’re going to be all right. I promise.

Actually I can’t promise that. ‘Cos thats patronising. What you don’t need right now is patronising. But what I can say is, 9 times out of 10, the things you think are going to end the world… they’re not.

And… I ain’t got the answers.

But what I do want you to know is that I love you.

Inga - Dein Spiel Ist Endlich Aus

Do you believe I give you everything right away,

Live only for you alone?

I can’t forget so fast what happened once

And do you believe I can’t see it?

When the girls pass by?

You being wide-eyed?

But to this I say: no, no, no!

John F. Kennedy - Inaugural Speech

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Carlo Gesualdo - Sabbato Sancto: In III Nocturno: Responsorium 7

FLO, Oz, q100 - Vocal Dub (Original Mix)

Snuffy - Sweat (Original Mix)

Kaya - Tiki Heads (Original Mix)ZeroZero - Cramp (Samath Remix)

Hypho, Wraz. - Pressure (Original Mix)Sade - Haunt Me (Acapella)

A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (Q-Tip acapella)

Do it, put your email in there it’s totally okay

Dany BS - I See You Dancing (Original Mix)

Client_03 - Wavefile_Dayjob (Original Mix)Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Studio a capella)

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech

Dizzee Rascal - Flex (A capella)

Larry Heard presents Mr. White - The Sun Can’t Compare

Caglar Juan Singletary - Non-Violent Tae Kwon Do Troopers

Cyndi Lauper - The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough [Dub Version]

Ed Rush & Optical - Bacteria (Pendulum Remix)Cold Fusion, BTK, Optiv - Void (Impak Remix)Chimpo - All of the Above (Original Mix)

‘Cause I’m rollin’ with them hippies, nerds, hustlers, thugsI show them all loveBecause I’m all of the above

I put them all beside me‘Cause when push comes to shoveThat’s my crew from the smooth to the rough

Adflo Hilter

Harry Truman

OK then, thanks for stopping through. Nice to see you. I hope you liked the crusted lemontard. Let me know what you thought of the show! And wish me luck at 2hollis on Monday, I’m not sure what to expect. OK, yep, love you, ok, mm-hmm, ok, ciao, yep, see you next time.

Bok

DJ Industrial Complex

Check these up-top murderers, nerdy in the bezel, as the cloud merges. FBI, try — I won’t work, with Seattle pooped out. “Bust a shot up in the beacon!” Catch me in the corner, and I’m speaking. Crashed out heavenly, you G-rock the street, Daddy Long. Five means “chicken and broccoli while he’s a stink.”

He, with his man straight from Raleigh-Durham.

Dedicated to the radio

Now he and she. But it’s time for them to get recognized. This is my version of the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s why I’m coming out of my face like this. As far as negativity, you never get this. Good weather for you, nobody would know.

That’s why this is something for the radio. Because everyone is unique in the way they cut the record.

What are you doing? Tell me what you’re doing!

Killer, killer, killer; who is Nelly? Now watch his style. I touch his stage… ‘till I broke it: man, I broke it. Catch his “style road,” boy, we have to make it in life.

Flipped a coin, threw it down the whistle, next day I’m overseas.

I had to die

They’re independent, but I’m major with the moves; so many options I don’t know which one to choose. Never stagnant, I just get up. It accrues. Some do guns, and so there’s nothing left to prove. We have to kill ‘em every time.

Shot for the arrows, tools in my hand ‘cause I’m arrow-crank; because I see many minds. Yeah, I ain’t from the Channel. Came from a place that won’t send a blood. Can be “Panabone,” and fire blitz, and “'dem a bad man, Dean.”

Someone’s in the blood candidates; “Panabond,” if I’m less of them. Up and Mandina.

Rude girl, better step up. Try and lift your head up. There’s a rumor being spread about me and the crew, about something that we did or were supposed to do. You might not have heard it, or maybe you have, but when I first heard it, all I did was laugh.

Please enter your PIN. Then enter your password twice, and confirm. Complete the CAPTCHA. At this point you may refresh the page. After the blue icon appears and blinks FAST four times, go to https://bigwan.time/~franxiuli.cfm to access.

I used to get angry and all uptight. You can say what you want, but spell my name right. ‘Cause all I’m ever guilty of was rockin’ the house, but that’s not what the rumor was all about.

Now, if you like me, then tell all your friends… and if you don’t, then you should wait until you see me again. This way, I can hear it from the horse’s mouth, and right then and there, we can straighten it out. Because I don’t get involved with the he says / she says.

Just take my advice quick, while you’re ahead. Because one day, I might not laugh. The day you’re my right to change your behind (“can-can”) — you got a big mouth! You got a big mouth. You got a big mouth.

Thank you.

Bye.

How you stand up?

Generations on my planet: it’s not branding, it’s expanding on your eyes, your mind, that’s facts. But they want you to cup your price. That’s on the ice; that’s on the flash. Let’s get it twisted, backwards with your flexing system. If you’re in the dirt, let’s get to rinsing. I’m insisting. I can’t resist it.

I’m the hardest one to see in the West right now, getting blasted right now. I’m missing the outro music (if it really means anything).

I got this new jam for y’all called the “Soulja Boy.” You just gotta punch, and then crank back three times from left to right. Superman at home, now why me?

Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul, now why me? Crank that soul.

The party is now: why me you, now why me you; now, why me you? I’m the man. They’re looking in my neck, saying that it’s Thumbro. So don’t do it like me. I saw you trying to do it like me. Man, that Dan is ugly.

Why me crack it? Why me? Why me crack that Soulja boy?

Soulja Boy, I finna it

Why me crack it, why me? Why me crack that Soulja boy? Soulja Boy, I finna it.

Why me crank it? Why me?

Why me crank that Roosevelt?

Oh, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup, soup.

I’ll be right back.

“This ain’t my box, when they done lost time.”

This ain’t my watch. And it ain’t my loss. We don’t beg friends. This ain’t my job. And it ain’t my problem. They don’t like me, then it ain’t my problem.

Too many names to call. They want me to keep quiet, but I ain’t a fool. Workmen still blaming my tools, ‘cause we break something every time they name a rule. They got Roger. They tried to frame us all, but I schooled. Time to pick MCs out anymore, nah; I hate you, Zoo.

And we’re real Buckheads, if you’re cooking. ‘Cause I’m out here singing “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls.” Who are fools? Ducksack.

Please check the force, Sif. Ain’t a star for this move.

They don’t care about us

All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us.

Tell me, what has come of my life? I have a wife and two children who love me. Am I a victim of police brutality? No. If I’m invisible, it’s because you know me. If I can make you promise me free liberty, no.

I’m tired of being a victim of shame, and you’re throwing me in a class with bad names. I can’t believe this is the land from which I came. Some things in life, they just don’t want to see it. But if my delusion was a little, can’t put it back to speak.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Check these up top murderers, nerdy in the bezel as the cloud merges. FBI try — I won’t work, with Seattle pooped out. “Bust a shot up in the beacon!” Catch me in the corner, and I’m speaking. Crashed out heavenly, you G-rock the street, daddy long. Five means “chicken and broccoli while he’s a stink.”

He, with his man straight from Raleigh-Durham.

He recognized Kojak. I slapped him five masks, and Killer cracked his Heinie for him.

Anybody break bread — huddle around, guzzle that. I’m about to throw some hair on your back. Since the face has been revealed, game got here. Radio be gassing, “n****s my impostors.” Stream the L, I’m the inventor 86, rockin’ at the center, debut 93 LP; save you to enter: “punk n****s stealin’ my light.”

Crawl up in the bed with Grandma, beneath the La-Z-Boy where you hid your knife.

Good night.

Tracklist

Drum & Bass

Kolectiv – Damocles

Biz Markie – This Is Something for the Radio (Acapella)

Revan – Last Week of Summer

Resslek – HQ

Phibes – Upside Down

Mefjus – Emulation (Mefjus Remix)

Kasra, YAANO – Shatter (VISLA Remix)

Kasra, YAANO – Shatter (Original mix)

Kasra, Mefjus, latesleeper – Decypher (latesleeper Remix)

gyrofield – Shrimp

Fox, Revan – In the Cool

FOURA, Subten, GHS – Rudeboy

Dub Phizix – Loaded Dice

DLR, Foreign Concept – Mob Justice (DLR Remix)

T>I, D*Minds, Run In The Jungle – Riko’s Revenge

Dub Phizix – Hatchet

Scuffed – Alright

Scar – Bravo Tango (Zero T VIP)

Sam Binga, OneDa, Particle – Rude Girl

Mefjus – Sleazebag (Ed Rush Remix)

Logan, Jappa, Napes – Full English

140

Whodini – Big Mouth (Acapella)

Wraz. – Swarm (Khanum Remix)

ZeroZero – Cramp (Samath Remix)

FLO, Oz, q100 – Vocal Dub

Snuffy – Sweat

q100 – Aerobica

FSHR, KNOTT – Concentrate

Snuffy, Zaterday – Stand

q100 – Sloboda

Trail – Velasquez

ENiGMA Dubz – Silverback

Soulja Boy – Crank That (Acapella)

Drone – New Take

Trim, Klinical – My Problem

Michael Jackson – They Don’t Care About Us (Acapella)

7kidz – Alzheimer (VIP)

Distance – Sacrifices

Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon – Apollo Kids (Acapella)

Substance, Wraz. – Minotaur

Episode XV stretches across R&B slow burns, garage hybrids, 2000s breakbeat relics, and drum & bass pressure, stitched together with long blends, a couple rewinds, and some thematic pivots.

Half-time instrumentals bend into disco, German grime verses warp garage swing, Marvin Gaye collides with 2006 Croydon austerity before disappearing into Ed Rush and Optical’s Wormhole.

The Can You Stand the Rain transition is long, but it and the Kink remix of My Man complement each other better than one would expect via the squelchy 303s and kicks that sit neatly beneath New Edition’s extended instrumental—R&B at 145 slowed to match disco strut. The New Edition arrangement is Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the same Minneapolis duo behind Janet Jackson’s Control and Rhythm Nation 1814. Their fingerprints are all over the string pads and electric pianos that put an interesting emotional shine on the incoming cut.

The tempo then pivots upward into garage. KMK’s kicks enter as a New Edition verse falls away, and Jam & Lewis’s chords hitch a ride, deepening the emotional tone of what is otherwise a buoyant and cheeky UK bassline track.

Linkwork follows, grime and garage welded together. P.tah and Kinetical’s verses are in German; both MCs are Austrian, from Linz and Salzburg. Dark halftime sections alternate with 130 BPM garage beats, a sharp mood swing. The MC’s flow rides the swung hats and snares of the incoming groove precisely, doubling the tempo without crowding the stage.

Superstylin’ appears next, a Groove Armada staple from 2001, as DJIC trades basslines with the Thunderkats’. Superstylin’ is a shape-shifter—chart hit, festival anthem, recent secret weapon.

More early-2000s garage, more on the darker breakbeat tip: Oris Jay, Somore, El-B. These records are rough, made in bedrooms on cracked software and MPCs, but the grooves are durable. Sparse and dry, they demand augmentation—vocals, FX, or heavy mix pressure. Left bare, they can sound empty; here, transitions are tight, and the Rumpus vocal is introduced quickly enough to hold momentum.

Odd Mob’s Left to Right (33 Below remix) follows, a modern cut that fills the spectrum in an electro-adjacent manner. The bassline drop would have pulled a reload in a club set, but here it carries on, filth underneath, Rumpus’s stabs floating above.

At 20:00 Sneaker Pimps’ Spin Spin Sugar emerges. Released in 1996 on Becoming X, it became a UK garage touchstone after Armand Van Helden’s remix. The original bassline is instantly recognizable, and it still works. Kessler takes over, his Foul Play EP representing the new Belfast wave—dark, urban, and hard-edged.

P Money returns with Stay in Your Lane, joined by Taiki Nulight and Jolie P. The cut comes with a rewind and a political edge. The sub runs so hot it distorts our mix—call it distressed?

So Solid Crew step back in with Oh No. Their 2001 They Don’t Know LP effectively mainstreamed grime, but the production sounds thin by today’s standards. Z Virus’s Sasmanouver carries a similar lo-fi imprint. Then Benga’s Skank arrives, chrome-plated and heavy. One of dubstep’s most inventive producers, Benga came out of Croydon in the mid-2000s. He battled personal demons later, but his work remains singular. Skank still cuts cleanly through and the bass feels huge.

So Solid vocals continue over Skank, percussion interlocking neatly. Marvin Gaye then drops in—Got To Give It Up in live acapella form—folded against Benga’s half-step. It takes a bar to align, but once it locks in it sounds dope. The cheerful admonitions to dance cut oddly against Benga’s austerity, but the keys line up and the friction works.

From there Marvin accelerates to 172 to clear the runway for Ed Rush & Optical’s Compound from Wormhole (1998). Frequently cited as the definitive drum & bass album, Wormhole crystallized neurofunk: all sinewy basslines and paranoid futurism.

The rest of the set is pressure and pace—Minor Forms, Zero T, Waeys, Ram Trilogy, Raiser, Particle, Paige Julia—quick cuts, layered basslines, relentless drive. KRS-One closes with Hip Hop vs Rap (“rap is something you do; hip hop is something you live,”) and we cool down with a Souls of Mischief chiller.

Tracklist

Mousse T., Donna Summer, Toby Gad – Run (Disco)Lovebirds – My Man (Kink Remix)New Edition – Can You Stand The Rain (Instrumental Suite)KMK – Run It Up (Original Mix)P Money, P.tah, Kinetical, Pirmin – Linkwork (Pj Bridger Remix)The Thunderkats – Melatron (Original Mix)Groove Armada, Declan Knapp – Superstylin’ (Extended Mix)Somore – I Refuse (What You Want) (Club Mix)Oris Jay – Biggin’ Up The MassiveEl-B – RumpusOdd Mob – Left to Right (33 Below Remix)Sneaker Pimps – Spin Spin SugarKessler – Hood Mentality (Original Mix)P Money, Taiki Nulight, Jolie P – Stay In Your Lane (Extended Mix)So Solid Crew – Oh NoZ Virus – SasmanouverBenga – SkankMarvin Gaye – Got To Give It Up (Acapella)Ed Rush, Optical – Compound (Original Mix)Minor Forms – Drops (Original Mix)SMG – Suku (Original Mix)Zero T, Minor Forms – Crime Thing (Original Mix)SOLAH, Waeys – 10,000 (Original Mix)Rueben, Waeys – Hooh (Original Mix)Ram Trilogy – Mindscan (Ed Rush & Optical Remix)Raiser – The Resistance (Original Mix)Particle – That Hz (Original Mix)Paige Julia – Ease Your Mind (Original Mix)KRS-One – Hip Hop vs Rap (Acapella)Souls Of Mischief – Never No More (Instrumental)

Adam Mockler sets ‘em up (with Stephen Miller) and Aretha Franklin’s shoulder pads knock ‘em down with Who’s Zoomin’ Who.

I’d forgotten that the narrative in the weirder-than-remembered Timex Social Club’s Rumors included an MC writing to his congressman. On a day when Trump is blasting out Truth Social imperatives to Pam Bondi demanding prosecutions with neither charges nor evidence, I appreciated the reminder to do so myself.

Later, a loop from Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F hangs over London Grammar’s Feelings Gone before the house section builds (Folamour, Reblok, Solardo, Mathias Kaden). The voices on stage contemplate KBJ’s term “judicial aggrandizement” and what exactly “appropriate legislation” means.

Senator Raskin reminds us that our Constitutional Amendments describe “a chronicle of the people’s struggle for greater and deeper democracy.”

Flowdan’s Our Sector sneaks into the frame before giving way languidly to Floating Points’ extended modular burbling, and the bars fit the moment.

Survey the sector, look for resistance

Urbandawn and Tyson Kelly’s take on Come Together gets a rewind after the drop, partly because Dr. John Gartner is explaining frontotemporal dementia to Joanna Coles with the illustration of Trump confusing Harlem and Harvard.

James O’Brien piles on with Trump’s insane “Cambodia and Armenia” presidential-handshakes-and-hugs anecdote. It might as well be James Joyce.

By the hour mark, Shelagh Fogarty and Emily Maitlis are weighing in on Erika Kirk’s memorial whispers, and Tucker Carlson creepily giggles and tells us about Jesus’ opponents eating hummus and plotting murder.

The music responds by getting faster, harder, more metallic (Waeys, Kasra, Sub Focus) before the last turn folds hip hop instrumentals into the high BPMs: Souls of Mischief, Pete Rock remixes, Rahzel, Kozmonautz. The beats get stripped back until finally Ol’ Dirty B*****d’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya acapella staggers into view, today’s deeply-considered and rich thesis statement.

Shimmy shimmy ya, comrades.

For any MC in any fifty-two states, I get psycho, killer, Norman Bates.

Yours in solidarity,

DJIC

Tracklist

Aretha Franklin – Who's Zoomin' Who (Dance Mix)Hall & Oates – I Can’t Go For ThatTimex Social Club – Rumors (12” Version)Harold Faltermeyer – Axel FLondon Grammar, SG Lewis – Feelings Gone (Original Mix)Folamour – Last Sunrise in Barcelona (Original Mix)Reblok – Your Face (Original Mix)MANT, Biscits – Carnival Tune (Original Mix)Johannes Albert – Chestnut PoetryJ Gabriel – You Know (Vincenzo Remix)Glass Petals – Fucked Up (Extended Mix)Chopstick & Johnjon – Blackout (Original Mix)Solardo – Work That S**t (Original Mix)Mathias Kaden – Trust (Original Mix)Technasia, Green Velvet – Suga (Extended Mix)Biz Markie – Biz Is Goin’ OffJ.J. Fad – Supersonic (Edit)Major Mackerel – Pretty Looks DoneCongo Natty, Tenor Fly – Alaska Ride (95 Dub Plate)Drumskull – Scrolling Shooter (Dwarde Remix)Ben Klock, Flowdan, Fadi Mohem – Our Sector (Original Mix)Floating Points – Ocotillo (Original Mix)Reknek – Nanny State (Original Mix)Tyson Kelly, Urbandawn – Come Together (Original Mix)Posij, Buunshin – i just 1 2 (Original Mix)Nebulate – Glitch (Original Mix)Souls Of Mischief – Tell Me Who Profits (Instrumental)Rahzel – All I Know (Instrumental) [Pete Rock Flip]Pete Rock & CL Smooth – Ghettos Of The Mind (Amerigo Gazaway Remix)Kozmonautz – Blindsided (Instrumental)Illmost & Patrik Panda – Mic CheckKolectiv – Damocles (Original Mix)EIJER – Nebulous (Original Mix)Mitekiss, Ruth Corey – Embers (Original Mix)Kublai – Sucka (Original Mix)Kasra, Levela, S.P.Y – Surface (Levela Remix)Cold Fusion, BTK, Optiv – Void (Impak Remix)Visages – Dol Guldur (Original Mix)Spektiv – Don’t You Know (Original Mix)Liz, Machinedrum – BTHE1 (Original Mix)Icicle, sp:mc – Dreadnaught (Break Remix)Calyx – Riddim (Original Mix)Enei – Trojans (Original Mix)Waeys, Kalane, XAETIS – Disgust (Waeys Remix)Sub Focus, MC ID – Alarm (Original Mix)Kasra, Riko Dan – Talk Up (Original Mix)cømpiler – Proposition (Original Mix)Leks, Endorphine (AT) – Focus (Original Mix)Ol’ Dirty B*****d – Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Extended Acapella)A Tribe Called Quest – Stressed Out (Vinyl Reanimators Remix Instrumental)

Voices

Joanna Coles, Adam Mockler, Stephen Miller, Mary McCord, Nicholas Bowie, Marc Elias, Jamie Raskin, Erika Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Shelagh Fogarty, Emily Maitlis, James O’Brien, Donald Trump

Review (the Wire)

The set opens on familiar 80s floorfare: Aretha Franklin’s Who’s Zoomin’ Who extended out to its full dance-mix proportions, followed by Hall & Oates’ I Can’t Go For That and Timex Social Club’s Rumors. The latter’s half-serious admonition to “write to your congressman” lands differently now, set against both Adam Mockler’s discussion of Stephen Miller’s weird, affectless malice and the President’s ongoing UK visit. What once read as a throwaway aside now sounds uncannily topical, given today’s context of Truth Social bleating directed at Pam Bondi, with Trump insisting on prosecutions without charges or evidence.

Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F supplies a motif that threads into London Grammar’s Feelings Gone, its synth line lingering like political catch-phrases that refuse to fade. By the time Folamour and Reblok pull the mix into deep house textures, the commentary has shifted to Marc Elias and a voice from his team, pointing toward judicial aggrandizement and the brevity of the Constitution’s amendments. “What is appropriate legislation?” one asks, echoing the same indeterminacy that lies beneath phrases such as “general welfare.” As Jamie Raskin enters, vigorously describing the amendments as “a chronicle of the people’s struggle for greater and deeper democracy,” the grooves deepen—MANT & Biscits into Solardo and Mathias Kaden—underscoring the tension between democratic elasticity and house music’s own reliance on repetition.

The pivot into jungle is dramatic. Ben Klock and Flowdan’s Our Sector (“They don’t know our sector”) gives way to Floating Points’ Ocotillo, the transition as stark as Raskin’s diagnosis of lawlessness. Lyrics from Flowdan sit like marginalia beside the kicks. Soon after, Urbandawn and Tyson Kelly’s Come Together earns a rewind, its communal rhetoric sharpened by Dr. John Gartner’s description of Trump’s dementia and the infamous “Harlem/Harvard” gaffe. The sequence unspools while James O’Brien dissects Trump’s odd locutions—“Cambodia and Armenia” holding hands, the notion of something being “not settlable”—as symptoms of deeper decline.

By the 70-minute mark, Shelagh Fogarty and Emily Maitlis are framing Erika Kirk’s memorial coverage, while Trump’s unvarnished “I hate my opponents” remark hangs awkwardly over liquid D&B. Waeys, Kasra, Sub Focus, and Enei mark the acceleration: high-velocity drums running parallel to Tucker Carlson’s improbable comparison of Jesus’ opponents eating hummus. The absurdity mirrors the set’s tonal whiplash, where any moment might swing from serious commentary to grotesque spectacle.

The closing stretch folds hip hop instrumentals into drum & bass with deliberate asymmetry. Souls of Mischief, Pete Rock’s remixes, and Rahzel’s Dorothy Ashby-sampling flip act as pressure valves after the relentless tempo. Ol’ Dirty B*****d’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya acapella is laid bare, stripped of beats, a reminder that vocal texture—whether Raskin’s courtroom cadence or Trump’s fragmented Truth Social imperatives—remains the through-line.

What emerges is ne…

Recently I decided to try mixing in bits of political commentary. I've been practicing, trying to make it listenable and fun, maybe a new way to consume both of these things. I figured it could be a way for an huge, dedicated, paying audience to get a groove (or a one-hour timer) on with a reliable DJ/curator while catching up on stories or opinions they might have missed.

I’m placing the names of the cast at the end of the post to minimize bias.

Non-Overplayed Bangers (NOBs) from my pet genres (non-Miami breakbeat and electro, UK garage, grime, and (dubby post-dubstep) 140) are here, plus detours into techno, electro, hip‑hop and disco. The music is sturdy enough to stand alone, I think, and the voices can be textures as well as news.

Encouragement will result in more episodes with different types of music, and I am an eclectic-ass curator.

After honing Product Management, Corporate Office Stuff, PowerPoint and both Ethical Spin and B**********g competencies, I need to do something politics-adjacent because of the Current Situation. Until I can find someone awesome to work for, I’m making music and ranting on the internet.

I’ll manage the hell out of your products or projects and write the socks off your copy or execute the mess out of whatever it is I can do to help.

But it has to be decidedly Left or Rule of Law-supporting somehow.

Ex-Slate, U Michigan, SUNY, McKesson.

Most of the musical focus today is around 140, grime, and garage. I've been surprised at how few people have really been exposed to these styles in the US—video games and advertising bring some sounds across but I almost never hear someone's car bumping garage, 140, or D&B beats here.

As a lot of you know, UK Garage is a marriage of house and R&B, with sometimes-difficult-to-mix hard swing and shuffle. Grime and dubstep took these sounds and sharpened them with darker tones and MCs [Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash]. The 140 BPM continuum started with Benga, Skream, and what I guess is “early dubstep and grime” around 2006 by paring garage down to bass, snares, and echo [Kode9 interview, FACT], and halved the time.

I need you

Zed Bias (Dave Jones) is a favorite whose work reveals some of these relationships. His work in garage, 2-step, and broken beat pushed the scene past radio-friendly sheen into darker, stranger territory, showing how syncopation and sub-bass could be used to frame social tension and dancefloor release (Wikipedia).

(I started spinning Skream, Benga, Horsepower, Ghost, DMZ back in 2006 or 2007 and watched in horror as dubstep became shitty. I think some of what I play is technically dubstep, but I refer to all austere-halftime-dubby-bass music as 140 today because of what They did to dubstep as it became squelch city around 2013. But there's a lot of really good, heavy, trippy 140.)

Do I have my taxonomy wrong anywhere? If you disagree about any of this I want to hear about it.

Along with the tunes, though, there's news, see. So it’s different and better.

The first voice you hear complains about Legacy Democrats refusing to support Zohran Mamdani. We agree that Schumer won't but there's still hope for others.

The Vice President intrudes and warns of violent eXtReMiSm on the left, and soon he's invoking “killing the cops and throwing the molotov cocktails” as though these were reasonable or meaningful accusations.

Sometimes listening to this crap against music reveals the absurdity of a claim by refusing to dignify it. The voice points out the recent erasure of the Department of Justice study on right-wing violence that directly contradicts Vance's words.

I wanted to see what “Financial Chart” did so here’s the chart for BURP.

Back to Basics by Headie One and Skepta arrives around the ten-minute mark, garage-inflected and sharp. Drill and grime traditions have encoded struggles with policing and austerity, without explicit slogans but with lived politics, racial and working-class struggles as texture.

Claude VonStroke’s Metropolitan segues into Green Velvet’s hilarious Answering Machine. Green Velvet’s goofy voicemail messages “Thanks for the engagement ring; the baby's not yours, I love you, you’re evicted, your chart looks BAD” never get old.

Souls of Mischief’s instrumental frames AOC’s floor speech on the resolution “Honoring the Life and Legacy of Charlie Kirk:” “He should not be celebrated.” Ninety-five Democrats nevertheless vote in favor. Why? Her words come across in a new way over beats recorded in 1993, recontextualized verse from a song cycle that's definitely dragging on past my patience.

Grandmaster Flash’s The Message sounded fresh to me in both of its new tempos and backing tracks (:nail_care:). “Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge / I’m trying not to lose my head,” “Social Sadiddy,” and “broke my sacroiliac” work as well in 2025 as in 1982. Bars throughout. Aside from the F-slurs which I deftly removed in flight.

There's a cool tempo change here too (:nail_care:). The beat drops away, the vocal hangs exposed and slides back into a new tempo. The crisis-chronicling folds pretty well into a French cut.

The segue from house to electro’s fun: a tempo shift pulled along by another vocal that carries across both speeds. (wow this DJ is rad)

Later, pivot into disco fragments (“You Make Me Feel Like Dancin’”) and 80's bangers (Midnight Star’s “Midas Touch,” ultimate banger) as we join Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network (how droll!).

At 40 minutes, Ben Meiselas reads from U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday’s order dismissing Trump’s $15B defamation complaint against The New York Times. Merciless:

“Every lawyer knows and is presumed to know that a Complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective… not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally, not the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner.” Reuters, 2025

Merryday also rips the “many, often repetitive, and laudatory but superfluous allegations” and dismisses Trump’s invocation of The Apprentice as demonstrating “the magnitude of President Trump’s singular brilliance” as irrelevant Financial Times, 2025.

“The Complaint extends far beyond the outer bound of permissible latitude. The Complaint is struck.”

Don’t miss the moment where Meiselas accidentally but cleanly bumped into lyrics, creating “I need to remind you ... my body’s burning up.”

The final section descends into deep 140 territory. Snuffy and Zaterday’s Stand carries weight in its bassline alone but the bars are killer. Argo and 11th Hour extend the heaviness.

The voice reappears, presenting some of Trump’s recent statements as evidence of serious decline.

Public Enemy’s Bring the Noise is dragged to dub tempo (its title is apt here), then Strategy and Visages close with Lewis Capaldi, titled cheekily after the Scottish pop singer but musically having nothing to do with him.

Tracklist

Claude VonStroke, Justin Jay – Oh (Pearson Sound Shuffle Mix)

Brothers Of Funk, Analog Hustlers, Heather Collins, JUZ10-TYM – Quake (Original Mix)

MSFT – Bonker.s (Original Mix)

Joel O-P – Identify (Original Mix)

Jeff Mills – The Bells (Original Mix)

Hamdi – Counting (Sammy Virji Remix)

Jammin – Hold On

Groove Chronicles – Millenium Funk

Headie One, Skepta – Back to Basics (Floating Points Remix)

Pharoahe Monch – The Light (Zed Bias Vocal Mix)

Mizzo – How I Do Dat (Original Mix)

Danny Kolk – Summer Day (Original Mix)

Claude VonStroke – Metropolitan (Original Mix)

Green Velvet – Answering Machine

Cloonee – Be Good To Me (Extended Mix)

Souls Of Mischief – Make Your Mind Up (Instrumental)

Akhenaton – Je suis en vie (instrumental)

Grandmaster Flash – The Message (ER acapella)

Enrico BSJ Ferrari – La pizzotta d' sor'ta (Original Mix)

Midnight Star – Midas Touch

Colombo – Hipo (Original Mix)

Aux 88 – Alias (Original Mix)

Kaya – Tiki Heads (Original Mix)

Niallo – Body Burning (Original Mix)

Snuffy, Zaterday – Stand feat. Zaterday (Original Mix)

11Th Hour – Confront…

In a sort of subversive Punch and Judy show of curation, DJIC walks us through metaphors and allegories for today’s news. Jonathan V. Last of the Bulwark introduces an hour of Italodisco, Parcels’ breezy pop-funk, Soviet dancefloor ballads, and raw Detroit electro, presented as a deliberate dismantling of continuity. The mix courts disruption: gear-grinding changes in pace, jarring key shifts, and the kind of rhythmic dislocation that keeps a dancefloor exhilarated and slightly unmoored.

The opening third sets the template. Neon Game’s timely “The State Is Stealing My Life” pivots into Cecile Grandin’s howling reverie, then into Hooverphonic’s retrofitted Italo mix — a chain that makes no attempt at linear storytelling but proposes adjacency as politics.

Later, Montell Jordan’s acapella admonition about “how we do it” crashes into Mizzo’s “How I Do Dat,” a collision comic and cutting, reminding listeners how little actually ever changes.

Midway, the mix reaches a hallucinatory density: folky French chanson, house with gospel inflection, Aryaxz’s digital dystopia, Jenasi’s manic drive. Each turn amplifies the sense that tempo itself is unstable, elastic, even weaponised. That instability is the point: it mirrors the fractured, nonlinear rhythms of online attention, where Soviet synthpop and Detroit techno circulate with equal velocity.

The final third spirals further into contradiction. Reggie Watts sings “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” before Robert Hood snaps back the tension with mechanical precision. Crystal Waters’ acapella, Mojo’s broadcast fragment, and Yuri Shatunov’s sentimental croon all sit within the same frame, presented not as guilty pleasures but as equivalent artefacts in a media ecosystem where context is endlessly scrambled.

This isn’t a mix designed for easy flow or a perfectly locked-groove dancefloor. Instead it embraces volatility — the sudden lurch of styles and speeds, the refusal to smooth transitions into anaesthetic functionality. In doing so, it lands squarely in the present: a messy, exhilarating, and unashamedly contradictory document of how listening actually feels now, when all eras and geographies collapse into the same playlist.

Percival Drift, 2025

Tracklist

A Tribe Called Quest – Youthful Expression (Instrumental)Neon Game – The State Is Stealing My Life (Italodisco 2015)Cecile Grandin – Le Scaphandre BlancHooverphonic – Anger Never Dies (Italoconnection Remix)Robert Palmer – Johnny & MaryParcels – LightenupClaude VonStroke – MetropolitanDennis Ferrer, Reel People & Angela Johnson – Can’t StopFolamour – Ça Va AllerFolamour & Laville – InnervisionBorn To Funk – Souma BanaMontell Jordan – This Is How We Do It (Acapella)Black Milk – Detroit’s New Dance ShowMizzo – How I Do DatYo Speed – Voices Of The TribeAryaxz – cyber city 3008Jenasi & eid55558.55 – TripAnnie Philippe – On M’a Toujours DitDanny Kolk – Summer DayFlauschig – Somebody (Sebb Junior Extended Remix)Terrence Parker – Welcome to SouthfieldCyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Acapella)Yo Speed – VerdeAnalog Hustlers, Heather Collins & JUZ10-TYM – B*****s Love BassDirk Wiertz – Negative Reality InversionParcels – ComedownChris Lake, Sammy Virji & RoRo – 925 (Extended Mix)Kevin Saunderson, Andre Salmon, Dantiez & Half Man Half Machine – AkraliumReggie Watts – God Rest Ye Merry GentlemenRobert Hood – Pattern St.DJ Minx – Do It All NightCrystal Waters – 100% Pure Love (Acapella)Robert Hood – OutlastSession Victim – DawnThe Electrifying Mojo – Halloween RapСаша Чусовитин & Лёша Куприянцев – Звезды Дискотек 2Yuri Shatunov – Vecher VdvoemModern Trouble – Fly To MoscowКомбинация – American BoyNaked Eyes – Always Something There To Remind Me

All that stuff you’re doing is rude and inconsiderate.

Tip jar

Tracklist

Act I

* Das EFX – Set It Off

* Kraftwerk – RADIOAKTIVITÄT

* Ryan Paris feat. Vale – Sensation of Love

* Claude VonStroke & Marc Houle – Fly Guy (Original Mix)

* Green Velvet – La La Land (Walker & Royce Remix)

* Cheri – Murphy’s Law

* Shaded – Holla Atcha Boy (Original Mix)

* Claude VonStroke & Justin Jay – Oh (Original Mix)

* DJ Godfather – The Next 100 (Original Mix)

* Disco Digitale – Videogirl (Octolab Remix)

* Electro Potato – Video Game (Italian Mix)

Act II

* Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Studio Acapella)

* Satl & Trail – Amonite (Original Mix)

* Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Studio Acapella)

* SMG – Suku (Original Mix)

* Verdikt – The Future (Original Mix)

* Kumarion – Want It (Gyrofield Remix)

* Invadhertz & Primitive Instinct – That’s You (Original Mix)

* Ed Rush & Optical – Bacteria (Pendulum Remix)

* dgoHn – Sporks (Original Mix)

* Buunshin – Forget About Me (Original Mix)

* Waeys – Take 2007 (Original Mix)

* Chase & Status, Trigga, Irah, Flowdan, Takura & Bou – Baddadan (Extended Mix)

Act III

* Johnny Osbourne & The Prophets – Keep That Light

* Alton Ellis – A Fool

* Freddie McGregor – Rastaman Camp

* Israel Vibration – Highway Robbery

* Gregory Isaacs – Tune In

* The Thunderkats – Melatron (Original Mix)

* Double 99 – Jump (Tuff Jam Remix)

* Headie One & Skepta – Back to Basics (Floating Points Remix)

* Benga – Skank

* Guau – Dangerous (Original Mix)

* Heist – Thought We Were Cool (Todd Edwards Vocal)

* Poolio & Jack D – Little More Time (Sweet Vocal Mix)

* Orazio Fantini – Ghost Jazz

* Pure Garage – Why

* Surusinghe – Bop (Original Mix)

* The Bucketheads – The Bomb (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)

* AKA – Warning (Sunship Remix)

* Colour Girl – Joyrider (Y-Tribe Mix)

* David Howard ft. Jhay Palmer – U & I

* Jay Bee – Mysterious

This sequence of tracks constructs a polyglot survey of electronic dance subcultures, a kind of unruly genealogy that collapses temporal and stylistic distance. Early hip hop and electro (Das EFX, Kraftwerk, Cheri) serve as historical anchors, establishing a lexicon of machine rhythm and street vernacular. These are folded into contemporary house and electro hybrids (Claude VonStroke, Green Velvet, DJ Godfather), which foreground the persistence of funk-derived structures even under digital austerity.

From there, the mix slides into drum & bass: both brooding modernist variants (Satl, Waeys, Buunshin) and canonised touchstones (Pendulum’s rework of Ed Rush & Optical), all of which enact a dialogue around velocity and density. The brief intrusion of Cyndi Lauper’s acapella signals the permeability of pop—its affective intensity as material for reprocessing.

The reggae and dancehall inclusions (Osbourne, Ellis, McGregor, Isaacs) ground the set in a diasporic continuum, their lilt and lyrical directness contrasting with the accelerationist thrust of UK garage selections (Double 99, Sunship, Todd Edwards). In this latter phase, the mix becomes both an excavation and a recombination: garage as the spectral hinge between Afro-Caribbean rhythm, American house, and the UK’s own predilection for bass pressure.

Taken together, the set feels less like a linear journey and more like a cartography—mapping nodes of influence and cross-pollination. Its character is arch and scholarly but not detached, presenting dance music’s messy genealogies as living collisions rather than tidy sequences.

/Percival Drift, 2025

To accompany your reading this morning, some intentional eclecticism.

Tracklist

Althea & Donna - Love One Another

Elvin – Luggi, Luggi, Ludwig

Biz Markie – Biz Is Goin' Off

Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded

Kurtis Blow – If I Ruled The World

Enigma – Sadeness Part 1

New Edition – Can You Stand The Rain (Instrumental)

Aaliyah – Are You That Somebody (A capella)

Big Chocolate – Blue Milk

11Th Hour – Confront

Drone, Snowy – All I Know

Mitekiss – WAIT

Samba – Six to Six

Snowy, Visages – Crystal Clear

Drone – Fiendish

Noisia – Diplodocus

End Productions – Are You Really From The Ends

Groove Chronicles – Black Puppet

Riko Dan, Y U QT – Dancehall Damager

Chimpo – Deep Freeze

P Jam – Real

Cybotron – Clear

Hyper Wizard UFO Cult – High Frequency Altar

DJ ADHD, Nikki Nair – Fidget Spinner

Hermeth – Devil's Reject

Client_03 – Compliance

Drone – Slingshot

Nikki Nair, Nala – Escape

Dexter – Space Booty

Саша Чусовитин & Лёша Куприянцев – Звезды Дискотек 2 (House of Mystic Lights)

Review

This continuous mix is broadly an extended survey of bass and electro lineages, though it resists easy categorisation. It opens with a calculated feint: Elvin’s lightweight novelty, “Luggi, Luggi, Ludwig,” a fragment of 1980s Euro-inflected whimsy that immediately sets a tone of playful dislocation. From there the sequence establishes a pattern of juxtaposition rather than progression, alternating between golden-era hip hop (Biz Markie, Boogie Down Productions, Kurtis Blow) and material from the tail end of the decade’s pop mainstream (Enigma, New Edition, Aaliyah), each excerpt carefully placed as both foil and connective tissue. What could easily collapse into kitsch instead reads as a study in shifting contexts, where rhythmic DNA is repurposed.

The middle passages are dominated by UK bass, 140, and grime selections. Artists such as Mitekiss, Drone, and Snowy are used less as marquee presences than as structural anchors; their work is stitched in with enough space to register, but never allowed to calcify into set-piece drops. The thread connecting early grime and garage (End Productions, Groove Chronicles) to more recent hybrids (Visages, P Jam) is made explicit, though the mix refrains from spelling it out; instead, oblique cuts and some tasteful working of the mix do the work. This section achieves a taut balance: never static, never indulgent, yet quietly insistent on the continuity of a certain British approach to rhythm throughout the midsection of the set.

Later entries reach to Detroit: Cybotron’s “Clear” is treated as an origin point, refracted through contemporary mutations from Client_03 and Nikki Nair. The result is a lineage that feels both archival and immediate, suggesting that the oblique humour of early electro still lingers in present-day hardware experiments. Even the most overtly eccentric inclusions—Hyper Wizard UFO Cult’s “High Frequency Altar,” Hermeth’s “Devil’s Reject”—are folded into the whole without rupture, their unruliness tempered by sequencing.

The closing gesture, “Звезды Дискотек 2 (House of Mystic Lights),” is telling: a Russian disco pastiche that loops back to the opening’s sly play on art-pop tropes. The effect is circular, leaving the listener with a sense of both distance and continuity, as if the past four decades of dance music had been compressed into a single itinerary.

Overall the mix maintains a dry, almost essayistic tone, resisting the obvious climaxes and narrative arcs typical of DJ sets. It operates less as a club document than as a sustained piece of critical listening—an argument, lightly made, for the porousness of dance culture’s borders.

Percival Drift, 2025