Industrial Complex

Recorded 8/19/25

…I’m gonna clean up the garage.

Tracklist

Tamar Sabadini - Undercover (Original Mix)DJ Luciano - Touch ToneSamma Lone - My FeelingsMAW Presents India - To Be In LoveFolamour Ft. Kio Amachree - Ivoire (Austin Ato Remix)Papillon (IL), REBRN - Astronaut (Original Mix)Folamour, Kabusa Oriental Choir - Easy To Love (Original Mix)Royksopp - I Had This Thing (Kraak & Smaak Remix)Emmanuel Jal - Kuar (FNX Omar Remix)Samaran - Paris Madness (Club)Doug Willis - Risky Biznizz (Original Mix)Far&High - Sans Vetements (Original Mix)The Organism - Ups And Downs (Original Mix)Scott Diaz - We Reminisce (Sebb Junior Remix)AR - Recently (Original Mix)Jennifer Touch - Chemistry (Llewellyn's Retouch)Ferreck Dawn, Robosonic & Nikki Ambers - In My Arms (Extended Vocal Mix)Kano - I´m Ready (Mousse T´s WIP)Janelle Kroll, Dennis Ferrer - Mind Ur Step (Nick Curly Remix)Donae'O, Copyright - My Desire (Jullian Gomes Remix)Robin S vs Shiba San - Show Me Love Okay (Dirty Lou Mash 123)Gorge - Be YourselfGreen Velvet, Chris Lake - Deceiver (Extended Mix)Tiga - Don’t Break My Heart (Shiba San Remix)Maur & Roobinz - Gospel Man (Original Mix)Billy Kenny - Just Came For The Music (Extended Mix)Kormak - Keep On (Amine Edge & DANCE Extended Remix)Bohemien & Raf Parola - Midnight Flavor (Original Mix)Robot Needs Oil - Mood Swings (Yvan Genkins Remix)Mochakk - Seschi & The Clown (Original Mix)Shaded - Holla Atcha Boy (Original Mix)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

I’m excited to finally report back on my ethnomusicology lab colleagues’ and my third and final trip to Ecuador getting to know some rarely-contacted people groups.

It took two solid days to get from the airstrip to the settlement in the upper Orinoco basin. The village is hidden behind a ring of flooded lowlands, accessible only by canoes. The community received us with less caution than they had in the past but they were as reserved as ever.

After a few days, we were very graciously granted the chance to document one of their performances. I hadn’t expected to be able to actually capture any sound on the trip — the Zarmian tribes were apprehensive about being recorded during our last two visits. I’m thrilled that they were so generous with us and allowed us to return with the only known recording of a Mengedoht performance.

The term Mengedoht refers to a family of electroacoustic musical traditions originating among the Zarmian people, an isolated group residing deep within the equatorial forests of the upper Orinoco basin in South America. Contact with the Zarmian has been minimal, and documentation of their cultural practices remains very limited.

Early field recordings suggested that music plays a central role in ritual and cosmological expression, serving partially as an encoded system of elemental representation.

Taxonomy

Zarmian practitioners recognize five categories of Mengedoht: Corn, Earth, Water, Fire, and Sun. These categories are not arbitrary but map directly onto the ecological and spiritual framework of the tribe. Corn is linked to agriculture and sustenance; Earth to ancestry and burial rites; Water to seasonal floods; Fire to both destruction and renewal; Sun to cosmological order. (The recording we captured is of the Fire type.)

Instrumentation

Mengedoht is performed on handmade electroacoustic instruments, assembled entirely from materials available within the jungle environment. Copper wiring is salvaged from trade debris, resonant chambers are carved from gourds and large seeds. The tribe has modified old World War II amplification equipment and on special occasions are able to get enough generator power together for a performance.

The Fire piece demonstrates three prominent timbral classes:

* Amplified transverse flutes with contact microphones

* Percussive bursts of noise, arising from the impact of stones or bones across metal plates

* Sustained harmonic layers played via vine fibers strung across hollow gourds with wire-coil pickups

Their peculiar system of instrument-making reflects a closed technological ecosystem: no imported parts are used, and each instrument remains a singular object, not replicated across performers.

Social Function

Fire-type Mengedoht is performed in nocturnal rituals marking transitions (from childhood to adulthood or from adulthood to elder-status) of the people in the community. The songs serve as accompaniment to dance and as a symbol of cleansing and purifying dimensions of fire. Performers typically conceal their faces with ash during these ceremonies.

The genre takes influence from only a few external sources, some records that were left in the region during WWII, and therefore is hard to classify. It emerges as a uniquely Zarmian practice, borrowing from their indigenous cosmology and self-devised electroacoustic experimentation.

The piece included here is a great example of a truly novel form built in isolation on technological ingenuity and elemental symbolism.

As dawn broke on our final day, the Zarmian elders allowed us to replay the Fire recording through their own improvised loudspeakers. The villagers sat in silence, listening intently to their music reflected back at them through alien equipment. When the last ricky-ticky note faded, there was no applause or commentary.

We packed our instruments, exchanged parting gestures, and retraced our path downriver.

The single reel we carried back with us remains the only Mengedoht ever to be heard in a developed nation, and I’m so happy to be able to share it here with you. The piece will be included on a Folkways compilation of other music of this region in 2026.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

Methodology

* Import the Vocal TrackLoad an isolated a capella recording into ACE Studio.

* Generate MIDI and LyricsACE Studio’s Convert Vocal to MIDI & Lyrics function analyzes the performance, producing:

* A MIDI piano-roll with its estimate of the sung notes.

* A text transcription of the lyrics.

* Accept the InaccuraciesBy no means should you correct any of the output.

* Assign an AI SingerSelect an AI voice within ACE Studio. Apply it to the auto-generated MIDI and lyrics to create a new vocal performance.

* Prepare a Backing Track

Create a new instrumental arrangement.

* Mix the Final VersionCombine the AI-generated vocal with the backing track. Export the result as your completed AI Karaoke version.

Lyrics

O.P.P. how can I explain itI'll take you frame by frame itTo have you all jumping, shouting, saying itO.P.P. is for other people's property

Gretchen, Temple, lastly, that's not that simpleHuh, it's sort of like another way to call a cat a kittenIt's five little letters that are missing hereYou get it on occasion, the feeling's ephemeralAnother brother shot down, it's not that unpredictable

It's sporadic, it's composed of flukes, I'll say itMaybe you want to decipher the codeBut there's no room for fascination, there's just room to hitHow many zany and mad motoristsWhat I'm giving you is what you're taking, slave

A hot ticket offering, it's not what's happeningPrescience, Juniata, with it, but if you don'tThis membership, you're down, I doubt, O.P.P., you down with it?Pays, newswomen, fees, you doubt it, owe me, you and me, you and O.P.P.

I'm with a perverse O.P.P., I was of the laneI peeked at a subkingdom, it's the sameBut the lesson, it's in the lingo, lovelyI call it the lynx, earner, ballot, with plaintiffs

I wooed, Yerena, that, I do, it, unoA papa, I say, alas, and it stands for PradaNow, lazy, Nickens, a kiss back, tell me exactlyHave you ever known a blur, like a girl, stop, look just nice?

You looked, and you knew, right away, he was someoneThough he was gonna be wards, anyway, you can be shyOlsen's, day, you didn't care, causing a rowPerno, Quattlebaum, where's the life even?

I win, unwise, can't, cause I'm right in, closerSadder now, not being seen, if you're done, hands upHa, say yo, P.P., I, we, brine, when your due, you knowIs, waylay, may, should, out, now, down, with, a this crown

You, oaks, no, me, you, oozing, with, O.P.P.You, doubt, in, O.P.P., you doubt, with O.P.P.A, you, with, O.P.P., I, you, with, O.P.P.Thou, with, O, with, O.P.P., I, I, a, proper, meeting

I had, but girl, and she knew, ayer, girl, was, and, it, was, fallYeah, she hits, come in, back, intensificationLive, in, lets, my girl, it's, oh, leave, she said, no, I love, youChurches, that's, it's all, when, you, get, down, you, crown

The more, that's, one, O.P.P., you keep, your, until, it, gets, backTo, her, inciting, and, of, you, work, at, the, sense, dataO, in, my, heart, for, sure, I'm, go, to, a, be, calm, it, amI'm, with, you, with, me, you, outta, with, you, O.P.P.You, with, me, with, O.P.P., with, me, O.P.P., with, me, I'm, missing

With, beat, beats, break, it, down.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

People think of Detroit as a techno city, but of course there’s tons of good Detroit house, and we have our own flavor of Electro that I ascribe a lot of credit to Electrifying Mojo for creating — in the years when all the Detroit Techno mucketymucks were coming up, he introduced the city to Kraftwerk and played it a LOT.

He played Kraftwerk alongside Yello and Prince and deep R&B cuts on an urban and quite audience-segregated station, WGPR. The station had few white or suburban listeners and its ads and content were strongly focused within the city limits.

Detroit Techno and Detroit Electro owe a lot of their spirit to Kraftwerk because of him.

When I listen back to Kraftwerk today, the beats are SO FUNKY that if I didn’t know better and was told it was made by urban Americans I’d believe it.

So here we have some Detroit Electro which swerves over into breaks, to complete the circuit with Miami Bass (another genre with Kraftwerk in it), then jumps the median on I-75 into techno, and makes a phonecall to London to acknowledge some sonically related English bass music with Flowdan and Pearson Sound.

(Sometime soon we’ll settle the other Detroit genre misconception, that Detroit does not OWN Footwork and Jit, with a jit mix that will blow your socks right through your shoes.)

What up doe? Let me know what you think. Get that deep-cleaning done or finally finish that stupid deck that you owe Marketing.

I love you and Substack is fun. Reach out, raver.

/DJIC

I’m trying to do this for a (partial) living… and might need to flee the country on pretty short notice. I post multiple hours of expert-curated and well-mixed (no AI and no Sync! I’m a real and very experienced underground rave DJ!) Substack Soundtrack per week and will hip you to things you didn’t know existed. Plus I have really good taste. For less than the price of a cup of coffee…

Rohaan - El Conde (Original Mix)Detroit's Filthiest - Get the Strap (Original Mix)Ben Klock, Flowdan, Fadi Mohem - Our Sector (Original Mix)Senchai - Midnight Dream (Original Mix)Special Request - Spectral Frequency (Original Mix)DJ Godfather - The Next 200 (Original Mix)Claude VonStroke, Justin Jay - Nucleus (Original Mix)Hermeth - Devil's Reject (Original Mix)Hudson Mohawke, Thys, Nikki Nair - Set The Roof (Thys Remix)Mount Kimbie, Kai Campos - Quartz (Client_03 Remix)Ivy Lab - Cake (Nikki Nair Remix)D_Roots - Miami 21 (Original Mix)Laksa - Belly Brocka (Original Mix)Nikki Nair - One Four Five (Original Mix)DJ Godfather - Ghost In a Beat (Original Mix)Pearson Sound - Cobwebs (Original Mix)Pearson Sound - Twister (Original Mix)DJ Godfather - The Next 100 (Original Mix)Françoise Hardy - Je T'aime

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

Tracklist

* France Gall - Laisser Tomber Les Filles - Leave the Girls Alone

* Annie Philippe - On M'a Toujours Dit - I Was Always Told

* Françoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu - How to Say Goodbye

* Inga - Dein Spiel Ist Endlich Aus - Your Game Is Finally Over

* Noelle Cordier - Cheese - Fromage

* Brigitte Bardot - Ne Me Laisse Pas L'aimer - Do Not Allow Me To Get Any Lamer

* Cecile Grandin - Le Scaphandre Blanc - The White Diving Suit

* Delphine - La Fermeture-éclair - The Zipper

* Zouzou - Demain - Tomorrow

* Christie Laume - Rouge-Rouge - Red-Red

* Gillian Hills - Tut, Tut, Tut, Tut - [Busy signal sound]

* Danielle Denin - Quand Tu M'embrasses - When You Kiss Me

* Milva - Tamburino, Ciao... - Tambourine, Goodbye...

* Pussy Cat - Cette Nuit - Tonight

* France Gall - L'amérique - America

* Katy Line - Les Mots Croisés - The Crosswords

* Ann Sorel - Attention - Attention

* Carmen - Les Pantalons - Pants

* France Gall - C'est Pas Facile D'être Une Fille - It’s Not Easy Being a Girl

* Pat Harris - Hippy Hippy Shake - Hippy Hippy Shaque

* Anne Kern - Tant Pis, Tant Pis, Entre Donc (Come On In) - Too Bad, Too Bad, Come On In

* Charlotte Leslie - Les Filles C'est Fait Pour Faire L'amour - Girls Are Made to Make Love

* France Gall - Ne Sois Pas Si Bete - Don’t Be So Dumb

* Jacqueline Taïeb - Le Coeur Au Bout Des Doigts - The Heart at the Tip of Your Fingers

* France Gall - Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son - Doll of Wax, Doll of Song

* Brigitte Bardot - Je Danse Donc Je Suis - I Dance, Therefore I Am

* Françoise Hardy - Voilà - Here It Is

* Marie LaForet - Mon Amour, Mon Ami - My Love, My Friend

* France Gall - Ella Elle L'a (Folamour Edit) - Ella, She’s Got It (Folamour Edit)

In France as much as in the US, the ‘60s brought unrest, cultural upheaval, and fast changes to traditional norms. The music we’re subjecting ourselves to today, known as “ye-ye” in France and other countries on the continent, emerged as a blending of chanson and early rock. It’s generally poppy and light music, but it served as a serious vehicle for personal expression and social critique for the then-teenage baby boomers.

Like comparable rock and pop material in Britain and the US, catchy melodies and exuberance were mashed up with subtext, political nuance, double entendres and commentary on sociosexual dynamics.

The genre became a defining voice for the youth of post-war France, capturing both the optimism and the rebellion that came with the baby boomer generation. It was a sound that both reflected and rejected the societal norms of a country that had just emerged from the shadow of World War II, and was now struggling with its post-colonial identity, the rise of consumer culture, and the looming student revolts of May 1968.

Laisser Tomber Les Filles – France Gall

France Gall’s debut hit, written by Serge Gainsbourg, is one of the defining tracks of the ye-ye genre. Gall, just 16, became the face of the genre with this flippant yet subtly critical anthem, which can be interpreted as a rejection of traditional female passivity suspended in a ruse love song. Someone should play this one for DJT. (Oh yeah, never mind, he definitely doesn’t speak any French.)

Gall’s early career, while predictably fraught with icky Sergegainsbourgian shenanigans, laid groundwork for the genre’s connection to subversive politics.

On M'a Toujours Dit – Annie Philippe

Annie Philippe’s song exemplifies naïve-sounding pop embedded with serious questions about tradition. "I Was Always Told" reveals a youth culture torn between the expectations of society and the search for personal identity.

Annie Philippe was known for her charming yet self-aware performances, and this track reflects the generational tension that would later be expressed in more overtly political and activist modalities in Paris and elsewhere.

Comment Te Dire Adieu – Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy is one of the most celebrated figures of ye-ye, and her work consistently carried an element of melancholic introspection that set her apart from the genre's bubbly median. "Comment Te Dire Adieu," another collaboration with Gainsbourg, is a heart-wrenching meditation.

Hardy's music reflected postwar alienation, making her not just a pop star but an influencer that showed real emotional complexity. While rooted in pop, this song carries an introspective tone which can be seen as an early reflection of the cultural shift that would eventually give rise to the student movements of the late 1960s.

Dein Spiel Ist Endlich Aus – Inga

Inga’s husky delivery is really something else.

"Dein Spiel Ist Endlich Aus" ("Your Game Is Finally Over") straddles the line between French pop and Schlager, blending a cheerful pop sensibility of ye-ye with the melancholic introspection found in German pop of the era.

I know of artists in Italy, Germany, and Austria that could have been classed as ye-ye; presumably all of Western Europe had echoes of the French scene.

Cheese – Noelle Cordier

“Cheese” is one of the more experimental entries in this selection. Cordier, known for her avant-garde approach to ye-ye, takes a more playful, even absurdist approach to the genre. The track’s unexpected title and quirky instrumentation make it a stand-out piece, offering a departure from the conventional themes of love and heartache. In a broader cultural context, it mirrors the youth culture’s embrace of the absurd and the unpredictable—a reflection of the 1960s countercultural movements that were gaining momentum.

Ne Me Laisse Pas L'aimer – Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot was not just a film icon but a cultural symbol of 1960s France. Her involvement in the ye-ye scene, particularly with "Ne Me Laisse Pas L'aimer," merges her iconic sensuality with the innocence and rebellion of ye-ye. Bardot’s image as a liberated woman made her both a feminist figure and a reflection of the sexual revolution in France, even though she never explicitly aligned herself with the feminist movement. This song, like much of her oeuvre, uses sexuality as both a personal expression and a political statement, underlining the changing gender dynamics of the time.

Le Scaphandre Blanc – Cecile Grandin

Cecile Grandin’s “Le Scaphandre Blanc” is one of the more obscure tracks in this collection but offers a fascinating glimpse into the avant-garde side of ye-ye. The track’s haunting atmosphere and ethereal quality evoke themes of alienation, a theme that would later be explored more explicitly in the student protests and the cultural revolution of 1968. Grandin’s music, while remaining in the ye-ye mold, brings a more introspective and intellectual approach to the genre.

La Fermeture-éclair – Delphine

Delphine’s "La Fermeture-éclair" (The Zipper) is a playful yet pointed track that reflects the innocence of ye-ye while also hinting at the sexuality that the genre often flirted with. The metaphor of the zipper can be seen as a symbol for the increasing visibility of sexual liberation in France, a theme that became central during the May 1968 protests, when the personal became increasingly political.

Demain – Zouzou

Zouzou’s “Demain” (“Tomorrow”) evokes a sense of both hope and uncertainty, typical of the 1960s generation. As the title suggests, it looks ahead to a future that is full of possibility, yet remains shrouded in political and social ambiguity. This sense of duality—hope tempered by uncertainty—was a defining theme for France’s youth in the years following the war. Zouzou, known for her charming and playful persona, also captured the rising discontent that was brewing beneath the surface of the French youth movement. As the country stood on the edge of the May 1968 protests, the theme of looking toward a different future resonated deeply with the socio-political realities of the time, where the old order was being questioned, and new ideals were being forged by the younger generation.

Rouge-Rouge – Christie Laume

Christie Laume’s “Rouge-Rouge” is a vibrant, energetic track that reflects the optimism and romanticism of ye-ye. The song’s title, “Red-Red,” evokes a sense of color and vividness, but could al…

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

Just felt like listening to Rockit after reading TTI’s thread and wound up making a quick 80s / electro mixtape. Enjoy!

* Herbie Hancock - Rockit

* Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

* Biz Markie - Biz Is Goin' Off

* Bambaataa Zulu Nation Soul Sonic Force - Zulu Nation Throwdown

* Boogie Down Productions - South Bronx (Instrumental)

* Kelis - Milkshake (A capella)

* The Other People Place - Its Your Love (Original Mix)

* Stanny Abram - Trapped Emotion (Original Mix)

* Surusinghe - Bop (Original Mix)

* Detroit's Filthiest - Dripping in Soul (Original Mix)

* Ivy Lab - Cake (Nikki Nair Remix)

* Ivy Lab - Kik Bak (Original Mix)

* Jaykae, Ms Banks, MS Dynamite, Clipz - Again (Redlight Remix)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

Less weight than usual although it gets pretty aggro in the middle.

Pair with heavy lifting, packing moving boxes, making out or cleaning the basement.

/DJIC

old dude got kids to feed but refuses to return to the software industry because making music and silly crap for you is so much fun plus I worked on getting good at it and studying music and its societal contexts and cultural studies and continental philosophy for like 30 years, so it’s not just some dj, it’s kind of partially an ARG and some alternative history and dada and the situationist international and adbusters too so it’s fun stick around dude can I make you a cocktail here hit this

Tracklist

* Lameduza, Bredren – Acqua

* Scuffed – Alright

* Klinical – Around Me (Workforce Remix)

* Flowdan, Agro – Bad From Morning

* Scar – Bravo Tango (Zero T VIP)

* Enei, SOLAH – Break The Cycle

* Waeys – B.B.

* Alibi, Urbandawn – Caramel

* Constrict – Caution

* Chimpo, Ibekay – Composure

* gyrofield – Cold Cases

* Resslek – Complex

* Enei – Dead Rollout

* Original Sin – Donkey Dust (Let’s Go)

* Mc Sas, Sweetpea – D.R.I.P.S

* Enei – Falling

* VELLE – Forest Forgotten

* Headroom – Gambol

* Teej, Objectiv – Hot Property

* River – Leaving The Past

* gyrofield – Photosystem

* Blackstreet – No Diggity (Acapella)

* Halogenix – Pusha

Steppes & Melty Glaciers

The set begins with Acqua by LaMeduza & Bredren, a submerged opening paced deliberately, the vocals recessed into the mix. Purposefully murky. For a while, selections remain close to the low-slung, rolling side of things. Alright by Scuffed and Around Me (Workforce Remix) bring soul energy with Workforce’s funky drum programming. Despite the fast tempo, we’re not hurried. Glasses of champagne are swung liltingly by the ladies.

The early half of the set’s austere. Transitions are long, spanning near-entire cuts, and little is done to announce change. The curator stays out the way. Tracks overlap in extended phrases, blending gradually while retaining rhythmic identities. Measured.

Bad From Morning by Flowdan and Agro slides in to return us to the street.

Flowdan f*****g rules. Check this out. Barsssssss. Baaaaarrrrs. And a chill erudite fellow as well. Flowdan is basically unknown in the US as far as I can tell and he should be big, and additionally he should also be huge.

It's followed by Bravo Tango (Zero T VIP), which lightens things up. These moments of re-engagement are spaced out across the set, not clustered, and they help distribute weight across what might otherwise feel like a continuous roll.

Solah shows up and rules too.

In the middle third, selections from Waeys, Alibi, Constrict, and Chimpo hold the line. Crispy congas. Caramel and Caution sit in this space—precise, rhythmic, not too saturated. Not sterile! Groovy, funky drum machines. If there are tricks happening in the mix, they’re buried in the folds: slow EQ pulls, slight pitch slips, occasional interplay between vocal cuts and percussive gaps. Nothing is flashy, and that’s the point.

Urbandawn lays his killer live bass chops ‘pon the funkiness to make the whole thing semiorganic. I’m picturing a band of cyborg musicians that look like 24th century Parliament. Chimpo takes the stage after the first couple tunes to sing Composure.

I love Chimpo’s lyrics across all his work, and the song All of the Above is one of my all-time anthems alongside When You’re Ugly and “I Can Do No Wrong.”

The inclusion of Cold Cases by gyrofield causes us to lose the composure that Chimpo admonished us about. We get moshy and aggressive for a while here - Complex by Resslek feels tight, almost Krautrock. Dead Rollout and Donkey Dust keep the intensity up, though the latter is shorter than expected, clipped into the mix more as a motif while the mix is worked briefly and deftly.

D.R.I.P.S and Falling pull us into lighter territory. There’s more vocal presence here, more overt emotionality, though still rendered in cool tones. Forest Forgotten and Gambol arrive quietly and we chill on a steppe, nearby glacier melting and falling away slightly. A slowly-eroding surface.

The last stretch includes Leaving The Past by River, Photosystem by gyrofield reintroduces tension—off-kilter, modulated, and harder to settle into.

Then it’s mashed up with No Diggity (Acapella), which slips into the mix without announcement, and we wrap with Halogenix’ incredible-as-usual sound design.

Overall, the set traverses many of the zones of contemporary drum & bass microgenres with minimalist rollers, halftime hybrids, a few tech-forward tracks with neuro inflection. It does so without falling into compartmentalization or theme-blocking. There's a reluctance to narrate, which works in the mix’s favor. This set holds together structurally despite the wide-ranging styles. It’s sometimes severe and maintains inertia.

Percival Drift, 2075

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

I’m real pissed off so this kind of devolves into noise but you might find it cathartic I guess. The hip hop at the beginning’s pretty listenable and these are massively underrated artists. Mostly jump-up stuff if you want to get hyped for, I don’t know, vacuuming, or making some aggressively spicy dinner, or doing political activism or something.

/DJIC

Send this to that one guy you know who’s super into UK dance music

It begins politely. Some revolutions do.

Detroit reverence—Apollo Brown dusty fidelity with verses from the ever-underrated Clear Soul Forces. In a sequence of tracks that feel conjured, there’s a sense that this selection emerged from a liminal space within the Packard Plant.

Things take a turn with a false flag slow jam a cappella that refracts into motif. Suddenly, the mix ceases to be a playlist. It’s animated itself to stalk the room.

Chimpo and Visages’s Visions serves as the hinge where the mix opens itself up and becomes vulnerable.

Chimpo:

Find the thing you love and make it workDon't find the thing that works and try and love itMe, I'm not cutting on dubs that sound rubbishI'm cooking up the stuff and then I push it on the publicAre you crossing over? Are you going under?Have you got a price, and do you know the number?Do you ever wonder if you should have took another pathWhat's your legacy? What's your pedigree?Are you setting 'bout being what you're set to be?What's your motive? What's your mission?What's your vocation? What's your vision?What's your legacy? What's your pedigree?Are you setting 'bout being what you're set to be?What's your motive? What's your mission?What's your vocation? What's your vision?Do you make it 'cause you like to make it?Or do you make it 'cause you're tryna make it?If somebody that you hated did it, would you slate it?I ain't saying that it's right or wrongIt's your business if you're writing checks or writing songsYou're probably lugging stacks every time that you cook another batch

Back down to Neo-Tokyo streets: urban textures jagged, chrome-flecked. The mix threads through jump-up, neuro, and minimal rollers without ever surrendering to genre orthodoxy. The commonality - thick, dark bass and cyberpunk graffiti. Drilla and Pusha form a stark dyad of martial rhythms with harmonic content that feels almost aloof.

The Want It (Gyrofield Remix) that ruptures the skin. Gyrofield delivers an arrangement that feels hostile: anti-patterns coiled around smeared snares, a visceral pressure system that leaves even seasoned listeners off-balance. Thrown down a stairwell in slow motion.

We get our footing. Ragga edges back in, feeling pressure and chill of oppression but insisting that we Keep On Skankin, Wine Ya Botty, and Gas Dem.

A clever close with Calyx & Teebee’s War Dub brings the sonic architecture to heel before Move leaves the afterimage of the house lights on the retina in the very early morning.

Percival Drift, 2025

Tracklist

DJ Mitsu The Beats – We Got Dat (Remix) (feat. Clear Soul Forces)Apollo Brown – Break The Code (Feat. Supa Emcee, Kuniva, & Alexis Allon)Apollo Brown – Deception & Woes (Feat. Clear Soul Forces)A Tribe Called Quest – The Booty [Instrumental]DJ Big Deezil – If I Ever Fall In Love Again (Acapella)A Tribe Called Quest – Stressed Out Vinyl Reanimators Remix InstrumentalDJ Big Deezil – If I Ever Fall In Love Again (Acapella)Chimpo, Visages – VisionsTeej – Street InheritanceTeej – Slick RickRizzle – Do It For YouMolecular, Waeys – StrappedParticle – That Hz (SMG Remix)Enei, En:vy – DrillaHalogenix – PushaFOURA, Subten, GHS – RudeboyTeej – It's A FeelingMolecular, Waeys – ArrowsAlex Hill, Minor Forms, Kathryn Brenna – Let GoVisages – MelethTeej, Thread – ConstantSustance, Particle – South Side StepperShy FX, Double O, Mr. Williamz – Keep On Skankin (feat. Double O)Rizzle, Creatures, Klinical – CardioRenegade – Terrorist (P.A. Mix)Acuna – Right NowBou – Wine Ya BTraumatize – Gas DemKumarion – Want It (Gyrofield Remix)Calyx & TeeBee – War DubAlozade – Move (Acapella)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

“The Iron Merrimac” is a rarely reprinted poem by the American jurist Billings Learned Hand, written in 1918 during the final year of the First World War. The poem invokes the image of the Civil War ironclad Merrimack as a symbol of mechanized resolve and national endurance, rendered in an austere, unornamented diction that echoes Hand’s own legal prose. Though primarily known for his jurisprudence, Hand’s choice to publish a poem at this historical moment reveals something of the inner life of a man more commonly associated with legal restraint than poetic expression.

Hand was born in 1872 in Albany, New York, to a family steeped in the legal profession. His father, Samuel Hand, served briefly on the New York Court of Appeals before his untimely death, leaving the younger Hand to be raised by his mother, Lydia, a woman of formidable will. Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Hand was deeply influenced by the constitutional theorist James Bradley Thayer and became an early advocate for judicial modesty—a belief that the law must remain anchored in institutional humility rather than moral certainty.

Appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Taft in 1909, Hand later joined the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where he developed a reputation for finely wrought legal opinions marked by intellectual clarity and measured skepticism. His writings on free speech, administrative law, and statutory interpretation remain central to American legal thought, and he is often regarded as the most important judge never to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yet Hand’s private pursuits revealed dimensions of his personality not easily squared with his public role. He was, for instance, an enthusiastic amateur experimental musician, having designed a series of electroacoustic instruments between 1915 and 1922 in collaboration with regional machinists, engineers and organ builders.

Chief among these devices were the Oscillaphone, the Bellharmonic Cabinet, and a bass-register apparatus known simply as the Subsonique—a large, boxy unit constructed of walnut and copper, capable of emitting dense low-frequency waves via coiled filament transducers.

These devices were not curiosities for private amusement. In a handful of closed performances—typically in university basements or civic lecture halls—they were used in concert with percussion ensembles.

The piece included here, whose relationship to “The Iron Merrimac” remains speculative, was scored for three percussionists and three electroacoustic operators. The rhythms, though devised without reference to contemporary idioms, bear an uncanny resemblance to certain late-20th-century forms of electronically mediated music: dense, syncopated, and driven by irregular bursts of low-frequency energy.

Hand never published these compositions, and seems not to have considered them “music” in any formal sense, referring instead to “tonal essays.” He remained circumspect about his musical experiments, though he maintained a brief but intense correspondence with Edgard Varèse, with whom he shared an interest in sonic architecture and the physics of resonance. It was Varèse who first referred to Hand’s Subsonique as “a kind of tectonic tuba.”

Outside of law and music, Hand was an avid skydiver in his early fifties—an unusual pursuit for a man of his profession and era—and an obsessive collector and amateur metallurgist of historical cutlery. These diversions, idiosyncratic as they may seem, offer glimpses into the precision and curiosity that defined his broader intellectual life.

That he turned, briefly and seriously, to poetry during wartime is not aberrant but entirely consistent. “The Iron Merrimac” is less a flight of sentiment than an exercise in structural and moral inquiry. Its martial metaphors are grounded in historical materialism; its cadence mirrors that of marching columns and bureaucratic prose. It is a legal mind dreaming in verse—disciplined, anxious, and acutely aware of the machinery of the state, both literal and figurative.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe

Dies ist ein zehn-Minuten-Bonus-Mix zum Letzten. Er setzt dort an, wo wir aufhörten. Kurz, klar, voll Wumms. Wer da tanzte, tut es hier auch.

Was diesen Mix auszeichnet, ist nicht nur die Genrekenntnis, sondern die Balance zwischen Hommage und Gegenwart. Hier sitzt jeder Schnitt, jedes Acapella ist eine These, jeder Drop ein Beweis. Ein Set für Leute, die nicht fragen „Was ist DnB?“, sondern „Was kann DnB noch sein?“

Die dramaturgische Koordination der Tracks impliziert eine kontextuelle Verflechtung interrhythmischer Narrative. Der Zuhörer befindet sich nicht lediglich in einem auditiven Fluss, sondern in einem hyperkonstruierten Arrangement individueller Subfrequenzembleme. Es entsteht ein affektmodulierendes Klangraumkaleidoskop.

Mit fortschreitender Zeit manifestiert sich eine psychoakustische Synchronisierung transvibratorischer Schwingungskomponenten. Jene führen zur Emergenz einer Meta-Groove-Struktur, einer quasi-sakralen Subbass-Teleologie, die sich in einem Zustand musikalisch induzierter Transzendenz verdichtet – einer synästhesiebegünstigenden Rhythmodynamiksynergetik.

Wir sind in einem ephemeren Schallarchitekturtranszendenztransmissionsraum. Wo Beats keine Takte mehr sind, sondern perzeptionsverflüssigte Erlebnisverteilereinheiten. Und wenn alles verklingt, bleibt nur noch ein Gefühl: postrationalisierbare Nachhallintensitätsresonanzkompression.

Tracklist

JAMES BROWN - FUNKY DRUMMER (100 BPM LOOP)A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (BUSTA_01) [Rhymes vocals acapella]gyrofield - Mel's Teapot (En:vy Remix)Zero T - The Underground (Original Mix)Visages - Meleth (Original Mix)sp:mc, Xtrah, Submotive - Unique Style (Original Mix)Noisia - Crank (Kasra Remix)Mitekiss, Ruth Corey - Embers feat. Ruth Corey (Original Mix)Mitekiss - Bolson (Original Mix)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit djic.substack.com/subscribe