Truants

Interview + Download: http://truantsblog.com/2019/truancy-volume-254-dj-voices

Soundcloud: @latenitesbookclub

New York's DJ Voices is drawn towards the unexpected. We spoke at a Japanese restaurant in Dublin (where she'd later play to a crowd of Halloween revellers and well-dressed 20-somethings), and she pointedly said that she would play a whole set of up-tempo tracks slowed down using the CDJ's wide function (which can slow or speed up the track as much as 100%). It's a tactic she makes use of at several points during her Truancy Volume, which manages to feel both like a club set and a soundtrack mix made just with you, the listener, in mind. Having recently watched a lengthy interview with DJ Voices conducted by Willie Burns for his Talk Radio series, we opted against rehashing her total backstory here. Instead, we talked about her current European tour, her work as booker for New York club Nowadays, her goals as a DJ and the music in her record bag.

Interview + Download + Tracklist: http://truantsblog.com/2018/truancy-volume-208-scraaatch/

Soundcloud: @scraaatch @mhysa301 @lawdkn_ws

Hailing from Philly with roots in Maryland, the digital-dwelling, performance-minded sound art and music duo SCRAAATCH load their knapsack of self-determinative songs onto the platter for Truancy Volume 208. Their series of numbered performances each possess unique character thanks to a consciousness and deliberation in their concept and implementation, often through abstract electronics, noise, glitch and field recordings. “SCRAAATCH No. 12”, is their latest – a mediation on Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam” with organs, vocals and all. Recordings of the physical sets often eventually join the online realm alongside the pair’s monthly NTS Radio show, described as “sounds fugitive to the club, the web, the street and the future” and regularly featuring guests such as FAKA, Jessicunt and L’Rain.

The group is formed of two artists, one who can appear as E. Jane or Mhysa and another who surfaces as chukwumaa or lawd knows. Mhysa, a persona engaged with black divadom, is best known for her THOT FANTASY mix series and her enthralling 2017 album on Rabit’s Halcyon Veil, fantasii. lawd knows frequently works with Mhysa outside of SCRAAATCH and has his own locker full of productions and edits to boot. Their practice is emblematic of a constant, continuous growth through collaboration, participation, discussion and action where process is paramount. Through their intrepid attitude to the possibilities of sound, they make a vital case for creating your own space and searching for its potential. This quality permeates their mix for us in all of its chaotic fun, chucking everything from Benny Benassi basslines and Lil Uzi loops to disintegrating breaks and floor workouts into the same blender to make a protein shake for the freaks. Stream and download Truancy Volume 208 below and read our interview to discover SCRAAATCH’s wisdom on project ethos ahead of their European tour this spring.

Interview + Download: http://truantsblog.com/2017/truancy-volume-194-dj-lag/

Soundcloud: @djlaggqomking

Over the past two years, the coastal city of Durban in South Africa has spearheaded the sound of the rapidly growing gqom scene. Throughout Durban townships, the percussive mixture of hip-hop and house elements had primarily spread through a series of file-sharing sites, with Facebook groups and WhatsApp threads acting as hotspots for sharing artists' latest creations. In one of gqom's more fascinating ascents, local taxi companies – in an attempt to seem more attractive to rival departments – started playing gqom in their minivans, as wonderfully highlighted in the YouTube documentary Woza Taxi - Gqom Secret Stash Out Of The Locations. In the same way the internet and social sharing helped gqom reach new audiences throughout Durban, gqom soon found itself spreading across the globe, with labels and journalists in London and Rome quickly championing the sound. One of the genre's most prominent producers – a merit that's propelled his reputation as the 'King of Gqom' – is DJ Lag. Our 194nd Truancy Volume is a storming snapshot of the relentless dynamism of gqom and DJ Lag's masterful presentation of the sound. We're incredibly proud to have a true pioneer as part of the series and we had the pleasure of speaking to DJ Lag about the mix he has kindly provided us with.

Interview + Tracklist + Download: : http://truantsblog.com/2017/truancy-volume-184-foozool-8ulentina

Soundcloud: @clubchai @foozool @8ulentina

Hailing from the Bay Area, FOOZOOL and 8ULENTINA established a regular performance space for local interdisciplinary artists working beyond the paradigms of genres and unilateral approaches to sound through their night, Club Chai. Now, Club Chai has expanded into a greater operation including radio shows, guest mixes, workshops, art shows plus a label arm featuring the staggering Club Chai Vol. 1 crew compilation released earlier this year. Whichever medium they convey it through, their message is as ambitious and vital as ever: visibility and opportunity for non-Western artists to present their own narratives, unconstrained by the tradition and linearity of the sociocultural, historical and artistic status quo, prioritising diasporic, femme, queer and trans voices. For FOOZOOL, this involves her Armenian heritage as a core part of her sound practises alongside filmmaking and creative production, while 8ULENTINA has elaborated on their focus on “diasporic fantasy” across sound and installation art featuring fashion and crafts in a previous interview with us.

There’s a constant sense of interdisciplinary inspiration and fluid storytelling throughout their individual DJing practises as well as their own productions. Having hosted 8ULENTINA’s excellent Truancy Volume last year, we’re extremely thrilled to be able to present a joint mix from FOOZOOL and 8ULENTINA – a rarely recorded collaboration usually reserved for the parties themselves. Ahead of their UK tour next month, the Club Chai duo serve up a tantalising taste with Truancy Volume 184, packing riddims from across the globe along with a moment to remember for all you Whitney fans out there.

Interview + Tracklist + Download: http://truantsblog.com/2017/truancy-volume-183-ahadadream/

Soundcloud: @ahadadream

A few months ago we asked some questions to London-based producer and DJ, Ahadadream, just as he got set to drop the second release on his own label More Time. We discussed his inspirations and mantras, his dream Boiler Room lineup and how he went about producing the tracks for that very second EP. Titled Movements, we described it as a four-track monster brimming with nervous energy, and a hefty release of no-nonsense club music that thrived off the pulsating drums of his own heritage. As well as More Time, Ahad works at Boiler Room and has also spent the last two years running 'Ahadadream Presents', a night showcasing some of the best from the UK, with people like Novelist, DJ Q, Funkystepz and Flava D all having played in the past. An interview didn't seem quite enough of a spotlight for an emerging DJ on the rise, so without much hesitation, we asked if he'd be interested in contributing to our Truancy Volume series in the coming months. Heavily inspired by percussive UK funky rhythms, the mix provides some serious extra energy, drawing for afrobeat and dancehall cuts alongside club anthems from A$AP Ferg and Alex Coulton. Here's what he had to say on the mix.

"An hour full of percussion which has directly influenced my productions and tracks that have played a recurring, vital part in my sets for the last few years. I tried not to just pack this full of new dubs and exclusives but instead create a reflection of myself as an artist which will stand the test of time and stay true to me over a long period of time."

Download + Tracklist + Interview: http://truantsblog.com/2016/truancy-volume-146-iglew/

Soundcloud: @iglew92

Our 146th Truancy Volume comes from Iglew, a producer based in grime's square waved legacy and who caught our eye last year with a series of unreleased tracks, rips and his 'Urban Myth' EP released on Mr. Mitch's very own Gobstopper Records. Since then he's remained relatively quiet throughout 2016, but continues to reach out and force us to take note with tracks featured on nearly ever single Boxed mix that circulates the web. From seeing Iglew shell it down at Come Thru in Leeds last year we're excited to showcase a 45 minute mix that is beautifully composed, highlighting the more introspective aspect of his music. With twelve of the fifteen tracks being unreleased, be prepared to journey through melodic bliss. We also caught up with him for a quick Q&A ahead of his upcoming release on the Boxed EP and tried, unsuccessfully, to get out of him what the 'Emglew' collab on E.M.M.A's new Dazed mix was all about.

Tracklist/Interview: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xv-e-m-m-a

Soundcloud: @oiiemma

For the fifteenth edition of Functions Of The Now we're extremely pleased to present a long time Truants favourite: E.M.M.A. Although E.M.M.A’s release schedule has slowed since her debut album Blue Gardens landed, her Functions Of The Now mix hints at the wealth of dubplates waiting to be unleashed, including the exquisitely titled Magna Kanye. Elsewhere, E.M.M.A finds common ground with producers on the dreamier end of grime: rising star Iglew, Gobstopper Records label head Mr Mitch and Coyote Records affiliate Tom E. Vercetti (solo and together with his production trio Silk Road Assassins) all make an appearance.

Soundcloud: @r-i-p-dj

Artwork: Joe Jackson @ deadgoodshit.com

Read More: http://truantsblog.com/2015/functions-of-the-now-xiv-dj-nj-drone

DJ NJ Drone has been occupying precarious borderspace for some time, tip-toeing around genre in his production of frantic, hi-speed abstractions. Overdriven, overloaded, NJ Drone is like déjà vu, an anomaly simultaneously familiar and distant. Travelling through his ‘mind club’ at 150+ bpm gives the sense of breaking through space-time, of continuous momentum accompanied by bizarre vocal incantations that affect the mind like the hideous but kinda cute soundworld of Fitch and Trecartin. But at the end of the day, we break through the mind to find a body lurking beneath, we find embodied ritual beyond weltschmerz, beyond acidic regurgitations of technological positivism. While NJ Drone’s speed may lend itself as a metonym for accelerationism’s privileged desires for cyber-disembodiment, ultimately we are directed towards a firmer politics of the body as resistance in real space (that some of the more optimistic amongst us might hope to find on the dancefloor). In the words of Laboria Cuboniks: “no more futureless repetition on the treadmill of capital, no more submission to the drudgery of labour, productive and reproductive alike, no more reification of the given masked as critique.” Rediscover yr bod with DJ NJ Drone!