Mitch Jones & Michael Tee stand as two of the key figures in the history of alternative music in Sydney. Together they founded M-SQUARED Records – home to a cluster of now seminal local post-punk artists such as SYSTEMATICS, THE MAKERS OF THE DEAD TRAVEL FAST, YA YA CHORAL, PROD and their own band, SCATTERED ORDER. Nearly 30 years after the fact, SCATTERED ORDER reformed their original line-up in 2009, and started both playing live and recording once again. I was asked to DJ at their second ‘reformation’ gig with THE MAKERS OF THE DEAD TRAVEL FAST and A SLOW RIP – a gig which also represented one of the last live events at the Abercrombie Hotel in Chippendale before it closed its doors.

This mix is essentially my DJ set trimmed to a neat 43 minutes, and features Australia music from the M-SQUARED heyday (1979-1983), both from label artists and beyond. Witnessing this music now, some 30 years later, I’m not particularly aware of the impact that each artist or track may have had at the time, instead I chose to respond to the sounds that still have resonance today. Indeed, listening end-to-end to this mix, this feels like the start of a much longer continuum, and it becomes clear (almost immediately) that there are many current local bands and artists that – wittingly or otherwise – are fostering a unique Australian tradition that began over three decades ago.

Tracklisting:

Severed Heads – Introduction / 1982 [from Adenoids 1977 - 1985 Disc 4]
Systematics – … And The People Are Blowing Their Minds / 1981 [from Boxed Brownies]
Ronnie and the Rhythm Boys – Hey Joe / 1979 [from Little Bands EP]
Ya Ya Choral – God’s Buzzsaw / 1983 [from Such A Dutch Man]
Yclept Dinmakers – I Think A Shell / 1982 [from Klinger The Blowies]
Hiroshima Chair – Reset / 1980 [from Reset]
SPK – Mekano / 1979 [from Auto Da Fe]
Severed Heads – Food City / 1981 [from Clean]
The Limp – Rony Club / 1981 [from A Selection]
Essendon Airport – Runway Rock / 1979 [from Sonic Investigations (Of the Trivial)]
Microfilm – Summer House / 1981 [from From Belgrade With Love]
Prod – Fish Hook / 1980 [from More Songs That Will Never Be Released]
Negative Reaction – Untitled A01 / 1980 [from Negative Reaction]
Zyé yé yé – I Want To Live / 1981 [from Primitive Calculators]
Laughing Hands – Two / 1981 [from Dog Photos]
Severed Heads – Much About Bones, Hello Donald Merry Xmas / 1980 [from Adenoids 1977 - 1985 Disc 1]

Growing up in Scotland, I spent the first 30 years of my life in ignorance of what truthfully represented Australian culture. However, some of the most cherished music that I listened to in my late teens and early 20s was, in fact, born of this country – and this mix that I put together for FBi Radio’s ‘Sunday Night At The Movies’ compiles music from that time. Listening from a distance, halfway around the world, these artists (and particularly the tracks represented here) became a soundtrack for an imaginary Australia.

What surprises me most, sadly, is that many of these artists are rarely discussed or referenced here in Australia – indeed, their personal impact would seem inversely proportional to their local legacy.

Mix for FBi Radio’s ‘Sunday Night At The Movies’, 12th December 2010.

Features extracts from:

Alan Lamb – Night Passage
Dead Can Dance (pictured above) - The Host Of Seraphim
The Foetus All-Nude Revue – Diabolus In Musica
SPK – The Doctrine Of Eternal Ice
Single Gun Theory – Words Written Backwards (Radio Baghdad Edit)
This Mortal Coil – Dreams Made Flesh *
Future Sound Of London – Papua New Guinea (Dumb Child Of Q Mix) **
Severed Heads – Big Car Crash
Dead Can Dance – Chant Of The Paladin
The Foetus All-Nude Revue – Shut
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Watching Alice
Alan Lamb – Last Anzac
Single Gun Theory – Wild Blue Seas
Harold Baigent – Opening Narration from ‘The Road Warrior’
Dead Can Dance – Orbis De Ignis
Single Gun Theory – Closest To My Heart

* interpreted by Lisa Gerrard
** featuring Lisa Gerrard vocal sample from ‘Dawn Of The Iconoclast’ by Dead Can Dance

Telafonica are a Sydney band that operate more like an evolving, fluid collective rather that a rigid formation of players. Their original line-up has filtered into the diaspora, with core Australian members morphing into a four-piece that explore a long terrain, bordered by melodic pop on one side and experimental electronica on the other. Although the palate is broad, the influences are not always evident – hence, when Adrian from Telafonica suggested dropping a mixtape of tracks for Discontent that acted as touch-points for the creation of their most recent album “Love On the Second Stair“, it was impossible to resist. Whilst many bands shroud themselves in unnecessary mystique, Telafonica take the opposite approach – here, by revealing their influences in such direct terms, and also at their web site, where work-in-progress conversations between members are carried out in the public domain. Stuart Buchanan

“In December of 2008, the Australian based members of Telafonica decided to specifically focus on the creation of a new album. They already had a handful of tracks in various stages of development that they had been playing in their live shows but were looking to see how to draw all these together, as well as create some new songs. One of the tactics used to give focus was the creation of half hour inspiration ‘mixtapes’ on CD to be shared around. In the end, only Blake and Adrian ended up compiling whole mixtapes, though Rebecca and Eliza contributed other tracks themselves as inspiration for specific Telafonica songs.

“The album was created and released in November of 2009 as ‘Love On The Second Stair’. This mixtape, developed especially for the Discontent blog, combines some of the tracks that were on the initial inspiration discs, along with other inspirations that came to the fore in the process of making the album, as well as some tracks from which samples were directly taken and used within the music that formed the finished album.

“There is obviously a wide range of things to be heard, from the most mainstream of mainstream to obscure side channels in the history of music. These reflect Telafonica’s bower bird approach to music construction, begging, borrowing and stealing from any and everywhere in order to compile their own postmodern, post-retro pop.

“In this mix, where a track appears in full, it has been either already made available by the original artists on the internet for free, or specific permission has been gained from the original artists to include their work. Obviously, a number of the tracks have not been made available for free and permission would be difficult (and costly) to secure. In those cases, the tracks have been used in a traditional sampling sense, with only very brief snippets occurring, and are generally processed in some manner.” Telafonica

Discontent – I Don’t Buy Records In Your Shop Now I Tape Them All (A Mixtape By Telafonica)

DOWNLOAD (70MB)

Tracklisting:
(nomo – all the stars)
(adam and the ants – kick)
(parts & labor – satellites)
(the martini bros – dance like it is o.k. (dj koze & the tease remix))
(the flying lizards – money (that’s what i want))
1. beem – RER
(the beatles – sgt pepper’s lonely hearts club band reprise)
2. balun – a surprise
3. whitewash – feather
(sigur ros – festival)
4. slareffenklang – you win
(bow wow wow – c30, c60, c90, go!)
(the jam – that’s entertainment)
5. ghoul – swimming pool
6. sufjan stevens – sister winter
7. hamilton yarns – newhaven to dieppe
8. go! team – junior kickstart
(the smashing pumpkins – tonight, tonight)
9. parades – exodus (telafonica treble remix)
10. underlapper – choking ibis

IMAGE: Cover Design by Telafonica

When presenting Fat Planet many moons ago, I was always keenly attuned to sounds that fused my two (then) primary concerns – broad internationalism and rugged experimental beats. Proponents of such a fusion were (and to a large extent still are) few and far between, but Mutamassik, dj/Rupture and Filastine stood out, stood proud and stood very loud. Often abrasive, and never compromising, they nonetheless married the promotion of global sounds throughout Western lands with an unfailing respect, collaborative diligence and due payback for the local artists involved. To herald the release of his ‘Extra Dirty Bomb’ EP (reworks and live tracks that “shits on geography & genre”, with mixes from Jahcoozi, Cardopusher, Phowa, Deep Throat X, Maga Bo and Electromeca), I’m delighted to post Grey Filastine’s new mixtape of insurrectionary bass music, and as an accompaniment, asked him for a few words on its genesis.

“Last year’s tour started in Oceania January 1st and ended at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in late December. I went there to do a sound intervention, broadcasting 5-channel noise collages from moving bicycles as part of the larger direct-action bike bloc. The state repression was massive, we were detained, searched, and had our workspace raided. Meanwhile the COP15 Summit itself was a fucking disaster, as the leaders of the world proved yet again that we can’t rely on solutions from above. While there I also did a Filastine gig, in a circus tent inside the free-town of Cristiania, which ended in teargas & police helicopters pounding overhead. On return to Barcelona I began working on this mix, it was to be a “promo” for a new EP of remixes, but the urgency of this moment shaped it into something else. I hope it triggers some reflexion, some inspiration, or perhaps even some action.” Grey Filastine

We Are Experiencing Turbulence – Insurrectionary Bass Music Sin Fronteras (A Mixtape by Filastine)

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Tracklisting:
- Infernal Noise Brigade- live in Mexico at street protest
- Jazzsteppa- AmeriCa B
- Filastine/Cardopusher – Discontinuities (Singularities remixed- from the EP Extra Dirty Bomb)
- Fnaire- Lalla Mennana
- Filastine/Jahcoozi- Opium Den (Desordenador remixed- from the EP Extra Dirty Bomb)
- Beats Antique- Oriental Uno (feat. Fanafara Kalashikov)
- Oro 11- El Cangrejo
- Arena & Etian acapella- excerpted from Voces Rebeldes project
- Filastine/Ill Gates- Pharma Sutra (Fitnah remixed- from the EP Extra Dirty Bomb)
- Filastine/Maga Bo- Batalha Cotidiana (B’talla remixed- from the EP Extra Dirty Bomb)
- Chancha Via Circuito- Calzada
- Foxdye- Foxdyechek Collision
- Frikstailers- Sudaka Invasor
- Tego Calderon- Diento de Oro acapella cameo
- Sonik Omi- Ye Jawani Hai Mera Jaan
- Simbad- Airport Beat 1008
- Jahdan Blakkamoore- Dem A Idiot (instrumental – prod. by Matt Shadetek & Modeselektor)
- Amir Sulaiman- Danger
- Sunship feat. Warrior Queen/ Sinden(remix)- Quits
- Filastine/Deep Throat X- Con Las Manos En La Masa (remixfrom the EP Extra Dirty Bomb)
- Madera Limpia- La Lenta (Schlachthofbronx remix)
- Bassnectar- Cozza Frenzy
- Venetian Snares- Sabbath Dubs
- Kray Twinz feat. Twista- What We Do
- Suckafish P. Jones- Caribbean Nightmare Agent
- Dubchild- Can’t Keep Me Down
- Caving- Slimthug
- Dog Murras (feat. Propria Lixa)- Vai Levar Galheta
- Brasil 96- Batucada
- Lightning Bolt- On Fire
- Rhythm Collision featuring- Indian Street Music #3 / Sein Sah Thin / Tabuh Winangun Marga / Venetian Snares /
- Filastine / Drumcorps
- Filastine- Como Fugitivos (instrumental version)

with words lifted from:
- UK newscasters
- Carl Sagan dubbed into castilian spanish
- ANC Radio Freedom BroadcastSouth Africa1969
- a US Military Commander
- Waking Life
- The Century of Self
- Slavoj Zizek
- and more sources of lost origin

BUY: Extra Dirty Bomb at iTunes | Additech | vinyl

Do you remember those teenage dreams?  For some it may be a recent memory, for others, it’s somewhat more distant.  To the latter, teen dreams exist simply as faint, fading memories -  idylls, fantasises, hopes and nightmares, never to be lived or experienced, destined only to be ravaged and degraded by time.  The nostalgia for lost teenage dreams is balanced by the fact that the actual shape and substance of those dreams can no longer be recalled – it’s simply a sense-memory, an instinctual belief that something has been lost, but with no recollection of what the ‘something’ actually is. This mixtape somewhat boldy tries to capture that sense memory – a hankering for a past, refracted through the eyes of the future.

Everything contained herein is stretched and strained over time, not so much hypnogogic as hypnotic, post-nostalgia – lulling us into the security of a place and time that is simultaneously familiar and unknown. We drift from Roj‘s Ghost Box intro, to Salem‘s screwed goth-hop remix of Playboy Tre and Tan Dollar‘s funeral wedding march, projecting via White Rainbow‘s astral tones, Kharkov‘s elusive and ultimately unobtainable folk melody and Ancient Crux‘s dark pean to romantic longing, dripping with echoes of music from half a century ago. It’s full of promise and mystery, yet it ultimately unsettles and perhaps never truly satisfies – the true mark of a real teenage dream.   Stuart Buchanan

In Teen Dreams

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1. Roj – You Are Here / England [1:29]
2. Black Vatican – Night Is Come / U.S. [4:18]
3. Railcars – Cathedral With No Eyes (white rainbow remix) / U.S. [6:24]
4. Playboy Tre – Sideways (Salem Drag Chop remix) / U.S. [4:48]
5. Shlohmo – Couch / U.S. [3:34]
6. Tan Dollar – Untitled / U.S. [2:36]
7. Ancient Crux – In Teen Dreams / U.S. [2:33]
8. Pina Chulada – Someone Like You / U.S. [3:39]
9. Blastcorp – Last (Harp mix) / Australia [2:25]
10. Syntaks – Sudden Dream / Denmark [3:00]
11. White Rainbow – Mind Haze Is Clear Delights / U.S. [10:29]
12. LJ Kruzer – Tam8+ei4 / England [1:02]
13. Kharkov – Folkal / Australia [5:34]
14. Mokira – Seven Ply / Sweden [7:16]
15. Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood – Precognition / Australia [2:14]

img: Nyalee (via Flickr, Creative Commons)

Note: All music on the mixtape is either licenced via Creative Commons or has otherwise been made freely available by relevant artists & labels. If you like what you hear, please support the artists -visit their site, buy their music.

Around three years ago (April 2007), Fat Planet featured its first look at the early shoots of a new crop of what became known, to some, as ‘digital cumbia’, or ‘nuevo cumbia’ with a post on Andres Schteingart, aka El Remolon.  Unbeknown to anyone reading it, least of all me, Schteingart would come to form part of the core nucleus of producers that took hold of a revitalised Central and South American sound, and took it all over the world.  You can now discover vast quantities of similar material via collectives such as Argentina’s prolific ZZK crew, or releases on labels such as Bersa Discos or Dutty Artz.  An incidental result of this sprawling genre development has been the way in which cumbia has been celebrated and adopted outside of the Americas – and here in Australia, one of the pivtoal players in the ongoing internationalisation of the sound is Moses Iten (a.k.a. saca la mois DJ!!).

I had the good fortune to DJ regularly with Moses back when we were both part of the Uber Lingua crew – he continues to DJ, to make music, to produce, remix and educate on music from the Americas, with performances next week as part of Tasmania’s MONA FOMA festival and the 2010 Big Day Out Festival. When we were discussing Moses’ mixtape for Discontent, we were both keen to push towards more innovative and experimental material – music that that we both loved, but perhaps didn’t get to expose often enough. Here, Moses presents a wonderful selection of sounds from ‘the Americas’, and – as he’s named in ‘Volume One’ – I’m hoping that we’ll see a sequel before too long.
Stuart Buchanan

“Americas Vol. 1 is sourced from the Spanish-speaking Americas, but there are many other languages spoken from Alaska to Patagonia. Exploring andean minimal, huarachegaze, nueva cumbia and other experimental genres hopefully never to be deciphered, Americas Vol. 1 is not about being a definitive compilation of “Futuristic Sound from Latin America”, but attempts to be a mixtape as platform for a dialogue of the past with the future. Also, while as a DJ, performer and producer it’s mostly my aim to make you dance above all else, I took this mixtape as an opportunity to expose other sounds I’ve been hearing, and digging, from the Americas. Although I travel as much as possible, much of my exploration of music is via internet from my home base in Australia, so it was only appropriate to also make this an opportunity to present some of the best music that is little represented even in countries of origin and can only be sourced via cyberAmericas.”
Moses Iten (a.k.a. saca la mois DJ!!)

Discontent – Americas Volume One (A Mixtape by Moses Iten)

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1. EL REMOLON feat. SUMERGIDO Remoloneando - from ‘Cumbia Bichera EP + Remixes’ on Pueblos Nuevos, 2007 (Argentina)
2. MIKA MARTINI Iniciacion - from ‘Mestizo’ on Pueblos Nuevos, 2007 (Chile)
3. MARCELO FABIAN Negros y Serenos - from ‘NF0005’ on newfolder.com.ar, 2008 (Argentina)
4. TREMOR Viajante (THE CUMBIA COSMONAUTS Remix), 2009 - upcoming release on ZZK Records (Argentina/Australia)
5. KING COYA feat. TREMOR & AXEL KRYGIER Don Axelina – from ‘Cumbia De Villa Donde’ onZZK Recordss, 2009 (Argentina)
6. TREMOLO AUDIO El Ya Sabia – from ‘Random V 1′ on Mil Records, 2004 (Mexico)
7. KAMPION Primaveral - from ‘Invisible EP’ on Filtro, 2005 (Mexico)
8. THE PERONISTS La Cumbia Del Laberinto – previously unreleased, 2009 (Argentina)
9. ALDO BENITEZ Día Libre (CHANCHA VIA CIRCUITO Remix) - from ‘El Portafolio Sin Un Peso on Peaton, 2009 (Argentina)
10. EL REMOLON Cumbia Bichera (TREMOR Mix) – from ‘Cumbia Bichera EP + Remixes’ on Pueblos Nuevo, 2007 (Argentina)
11. CERO 39 feat. BETO Morenita – previously unreleased, courtesy of Cero39, 2009 (Colombia)
12. LOS AMPARITO Las Miradas De Magaly – from ‘Fonogramaticos Vol.3’ on clubfonograma.com, 2009 (Mexico)
13. CARLA MORRISON Buena Malicia (LOS AMPARITO Remix) - unreleased, courtesy of Carla Morrison, 2009 (Mexico)
14. DIEGO BERNAL Dusty Sanchez – from ‘4corners’ on Exponential Records, 2009 (USA)
15. MIKA MARTINI Why No – from ‘Mestizo’ on Pueblos Nuevos, 2007 (Chile)
16. LOS MACUANOS Alma – from ‘Fonogramaticos Vol.4’ on Club Fonograma, 2009 (Mexico)
17. KIXLY Surfline Coaster – previously unreleased, courtesy of Kixly/Moises Horta, 2009 (Mexico)
18. TREMOLO AUDIO Rosita (LUCRECIA Remake) - from ‘Visitas: a collection of remixed tremolo audio’ on Mil Records, 2008 (Mexico/Colombia)
19. SOKIO El Pueblo… (“Pueblo” GERARDO FIGUEROA Version) – from ‘Columbia Remixes’ on Pueblos Nuevo, 2009 (Chile)

img: Magdalena Pereza (Mexico)

In June 2009, I gave away a free mixtape to new subscribers of FBi Radio during my ‘Disorient’ show. The mixtape, titled ‘Disorientation Session’, features a few tracks that you can find on the first two Discontent mixtapes (Mixtape One and Two), with additions from various artists that appeared regularly on the show’s playlists, or as earlier single posts on the Discontent blog. As an aggregator of the sounds found on the (somewhat short-lived) Disorient radio show, this will more than likely remain the only existing audio document.

I’m particularly fond of this mixtape as its sensibility stretches back to the earlier days of the Fat Planet radio show – a focus on more innovative and often experimental music from around the world, before the beats and bass kicked in.  I particularly like the way that Salem’s screwed, slow-core can nestle near Villa Diamante’s warped take on South American cumbia and AGF’s truly distressing cover version of Rhianna’s ‘Disturbia’.  An eclectic and surprising session, I hope you agree.

Disorientation Session: Disorient’s Mixtape For FBi

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1. Dalt Wisney – Sci-Fi Dot Fiends [Pakistan] 2:03
2. The Craters – Samba Party [U.S.] 2:40
3. Ghoul – Fuck Math [Australia] 1:54
4. Salem – Brustreet [U.S.] 5:02
5. 7VWWVW – Mammal Theme [Scotland] 5:55
6. Villa Diamante – Tonolec vs Kromestar [Argentina] 2:56
7. Berrettaz – Pense A [Côte d'Ivoire] 2:44
8. AGF aka Antye Greie – Disturbia [Germany] 4:07
9. Filastine – B’talla (feat. Rabah) [U.S.] 3:10
10. I Buried Paul – Favola [Brazil] 3:17
11. Fletcher – Dreadlox Dub [South Africa] 6:17
12. The Peronists – Cumbia Maligna [Argentina] 3:39
13. Atomhead – Unsuspecting Broken Receiver [Belgium] 2:09
14. Growing – Green Flag [U.S.] 6:16
15. Sleepmakeswaves – Exits To Nowhere [Australia] 3:41
16. Rothis Bournias – Last Days Part Two [Greece] 7:07
17. Inverness – Bats [Brazil] 3:13
18. Flica – Mid [Malaysia] 4:53

Note: All music on the mixtape is licenced via Creative Commons or has otherwise been made freely available by relevant artists & labels. If you like what you hear, please support the artists -visit their site, buy their music.

Cover image by Irving Liaw (under CC Licence).

One of my most long-serving curatorial projects was ‘Fat Planet‘ – a radio show and blog that ran from 2003 to 2008. The mission was simple – uncover new, alternative music from around the globe. Ignore the ‘western paradigm’ and dig around for non-traditional, contemporary, innovative music. Uncover the hitherto uncovered. At first I thought Africa would pose the greatest challenge, but in truth the hardest location to crack was China. Most of my research was carried out online, and – at the time – there was precious little posted online about Chinese music, at least nothing that could be uncovered without a roadmap or directions to follow. Thankfully, Shaun at Sydney label Tenzenmen proved to be something of a guiding light – exposing alternative Chinese music outside of its origins, providing us with a rare glimpse of the sounds that are actually stirring in the clubs, bars and bedrooms of one of the world’s oldest civilisations. When looking for curators for Discontent, for people that might provide a lifeline to something less ordinary, Shaun was top of the list. Stuart Buchanan

China – it’s the buzzword of the first decade of the 21st century.  Back in the last century I started learning about Chinese history and culture and in 2001 embarked on my first trip there (no doubt many if you have done the same since).  Quickly adapting the Chinese push and shove I was curious when I came across an article in an English language weekly newspaper that was documenting the very beginnings of the punk scene in Beijing.  What the hell did punk mean in a place like this?  I had no idea but armed with the scant information I went in search of these punks and couldn’t find anything.  It’s easy to be lost in the many millions of inhabitants of Beijing and all I knew was the train station near where these kids hung out.

Back in Australia I continued learning and discovered many other music scenes around the whole Asia region and then finally made contact with a new group of musicians building a scene in Beijing and expanding throughout the country.  Several more trips garnered visits to cool venues and hearing some great new sounds.  So impressed I began licensing releases for Australia through my label tenzenmen (www.tenzenmen.com).  But that is not what this mix tape is really about.  For this mix tape I challenged myself to find the new fresh bands, the second wave as such.

China has it’s own equivalent of myspace called Douban (www.douban.com) as well as a Chinese only myspace (www.myspace.cn).  Even without understanding the language it’s fairly simple to click around these sites and discover the motherlode of music you never heard before.  I had a few pointers of things to look for and gathered the results here for this mix tape.  It’s a wide and varied mix, expressing my own interest in different genres and highlighting the diversity of sounds coming from the underground there (we could probably consider even popular artists in China as still underground).

You can find all the tracks here at the various sites mentioned above and also keep up to date with news and info from China via various links at the tenzenmen website or ‘the MAYBE MARS series’ facebook fan page.

Shaun, Tenzenmen

Discontent – China (A Mixtape by Shaun from Tenzenmen)

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01 – Low Wormwood (Di Ku Ai) – Who – 5.11
02 – The Curry Soap – Little Northern Europe – 4.18
03 – Godot – No 4 – 6.26
04 – Demmy – Will You Remember Me Tomorrow – 6.42
05 – 21 Grams – 21 Grams – 7.58
06 – 8 Eye Spy – Live – 2.10
07 – Cover People – Trip To… – 3.07
08 – Snapline – Nice Dream – 3.11
09 – White – 47 Rockets (For Wan Hu) – 5.10
10 – Little Nature – Different World – 3.00
11 – Sonnet – A Nice Song – 3.10
12 – I.D.H. – Final Trial – 3.53
13 – Boys Climbing Ropes – Dirty Bots – 4.35
14 – Lava Ox Sea – Regnarts! Yeh – 6.15
15 – 24 Hours – Mr Stevenson (with Train) – 3.24
16 – You Mei You – All Talk No Action – 1.36
17 – Mortal Fools – Drink! Drink! Drink! – 2.04
18 – Muscle Snog – Think and Shit – 3.48
19 – Fanzui Xiangfa – Kill Your Television – 1.04
20 – The Curry Soap – You Keep Everything But His Heart – 1.06
21 – D!O!D!O!D! – A02 – .53

img: Steve Webel

Raphael Dixon is a broadcaster on Sydney’s FBi Radio. His show follows mine, which means that I always get the chance to listen to his selections when I’m hanging around the studio or I’m on the drive home. When I first heard that Raph was ostensibly presenting a hip hop show, my heart sank a little. There’s already an upfront hip hop show on the station (the perennial Stolen Records), and I remember thinking to myself, “do we really more of the same?”. And that’s when Raph pretty much blew my mind. His curation of sounds from the outer fringes of hip hop, includes innovative beat work and often radical production methodologies, but his real skill also comes to the fore in his ability to map that with other sounds, to cross-pollinate and thus recontextualise our often misplaced notions of what hip hop means in 2009. I hope this mixtape helps to add some critical mileage to Raph’s ongoing mission. Stuart Buchanan

“The genre of Hip-hop has a certain stigma attached to it, often rightly so. Personally, I have always been fascinated by the hip-hop sound and indeed it is the hip-hop sound that this mixtape explores. I say ‘hip-hop’, but I’m sure that there would be a lot of hip-hop  fans who would not enjoy this mixtape, moreover, I’m sure many a ‘purest’ would go so far as to call it “not hip-hop” (an insult of sorts in the hip-hop world). This mixtape is predominately instrumental, ranging from sample based downtempo works, to bassy, electronic, club-influenced glitch-hop.  The drums loops are often slightly wonky or glitchy, the samples brutally chopped or the basslines fuzzy. The idea is to strip down hip-hop to its basic form and rebuild it in a re-contextualised manner that critiques its mother genre. As the experimental hip-hop netlabel Error-Broadcast awkwardly, yet acurately describes it, the wonks, quirks and distortion is  “…the glitch that interferes with crept over mainstream Hip Hop, the increment of postmodernism”.

“Many thanks to the artists, I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do” Raph

Discontent – Paper Money (A Mixtape by Raphael Dixon)

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1. Ilz – Paper Monies (Discontent Mixtape Exclusive) [4:31]
2. Shlohmo – Socks (Error Broadcast) [3:23]
3. Bentone – Casual Recurrance (Unsigned) [4:00]
4. Swede:art x A-rec x Fuer.steps – Wonky Carz (Error Broadcast) [3:05]
5. Look Mom No Plans – Falling Apart Ft Ted Faley (Unsigned) [3:44]
6. Freddy Todd – LoFi Fiction Blaster (Unsigned) [4:36]
7. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Sun Lips (Graveface) [3:16]
8. WD4D – Have U? (Unsigned) [2:44]
9. Akira Kiteshi – Ulysses (An-Ten-Nae Presents…) [3:43]
10. Fever Ray – When I Grow Up (Bassnectar Remix) (Amorphous Music/Child’s Play) [4:13]
11. Blunt Instrument – Smashing Plates (Unsigned) [4:39]
12. Nasty Nasty – No Names (Unsigned) [3:31]
13. Eskmo – From The Standpoint (Demo) (Planet Mu) [2:13]
14. Black Era – Just Left Hand Left (A Quiet Bump) [3:54]
15. Claviq – Osika (Amenorea) [2:34]

Raph’s Blog: thegetby.blogspot.com

img: Jade Cantwell

Discontent is regenerating – and the key shift is a significant one. Discontent will no longer be a home solely for my own curations, I’m opening it up to other minds, other voices, other sounds. I’m opening the door ajar to friends and colleagues thus far, but may well open further as the experiment progresses. First up, an artist who appeared on the recent ‘All That Glitters Is Gold‘ mixtape, Pink Priest. He emailed to thank me for including his track on the mixtape, I suggested he might want to put his own together.  ’We Sleep In This Cave‘ is the result – a singular treat awash with hypnotic tones and drones, punctuated by rough bursts of primal punk and lo-fidelty abstract pop.  It’s a genuinely beautiful curation, and one which I hope sets a benchmark for further guest-tapes to come.  Stuart Buchanan

“Recent days, months, weeks, year(s) have been a good time for music… at least, they have been to me. Over the past year to year and a half, I’ve discovered so much incredibly epic, gorgeous, utterly mind-blowing music, that it’s been hard to keep up with. I don’t want to go too far into detail concerning each and every track on this mix, but these are some musicians, peers, projects, and tracks that have really stuck out to me this year. There’s an aesthetic that flows through this music; it’s grainy, it’s reactionary, it’s radiant, it’s intelligent, it’s haunting, and it packs this intense vibe that you can’t help but take notice to. I won’t keep throwing cliché adjectives around, I’ll simply let this wonderful music speak for itself… Here’s some of my favorite music of recent days, months, weeks, year(s)…” Pink Priest, November 2009.

Discontent – We Sleep In This Cave (A Mixtape by Pink Priest)

DOWNLOAD MIXTAPE (94 MB)

01. Jen Paul – Late Film
02. Peaking Lights – Silver Tongues, Soft Whispers (from Imaginary Falcons – Night-People)
03. Among The Bones – Hark From The Tombs (from Chosen Sons Of Snakes Demo – self-released)
04. Cough Cool - Girl Tell Me (from Buy Some Dust – BATHETIC)
05. Flight – My Business (from Flight 10″ – Kill Shaman)
06. Taped Hiss – Underwater Casino (from Underwater Casinos – self-released)
07. With Moths – Swimming (from 5 Old Songs EP – self-released)
08. Dem Hunger – Nah Fiat Shit Mama (shelleyduvall.blogspot.com)
09. Twins – Less Weight (from Doubles – Peace Age/self-released)
10. Dirty Beaches – Coast To Coast (from Dirty Beaches c22 – Night-People)
11. Wild Nothing – Cloudbusting (Kate Bush Cover)
12. Ducktails – Deck Observatory (from Landscapes – Olde English Spelling Bee)
13. Terrors – Soft Proliferating Light (from Ceaseless Fall c20 – BATHETIC)
14. Ye Olde Maids – Hawk Over The Highway From My Way To You (from God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us - Art Fag Recordings)
15. A Gal – And All I Could Think Of Was You (from Jeans Wilder / A Gal Split -BATHETIC)
16. Sparkling Wide Pressure – The Long (from Touching Pasture – Students of Decay)
17. Jen Paul – Muerte O Casamiento Durmiente

Pink Preist: godofblues.blogspot.com

img: Plamen Stoev