Test Pressing Podcast

“It was a magic time for me. I`d been exposed to Larry Levan and had started hanging out at the Paradise Garage. Post Punk, New Wave and Rock artists wanted to make Disco records. Disco artists wanted to make more New Wave and experimental records. There was an amazing amount of great new music coming from everywhere. It was the perfect time for me to really start finding myself and come into my own as a DJ.” As Justin says musical boundaries were being blurred: New Wave artists, in a move away from Rock following Punk`s guitar wars, were embracing the Funk, while the Funk, always hungry for a freak, was getting it on with New Wave. As a consequence the music here isn`t easily pigeon-holed into safe genres. There is the pioneering work of artists such as Kraftwerk and Yello, producers like Martin Rushent (experimenting on post-Buzzcocks Pete Shelley and coming up with proto-House), and DJs John Luongo (Material, Yoko Ono), Francois Kervorkian (Timezone, D-Train) and Mark Kamins (Quando Quango) establishing the art of the remix, all of whom add to the confusion. The remixers` apparent free reign arguably due to the commercial awakening of the majors to the success of NYC`s melting pots, The Loft, Paradise Garage, and Justin`s previous gig, the Mudd Club. The Police do Reggae de blanc, and Reggae covers The Police. Rock meets Hip Hop in ex-Ant Kevin Mooney`s Wide Boy Awake and talcy Malcy takes poor old Adam for everything he`s got as Bow Wow Wow add Burundi drumming to The Strangeloves` classic. Ministry are here, from back when Seymour Stein & Sire still had hopes of Mr. Jourgensen fronting the next Depeche Mode. Before Sherwood, before Hansa Ton, before crack. The Stones try to keep up. Most of the music is heavy on then emerging electronics. This was new music for a new clubbing experience.

Gibbons mixes Russell. With love. History gets trapped in the groove. Poltergeists flying about. Spirits and stories illuminate night. Sounds like New York to me. Seguing back and forth between smooth contemplation, bass and flute, and electronic storms, wildlife and funky organ grinders, tribal chants and handclaps for thunder. Echoes of the Paradise Garage washed with ambience. DELIRIUM! moved from Hip Hop battles through to a moment when good music was just good music, there were no sub-genres, just House. House music rooted in R&B, block parties and Jazz. Tough beats. Strong vocals. A Black music of Nuyorican Latino barrios, Murk`s Deep South and Detroit roller discos. A unified celebration of sexual release. A dance of an underground then, and now.

Last year Ruf Dug decamped to Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean of the Lesser Antilles, soaking up the sun, ambience and working on his “Island” long-player for Kenneth Bager`s Music For Dreams. In moments when he wasn`t locked in his dungeon of FM synths, D-50 romplers and `80s digital reverb, he was, obviously, hoovering up all of the local vinyl he could find. This mix represents just a taste of his haul. A funky break, a smoky sax. Dreams of Paris. Vive la France. Bright brass and proud licks, a sound-like Celluloid`s “world” experiments. Traditional rhythms, Zouk and Kompa, mix with machines of a modern age. Boogie raps and operatic divas. A Jazz influenced by Lagos and Soweto. Tempos chopping, changing, taking flight. Reggae lilts, Highlife workouts, and Francis Bebey-like playfulness. Wally Badarou-like tides, would-be-gonna-be Balearic grooves, and Gwo Ka rituals. I doubt that you`ll have heard any of it before (someone needs to sign the Dugster up for a comp.).

The Mudd Club is legend. Located at 77 White Street, Manhattan and run by Steve Maas, Diego Cortez, and Anya Phillips, in its heyday of 1978 to 1981 (closing its doors in 1983), The Mudd Club provided an antidote to the high-end glitz elitism of Studio 54 and a place to party for a community of aspiring musicians, painters, actors, dancers, performance artists and runaways seeking a way and means to fame, drawn to New York`s flame, and sheltered in Downtown`s cheap, decaying lofts. A party with the aesthetics of The Ramones in drag jiving to James Brown whilst reciting beat poetry in a venue decorated in a street take on Warhol. Justin Strauss: “I went from playing records for my friends in my bedroom, to DJing at the Mudd Club. I never really thought about being a DJ in a club, it just happened. I didn’t know about beat matching, the turntables at the Mudd Club did not have pitch controls. It was just about playing records from different genres that I liked and thought made sense together in my head. I always tried to keep that attitude about DJing till this day.” So you get the The Slits, Gary Numan, Marie Et Les Garcons, Sly Stone`s younger sister, Fingerprintz, Ze Records` mutant Disco, Talking Heads in Eno`s psychedelic Africa, Go-Go, and Public Image Ltd. Punk with its dancing shoes on. At face value the only thing that these records appear to have in common is that they were new, yet when jammed together in sequence it`s clear that the other attribute they share is energy. Justin will be in Europe for the next month of so, with gigs in England, France, Germany and Switzerland (Tigersushi Paris Jun 24; Le Bateau Festival June 26-27; London with Bicep July 11; Munich`s Charlie July 4; Zurich`s Zukunft July 10).

Highlife & wildlife from the birthplace of the Blues, the birthplace of Mankind. Sampled conversations and sanza mix with unknown stringed ancestors. The R&B of the present duets with that of the past. Language may differ but the song remains the same. It`s all about “Mi Corazon” and odes to beautiful girls bring cheers in unison. Music drifting from village to township, a travelogue of recordings, charting meetings with musicians, local masters. A diary of sound that serves as a sampler, a taste, of a journey remembered half in dream.

Max D is Maxmillion Dunbar is one half of Beautiful Swimmers alongside Ari Goldman and also behind the Future Times label releasing the Maxmillion Dunbar tracks, Beautiful Swimmers, Jordan GCZ, Dolo Percussion (what a record) and lots of other ear bending things. We like what he is all about. Here he goes around the world on a digging tip like a balearic Theo Parrish. You can find more on Future Times on Discogs and on Facebook or find Max D on Twitter here.

Dear Luaka Bop, we have a whole new genre of music for you that you would love and honestly we had no clue about it either. It apparently is called Proyeccion Folklórica (Folkloric Projection) and stems from Argentina in the ’60s. We know a Argentinian chap called Alejandro Cohen who is part of the Dublab crew in Los Angeles and he loves it so much he made us a two hour mix of it and did a whole write up. Here’s what he says… “Proyeccion Folklórica (Folkloric Projection) is a genre that developed in Argentina in the 1960s. Its popularity continued through the ’90s, with its heyday between the late ’70s and mid ’80s. The genre is primarily based on the reinterpretation of Argentinian Folk music by artists coming from Jazz, Progressive Rock, and Fusion backgrounds. Such artists also collaborated with traditional Argentinian folk musicians, and these collaborations led to a continuous expansion of the genre. My discovery of Proyeccion Folklórica comes from a number of trips I took to my home country of Argentina. I moved to Los Angeles in 1996 and, over the course of the years, I came to appreciate much of the Argentinian music that, for whatever reason, I never embraced while living there. During each visit to Buenos Aires I started buying mostly ’60s psych records, but, after those got too expensive, I started buying records from the ’80s New Wave/Post-Punk era. Soon enough, the same thing happened; the 80s gained appreciation in the used vinyl market, and I had to move on to a new genre. Then came the time when I picked up a record by a band called Membrillar. The album was cheap and the artwork looked interesting, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I was also intrigued by the instruments that were used on the record, as described on the back cover: a combination of flutes, traditional percussion, electric guitars, synthesizers and Roland 808 drum machines. When I asked the owner of the store about Membrillar, he said the band belonged to a long-forgotten and short-lived “sort-of-a-genre-thing” known as Proyección Folklórica. According to him, it was music made by musicians for musicians, largely fueled by two labels: Ciclo 3 and Melopea. Both labels are still in existence, and owned by Lito Vitale and Litto Nebbia, respectively. These two musicians are well established and very well known in Argentina. Without their seal of approval and their financial and artistic support, most of the records presented in this mix would’ve never been produced. To understand the context around this music, it is important to understand the background of both Vitale and Nebbia themselves. Lito Vitale came from a family of musicians. Considered a virtuoso at an early age, he first attained critical and commercial success in his own right through M.I.A. (Independent Associated Musicians), and later as a solo artist, releasing a series of records that included influences from Fusion, Progressive Rock, New Age and Contemporary/Minimal music. Ciclo 3 was, first and foremost, a platform for his music, as the label was, and still is, co-owned by the Vitale family. The family also used the label to release the music from their circle of friends and other family members. In contrast, Litto Nebbia comes from an earlier generation. Considered one of the pioneers of Argentine rock, Nebbia broke new ground with the ’60s rock band Los Gatos, and continued on a successful path as a solo artist. His countless collaborations and projects range from Beat to Psychedelic and Folk music. Eventually Nebbia also embraced local and traditional genres from Argentina, such as Tango and Folklore, which made him a constant reference in the history of Argentina’s music. As time passed, a number of Argentinian musicians, including Litto Nebbia, who were influenced by the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones,

Nik Weston is the chap behind Mukatsuku, one of the labels I have been picking up quite a few re-issues on lately. The label is a vinyl only affair that moves through reissues to a number of new ones covering the areas of afro, jazz, afro disco and some smoking soul. I asked Nik what it was all about and he told me… “The label was started back in 2006. I was A&Ring at the time at Exceptional and I had been getting sent tonnes of demos. People were sending me full albums and often there was a couple of killers on there so I was thinking at the time that if I was ever going to start up a label of my own then why not just focus on artists best tracks with a singles only label rather than worry about putting out a full album with so so tracks that could have a couple of singles taken from it. Just put out vinyl singles with no downloads, no CDs, no albums. It started from there really and as my tastes are quite wide the label was to be a true reflection of personal tastes rather than what might sell units. The objective was not to make money, nor as a business but more like a hobby to put singles out that I was really into be it – new or reissues that were perhaps not so well known and even my own productions. We would put records out when we could afford to rather than being pressured from a sales point of view perspective. The most enjoyable thing about running the label is having my peers /producers/DJ’s comment about the material with similar enthusiasm that I have. Gilles Peterson & Floating Points are two people have been very supportive of the label. Generally we have some cool fans out there with nice things to say and that drives me to keep digging and releasing the good stuff. We have another four killer singles this year and the Mukatsuku branded merchandise does really well (Kenny Dope loves our Mukatsuku 45 Twisters) so they’ll be some more new lines like a range of 7 inch and 12 inch record bags. Also, watch out the next single on the label from Sharon Revoal/Swan Silvertones (MUKAT 036) which is out in the next couple of weeks on Mukatsuku Records!” You can check more on the label at Juno, Facebook, Mixcloud and Soundcloud. Over to Nik’s mix. Its a nice one.

Dean Smith and co are doing great things at The Lord Clifden this summer and if you are up that way its clearly well worth a visit (especially on July 25th when me and Mison are in town). Here’s a great mix from Leo Mas from the opening party the other week to go alongside the line up to give you a taste of what to expect. Leo putting it together in fine style. And here is the mix from the great Leo…

Just woke up after a bit of a long night out and with the sun shining in the window and what looks like a perfect day on the cards and it seemed like a good day to get this up. Here’s Coyote with Vol.2 of the Dream House mix.

With our love of the paradise house sound we thought it fitting to get in touch with Don Carlos, one of the masters of the genre, for a mix. It was actually far easier than we thought as Timm Sure of Coyote had recently got him to do a mix of their new Glass Coffee release on Is It Balearic records which is a top one. Bassline heaven. So here’s Mr Carlos with a mix touching on many genres and while we are on this note more from the Coyote boys with the second part of their Dream House mix to come soon. Nice. Thanks to Timm Sure.

This was the last issue. In the six years since Boy`s Own`s inception “The Staff” had moved from clubland “foot soldiers” photocopying and stapling, to back room DJs, to main room DJs, to promoters, record label owners, and into the studio. At least 50% of “The Sound Of Spring” had a direct route back to the creators of the fanzine and their friends. Lemon Interrupt, Farley & Heller dubs, the two Kevs, and Fabio Paras. Fabio was the man of the moment. Weatherall had co-produced a Mercury Music Prize winning album (though the Scream promptly disappeared with all the cash to continue what was described at the time as their “ridiculous lifestyle”). Boy`s Own Recordings had signed “proper” bands, One Dove and Underworld, who could tour and required management. “Junior” was born with Ashley`s edits and re-works of Disco and House`s history, educating everybody, and with Fire Island, whose sound defined the `90s dancefloor. Effort and enthusiasm had lead to opportunities, and everyone just got too busy. Cymon said to me at a party at The Park, that they were looking for younger people to take the fanzine on, and forward, but unfortunately, that didn`t happen. I have to admit that the records here don`t hold so many memories for me. I did dance to Mass Order and “Big Mouth” at Full Circle. “Hey Boy” is Danny on the radio, on a treasured tape sat next to Happyhead`s “Digital Love Thing”. Martika`s “Spirit” is yet another drug offensive on Islington`s Almedia Street, but it is walking out of there and starting anew. Maybe because their weight ain`t so great, I could easily play any of them in a set now. Twenty-two years on and they`re not so dated (no Figures On A Beach or Trance Dance`s in here), though I`d flip the Lemon Interrupt for “Eclipse” and I`d pass on the Sunscreem. “Seas turning turtle” kinda messes with my inner poet. “An Instrumental Need” is still irresistible. “Boy`s Own. The Complete Fanzines 1986-92” is published by DJhistory.com and can be purchased directly here. The compendium has also been released as an expanded iBook. You can find more information over at Bread & Circuses. We`re looking to continue this series of London Club Playlists. If anybody has any of the weekly charts that Flying Records used to hand out, please get in touch. Thanks to Gordy for the Ten Men Dead.

Journalist and DJ Matt Anniss arrives with an interview with both Winston Hazel and Parrott – Sheffield legends and people we always like to learn more about as we’ve got a soft spot for such things at Test Pressing and a mix from Winston Hazel joining all the dots. Quality stuff. Over to Matt. You should be hearing more from him at Test Pressing towers in future times. :: Dance music is littered with unsung heroes – those whose contributions during pivotal times in the sound’s development have largely gone unrecognized. This, of course, is partly a reflection of the way that the mainstream media has under-represented the cultural significance of clubbing and DJ culture over the last 40 years. According to the prevailing narrative, DJs and dance music producers have little wider significance: they’re simply men and women sound tracking soon to be forgotten nights out. Try telling this, though, to anyone who was there during the great British dance music explosion of the 1980s and early ‘90s. This was a fertile time for club culture, where escapism was highly prized, especially by those living in towns and cities feeling the devastating effects of government cuts and aggressive free-market captalism. Living for the weekend has long been a great British pastime, but rarely has it been more relevant than it was during the height of Thatcherism. It was at this time that unsung heroes began to emerge – a group of DJs and, later, producers who would unite dancers of all races and backgrounds, under one groove. Every city had their own heroes; in Bristol, it was soundsystem crews such as the Wild Bunch and Three Stripe, and the resident DJs at the influential Dug Out club. In Sheffield, it was Winston Hazel, and to a lesser extent his sometime DJ partner Parrot. Hazel’s story is not atypical. Like others of his generation throughout the North of England, he was turned on to DJing at an early age through breakdance culture. And like others with a passion for breakdancing, he would go on to help create a pioneering strain of British electronic music, bleep techno, at the turn of the ‘90s. By then, though, his fame had spread much further than the Steel City, thanks to the acclaim heaped upon the Jive Turkey parties he DJ’d at and co-promoted. I first met Hazel at some point during the 2000s, probably at the infamous Kabal parties that have done so much to keep the spirit of Jive Turkey alive over the past 15 years. Our meetings since have been sporadic, to say the least, but I got in touch again – via his old pal Parrot – last autumn, while researching an extensive article on “bleep” I’d been commissioned to write for Resident Advisor. We met at Parrot’s hilltop retreat in the Peak District, a far more genteel place than the Sheffield that Hazel grew up in the 1970s and early ‘80s. As a Sheffielder myself – and one that, sadly, managed to miss Jive Turkey – I’d always been fascinated by a party that is still held in high regard far beyond the city’s sprawling boundaries. I wanted to find out more about how it came about, its’ legacy, and how its’ principal characters would go on to become such a key part of the British electronic music landscape, albeit for a relatively short period of time. Hazel is warm and welcoming, a twinkle still in his eye. Parrot later described him – in the most complimentary terms – as “a dreamer”; a man who still sees the positive side of DJing and dance music culture, despite having spent the best part of 30 years in the music industry. It is arguably one of his most endearing traits, alongside a passion for music that still burns as brightly now as it did back then. We start at the beginning. “I started DJing in the early ’80s,” he recalls, perched on the end of a sofa while trying to entertain his young son. “In terms of playing music in front of people, and getting paid for it, that started at parties.

Here’s a mix from me following on that Dream House one from Coyote the other day with new tracks from Leo Mas, Max Essa, Ruf Dug, Jose Padilla and Telephones, Don Carlos and Selvy with a couple of old ones from Dream 2 Science, Sueno Latino and a few others… Liquid sound.

Always nice to welcome back one of the old guard and here is Jan Hammered with a new mix, his first for some time. Featuring new music from Claremont 56 amongst others its a good one to put on and get lost in. Lovely.