FACT Mixes

Endgame is a name you will have come across if you’ve been slinking around the gloomier parts of London in the small hours recently. A co-founder of the Bala Club collective, along with Uli-k and Codes’ Kamixlo, and host of Precious Metals on NTS Radio, Endgame has become synonymous with a sound that’s been building in the capital for the last few years. With less of the pots ‘n’ pans stuff than your typical post-club workout, and with a steady eye on the dancefloor, Endgame’s heavy blend of industrial crunch and rap swagger has seen him picked up by NYC imprint Purple Tape Pedigree, which released his crushing Savage EP earlier this year. His debut FACT mix is a sludgy, unpredictable collision of genres, fusing Nelly Furtado’s FM coos with overdriven hiccups swept up from the dimly lit basements of SoundCloud. With appearances from Kelela, NON’s Nkisi, Lotic, Imaabs, Elysia Crampton and more, it’s more than enough to slake your thirst for up-to-the-minute club sounds.

Frak is the lifelong alliance of three analogue-obsessed Swedes who’ve amassed a vast back catalogue of degenerate techno and searing acid rave since their debut gig in 1988, when the barely-teenage renegades first adopted the masks that have become their trademark. Initially more influenced by the industrial synth-and-drum ventures of the likes of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire than the era’s burgeoning rave movement, Björn Isgren, Jan Svensson and Johan Sturesson set up their label Börft in 1987 to release their early experiments. They put out dozens of analogue-driven cassettes and 12″s throughout the ‘90s, including 1993’s barmy 160bpm rave artefact Alice in Acidland (reissued a few years back by Joachim Nordwall’s iDEAL label). The world has finally been catching up to the cult of Frak since they emerged from hibernation in the late ‘00s, releasing a flurry of 12″s on labels like Sex Tags Mania, Kontra-Musik and Rubadub, and gaining new converts through their searing live shows, which they still perform from behind their tinfoil masks. Most recently they teamed up with San Francisco label Dark Entries for the rugged Sudden Haircut EP (great sleeve, too). The trio have cracked open the vaults to bring us a special all-Frak FACT mix, spanning material from 1987 to the present day. Expect slapping electro, blasted piano rave, thudding drum workouts and, of course, plenty of acieeeeeed, with an incredible closing section drawn from their earliest cassette releases. Have it! (And an explanatory word from our reliably brilliant illustrator, Alex Solman: “Frak is Swedish for suit, and penguins are simply the best dressed animals.” Obvious, really.)

The Essex-born musician and studio maverick may be best known for absorbing krautrock, psychedelic pop and freaky library music into the peerless back catalogue of his band Stereolab, but the jazz ethos of freedom and experimentation has always been a key influence on his approach. Currently fronting his new band Cavern of Anti-Matter, a kraut-informed trio that’s just made its epic debut with a triple-album, Gane has put his motorik impulses on pause momentarily to produce this two-hour odyssey into the undersung corners of avant-garde and free jazz. “British jazz and other new music that’s mainly from the ‘60s and ‘70s, but that’s not to make any particular point about that,” is Gane’s concise introduction to the mix, which spans the radical minds of free improvisors Lol Coxhill, Cornelius Cardew and AMM, library music from Basil Kirchin, pioneering jazz-rock from Ian Carr and much more. Two hours! It’s easily one of the most head-spinning mixes we’ve ever had the pleasure to bring you, and serves as a proper education if, like a lot of us, you’ve ever wanted to dig deeper into jazz but weren’t quite sure where to start. After that, get stuck into Jon Dale’s Complete Guide to Stereolab.

The Canadian artist has, with a couple of expertly-crafted singles (‘It Means I Love You’ and ‘VV Violence’), reframed the vivid pop of Japanese institution Yellow Magic Orchestra and updated it for 2016 with the help of Junior Boy Jeremy Greenspan. Her upcoming full length, Oh No is one of the year’s best so far, managing to blend memorable hooks with the kind of bizarre electronic tics that made 80s electro pop so urgent and important in the first place. Now Lanza has rustled together her first FACT mix, blending a series of outre pop favorites – from YMO mastermind Harry Hosono’s ‘Laugh Gas’ to Freddie Jackson’s smooth ‘Calling’ – with Derrick May’s fizzing electronics, manic acid from Ontario’s Symplx and vintage piano house from Mpumi. Suddenly, Oh No makes perfect sense. Oh No is set for release on May 13 via Hyperdub.

Mr. Mitch’s Gobstopper label has incubated some of the most curious and beguiling grime hybrids of the last few years, from agenda-setting club tracks to pensive peace edits, and Suffolk-born producer Loom has been at the heart of the label’s forward-thinking approach. His 2014 Grade EP paired old school square wave business with pirate radio dreams and tape hiss, a personal take on grime dreamt up from miles beyond the M25. Last month, Daniel Timms nudged his headphone-focused operation further into club territory with European Heartache, a strangely romantic EP of sour tweaking, dark moods and ditzy melodies – it’s a blend that neatly sums up Gobstopper’s wide-ranging ethos. Loom’s FACT mix is rammed with brand new material from friends and peers, including club machinery and metallic onslaughts from Sound Pellegrino and Gage, an inside-out garage belter from Tarquin, some dippy video game melodies and featherlight choral touches, and Grizzle’s absolutely belting ‘Entreaty’ – no weak links here. And while we’re obviously not the type to prize a DJ’s mixing skill over his track selection, we gotta add – here’s a rare grime mix that’s smooth as baby’s bum cheek.

Founded back in 1990, the band innovated with a studio-touched blend of jazz and rock, lighting the touchpaper for very American take on the post-rock sound that was bubbling up on both sides of the Atlantic. Less indebted to hardcore than Slint and not as esoteric as Bark Psychosis or Talk Talk, Tortoise’s sound was mired in prog rock, but saw the band implement elements from a wide variety of genres – from IDM to avant-psych and beyond – as they tracked through their estimable catalogue of albums, EPs and collaborations. The band’s guitarist Jeff Parker put together Tortoise’s first FACT mix, and almost expectedly it’s an urgent blend of boundary-pushing jazz, dub, post-punk, rap, ambient and just about everything in between. Where else would you expect to find Giorgio Moroder, J Dilla, Madlib, Brian Eno and Sun Ra sharing a bed? Tortoise’s brand new album The Catastrophist is out now on Thrill Jockey, and the band are currently on an extensive tour of the US.

Brooklyn-based techno outsider Dylan Scheer (aka Via App) cut her teeth on the Boston noise circuit, playing scuzzy shows in basements and lofts, before targeting the rest of the world with her exemplary debut album Dangerous Game in 2014 (which placed highly in our albums of the year list). She took it even further last year with her vinyl debut, the woozy 7 Headed EP, which expanded on Dangerous Game’s promise and pushed her hiccuping techno further into the fringes. On her FACT mix, Scheer stitches together a suite of her own productions, collaborations with Brooklyn-based L.I.E.S.-affiliate Bookworms (as Asthyna) and a bubbling mass of tracks from old hands (Christian Vogel, Daniel Bell), New England’s brightest hopes (Wilted Woman, Isabella) and loads more.

The second FACT mix of the week (we love to spoil you) comes from Iranian futurist and Bandcamp breakout star Ash Koosha. We’ve been raving about the now-London-based producer ever since hearing his debut album GUUD on Olde English Spelling Bee last year, a sensory overload that bristled with detail and delighted in fracturing the usual tropes of electronic music, eventually landing a spot in our 50 best albums of 2015. Since then he’s been snapped up by Ninja Tune and is set to release his first album for the label, I AKA I, on April 1. He dissects the new project in a new interview with FACT’s Miles Bowe, explaining how a brush with virtual reality pushed him to expand his vision even further, and he’s also blessed us with this ‘COMA mix’ of original and unreleased productions. There is no more fitting theme for Ash Koosha than abundance, so fill your boots.

Bristol’s Ziro has been a key member of Crazylegs since its launch in 2012, providing the local label with its first release, the itchy, techno-rooted ‘Coded’/‘Oni’, and teaming up with Trim for the scorched grime of ‘Lost’ in 2014. Last October he returned with an EP of preposterously massive club weapons, Lionheart, fuelled by epic trance synths and featuring collaborations with Bloom and Riko Dan, both on terrifying form. For his FACT mix, Ziro carves out a space on the floor where 808 bounce meets hi-def club FX and lopsided dembow bumps up against new school grime, and includes his own low-slung remix of TRC & Princess Nyah’s ‘Butterflies’ and a final flourish of trance. “This mix is a collection of some of my favourite tracks of the last couple of years, in amongst some forthcoming and recent bits from myself and friends,” he says. “It’s a snapshot of where I am musically right now and a little insight into what’s coming next. In addition to the grime and UK club tracks which have been a big influence on my music over the last year I’ve recently found myself increasingly drawn to US and UK pop and rap, so there’s a few edits and originals reflecting that as well.”

JT The Goon’s grime credentials are as robust as they come. As a member of East London’s Slew Dem Crew in the early ‘00s he had a hand in several key productions and co-produced the classic ‘Gunman Riddim’ – the track which popularised the Korg Triton’s amsfeedbacklead preset, a sound that became as much a part of grime’s fabric as eski clicks and ‘Pulse X’ bass hits. After a few years away, JT returned around 2012 with a series of free EPs, soon becoming a staple figure in the emergent scene around London’s Boxed nights. He raised the bar with his stunning, near-cinematic Twin Warriors EP in 2014, released through Boxed resident Oil Gang’s label, and collaborated two EPs with Dullah Beatz and Boylan under the name Edgem. JT’s aptly titled debut full-length King Triton dropped at the end of last year and cemented his status as one of grime’s most innovative producers, blending the classic preset sounds with nods to martial arts movies and the high-def hype of the Boxed dancefloor. For his FACT mix he’s given us a glimpse of the countless unreleased treasures on his hard drive – it’s all original productions, save a handful of remixes and a couple of tunes from regular collaborator Dullah Beatz. Bow down.

Alessio Natalizia unleashes the pustulent club material for your sick disco.

Fatima Yamaha was the short-lived alias of Dutch producer Bas Bron. He released just the one record under that name, 2004’s A Girl Between Two Worlds on Dublin label D1. It closed on a track called ‘What’s A Girl To Do?’. As Jackmaster – far from a famous DJ in 2004, and best known for working at Glasgow record store and distributor Rubadub – puts it, when he first heard ‘What’s A Girl To Do?’ he bought 200 copies for the store. Of course, “this was in the days when you could sell a record just by talking it up in a mailout,” as he remembers, and Simon Rigg from London store Phonica Records subsequently bought most of that 200 off him. The track slowly developed into a cult classic, championed not only by Jackmaster and his Numbers comrades but Hudson Mohawke, Midland and other DJs. Bron quickly ditched the Fatima Yahama name, focusing on other aliases like Bastian, Gifted and, er, Seymour Bits. ‘What’s A Girl To Do?’ continued to grow, however, and it’s now been reissued twice: first through Magnetron and then last year by Dekmantel. Second time was the charm: it was inescapable last summer, closing the year as Resident Advisor’s best track of 2015. Not bad for a single from 2004. Never one to pass up a good opportunity, the girl between two worlds returned to the circuit following that reissue, releasing his debut album Imaginary Lines late last year and performing a series of acclaimed live shows. He’s also gearing up to steal the show at this year’s Bloc, where he’ll be performing with Thom Yorke, Floating Points and more (tip: there’s also a great-looking FACT stage). Ahead of Bloc, we’re hosting a rare Fatima Yamaha mix that draws from both the melodic sensibility of Bron’s work as Yamaha and the ghetto-house that he’s explored under other aliases. It even features ‘No Type’ – game on.

Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone released too many great records to count in the 1990s, both originals and remixes for the likes of Kim English and Fonda Rae. Although they were a house duo, their drum programming – skippier and more intricate than most house of the time – was hugely influential to the sound of UK garage, and like Armand Van Helden and Todd Edwards, they’re as respected amongst UK heads as US. The duo’s influence was recently celebrated on Strictly Mood II Swing, a three-CD compilation that collects their best originals and remixes, from classics like ‘Closer’ to deep cuts and dub mixes. We’ve been after a Mood II Swing mix for years, and this compilation created the perfect in – hit play below for an hour of some of the best soulful, skippy house ever committed to record. Tracklist: 1. Kim English – ‘Learn 2 Luv’ (Mood II Swing Vocal Mix) 2. Mood II Swing – ‘All Night Long’ 3. Lucy Pearl – ‘Don’t Mess With My Man’ (Mood II Swing Remix) 4. Mood II Swing – ‘I See You Dancing’ 5. BT – ‘Remember’ (Mood II Swing Dub) 6. Mood II Swing – ‘Oh’ 7. Nuyorican Soul feat. Jocylen Brown – ‘It’s Alright, I Feel It’ (Mood II Swing Remix) 8. Mood II Swing feat Carol Sylvan – ‘Closer’ (Swing II Mood Dub) 9. Mood II Swing – ‘Do It Your Way’ 10. Rachid – ‘Pride’ (Mood II Swing Remix) 11. Mood II Swing pres. Wall Of Sound feat Lee Smith Jr. – ‘I Need Your Love’ 12. Eric Gadd – ‘The Right Way’ (Mood II Swing Remix)

He first started releasing music as half of industrial grime/dubstep duo Vex’d (with Jamie Teasdale, who now releases as Kuedo), dropping a succession of speaker-blowing 12″s on labels like Subtext and Planet Mu. They were one of the first acts in that sphere to embrace the album format, releasing the cult classic Degenerate, but after four years of music they called it a day. After a couple of years out the game, Porter re-emerged with Aftertime, his debut solo album, and then the exceptional Life Cycle of a Massive Star, an album that draws more from science fiction, drone, dub and classical than dance music. Writing in FACT, Maya Kalev said that Porter “doesn’t just summon the epic scale of the cosmos; he uses it to tap into an awareness of mortality that cuts uncomfortably close to the bone.” Porter himself put it more simply: “Big and bleak, that’s how I like it.” Porter’s third album Third Law was released through Tri Angle on January 22, and comes described as “a coming to terms with his goal of leaving dance music as it is, free to explore ideas of rhythm, bass, sound design within his own world without having to shape any of these elements to fit preconceived ideas or rules.” His FACT mix, however, definitely has a foot on the dancefloor: DJ Rashad, Rufige Kru and Source Direct all feature, but these tracks come after an extended period of drone, noise and general fizzing, fucked-up weirdness from Emptyset, The Sprawl, The Body and more. Third Law is out now. Tracklist: 01. Unknown – Enemies of Freedom (Unknown) 02. Pharmakon – Milkweed (Sacred Bones) 03. John Bence – Disquiet Part I (Other People) 04. Emptyset – Signal Part I (Subtext) 05. Roly Porter – 4101 (TriAngle) 06. Paul Jebanasam – 03 search another 3Hφ˙ = lose you i), place i=0 doubt I V (φ) am ∝ exp( √ 16π to meet you again pm2 P φ (forthcoming Subtext) 07. Mumdance – Path of the Seer (Unknown) 08. ADR – DesireProfile (Pan) 09. The Sprawl – Personality Upload (The Death of Rave) 10. Bach – Christ Lag In Todes Banden 11. Rufige Kru – Terminator 2 (Reinforced) 12. Kuedo – Boundary Regulation (Knives) 13. Primary Source – Waiting for the Sun (Reinforced) 14. DJ Rashad – I Don’t Give a Fuck (Hyperdub) 15. Source Direct – This is Baad remix (Razors Edge) 16. Silver Waves – V (forthcoming Portals Editions / Howling Owl) 17. Krust – Future Unknown (Talkin’ Loud) 18. Roly Porter – In Flight (TriAngle) 19. Adam F – Metropolis (Metalheadz) 20. u-Ziq – Grape Nut Beats pt.1 (Planet Mu) 21. The Body – To Carry the Seeds of Death Within Me (RVNG) 22. Gnaw Their Tongues – The Holy Body (Crucial Blast) 23. Roly Porter – Known Space (TriAngle)

After emerging from a decade-long hiatus in 2013, Paula Temple quickly cemented her reputation as one of R&S Records’ heaviest practitioners, with two records of sky-scraping, yet minutely detailed techno (that year’s Colonized EP and 2014’s Deathvox, both soon to be re-pressed) which resurrected the label’s gnarlier rave roots and slotted into a swell of industrial and noise-influenced club productions. The Lancashire-born, now Berlin-based DJ and producer actually debuted way back in 2002 with an EP of blistering, Detroit-informed techno on Chris McCormack’s Materials label, but spent much of the next decade behind the scenes, developing one of the first live performance MIDI controllers and teaching musicians how to use Ableton. Temple’s welcome return to the circuit has introduced a new generation to her synapse-frying hybrid live-DJ show (check out her set at Bloc 2015 on FACT TV for evidence) and seen the launch of Noise Manifesto, a label-cum-manifesto for “bodies and identities who have been kept invisible”, which kicked off last year with a unique four-way collaboration between Rroxymore, Oni Ayhun, Planningtorock and the label boss herself. Currently at work on her third release for R&S, she’s also been busy releasing a split 12” on 50 Weapons and remixes of The Prodigy and Stroboscopic Artefacts’ Chevel. Her monster 33-track FACT mix includes material from dancefloor terrorizers like Machine Woman, Jeff Mills, Shapednoise, Lakker and Surgeon: it’s a certified epic.