We’re hurtling into the final stretch of summer with terrifying speed—a little like DJ Finn’s take on Jersey and Baltimore club music, in which breakbeats and bed squeaks are sped up fast enough to make your head spin. That pace makes Finn’s mix one of the most obviously head-turning this month; fortunately, for those interested in squeezing one last iota of leisure out of the season, Bullion’s 1980s-flavored Truancy set is a lot more copacetic, with Compass Point productions and glossy Japanese funk lending it a proper sunset-on-the-porch vibe. And if you’re in the mood to dance your way through the dog days, we’ve got you covered, thanks to killer techno sets from Detroit’s DJ Bone and Atlanta’s Ash Lauryn, as well as weirder, wider-ranging sets from Peach, Olivia, and Powder.
For even more heat—because, let’s face it, the nights are getting chillier—don’t miss last month’s column.
Peach – LT Podcast 021
Peach, a Canadian DJ based in London, describes her podcast for the Lobster Theremin label as a collection of late-night jams. That’s about right. But where many interpretations of “late night” focus on the long, gentle descent from peak-time hours into salmon-colored dawn, Peach’s set is all about the steady slope uphill toward the night’s climax. The drums are machine programming threaded with breakbeats, and they run hot; Detroit-inspired chords cool them down. Serena Butler’s shimmering “Bhells” sets the heady, linear tone; Jark Prongo’s 1995 cut “Spadet” and Ob Ignitt’s “Ignitt Techno,” from 20 years later, are practically mirror images of each other, with tough, gobsmacking drums wrapped up in lush chords. Objekt’s “Needle and Thread” closes out the mix with a choice: proceed to cooldown mode, or keep tunneling deeper into the heart of the night.
Olivia – Alien Jams
Fifteen minutes into Olivia’s NTS Radio set for Chloe Frieda’s Alien Jams label, it’d be hard to say precisely how many tracks had been played so far; the Polish DJ’s touch is that smooth, her selection that focused. Live, she’s a full-on affair—but no matter how intense she gets, she always plays just as deep. Here, she rolls out an hour’s worth of Detroit-flavored techno with snapping electro accents and just the right amount of acid. It’s as meditative as it is forceful, and mixed with enviable finesse.
DJ Bone – Freerotation 2017
Wales’ members-only Freerotation festival takes place on a bucolic rural estate, but don’t be fooled by the landscape: The party still bangs. Here, Detroit’s DJ Bone, one of techno’s most agile selectors, goes in hard with two unrelenting hours. Classics galore pepper the set—Laurent Garnier’s “Crispy Bacon,” Jeff Mills’ “The Bells,” UR’s “The Final Frontier”—but Bone’s nimble style of mixing, with its sharp angles and quick cross-cuts, keeps the surprise factor high. Hearing “The Bells” come crashing through Floorplan’s “Never Grow Old” is simply thrilling, and a pop of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” makes for one of those pick-your-jaw-off-the-floor moments that come around all too seldom.
Ash Lauryn – Black Girls Like Techno Too / Honey Soundsystem HNYPOT 237
Ash Lauryn is a member of Atlanta’s Deep South collective—“a crew forging dance-caves for queers in a city not known” for those kinds of spaces, as the heads behind San Francisco’s Honey Soundsystem put it. Her provocatively titled set for the Bay Area group’s podcast series is appropriately cavernous and exhilarating. Across the 53-minute set, she toggles between crisp steppers, overdriven pummel, heavy basement vibes, and bubbly dub techno in a Basic Channel vein. She’s got a real flair for making the most out of contrasting tone colors: Tracing the path that takes her from DJ Bone’s steely “It’s All About” into Jonas Kopp’s gently clanging “Telergia” is like watching clouds as they shape-shift from bird to beast and back again.
Powder – BIS Radio Show #897
When Powder’s first few records appeared in 2015, the Tokyo-based musician was identified only by her double life—office drone by day, techno producer by night—and her music sounded just as strange and wide-eyed, counterposing the banality of diurnal data-entry gigs with otherworldly textures. Her mix for Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space sounds just as mysterious as her productions, balancing crisp, skeletal beats with hazily suggestive atmospheres. There are no grand gestures, no obvious peaks; she likes hi-hats that fizz like sprinkles and washed-out chords that bleed like watercolors on thick cardstock. Deep-diving chord stabs have a vintage feel (and, sure enough, Killer Loop’s “Someone (Juan Atkins Remix)” dates back to 1996), while contemporary cuts like Samo DJ’s “Janet” add a day-dreamy spin. Some of the most intriguing tracks in the mix are unidentified, but they’ve got Powder’s dusty fingerprints all over them.
Bullion - Truancy Volume 182
On the heels of his odd, nautically themed new Blue Pedro EP—which sounds like it’s half Irish, half African highlife, and as innocent as the children’s program it apparently samples—the UK producer Bullion turns in a delightfully eclectic mix for Truants blog. There’s no obvious through-line, but both the set’s range and its breezy, laid-back vibes scan as loosely Balearic. After an opening of jazz organs and easy-listening guitar, we’re treated to jaunty new wave reggae, a rustling cover of Ras Michael’s nyabinghi classic “No-Hoppers,” and a jazzy house tune suffused with clarinet and “SNL”-worthy sax solos. Finally, after flickering Japanese funk (Akira Inoue’s “The Beat of Pollution”) and blissful house (Nick Höppner’s “From Up and Down”), he takes on a strange, theatrical new wave tune that Shazam can’t make heads or tails of. The set’s over in just 47 minutes, and the perfect companion for a late-summer evening.
DJ Finn - Accelerated Club Mixtape
This mixtape, which you can also get on actual cassette, is only 24 minutes long, but that’s what happens when your decks are stuck on 78 RPM. Manchester’s Finn tackles a grip of Baltimore and Jersey club and Detroit ghetto house records, “accelerating” them (his term) til the beats jump like popcorn. Full of hiccuping soul samples, haywire breaks, bubbly R&B, and plenty of ribald vocal loops, the whole thing’s a high-speed hoot.
