• 3/18/2022
    Interview: Scuba

    Scuba is a DJ, producer, label head, and podcaster from London, UK. In addition to operating Hotflush Recordings, he’s best known for his SUB:STANCE residency at Berghain, as well as his 2010 album Triangulation and 2011 DJ-Kicks mix. This interview took place shortly before his SUB:STANCE set performed at Denver’s Black Box this past week.

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  • 3/9/2022
    DJ Finesse & Lucky Smurf – What's Up (CLR 001)

    I don’t know anything about DJ Finesse, Lucky Smurf, or the short-lived Murderland Records outfit, but these are the two fastest Baltimore club tracks I’ve ever heard. Abandoning “Think (About It)” and “Sing Sing” to push into the mid-140s BPM, the A side lifts drums and an exhortation from “Long Red,” while the flip pairs two Michael Jackson samples and some kind of DJ Paul-esque evil laugh to utterly deranged effect.

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  • 3/9/2022
    DJ Tone - In Da Closet Traks / No Samples (DM190)

    The one-and-only Dance Mania solo 12” from DJ Tone, better recognized as Santonio (as in “Reese and ”). “Breathe Again” presents a way harder, snare roll-ier take on the same R. Kelly flip made famous as Dee Jay Nehpets “Na Na Na” the following year.

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  • 2/28/2022
    Interview: Jessy Lanza

    Jessy Lanza is a producer, performer, and songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She’s best known for her albums on Hyperdub Records - Pull My Hair Back (2013), Oh No (2016), and All The Time (2020). At the time of this interview (November 2021), she was preparing to release her entry in the !K7 Records DJ-Kicks mix series.

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  • 2/25/2022
    Technosis - Change Positions (BB-800)

    An all-time entry in the crowded “Moments in Love sample canon, turned unduly difficult to find after showing up in a couple Ben UFO sets. Made by DJ Technics under a one-time “Technosis alias for reasons unknown to me. The A1 is the big draw for most people, but I get plenty of mileage out of both “Bonus Beat #1 and the never-ending “Monkey Dance loop.

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  • 2/21/2022
    DJ D-Man - The Project (DM274)

    Late-period Dance Mania, where some of the tropes that would be central to early 2000s ghettotech start to surface before the label's demise shifts the locus of the sound up I-94 to Detroit. “T-Shirt gashes Adina Howard “T Shirt & Panties, and “How We Look breaks out the classic male/female call and response vocal.

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  • 2/21/2022
    Welcome Back

    It’s been a bit - last time I was doing any writing this post could’ve been titled “Welcome to the Party or maybe “Back From the Dead 4. Historically, I’ve used this site as a mostly-static archive of my work; almost everything here was initially published via an indulgent little email newsletter that I ran for about a year from 2017 to 2018, with some interviews and other loosies from before and during that period accumulating at Tiny Mix Tapes and Passion of the Weiss. My focus since then has been on extended interview series highlighting specific scenes and cities - I went to Houston in late 2018; in 2019 I spoke on the phone with a bunch of figures from different points along Chicago’s dance music timeline and went to New Orleans that winter.

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  • 1/12/2020
    Majestic Casual

    It was the first week of March, 2012, and I was on spring break. The Boys had assembled, as if having no other choice, to trek up to Richmond for a Neon Indian show. The opener, a duo called Purity Ring, left a much stronger impression.

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  • 12/30/2019
    Interview: Mobo Joe

    Mobo Joe is a rapper and entrepreneur from Harvey, Louisiana. He’s best known as the founder of Mobo Records, as well as for his work, alongside Ace Nitty, in Lower Level Organization.

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  • 12/23/2019
    Interview: Max Minelli

    Max Minelli is a rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He’s best known for some twenty years’ worth of solo albums, mixtapes, and singles (including “Louisiana Sky, an all-timer), as well as for his work with C-Loc’s Concentration Camp collective. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from rapping.

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