Spannered Radio podcast (all items) Spannered.org

Surgeon remains one of electronic music's most consistently thrilling performers. Hugely influential in techno circles since the mid nineties, his productions and DJ mixes point to constant evolution in his sound and a steady absorption of new influences.

Last year's Breaking the Frame, his first album in over ten years, struck a curveball at all those anticipating a pummelling set of textured techno tracks, instead distilling some of his listening habits of recent years — the likes of Alice Coltrane, Eliane Radigue and La Monte Young — into a very personal document, one that searched for, as he put it, 'the deep spiritual essence that lay behind the surface structures of their individual music'.

This set was recorded in October 2011 in London, when Surgeon performed as the mystery guest at a showcase night for the Blackest Ever Black label. Given Blackest Ever’s brooding trajectory, the event’s line-up struck a suitably shadowy tone, featuring label mainstays Raime, William Bennett's formidable Cut Hands project, and long-time Surgeon collaborator Regis (with whom Surgeon performed a surprise closing set under their British Murder Boys guise).

As Surgeon himself said, there was a rather strange, tense atmosphere in the club throughout the evening, due no doubt to hosting a bill of such intensely disturbed music in the heart of London's hip Shoreditch, and this tension probably comes across on this recording from the night.

This is the last set to be hosted on Spannered for the foreseeable future. Many thanks to Tony for passing the recording to us and for giving his support to the site since day one.

Tracklisting:

John Coltrane - Dearly Beloved
Surgeon - We Are All Already Here
Roly Porter - Corrin
Cub - CU1
Inigo Kennedy - Scatter
Surgeon - Exhibit
Karenn - Chaste Down
Xhin - Teeth (Surgeon remix)
Swarm Intelligence - Fighting Talk VIP
KiNK - Machines Don't Cry
Surgeon - Presence
Scorn - The Palomar
Surgeon - untitled
Blawan - Coronation
Inigo Kennedy - Cloudless
Regis - Guiltless
Surgeon - those who do not
Universal Indicator - Red
Kraftwerk - Its More Fun To Compute (Surgeon Remake)
Aphex Twin - Digeridoo (Surgeon Remake)
Emptyset - Return
Tomohiko Sagae - Deburring (Paul Damage + Makaton Wasps mix)
Ed Rush, Optical + Fierce - Alien Girl
Raudive - Over

Listen to Surgeon's For Dog Faces Only mix, recorded for Spannered

Oddcast #15 was delivered on Saturday 28 April 2012 at 01:10 hours. Weighing in at just over 70 minutes, both parent and child are doing as well as can be expected.

Music for Pregnant Ladies is a version of a mix originally put together by London-based DJ Jerome Hill for a friend of his during her pregnancy. Featuring wildly eclectic gems from the likes of Nino Ferrer, Os Mutantes and Jean-Pierre Massiera, we've been experimenting with this Oddcast in various situations and can assuredly report that it's a very fine listen even if you're not 'with child'.

Despite Jerome's legendary standing as a techno DJ, anyone who's caught him at one of his more “irregular” gigs will know of his ceaseless quest to unearth the cheekiest tunes of all genres ever to have been pressed onto vinyl (and that he's a force to reckoned with when it comes to rocking out the catchiest wedding selection).

His label, Don’t, recently reached it’s 20th release with a sturdy EP of clunking acid and jacking house by Messrs Neil Landstrumm and Matt Whitehead. If you’re in London on 8 June 2012, we strongly recommend heading along to the second of his label parties, to be held in the bowels of a decaying video shop in Dalston.

Check out Jerome’s other mixes for Spannered here and here.

Tracklisting:

Will Malone - Deathline
Unknown - Check the Brutal Music label !
Nino Ferrer - Le Telephone (English Version)
Dave Phillips & The Hotrod Gang - Tainted Love
The Boots - Alexander
Ike & Tina Turner - I Can't Believe What You Say
The Kinks - Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Dandelion Wine - Hot Dog
The Nu People - I'd Be Nowhere Without You
Jean Pierre Massiera - Il Tubo
Os Mutantes - Bat Macumba
Bdly Drawn Boy - Riding with Gabriel Greenburg
Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina (Dom Thomas Edit)
The Herbaliser - Amores Bongo
Steve Martin - Gettin Small
The Cherrystones - Be Careful What You Wish For
The Free Association - Le Baggage
The Free Association - Whistlin Down The Wind
The M&S Band - Egg Roll
Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch - Bend It
Napoleon XIV - They're Coming To Take Me Away
Jean Paul Massiera - Dali Court
North Of Ping Pong - Reeboks
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Rag Doll
Roy Orbison - In Dreams

The latest instalment of Spannered's Oddcast series comes from none other than Glasgow's Dave Donnelly, aka Production Unit. Dave's no stranger to these pages, having previously contributed two short works of fiction about talking cows and a rather exquisite review of Autechre's Quaristice album.

Formerly a member of Glasgow's now-dispanded electronica trio the Marcia Blaine School For Girls (along with Ruaridh Law, aka The Village Orchestra), Dave's had outings under his Production Unit guise on keen-eared labels such as Highpoint Lowlife and Stuff Records. He currently has releases primed and ready for Broken20 (which helps to run with Law) and Phuturelabs. The Broken20 release, titled ICU Tracks, is a particularly intense body of work —  a stark techno set (suitably supported by remixes from Perc and Emptyset's Paul Purgas) constructed from the sound of hospital machines.

A while back, just after we got a whiff of his Mature Cheedar Dadcast for Techno Dads, we asked Dave if he'd pick up the Oddcast gauntlet for Spannered — and he's done so with gusto. "The theme is 'other music'" he tells us, "stuff that I'd probably never normally put in a mix." Well, we think he deserves one fat cigar for this epic two-hour selection, chock-full of beauty and strangeness in equal measures — and a large plastic beaker of warm sambuca for holding the dubious accolade of being the first (and probably last) mix on Spannered to feature the versatile delights of the legendary Bernard Cribbins.

Tracklisting:

Bjork - Overture
Rose and Sandy - Play Cat's Cradle
Hildur Gudnadottir - Aether
Fatimah al Zaelaeyah - Ya mun dakhal bahr al hawa (Hey, who enters the sea of passion)
Gendhing Kemanak Anglirmendung (Pelog Barang)
Drummers of the Societe Absolutment Guinin - Yanvalou
Njib Ould N’Ghaimich – Guetna
Throbbing Gristle - Exotica
Directions - Echoes (Continental Drift version)
John Coltrane - Ole
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
The Beach Boys - Fall Breaks and Back to Winter
Scorn - White Irises Blind (Minimal Mix)
Godflesh - Christbait Rising
Scorn - Drained
John Cohen - Tar River
Coil - Triple Sun Introduction
Hype Williams - Untitled 1
Tangerine Dream - Love on a Real Train
Steve Reich - Proverb
FSOL - Papua New Guinea (Dub Mix)
Pole feat. Fat Jon - Slow Motion
Senking - Mimi
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (Instrumental)
BFC - Sleep
Mos Def - Kalifornia
Chris Thomas King - Hard Time Killing Floor
Raphael Corderos - Rock Creak Parp
Bernard Cribbins - Winkle Picker Blues


^ New Production Unit EPs out soon on Broken20 and Phuturelabs

Loosen your tie and get down to half an hour of Bollywood oddities and sitar-fuelled strangeness (with nods to Britney, Herbie Hancock and Nancy Sinatra) from Phill Thomson, aka the Nam Shub of Enki.

Nam Shub has released a slew of solo recordings since the '90s, as well as producing for and performing with Brisbane's riotous cabaret supergroup Monster Zoku Onsomb! and new MZO splinter project Hi Freqs. He's currently roaming about Europe, sculling bottles of Belgian beer and playing outrageous live sets of mashed electronics at people in anticipation of the release of his sixth album, due out soon on Australia's Retort Records.

We've been trying to squeeze a mix from Lawrence (aka agent2) of London's Rebel Intelligence collective for some time now. Le Orme (meaning footprints) rocks out the kind of lush electronic tackle you'd expect from this exceptional connoisseur of early Chicago house, Detroit techno and deep dancefloor electro. If you've ever caught one of Lawrence's flawlessly programmed DJ sets, you'll be all over this.

The fledgling Rebel Intelligence label has a couple of great electro 12"s out by Matt Whitehead. Snap them up if you haven't already.
 
Tracklisting:


Submersible Machines - Blue Hole
Steve Summers - Dreaming in Color
DJ Sprinkles (Kink & Neville Watson Remix) - Masturjakor
Perseus Traxx - Remake 508
Murphy Jax Featuring Mike Dunn - It’s the Music
Steve Summers - Lucid Fingers
Kink & Neville Watson - The Long Wait
Elec Pt.1 - Sky 13
Risque Rythum Team - 122 House
Kink & Neville Watson - City 2 City
Virgo Four - In a Vision
Snuff Crew - Slam it
Surburban Knight - The Groove
Conforce - Black Stroke


 

Ralph Cumbers describes his latest release as "an open love letter to underground dance music culture". Out earlier this month on Magic and Dreams, Inner Space Break Free harks back to ye olde days of hardcore and rave, with influences not so much worn on its sleeve as emblazoned across the back of a friggin' great fluoro jacket.

The album is available on cassette only ("I’m releasing it on tape because I adore them, and all my music is made on a cassette 4-track, so it feels kind of right"), and is dedicated to "the tunes, DJs, soundsystems, noisy neighbours and pirate stations that have inspired me and repeatedly turned my head inside out over the last two decades", says Cumbers. Rave on, we say.
 
'Inner Space Influences' mixes up many of the classic dance tracks that influenced Inner Space. If you've not checked out Mr Clef's other mixes on Spannered, we recommend you seek out his excellent dub mixes here and here, and last year's tremendous African mix here. You can also read Spannered's interview with him from 2006.
 
Tracklisting: 


David Shrigley - What There Is
Autechre - Inhake 2
Hashim - Al-Naafyish (The Soul)
Nexus 21 - Real Love
The Beatmasters - Hey DJ / I Can't Dance
Tricky Disco - Tricky Disco
Betty Boo - Doin' the Do (remix)
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam
Altern 8 - Real Time Status
KLF - What Time Is Love?
Inner City - Let It Reign (Altern 8 You Know the Score mix)
Plaid - Anything
Orbital - Chime (Ray Keith mix)
Sabres Of Paradise - Chapel Street Market 9am
Da Posse - In the Heat of the Night
Altern 8 - DJ Nex's Break
Rachel Wallace - Tell Me Why
Hackney Hardcore - Dancehall Dangerous
2 Bad Mice - Hold It Down
Inky Blacknuss - Drumulator
AFX - Untitled
Inky Blacknuss - Desolator
David Shrigley - What There Is


^ Inner Space Break Free (cassette + download code) is out now.