The A side of the B mix posted last week reveals two roughly 15 minutes snatches from the Solid Steel shows two weeks previous. I used to tape my own contributions live from the radio where and when I could, that’s not to say I didn’t want to listen to the others’ contributions, it was more a necessity as I would have been swimming in cassettes otherwise. Kicking off with a short Wagon Christ track from Throbbing Pouch (Luke always has such great titles) into a snatch of ambience that I can’t identify. Paul Schutze’s stunning ‘The Mutant Beautific’ enters, sounding like something from Eno and Byrne’s My Life In The Bush of Ghosts or one of Jon Hassel’s Fourth World albums. Utterly dark and beautiful, this originally appeared on his New Maps of Hell album in 1992 but I would have been playing it from the Assemblage compilation, a collection of tracks from artists on the Australian Extreme label. This was given away with releases around this time as a primer for the label and a lot of the content fitted into my more ambient sets.
Scanner’s ‘Arc’ is still one of my absolute favourites from Robin Rimbaud, nestling at the end of his Spore album, followed my another Wagon Christ selection – ‘Intermission’ from the aforementioned LP – looks like I was playing a largely ambient set this week. A regular artist on the Extreme label was Muslimgauze whose ‘Infidel’ appeared in all manner of variations on an EP and perfectly encapsulates his sound. Sadly he passed away in 1999 but was so prolific during his lifetime (he released ten albums in 1996 alone) that releases have still been forthcoming. We’re rudely interrupted by an edit into the next show and propelled into Bedouin Ascent’s ‘Crouched On Broken Glass’ – a brilliant piece of complex programming that is well worth investigating along with his first two albums on Rising High for some top shelf ambient techno. Yet another artist who appeared on the JDJ mix (not this track but one from the same EP) and who hasn’t released anything for over a decade. The Black Dog’s equally stunning rework of Phenomyna’s ’Into The Other World’ appears from Kirk Degiorgio’s Art Records before a snatch of ‘K/V’ from Ultramarine’s Bel Air album plays us out.
Mix URL:
Track list:
Wagon Christ – Night Owls
Unknown – Unknown
Paul Schutze – The Mutant Beautific
Scanner – Arc
Wagon Christ – Intermission
Muslimgauze – Infidel
Bedouin Ascent – Crouched On Broken Glass
Phenomyna – Into The Other World (Explained by The Black Dog)
Ultramarine – K/V
What a great moment in time this was, when everything new coming out seemed fresh, surprising, inspiring and dynamic. Thanks for the memories Kevin!