Hearthrob comes with D.I.M.

D.I.M. has some clever style. His remixes are played in clubs worldwide and he’s a stellar talent. His originals are worthwhile for sure. Here’s one remix from dancefloor-kid Brodinski:

D.I.M. - Is You (Brodinski Remix)

While Basstown is aligned tomorrow with a famous remix we blogged about a few months back. Get tickets to her show here. And last weekend, Basstown got with one of the biggest gatherings of meme-makers in history: ROFLcon.

Basstown even has t-shirts:

The acoustic version of the iconic Robyn track found the net a few months back:

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (Acoustic Version)

And sQuare productions favorites the Wighnomy Brothers are still tearing it up. Here’s the first 15 minutes of their latest mix:

Wighnomy Brothers - Metawuffmischfelge (Intro edit)

Which leads into the Agoria’s remarkable “Les Violins Ivres”. Buy the full mix CD here. Buy high-quality .mp3 files from Beatport.

Moar to come.

OMGui Boratto. A long-time favorite of sQuare productions is coming to town this Monday night and we’re pretty stoked. The man is playing live and direct at the Great Scott venue (click above for $10 advance tickets, or pick them up at the venue), where just a week ago our friends at Basstown blew the block away.

The last time we saw Gui it was live at Nitsa Club outside the Sonar 2006 main campus. The Kompakt party featured him front and center, and for good reason. His live set is a climbing, euphoric set of neu-trance, with breakdowns and build-ups flying around like rocketships. It was so electric Kompakt label chief Wolfgang Voigt bounded on stage and embraced the man as if he were his long lost brother. It was nothing short of epic.

From the latest in the Kompakt Speicher series (#55!), Boratto’s “Matryoshka,” is a bubbling waveform of a track that weaves its way further and further down your spine.

Gui Boratto - Matryoshka

Opening the night are the Basstown DJs (Etan, DJ Die Young and new resident Volvox, who, as it turns out, is Brazilian) and special guest DJ DRI.K. DRI.K email Basstown and volunteered to open. She’s played with Senhor Boratto before. From her site, here’s a mix of her playing mainly Boratto’s tunes.

DJ DRI.K - Plays Gui Boratto

Tim Haslett 1966-2008

We’re pleased to announce that Speaking in Code will be officially dedicated to Tim Haslett, who passed away a few weeks ago. From director Amy Grill:

“Speaking in Code is a feature length documentary about people who get lost in music. I followed a handful of music obsessed, music lovers for over 2 years all over the world. The common bond that the characters share is that they all live for electronic music. Tim turned us on to a lot of the artists and music featured in the film. David worked at Other Music in Cambridge, where as you know Tim was a buyer. At the time David and I were married and we spent a lot of time with Tim at the store (both NY and Boston-since we moved up to Boston so David could open the store in Cambridge). Tim we will surely never forget. Tim made me laugh until my insides hurt. I was always excited to learn more from him and excited to hear what he might say next.”

Tim was a scholar above all, but to us he was music visionary, telling us about labels like Kompakt (hence: Gui Boratto) . For evidence, look no further than his Hardwired program for local radio station WZBC (who still massively supports electronic music). Benny Blanco has put two of Hardwired programs from 1992 up at his blog. Check them out.

Thank you Tim, one more time. You were an inspiration to everyone.

Last night at the Basstown residency at Great Scott, which featured an all-female line-up of local talents Tree Fingers, SarahJoy and Pandai’a with new resident Volvox and NYC’s own Lauren Flax, we blew the power. At some point around 1:30am, with the dancefloor a fevered pitch, the incomparable Ms. Flax may have sent a subwoofer into the future and blamm-o. The lights went off. When the sold-out crowd started filtering out of the club, it became clear that not only was the club out of power, but an entire city block in the college-heavy Allston neighborhood had been blacked out.

Tomorrow night, the party that is one of the best in the city, Hearthrob, brings in the epic and well-informed Optimo crew, who we wrote about last summer.

If you go to the nearby colleges (M.I.T. folks, Harvard kids), I have one word of advice: save your work.

Update on Speaking in Code and Tim Haslett to follow shortly. But enjoy this mix from Optimo, a stunning collection of Acid House, European Techno and Hardcore from early in the 1990s. The “Pure Mix” was done in honor of the rave club where the Optimo duo (JG Wilkes and JD Twitch) played this stuff for hours on end.

Optimo - Pure Mix

Adonis - No Way Back (Chicago 1986)
Armando - Land Of Confusion (Chicago 1988)
F.U.S.E. - Substance Abuse (Detroit 1991)
Essit Muzique - Essit Muzique (Eindhoven 1994)
Up! - Spiritual High (Detroit 1992)
C’hantal - The Realm (acappella) (New York 1990)
Pergon - The Deliverer (Frankfurt 1993)
Speedy j - Pullover (Rotterdam 1991)
Holy Noise - Get Down Everybody (Parkzicht remix) (Rotterdam 1992)
Alec Empire - SuEcide (Berlin 1992)
Linea Alba - Space Travel (Ghent 1990)
Code 6 - C.O.D.E.S. (New York 1991)
Dimensional Holophonic Sound - House Of God (New York 1990)
Fierce Ruling Diva - Whipped Kream (Amsterdam 1990)
True Faith - Take Me Away (acappella) (Detroit 1989)
2 Bad Mice - Waremouse (London 1991)
Genaside II - Narra Mine pt. 2 (London 1991)

sQuare productions lost a good friend on Friday when Tim Haslett, the one-time music buyer for Other Music Harvard Square, was found dead in his apartment in Michigan, where he was studying for his degree in African-American studies. Haslett was, without a doubt, the very seed for Speaking In Code.

He literally introduced thousands of people, including us, to labels like Kompakt, BPitch Control and was a tremendous fan of Monolake, all of whom were filmed for Speaking In Code. It’s not a coincidence. I tried to put my grief into words, but nothing will suffice. I worked side-by-side with the man for over 5 years. He is, was, totally hilarious, thoughtful, and amazing.

Others have written about Tim, including Boston DJ scholar Wayne Marshall (who is holding a listening party of Tim’s favorite music this Monday), Boston legend Teep and even super-talented writer/editor Joe Keohane, who briefly worked with Tim as a writer at Boston’s Weekly Dig. There is, I am sure, many more lamentations to come.

From his early days (in 1986) at Boston Beat–where he would sell a kid named Armand Van Helden records, to Biscuithead, where he became friends with Edan, to Other Music and then to Twisted Village, where he would talk ceaselessly about Dubstep. He was so much more of course. Yet there would be no Basstown, no sQuare productions, no Kompakt in the U.S., without Tim. The popularity of Ellen Allien is on him. DJ Screw would be a no-name in Boston without Tim. The list, honestly, goes on and on and on and on.

We kept some of the signage from the old record store, which we would post next to the product itself. Many of them Tim wrote himself by hand. Here’s a sampling:

“DJ HELL’s internationally renowned INTERNATIONAL DEEJAY GIGOLO label sees its first domestic release in the form of a rollercoaster mix by Montreal’s DJ Tiga (who’s released records on the label). He flies through the GIGOLO catalogue, pulling out stone-cold electro jams, creating a monstrous, unceasing label history and a mix that is off-the-chain. ESSENTIAL.”

Jeff Mills - The Sun

“The Voigt brothers KOMPAKT label delivers another peerless compilation that defines the State of Melodic, cleantech-house. Newcomers like Lawrence, who pushes the limits of the Cologne sound. Familiar names such as the modernist, Schaeben & Voss and others make this collection indispensible. Can they do any harm?”

Autobianchi - All Around (Everybody’s Kissing)

“Just when you thought ELLEN ALLIEN’s Bpitch Control label had reached an explosive peak, Allien returns with a grimy, crunchy, techy floor burner. This 12″ crackles like a downed power line in a rainstorm. Amazing Berlin macro-house - PLAY VERY LOUD”

Ellen Allien - Erdbeermund

“SMITH N HACK is already one of the best electronic records of 2002. The ambidextrous ERRORSMITH & SOUNDHACK from Berlin record their tribute to disco hero Hamilton Bohannon (”Let’s Start The Dance”), but this is an edit-heavy, sandblaster of a record. From the heart of Berlin’s underground, a MASSIVE record.”

Smith N Hack - To Our Disco Friends (from the Playgroup mix CD)

Of course, Tim was an unmatched scholar of hip-hop, of English folk, of Nikki Sudden, of Detroit techno, &c. He taught many, many people about the value of being a selector. About being particular to what you listen to, because music is so, so important. He was also an intellectual, with an endless knowledge of philosophy, the African diaspora and coffee.

His influence is literally everywhere. I am sure, when Pan-Pot plays in Boston this coming Tuesday, he’ll be there somehow.

Pan-Pot - Live at Private Party Studio Martin Bucharest

Thank you, Tim, you will be missed. But know that your legacy is tangible … and completely, assuredly, immortal. Know that.

There will be a memorial service Friday, March 21st at the Friends Meeting, 5 Long Fellow Park (off Brattle, near Harvard Square) at 3PM.

Last week, Basstown Presents, the Weekly Dig and Vice Records screened Electroma, the Daft Punk art-house movie, at the wonderful Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. It was amazing (screenshot by Doria Grace).

Never forgetting this blog is about the movie, The Brattle is a old friend of sQuare. On our arrival to Boston it was Ned @ the Theatre who approached Other Music Cambridge about giveaways and partnership.

There is a lot more happening to techno these days: The South by Southwest festival has DJs spinning at Alternative Press parties, Miami launches the Beatport music awards and even my roommate Andre is making epic tracks. Also: Pan-Pot is coming to Boston (!?!) and Gui Boratto visits a few weeks after that.

Alongside Diplo, DJ Hell is starting to appear on the Basstown radar–a friend appears to be going to work with him in Berlin. Hell is a megalith of techno, a veritable giant. Here’s a mix he did at Berlin’s mighty Watergate club:

DJ Hell - DJ Mix at Watergate

Hell is probably most known around here for his rain-making remix of Human Resource’s “Dominator”:

Human Resource - Dominator (DJ Hell Remix)

It goes: “I’m bigger and bolder / And rougher and tougher / In other words sucker / There is no other.” It’s been remixed in an excellent way by Red Foxxx as well.

As for new tracks, Chilcott Place can’t seem to let go of Finland’s Motiivi Tuntematon:

Motiivi Tuntematon - I Don’t Feel Good (When Yure Not Around)

And Joris Voorn’s Resident Advisor podcast is playing right now:

Jooris Voorn - Resident Advisor Podcast 062

It’s remarkably good. Best-mix-of-2007 type-thing.

In a cavalcade of culmination, this Saturday, February 23rd, Diplo comes to Basstown.

I’ve been following Diplo (aka Wesley Pentz) back when he was Diplodicus writing about obscure and obsolete psych and funk records for a little-known site called turntablelab.com. Back in 1999, inside a little promo-selling bootleg operation on NYC’s St. Mark’s, the site was just getting started and a co-worker jumped ship to join up. Basstown, dance parties, Thunderdomes, Pitchfork Medias later, here we are. Here’s a gem from Diplo:

Diplo - “Must Be a Devil”

The show sold out a few weeks ago (told you), but we are still planning to have dope flyers for your fridge and and a pretty sweet weekend to be sure. For one, the night before Diplo, you got Thunderdome:

With Thunderdome 3 guests Trouble and Bass making a triumphant return as masters of their domain. In that time, Passions has gone from a DJ to a producer for supreme-boutique overlord label Kitsune. Gonna be fun. You’ll definitely hear this from resident DJ David Day:

Poxymusic- “War Paint featuring Gina Mitchell (Claude VonStroke Remix)”

It was a pleasure working for dirtybird out in San Francisco, and there is a longshot that we had something to do with the mix of the track. It was the main one VonStroke was working on when sQuare was involved in dirtybird, and those noisy bits might have something to do with that. The mix is mad ill regardless. That growling tiger is excellent. Be warned, this is a low-fi version of the track. If you listen to an iPod continually or DJ in a club, it’s highly recommended to get an account at Beatport.com.

This blog talked about Diplo opener Big Digits a few years ago when they opened for Hot Chip. Here’s the extended mix of their monstrous jam:

Hot Chip - “Ready for the Floor (Extended Mix)”

For those of you who have been following the saga of Speaking In Code for the last four years (which now dominates google, fwiw), director Grill talks of “great progress” and it looks like Toronto is in our sites.

For good measure (and ironic balance), an edit from the master Joakim, who was a Basstown guest last year:

Tony Cook - “On The Floor (Joakim Edit)”

FTW.

A few months ago, Boston got some bad news when Emerson College chose to close down their dance music show called Revolutions on 88.9fm in Boston. It made a lot of fans in town and kept people moving to the beat each and every night. This last Saturday, Revolutions returned.

Like back in 2006, the program decided to bring me on and talk about the movie and Basstown in general. I rarely have the chance to record a DJ set, and despite being in a clinical atmosphere with a team of sound engineers watching, I felt like it came out pretty good:

Onur Ozer - Eclipse
Italoboyz - Zinga
Agoria - Les Violons Ivres
Peter Grummich - Therapy (Exercise One Remix)
Jona - Manta
Sian - Wear Your Scars Like Medals
Interview
Len Faki - My Black Sheep (Radio Slave Remix)
Dubfire - I Feel Speed (Audion Remix)
Dune - Irulan’s Prologue
Teletexile - Heartquake (DJDY Remix)
Interview
Chromatics - In The City (Night Version)
Lykke Li - Little Bit
Mole - Border Times
Interview
Goldfrapp - A&E (Gui Boratto Remix)
Kid Sister - Control (Red Foxxx’s Big Room Remix)

David Day - Live Mix/Interview on WERS’ Revolutions

I got some facts wrong there; that Sian track is on Aus Music, and Ozer is from Turkey, not Romania. Big thanks to Will Wheeler for setting it up and the interview (and for letting me borrow his CDJs). If you want to DJ Revolutions, drop him an email. Otherwise, tune in–it’s every Saturday from Midnight-4am.

I’ve also been able to team up with hot blog RCRD LBL to become a member of their “Selector” team, who are specially designated to find and blog about some particular labels and artists. Click here for the site and links to a multitude of legitimate downloads.

Since Saturday night, people have been clamoring for that Zinga track, and with good reason. In my limited time in San Francisco, one of the things I got to do was go sightseeing with Italoboyz. We went and played some ancient video games, got our fortunes read by an automated machine and wandered amongst the tourists. At the time, “Zinga” was a hot property in the dance music business. Our friends at Get Physical eventually won out.

Italoboyz - Zinga

Stay tuned Boston. Pan-Pot, Gui Boratto and Diplo all coming through, with a few more big surprises before the summertime. Update on Speaking in Code forthcoming as well.

Pan-Pot feat. Vincenzo - Faces

“Basstown’s Booming” said the tag at the Boston Herald. The Boston Globe referred to it as a “popular club party” and a “rad dance night.” The Boston Phoenix also chimed in.

Thunderdome was a stunning success (click here for slideshow). While the next day, Basstown turned in a capacity+ audience at Great Scott. Make It New (which many people still consider the top taste in Boston dance music clubbing) hums along as usual and new nights like SOLID! and others are rapidly picking up momentum as well. (Click here for slideshow).

The point of all of it is to keep people from saying Beantown (a reference most Bostonians dislike) and instead, Basstown, a city where the bass thump of dance nights sits alongside the guitar riffs and rock scene the city is most known for. Part of the movie sQuare productions is making is focused on this saga. The saga of Thunderdome, the Fort Point Channel, after-hours parties, Modeselektor and Isolee in Basstown.

Saturday saw Boston’s best rock club (Great Scott), fill to the brim with dance music heads, and young ones at that. Hyped duo Plus Move brought the funk (they are in talks with some considerably cool dance labels for their EP) and DJ Etan, a Basstown principle partner, kept the party live (he himself is getting hit up by some heavy labels).

The track that brought everyone to the dance floor, however, was a bootleg from DJ Die Young:

Big Country - “In A Big Country (DJ Die Young Bootleg Mix)”

Of course, this blog will always be about good new electronic music, and this track from Ireland’s Gavin Herlihy has been in rotation for more than a minute:

Gavin Herlihy - “Opium Haze”

International superstar Dubfire returns to Basstown Friday, February 29 at Estate:

Dubfire - “Rib Cage”

And there is some talk Basstown can bring Kompakt superstar Gui Boratto sometime in April:

Goldfrapp - “A&E (Gui Boratto Remix)”

And of course dubstep remains the most vital new electronic music genre and some in Basstown agree. It’s mining of classic reggae-style riddims and deep sub-bass is the vanguard of club culture:

Peverelist & Appleblim - “Over Here”

But the biggest news of the week came when Basstown announced it was bringing Diplo back to The Hub on Saturday, February 23. Get your $15 advance tickets here before it sells out. That will make for one good slideshow.

The most forward-thinking dance night in Boston is re-styling again. Make It New, the Thursday night dance party that is featured in the doc, has recently added new resident DJs: Volvox, Die Young and DJezus. This means you’ll get a minimum of three DJs each night. The three-plus-year-old night also has a new ally in Basstown, the local dance music promotion team. They’ve also invited me to take on residency (I named the night after reading an article in Harper’s Magazine about Ezra Pound, fwiw). Everything old is new. Again.

Two of the new residents combined to make a mix for the re-launch, Die Young and Volvox:

DJ Die Young + Volvox - “Make It New 2008″

1. Dapayk & Padberg - Black Beauty
2. Elektrochemie - No. 19
3. Dubfire - I Feel Speed (Audion Remix)
4. Namito,Eyerer - Quipa
5. Adam Beyer - China Girl
6. Oxia - 12 Years Later
7. Cirez D - Teaser (Oliver Huntemann Remix)
8. Mr. Noize - Diplomatic
9. Mark Broom - Ping Pong
10. Oliver Huntemann - Zum Goldenen Handschuh
11. Rainer Weichhold - Bamboo
12. Popof - My Toyz
13. Markus Lange - Perihelion (Julian Jeweil Remix)
14. Shackleton - Blood on My Hands (Villalobos Remix)
15. Julian Jewil - Air Conditionne
16. Annie - Heartbeat (The Field Remix)
17. Panda Bear - Bros

That lead track is so wonderful. Dapayk & Padberg are good friends of SiC featured family Freude-Am-Tanzen and the message is clear. “This could be / The last vinyl album / MP3s killed the / Black beauty“

In the meantime, dance music is now big enough to fill Madison Square Garden and the same Justice, Busy P and Fancy tour in Boston has already sold out (this when we were told, not three weeks ago by one of the city’s largest booking agents, that Justice would never sell out in Boston). This time, when we say things are changing, we actually mean it.

Red Foxxx is one artist we’ve highlighted before, and again his track is nearly ubiquitous in our world. The song combines elements of Michael Gray’s “Borderline” (on the usually trance-heavy Ultra) with Lil Wayne and Fat Joe’s “Make It Rain”. It’s definitely a revisit of Foxxx’s Thugrave idea:

Michael Gray / Lil Wayne / Fat Joe - “Make It Borderline”

It usually makes this happen:

Thugrave is typically built on some kind of epic dance track which is then edited to suit the emotion of some typically hot rap a capella. As in Baltimoroder’s classic “Ghost Musick” edit. Take something like this, for example:

Gregor Tresher - “Anti”

Which is forthcoming on the Great Stuff label out of Europe. It rises and falls like an overly-ambitious mountain climber. Gregor is a serious up-and-comer in the European scene.

Justice is making everyone sweat dance music, and with good reason. The music they make is intensely rock-oriented, designed to make crowds panic. For some aesthetes like me, it can be a bit too garish, which is why this edit is more my style:

Justice - “Phantom Pt. 2 (Soulwax Mix - Cut the Midrange Drop the Bombast Edit)”

Make (It) new.

The film itself is undergoing a MiN session in the edit process. Here’s what director Amy Grill has to say:

“The entire story structure is written. Once I saw some crucial elements that were missing and through some important notes and feedback (and got past how hard it was to watch certain footage and people), the thruline really came together.

I then holed up with my assistant editor, Jason Blanchard and we edited for hours on end. Our most recent investment was able to pay for his visit to San Francisco, our multiple delivered meals, and the RAM and hard-drive space needed for the edit.

Now we must somehow find money to buy a laptop exclusively for the final rough edit. We have some local SF help who has offered space for fine cutting, which will be necessary, but we need a laptop to finish. We are also hoping for a post-production grant to fund all of the important finishing processes (sound mix, color correction, DVD authoring, &c.)

But I’m confident it will be a great film. One that is funny, touching and, most importantly, tells the amazing stories of this new dance obsession.”

If you’d like to be involved in the film, let Amy know.

Our compadres over at Basstown did the right thing Friday night. Their “SOLID!” event in Cambridge’s Central Square hosted Initiales AA, a techno kid from RISD and, as it turns out, Missouri. We share a kind of kinship with the young DJ/Producer, being that he is from the midwest, DJs with a certain panache and loves proper techno. So much so he even paid his own way to visit Koln for Total 7.

Initiales AA made a mix for his Basstown show:

Initales AA - “Basstown Mix”

Rufus Wainwright - Tiergarten (Supermayer Remix)
Apparat ft. Raz Ohara - Holdon (Modeslektor Remix)
Martini Bros - From Buleaux (Konrad Black Remix)
Dapayk & Padburg - Sister
Monty Luke & Tasho / Marc Houle - Paranoid / Techno Vocals (acapella)
Prztz - Nutdisco (Duckbeats So-Yo Dub)
Layo & Bushwacka - Life2Live (Jesse Rose Stripper Dub)
Tying Tiffany - You Know Me
Hidenobo Ito - Voicedelique (Krikor Remix)
Calvin Harris - Girls (Micky Slim’s Bomb Squad Remix)
Deadmau5 - The Reward is Cheese
Kris Menace - Steamroller
Gregor Tresher - A Thousand Nights
Daso - Daybreak (Jona Mix)
Van Den Love - Tom Cruise (Christopher Wade’s As Little As Possible Mix)

Speaking in Code did the same, visiting Koln for Total 6. The annual Kompakt party where all the artistic family gets together. In fact, the image above (credited to “SQare”) was published in the excellent European music magazine Intro. In the film, you watch Kompakt blow up before your eyes as the guest list they prepared far exceeds the capacity of their provincial venue.

The whole electronic vibe is spilling into America as well. Beyond critical favorites like LCD Soundsystem, Burial and Simian Mobile Disco (oh, and Justice, who just booked Madison Square Garden), Basstown-promoted acts like Pantha Du Prince (img, img2, flyer) and SiC stars Modeselektor are getting in on the action. Most significant though, is the popularity of The Field.

The Field is a Kompakt recording artist from Sweden. Newly-discovered Boston blog Pulp and Circumstance had his album in their best of 2007 (in addition to Modeselektor and Pantha Du Prince). The Field is one Alex Willner, a Facebook friend. We obtained some of his early ambient demos back in the day and feel it’s time to share them now. It is his birthday, after all.

The Field “Track 5″

The Field “Track 6″

The Field “Track 8″

The Field “Track 10″

It’s all a sign of the continuing ascent of electronic music and the overall acceptance of the sound as an artform. The better the aesthetic, the better the music. Consider again our friend Thom Yorke, who is very much a visionary of the new music paradigm. A referenced top track of 2007 was a remix of his track “Harrowdown Hill” from Ripperton, who we casually blogged about a few months back:

Thom Yorke - “Harrowdown Hill (Ripperton Dub)”

Hi Thom.