The 8 Best DJ Mixes of August 2018
Every month, Philip Sherburne sifts through the never-ending avalanche of new DJ mixes online to bring you the best of the bunch. August’s picks skew toward the clubbier end of the spectrum, thanks to peak-time energy from Nightwave, Courtesy, and Titonton Duvante, but if the end of summer has got you feeling contemplative, headier, moodier sets from Galcher Lustwerk and Katya Yonder may fit the bill. Helado Negro, meanwhile, hangs on to August sunset vibes for all they’re worth.
Galcher Lustwerk – White Material Mix Series #4
A new White Material mix is cause for celebration under any circumstances, especially since they only come around once a year or so—the last one, from Young Male, dropped in January 2017. Not only is this the first time that Galcher Lustwerk, the collective’s most visible member, has helmed the series; the set, drawing on outtakes from his 2017 album Dark Bliss, also comprises all unreleased material, making it something of a companion piece to the all-exclusive 100% Galcher mixtape that was the Ohio native’s breakthrough. In sound and mood, the dreamy set burrows deep into his wheelhouse, with dusky chords swirling above pitter-pat drum machines and hypnotic whisper-rapping. It took a good three years for the highlights from 100% Galcher to turn up on EPs; with any luck, a few of these—like the spellbinding “Untitledxx fixed COOLEST DRIVERS HIGH ORIGINAL,” even more immersive than the album version—will eventually see a proper release.
Nightwave – RA.638
Glasgow’s Nightwave delivers an hour of peak-time thrills in this no-holds-barred set for Resident Advisor, traversing time-tested styles guaranteed to keep a dancefloor on its toes: gravelly acid, buoyant Detroit techno, bare-knuckled breakbeats, and judicious dabs of electro. Despite the considerable force, Nightwave never bangs listeners over the head: More often than not, she fits together even her heaviest tracks with the finesse of someone threading a needle. The final 20 minutes are particularly gripping, as Mella Dee’s Basic Channel-inspired “Woodlands” and Nightwave’s percussive “Bang the Rocks” lead the way to a heart-in-mouth peak in the form of Clark’s “Honey Badger,” followed by Kenny Larkin’s lickety-split “Without Sound.” It’s the rare instance of the denouement outpacing the climax—and further proof of Nightwave’s knack for switching up energy levels.
Courtesy – Mixmag In Session
Denmark’s Courtesy turns up with some frequency in this column, and her new set for Mixmag’s In Session series illustrates why she’s so great. The tempo is fast, the mixing is tight, and her selections are drenched in color and fun. Check the way she slams in a rave-soaked piano-house bomb from 1992 after a bleepy techno meditation from Joey Beltram. She follows that with a clanging segment of a 2001 live set by Cristian Vogel and then feints sideways into a brand-new tune with some new wave flavor from fellow Dane Kasper Marott. Courtesy’s sets are always an education, and she spends the duration of her Mixmag session switching between old and new, setting up a conversation between classics and contemporary tunes that spans decades. Speaking of new releases, keep an ear out for the plangent synths of Schacke’s “Automated Lover,” forthcoming from Courtesy’s brand-new label, Kulør.
Axel Boman – Beats in Space #951
The Swedish DJ Axel Boman’s latest session for Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space show ranges from melodica maestro Augustus Pablo to the early-1990s Swedish dance-pop group Army of Lovers. Mostly, though, he focuses on new and forthcoming material from his Studio Barnhus label. Much of it comes from the brand-new Studio Barnhus Volym 1 compilation: Paradise Alley’s “What Road” is a toe-scuffing take on downbeat electro-pop; Adrian Lux’s “Teenage Crime (Axel Boman Dub)” is a slow-motion acid tearjerker graced with winsome falsetto. There’s some unreleased music in there too, including a sweet, dubby stepper from Boman himself. The whole thing is as lazy as an August daydream—the kind of dance music for which the mere idea of dancing suffices just as nicely as the act.
Maral – Mix for the Astral Plane
Back in March, the Los Angeles DJ Maral turned in an unusual set that took the Iranian folk of her upbringing and recast it as a kind of shape-shifting ambient music. Now, in a mix for the Astral Plane, she applies her heavily hands-on aesthetic—radically reshaping source material with time-stretching, dub effects, and cut-and-paste techniques—to a much broader palette. There’s still plenty of Iranian influence here, from the addition of tombak drums to interwoven field recordings from across the country; there are also tracks from Blawan, Le Tigre, Cassie, 1960s crooner Glen Campbell, and anarcho-punks Crass, most of them reworked nearly beyond recognition. It’s rare enough to find all those names in the same tracklisting; it’s all the more fascinating when they’ve been so forcefully rearranged, and so seamlessly interwoven with a musical tradition rarely encountered in a club-music context.
Titonton Duvante – Truancy Volume 223
Titonton Duvante is one of the unsung heroes of American house and techno. Perhaps it’s because he’s from Columbus, Ohio—not Detroit or Chicago or New York—that’s kept his star from rising higher, but his 1990s output on labels like Metamorphic, Phono, and his own Residual is a wellspring of deep, kinetic machine funk. That sensibility carries through to his DJ sets today, whether it’s in the bass squelch that pops up around the 41-minute mark here or the swinging, heavily syncopated grooves he tends to favor over a straight four-to-the-floor stomp. Heavily layered and peppered with spinbacks, this hourlong session—complete with synth disco from I:Cube and an unexpected foray into heavy-hitting UK bass—treats the art of the DJ like a jigsaw puzzle; it’s all about the joy of finding elements that fit together perfectly.
Katya Yonder – Métron Mixtape 055
The Métron Mixtape series has carved out its terrain along the periphery of ambient home listening and globe-trotting experimental sounds, and this set from Russia’s Katya Yonder offers a particularly atmospheric example of that aesthetic. Building on the ethereal sounds of last year’s Winter Skins, the Yekaterinburg composer has written and recorded an entire album’s worth of new material for the occasion. Vibraphones and shimmering drones of faintly Japanese provenance give way to sentimental synth pop and vaporous strains of early Oneohtrix Point Never; there are echoes of Philip Glass and classical minimalism, and one particularly satisfying passage suggests the Blade Runner theme reimagined by Cocteau Twins. The déjà vu runs deep; after just a few listens, I feel like I’ve known some of these songs for years.
Helado Negro – Phonic Mirror Part 6
Last time I checked in on Helado Negro’s Phonic Mirror series, his warm, melodic mix of sounds got me thinking about backyard barbecues. His latest update zeroes in on that neighborhood vibe, sourced from stoop sales and secondhand shops around his stomping grounds of Crown Heights, Flatbush, and surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods. This set’s even sunnier than Part 3 was: Themed around “music from islands, islets, reefs and cays,” it’s a feast of Caribbean vibes, from calypso to reggae to discofied hybrids. Full of steel pans, analog synths, and drifting close harmonies, all topped off with a suggestive layer of vinyl fuzz, it’s a true late-summer treat.
