WARMER MIXTAPES #1535 | by Lachlan Lewis MacColl [Operator/Leith Weapon/Yawn/Locum/Crocodile Dunblane] of Widowmaker, Sons Of The Glass Drum, Dobberwomann, Psexppl, Serotonin Barnacles and Brest
Photo by Trudy Stade
Disclaimer: I'm old and I don't use iTunes, have an iPod or a modern phone, etc.
All these are sent to me from the artist, on vinyl, laserdisc, player piano, psychic connection or cassette I own.
Disclaimer: I'm old and I don't use iTunes, have an iPod or a modern phone, etc.
All these are sent to me from the artist, on vinyl, laserdisc, player piano, psychic connection or cassette I own.
1. Country Teasers | Spiderman In The Flesh
They've been my favourite band for over 20 years. A sort of Woody Guthrie meets Chris Morris via Robbie's Bar on Leith Walk amalgam monolith. Social Satire at its finest. I saw the founding member, Ben Wallers, play as The Rebel a few months ago in a dank Scottish Metal bar. Two people walked out during this song. It looked like a mother and son. Weird gig to take either your mother or son to. For me, there's more pride in challenging people's beliefs than pandering to them.
2. John Cale | Dying On The Vine
Cale has produced a lot of my favourite records and to call him influential would be an understatement. I saw him play Green Man Festival a couple of years ago. It was unbelievable, still vital and relevant whilst remaining self aware and sardonically humorous. He was always the interesting thing about The Velvet Underground. This is one of the moody mid 80s numbers nobody seems to be currently interested in. Expect annoying bands to be name checking this album mid 2017. It's swathed in pretension but also premier level production for that era. Weird keys and synths you won't hear on your recycled quasi-Disco hits, also everybody in his various bands can really, really play.
3. Drexciya | Sea Quake
They have everything I like about Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk distilled into Machine Funk. When I first heard their Music I fell in Love and have never lost that feeling. The inharmonic nature of the leads, bubbly swells, pneumatic bass patches and the pounding rhythms are untouchable. Deep sea robot treasures.
4. Nathan Fake | World Of Spectrum
He seems to remake his tunes really successfully live and it doesn't seem contrived. I don't think there's been an external remix of his Music that's improved it. Last couple of times I've seen him! It was at a club called Kapital in Scotland, it's been so different and equally involving. It represents very interesting rhythmic tangents of World Music and complex Classical Music, all combining to create an universal dance floor. This is one off the album Steam Days which I really like. He's also doing some stuff on a new label I work with, Giant Friend, this year. You should check him out live, he's actually PLAYING, not just checking Tinder and hiding behind a modular somebody else built. You might even get to see him smash his equipment like a Norfolk Yeti.
5. Marcus Mixx | Shake That Thing (Legowelt Mix)
I'm a big fan of Danny Wolfers, this is just a remix he did, but everyone I've played it to has immediately bought it. Saw him and IF play a warehouse party in Glasgow in 2004 or something. I picked this track because it's the closest sound to that party, but most of his work is exemplary. He's very diverse whilst always sounding like himself. Constantly releasing stuff of very high quality that retains an austere sense of Humour. Soulful and detached. This track makes me want to go The Hague immediately and do things that are not recommended by my doctor for 4 days.
6. Black People | Dead Soon
This is also going out on Giant Friend in early 2016. It's Tobias Schmidt, who I've been lucky enough to do some tracks with in the past. He's a genius. He encapsulates that synthesis vernacular a lot of people try and cheat, but he's the real deal. Him and Landstrumm were good to me when I started out. Shame I've not been able to repay them with a hit vocal, but if you sing drunk 64 part harmonies exclusively about Mass Death, it's not going to chart.
7. Ryoji Ikeda | data.superhelix
Saw this live at Sonar in 2006. It was played from a DVD in the afternoon after a fairly excessive night. Surrounded by Catalan Metal fans headbanging and climbing the walls. It was surreal to say the least, but I really enjoyed it. He uses Space like a visual artist and ears like a scalpel. Wish I could just post a DVD to Spain and make 8 grand.
8. Nick Drake | Know
This song is perfect, but also terrible for Depression.
9. Shellac | Shoe Song
Albini is a hero of mine, visceral and magnetic. He's one of the only people in the World who knows what a microphone is.
10. Hieroglyphic Being | Machines For Lovers
Anything by Jamal Moss I'd buy without even listening to in the shop. I tried to get him to remix one of the tracks on a 12" I did ten years ago, but he and the label couldn't come to terms. His Music has an unvoiced confidence that cuts right through the mix. It does its own thing regardless of the sonic palette he's using, but you always know it's him.
+11. Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band | My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
Beefheart is Rock And Roll for high functioning autistics and Jazz for Nascar fans. I used to box when I was a teenager and Beefheart is generally what I'd have in my head when fighting. It gave you unpredictable combinations. Knocked down a lot of Bowie and QFX fans.
+12. Team Doyobi | DF0:Bad
I got to remix them last year and I'm a Wayne's World level fan. Every release is quality and interesting. This one is a sort of Ragga throw down through the eyes of a sentient yet disillusioned Amiga 500. Like a really opinionated fax machine with a gun and a blunt. I'd always have this record with me if I was DJing.
+13. Theo Parrish | Dirt Rhodes
I'd get sort of hypnotised whenever I used to play this and fuck up mixing the next record in. I like his sensibilities. It seems effortless, but that's the trick of a talented producer I suppose.
+14. Kashgar | Scent Of Your Blood
I don't know much about this band, but a demo made it to me and it's proper Old School Heavy, Heavy, Heavy Metal. The singer sounds like he ate Satan as an appetiser and the guitarist plays like Django Reinhardt relaying the Music to Tetris via a tank with sonic crowd dispersal weaponry. It's got a genuine upbeat Darkness to it. I'm reliably informed they are Kyrgyzstan's premier Metal outfit. If not only metal outfit. All I could find about them is they're playing in Russia this March. Hope Putin's a fan.
+15. Kraftwerk | Computer Love
How could you ruin this perfect song? There's a difference between Influence and Outright Theft. Difference between putting flowers on a grave and digging up the body to sexually interfere with it. A difference that is not readily apparent to Mr. Chris Martin. Coldplay are the Jimmy Saville (OBE) of Modern Music and I feel they should be punished accordingly. Kraftwerk are enduringly good and that's why I can still enjoy this song despite Coldpays worst efforts. I mean. Who does that? Fucks sake.
+16. Newcleus | Jam On It
I need to listen to this 5 times in a row to forget about Coldplay excavating and defecating into Kraftwerk riffs. It doesn't need any explanation. It's just quality and enjoyable.
+17. Man Or Astro-Man? | A Simple Text File
I love all the ironic alien Surf Rock, but really enjoyed driving flat mates up the wall with this record of dot matrix printer Metal. I think it may be considered my favourite piece of Musique Concrète.
+18. The Egyptian Lover | Freak-A-Holic
I also suffer from Freakaholism, of which there are surprisingly few support groups in Scotland. It's really good Egyptian Lover and Jamie Jupiter had the courage to address this under-supported cause in such a way.
+19. Junior Byron | Dance To The Music (Vocal)
I was playing a gig at a club in rural Scotland and got so drunk I became too inept to play my own Music, so I stuck this on repeat and joined the crowd dancing. I still got paid, amazingly. It is the soundtrack of shards of Sunlight cutting through tired Venetian blinds on to a newly ruined faux wood floor, sweat dried into puffa jacket lining and lots of semi conscious people cradling buckfast bottles on a bungled Sunday morning.