Tweet
Many of you know the feeling of learning about new artists and music. You start out with one you like and take a look at their tracklists or artists that they're listening to and go from there. Those artists then lead you to new artists and the process repeats. The first mix we're hosting this week was introduced to me in much the same manner. A couple of weeks ago we hosted Paolo & Nic's 3 hour back-to-back set and someone commented on how much they enjoyed the DJ that was on prior to Demi that night. After a little research I found that his name is Anil Chawla (www.djanilchawla.com). I contacted Anil shortly after that to find out if he was interested in providing a guest mix for us. The guy is absolutely ace, both behind the decks and as a person. In just the short couple of weeks that I've gotten to talk to him, he's been nothing less than awesome to work with. His mix definitely reflects his personality and is straight-up spectacular! Take my advice on this one, download it and give it a listen because in a few years we'll all be able to say that we "knew" him before he blew up all over the world because Anil is DEFINITELY going places. Keep an eye and ear out!
The next mix from PLASS was originally aired as part of Gustavo Tomaso's T.B.A. show here on MercurySessions. I'm not exactly sure how I missed its original broadcast but I'm elated that Ariel suggested I give it a listen and that we host it as a download. If you like chunky, progressive breaks then this one is for you. Giving it a listen I hear some Habersham in there so you KNOW it's gotta be good! These guys have some amazing production talent and know how to throw together a banging set. You guessed it, they're from Argentina so it continues the trend of South America pumping out some massive stuff at the moment.
We are also hosting the conclusion of the Richie Hawtin (www.richiehawtin.com) set from Club Motor in Romania on August 19, 2005. Parts 2 (for those that weren't able to grab it before I took it down), 3, and 4 are all available this week. Enjoy!
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Anil Chawla
www.djanilchawla.com
After finishing 2003 with a flourish, the signs were there for all to see when clubbing institution Turnmills asked Mongo Bongo resident Anil Chawla to play back-to-back main room (to close) and back room sets at their prestigious Free Members Party on Saturday 3rd January 2004. Fast forward 8 months and music bible Mixmag have unveiled Anil as their latest ?Future Hero?, Radio 1 Resident Nic Fanciulli has signed him up to join his new Saved Records imprint (first track out Late 2005) and superstar DJ Tall Paul has asked him to remix his big comeback tune. DJing has taken him overseas for the first time and to Canada, before returning to London to play at the sell-out (10,000 capacity) Get Loaded in the Park summer festival with The Happy Mondays via Turnmills some more, where Anil was installed as their weekly resident for international night Chodzmy Razem over the summer. You could say it?s been a good year from the boy from Kent?
And that?s where it all began - Mongo Bongo, the acclaimed monthly house party from Maidstone which boasts past guests of the calibre of Nic Fanciulli, Serge Santiago, Mark Knight and Steve Mac. Since its inception in March 2003, Anil?s craftsmanship behind the decks has attracted the attention of the music press with Mixmag championing the night as their ?No.1 Night in the South-East? and DJ Magazine following suit, making it their ?Top 5 Night in the UK?. The term ?Maidstone Mafia? has even been touted around in the press with Anil joining the high ranks of founding members Nic Fanciulli and Mark Knight!! Indeed, Mongo Bongo has given Anil the platform on which to progress and a regular dancefloor to inspire. Mongo Bongo parties are now shaping up in London at Turnmills and The Social Bar, with an expected UK tour to follow across clubland in 2005.
This summer, Anil took the plunge into the studio for the first time and judging by the support he?s received from some of the world?s leading players it would appear that he?s something of a natural! He?s collaborated with Canadian DJ/Producer Dale Anderson to produce two breathtaking deep progressive house cuts ? ?Makes Me Feel? and ?Disco Stew?. The former already receiving support from the likes of Paul Jackson, Mutiny, Nic Fanciulli, Paolo Mojo, Desyn Masiello, MYNC Project, Greg Vickers, Wandy and South American Hernan Cattaneo. Hernan?s also all over the latter track, as are fellow dance luminaries John Digweed and Sander Kleinenberg, having each been given a CD-R by Nic Fanciulli in Toronto recently. The official release date looks set for March 2005 on Nic?s new Saved Records label, with a Skylark mix imminent courtesy of house music?s hottest producer right now. This attention hasn?t gone unnoticed either with Gallery Resident and Kiss FM presenter Tall Paul, who has asked Anil to work his magic on his own new track, out later this year. Other remix offers are also currently being considered.
But it?s as a DJ where Anil?s reputation was first recognised. Versatility is very much a part of his DJ vocabulary and this was evident earlier this year when he played at three of Turnmills? biggest, yet varied club nights over three consecutive weekends. First up was a dash of driving tribal house at The Gallery alongside Sister Bliss and Oliver Klein, followed by a soulful, vocal house set at City Loud with Sandy Rivera, Lottie and CJ Mackintosh, before he finally laid down a hefty slab of electro-tinged acid house at Together in the company of Paul Jackson and Graeme Park. It must be said that anyone can beatmatch a couple of tunes together, but it?s knowing what to mix and when that?s important, and Anil has that in abundance. He?s also had the honour of playing alongside Frankie Knuckles, Darren Emerson, X-Press 2, Paul Woolford and Norman Jay this year and he rounds off what can only be described as a sensational past 12 months.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
PLASS
Mauricio Maranghello and Federico Coppis are PLASS.
PLASS come out of ?Neuquen? in the heart of the Argentinean Patagonia, which is situated in the South of Argentina. With a typical South American style, newcomers PLASS are already promising to continue the South American trend of generating the best in electronic producers.
Working together since the early 90?s as producers and as DJ?s, PLASS were, and still are, exploring into the progressive sound of House and Breaks. The pair come from different musical roots but have combined their joint knowledge (including classical music, film music production, electronic music production/engineering) to produce a very distinctive sound. PLASS stumbled across Sinister Recordings path by passing some of their first tracks to prominent Argentinean DJ Dario Arcas. In turn, he passed a copy to Fernando Amabili of Big Head whilst DJing with him in Buenos Aries. Sinister Recordings A&R immediately recognised the potential in PLASS and requested more tracks which included ?Treasure? (released on Sinister in November 2004).
From their first release PLASS have already received critical acclaim from Hyper, D:Fuse, Chris Fortier, Hernan Cattaneo, Big Head, Jonathan Lisle (Bedrock), Steve Gerrard (Bedrock), Will Saul (Simple), Moshic, Anthony Pappa, Momu. 'Treasure' also received recommended tune in IDJ with a score of 5/5. PLASS live sets have also recently seen them awarded the residency at the renowned ?Groove Alta Patagonia? parties in Argentina.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Richie Hawtin
www.richiehawtin.com | www.plastikman.com
His style formed by a fusion of the barest acid house and straitjacket-tight Detroit techno, Richie Hawtin became one of the most influential artists in the world of techno during the 1990s, even while sticking to out-of-date synth dinosaurs like the Roland TB-303 and TR-808. Hawtin combined lean percussion and equally spare acid lines into haunting techno anthems that kicked with more than enough power for the dancefloor while diverting headphone listeners as well. While even his early recordings were quite minimalistic, he streamlined the sound increasingly over the course of his recording career; from the early '90s to the end of the decade, Hawtin's material moved from the verge of the techno mainstream into a yawning abyss of dubbed-out echo-chamber isolationism, often jettisoning any semblance of a bass line or steady beat. Hawtin released material on his own +8 Records under several aliases -- some in tandem with co-founder John Acquaviva -- and made the label one of the best styled in Detroit techno of the 1990s. He earned his pedigrees from worldwide fans of techno for his best-known releases, as Plastikman (for NovaMute) and F.U.S.E. (for Warp/TVT).
While original Detroit technocrats like Juan Atkins and Derrick May were changing the face of electronic music in the mid-'80s, Richie Hawtin was growing up across the river in Windsor, Ontario. A British native born in 1970, he moved to Canada with his family at the age of nine. Introduced to '70s electronic/minimalist pioneers Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream by his father (who was a robotics engineer for General Motors), Hawtin began DJing at the age of 17 -- as DJ Richie Rich -- and soon landed gigs at Detroit hot-spots like the Shelter and the famed Music Institute, home to all-night club sessions by May and Kevin Saunderson. Though many of Motown's innovators were skeptical of the skinny white Canadian, Richie Hawtin's formation of +8 Records helped deflect much of the criticism.
Hawtin and +8's co-founder, John Acquaviva, began working together in 1989, originally to make a Derrick May megamix for use on the radio; they later emerged from Acquaviva's studio with several original recordings. The duo issued one single, "Elements of Tone" as the first release on +8 Records (credited to States of Mind), and sat back while many in the techno world puzzled over who was responsible. The label's later releases -- by Kenny Larkin, Jochem Paap (aka Speedy J) and Mark Gage (aka Vapourspace) in addition to various Hawtin/Acquaviva projects -- made the label famous for laboratory-precise techno based on slowly evolving and shifting acid lines. The aggressive sound matched the work of the label/artist collective Underground Resistance as the best techno to come out of Detroit in the early '90s, thanks to a slow-down in the work of past masters Atkins, May and Saunderson. Demand grew at the same time for Hawtin's excellent acid-inspired DJing.
The Plastikman project debuted in 1993 with two releases for +8: the seminal "Spastik" single and an album, Sheet One. Hawtin's first wide release, however, came with the alter-ego F.U.S.E. (short for Further Underground Subsonic Experiments). A more varied and melodic project than Plastikman (but not by much), F.U.S.E. released the album Dimension Intrusion for the British Warp Records in late 1993. As part of the label's Artificial Intelligence series, Dimension Intrusion was also licensed to Wax Trax!/TVT for release in America. (Hawtin joined such ambient-techno heroes as the Aphex Twin, Black Dog, Autechre and B12, all receiving their wide-issue debuts.) Later, NovaMute signed an agreement with +8 and another Hawtin-founded label, Probe; Sheet One was reissued in 1994, followed by the second Plastikman LP, Musik. Much more restrained than Sheet One, the album fit in well with the growing ambient-techno movement. All told, Hawtin was responsible for the release of three albums and a good-sized EP in the span of just one year.
That impressive schedule was shattered in 1995, when Hawtin was entangled in difficulties resulting from a sudden crackdown on his usual procedure of crossing the American border to perform. Refused entrance for more than a year, he lost his inspirational grounding with the Detroit scene and found it difficult to continue recording for his third Plastikman album, Klinik. While he waited for re-entry, Hawtin spent time setting up the sub-label Definitive, and continued to DJ around the world. Though he recorded scattered singles for +8 and related imprints, his only full-length release that year was an excellent entry in the Mixmag Live! series, taken from a DJ set recorded at the Building in Windsor. By the time he was able to return to America, he had changed his musical direction and eventually abandoned the Klinik album.
Hawtin returned in 1996 his release schedule; during each month of the year, he issued a completely unadorned single recorded as Concept 1 (some were later collected on Concept 1 96:CD, mixed by Hawtin). Desperately minimal works, even compared to his earlier material, the singles showed Hawtin's reaction to the new-school of barely there techno coming from German labels like Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Profan and Studio 1 -- all of them originally influenced in no small way by Plastikman recordings. Finally, in early 1998, he released his third Plastikman LP, Consumed, which proved to be just as brutally shadowed as the Concept 1 material. The continued experimentalist direction showed Hawtin coming full circle, back to his position on the leading edge of intelligent techno. Many of the unreleased Klinik recordings surfaced in late 1998 on the compilation Artifakts [BC].
The next mix from PLASS was originally aired as part of Gustavo Tomaso's T.B.A. show here on MercurySessions. I'm not exactly sure how I missed its original broadcast but I'm elated that Ariel suggested I give it a listen and that we host it as a download. If you like chunky, progressive breaks then this one is for you. Giving it a listen I hear some Habersham in there so you KNOW it's gotta be good! These guys have some amazing production talent and know how to throw together a banging set. You guessed it, they're from Argentina so it continues the trend of South America pumping out some massive stuff at the moment.
We are also hosting the conclusion of the Richie Hawtin (www.richiehawtin.com) set from Club Motor in Romania on August 19, 2005. Parts 2 (for those that weren't able to grab it before I took it down), 3, and 4 are all available this week. Enjoy!
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Anil Chawla
www.djanilchawla.com
After finishing 2003 with a flourish, the signs were there for all to see when clubbing institution Turnmills asked Mongo Bongo resident Anil Chawla to play back-to-back main room (to close) and back room sets at their prestigious Free Members Party on Saturday 3rd January 2004. Fast forward 8 months and music bible Mixmag have unveiled Anil as their latest ?Future Hero?, Radio 1 Resident Nic Fanciulli has signed him up to join his new Saved Records imprint (first track out Late 2005) and superstar DJ Tall Paul has asked him to remix his big comeback tune. DJing has taken him overseas for the first time and to Canada, before returning to London to play at the sell-out (10,000 capacity) Get Loaded in the Park summer festival with The Happy Mondays via Turnmills some more, where Anil was installed as their weekly resident for international night Chodzmy Razem over the summer. You could say it?s been a good year from the boy from Kent?
And that?s where it all began - Mongo Bongo, the acclaimed monthly house party from Maidstone which boasts past guests of the calibre of Nic Fanciulli, Serge Santiago, Mark Knight and Steve Mac. Since its inception in March 2003, Anil?s craftsmanship behind the decks has attracted the attention of the music press with Mixmag championing the night as their ?No.1 Night in the South-East? and DJ Magazine following suit, making it their ?Top 5 Night in the UK?. The term ?Maidstone Mafia? has even been touted around in the press with Anil joining the high ranks of founding members Nic Fanciulli and Mark Knight!! Indeed, Mongo Bongo has given Anil the platform on which to progress and a regular dancefloor to inspire. Mongo Bongo parties are now shaping up in London at Turnmills and The Social Bar, with an expected UK tour to follow across clubland in 2005.
This summer, Anil took the plunge into the studio for the first time and judging by the support he?s received from some of the world?s leading players it would appear that he?s something of a natural! He?s collaborated with Canadian DJ/Producer Dale Anderson to produce two breathtaking deep progressive house cuts ? ?Makes Me Feel? and ?Disco Stew?. The former already receiving support from the likes of Paul Jackson, Mutiny, Nic Fanciulli, Paolo Mojo, Desyn Masiello, MYNC Project, Greg Vickers, Wandy and South American Hernan Cattaneo. Hernan?s also all over the latter track, as are fellow dance luminaries John Digweed and Sander Kleinenberg, having each been given a CD-R by Nic Fanciulli in Toronto recently. The official release date looks set for March 2005 on Nic?s new Saved Records label, with a Skylark mix imminent courtesy of house music?s hottest producer right now. This attention hasn?t gone unnoticed either with Gallery Resident and Kiss FM presenter Tall Paul, who has asked Anil to work his magic on his own new track, out later this year. Other remix offers are also currently being considered.
But it?s as a DJ where Anil?s reputation was first recognised. Versatility is very much a part of his DJ vocabulary and this was evident earlier this year when he played at three of Turnmills? biggest, yet varied club nights over three consecutive weekends. First up was a dash of driving tribal house at The Gallery alongside Sister Bliss and Oliver Klein, followed by a soulful, vocal house set at City Loud with Sandy Rivera, Lottie and CJ Mackintosh, before he finally laid down a hefty slab of electro-tinged acid house at Together in the company of Paul Jackson and Graeme Park. It must be said that anyone can beatmatch a couple of tunes together, but it?s knowing what to mix and when that?s important, and Anil has that in abundance. He?s also had the honour of playing alongside Frankie Knuckles, Darren Emerson, X-Press 2, Paul Woolford and Norman Jay this year and he rounds off what can only be described as a sensational past 12 months.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
PLASS
Mauricio Maranghello and Federico Coppis are PLASS.
PLASS come out of ?Neuquen? in the heart of the Argentinean Patagonia, which is situated in the South of Argentina. With a typical South American style, newcomers PLASS are already promising to continue the South American trend of generating the best in electronic producers.
Working together since the early 90?s as producers and as DJ?s, PLASS were, and still are, exploring into the progressive sound of House and Breaks. The pair come from different musical roots but have combined their joint knowledge (including classical music, film music production, electronic music production/engineering) to produce a very distinctive sound. PLASS stumbled across Sinister Recordings path by passing some of their first tracks to prominent Argentinean DJ Dario Arcas. In turn, he passed a copy to Fernando Amabili of Big Head whilst DJing with him in Buenos Aries. Sinister Recordings A&R immediately recognised the potential in PLASS and requested more tracks which included ?Treasure? (released on Sinister in November 2004).
From their first release PLASS have already received critical acclaim from Hyper, D:Fuse, Chris Fortier, Hernan Cattaneo, Big Head, Jonathan Lisle (Bedrock), Steve Gerrard (Bedrock), Will Saul (Simple), Moshic, Anthony Pappa, Momu. 'Treasure' also received recommended tune in IDJ with a score of 5/5. PLASS live sets have also recently seen them awarded the residency at the renowned ?Groove Alta Patagonia? parties in Argentina.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Richie Hawtin
www.richiehawtin.com | www.plastikman.com
His style formed by a fusion of the barest acid house and straitjacket-tight Detroit techno, Richie Hawtin became one of the most influential artists in the world of techno during the 1990s, even while sticking to out-of-date synth dinosaurs like the Roland TB-303 and TR-808. Hawtin combined lean percussion and equally spare acid lines into haunting techno anthems that kicked with more than enough power for the dancefloor while diverting headphone listeners as well. While even his early recordings were quite minimalistic, he streamlined the sound increasingly over the course of his recording career; from the early '90s to the end of the decade, Hawtin's material moved from the verge of the techno mainstream into a yawning abyss of dubbed-out echo-chamber isolationism, often jettisoning any semblance of a bass line or steady beat. Hawtin released material on his own +8 Records under several aliases -- some in tandem with co-founder John Acquaviva -- and made the label one of the best styled in Detroit techno of the 1990s. He earned his pedigrees from worldwide fans of techno for his best-known releases, as Plastikman (for NovaMute) and F.U.S.E. (for Warp/TVT).
While original Detroit technocrats like Juan Atkins and Derrick May were changing the face of electronic music in the mid-'80s, Richie Hawtin was growing up across the river in Windsor, Ontario. A British native born in 1970, he moved to Canada with his family at the age of nine. Introduced to '70s electronic/minimalist pioneers Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream by his father (who was a robotics engineer for General Motors), Hawtin began DJing at the age of 17 -- as DJ Richie Rich -- and soon landed gigs at Detroit hot-spots like the Shelter and the famed Music Institute, home to all-night club sessions by May and Kevin Saunderson. Though many of Motown's innovators were skeptical of the skinny white Canadian, Richie Hawtin's formation of +8 Records helped deflect much of the criticism.
Hawtin and +8's co-founder, John Acquaviva, began working together in 1989, originally to make a Derrick May megamix for use on the radio; they later emerged from Acquaviva's studio with several original recordings. The duo issued one single, "Elements of Tone" as the first release on +8 Records (credited to States of Mind), and sat back while many in the techno world puzzled over who was responsible. The label's later releases -- by Kenny Larkin, Jochem Paap (aka Speedy J) and Mark Gage (aka Vapourspace) in addition to various Hawtin/Acquaviva projects -- made the label famous for laboratory-precise techno based on slowly evolving and shifting acid lines. The aggressive sound matched the work of the label/artist collective Underground Resistance as the best techno to come out of Detroit in the early '90s, thanks to a slow-down in the work of past masters Atkins, May and Saunderson. Demand grew at the same time for Hawtin's excellent acid-inspired DJing.
The Plastikman project debuted in 1993 with two releases for +8: the seminal "Spastik" single and an album, Sheet One. Hawtin's first wide release, however, came with the alter-ego F.U.S.E. (short for Further Underground Subsonic Experiments). A more varied and melodic project than Plastikman (but not by much), F.U.S.E. released the album Dimension Intrusion for the British Warp Records in late 1993. As part of the label's Artificial Intelligence series, Dimension Intrusion was also licensed to Wax Trax!/TVT for release in America. (Hawtin joined such ambient-techno heroes as the Aphex Twin, Black Dog, Autechre and B12, all receiving their wide-issue debuts.) Later, NovaMute signed an agreement with +8 and another Hawtin-founded label, Probe; Sheet One was reissued in 1994, followed by the second Plastikman LP, Musik. Much more restrained than Sheet One, the album fit in well with the growing ambient-techno movement. All told, Hawtin was responsible for the release of three albums and a good-sized EP in the span of just one year.
That impressive schedule was shattered in 1995, when Hawtin was entangled in difficulties resulting from a sudden crackdown on his usual procedure of crossing the American border to perform. Refused entrance for more than a year, he lost his inspirational grounding with the Detroit scene and found it difficult to continue recording for his third Plastikman album, Klinik. While he waited for re-entry, Hawtin spent time setting up the sub-label Definitive, and continued to DJ around the world. Though he recorded scattered singles for +8 and related imprints, his only full-length release that year was an excellent entry in the Mixmag Live! series, taken from a DJ set recorded at the Building in Windsor. By the time he was able to return to America, he had changed his musical direction and eventually abandoned the Klinik album.
Hawtin returned in 1996 his release schedule; during each month of the year, he issued a completely unadorned single recorded as Concept 1 (some were later collected on Concept 1 96:CD, mixed by Hawtin). Desperately minimal works, even compared to his earlier material, the singles showed Hawtin's reaction to the new-school of barely there techno coming from German labels like Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Profan and Studio 1 -- all of them originally influenced in no small way by Plastikman recordings. Finally, in early 1998, he released his third Plastikman LP, Consumed, which proved to be just as brutally shadowed as the Concept 1 material. The continued experimentalist direction showed Hawtin coming full circle, back to his position on the leading edge of intelligent techno. Many of the unreleased Klinik recordings surfaced in late 1998 on the compilation Artifakts [BC].
Comment