Plastic Dance In My Pants

Cosmic disco but not in the Norwegian sense. I'm talking wonky, shonky, slightly dystopian synth music for future discos.

That's what fills Doug Shipton's Plastic Dance set for VF Mix 69. It supports the second instalment of Finders Keepers' Plastic Dance strand, a compilation series of obscure punky synth wonders.



There's no tracklist available, probably so you'll buy Plastic Dance 2 when it comes out. And I'm pretty tempted on the basis of this weird little mix. As The Vinyl Factory says, "Featuring 40-odd tracks in just as many minutes this bite sized tome seamlessly stitches together the finest in underrated plastic punk and overpriced synth pop from a global cast of unsung charity shop champions, Euro disco legends and library session royalty." Who could possibly resist?

Image: Giphy

Slum Beautiful

If you're after some laid-back but rugged hip-hop this morning then get on Slum Beautiful by Archibald Slim and Ethereal.



This album just flows over eight tracks. The beats flow and the rapping flows, but it ain't hippy-dippy stuff. This is tough, confident rap that happens to be taking it easy. FACT says it's "the Timbaland cloud rap album the world never knew it needed." I just know this is great morning music, a tight 30 minutes or so from Atlanta's Awful Records stable.

Idles Saturday

Just a quick one to say that Idles are playing Cardiff next Saturday.

It's in Four Bars above Dempseys on October 29th. They're supporting Pile. It's £7. It's a 100 cap floor show. It should be fucking brilliant. Facebook says there's only 35 going so far. But that's Facebook. Tickets here.

Gagged

It was going to be beautiful. Beautiful and pretentious.

DJ Dim Parcio was going to come out of retirement later today. Sadly my mixer is bust. The plan was to do a tape only set as yesterday was Cassette Store Day. My friend is doing a photobooth as part of madeinroath and I was gonna do some background music. Well as background as I get.

Yet the tech got in the way. So I've suggested putting on Teki Latex's latest mix, which I posted about last week, as a stop gap. This sent me back to his Hard & Fast Mix for Infinity Overdrive. And I just can't get enough of this pounding techno/ballroom crossover from JX Cannon called Gagged that pops up early in the mix...



Oof!

Monday Morning Mixtapes For Offices

I've had an interest in work-based music selections since I did my dissertation down in what is now the University of Falmouth (was University College Falmouth in my day).

It was called "What's the Point of In-store Radio?" and I originally wanted to take a Marxist approach, detailing how it was used to affect the mood and output of workers. Just like China, I eventually gave up on Marxism and switched to consumerism, with a study of the affects of music on shoppers and coffee-quaffers in a basic compare and contrast between ASDA FM Live and Starbucks. If you've got nothing better to do with your time you can read it here, replete with typos and terrible spelling.

Back to the here and now, I got in early to the office this morning and thought sod it, let's put some tunes on. So with my Listen Later list on MixCloud fired up, I started on VF Mix 65: Eastern Disco by Moscoman for The Vinyl Factory. By the time my colleagues started piling in, I'd moved on to Stamp The Wax's Monday Morning Mixtape series. And even though it was a Tuesday, there was consensus that this was some good shit. We stuck with it till lunchtime because even though we disregard days of the week, we hold the difference between AM and PM as sacred.



Were we more productive? Maybe. Was our mood improved? I think so. Like Cuba, maybe I should've stuck with Marxism?

Teki Soulwax

Teki Latex channels 2manydjs/Radio Soulwax on his latest mix. As the man himself says "It's the feeling of listening to Radio Nostalgie in an Uber at night combined with the feeling of listening to Rinse FM on a Sunday in 2010."

It's two hours of cut-ups, bangers and cheese and it's a thrilling two hours.



Highlight of the mix is towards the end of the mix when the acapella of AJ Tracey's Naila rolls over DJ Q's Sonic.