Less weight than usual although it gets pretty aggro in the middle.
Pair with heavy lifting, packing moving boxes, making out or cleaning the basement.
/DJIC
old dude got kids to feed but refuses to return to the software industry because making music and silly crap for you is so much fun plus I worked on getting good at it and studying music and its societal contexts and cultural studies and continental philosophy for like 30 years, so it’s not just some dj, it’s kind of partially an ARG and some alternative history and dada and the situationist international and adbusters too so it’s fun stick around dude can I make you a cocktail here hit this
Tracklist
* Lameduza, Bredren – Acqua
* Scuffed – Alright
* Klinical – Around Me (Workforce Remix)
* Flowdan, Agro – Bad From Morning
* Scar – Bravo Tango (Zero T VIP)
* Enei, SOLAH – Break The Cycle
* Waeys – B.B.
* Alibi, Urbandawn – Caramel
* Constrict – Caution
* Chimpo, Ibekay – Composure
* gyrofield – Cold Cases
* Resslek – Complex
* Enei – Dead Rollout
* Original Sin – Donkey Dust (Let’s Go)
* Mc Sas, Sweetpea – D.R.I.P.S
* Enei – Falling
* VELLE – Forest Forgotten
* Headroom – Gambol
* Teej, Objectiv – Hot Property
* River – Leaving The Past
* gyrofield – Photosystem
* Blackstreet – No Diggity (Acapella)
* Halogenix – Pusha
Steppes & Melty Glaciers
The set begins with Acqua by LaMeduza & Bredren, a submerged opening paced deliberately, the vocals recessed into the mix. Purposefully murky. For a while, selections remain close to the low-slung, rolling side of things. Alright by Scuffed and Around Me (Workforce Remix) bring soul energy with Workforce’s funky drum programming. Despite the fast tempo, we’re not hurried. Glasses of champagne are swung liltingly by the ladies.
The early half of the set’s austere. Transitions are long, spanning near-entire cuts, and little is done to announce change. The curator stays out the way. Tracks overlap in extended phrases, blending gradually while retaining rhythmic identities. Measured.
Bad From Morning by Flowdan and Agro slides in to return us to the street.
Flowdan f*****g rules. Check this out. Barsssssss. Baaaaarrrrs. And a chill erudite fellow as well. Flowdan is basically unknown in the US as far as I can tell and he should be big, and additionally he should also be huge.
It's followed by Bravo Tango (Zero T VIP), which lightens things up. These moments of re-engagement are spaced out across the set, not clustered, and they help distribute weight across what might otherwise feel like a continuous roll.
Solah shows up and rules too.
In the middle third, selections from Waeys, Alibi, Constrict, and Chimpo hold the line. Crispy congas. Caramel and Caution sit in this space—precise, rhythmic, not too saturated. Not sterile! Groovy, funky drum machines. If there are tricks happening in the mix, they’re buried in the folds: slow EQ pulls, slight pitch slips, occasional interplay between vocal cuts and percussive gaps. Nothing is flashy, and that’s the point.
Urbandawn lays his killer live bass chops ‘pon the funkiness to make the whole thing semiorganic. I’m picturing a band of cyborg musicians that look like 24th century Parliament. Chimpo takes the stage after the first couple tunes to sing Composure.
I love Chimpo’s lyrics across all his work, and the song All of the Above is one of my all-time anthems alongside When You’re Ugly and “I Can Do No Wrong.”
The inclusion of Cold Cases by gyrofield causes us to lose the composure that Chimpo admonished us about. We get moshy and aggressive for a while here - Complex by Resslek feels tight, almost Krautrock. Dead Rollout and Donkey Dust keep the intensity up, though the latter is shorter than expected, clipped into the mix more as a motif while the mix is worked briefly and deftly.
D.R.I.P.S and Falling pull us into lighter territory. There’s more vocal presence here, more overt emotionality, though still rendered in cool tones. Forest Forgotten and Gambol arrive quietly and we chill on a steppe, nearby glacier melting and falling away slightly. A slowly-eroding surface.
The last stretch includes Leaving The Past by River, Photosystem by gyrofield reintroduces tension—off-kilter, modulated, and harder to settle into.
Then it’s mashed up with No Diggity (Acapella), which slips into the mix without announcement, and we wrap with Halogenix’ incredible-as-usual sound design.
Overall, the set traverses many of the zones of contemporary drum & bass microgenres with minimalist rollers, halftime hybrids, a few tech-forward tracks with neuro inflection. It does so without falling into compartmentalization or theme-blocking. There's a reluctance to narrate, which works in the mix’s favor. This set holds together structurally despite the wide-ranging styles. It’s sometimes severe and maintains inertia.
Percival Drift, 2075
