My eyes have steadily opened over the last several years to the possibilities of techno. I’m not a techno DJ, but I’ve definitely felt that some of the most interesting things that have happened to dubstep over the last several years have been because of the influence of techno. One of those things is just listening to T++. Another has been Objekt. And a 3rd has been all the amazing stuff that Orphan101 and Bloodman have put out in the last year, both as individual producers, as collaborators, and as curators of the stellar DecaRhythm, one of my favorite labels of last year. Check out Orphan101′s Propa / Disemble and Bloodman’s Launch EP for good intros to their sound.

So I’m super thankful to them for welcoming me into the family in a small way, as they did Tinker last month, by featuring me in their podcast series! This mix definitely pushes my boundaries into areas I don’t know as well (Luke Slater and Plastikman, what?!?), but it was fun to make and I hope people still hear the kameleon in there. Long mixes, lots of dub echos, best listened to in one go.

INFINITY +1 TRACKLIST
01 Benjamin Damage & Doc Daneeka – Creeper
02 Radiohead – Good Evening Mrs Magpie (Modeselektor Rmx)
03 Presk – Mold
04 Boddika – Grand Prix
05 Nguzunguzu – Water Bass Power
06 Orphan 101 – Junker
07 Zack Christ – Koofpoin Low
08 Deadbeat – Third Quarter (The Vampire of Mumbai)
10 L.B. Dub Corp – Take it Down in (Dub)
09 T++ – Storm
11 Dadub – Metropolis
12 Sbtrk – Wildfire (Objekt Tool Mix)
13 Sbtrk – Wildfire (Objekt Remix)
14 Sbtrk – Wildfire (Objekt Dub Mix)
15 Datassette – Fallblattanzeige
16 Addison Groove – This Is It
17 Addison Groove – Work It
18 F – Full Throttle
19 Cosmic Revenge – Mind Eraser
20 Cosmic Revenge – Late Nights
21 Om Unit x Lorn – Obsidian
22 Clicks & Whistles – Radiator
23 Jaybird – What Da Funk!? (6Blocc Remix)
24 Munchi – Shottas (Nguzunguzu remix)
25 Breton – RDI (Girl Unit Remix)
26 Spooky – Bashment Woooo
27 Synkro – Tribe
28 Indigo – Primal
29 Subterra – Desecrated 909
30 Isotroph – Crossroads
31 Orphan 101 – Disemble
32 Plastikman – Helikopter
33 Vaetxh – Clipper
34 16 bit – Dinosaurs
35 16 bit – Le Hanwell Hustle
36 16 Bit – Skullcrack
37 Skrillex – Kill Everybody (Bare Noize remix)
38 Bare Noize – Twilight Zone

Tinker’s awesome Sunrise set is up thanks to Bloodman and Orphan101 of DecaRhythm. One of my favorite things of the year by far.

Also have put up my mix that I did for the BBC on my soundcloud – so there will be a higher quality version of it around.

Tom played a great and eclectic show on Friday – I certainly heard a bunch of stuff that was new to me. And I don’t think I sounded too bad in the interview! So here it is on the BBC website – It will be up there for another 5 days. If you listen to the full show in that link, my interview starts at 1:34:00ish and the mix starts at 1:39:00. After the BBC takes it down I’ll put of the mix on my Soundcloud page. The tracklist is below, but I should say that about 3 times as many people sent me tracks as made it on here (20 mins is not much time)- I was totally overwhelmed by the unexpected response! So much so that I’m hoping to do an “Alt Take” mix and get that hosted somewhere. Keep an ear out for it.

Loops Haunt – Ark (Black Acre)
Danny Drive Thru – Eclipsemoonsun [Trevino's Front Remix] (forthcoming on Fat City)
Abjo – Stereocity (unreleased VIP)
Zack Christ – Iced Out (self released)
Sepalcure – Fleur [Sun Hammer Remix] (forthcoming self release)
Fedbymachines – The Place That Never Was (forthcoming on Falk Phonic)
Woulg – Elephant (enig’matik)
Recue and Jolea – We’re Not Like The Most (unreleased VIP)

In other news, my first article for Google Music came out a couple day. It’s on Sepalcure.

Mix is just about to air on Tom’s show – or rather, it will air, along with an interview, sometime in the next three hours. But Tom plays top quality stuff across the spectrum so it’s worth listening to the whole thing. Pretty proud of this one, will post the tracklist after it’s been up on the BBC site for an appropriate time.

Oh, and one list thing, saw Africa Hitech last night at Public Works… my faith in many things is restored.

(Photo by Ben Chun)

(Listening to the Meeting Mr. MacDermet mixtape by Bozak and Spinnerty)

This year I got to be part of the group that planned the Forest Stage (formerly the Chill Stage) at Priceless in Belden, California. Most of my time went to figuring out how to get artists there and how to get them paid. But for 1 brief hour I got to take the stage. This was, sort of, the result – that is, the set actually had two halves, the first one being all Drumstep stuff that I’m saving for a future mix. Then it had a 2nd half that was all hip-hop and beat stuff, trying to straddle the line between being chill (as befitted the stage’s history and the lovely forest) and dance-y and upbeat (being our new vision for the stage). The result is below, cleaned up from some Ableton flubs and fleshed out with a few tunes that were cut in order to make room for the drumstep at the beginning. Enjoy!

Kid Kameleon – Priceless 2011 by kidkameleon

I think Shortstuff is the bee’s knees. Only a few tracks deep of actual releases available to the world, every one has been total quality and just, well, thick. It’s amazing to me when young producers, as in people who are pretty new on the scene (at least when it comes to a discography of releases), come with a sound that’s totally round, full, and fully formed. Judging from my own few quick production attempts a long while ago, I know how hard it is to give a track space, complexity and spacing as you’re starting out and just trying to get ideas down on paper as it were. But Shortstuff totally unleashed his productions fully formed on the world (FaultyDL is like that too). Kind of inspirational.

My favorite tune of his of the moment is one he did with Brackles a little while back, Sutorîto Faitâ (Street Fighter in Japanese). BUT, Ramp has just unleashed “A Rustling / Stuff” and both sides are just killer, solid creations that walk the line somewhere between Dubstep, Funky, and the more abstract … and they still both work incredibly well as a party music (the awesome, tasteful use of samples don’t hurt either)!

Turns out he’s a linked up with Brackles and 2 other folks to form the Blunted Robots collective (seems like you can’t have an artist without having a collective these days … ) and was kind enough to answer a few quick questions for me. See below, then be sure to grab the Crazy Legs mix he just did for Fact Magazine afterwards.

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KK – What’s background musically?

SS – I played guitar from an early age in various pretty appalling hardcore bands. Started to make electronic music on my PC when I got to University in 2003, but really began to take it seriously in 2006. The first tune I ever fully finished and handed out was Broken Harp which I made with Rob ‘Brackles.’

KK – How’d you link with Brackles?

SS – Met Brackles on first day of University back in 2003. He was in the room opposite me and noticed I had the first Dizzee album, so we got chatting.

KK – What’s the difference between Blunted Robots and Shortstuff?
SS – Blunted Robots is really the combination of me and Brackles musically - so some of our individual releases (like LHC, or A Rustling) wouldn’t really fit want we want the label to be about. We had planned to put Sutorito Faita out before Mu expressed an interest and you’ll hear plenty more similarly ridiculous collaborations in the future. We were both really into Martin and Mickey’s music and it was those two tracks (BLR001) that prompted us to create the label and they both continue to blow us away with what they’re doing.

KK – What info can you reveal about upcoming releases (and what is it?)

SS – Next up on Blunted Robots is a Martin Kemp 12″ featuring After The Night and Aztec. I have several more bits coming on Ramp before the end of the year (after A Rustling/Stuff) as well as a track on Wigflex, a 12″ on Formant and a couple of really exciting bits that I’m not allowed to talk about yet. We’re also completing remixes for Berkane Sol and planning a series of Blunted Robots parties in Bristol and London that we’re going to call Robot Dances.

KK – If you could remix / collab with anyone, who would it be?

SS – I don’t think I’d want to work with any of my favourite artists. I’d rather work with someone I hate and resent.

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Shortstuff’s Crazylegs mix from Fact Mag (plus a longer interview about Blunted Robots here.)

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Other things currently rocking me are Teeb’s new(ish) mix for Dublab, which is a wonderful sort of meander through his musical mind… Teebs just strikes me as a wonderful human and his tunes, while sometimes on the simple side, manage to touch my hearstrings, and I’m really curious to see where he’s going. Check the latest mix here.

Finally, been playing a bit with my Dub Siren app for the Iphone, sent to me courtesy of its creators. Basically it’s kind of like a live Infinite Wheel, letting you dub out either stuff from streaming roots/reggae/dub radio stations, or stuff from your own music library. It’s only in its first incarnation at the moment, but eventually it’ll get more features (I’m hoping for ways to dub out my conversations in real time!) Check it! – From Daisuke, their bio: The Creators of Dub Siren are Daisuke Sawa and Ayumi Obinata. Daisuke Sawa is an award winning Sound Designer in Hollywood. His partner, Ayumi Obinata, is located in NY and Tokyo, and is a well known music producer himself. They have been to Jamaica together many times, and are fascinated by Jamaica and Jamaican music. Their facsination turned into this app.