Introducing: Secrets

A few weeks ago, the event Basstown is Dead put to rest the monthly residency at Great Scott. We're happy to say that reports of the death of Basstown have been greatly exaggerated.

Tonight marks the beginning of a new residency, Secrets, landing every other Tuesday in Jamaica Plain. The Milky Way Lounge has recently moved into glorious new digs at the Brwery Building, once home to Boston Beer Company (aka Samuel Adams) and now where they give brewery tours, the old Haffenreffer brewery has been reborn.

We're proud to be a part of such a tradition, and proud to bring three young and well-informed new resident DJs into the Basstown fold.

Will Lynch, aka Lynch is a contributor for esteemed blog Little White Earbuds. He's long been a supported of our weekly residency Make It New, but his regular show, Persuasion, broadcasts from 10pm-2am on Thursdays, exactly when Make It New takes place.

SarahJoy is his partner on Persuasion and a practicing DJ in her own right. During the Great Scott era, SarahJoy blew us away with a set at the now-legendary night The Revolution Will Be Feminized when she supported Lauren Flax--a night when out residency blew the power out of a city block in Allston.

Carrigan DB also had a radio show on WZBC 90.3fm, the most adventurous radio frequency in Boston. Her AM radio show, "The Following Aesthetic Reasons," was the first to bring techno to the morning commute. After a series of amazing house parties, she's a great host with a taste like none other.

These three will serve as the anchor of the new Basstown night, called Secrets. The opening party takes place tonight, with a candlelit photobooth, disposable cameras for the crowd and a cutting-edge DJ trio at the decks. Looks for special guests in the coming weeks, from Basstown and beyond.

Lynch and SarahJoy combined forced to make the first promotional mix. Here is the set-list:

Sound Stream - “Live” Goes On [Sound Stream]
Nekes - Cristal (Sascha Dive Remix) [Oslo]
Masomenos - Travel Master [Welcome to Masomenos]
Christian Burkhardt - Doubledub [Raum… musik]
Jus Ed - Yo, This Shit is Hot! [Underground Quality]
Kreon - Jauce [Cécille Numbers]
Matthew Styles - Palladium [Horizontal]
David Pher - Harare [Glueckskind Digital]
Delano Smith feat. Diamond Dancer - A Message For the DJ [Still Music]
Black Jazz Consortium - New Horizon [Soul People Music]
Melchior Productions Ltd. - Water Soul [Perlon]

Enjoy:

Lynch and SarahJoy - Secrets Promo Mix

Dave Siska's "Distant Lights" Mix

On a more personal note, I wanted to extend my apologies for not blogging much music lately. It's been an incredibly busy summer working and living on the beach (Fire Island), and you can imagine that there isn't much techno going on out here. I've missed Richie Hawtin, Claude VonStroke, Daniel Bell and have/will be missing a few House 'n' Home & Bunker parties. Believe me, it's no easy task, but thanks to mailing lists, FTP servers and having great friends, it's been easy to keep up with the Internet on hand. (When the beach is your front yard, though, it's easy to forget that it's there altogether!)

As of late, I've been revisiting Marc Houle's Bay Of Figs and enjoying new tracks by Deuce and especially the new Planetary Assault Systems release, Temporary Suspension. Oh, and the new Holger Zilske album is slowly but steadily growing on me. Of all of these things, Luke Slater's "The Watcher" - from Planetary Assault's 2LP promo for Temporary Suspension is hands down the winner of my concrete heart. I'll be featuring it in the near future, but be sure to check out the excellent feature on Resident Advisor with Mr. Slater himself.

But before I go, I wanted to leave you with a beautiful mix by Dave Siska, with thanks to JD Harrington for passing this along my way. It's titled Distant Lights, and I will let the mix speak for itself. I personally love where it goes past the 30 minute mark as well as the beat's ressurrection around the 42 minute mark. Gorgeous. Tracklist is below - enjoy!

My Bloody Valentine – To Here Knows When [vermilion endloop] 1991
Tim Hecker – Blood Rainbow – Harmony in Ultraviolet (Kranky) 2006
Vainqueur – Elevation [Original] – Elevations (Chain Reaction) 1997
Substance – Plate Element 3 – Sessions (Chain Reaction) 1998
Motor – 7 (Audio.nl) 2000
James Ruskin – Below – Further Design (Blueprint) 1998
Marcel Dettmann – A Req [T++ remix] (MDR) 2006
Marc Ashken – Roots Dyed Dark [Skream remix] (Leftroom) 2007
Burial – Distant Lights (Hyperdub) 2006
Porter Ricks – Nautical Dub [extract] – Biokinetics (Chain Reaction) 1996
Benjamin Brunn – Up the Escalator (Binemusic) 2005
Stephan Laubner – Portside Waves (Perlon) 2000
Convextion – Solum Ferrum (downLow) 2006
Exos – Orangeblue – U Can’t Stop Time (Statik Entertainment) 2003
7th Plain – Pearl – TEEX 3 (Volume) 1994
Pub – Summer [Arovane AMX 4] (Vertical Form) 2000

Audible: Dave Siska - Distant Lights mix
More Info: Sonic Sunsets

Raster-Noton @ Make It New

Once again, members of Raster-Noton graced our Middlesex Lounge for a very well-attended night of experimental electronic music. This year, we caught a lot of it on video, as well as photographs. You can view Ricardo DeLima's shots here, and Byetone bits below. Alva Noto video to come in a bit...

"The Twist (DJ Die Young Dub Edit)"

It's exciting as hell to see talent grow in Basstown. One-time Basstown resident DJ Etan has now become Shuttle and is proceeding to take over the world, while other residents are starting to come into their own as well.

Each one has a unique style. Volvox plays dark bombast, Mistaker plays bumping and wild while DJ Die Young plays with a euphoric bounce. Each Make It New resident also has their own style, but that's a whole nother post.

When I encountered the music of Frightened Rabbit during a news story for the Weekly Dig, it really blew me away. Heartfelt and true, with a lyrical knack that goes right to the brain. In July, they return to the US for a series of gigs that includes the Pitchfork Music Festival.

One song, though, "The Twist," really caught my attention. It sounded like a dance track, and just needed a heavier kick and an extended edit.

Enter Die Young.

An all-around great guy, Jamie's remix style always has a generous upbeat and can really get a crowd riled up. From "In a Big Country" to his work with Dopamine recording artists Hooray For Earth, there's something distinctive about his work.

Here he stamps a beat on Frightened Rabbit's "The Twist," gives it an excellent intro and a rabid arc that would get any informed room completely wild.

"I need human heat!"

Enjoy.

Audible: Frightened Rabbit - "The Twist (DJ Die Young Dub Edit)"
Purchase: iTunes - DJ Die Young & Baltimoroder
MySpace: DJ Die Young
MySpace: Frightened Rabbit

Ohhhhh BABY

Make The Girl Dance "Baby Baby Baby" ( official video )
Uploaded by placeblancherec. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

I am fairly certain I would not love this song as much as I do if there weren't beautiful, naked French women involved in it. As a hetero female, I can only wonder what the guys think.

Anyone care to chime in?

MySpace: Make The Girl Dance

Oliver Huntemann : H-3

I truly love this record, but am having the most difficult time writing about it. "Lousy Night" is the best on the album, but I was just listening to the minimal build of "Dauerplus" and daydreaming about the upcoming DEMF: Movement festival. The track put my brain right at the many drops I'll be raising my arms to, and while it only runs at an average 8 minutes the song itself seems much longer.

Huntemann has been producing tracks on his own, though he is more often associated with Marc Romboy and Stefan Bodzin as, I believe, Rekorder. This collaboration features many other producers, but Huntemann has been standing apart as having a very whole sound. I've listened to "Lousy Night" so many times, and I can close my eyes and imagine it in a tiny lounge, a mega club, an outdoor festival...maybe even on a jog. Either way, it's such a versatile track, and the entirety of H-3 has a good grip on teetering into the commercial realm (that is to say, not being too heady/keeping the audience enthralled) but keeping a dark, concrete walled edge to his music.

You've heard his track "2Beloved" so many times at Make It New, and it's worth looking into his releases past and present for a great scope of what Ideal - a very underrated label - represents by what it has to offer.

Audible: Oliver Huntemann - "Lousy Night"

Purchase: Oliver Huntemann - H-3

MySpace: Oliver Huntemann

Fabric46 : Claude VonStroke

I never imagined to be listening to Bootsy Collins in a techno mix, but that's the beauty of the genre. Claude VonStroke, one of the most successful DJ/producers in America, is featured for Fabric46, and delivers a set that highlights the best of his labels (Dirtybird, Mothership) along with personal favorites. It was the first time I ever heard Voodeux's "Just A Spoonful" - a new track from hometown hero Tanner Ross' upcoming Mothership LP, The Paranormal. Also, while I'd like to think I'm not a total newb, I am impressed that his tracklist often includes doubles - something I simply don't see often enough. Cleveland-born, Detroit-raised and San Francisco-based Barclay Crenshaw (Claude, ppl) is the kind of man that has held many jobs, acquired many skills, and is steadily sliding himself into legendary status as he gets older and continues to make and release and represent top-notch electronic music. His DJ mixes are more like a syllabus, giving listeners at least a handful of new artists to listen to or ideas to consider for mixing. "I picked the best music I could find," says VonStroke in a press release, "and put it together in a creative way that fully represents my sound and personality."

Tracklist: (Artist - Track - Label)

01 Ekkohaus Ft. R. Wurz –  Cry Baby – Morris Audio

Ekkohaus Ft. Mensa – The Healer – Morris Audio

02 Claude VonStroke & Bootsy Collins -  Yabadabadooza- dirtybird

03 Rob Van Valen – Trampen – Frankie

04 Holger Zilske – Mes Yeux - Playhouse*

05 Detroit Grand Puhbas Big Onion (Joakim Remix) - Pokerflat

Roman Salanger - Galaxius – Lucent

06 DJ Deeon – Shake It – Databass

Isomer Transitions - Downtime in the Hangar - Moongadget

07 Stimming - After Eight – Dynamic

08 Peter Lauer - Free Entry for Girls (Robag Whrume’s Drikkibass Remix) - Punkt

09 Voodeux - Just A Spoonful – mothership

10 Italoboyz – Bla Bla Bla – mothership

11 Varislove feat DOP. - Inside Ways (Boris Werner. Remix) - Supplemental Facts

12 Kiki – Immortal (Instrumental Dub) – BPitch Control

13 Xpansul & Daweed  - Pilsnerd – True Type

Marc Houle – Dirty Dirty – M_nus

14 Dinamoe – Maceo – Alpaca

Clara Moto – Silently Ft. Mimu - Infine

15 James Braun - Symphonia – Tartelet

16 Donk Boys – One Tooth Missing - Frankie

17 Robag Whrume - Guppipepitsche –  Freude Am Tanzen

18 ICS – Espagnol – dirtybird

19 Markus Schatz - Running – Highgrade

Catz ‘n Dogz – SF - mothership

20 Marc Miroir - Kraft – Paso Music

21 Stimming  - One Weekend - Dynamic

22 Claude VonStroke - Aundy – dirtybird

*Audible: Holger Zilske - "Mas Yeux"

Label: Fabric

MySpace: Claude VonStroke