Bagging Area Tak Tent Mix Nine

My latest hour long mix for Tak Tent Radio went live at the weekend. Tak Tent have been broadcasting out of Scotland on the internet since June 2020, with a range of contributors including the legendary Richard Youngs. The latest Bagging Area mix is my ninth for Tak Tent and contains solely music from this year. You can listen to it here or directly at Mixcloud. Don't let them tell you there's no good new music any more. 

• Alex Kassian: Lifestream
• Marshall Watson: High Desert (Seahawks High Sky Remix)
• Whitelands: Setting Sun (AR Kane Initiation Dub)
• Dot Allison: Unchanged (GLOK Remix)
• Dickie Continental: Simon Says (Congagong rework)
• African Head Charge: Passing Clouds
• Coyote: After All These Years
• Steve Queralt and Michael Smith: Chaldean Oracle (GLOK Remix)
• Jo Sims: Bass- The Final Frontier (David Holmes Remix)
• Richard Norris: The Third Day
• JIM: Still River Flow (Generalisation Dub)

Mostly Remixes

Matt Gunn's album Mostly Fiction came out earlier this year, ten tracks of electronic goodness that closes with the rippling, bleepy, ambient euphoria of Learning Through Loops. 

The first of a set of remix EPs came out at the start of the month- Mostly Remixed 1 features a pair of remixes, the first an Al Mackenzie remix of Learning Through Loops and the second a Matt Gunn remix of the epic Space Drohne. Al hits the button marked 'thumper', the drums kicking in from the off with blasts of synth, rumbling bass, rattling percussion, rising chords and eventually sirens and melodica- a widescreen/ sci fi/ house remix that make rainy summer days feel good. Find it at Bandcamp. 

Play it alongside this for maximum fun- Bass- The Final Frontier (David Holmes remix), one of 2023's best remixes so far, a seven minute David Holmes remix of Jo Sims, one of four songs from an EP that came out on Pamela records in July. I wrote about the EP at Ban Ban Ton Ton last month.  

Matt's remix of Space Drohne, the Floor Mix, is eight minutes of action in a similar sphere, drum machines, space synths, rave synths, breakbeats, synth arpeggios, synth bass, the machinery of Behringer, Roland and Moog in full effect. 

Al Mackenzie is a member of D: Ream and also puts out work under his own name. His latest release, a two track EP called Hold Your Own, came out on Field Of Dreams at the start of August. Get it here. The title track is my pick of the pair, nine minutes of thumpy, wiggy acid house. Music that sounds good in the dark. 

Download all the above and stick them all together in one playlist/ on one CD for maximum enjoyment, a late summer mixtape. 

Split

Dickie Continental, the new musical vehicle for Red Snapper's drummer Rich Thair, has an album out on Acid Jazz. Un... is a distinctive album, a very urban sounding marriage of light and shade, with some mid- 90s trip hop vibes going on and dub influences and production. Recorded at Rich's studio in South Wales, his intention was to work quickly, acting on simple ideas, ones that came first and weren't overworked- most of the eleven songs are three to four minutes long, tracks moving by quickly and then its on to the next one. It sounds very much like it was made using a 'first thought best' philosophy, it has a freshness and a directness to its grooves despite some of it being shrouded in some dark atmospherics and textures. Un... is an album for late night listening, for drives round after dark, moody and overcast but with sultry and soulful moments too. 

Evolution 2 is a mid- paced smoky crawl, horns and the chatter and hubbub of voices. Chico Flores is named after the Spanish footballer, centre back for Swansea City between 2012 and 2014, three minutes of tripped out disco funk. Pike has a off kilter accordion or organ line, a ticking cymbal and discordant noises. Final song Hammersmith is all spooked synth sounds, a drum machine on the edge, and some Sabres Of Paradise menace working its way in. This one is Split , a slightly dislocated song for the small hours, piano, then drums and a blurry, backwards sound that throws it off kilter, with Jo Sims' soulful but half asleep vocals layered on top. 

Un... is at Bandcamp. 

Make Them Disappear

Dickie Continental is the new project from Red Snapper's Rich Thair, eleven new tracks based on the idea that first thought is often best and that simple ideas beat complicated ones. This song, Make Them Disappear, is sketchy and scratchy, blurry atmospherics, sounds conjured up from the dusk in the Welsh countryside and a slow motion drumbeat, an undergrowth of synths and organ and vocals from Jo Sims, a soulful croon of, 'I'll take all your troubles/ make them disappear'. The album Un... is out on Acid Jazz in April.