Disclaimer: I don’t keep up on mixes. Start to finish I listened to less than 10 new ones in 2022, several of which were wifey Jordge’s picks on roadtrips. So it’s no surprise that neither of these mixes are new. All the better, I say, since they’ve stuck with me for years now, weathering large numbers of plays and scrutiny while continuing to reel me back in for a casual listen or another attempt to ID that elusive tune.
Listening to both of these mixes again has me realizing they share a common thread. Rhadoo and Carlos both come to the table(s) with a clear agenda, a mood they want to create with their bag of records. For reasons of tempo, genre, vibe, etc., those records aren’t always the most obvious choices to play in pursuit of that mood. But, through finesse and patience (Rhadoo) or brute force (Carlos) they manipulate each track to realize their vision.
Rhadoo @ SUPER DOMMUNE, Tokyo (22.11.2019)
The first half of this one is a bit of snooze, but Rhadoo more than redeems himself on the back end. Playing the headline spot at Tokyo’s Dommune, Rhadoo strings along minimal-adjacent deep / tech house at a very chill cadence that would generally only be appropriate for the opening hour of most EU or NA parties. Restraint is the name of the game and Rhadoo cruises along for 90 minutes before things pop off. I usually pick this one up at 1:40:00 after an awkward, wumpy 2000’s tech house track gives way to the absolutely out-of-left-field acid / breakbeat “Don’t Deal Wid Violence (S. Bell Mix)” by jungle / ukg / hardcore don, Persian. It feels like one of those moments all DJ’s have experienced: the bungled track / blend hastily redeemed by dropping a series of Guaranteed-Results (GR) tunes. Next he slides into the Zip / Ric staple and equally GR ‘That Track by Kat”. Then it’s open field for Rhadoo as he manipulates a slew of 90’s NYC Techno 12”s to fit his hypnotic groove agenda. There’s an excellent streak of Reade Truth, Shelter Boyz, and Blue Maxx that ends with Kate & Joan’s “The Tribe”, a long-time fav that he deploys perfectly. DJ Normal 4’s “Transcendental Training Tactics” appears a few tracks later, pitched way down in service of this sunrise seance. The genre alchemy continues as the house deepness of Nick Holder’s “Daze” gives way to a tripped-out ending that starts with the druggy UK breaks of Bushwacka’s “Grief” and “Rubber Band”, goes into Yoni’s aptly-titled epic, “Spirit Of Adventure (Frontier Mix)”, and resolves in Dhamas’ “Wisdom”. Tribes of Krom’s “Generations” brings it home with feel-good Dutch melodics for a nice lights-on ender.
What’s most striking to me about this set is the crystal clear vision that emerges after Rhadoo’s early putzing. He grabs tracks from several disparate genres and molds each to serve the creation of a unified whole. Almost all of them are massively pitched-down to create a dreamy but precise trancesetting vibe. Looking at the tracks above, almost all are in the 130bpm range, but Rhadoo puts the breaks on and doles them out at a leisurely tempo that never exceeds 123. It’s a lovely trip, executed with the patience and finesse that every DJ should aspire to have in their toolkit.
Carlos Souffront @ DEMF 2000, Underground Stage
By all accounts (see Patrick Russell’s take at the bottom) this is a pretty historic set. It’s Carlos playing the Underground stage of the very first Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000. In later years the Underground stage would be a nightmare for all involved as getting good sound in the concrete cavern beneath Hart Plaza has proven to be near-impossible. I’ve enjoyed a live set by Dopplereffekt down there but the stage’s usual big-name, big-room techno jocks (SCB, Nina Kravitz etc.) pummel the box and eardrums beyond my (pretty high) tolerance. Anyways, Carlos’ mix of early UK techno, Detroit classics, 80’s techno precursors and many, many Baby Ford tracks were subtle enough for that space on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
I’d title Carlos’ moodboard for this set “Detroit on Mushrooms”. He showcases a large swathe of the Detroit canon from the proto-techno of “Sharevari” and Kraftwerk through contemporary releases from Rhythm & Sound and Isolee. The “Mushrooms” part come courtesy of the absolute mangling Carlos gives to nearly every track and transition through hardcore knob twiddling. Whatever mixer he’s using gets an absolute workout. Reverb and delay are liberally applied. Frequencies are aggressively cut, boosted and isolated. Most tracks become distant mutant relatives of themselves under Carlos’ commanding hands. Transitions are unorthodox to say the least. There are no “mixing points” here. Forget about outros neatly making way for intros. The mix happens the second the beats are matched. The result is a trippy, disorienting soundscape of unceremoniously layered tracks. Peak Carlos. His true and final form. It’s certainly on display here – kneeling at eye-level with the decks, simultaneously beatmatching whatever’s on the platters while ripping through his record bag for a third, mixing a new track every 2-3 minutes.
I’ve had the pleasure and extreme challenge of going b2b with him in this mode. Think DJ hot potato – as soon as I’d mixed my record in he’d yank his off the platter, replace it and beatmatch it on the fly as he brought it into the mix. I followed suit and the hectic pace forced me to shut down any strategizing or planning and go on pure instinct. In the past I’ve found myself wishing that Carlos would take his time and let tracks breathe, but I now see, and greatly appreciate, this is as the method to his creative madness.
I’ve tracklisted this one to the best of my abilities below. Drop a comment if you can fill in any of the blanks. I would especially like to know the Autechre-esque IDM that gets layered with Colonel Abrams’ “Trapped” acapella at the end. Sorted
00:00:50: Urban Tribe - Covert Action
00:03:20: ????
00:08:10: ????
00:12:45: ????
00:15:20: A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
00:17:55: ????
00:20:50: Isolee - «Keep On Dancin'»
00:25:35: ????
00:29:00: Baby Ford - Serpentine Tail
00:30:45: ????
00:33:10: ????
00:37:30: ????
00:42:22: ????
00:47:50: Souffle - Acid Eiffel
00:51:55: Aphex Twin - On
00:55:05: ????
00:56:55: Baby Ford - Ford Trax
00:59:10: ????
01:01:30: ????
01:05:10: Baby Ford - ????
01:08:30: ????
01:13:15: Isolee - Beau Mot Plage
01:17:30: Rhythm & Sound - Smile
01:20:00: Baby Ford - Spiritworks
01:26:00: ????
01:29:30: Perbec - Until the End Pt. 2
01:34:00: ????
01:35:00: ????
01:38:45: ????
01:46:00: ????
01:49:30: Mayday - The Darkside
01:55:00: E.S.G - UFO
01:57:00: A Number of Names - Sharevari
02:01:00: Kraftwerk - It’s More to Compute
02:05:00: Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Ninos en el Parque
02:09:30: ????
02:13:30: ????
02:16:15: Liaisons Dangereuses - Peut Etre ... Pas
02:21:00: Model 500 - No UFOs (D Mix)
02:24:00: Charlie - Spacer Woman
02:26:00: Drexciya - Lardossen Funk
02:29:00: Severed Heads - Lamborghini
02:31:20: Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity
02:36:00: Giorgio Moroder - Faster Than the Speed of Love
02:37:00: Giorgio Moroder - Los Angeles
02:42:00: Yello - Bostich
02:45:45: New Order - Hurt
02:49:30: Model 500 - Cosmic Cars
02:52:00: ????
02:54:00: Dilemma - Robodisco
02:58:00: Colonel Abrams - Trapped (Hell Interface Remix)
The Rhadoo mix is so insane, love when a DJ can pull off that sort of restraint and have it pay off so well. I feel like the sense of release doesn’t always translate over a recording, but that moment at 1:40:00 is definitely it. Thanks for sharing Tony!