Solid Steel (7th September) In Hour 1 we welcome back Ital Tek for his 3rd appearance on the show. The Planet Mu artist is celebrating the release of 'Bodied', (the follow up to his acclaimed 2016 album 'Hollowed') and is out now and available to buy here: https://italtek.bandcamp.com/album/bodied As on his last album, the sounds on 'Bodied' are highly designed, but this time barely a whisper of dance music remains. Instead it's built around acoustic elements and ghostly choral arrangements, refracted and transformed into atmospheric, alien forms which are given the time to settle and transform. Rhythm is used only as a tool to give his world a sense of dark, mechanical momentum. He had this to say about his mix;
"When I'm deep into the process of making an album I enter a bit of a self imposed music vacuum. I tend not to listen to much else through a combination of wanting to keep my vision clear and also the fact of spending all day in the studio leaves me not really wanting to listen to much else. So when I come out of that phase it's always great to open the flood gates, seek out what I might have missed and get that spark back. This mix contains some of the music that has made an impact on me in the past few months since completing the record alongside a selection of tracks from my new album 'Bodied' ."
In Hour 2 we have an extended slot with Auntie Flo who joins the Brownswood roster to deliver his third and most ambitious album to date. The Glasgow-raised producer, of Goan-Kenyan heritage, has often featured collaborators from different spots he’s visited, and this new record takes that approach to another level.'Radio Highlife' will be out on 12th October and you can pre-order and get the first single “Cape Town Jam” now here. http://bit.ly/2KHIOec He told us;
"This mix is an introduction to my musical universe, sat somewhere between the 4th world, outer space and the remotest parts of the rainforest. I don’t often put mixes together and this is my first for over 2 years. I was very happy to include songs from legendary musicians who’ve inspired me - Steve Reich, John Hassell, Tony Allen, Jeff Mills, Larry heard, Michael Jackson, Four Tet, Ritchie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Alice Coltrane - and present their music in a way you’ve maybe not heard before. I am also happy to present some of my recent hero producers that feature regularly on my Radio Highlife WWFM show - Golden Teacher, DJ Sotofett, Bambounou, Harmonious Thelonious, LAPS, Duckett, Raoul K, Tomaga, Al Dobson Jr in particular. Finally, I had fun delving into my 20 years of collecting vinyl records to find some songs you might not have heard before, or have not heard for a while.
This mix is meant to give you space to detach yourself, to give you peace, to heal - much needed in today’s climate!
Recorded in August 2018 at home in London with 2x Technics 1210s, 2x CDJ900s, Mastersounds Radius 2 and Boss RE-20 Space Echo. Thanks to Oscar for lending me the CDjs! Thanks to Solid Steel for the opportunity to take over 2 hours."