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Pearsall presents Chasing The Light (Bass/Grime/Breaks Mix) [The 780 Project Part 7]

Bass music, grime, dubstep and breaks all in the blender – tracks from Kahn, Special Request, Mella Dee, Detboi, Benton, DJ Madd and more

chasing the light

Pearsall presents Chasing The Light

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Mixed in Berlin, February 2016
100% Vinyl
(40:01, 91.7 MB, 320 kbps MP3)

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Style: Bass, Breaks and Grime

Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/chasing/Pearsall-ChasingTheLight.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Wen – Pace Myself (Soundman Chronicles)
02. Detboi – Patterns (Ninety Four)
03. Walton – Wrench (Tectonic)
04. Mella Dee – Here (Lobster Boy)
05. Special Request – Amnesia (XL Recordings)
06. Jerome Hill – The End (Stuck In 91) (Yellow Machines)
07. Jerome Hill – Pressure (Hornsey Hardcore)
08. Benton – Brian (Benton Beats)
09. Detboi – Scatter (Keysound)
10. DJ Madd – Simon Says (1Drop)
11. JT The Goon – Oil On Ice (Original) (Keysound)
12. Hi5 Ghost – Nook Shot (Commodo Remix) (Sector 7 Sounds)
13. Boofy – Mask & Glove (Bandulu)
14. Kahn – Over Deh So (Deep Medi Musik)
15. Visionist – Victim (Pan)

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So here we are, halfway through February and no sign of the pace slacking (yet).

For this seventh mix, I’ve devised a little 15 track jaunt through some recent(ish) bass-related acquisitions of mine. The idea was to really mix things up along the way, so you get a full palette of 130-140 bpm sounds, with grime, dubstep, jungle, rave, and breaks flavors featured throughout the mix.

Here’s a quick rundown of the tunes I’ve picked:

Wen - Senary Cycles

Wen – Pace Myself Wen are a London-based production duo who make, for lack of a better term, spectral grime. It’s grime music, but with the hyper-kinetic intensity of traditional grime somewhat muted in favor of spaced-out, dread-inducing atmospheres and little snatches of sampled mc chat (often culled from pirate radio). It’s kind of like dubstep, but then again it kind of isn’t. Anyways, I figured this was a suitably moody opener.

Detboi – Patterns & Scatter Detboi is an Irish producer who used to make big bassy fidget house tunes (I even featured one such tune on Too Fat For Skinny Jeans back in 2010), but more recently has been exploring a new kind of sound, a slowed-down shattered take on jungle. Both of the tracks that I included on this mix follow that template – skittering breakbeats allied to fresher dance music production techniques. Menacing!

Walton – Wrench Walton is a South London (uh, I think) producer who has mostly been releasing on Hyperdub over the last five years. His releases cover the range of recent bass music styles, with some mellow stuff, some garagey stuff, and some straightforward grime bangers, like this one. Melody? Fuck melody. Just bang me over the head with drums, man.

Mella Dee - Here

Mella Dee – Here This dude is awesome. I am 100% into his ‘jungle tekno’ sound, where he mixes up 90’s old skool vibes with chunky techno production. This particular track is just a bass-heavy breaks monster. No more, no less. Check out his Soundcloud for some great tunes, remixes, and mixes. Spoiler alert: I’m planning to do a Mella Dee tribute mix at some point this year.

Special Request – Amnesia Paul Woolford is another house/techno producer who has gone on the old skool/jungle revival bandwagon. I guess you could be cynical about it, but what’s the point? The dude is making great tunes, like this breakbeat and piano monster from his three part Modern Warfare EP on XL Recordings, or, indeed, like the tunes of his that I featured on the Machines In Love and Drop The Hammer 11 mixes.

Jerome Hill – The End (Stuck In 91) & Pressure Jerome Hill is, for me, one of the great unsung heroes of the UK underground. He’s been around for an eternity – I bought records from him at Dragon Discs in Camden when I was a teen – and he’s played everywhere and released all kinds of music across his various labels, from hip-hop to new skool acid house to wonky techno to electro and beyond. These two tracks are both vintage examples of rave revival – they could easily have been released back in the early 90’s. Smear yourself in Vicks, paint an E on a cycling mask, hug a complete stranger, go mental.

Benton – Brian Benton is another guy who has moved with the times in the direction of the slow jungle sound – in his case moving from more orthodox dubstep (his releases on Wheel & Deal are well worth picking up if you like your dubstep menacing), although thinking back he did do some tracks in this style even a few years ago. In any case, this is an excellent track, with a great London-centric vocal sample, some nice old skool synth washes, and big, steaming piles of bass. Just how I like it.

DJ Madd – Simon Says This is a dubstep remix of Pharoahe Monch’s New York hip-hop classic Simon Says by transplanted Hungarian producer DJ Madd. Simple and utterly effective.

JT The Goon - Oil On Ice

JT The Goon – Oil On Ice (Original) Keysound has been one of the most fearless London labels over the last decade – it has charted the whole course of the London underground in that time, from the beginnings of dubstep and grime to the full explosion of creativity in the realms of bass that followed. From robotic 4/4 jack tracks to icy soundscapes to the jungle revival and beyond, they’ve captured it all. This is their most recent release, and it’s another emotional grime stunner from JT The Goon, who has over the past couple of years put down a serious marker as a consistent creator of richly detailed grime tracks that move beyond the brutal simplicity of early grime while still retaining that visceral punch that the best of the genre has always had.

Hi5 Ghost – Nook Shot (Commodo Remix) Commodo is one of the most in-demand producers of recent years, and buying his back catalogue on vinyl will now set you back a pretty penny. This is a remix his did for grime producer Hi5 Ghost, and it’s a stripped down and spooky beast. I’ve only kept it in the mix for about a minute, because, well, I just wanted to throw a taste in.

Boofy – Mask & Glove This is the most aggressive and insane track in the mix. The newest release on Kahn’s Bandulu label, this literally only arrived in my hands in the last two weeks. Bristol producer Boofy has dropped an utterly brutal track. This is grime at its most unhinged. Not for the faint-hearted!

Kahn – Over Deh So Speaking of producers with expensive back catalogues, the current king of Bristol is Kahn, and his records are farcically expensive through Discogs. I was lucky to pick up the repress of this from Deep Medi over Christmas – especially because it sold out so quickly! This is his sound in a nutshell – a martial marriage of grime and dub, with unmatched intensity.

Visionist - Safe

Visionist – Victim To finish things off, I’ve dropped a track from Visionist’s album Safe. It’s kind of a fitting end to the mix, because it is still crunchy and heavy, yet also chilled and atmospheric. Basically, it’s kind of a weird track, but it’s enjoyable, so it seemed like a nice note to finish on, because I so often finish my mixes on really hard and intense club tracks that it was nice to actually peak two tracks from the end and then wind back a little bit from there.