November 2021 – Sonicrampage

Pearsall presents The Yaam Sessions [Deep Dubstep Mix for Begrime]

Pearsall presents The Yaam Sessions

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Pearsall · The YAAM Sessions [Older Deep Dubstep for Begrime]

Mixed in Berlin, October 2021
100% Vinyl
(66:35, 152 MB, 320 kbps mp3)

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Cue File

Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/begrime/Pearsall-TheYaamSessions.mp3

Tracklisting:

Kryptic Minds – Badman [Swamp 81]
Landslide vs Slaughter Mob – Splurt (Skream Remix) [Halo Beats]
Silkie – Head Butt Da Deck [Deep Medi Musik]
Skream – Gritty [Deep Medi Musik]
Kromestar – Late [Southside]
Coki – Dry Cry [AWD]
Skream – Pass the Red Stripe [Soul Jazz]
Mala – Stand Against War [DMZ]
Martyn – Shadowcasting [Revolve:R]
Matty G – Summer Solstice [Argon]
RSD – Forward Youth [Tectonic]
Rusko – Soundguy Is My Target [Sub Soldiers]
The Art of Noise – Moments in Love (Caspa Remix) [White]
Roommate – 50 Blocks Away [10 Bag]
Kromestar – Corrupshun ft Leebra [Bare Dubs]
DJ Madd – Rizla Dub [War]
Digital Mystikz – Thief In Da Night [Soul Jazz]
Cotti – Rise the Temperature ft Doctor [More Than Alot]
Breakage – Together [Digital Soundboy]
TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn’s DCM Remix) [Hessle Audio]
2562 – Third Wave [Tectonic]
DJG – Bunker [Tube 10]
Jus Wan – Action Potential [Apple Pips]
Caspa – Back to ’93 [Fabric]

More music!

After a slowish start to the year, I’m trying to pick up the pace of making and releasing new mixes by getting into a new habit, namely recording in little bursts a few nights a week. Nothing major, just 20 to 30 minutes at a time, as I’ve found this fits in a bit better with my family life and it takes away the excuse of ‘oh, I don’t have time to do a full mix’. Sure, on any given night I don’t have 60-90 minutes, but I can definitely rustle up 20-30, and if you do that four times a week you end up with between 80 and 120 minutes of material, which is plenty for a mix, right?

As I write this, therefore, I have one finished mix (Armand van Helden tribute!) also done, and I’m working on another one (modern jungle techno!), and I plan to do a different one (Berlin techno! Or maybe AKO Beatz!) next week … so the gears are grinding along and stuff is happening.

I guess the younger me would 100% have considered such an approach to be ‘cheating’, but the younger me didn’t have two kids nor a job that was anywhere near as demanding, so fuck that guy and his overinflated purism. 😉

This mix, specifically, has been on the shelf for a little while – I originally recorded it in October for the Begrime radio show and I am only now getting it up on Sonicrampage. The genesis of this mix was, well … not very complicated! I didn’t have much free time and the deadline for submission was looming, so I just got out a stack of records and did it in little bursts over a couple of days and then stitched it together in Soundforge.

Normally I would do a grime mix for Begrime (and in fact this is what I’ve done in the past; see here, here and here), but this time around I decided to do something a bit different: a deeper dubstep mix.

OK, that’s not that different – similar bpm, similar roots, all that.

I wasn’t getting too wild and crazy!

But still, a little bit different.

Why did I do a dubstep mix?

There’s not really a very complex story to it – Begrime did a little party in September at the beach bar at Yaam, a venue by the river in Friedrichshain, and the management asked us not to go too hard too early, so I volunteered to go first and play dubstep, on the assumption that it would be a bit more mellow than straight-up grime.

Begrime · Begrime – Typewriter – Pearsall – Sub FM – 03 Nov 2021

To be honest, I didn’t think too deeply about it in advance, I just got out some of my older dubstep records, mostly on the deeper side (no mid-range tearouts!), did a little practice, and packed my bag. That’s it!

On the day itself, I was pretty exhausted and was sort of looking for reasons to not do it, but I still made my way there for 7pm and … it was great!

Like obviously 7pm on a windy September evening with a bunch of people sitting around drinking, the first fall chill in the air, is not a prime slot in any way shape or form, but frankly it was just so much fun to play these records and hear them loud (or at least loud-ish). Clearly it’s a different experience to hear music on a proper soundsystem as opposed to on headphones or a home stereo system, and that goes for all genres of music, but, well, dubstep stands out even more so in this regard.

What you never experience with dubstep at home is the sheer physicality of it, the intensity of the bass. You hear it and experience it in a whole new way, and even though I was playing to a bunch of people who, frankly, probably didn’t care too much either way, it was just really really fun. I did my one hour set and walked off absolutely buzzing! It was so cool to hear this music at this volume again, and especially to play so many tunes that I hadn’t really played much for a while.

A great experience!

It was also very nice that my cousin Diana stopped by with some friends – they seemed to have a nice time! She’s from New York City and is studying in Amsterdam this year – it was great to see her.

Afterwards I was feeling very inspired, so I ended up doing this mix a few weeks later to try to recapture that vibe a little bit – I reused quite a few of the tunes, but not all. Everything on this mix was in my bag that day.

Here’s the setlist from the actual party, for those of you who are curious:

01. Matty G – Back to the Bay feat. Ugene [Dub Police]
02. Babylon System – Everyday Hustle [10 Bags]
03. Silkie – Head Butt Da Deck [Deep Medi Musik]
04. Skream – Phatty Drummer [Deep Medi Musik]
05. Coki – Burnin’ [White]
06. Kromestar – Late [Southside]
07. Von D – Coquine [Black Acre]
08. Martyn – Shadowcasting [Revolve:r]
09. 2562 – Kontrol [Tectonic]
10. Skream – Memories of 3rd Base [Digital Soundboy]
11. Matty G – Bass Frequency [Dubplate]
12. Matty G – Summer Solstice [Argon]
13. Landslide vs Slaughter Mob – Splurt (Skream Remix) [Halo Beats]
14. Loefah – Natural Charge [Version]
15. Vybz Kartel – Emergency (Coki Remix) [Greensleeves Dubstep]
16. The Arts of Noise – Moments in Love (Caspa Remix) [White]
17. RSD – Forward Youth [Tectonic]
18. Mala – Maintain Thru Madness [DMZ]
19. Skream – Midnight Request Line [Tempa]
20. Coki – Dry Cry [AWD]
21. King Soly – Wicked King of Persia [Bass Face]

Pearsall presents The Further Adventures of Count Jackula (A Second Jerome Hill Tribute Mix)

Pearsall presents The Further Adventures of Count Jackula (A Second Jerome Hill Tribute Mix)

right-click, save as to download this free mp3 mix

Pearsall · The Further Adventures of Count Jackula (A 2nd Jerome Hill Tribute Mix)

Mixed in Berlin, September 2021
100% Vinyl
(77:28, 177 MB, 320 kbps mp3)

Bigger Cover
Cue File

Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/jerome_hill/Pearsall-TheFurtherAdventuresOfCountJackula(A2ndJeromeHillTributeMix).mp3

Tracklisting:

Jerome Hill – Weird Language [Super Rhythm Trax]
Jerome Hill – Song for Aitch [Dext]
Jerome Hill – Plumphouse Groove [Super Rhythm Trax]
Jerome Hill – That Truck [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – Mind Goes Blank [Super Rhythm Trax]
Masc – Non Stop (Jerome Hill Remix) [Super Rhythm Trax]
Jerome Hill – Chicken Head George [Super Rhythm Trax]
Jerome Hill – Dustbin Acid [Super Rhythm Trax]
Jerome Hill – Donkey Bite [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – Goatwerk [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – (don’t)cometodaddy [Don’t]
Luke’s Anger – Work That Mod (Jerome Hill’s Rockin Horse Mix) [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – 1994 [Dixon Avenue Basement Jams]
DJ Schwa & Name Does Not Matter – Obsolete (Jerome Hill Remix) [RFR]
Jerome Hill – The Creeper [Swords]
Jerome Hill – Snap [Don’t]
Tim Taylor & DJ Slip – Pleasure Unit (Jerome Hill Remix) [Dame]
Autonation – Sit On The Bass (Jerome Hill 18 Years On Mix) [Don’t]
Wevie Stonder – Ton Wah (Jerome Hill Remix) [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – Lovely Sound [Don’t]
Jerome Hill – Don’t-U-Later [Nasty Colour]
Nightwave – Psychic Tonic (Jerome Hill Remix) [Dext]
Jerome Hill – Transmissions [Accidental Jr]
Ben Pest – Rumbler (Jerome Hill’s Clubbed To Death Mix) [Don’t]
Ben Pest – G-Zus (Jerome Hill’s Acid Swamp Remix) [Riot Radio]
Jerome Hill – Jiba [Riot Radio]
Jerome Hill – Duck Walk [Don’t]

One of my favorite dj/producers of all times is, no question, London techno hero Jerome Hill.

I made a first tribute mix to him a few years ago, Full Metal Jacking.

Last year I did a mix of tunes from his Super Rhythm Trax label called Super Rhythmic Facts.

And now I’ve done a second tribute mix, which is this one.

Suffice to say I’m a pretty big fan!

I did get in touch with the man himself to see if he wanted to do a follow up interview, but he (very politely!) declined, which is fine.

So in the absence of an interview (easy solution!), I’ve been struggling about what to write to accompany the mix. I already have written fairly extensively about what I like about Jerome’s music (pounding machine funk! An actual sense of humor! A diverse range of sounds! Lots of old skool flourishes!), and I feel like there isn’t too much more I can say on the topic that wouldn’t just be very repetitive.

This mix features a bunch of his tunes and remixes from different points in his production career, from the mid-00’s right through to now. It also traces a bit of an arc through his sound, starting with the kind of rumbling jacking house stuff that his Super Rhythm Trax label has become known for, before working its way through some of the off-kilter techno sounds that his label Don’t has championed, before heading towards some more straight-up techno bangers at the finish.

In the absence of having really clear ideas about what to include in this blog post, I’m going to just throw in some stuff I enjoy.

First up, here’s a great livestream set he did last year for Fold London:

Secondly, here’s the awesome cover for the Super Rhythm Trax compilation album:

Next, a great mix he did for Dame Music:

Dame-Music · Mix Series 006 – JEROME HILL

A little snip from my interview with him:

The first sets I heard from you back in the day were at squat parties in London – do you still play on that scene or have you moved on? Any favorite memories from that world? (I have plenty but also to be fair it could be very grim at times!)

If I have a weekend off and there happens to be a good one going on, then yes, I’ll sometimes show up with my records. It’s few and far between these days, though – I actually went to play at one a few weeks back but when I arrived outside it had just been shut down by the police so had to drive home again.

But looking back there are too many memories: cinemas, bingo halls, swimming pools, job centres, universities, quarries – you name it, we played techno loudly inside it! But the main thing was the positive feelings of everyone being like a family and just showing up any Sunday morning and the family would all be there. *sighs wistfully*

How has the London scene changed since the start of your career? Is it much harder to put events on now than it was?

In terms of squatted venues, yes. It’s much harder to get away with stuff now!

Do you still use vinyl when you play out? If so, do you find it easy / difficult to get access to decent quality setups (I sometimes find decks to be somewhat … sketchy)

Yes I use half vinyl and half USB. And yes, decks are often sketchy as fuck, which is why sometimes the USBs are a saviour!

How has your dj style evolved over the years?

Not sure. It depends what mood I’m in as to how I play I guess. Sometimes I’m in a deep mix and blend mode, and other times in a scratch the fuck out of it and throw stuff around mode. I still love playing music people wouldn’t expect, like rock n’ roll or hardcore hip-hop in a techno set.

How do crowds in Berlin compare to other places you have played?

I love playing in Berlin. They do clubs so well there, and the crowds are great. They kind of have it good there and are seasoned pros who are used to the best and loudest sound systems and ridiculous amounts of dry ice … just how I love it. And I love the fact that in most of the places I play, photographs are banned. Really makes for a better atmosphere on the dancefloor.

Lastly, check out this interview with him at the 909 Originals site.

Ah, finally, here’s the cover art for the Don’t compilation Songs that Changed the World, really like the art for this as well.