This week’s top mixes include Madlib’s African Earwax, Sven Väth’s Essential Mix and Gerd’s Touch of Disco.
Madlib – African Earwax. LA beatsmith Madlib has joined MixCloud and uploaded the sixth instalment of his mixtape series Mind Fusion. African Earwax digs deep into Madlib’s crates, with the focus squarely on African music. 30 copies of the mixtape were sold at a show on June 20, as bare CD releases, with just the name Madlib, styled like the Tamla Records logo and individually hand-drawn covers. Essential listening. Stream above, track list here.
Semtek’s Precise Experiments. One of the UK’s most reliable producers and label owners for half a decade, Benji ‘Semtek’ Roth launched Don’t Be Afraid in 2009 in order to release his own singles, but has also released his own brand of precise experimental house and techno via World Unknown, Andy Blake‘s In Plain Sight, Awkward Movements, and Niche-N-Bump. His FACT mix rolls out music from Mo Kolours, DJ Spider, Batu and more. Stream and download above, track listing here.
Sven Väth’s Essential Mix. “When I was asked to do this Essential Mix I thought it might be something special to compile a selection of tracks from my label Cocoon Recordings. You’ll hear old stuff, current releases and some unreleased music which will be out soon.” Iconic DJ Sven Väth was among the first people ever to play trance records, and one of the founders of legendary trance music labels Harthouse and the now-defunct Eye Q. He’s also the latest DJ to play an Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1. Stream, and full track listing here.
Gerd’s Touch of Disco. Rotterdam’s Gert-Jan Bijl is the DJ and producer known by many aliases: Gerd, Geeeman, NY Stomp, Literon. He’s also the head of 4 Lux Records, Fortek, Lifeworld and other labels. Listen to and download nearly two hours of Gerd’s set of techy house with a distinctively French touch of disco-esque euphoria, at all-day-long boat party Concrete in Paris, on the 20th of last month.
Where Bok Bok’s At. “It’s definitely gonna one be for the clubs” – the producer and DJ who cofounded icy and metallic UK club music label Night Slugs alongside L-Vis 1990, Bok Bok shows us where his head is currently at in the latest of FADER‘s mix series, ahead of his headline set at the MoMA PS1’s Warm Up party in New York. Stream above, interview and track list here.