Posted by: Matt

I can’t for the life of me remember exactly how I came across this mix. It’s by a local DJ who I have never actually seen or met, and Google has no record of this file that I am able to locate. My computer tells me it was downloaded in July of 2005, so that is the best date I can offer as far as carbon dating goes.

I do however recall the impact it had on my taste in electronic music. At the time I was moving away from glitchy, plonky IDM (of which there are traces at the beginning here) and towards…..something. My next focal point was waiting to be defined, and then I found Bass Lab pt. 1. I loved the gritty, front-and-center basslines and the unabashed use of speed garage tempo and beats, and for a brief time, Tube Jerk, Audion, and others dominated my crate. Most of the tracks here owe a lot to UK garage but they are lacking the pitched up divas and general cheesiness that style loved so much. I’ve never quite pinned down the origin of that sound. Was there a subset of Garage producers who were pushing the envelope? Had another region picked up on the sound and made it their own? Maybe someone out there can answer that for me….

In any case, I believe this was supposed to be part one of a pair of mixes; At 44:20, the odds are pretty good that this was one side of a cassette tape. You can hear it switch gears right at the end (to introduce some perfectly timed funkiness) and then it just gets hacked off mercilessly. I tend to feel that it adds to the charm though, and leaves you wanting more.

What’s Miss La Fey (if that IS her real name??) up to these days? Well, Dubstep, according to her myspace page. I suppose that makes sense, given her gravitation towards heavy bass sounds. So if you are in the Bay and see her on a flyer, feel free to drop in and request something from Bass Lab. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

Maebyn La Fey - Bass Lab pt. 1

Posted by: Jay

Happy Friday everyone!  We’ve got a super exciting guest for the podcast next week, so look out for that next Friday.  For now I’m stoked to share this classic mix that I’ve been grooving to ever since I got turned on to it down here a few months ago.

First a little know fact:  Did you know that when I first got into DJing I almost started by playing jungle and D&B?  It was late 90’s when that jungle sound was fresh and fantastic, before the hostile take over of the genera by the rabid hoard of glitchy argo-bass that has yet to release it’s cold, techy clutches.  I ended up picking trance though, and the rest is history.

What’s that all got to do with this set?  Well, “Brazil Rockwel” is a throwback to my favorite era of 170 BPM break beat dance music.  It’s chalk full, end to end, of that upbeat late 90’s jungle sound.  What’s more is this set is fully infused with Brazilian flare that really takes it over the top.  Not only does it capture a time, it captures a place.  I’ve not yet been to Brazil (even though it is soooo tantalizingly close to Bolivia) but once I get there I envision music just like this pulsing from every cafe, beach bar, corner store, radio, nigth club, and boom box all across the country.  Spontaneous dance parties, fiestas on the beach ’till the sun comes up, beautiful Brazilian woman kissing me for no other reason besides that what they do in Brazil… wait, am I still typing?

ANYWAY, ladies and gentlemen enjoy a little taste of Brazil with Pista!

Pista - “Brazil Rockwel” (right click and “Save as…” to download)

I know nothing else about this set.  Not the year, not where the guy (girl?) is from.  Not the tracks.  Nutin.  But I DO know it’s dope, so enjoy!

Posted by: Matt

I can’t quite remember how I came across Apparat’s music, but damn if it didn’t excite me. He managed to blend glitchy beats, bass, and distorted organic textures so well; it hit just about every button I had. He’s naturally evolved over the years as artists do, but once you are familiar with his sound you know it, particularly the droney washes he loves to drape delicately over everything.

As long as I’ve been aware of him, I’ve never heard of an Apparat DJ set. All his performances are of his own work, either solo or with accompanying musicians. I was fortunate enough to catch him at Conne Island in Leipzig a few years ago with Telefon Tel Aviv, and he spent half the night playing guitar with an organist/vocalist, and the rest rocking harder beats with his laptop and controller.

This live recording here is a little over six years old at this point, and though it doesn’t seem like much, that can equal several lifetimes when it comes to electronic music. It’s certainly a little busy and noisy, but it is pure Apparat. Though he’s refined his compositional practices, his signature elements are all here and can be heard to this day in his tracks (including his collaboration with Modeselektor, Moderat). I love that someone has such an unavoidable fingerprint on their work.

Anyway, it starts out watery and slow but be sure to stick with it! He really goes for the full range here, and it’s a totally worthwhile trip.

Apparat - Live @ Fad, Barcelona (2003)

Posted by: Cor

Today’s retro mix comes to us once again courtesy of Brent Northey (whose own guest podcast your can hear right HERE). He dropped this one on me along with the DJ Garth set I posted a few months ago. DJ Spun is yet another Bay Area DJ legend, though one I’m sorry to say I was never familiar with in his day. What we’ve got here is a well-mixed set of truly old school funky breaks, house, and of course, it wouldn’t be a ’90s set without a solid dose of acid. If you’ve got a taste for that classic sound, this should hit the spot quite well. Enjoy!

DJ Spun - If You Turn On

Posted by: Jay

Alright ladies and gents, ready for another trip in the Waaaaay Back Machine?  This week I’m reaching into our digital shoe box* of classic mix tapes and pulling out another F-8 classic, “The Electric Temple” AKA “Mars’s Red Tape”.  I’m not sure if this is my favorite overall Mars tape, but it definitely has my favorite side.

* Is there really any better way to keep your tapes than in a shoe box?  Literally every tape we’ve digitized here has come out of someone’s shoe box: Cor’s, mine, Ben’s… we were all saddened to here that Alex emptied his shoe box of tapes into the garbage before we had a chance to get at them…

Side A has it’s jams: “Trance Emotions” is a nice starting song when you’re mixing unapologetic trance; the last two tracks are sweeping classics (one of which, the second to last, I still refuse to get rid of on vinyl); and then there’s the track three appearance of what we called “The Egyptian Song”, later discovered to actually be named “Snake Charmer” by Carpe Diem*, which was always caused pandemonium amongst my group of friends when played live, in a car, on a boom box… really playing this song at any time at any volume back in the day would make one of us pee our pants.**

* I’ll feature this tomorrow as our “Bonus Beat”, stay tuned in.

** Yup, that’s all one sentence.  I amaze myself.

But it’s side B that’s really the classic.  Mars starts us off with some “Infinity” by Guru Josh and just never looks back.  Trance hit after trance hit for 40 straight minutes!  We got “Out of the Blue”; there’s whatever the song is called that comes in after at about 18:35 that still to this day moves me; then the “Bun BE-dum… bun BI BE BE-dum” song, which should not to be confused with the “BE bun, be-bi-dun-be BE bun…”* track that comes in around 31:10; the violin track; and the list just goes on and on.  If I want to hear classic SF melodic/cybertrance from the late 90’s (AKA classic German melodic/cybertrance from a few years earlier) I’m headed straight for side two “The Electric Temple”.

So get your glow sticks out, dust of your ultra baggy pants, candy bracelets and neon tops ’cause we’re about to go a’ravin!

* You know what’s even more ridiculous than trying to sing a trance song for someone?  Yeah, trying to type one out.

Mars - “The Electric Temple” - Side A

Mars - “The Electric Temple” - Side B

For more from Mars, visit him at his website*

If you’d like the remastered, hi-quality CD of this mix, it’s available from F8’s shop HERE.