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What I’m Into This Week (6/26 – 7/2)

/ David James / Leave a comment

Gigi Masin live

In the lead-up to the big 4th of July holiday weekend, I’ve spent almost every night working on a new mixtape. I’ve finally got my passion for mixing back and it feels incredible. Instead of months or years between tapes, I hope to make them a regular feature here.

However, this latest mix isn’t quite ready yet. It needs a little more polish before I publish next week. In the meantime, I want to share the best new music I’ve been into all week. At least one of these three things will make your hair stand on end.

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Ballroom [mixtape]

/ David James / 10 Comments

Ballroom Art1

This is the first time I felt compelled to make a mixtape for people I’ll never know.

Ballroom is dedicated to everyone who lost the fight of their lives when someone tried to silence an entire culture. It’s also a dive through my own personal history with dance music, exploring the deep end of the electronic ocean, the sounds that come out as everyone’s going home.

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Dam-Funk – DJ-Kicks

/ David James / 4 Comments

dam-funk - dj-kicks

Studio !K7’s long-running DJ-Kicks series has always been a great opportunity for artists to show off their tastes, often far broader than their own music implied. It was a chance for your favorite indie rock band to say hey, we listen to hip-hop and early drone music too! But the most interesting sets always did something more powerful.

For his entry, Dam-Funk offers a free fall down the rabbit hole of his own work by exploring artists that sharply reflect the edges of his own productions. It feels like an archeological dig into the distant past and unknown present, unearthing insight into a man whose work seemed to have sprung out fully formed so many years ago.

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Gaussian Curve – Clouds

/ David James / 3 Comments

Gaussian Curve - Clouds

Clouds is, simply put, one of the most addictive albums I’ve heard all year, despite its relaxed attitude and understated charm. This thing slid into my brain and refused to leave.

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What I’m Into This Week (6/5 – 6/11)

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Witcher 3 Ciri and Geralt

This week has been as busy as ever so I didn’t have a ton of time for new music, but I made up for that with deep enthusiasm for what I did discover.

Thanks to Dam-Funk’s excellent new entry in the DJ-Kicks series, I’ve been looping a certain new-to-me album half a dozen times over the past day alone. I’ve also spent time in one of the most sublime virtual worlds ever created, in The Witcher 3.

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Lnrdcroy – Much Less Normal

/ David James / 1 Comment

Lnrdcroy Much Less Normal

Much Less Normal is one of the best surprises I’ve experienced in months. I’d never even heard of Lnrdcroy a few weeks ago, and now I’m desperately hoping he releases new material. This is dreamy electronic music of the highest order.

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Torn Hawk – Born to Win (Life After Ghostbusters)

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Torn Hawk camero

This is the song that turned me on to Torn Hawk. Born to Win (Life After Ghostbusters) is 15 minutes of blurry cyberpunk guitar bliss.

It was one of those out-of-the-blue eureka moments, shared by a random friend on last.fm. Remember how great a social network that was before they killed groups last year? I still miss it.

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