This mixtape is about that warm glowing feeling you get when you dream about the right path in life. You see it materializing before you, and although it isn’t real yet, you’re filled with the light of understanding.
After this kind of dream, you wake with a newfound sense of purpose and optimism.
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.
So this will be remembered as the week that Prince died. The sudden and unexpected departure of one of the last rock stars on earth was a blow that we no one wanted in 2016, not after losing so many larger than life, all time favorite artists already. I haven’t seen people come together so much in commiseration or celebration since David Bowie died. The music world lost a bright shining star, and I personally lost another icon I’d held close over the years.
At least I can say that this week also brought some incredible new music. Here’s what we’ve got.
Deadbeat, aka Scott Monteith, is a dub techno artist from Montreal, perpetually approaching the genre with an outsider ear. Although he currently resides in frosty genre mecca Berlin, his music is still refreshingly focused, strange, warped fingerprints everywhere.
Andy Stott just announced his followup to best of 2014 album Faith In Strangers, and it’s coming super soon. Too Many Voices will drop April 22, not even four weeks from now. I was already excited at the news, but when I heard the first single, I lost my shit.
Here’s the video for Butterflies:
This week’s real world brought a deadly terrorist attack in Belgium, while the music world brought the premature death of a hip-hop hero. It was downers all around, and I struggled personally with some dark moments too. At least in my own case, I try to meditate, focus, and seek the healing power of art. This is how I keep perspective.
It’s also how I end up sharing music. Here we go:
Underworld may finally be settling down, but it’s the most radical thing they’ve done in well over a decade. Instead of reaching to stay one step ahead, the duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith sound relaxed and happy to explore their surroundings for once.
Optimistic Underground 