Apple Pips, Fabric, 19th February

Appleblim's Apple Pips label has some seriously good stuff coming out in the near future, a lot of it from local Bristol producers - established ones like Komonazmuk, as well as upcomers Al Tourettes, Arkist and Orphan 101. He's just recorded a staggering mix for Fabric, his first longform one for quite a while, as a promo for the upcoming Apple Pips takeover of Room Three on 19th February. It's going to be a massive one, featuring sets from Greena, Al Tourettes, Wedge and Gatekeeper, as well as the boss man himself.

Mix and interview up at Fabric's blog here.

The tracklist looks something like thiiis:

Data - The Fall of Phaeton (dub)
False Prophet - Wake Up [Spatial remix] (TAKE Records)
Gatekeeper - Atmosphere Processor (dub)
Arkist - Switch (dub)
Scuba - You Got Me (Hotflush)
Wedge - Worry Dolls (If Symptoms Persist)
Headhunter & Gatekeeper - Jellyfish (Transistor)
Addison Groove - Footcrab (Swamp 81)
Al Tourettes - She Shimmers (Apple Pips)
Joe - Untitled #2 (Apple Pips)
Greena - Actual Pain (Apple Pips)
Hard House Banton & Roska - Warning (dub)
Atki2 & Dub Boy - Tigerflower (Idle Hands)
Midland & Ramadanman - Your Words Matter (Aus)

That Midland & Ramadanman tune is something else entirely.

Mosca - Square One [Night Slugs]

Considering that it’s been summarily rinsed in the last few months by any DJ lucky enough to have a copy, it’s about time that Mosca’s long awaited Square One EP finally sees a release. Luckily it hasn’t lost any of its considerable charm, and on its digital version is backed by a formidable roster of remixes from his fellow Night Slugs associates.

Both of the originals here, ‘Square One’ and ‘Nike’, are built from fundamentally simple elements in the manner of say, Joy Orbison – rattling percussion simultaneously referential to house and garage, deftly sliced vocal snippets, technicolour synth work and the ever-present rumble of sub-bass. Yet the comparison ends here – in fact, using the same basic ingredients Mosca manages to turn Orbison’s reductionist ethos entirely on its head. B-side ‘Nike’ is ample evidence of this – along with his luscious three-parter ‘Gold Bricks, I See You’, which appeared on Fabric’s Elevator Music compilation, it manages to incorporate both compositional and sonic complexity into a superbly focused dancefloor track. Beginning life as slow-paced, synth-led hip-hop, three minutes in it seamlessly shifts gear into a taut house/garage hybrid, shot through with dubby synth stabs straight from a Basic Channel 12”. It’s this ethereal side that gradually come to dominate the track, culminating in a brief wash of ambience before a final blast of incandescent funky that burns briefly before tailing off, leaving a warm afterglow in its wake.

The same post-everything, anything-goes ethos currently upping the ante across the bass music spectrum also manages to elevate ‘Square One’ itself to far more than the sum of its parts. Its real success is in managing to incorporate elements from a whole host of different genres without diminishing the end result - the heavily reverbed chord stabs that drift through the track’s backdrop reveal a close affinity with both Berlin dub techno and the earlier variants of dubstep. Closer to the fore, its characteristic descending bass and loose tom hits are as close to grime as to UK house, placing Mosca alongside Kode9, Cooly G and Roska in creating a distinct hybrid sound: darker and more oppressive than funky’s big hitters, looser and more danceable than most mainstream dubstep.

As one of FACT magazine's top ten producers to watch in 2010, Mosca's recorded an excellent mix, which is available to download here.

http://www.myspace.com/deejaymosca

Fact Freebies

In typically generous form, FACT Magazine have seen fit to start the new year with a massive bang, giving away a pair of free tracks and a particularly mindblowing mix.

Greena's remix of Mosca's 'Square One' follows on where his recent Apple Pips debut left off: all asymmetric percussive patterns that borrow equally from house, garage and dubstep, and a cheeky sense of euphoric bounce nicked from Buraka Som Sistema's neon-tinted kuduro. My only qualm is that it doesn't last that little bit longer. It's available for seven days, here.

Meanwhile, Werk Discs head honcho Actress' collaboration with labelmate Disrupt is a lumbering beast of a track, a woozy, smoked-out synth line and Zomby-esque bleeps coalescing to form an odd, wonky form of techno. It's perverse, creepy and wierdly addictive, and available for seven days here.

Finally, Deadboy has delivered the latest in FACT's pretty-damn-essential mix series, turning in a neatly mixed blend of garage, funky and 'what-you-call-it' sounds to dazzling effect. His 'U Cheated' was a contender for one of my favourite tracks of 2009, welding melancholy vocal stabs to an absolutely killer bass breakdown that I've still not managed to hear on a dancefloor. He's got a new one, 'If U Want Me', coming out in the next month or so and it's even better, closing the mix in full-on party style.

Download it here, and catch him in Room 1 of Fabric this Friday, where he appears as part of the Numbers label's showcase alongside Todd Edwards, Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and Jackmaster. It's going to be massive.