FWD (Fast)

This Friday (23 Jan) in Johannesburg: a one-off night showcasing choice finds from the outskirts of the dance music universe, immaculately mixed up by DJs Chris Keys, James (aka Robot Boy), Offbeat and Dexterity.

Playlists will accommodate house, techno, disco, dubstep and other dancefloor oddities that defy description - basically beats you're not going to hear anywhere else.

Open-minded partygoers should apply at Hotel Sunningdales (88 Corlett Drive, Birnam) on Friday 23 Jan - door charge is a paltry, credit crunch-conscious R20.

DJ Dexterity’s Favourite Albums of 2008

It's been interesting how much consensus there’s been on year-end best music lists. A handful of albums have been cropping up consistently across the blogosphere and on sites like Pitchfork: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Cut Copy, Kings of Leon and the album in my top spot seemingly rubbed many people the right way in 2008. But barring Hercules And Love Affair's self-titled debut - a remarkable transposition of disco tropes into modern shapes that transformed Antony Hegarty into a torch singer every bit as worthy as Marc Almond or Chaka Khan - I thought these touted albums were effective (and affective) rather than radical.

In 2008, I located listening joy in the retro-future flights of fancy taken by Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq and Jamie Lidell; in the body-punching drums and sparkling rhymes of Q-Tip (as well as the wheezier and sleazier but highly questionable slant supplied by Lil Wayne); in brilliance from Bristol: the highly-anticipated returns - and returns to dirty, dazzling heights - of Portishead and Tricky; in acts like Foals, Vampire Weekend and Esau Mwamwaya, who turned their attention to Africa and found fresh avenues for alternative music here; in subsonic explorers like Benga, Zomby and Flying Lotus, who ensured that 'bass' music (which has been somewhat annoyingly broken up into a multitude of mini-genres, like dubstep, grime, wonky and aquacrunk) still does damage to dancers’ internal organs; in the strange and unlikely 'pop' music that Gang Gang Dance and Nôze stumbled across; in the audacious bootlegging of Pocketknife and Cousin Cole, who managed to make main floor fodder out of rock and folk oldies like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen…


It wasn't a great year for electronic/dance albums (it rarely is), but promising emissions - 'wonky' ways forward, if you'll forgive the totally unnecessary use of this year's most shockingly-named genre - emerged from the aforementioned sub-bass operators, and I suspect that the likes of Joker, Headhunter, Rustie, TRG etc. will pull off similar feats in 2009.

There are some also-rans (or nearly theres) that deserve a mention: '808s & Heartbreak', a solid, slightly different issue from Kanye West that might have made the list had T-Pain not already smashed the Autotune to within an inch of its life; the psychedelic kiss that was MGMT's 'Oracular Spectacular', which was officially released in 2007; the so so clever and super-cheeky, but often cheesily cloying, Girl Talk album; Beck's 'Modern Guilt', which was just too flimsy and flyweight in places; and the head-spinning 'Dear Painter, Paint Me' from M_Nus man Heartthrob, which was a little too specialised (but had some of the most exciting moments of any album from last year). Add to these decent but not-too-daring records from Jay Haze, Bauhaus, Bloc Party and Osborne. And as always, because of the daunting mass of music released, I didn't/couldn't get around to listening to records from The Roots, Roots Manuva, Matthew Herbert, Neil Landstrumm, Morgan Geist, Mr. Scruff and Shed.

Here though are 25 albums that I did get around to listening to (most more than once!) and that I thought most effectively grasped the sonic possibilities available in 2008; albums that had my pleasure centres and synapses (and often limbs too) operating overtime…


25. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III
24. Esau Mwamawaya & Radioclit – The Very Best
23. The Bug - London Zoo
22. Nôze - Songs On The Rocks
21. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
20. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
19. AmpLive - Rainydayz
18. Radiohead - The Best Of
17. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
16. Loco Dice - 7 Dunham Place
15. Theo Parrish – Sound Sculptures
14. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
13. Zomby – Where Were U In '92?
12. Foals - Antidotes
11. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
10. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
9. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
8. Benga – Diary Of An Afro-Warrior
7. Pocketknife & Cousin Cole - Tambourine Dream
6. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli – Serenity
5. Tricky - Knowle West Boy
4. Jamie Lidell - Jim
3. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War
2. Portishead – Third
1. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair

Hercules & Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Dub)
(not on the album - buy it!)

Top House & Techno Tracks of 2008

Another list for the mass of year-end (or beginning, as the case may be) lists, but I feel I've got to post something (plus I got Friday afternoon off work)...

This may be followed by a list of tunes I liked last year that weren't house or techno, and maybe even a Best Albums list... But don't hold your breath.

These tracks made me excited to still be deejaying in 2008 - a big thanks to Tim Sweeney for opening my ears to the epic in top spot. See if you can spot me in the pic, which was taken at his gig at Carfax last May - for my money (and alongside ?uestlove in the same venue), the party of last year.

But that's a whole other list...

50. Invisible Conga People - Cable Dazed
49. Photonz - Trembler (Discodeine Remix)
48. Syclops - Monkey Puss
47. Trickski - Move Me (Phonique Remix)
46. Henrik Schwarz & Amampondo - I Exist Because Of You (Live Mix)
45. Mlle Caro - Dead Souls (Radio Slave Remix)
44. Booka Shade - Planetary
43. Joris Voorn - The Deep (Jimpster Remix)
42. John Tejada - Torque
41. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Turn Around
40. Arto Mwambe - Une Seule Nuit (Mix De Danse)
39. Hot Chip - Hold On (Ewan Pearson Remix)
38. Fields - Song For The Fields (Ewan Pearson Remix)
37. Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit - Wena
36. Falko Brocksieper - Lament
35. Sunburst Band - Journey To the Sun (Dennis Ferrer Remix)
34. Yazoo - Situation [Hercules and Love Affair Remix]
33. Friendly Fires ft Au Revoir Simone - Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
32. DJ Koze - I Want To Sleep
31. Marco Bailey & Tom Hades - Saint Paul [Gregor Tresher Remix]
30. Turntablerocker - All Night (Original)
29. Force Of Nature - Sequencer [Stefan Goldmann Remix]
28. Ben Mono - Jesus Was a B-Boy (Shir Khan Remix)
27. Fan Death - Veronica's Veil [Erol Alkan's Extended Rework]
26. Kuniyuki - All These Things (Theo Parrish Remix Dub)
25. Simon Baker - Plastik (Todd Terje Turkatech Mix)
24. The Laughing Light Of Plenty - The Rose
23. Noze - Ethiopo
22. Radiohead - Videotape (Man Make Remix)
21. Culoe De Song - Bright Forest
20. Mike Dunn presents The MD X-Spress - Na Na Na (I Walk With God) [Mike Dunn Main Vocal Mix]
19. Afefe Iku - Mirror Dance
18. Morgan Geist - Detroit [c2RMX1 by Carl Craig]
17. Loco Dice - Pimp Jackson Is Talkin' Now
16. Matias Aguayo - Minimal (Markus Rossknecht Remix)
15. Foals - Olympic Airways (Ewan Pearson's Return To The Villa of Joy Remix)
14. Sis - Nesrib
13. Ben Watt - Guinea Pig (Vocal Variation Mix feat. Julia Biel)
12. Ane Brun - Headphone Silence (Henrik Schwarz Remix)
11. Jazzanova - Let Me Show Ya (Henrik Schwarz Remix)
10. Primal Scream - Uptown (Weatherall's Long After The Disco Is Over Remix 2)
9. Mark E - Slave 1
8. Lovelock - Don't Turn Away (From My Love)
7. dOP - Just A Man
6. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Chilly Willy
5. NUfrequency ft. Shara Nelson - Go That Deep (Charles Webster Acid Version)
4. Panthers – Goblin City (Holy Ghost Extended Disco Dub)
3. Hot Chip - Hold On (Mock & Toof Remix)
2. Hercules And Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix)
1. The Juan Maclean - Happy House

The Juan Maclean - Happy House (Trim The Fat Jeans Edit)
(this version crams all the high points into half the time, but isn't nearly as hypnotically thrilling as the original - which you should go buy!)

Here Comes The Sun

The nearly never-got-there post...

And it's a short one - the lush house grooves attached are deep and long though.

Cape Town's Pierre-Estienne is not only one of the coolest people on the planet, but he's a damn fine DJ too and currently my favourite back-to-back collaborator - especially when we do 80's-heavy wedding sets!

We recently dropped two-hours of sun-kissed, mid-afternoon house bliss at the Awake Festival in Rustlers Valley, which is undoubtedly one of the best festival experiences around.

In this one-on-one, two-part showdown you'll hear the likes of FK, Still Going, Herbert, Hercules & Love Affair, Liquid People, Charles Webster, Daniel Wang, Black Cock and plenty more.

I hope you like it - and I hope it was worth the wait!

Pierre-Estienne & DJ Dexterity - At Awake, Rustlers 2008 (Pt. 1)
[MediaFire: 86Mb]

Pierre-Estienne & DJ Dexterity - At Awake, Rustlers 2008 (Pt. 2)
[MediaFire: 76Mb]

Angels Are Playing With My Heart

Something special for a blue-tiful Monday...

"And I wept both night and day,

And he wip'd my tears away,

And I wept both day and night,

And hid from him my heart's delight."

- William Blake, 'The Angel'

I've recently realised that a large percentage of the songs that turn me on are about angels... Kate Bush's The Red Shoes LP has a permanent place within arms-length of my turntable, and I often listen to "Lily" (really loud) before heading off to work. If this track - which stars angels Raphael, Uriel, Michael and more - doesn't get you through the day, nothing will...

"Gabriel before me,
Raphael behind me,

Michael to my right,

Uriel on my left side

In the circle of fire."

- Kate Bush, 'Lily'

Last week I compiled a playlist for the launch of the awesome new Love Jozi T-shirt range and in the process rediscovered Lamb's "Gabriel", which was a fittingly heavenly accompaniment to the fabulous Ts and fantastic wallpaper. Probably the zenith of Lamb's should-have-been-more-illustrious career, it has been on repeat ever since.

"I can fly

But I want his wings,

I can shine even in the darkness

But I crave the light that he brings,

Revel in the songs that he sings:

My angel Gabriel."

- Lamb - 'Gabriel'

"Gabriel" also got me thinking about angelic conversations and holy connections - and then searching for angel-related records. After ditching Abba's "Angel Eyes" and some dubious business from the likes of Wang Chung, I was left with a selection of ten more-than-decent ditties with celestial overtones. And because I wanna give you devotion, I thought I'd share them all with you...

The Angel-ise folder available for download below contains acts whose divine output might best be described as "art pop": the aforementioned Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, CocoRosie, Roxy Music, Massive Attack, St. Etienne...

It also features a pretty out-there collaboration between the late Jeff Buckley and Nymphs' vocalist Inger Lorre (from the Kicks Joy Darkness album, a tribute to Beat poet Jack Kerouac), and an easier-gliding collaboration between ace South African emcee Zubz and vocalist Ziza, who's the singer in Suplex (see the last post below).

DJ Dexterity - Angel-ise Playlist [61 Mbs]:

CocoRosie - Terrible Angels

Cocteau Twins - Oil Of Angels

Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back and Forth

Inger Lorre & Jeff Buckley - Angel Mine

Kate Bush - Lily

Lamb - Gabriel

Massive Attack - Angel

Roxy Music - Angel Eyes

St. Etienne - Angel (Broadcast Remix)

Zubz ft. Ziza - Remember, Drunken Angels Don't Sing

DJ Dexterity's Angel-ise Playlist

*Tip: Use WinZip or WinRAR to unzip this little taste of heaven.

Super Perplex

Anyone in or near Jozi next weekend should check out the Social Security party at the awesome Alexander Theatre. Kid Fonque will be dropping two hours of dubstep downstairs while Offbeat and Dexterity (that's me) will pick up the slack and drop beats of various persuasions on the main floor upstairs.
A special addition to the line-up for the third in this super-cool series of parties is a performance from "tone contortionists" Suplex: prodigiously talented Ziza on vox with Offbeat and Dexterity dropping the beats.

Get a taste of what's to come by grabbing the recording of their last set, at Newtown's Fuel Cafe in June, below.

Suplex - Fuel Cafe: 21 June 2008 (Pt. 1)

Suplex - Fuel Cafe: 21 June 2008 (Pt. 2)

Check out more mix-action from Dexterity on SA DJ showcase 'site Listenup.ZA.net.

Because Three's A Crowd

Tshwane, aka Pretoria, is fast turning into the super-heated hub of local house music culture.

The nation's capital has always had a healthy club scene that's spread serious house fare in thick swathes, from hotbeds like Carnalita and Ellesse to modern dance dens like Musica Feliz, but now it seems to be spawning the spine-tingling music production talent too.

Per capita, this country has the biggest house music market on the planet – it's the kind of place (if any other exists) where you'll hear the likes of Larry Heard and Charles Webster on daytime radio: cuts like “The Sad Piano” are bona fide blockbuster attractions here.

But lately the local production fraternity are hijacking house floors back; bending some of kwaito's basic elements – low-tempo 4-square beats and township trim – into shapes that are not as specific as kwaito's vernac variations. They're Afro-flavoured but with with an ear-trained to international tastes. And they're hitting paydirt with house music lovers across the globe.



Recognition is in the rumour that consummate label for all things electronic (and not), Warp Records, have picked up the raw slice of twisted 'kasi' keys and tribal drums that is DJ Mujava's 'Township Funk' for release later this year.

DJ Mujava – Township Funk

In 2007, Blackwhole, ruled the airwaves - and lots of adventurous hips - with a tune that exemplifies the instrumental restraint that's dominated SA-sprung dance beats for a while, but that slowly lets loose: “1000 Seconds” unwinds with wide-screen keyboard reach and a nagging, relentless momentum that's hard to ignore – or not groove to.

Blackwhole – 1000 Seconds

Rhythmic Elements exemplify another aspect of Pretoria's impressively amassing pool of dance-inducing talent. Taking in more traditionally South African sounds, they've captured current imaginations and playlists with the infectious “2 By 2”.

Rhythmic Elements – 2 By 2

And while we're on the subject of excellent dance tunes with South African flavour, enjoy the sprawling meeting of Amampondo and Germany's coolest house cat, Henrik Schwarz...

Henrik Schwarz & Amampondo - Exist Because Of You (Henrik Schwarz Live Version)

Gettin' Chilly In Here

Two tasty trips tonight: something old and something new...

These two records book-ended my midnight DJ set at the rather rocking Social Security party in Braamfontein's Alexander Theatre on Friday night.

For the opening salvo I fired off the mega-dramatic, 15-year old (and nearly 15-minute long!) pinnacle of progressive house, "Sugar Daddy", by Secret Knowledge (aka music journalist and producer Kris Needs and vocalist Wonder Schneider).

Like the undulating Rufus Wainwright number below, it features a rainstorm (pure coincidence, I promise) and it's fully-loaded with searing special effects. The difference between the tracks: "Sugar Daddy" is all sweat-soaked, brothel-tainted lust, with Wonder's provocative vocals bridging some inner ear-bending ground-fire hi-hats and bulldozing kick drums.

This record first squinted its way into the light of day - mascara smudged and hair tousled - in 1992, the debut vinyl issue on Andrew Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise label and one of the sharper offerings on the seminal 'Deep Cuts' collection, the long-lost label's debut CD emission.

Secret Knowledge - Sugar Daddy

For dessert, my parting shot was the tune of the year so far. "Chilly Willy" is almost as silly as its title suggests, but this wonky workout from Montreal's Guillaume Coutu Dumont, aka Guillame & The Coutu Dumonts, balances tomfoolery with an infectious groove, stuttered devotional voices and a battery of sparkling horns.

Trained in Latin and classical percussion, this strange Canadian spent some time playing with a jazz act in Senegal, and while there are traces of Afrobeat here, there are many more constituent elements too. The 'Trouser Jazz' of Mr. Scruff is probably this cool track's closest cousin, with multiple elements facing off over an easy-stepping skank.

Elsewhere, Guillame & The Coutu Dumonts' inviting techno experiments neatly parallel the queasy, greasy rhythms of fellow Canadian Akufen or Frankfurt's Isolee, and they are sublimely showcased on last year's 'Face À L’Est' album on Musique Risqueé. This label has also just blessed us with the 'Poco-A-Gogo' EP from Chic Miniature, Guillame's collaboration with Ernesto Ferreyra.

Guillame & The Coutu Dumonts - Chilly Willy

Something Outta South Africa

The Real Estate Agents have ruled the South African electronic music scene from their Cape Town base for half-a-decade, and have made headway outside the borders, with various bytes and pieces appearing on international labels.

The duo – machinist Markus Wormstorm and turntablist Sibot – sizzle on stage and are brimming with bright ideas: so many ideas, in fact, that their last self-titled release spread their high-octane electronics over three CDs. Add to this that in the past couple of years they have busted out with various side and solo projects, including Markus's 'The Wormstorm EP' (on NY's avant-rap label Sound-Ink) and Sibot's excellent In With The Old long-player.

Two of these additional projects – both of which are in many ways more forward-thinking than the Prefuse vs Oizo template that the Real Estate Agents have down pat - happen in tandem with super talented emcee Spoek Mathambo. Alongside Markus it's Sweat.X, and the sound is a little like Jamie Lidell tweaked on “tik” (the South African name for crystal meth); their 2007 'Ebonyivorytron' EP on UK label Citinite is breathtakingly brilliant in places. Spoek + Sibot = Playdoe, and the latest project from a prolific and precocious crew has found a home on Lyon-based label, Jarring Effects.

“Hungry Waste Line” comes off their free label sampler JFX BITS 2, a 24-track trawl through jumped-up electronica, jungle dub and jagged breaks from a batch of producers you've probably never heard of, but who nevertheless impress in places. Playdoe's 7-track debut EP is available now through this French entity.

Also worth checking are Spoek's collabs with DJ Edjotronik (who I think is French – info is sketchy) available via The Fast Life, exclusive Sweat.X tune “Shut Up” on Discobelle, the loud and cool Sweat.X blog Throwing Shade, and The Fader's great article on X in their recent Africa issue.

Playdoe – Hungry Waste Line

Where The Wild Flowers Grow

Coming on like the lovechild of Jeff Buckley and Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright is a maverick who operates at an event horizon where jazz, rock, folk, classical, gospel and even opera converge. He labels his richly-layered output "Baroque Pop".

Like Jeff Buckley, Wainwright is the progeny of rock royalty - his parents are Loudon Wainwright III and folk singer Kate McGarrigle - and the two met a couple of times before Buckley's untimely death. Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to Buckley and references "Hallelujah", the sweeping Leonard Cohen-penned number that is the late singer's best known song and that Wainwright regularly plays live (and actually recorded for the 'Shrek' soundtrack).

Thankfully the connections between the two end there. Wainwright made it through the mythical late 20s that are so often the end days for musicians, overcoming a crystal meth habit, temporary blindness and a vicious sexual assault to emerge mostly intact – and on a career path that's still yielding seductive results.

Wainwright at his most baroque: performing "Agnus Dei" off the 'Want Two' album, live in Central Park

Wainwright excels at reaching left of field and positioning the oddities he finds out there in between cosy pop cushioning. It's an MO that climaxes in captivating songs, critical commendation and, for the most part, mainstream obscurity. His half-a-dozen albums have met with high praise and low sales, but that hasn't deterred him from pursuing a unique trajectory that's included collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys, Burt Bacharach and Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons.

Long before the latter made a surprise cameo on the microphone for sublime DFA-signed disco evangelists Hercules and Love Affair (their self-titled debut may just be the best album of '08), Wainwright enlisted the services of playful dance music duo Supermayer to tear apart and stitch back up "Tiergarten" (off his most recent long-player, 'Release The Stars'). The unlikely get-together resulted in one of the finest dancefloor highs of last year. In fact, it's one of the most memorable techno moments of the millennium, period.

Written for his German boyfriend, "Tiergarten" takes its title from the massive Berlin park that houses the Reichstag and the Brandeburg Gate, and fittingly it gets re-fitted by the Berlin-based dream team of Superpitcher and Michael Mayer. As Supermayer, this odd couple unleashed the extraordinarily diverse "Save The World" album (on quintessential techno label Kompakt) in 2007.

As impure as it is impressive, that record flirts with indie, lounge, jazz and an array of strange instrumentation, strapping the disparate strands onto streamlined digital arpeggios and pile-driving bass pulses. The outcome: thrillingly animated anthems like 'Two Of Us' and 'The Art Of Letting Go'.

Supermayer go even further out on their remix of "Tiergarten". It's what might have been born out of a meeting between Burt Bacharach and Giorgio Moroder - if it was scripted by Steven Spielberg. Techno with a human heart, digital abstraction with feet firmly on terra firma: super-heroic sonics in the midst of the collosal rainstorm that is the track's centre-piece. I suggest you get wet...

Rufus Wainwright - "Tiergarten"