Hello, hi, how r u?
Hello hello! How are you? I hope you’re well. As we head towards the end of the year, I’d love to say a huge thank you for sticking around this last twelve months. We’ve been through some changes, haven’t we?! But we’re through it all, and I’m excited for what next year brings us both. Onwards!
This month the show is a whole hour longer, and (I think) a whole lot better. I feel like I’m finding my feet (or voice, rather) with this whole ‘show’ thing, and I’m honestly so happy to be able to share and present the music in a way that I think best represents how I hear it. If you’re ardently sticking to the Spotify mixtape version of the show, that’s cool (and I’ll continue to share that too!), but just so you know, there are 14 songs this month that aren’t on Spotify that are on the show - so if you want all the goodness, come shake a leg on that first link below. You won’t go back 🖤.
As you may have already guessed from the Letter subtitle this month, there’s a distinctly Detroit flavour - well, in actual fact, there’s a real swing time flavour, but a lot of the music that really swings is from Detroit, so I suppose they’re kind of synonymous in a way. Have a peek at the trackless below, but expect Moodymann, Dilla, GSH, Omar S, Drexciya, among some incredible new music too. It’s a banger. And I get really carried away, a lot.
The inspiration for this show this month comes from Dan Charnas and his wonderful book on Jay Dee, Dilla Time. If you haven’t read it already, I’d highly recommend it. Part biography, part hip-hop history, part musicology, and part studio-nerdery. It’s brill.
ANYWAY, I’m in danger of rambling, and I should really let you get to the music and the links and the stuff that you’re really here for. So with that, away you go!
See you on the dance floor,
Jed x
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TL;DR Section 🌪
Read…
Harold Heath has put his brilliant spotlight on the equally brilliant Post Human (nice one Harold and Josh!) for DJ Mag
Daniel Dylan Wray’s excellent oral history of Warp’s Artificial Intelligence
Nyshka Chandran has put together a superb feature celebrating grassroots music journalism for RA
Eoin Murray has gone long on the wonderful Loraine James for DJ Mag
This interview about Detroit techno documentary, God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines
Do…
Watch Momma Don’t Allow on the BFI player
Back this Kickstarter for a book looking at rave and activism
Watch this short film to celebrate Theo P’s DJ Kicks
Pre-order a copy of RA’s Sacred Spaces
Send Love Will Save The Day to a friend :-)
Listen…
The newly refreshed DMY (nice work, Tim, looking decent, Paul) has a new mix series - first up, Dance System (AKA L-Vis 1990)
Just read / just reading…
Just read
The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac
Dilla Time, by Dan Charnas
Eat and Run, by Scott Jurek, and Feet In The Clouds, by Richard Askwith
Just reading
Assembling a Black Counter Culture, by DeForrest Brown Jr.
Savage Messiah, by Laura Grace Ford
French Connections, by Martin James
The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow (yes yes yes, still)
Old notes home 📚
…on the future
…on culture
Rebuilding culture: fixing the asymmetry of art, culture, and commerce
A response to the argument that culture is boring these days
…on music
…on mental health
The tracklist 🎶
Thelonious Monk - Light Blue
Robert Glasper - Ah Yeah
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - We Almost Lost Detroit
Theo Parrish - Horizon
Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers
J Dilla - Bye.
Moodymann - Rectify
Byron the Aquarius - Run Sa
K15 - Rituals
Waajeed - Motor City Madness
Jay Daniel - Knowledge of Selfie
Ras G - Great Black Music
Steven Julien - Bloodline
Omar S - Gunup Runup
DJ Nobu - Maria
Killer Loop - Someone (Juan Atkins remix)
Le Petit - Niento
Yello - Oh Yeah
Syclops - Sarah’s E With Extra P
Drexciya - Species of the Pod
Tamburi Neri - Odissea del Ritmo (DJ Sotofett Acidisco dub)
O’Flynn - Pluto’s Beating Heart
Pepe Braddock - The Offering
Jennifer Loveless - B L U YOU (DJ Fett Burger’s Illlll Length mix)
Hodge - Where I Wanna Be
Frits Wentink - Movement Two (A fracture in the vapor)
Plebeian - Enzymes
Blawan - Blika
Donato Dozzy - Wooden Dolls Don’t Cry
Wavejumpers - The Sound
Sam Interface - Finally
Unknown - Unknown
RHYW - Kirkusa
Cristian Vogel - Macropanopticontinuum
Jeff Mills - Transmutation
Stefan Goldmann - Nayba
Tolouse Low Trax - Vineland
Kuedo - Reality Drift
Tashi Wada - Bottom of the Sky
Shomyo of Koya-san and Midori Takada - Kannon-Daiji
K15 - Rituals