Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Nativespeaker presents: Night Light Lines of Flight

Well, I finally recorded a mix that I thought was worth publishing, after a few months of others that I went cold on.

Been going in a funny direction with DJing. I can't afford to buy much vinyl. The Australian peso is being punished against the euro, which makes buying off Hardwax, well, punitive.

Not only that, but I find it hard to justify buying (very expensive) records I actually play much less than the (much cheaper and less fiddly and cumbersome) digital files I have. Not only that but, as the thesis winds on, I have less and less time for DJing, and certainly now that I've given up any pretention of being a 'Saturday night in the club' kind of DJ (not least of all because of my deep, deep ambivalance about nightclubs), so there's been a long period of drift in which I've had to question why I'm continuing to do this at all.

...which I barely am. If I have to play out, I practice. But if not, I don't mix much... mostly because I don't have a large number of new EPs to integrate into the collection like I used to. I've really racked my brains about this. I don't want to DJ digitally – quite profoundly. Even Final Scratch etc kind of turns me of. I feel that DJing should be – for me – about curation and presentation, and I firmly believe that the months and months (and oodles of talent) in a good record far eclipse all but the most inspired mixing. I make no claim to mad skillz (and if I did, that claim would be undermined by the evidence of hearing my sloppy, slapdash mixing): what I wanted to develop was an ear and an eye, all around the ideas that:

(of mixing) If you can, make it good; if you can't, make it fast

(of DJing) Mixing is overrated, track selection is not with all that in mind, I made a mix where I spent 90% of the time really sweating 'what comes next'. Most of the tracks are from EPs that have found a faithful, implacable place in either my box or the pile of EPs that's mixed through with newer stuff I've bought and older stuff I can't do without. But, of course, once I hit record, there were several totally unanticipated selections that impulse or intuition demanded that I find, which meant (at two stages) frantically going through my racks of records looking for 'it' (then trying to frantically weave it in just in time)... you'll notice that some of the mixes are out of phase for this reason... but actually it shifts the groove in interesting ways (I think).

In the new SSG spirit, the tracklisting will be witheld for a week or two.

Here's the link, hope you enjoy.



  1. really enjoyed that one, peter. lots of records i love in there (namely the koze and tuell). flowed quite nicely, especially near the end.

    i, too, have next to zero aspirations for club djing, and yet i keep buying records (i bought a couple today, in fact). i make mixes in my room and give them to friends, which gives me enough pleasure to justify having bought the records (as well as the pleasure it brings to just buy a record and listen to it).

  2. I have to say it makes me feel better somehow to know others spend money on vinyl with no interest in club DJing. You've assuaged my guilt for record shopping today.

    Look forward to listening to the mix....thanks!

  3. hi P
    i haven't heard the mix yet, bit this mincemeat flower (hackfleisch) is really nice-nik

  4. I was going to compliment you on the mix but then I realised you must own the Replace EP on vinyl so I'm going to sulk instead.

  5. Hi Peter,

    I really enjoyed the mix. Honest! Great track selection and progression. I don't listen to a lot of house mixes, but it reminded me of Steffi's RA mix, which was one of my favorite mixes from 2008. Keep it up!



  6. Hey people,

    thank you all very much for your comments so far! Your kind words are really appreciated.

    The meaty flower identified by Nik is a waratah, which is the state emblem of New South Wales. Yup.

  7. @ Teleost: yeah, my copy of Replace had that crack/pop in it when I got it though. Not happy about that.

    ...NB on another tip, I just went on a massive vinyl binge and bought the following things from '08 that I hadn't gotten around to purchasing.

    Hotflush Rmx 005 - Scuba: From Within (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Skull Disco 010 - Shackleton: Soundboys Suicide Note
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] 3024 002 - Martyn: Natural Selection
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Something 05 - STL: Musik 4 Life!
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Tectonic 019 - Peverelist: Infinity Is Now
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Skull Disco 008 - Appleblim And Peverelist: Soundboy’s Ashes Get Hacked Up And Spat Out In Disgust EP
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Skull Disco 009 - Shackleton: Death Is Not Final
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Something 04 - STL: Invisibility EP
    8.50 [-] 1 [+] 8.50 [X] BPitch Ctrl 165 - Ben Klock: October
    8.00 [-] 1 [+] 8.00 [X] Workshop 007 - Even Tuell: Workshop 007

    Q: has the popularisation of digital changed what you buy and how you buy it? It certainly has with me. I find I buy almost 100% good stuff, but it's always retrospective and nearly none of it is the surprising impulse of a record store browse. It's a big difference for me.

  8. pop or no pop, i want that EP :(
    the dettmann/SCB hotflush EP is super, as is October (I don't know why I don't have this yet)...and how is 'Circling' sounding on record? Does it work any slower? I wonder if it would lose some of its weightlessness (hmm...does that mean it would gain weight? or just be more plodding? i dunno)

  9. @ Teleost:

    Well, I've just placed the order, so we'll have to see.

    One thing I'll say though is that neither sides of that EP are weightless... the sub bass is massive. Played them on my dad's huge system the other week with the fat B&W sub and it was a completely different record. Light yes, but also feekin heavy. Same with the Shackleton EPs.

    Makes me wonder how much we're all missing by not having a sub... then I wanted to buy a sub... then I remembered that I was broke and lived in a small apartment with neighbours above and below. Shame.

    But it's true that vinyl has a much better and bigger presence than digital, especially once you turn it up. Of course this depends on the DAC you've got in your digital stuff though. But I was 'ipod djing' at my sister's NYE party, and one of the things that becomes obvious when you're pushing even a wee stereo as hard as it will go without blowing is that most people still have crummy 128 kbps mp3s on their pods, and that they are absolutely lifeless and gutless at high volumes.

  10. i have october on vinyl, and i really think it sounds so much bigger than it does digitally.

    and i pretty much only buy records i know and love now. over the summer my record store had in 'songs from the beehive', but unfortunately i hadn't heard it yet, despite expecting good things. i skipped on it and only days later realized what a mistake that was.

  11. i got part of the message of the bass in circling last time i went to oxford and heard it on the megahifi, but i still think of it as 'circling' like a just seems airy somehow.

    the bit where it gets a 'bassline' rather than just 'bass' after 2/3s of the way through was a revelation to me a month or so ago...but then again maybe with a sub you're getting a whole deeper layer as well?!

    priorities for dream flat of the future:
    - good powerful shower
    - incredible hifi
    - no neighbours

    (last note: part of me just wants all the skull disco EPs so I can put them on my wall)

  12. i think the shower has to be the top priority...

  13. London water pressure. Come to Australia, our water pressure is much better... less geezers, more geisers. But now I'm spouting rubbish.

  14. ipods.... don't like them really. how comes they don t play flac files?

  15. @ Nik: you can download macflac (if you've got a mac) and it'll convert the files to WAV, then you can re-convert them to AIFF or AAC.

  16. I gave the mix a listen to today. Really nice mix, great flow.

  17. Call me a novice, but I need to know what the track is that comes in around 37mins with that incredible vocal. Man...

    Really enjoyed the mix by the way. The track selection is superb, so you definitely achieved your initial goal.

  18. The track prior to Cassy 'For you'

  19. @ Natasha:

    tracklist is to come, but patience...

    ...and thank you all for your kind words, it's really appreciated.

  20. I look forward to seeing the full track list. I'll endeavor to find it in the mean time. All part of the fun. Cheers

  21. In response to your question, PC: I purchase less music today as a consequence of digital distribution because 1) I don't have to worry about it flying off the shelf and 2) I can spend more time feeling it out. Like you, almost all of the music I purchase now is of a high quality. Yet, I don't purchase many records "retrospectively" because I only purchase vinyl that will never (or so I think) be made available digitally, so I buy it as soon as possible. I don't have a vinyl fetish, which is probably due to my age. I'm 24. Nevertheless, I would like to amass a collection of my favorite records on vinyl from labels like Sandwell District; however, at this time, it's cost prohibitive. The shipping costs just as much as the records when I purchase records from Hard Wax!

  22. @ Benjamin:

    I think what's interesting about the vinyl market now is how it deliberately cultivates scarcity where none need exist.

    ...the logic of the limited edition is really fascinating.

    ...I think though that vinyl is so rich in history. It carries more than the signal, which is much more than a CDR and certainly more than digital... although this is kind of being rectified. On the one hand, yes, it's the music that matters. And if you've ever moved house, you're reminded of just how fucking cumbersome a vinyl collection is. But then...

    ...but you're right, Benjamin, I mean, it's fine if you live in Berlin and can just catch the u bahn over and pay eight euro for an EP, but for most people in most parts of the world, buying new vinyl these days costs 2.5 times that, which is a lot of money. If I was a dentist I wouldn't blink.... incidentally, Marcus Nikolai from Perlon is one... great way to ensure the 'superlongevity' of your label...

  23. I agree. The limited edition ethos is fascinating. On one hand, I like the idea of it, but on the other, I think anyone should be able to purchase the music they love.

  24. Should we?

    Bach, Hayden etc were prevented by their patrons from copying their own music...

    ... I can't help but think that, on the one hand, it's the music maker's wishes that should be respected but, on the other, that it's absurd to think of a recording as property that we have a 'right' to because we've exchanged it for money.

    ... I think the entrepreneur who was trying to sell 'used' mp3s on the 'net recently shows up the absurdity of this for what it is, when you follow these very liberal, capitalist ideas to their logical conclusion when you're dealing with something virtually immaterial and nearly infinitely reproduceable. Or Kompakt mp3 announcing an on site sale where 'all stock must go'.

    We live in interesting times.

    I wish people could share music, but I wish the producers would have more of a say and receive more of a share.... but for most parties traditional music contracts were a fucking jip, necessary 'cos the majors were the only ones who could co-ordinate everything by virtue of owning/controlling the presses, the studios, the studio workers, and the whole distro network. I mean, lest we forget, there used to be no other way to get music.

    When I started to buy CDs, they were 30-35 Australian dollars, while I was earning 5-8 dollars an hour at my casual jobs... the record companies screwed listeners and artists for years, but...

    ...anyway, this is old ground and I'm ranting.

    If you want to read more about this, read our interview with Terre Thaemlitz. There's a (wo)man with some interesting and high voltage opinions on this topic:

  25. I should add though, on a historial tip... remember when CDRs became viable, and the prices went down to a buck or less per item, and you could suddenly print at home for a dollar or little more something the majors *still* wanted 30-35 bucks for, fifteen years after the introduction of the format?!

    And then you began to consider the economies of scale at work and you thought, hell, this must cost them less than a dollar to produce... who's getting the lion's share of the rest? Surely not artists...

  26. quality mix, PC. it has all the hallmarks of a great bedroom DJ set: no pressure to drop any bombs, nerd-out moments, and a sense of intimacy. i mean that in the best way possible.

  27. Whoo...I just finished Terre Thaemlitz's interview. To conclude our sidebar discussion, PC: Thaemlitz's opinion on digital distribution or distribution in general suggests - at least if I'm interpreting his/her response correctly - that limited edition white labels may be the only way to ensure an artist is properly compensated. (If it is distributed by the likes of a Hard Wax.) I don't have any problem with this if that's one of the reasons behind limited edition white label releases. I, however, am probably taking this way out of context in an attempt to formulate a response. I, however, know that I don't know where I stand on the topic of limited edition white labels!

  28. I thought there was a Deleuze current running through your first RA '2008' email, and i guess the name of this mix confirms that! i'm curious as to whether there was a specific reason for the name?


  29. @ Stu:

    No particular reason. Anti Oedipus might have been sitting on my desk, but mostly it was just the phrase that occurred to me 'for some reason', or for no reason at all.

    I'm not going to be like Spooky or the old Mille Plateaux site and attempt to draw explicit connections between post structuralism and DJing though. How very 90s. :)

  30. Fantastic mix even if the mixing was a little rough around the edges (I'm 10x worse in that dept.). This will definately be in heavy rotation, look forward to TL, especially that vocal at the beginning, great stuff.



