NEEDLE EXCHANGE 129: An Exclusive Mix By…Deadboy

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Words and Mix by Deadboy

1. Kano, “I’m Ready”
Really love the synths and vocoder on this Italo classic. It’s a good one to start with.

2. Gino Soccio, “Dancer”
Another Italian disco one. Also good for starting sets off with and kind of a hymn to the dance.

3. Niagara, “Sadondongo”
Found this reissue of a ’70s German percussion group on Discogs—two long tracks, all drums, really hypnotic.

4. Colours feat. Eska, “What U Do (Stephen Emmanuel Remix)”
Found this in the bargain garage section at one of my favorite London record stores. Great weird, glassy FM synths and vocals.

5. J Sweet, “???”
I don’t have track titles written on the record for this one but this is from one of my favorite periods of UK music. I was buying as much of this kind of vocal cut-up grime instrumentals by guys like J Sweet, Low Deep and Iron Soul as I could get my hands on.

6. James Ferraro, “Fade”
I really like a lot of James Ferraro’s stuff. This is off the Cold mixtape.

7. Mos Wanted, “???”
I’m sure some people know what this one’s called, but my copy just says this and I never found out. It’s another budget grime instrumental from back in the day with a kind of wonky lurching rhythm and some MIDI trumpets.

8. Yung Lean, “Lemonade”
Been listening to this Yung Lean mixtape a bit recently. I love the submerged washy synthesizers; I love sad weed-smoking rap.

9. Mr Virgo, “Down”
Another grime producer who was way ahead of his time—versatile, experimental, and made a lot of really hard tunes. This is one of my favorites.

10. Jessy Lanza, “Kathy Lee”
I don’t know anything about this but it came out on Hyperdub and I liked it and thought it would go well in this mix, which is shaping up into one for the £20 bag crew.

11. Horse Head, “Guard Spirit”
This was off a free mixtape by Horse Head. It’s just beautiful, twinkling synth melodies. Reminds me of the Vangelis track at the start of Cosmos.

12. Bøne Squad, “VVinter”
This is off the first record on my label Total Fantasy—some grim Nordic grime.

13. ???, “Grimey”
Don’t know who made this record again. I’m sure people out there know what this is, but I love finding really simple, raw grime instrumentals like this on vinyl.

14. Altern 8, “Evapor8”
This is probably my favorite Altern 8 tune. Let’s get all our friends together and take E’s in a field.

15. Emglev, “An Yeun Ellez”
I found this Emglev tape on a weird old cassette blog. Beautiful, faded FM synths; washed out, reminds me of Oneohtrix [Point Nveer] or something but less studied. I thought it would fit into this mix a bit; roll one up homie.

16. Rogue Unit, “Luv Dub”
Any records with “Steve Gurley” written on them is a buy on sight. He made some of the best rave/jungle as Foul Play and Rogue Unit and some of the best garage too. Crisp drums, big bass, widescreen floating pads.

17. Ed Case & Nico, “Bludclot Artattack”
Jungle 4 ur bassbins.

Deadboy’s latest EP, ‘Blaquewerk’, is available now through Numbers and can be sampled below. He has more material on the way through the Glasgow-based label soon, as well as releases on deck from his own recently launched imprint Total Fantasy.

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