Pearsall's Tunes

Um, there will be no new mixes until next week, contrary to what I said in the previous post, as I've had to re-name my mixes directory because I've already transferred 75 gigs worth of stuff off of the Sonicrampage.org server this month alone, with a limit of 80 gigs.

In the meantime, if you want cheap entertainment, check out Videos on Road for the videos from the (ahem) 'UK urban music scene'. Quality ranges from quite entertaining to mind-bogglingly awful, including the most hilariously cheap-assed rip-offs of American hip-hop cliches.

Oh, and rent/go see 'Rize' if you get the chance. It's well worth it, a winning combination of impossibly acrobatic/strangely spastic dancing, teenage artsy angst, somber real life stuff, and boomingly bassy soundtrack. Good times.

Me, I'm looking forward to 'Walk the Line' opening here in Britain. Anyone seen it?

Here's a mix I recorded a couple months ago of some pretty fiercely banging stuff.

Pearsall - Squat Rocking 1 (click to download)

01. Diplomat vs Trouble - Tantalum Cones (Deathchant)
02. Megamind - Taub (Nukleuz)
03. Kai Tracid - Destiny's Path (Warmduscher RMX) (Tracid Traxx)
04. Lectrolux - Baloney (Baby Doc RMX) (Tec)
05. Ironik - Slave (Tec)
06. Immersion - Squat Rock Part 2 (Smitten)
07. Trash Compactor - Interstitial (No Entry)
08. Medicine Man & Switch - Vitamins from the Pharmacy (One Inch)
09. Rim n' Chop - The Italian Job (Karim RMX) (DP)
10. The Captain, Superfast Oz & Kristian - Let's Go (Tinrib)
11. The Hellfire Club - Voodoo Magic (React)
12. K90 - Bomb Jack (Chris Liberator RMX) (Telica)
13. DJ Choci & The Geezer - Silver Box (VCF)
14. DJ Riddler - Riddle Me This (Public House)
15. Greenforce - Afro Acid (Acid Test)
16. Cortex - Cuba (Xy2)
17. Bang The Future - Atomik Lullaby (GBT)
18. Propulsion - Without Fear (Mesh)

It's just more of the same turbo-charged head-bashing stuff, a tribute to the mid to late 90's London squat party/underground club scene that I was so into. In theory, I'll write a bit more about it when I post the second part, but that remains merely a plan.

Anyways, besides Squat Rocking 2 (which is an acid techno extravaganza), I have either done or am contemplating doing the following mixes:
- Morally Diminished: extreme crate-digging activities, fishing out stuff that is pretty old and then combining it into a cohesive(sort of) whole. I've mixed the first one, which is house/tech-house/whatever, and will theoretically upload it at some point this week. The second one will be melodic techno but I haven't actually mixed it yet, or even worked out a tracklist for it (although I do have twenty records pulled out for it).
- Rampage Teknikal: The return of my old series of techno mixes. After a year off from buying tunes, I've recently started spending money on records again. Perhaps unwisely. I have tunes for two new mixes, and one will be techno and the other electro (mullets ahoy!).
- A mix of old and very fast European hardtrance. And a mix of old and very fast UK hardtrance. Why not?
- A slower mix of old European hardtrance called, fittingly, Eurotrash. This one is already done, but just needs to be uploaded. Also finished is Dreadnaut, which is one long ode to the hoover.
- Another old dnb mix. Maybe.
- Maximalism Part 2. Same as the first one basically, a smorgasborg of techno, acid, hard trance, and whatever else is to hand.

Also, you should check out Frank McGahon's new music blog. Get the Masters At Work mix, it's lovely!

Whether anyone actually checks this any more, I dunno, but here's a new mix of stuff for your enjoyment. It's actually all old tunes, but whatever. I apologize for how garbled my writing is, but I've had a couple of months off from blogging.

Pearsall - Maximalism Part 1 (MP3, 69 minutes, 95.4 MB, 192 kbps)

01. Mark One - Hoovers & Spraycans (Retro)
02. Underground Resistance - Punisher (Underground Resistance)
03. Cyber S - Decadance (Nitric)
04. Wicked Snails - People (X-Trax)
05. Emmanuel Top - Mars (Kai Tracid RMX) (Tracid Traxx)
06. Winnebago Warriors - Trailer Trash (Chris Liberator & The Geezer RMX) (Stay Up Forever RMX)
07. Heckmann - Satan & Deibel (Wavescape)
08. W. Jorg Henze - Domestic Nude (Pocket)
09. Millsart - Step to Enchantment (Axis)
10. Mike Humphries & Glenn Wilson - Aural Exciter (Punish)
11. Martyn Hare - Bang Harder (Chancer)
12. Megamind - Taub (Nukleuz)
13. Geezer - Liquid A (Stay Up Forever)
14. Y.A.G.O. - Acid Traxx (Sigma)
15. Karlton - Terrordome (Lectrolux RMX) (Tec)
16. Three n' One - Reflect (Chris Liberator RMX) (ffRR)
17. Sybren Danz - Dynamic Injection (Well Wicked)
18. E-Razor - Yeti (Technogold)
19. Special Force - The Hype (Gang Go)
20. DJ Randy - Pandomia (Smoke Free DJ Tools)
21. Karim & Phillip Walsh - Technomove Part 2 (Tuff Trax)
22. Madam Zu & Jon Doe - 999 Matrix (Houserockers RMX) (Mohawk)
23. DJ Funk - Fear the World (USA Hard Mix) (Pro-Jex)
24. D.O.M. - Locomotive (Stay Up Forever)
25. Arjuna - Totally Lost It (Cenobite)

I did this mix on Boxing Day for my own entertainment. It's a mish-mash of techno, acid, and hard trance, starting off with some properly old skool hoover techno before moving through some more acidic gear, then into some trancier bits, before culminating in some rather stomping nu-nrg and 'ard tekno and even a bit of ye olde Dutch hardcore (the Arjuna tune at the end). I've tried to mix it up between the UK, continental Europe, and the US in terms of the origins of the tunes, and I've tried to make it flow in a way so that it is not just seventy minutes of the same-old same-old, but something that moves through different sounds and styles while still making sense as a cohesive whole, while still avoiding the dread trap of overly chin-strokey 'radical juxtapositions'.

There's not a huge amount of dj trickery on this mix, the odd bit of cutting and chopping, but for the most part it is fairly standard smooth mixing, just done quite quickly so that I could fire through the tunes. The thing with techno is that it is pretty boring if you just let it go for about five or six minutes, and it is much more entertaining if it is constantly moving and shifting.

This is the sort of stuff I used to dance to when I was younger and, despite being considerably fatter and lazier than I was when I was, say, 17, this is still the sort of music that, when all is said and done, I most enjoy. It has never been, and will never be, the trendiest sound as it is pretty much purely functional four-to-the-floor European rave music. The culture surrounding this stuff has not spawned philosophical/sociological investigations in the way that something like jungle has. I'm not particularly bothered by this, of course. I like the relentlessness of it all, its sincerity (it is daft rave music, but it takes itself seriously, unlike consciously 'ironic' neo-electro).

If you like this sort of stuff, I hope you enjoy this mix!