In other news, the organisers have announced an extra night: the festival will now continue through Monday with sets from Ivan Smagghe and Justin Robertson. Everyone with SMS wristbands will get free entry to Barbarella club, and in order to keep revellers happy during the day, London promoters Percolate and Not So Silent wil lbe be supplying the daytime beats.

Stop Making Sense is made up of a number of stages including the beach bar, the wood stage, set among the Mediterranean pines and oak trees, and the outdoor nightclub Barbarella’s Discotheque, where the party continues until sunrise. In between, there are daytime boat parties that embark from the bay twice daily for intimate, raucous shin digs with you favourite DJs and crews.

This year, SMS presents excursions from Aus Music, Sub Club, The T.Party Movement, Warm and Get. (Not to be missed is the Friday party from our good friends Trouble Vision and Love Glove, featuring Hunee and residents.) See what to expect here: vimeo.com/88016216

Tickets for the boat parties are highly sought-after, and tend to sell out ahead of the event. Grab them here: billeto.co.uk/en/users/sms

Thursday Day: Lovesick : Severino : Blonde Ambi5on : Lovesick DJs
Thursday Sunset: Aus Music : Leon Vynehall : Will Saul

Friday Day: Trouble Vision present Love Glove : Hunee : Larj Hans : OK Jones : Rolfie
Friday Sunset: Sub Club : Harri & Domenic

Saturday Day: The T.Party Movement : Mosca : Maribou State : T.Williams
Saturday Sunset: Warm : Nick Hoppner : Gerd Janson : Ali TilleS : Myles Mears : Ollie Seaman

Sunday Day: Orlando Boom : Psychemagik : Kiwi : Orlando Boom DJs
Sunday Sunset: Get Diverted : Anja Schneider : Rob AlldriS

Festival tickets:

Tickets start at £120: stopmakingsense.eu/sms-5cket

See you there, in the meantime check our review of least year’s festival here.

As regular readers will be more than aware, here at Pelski we love a remix or two. We are particularly partial to a good ol’ disco edit. So expect plenty of colourful funk cuts and summery remixes in our belated top 50.

(For our top 100 ‘original’ tracks, click here.)

1. Boe & Zak’s – Loop For Love

‘Loop For Love’, released on Tiger & Woods’ Editainment series, fast cemented itself as a dancefloor weapon this summer. Recognisable as the regularly pillaged disco hit ‘It Looks Like Love’ by Goody Goody, Mathew Styles drags the 1978 gem onto modern dancefloors by stretching the nagging guitar riff over a choppy, ragged house groove, whilst leaving the strings to soar.

2. The Mole – Lockdown Party (DJ Sprinkles’ Crossfaderama)

The original version by The Mole – a producer who can be described as anything but orthodox – sounds straight-laced in comparison to Sprinkles’ whacky, rambling 12 minute take. During it extensive runtime, Sprinkles sporadically introduces flurries of cowbell, movie samples, crowd noises and all sorts, often pulling it back to a stutter of mangled electronics before releasing it once again. The remix has the loose arrangement of a live performance, but with a steady buzz, evoking the giddy excitement of a house party just kicking into gear.

3. Frank Booker – Egbe Mi O

This edit of Nigerian afro-beat classic, Fela Kuti’s ‘Egbe Mi O (Carry Me)’ finally saw an official release this year courtesy of KAT recordings. Marvelously chunky and buried in Booker’s signature low-end, it stretches out a scratchy electric guitar loop and choppy percussion (originally from Cream’s legendary Ginger Baker) into another hypnotic, nagging house rhythm, whilst bonkers West-African guitar solos and fevered African chants come and go.

4. Rhye – The Fall (Maurice Fulton Alt Mix)

Maurice Fulton’s remix of LA soul band Rhye demonstrates a more conventional approach than we are used to from an artist whose intriguing output is almost always strange. This – and a few other uncharacteristically accessible remixes – saw him win over a new audience in 2013. A big, rounded electro-funk synth struts through the first half with a gleeful sense of retro, whilst the second half usurps the gurgling synth with twanging disco reverb and a keener conga-led groove.

5. First Choice – Love Thang (Genius of Time Edit)

A highly sought-after edit which eventually landed on the Verktyg vinyl imprint. Genius of Time strayed from the usual edit formula by adding an entirely new melody and groove (as opposed to just sprinkling a little extra percussion, as is so often the case). A huge churning synth dominates the production, so that the source vocals – reduced to snippets – make only fleeting appearances. An effective groove; and wonderfully eerie.

6. Jacques Renault – Back To You (Paradis Remix)

Paradis’ remarkably rich remix of ‘Back To You’ dropped on Let’s Play House early in the year, turning Renault’s elated horn-sampling bomb on its head by painting it in deep, intricate textures. The French duo course subtlety through what was previously a blunt instrument: the percussion pulled back into short, abrupt clicks and the bass to a stunted murmur, whilst wistful vocals breathe through the mix like a billowing gust.

7. Change – Holiday (Late Nite Tuff Guy Remix)

Again, this wasn’t technically produced in 2013, but did finally see an official release (Tuff Cut #003) as well receiving heavy rotation from the likes of Greg Wilson. Late Nite Tuff Guy’s dry crack of snares and rumble of funky bass are enough to keep you captivated for a whole four minutes. But it is guaranteed to have everyone throwing their hands in the air come the elated chorus.

8. New York Edits 3 – Side B

A lush disco edit of Mary Wilson’s 1979 Motown single ‘Red Hot’. Wisely opting to focus on the lavish piano keys and searing strings, Mary Wilson’s vocals are stripped out besides that scorching chorus: “just feelin’ red hotttt”. It’s a subtle and finely crafted edit which doesn’t deviate too much from the original, but offers an altogether smoother listen. Also worth checking out: the Donald Bumps edit.

9. Daniel Avery – Drone Logic (Factory Floor / Gabe Gurnsey Remix)

A raw and intense electro remix from Factory Floor’s frontman. Daniel Avery’s original ‘Drone Logic’ is a fairly abrasive piece of techno that positively quakes under its own analogue weight. London-based electronica band Factory Floor pull the thing back a little, twisting its boisterous techno pulse into a more jittery synth. Most satisfying of all is the crisp beat thrown over ‘Drone Logic’’s bleeping, fizzing electronics.

10. Portable – A Deeper Love (Soul Capsule’s Ghetto Mix)

Soul Capsule propels a gently minimalist house groove via some bubbling synths and raw, dry percussion; there’s even a faint but ominous rumble of thunder clouds in the background adding to the perturbed mood. Rave synth-stabs and female wailing make for a loveable if familar throwback, but it has a restraint evident in its persevering techno progression and nine minute runtime.

11. Matthew Herbert – It’s Only (DJ Koze Remix)

12. Adil Hiani & San Proper – Les Moutons Ivres (Moutons Ivres Drunk Disco Drop 9)

13. Michael Jackson – Billie’s Had Her Jeans Acidwashed (Fatneck Rework)

14. Gay Marvine – America

15. Czerwone Gitary – Uczę się Żyć (Kacper Kapsa Edit)

16. Typesun – Last Home (DJ Nature Remix)

17. The Right Now – Call Girl (Hot Toddy Mix)

18. Pete Herbert & Dicky Trisco – In The Disco Last Night

19. North Pollard – Never Gonna Let You Dub (OOFT! Remix)

20. Osunlade – Camera Shy (Andrés  remix) 

21. Revivra Aka Estèphe & Vulzor – What’s Going On

22. Rayko – Rock My World

23. Richard from Milwaukee – Free Love (An Eric ‘Dunks’ Duncan Mix)

24. Dear Rose Music Company - I’m Every Dub

25. Brodka – Varsovie (Eltron John Dub)

26. Fingerman – Too Much

27. Nirosta Steel – Some Say (Pocketknife Mix)

28. Spaventi Dazzurro – Lonely (Jerkoff Mix)

29. Nicholas – The Music Lives

30. SoundMonsters – Feed My World (Powel Remix)

31. Mano Le Tough – Primative People (Tale Of Us Remix)

32. LUV008 – A1

33. Rhye – Open (Jeff Samuel Faded Remix)

34. Walter Murphy – Fifth of Beethoven (Flight Facilities Edit)

35. Session Victim – Yes I Know (Max Graef Remix)

36. JV – EditChannel XXX

37. K & B – Grandma’s Hands

38. Batongo – Aguirre (Mano Le Tough remix)

39. Marco Shuttle – The Vox Attitude (Pangaea Remix)

40. Late Jam (Willie Burns’ Dance Remix)

41. Dimitri From Tokyo – Sfunky

42. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (Drop Out Orchestra Edit)

43. Rahaan – Make Me Hot

44. Francis Harris – You Can Always Leave Curtains (DJ Sprinkles Remix)

45. Murat Tepeli – Forever (Prosumer’s ‘hold me touch me’ Remix)

46. Gesloten Cirkel – Hole (Transportation AAD Remix)

47. Hugo H – Chante vs James (aka The Same)

48. Black Booby – Hot Scotch

49. Jimpster – Porchlight And Rocking Chairs (KiNK Remix)

50. Billy Byrd – Lost In The Crowd (Olivier Boogie Edit)

Our favourite time of the year – a time when we can sit back and arbitrarily handpick the ‘best’ tracks of the last 12 months. Even the staunchest of snobs (that’d be us) could not deny that 2013 was a great year for underground electronic music. Of course, the internet itself benefitted from the ceremonious return of Pelski, a transformation from weedy blog to beefed-up website, complete with rambling reviews, our very own podcast series and an abundance of new and neglected corners of the site.

Enough about us. Here are the top 100 original tracks that really made an impression this year.

(For our top 50 remixes and edits, click here.)

1. Henrik Bergqvist – Spin / Go For What Hurts

Taking joint first place are two delightfully nuanced house tracks on Aniara from relative unknown Henrik Bergqvist. B-side ‘Spin’ is testament to the fact that it doesn’t matter how repetitious a track is when the groove is this good. As stark and tatty as winter branches, a rattle of rickety percussion forms the backbone, underscored by a boulder of sturdy bass. The A-side is a more tender piece of shuffling house fitted with a delicate violin loop.

2. Damiano von Erckert – No Good Times

Any number of tracks from young Damiano von Erckert’s two 12” Ava LPs this year could lay claim to a place in our top five. Perhaps not strictly an ‘original track’ given its patent sampling, ‘No Good Times’ is nonetheless a marvellous piece of vintage funk. Von Erckert’s fondness for dusty and loose instrumentation lends an authenticity often missing from modern house and soul music.

3. Nirosta Steel – Foxy Pup

Following his untimely death in 1992, Arthur Russell famously left behind a wealth of unreleased material. When Steven Hall aka Nirosta Steel sent us this unreleased gem, we couldn’t help get excited. The track in question was produced on tape by Bob Blank and Arthur Russell in 1985 for Steven Hall’s solo project – and has only now seen the light of day. It is killer in its simplicity: a minimalist improv groove built around an E-minor chord and a slim, metallic drum beat. There’s a gnarled analogue snarl to the bass, whilst Hall and Russell’s delay-laden vocals are as cool as steel.

4. Blanc 1 – It’s All Over

Released on Talabot’s new white label series (limited to 100 pressings), this Pional production showed surprising longevity. The young Spaniard’s vocal-work – a haunting croon that’ll linger on in the back of your head – hangs like a cloud over the tropical, steel-tipped percussion and nagging synth. A staple of Pional’s remarkable live set, it actually packs quite a punch on the dancefloor.

5. Powell – A Band

Powell’s ‘A Band’ – a monolith of murky static and industrial clangs – contains so many grey and brutalist elements that it should really sound gloomy as hell. In fact, it is peculiarly upbeat – feel-good, even. Fuzzy synths crackle like an unstable electrical box gone haywire, and the chugging drum machine and guitar-twangs push the blunted groove resolutely onwards.

6. DJ Fett Burger – Disco Tre

The madcap and decidedly lo-fi house and techno of the Sex Tags crew really caught on in 2013. The Norwegian imprint’s ramshackle aesthetic often spills over into the inaccessible for some; but ‘Disco Tre’ perfectly straddled oddball charm and straight-up dancefloor fodder. Its organic bongo drums are scattered so loosely they continually feel on the brink of collapse – just about held together by a propulsive bass beat and warming Nordic disco synths.

7. Dark Sky – In Brackets

Dark Sky have made a name for themselves over the last five years with their darkened, bass-laden output, lending their hands to everything from amen breaks to raw techno. Their deep house excursion on Mister Saturday Night unveiled another layer to their sound. The intricate title track boasts a lovely build-up – a beat-less twirl of strings and synths, both wistful and dramatic – before dropping into a medley of gently snappy percussion. The synth-work lays a shimmer of light across the track, but Dark Sky’s signature, an undercurrent of darkness, is buried somewhere in the shifty rhythms and sinister throb of bass.

8. Pépé Bradock – Imbroglios

A good year for Pépé; this one rather slipped under the radar, released on the fourth instalment in his experimental Imbroglios series which predominantly focused on ambient textures mingled with slack house arrangements. ‘Imbroglios’ is a sweet – almost twee – deep house track, all twinkling synths and dainty clangs of percussion.

9. Max Graef – Kaese Schinken Floete

Famously just 19 years old, Max Graef has rightly been hailed as newcomer of the year. The seventh instalment on his own vinyl-only imprint Box auz Holz featured this, a sample-heavy bumper encapsulating all of Graef’s staples: jazzy, hip-hop indebted samples, choppy beats and a nagging vocal hook.

10. Floorplan – Never Grow Old

The obvious floor-filler from Floorplan’s album (a side project of Robert Hood’s) features a lustrous soul vocal that sores above the unrelenting bass drum and jazz-flecked keys – all set to a breakneck 132 BPM tempo. It is a masterful exercise in incrementally increasing the intensity: the keys becoming more fevered and the vocal swelling upwards.

11. Bufiman – Fantasy

Jan Schulte’s ‘Fantasy’ is a magnificent tribal beast that unfurls hefty bass drums, hollow percussion, a host of peculiar squarking noises, and a marimba-like melody that drops you straight into the tropical jungle. Seriously robust analogue house music released on Dusseldorf-based imprint Verein Freier Menschen und Musik.

12. Medlar – Tides

The standout from Medlar’s Sleep LP is wonderfully emotive, darting between wistful, cinematic and soulful all at once. Comparisons to the likes of Moodymann and Andres are more than justified judging by this rugged piece of funk.

13. Paranoid London w/ Mutado Pintado ‎– Transmission 5 (Instrumental)

Detroit techno seems to have taken a backseat to Detroit house of late. But this slamming 12” released on Paranoid London harks back to the unbridled rawness of early Detroit, unleashing whiplashed 808 rhythms and a rumbling acid bassline.

14. Italo Johnson – ITJ 07A

So-called ‘DJ tools’ can be frankly unexciting propositions. So Italo Johnson’s seventh episode in his ITJ series was a welcome surprise; simple and repetitious enough to earn its ‘tool’ tag, but punchy and wholesome enough to be a banger all of its own.

15. Mind Fair – So Strong

A lush piece of disco, displaying a restraint and patience absent from the majority of today’s churned-out ‘nu-disco’ productions. The languid funk bassline underpins all manner of disco tropes – live percussion, dubby horns, the tinkle of bells – all tastefully executed amidst the sparse deployment of what sounds like a Nina Simone sample.

16. The Raw Interpreter – The Way You Love Me

17. Omar S – The Shit Baby (CP-1 Played By D.Taylor)

18. Rick Wilhite –Tribute & Respect

19. Begin – Here Comes The Sun

20. Simba – Three Kays

21. Mount Kimbie – Made To Stray

22. Damiano von Erckert & Tito Wun – The Way U Do It

23. Eddie C – Every Life Under The Invisible Hands

24. Olivier Boogie – Dance Band

25. The Mole – Now I Understand

26. Shit & Shine – Blowhannon

27. Albinos – Baka Tribe

28. Crowdpleaser – Right Beside You

29. Session Victim – Hyuwee (Instrumental)

30. Daniel Avery – Naïve Response

31. Sandrow M – Schnaubi

32. Levon Vincent – Speck’s Jam

33. Doc Daneeka – Walk On In feat. Ratcatcher

34. Borrowed Identity – Leave Your Life

35. Cuthead – Nautic Walking

36. Baba Stiltz – Our Girls

37. Soulphiction – Drama Queen

38. Ben Sun – Your Footprints

39. Midland – Checkbob

40. Beautiful Swimmer – Spezi

41. Dark Sky – Voices

42. Session Victim – Random Blues

43. Ben La Desh – Escape Route

44. Man Tear – Outside Amore

45. Mr Beatnick – Symbiosis

46. Four Tet – For These Times

47. Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie – Dusty Jazz

48. Romare – Taste of Honey (Give Me Fever)

49. Wbeeza – If You Believe

50. Velour – Speedway

51. Motor City Drum Ensemble – Send A Prayer Pt 2

52. The Right Now – Call Girl (Original Live Recording)

53. Soulphiction – Maybachswagger

54. Palms Trax – House In Motion

55. West Norwood Cassette Library – Acid Jazz

56. Deep88 & Melchior Sultana – Yo

57. Break SL – Zauberhafte Fantasie

58. Saine – Matte

59. Leon Vynehall – Step Or Stone (Breath Or Bone)

60. Axel Boman – Hello

61. Funkineven – The Joker

62. Ugly Drums – Basement Workout

63. Trus’me – T’es Une Pute

64. Pev – Aztec Chant

65. Cottam – The Other World

66. Francis Inferno Orchestra – Amber Express

67. Sisterhood – Call Me Ishmael

68. Quarion – The Plump Shrew

69. Tommy Rawson – Brenda Done Died With No Name

70. Daniel Dub – Smile

71. Graze – Ques

72. Romare – Hey Now

73. Chicago Damn – Temporary Transgression

74. Mr Tophat & Art Alfie – No Holdings (radio edit)

75. Syclops – Jump Bugs

76. Pittsburgh Track Authority – Now’s Tomorrow

77. Tirzah – I’m Not Dancing

78. Martin Brodin – Wilmert 1 & 2

79. Boogie Nite – Gotta A Lot Of Static

80. Eddie C – Jam On Dallas Road

81. Kyle Hall – Measure 2 Measure

82. John Roberts – Palace

83. Even Drone – One A1

84. Ninetoes – Finder

85. FRAK – Talk On Answer

86. Sounds Stream – Julie’s Theme

87. Crystal & S. Koshi – From Red To Violet

88. Dj Koze – La Duquesa

89. Moomin – Au Bord De La Mer

90. Mano Le Tough – Please

91. John Swing – Loving You Is Easy

92. Secret Squirrels #1 – Track A

93. Marquis Hawkes – I Want You

94. Isolée – Allowance

95. Tornado Wallace – Desperate Pleasures

96. Vaib-R – About Freedom

97. Max Graef & Andy Hart – Biting

98. Tessela – Helter Skelter

99. Moomin – You Neva Know

100. Jimpster – Rollergirl

Tipping its hat to Detroit and Chicago classics, Medlar’s brand of tastefully jazz-infused house music has pricked the ears of critics and discerning listeners alike. Last month he released his debut album Sleep, an absorbing late-night journey permeated by vintage crackles and soulful, murky soundscapes.

We caught up with the Londoner to discuss the current overabundance of 90s house, his inevitable comparisons to Moodymann, and of course that excellent LP …

First let’s get the obligatory ‘how’d you get into music?’ out of the way…

Medlar: A couple of school friends and I started learning guitars and would jam on a crappy old drum kit, the usual ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ stuff! And then I became interested in making music on computers when I heard some old jungle records – the first electronic/dance music I was really into.

Was jungle your introduction to DJing as well?

Yeah, I was into the broader scene of jungle and drum and bass, and it took me a while to figure out what I liked and didn’t. I actually missed the whole garage thing at the time, maybe living in the countryside had an effect! But I started attempting to make jungle-inspired stuff on a PC and then buying records shortly followed.

It was about 2001 that I first starting playing around on a computer I think.

Garage seems to be going through some ongoing hybrid with house at the moment, some good some bad. But what do you make of the drum n bass scene these days?

Yeah it all escalated quite quickly! Drum and bass has been quietly doing its thing in the background and there’s some really interesting music. It’s funny how when a scene ‘dies’ it’s generally at its most creative – as no-one’s in it to cash in. It seems some of the sound palette of jungle and some pre-2000 drum and bass is working its way into a lot of house tracks at the moment – ‘Think’ breaks all over the place!

It’s interesting how the house scene can only be defined by incorporating elements of different dance music scenes from the past, in varying combinations, rather than any one sound it seems!

Speaking of which, what do you think of producers’ current fascination with 90s house – yourself included?

I don’t think a lot of us expected it to become so trendy. It can be frustrating trying to write music that falls within a UK-dance scene, as it’s such a progressive thing that there’s really high expectations of production and dancefloor appeal. So I initially found house as a sort of break from all of that. I decided to leave the overtly 90s NJ-inspired stuff behind with ‘Can’t Stop’, which is my only original that really falls under that sound.

As with a lot of other people now though; I’m exploring house and disco culture from various eras and so I have lots of inspiration from quite disparate sounds: at the moment I’m really loving early 80s disco funk (or ‘boogie’), electro and Chicago house; as well as a lot of weird early electronica stuff. So a lot of my track ideas are currently based around those sounds.

But I still find garage house tunes that blow me away quite regularly.

Me too, but mostly the old ones. There’s so much 90s stuff I keep unearthing that is great. But producers mimicking the sound I think might have done it to death now…

As you say, it seems to be about incorporating other sounds in house music, not just one.

Yes, definitely. I think for a time it could be excused because the younger generations – mine included – weren’t exposed to the original 90s tracks, and it made a lot of sense to them. But to exclusively use sounds from one era and not really subvert them in any way can get old a bit quick.

You’ve fashioned a fairly distinctive production style. But it’s clearly indebted to the smoky, experimental house music of artists like Moodymann. Do you get fed up of the comparisons?

It’s funny because I’d never listened to any Moodymann before I’d made quite a few tunes. But definitely the rougher approach that a lot of the great US producers seem to possess. I’m trying to move away from samples now, at least for some of the time, but want to keep things a bit odd in terms of sonics and the way sounds come in/out. To be compared to Moodymann I don’t think could ever be annoying!

Haha fair enough. The album has a raw soulful sort of feel. Is it all done on computer or do you use any analogue equipment to create that sound?

I’ve only just started playing with hardware except for a JUNO-60 synth and a RE-201 tape delay which I’ve had for a year or so. They feature on the album a bit, but generally everything I’ve done so far has been made within a computer.

I’m starting to write some stuff which is composed ‘live’, with a weird old Roland MIDI sequencer I recently got, which is proving to be a lot of fun, so we’ll see where that goes.

Tell us a bit about how you approached the album. Were you aiming for a happy or a melancholy disposition? I sense a bit of both.

Nice! Yeah I think you summed it up: melancholy without out being too bleak… so there’s something positive there. I like a lot of music that has a sense of nostalgia about it in some way. It’s nice that that comes across to you.

And it’s notoriously tricky to produce an engaging house album but, tellingly, yours sounds great when listened to in one sitting, from start to finish.

I think I’m at risk of becoming a bit snobby and saying to everyone “you need to listen to the whole thing!” I made the final edit with all of the tracks and skits (and some other samples) in one project so I was moving them all around, overlapping ends and so on, until I found something I felt worked. I knew where some tracks would go as I was writing them, and others I made with the intention of putting them in a certain part of the album (e.g. the middle or the end).

I thought a lot about the structures of DJ sets and the structure of pop songs on a smaller level. It’s very roughly based on a macrocosm of a song structure, but that sounds cleverer than it really is!

It certainly worked – it has a great flow and progression.

Thanks. I would’ve felt guilty expecting people to listen to 10+ tracks, each with intros and outros.

You live in South London. Any favourite haunts?

I haven’t been going out much recently aside from gigs, but there’s a brilliant record shop called Rat Records in Camberwell that I try and visit every week. It’s all second hand, and while generally there’s not much to find in the specific genre sections, they put out a few hundred 12″s and LPs in a big rack every week and I always come back with some cool stuff.

Ok on to a bit of a clichéd question, but where do you stand on the digital versus vinyl debate? People seem to get all hot and bothered about it.

Haha yes, I’m a firm believer of ‘whatever works for you.’ So if you’re really comfortable DJing or producing with a certain software then there’s no issue with it really. I play mainly records but use CDJs for certain things because they’re better at it. It’s the discovery process of vinyl that appeals to me most – not the tactile feeling or whatever – and I frequently end up somewhere where I wish I had more of my record collection digitally available. I’ve tried ripping records but am yet to get it to a quality I’m happy with, but I’d like to digitise a lot of stuff which I can’t buy as WAVs online – you can do some really cool stuff with CDJs. I’ve seen fantastic digital DJs and terrible vinyl DJs, but I think the thing people get fed up with is a combination of dance music culture seeming like a cool thing to do, and DJ technology that’s really easy to learn, so people will become a DJ overnight.

How did you get involved with Wolf Recordings? It seems like a pretty tightknit family.

I did a year-long internship at a label called Mr Bongo, which is based in Brighton. Greymatter helps in the running of the label there and Matt from Wolf was working in the same office a lot of the time. I learned a lot of amazing music during my time there which no doubt turned me onto house music. It was shortly after I left Brighton that I sent them Terrell and it’s all progressed from there. I really look forward to when we can get together (usually at a booking we share). Each time we meet the whole thing’s grown to another level, it’s amazing to think how far the label’s come.

The quality of their releases has always been pretty strong. Do you have a production you are particularly proud of?

Probably still ‘Terrell’, because it was after several years of trying to get records out without any success, then that track was me thinking “fuck this I’m gonna make something just for me, for fun”. Then when it did reasonably well it convinced me of the way to approach music!

A few quick-fire questions now:

Which five records haven’t left your bag lately?

DRESVN – Acido 14

Patrice Rushen – Number One

Hugh Massekela – Don’t Go Lose It Baby

DJ Chunk-A-Bud – Zig Zag

Laszlo Dancehall – Whip What

Any artists we should be watching out for?

Ishmael

What can we expect from Medlar in 2014 and beyond?

There’s a full length video accompaniment to ‘Sleep’ which Letty Fox has spent most of this year working on, it will make its way online sometime soon. We’re hoping to do a small screening in London too. Aside from that I’ve just overhauled my whole way of working and expanded into using some hardware, so I’m having fun with more synthetic sounds at the moment. I’m planning to write some semi-themed EPs to put out over the coming months. There are still some ‘Sleep’ launch parties to go, all of them have been great fun so far.

***

You can catch Medlar headlining Noshun at Soup Kitchen this Friday in Manchester. His remix of James Fox’ ‘Holding On’ is out next month here.

One of our favourite blogs, the long-running, Texas-based Dance Till You’re Dead, asked me to contribute the second installment of their new ‘ten tracks’ feature (the first in the series came from Huntleys & Palmers bossman Andrew Thomson).

I’ve put together a random selection of ten house and disco tracks that I’ve been spinning lately – and jotted down a few words for each. Have a listen to the playlist on the DTYD site here.

Nirosta Steel – Foxy Pup

This was produced on tape by Bob Blank and mixed by Arthur Russel in 1985 for Steven Hall’s solo project – it’s only now seen the light of day on Hollie Records. I love the lo-fi aesthetic – and it sounds strangely modern with that metallic, off-kilter drum beat. I’ve since been getting into a lot of old Arthur Russel productions, especially the Dinosaur stuff.

Romanthony – I Feel It

My favourite Romanthony track. Hugely underrated and quite hard to find, it’s the B-side on The House Of God 12” from 1995. Finally bought a copy the other day – just a week before Romanthony sadly passed away.

Kay Sputnik – Forever MJ (Kay Sputnik Forever Dance edit) 

My all-time favourite edit. Heard Theo Parrish play it at Corsica Studios once and I just kept bugging him until eventually he lifted the record off the turntable and showed it to me. It’s got a lot of change-ups so it’s pretty hard to mix but well worth it.

Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie – Dusty Jazz

A slow waltzer from these two Swedish wunderkinds. Sweet and refined house music with a touch of ballroom glitz.

The Popular People’s Front – My Baby Stays Out All Night

Popular People’s Front’s output is few and far between, but the stuff that is out there is fantastic – usually rugged electro-funk remixes of obscure disco. This, taken from their Limited Series, is probably their most well-known track, but their four Samples Pleasures EPs are really worth checking out too, every track is a gem.

Claudja Barry – Dub Dynamite (Social Disco Club Edit) 

My secret weapon: if all else fails I just return to this – it has this huge driving bassline. But the real treat comes in the latter half, lots of passionate, lush disco instrumentation. Disco Deviance is a great label for dancefloor-friendly re-edits.

Jamie Fatneck Low – Billie’s Had Her Jeans Acidwashed

Greg Wilson dropped this ‘Billie Jean’ edit at Glastonbury this year and the place went nuts. I haven’t had a chance to play it out yet, needs to be the right party vibe!

Eddie Drennon – Disco Jam

I play this out a lot, a raucous disco cut – with plenty of cowbell action – from 1978 that increases in tempo as it progresses. Drennon was best known for merging Latin and disco sounds, and this was the last single he released.

Edward – Naxa 

A great one for the warm-up set, it’s got that big booming bass every two bars and a wiggly disco-loop which makes it perfect for setting the vibe during early doors. Released on Mark E’s Merc label a couple of years back. I’m cautious to use the word ‘Balearic’ here.

Pépé Bradock – CU @ Minna & Lafayette

Pépé has a lot of gems, but this is my favourite. The bass has so much warmth and works nicely with the jazzy chords and string samples. It all feels slightly rugged thanks to the analogue equipment. The term ‘deep house’ is routinely abused, but this is how deep house should sound.

Taking its name from Talking Heads’ live 1984 album (or indeed the subsequent film), Stop Making Sense is a clued-up, sun-drenched festival on the Tisno coast. Nestled in a secluded bay and now in its fourth year, the underground party prides itself on superbly handpicked lineups spread across a number of raucous beach and boat parties.

Surprisingly – given the star-studded bill – it’s still a pretty well-kept secret; SMS remains a spacious and relaxed festival unspoilt by the trapfalls of commerciality (overcrowding, overbranding, ques, and all the rest).

But perhaps most enticing of all is SMS’ faultless lineup – reading like a Who’s Who of 2013’s electronic music scene: Innervisions’ Ame will bring their deep, Detroit-influenced techno, whilst the label’s world-renowned boss Dixon will be there with his penchant for smooth and often playful house. There’ll be high-brow techno on offer by way of fabled pioneer Steve Bug and Rekids head-honcho Radio Slave.

Another big selling point is SMS’ selection of label-curated boat parties, a chance to catch big acts like John Talabot in intimate space far from shore.Elsewhere, the lineup is fittingly sunny and upbeat. What better than the Balearic wizadry of crate-digger John Talabot belted out across the sun-kissed bay? The insatiably buoyant Nordic disco of Prins Thomas and Lindstrom? Or the melodic grooves of Mano Le Tough? Whether you favour Appleblim’s cerebral beats or San Soda’s party starting sets, there’s something for everyone.

And there’s no short supply of top-class residents, as we are in the hands of some of the best promoters and parties around: Trouble Vision, Electric Minds, Warm, Sub Club, Orlando Boom, Fact, and more.

We caught up with the festival’s founder, Chris Greenwood: “SMS is back with arguably its strongest line up ever, focusing on cutting edge dance music provided by djs from all across Europe. With each area (beach bar, boat parties, open air club) commandeered by various club crews from as far apart as from Moscow to Glasgow, and let loose to choose their own headliner, we expect a series of controlled explosions on the dance floor!”

Grab your tickets here. And get yourself in the mood with a groove-laden summer mix from Trouble Vision resident Park Ranger:

Fresh from his excellent second album Country City Country (read our review here), we caught up with Eddie C for a quick chin-wag about the Canadian’s early crate-digging habits, his modest recording equipment and Berlin’s multifarious music scene.

Hi Eddie, what was it that first introduced you to music?

I was an avid late night listener on the weekends when I was a kid growing up near Toronto. My favourite show was Deadly Headly’s All Night Dance Party on CFNY in Toronto from about 87-91. I still have all my old tapes. I started buying records around the same time.. heard about the shops in adverts on the radio. It was incredibly exciting to find the records.

And what kind of music did the show play?

Everything… radio in the 80s was amazing. All styles of music: hip hop, industrial, acid house… etc. I remember particularly loving anything with drum breaks and scratching especially. I loved the early Coldcut records, Richie Rich, Steinski, Public Enemy, Cash Money, Bomb The Bass… that sort of music.

So hip hop was a big influence. Would you say that’s where your love of sampling comes from?

Of course! I was really into hip hop, but I was also really into dance music from an early age. But the sampling – that definitely came from hip hop. That’s how I later learned how to really dig. First for samples that you would recognize that someone else had used and then for oddities for yourself. Sampling with dance music is a recent endeavour for me!

And there’s a bit of a hip hop feel to your records, upbeat and playful…

Thanks! Yes, certainly hip hop production methodology is a huge inspiration.

Which brings me on to my next question. You recently moved to Berlin. How does your often warm and breezy disco go down in a city associated with the darker shades of techno and house?

I’ve always loved techno. I grew up not too far from Detroit and used to go to parties there with my friends. There were actually really great parties in Ontario too. Seeing it here is amazing too, however I would have loved to have seen Tresor in the early 90s or something. Berlin is full of all kinds of music. It’s of course famous for techno – and it’s what a lot of people are visiting for. Believe me there are some educated diggers here as well. And such great record shops!

So have you found all sorts of parties in your time there?

Yes, it’s really very inspiring! They do like the bass drum though… haha!

Not a fan?

Oh, I’m a fan of the bass drum. Always will be… but it must be used correctly!

I’m also super surprised about small scenes in Poland, Ukraine, Russia. Amazing!

Turning to your second album Country City Country, it sounds like this album is almost autobiographical – sketching a map across your various sounds…

I have lots of unreleased music – much of it hip hop inspired. Originally I wanted to do maybe a 100 press 45 series or something… maybe later. The album is a rough spectrum of the general type of music I’ve been making for the last decade or so.

And who is Mike Roma? I loved the two tracks he featured on.

Great dude, a highly skilled banjo/guitar player. He currently plays with the Electric Timber Co. We knew each other from Banff. We both moved to Victoria about the same time and recorded a few jam sessions at my place there. “Every Life Under The Invisible Hands” I wrote here in Berlin and samples a bit of his guitar work. “Jam on Dallas Rd” is quite close to the actual session from around 2005.

Can you tell us about the equipment used to record CCC? It sounds raw, but authentically raw as opposed to some of the current ‘retro’ house floating about at the moment.

Authentically raw machinery and instruments! I’m pretty cheap. I still use the same $30 microphone. I bought a rainstick once at a hippy yard sale on Saltspring Island. I have a vibraslap and a Boss PC-2. The rest I’ll leave to your imagination!

What are your thoughts on all this retro music around at the moment. Last year, it seemed particularly trendy to sample 1990s stuff. Is it a good thing?

It’s great because if you have the records from then you don’t really have to buy much new music right now. The old stuff still sounds better anyway. Having said that, there is some killer music being made now, but like any time in history you just have to be selective.

Are there any new, up-and-coming producers you’re particularly excited about at the moment?

Crabskull in Winnipeg. Ptaki and Zambon from Poland. Vakula and Pavel Plastikk from Ukraine. Not new but Daniele Baldelli is making some insanely wonderful music lately. Being Borings and Kent from Tokyo. Really enjoying Bird Scarer, L.I.E.S. and Weatherall. Too obvious? There are so many!

Do you have a favourite Eddie C track that you’re most proud of?

‘Space Cadet’ is good. ‘Iceline’ and ‘Aesthetics’ are probably the most ‘me’. But I’ll change my mind tomorrow.

And finally, what do you have in the pipeline production-wise?

Working on a B-Boy album with Hrdvsion that will never come out… haha! Lots of great new stuff this year set up for my 7″ project Red Motorbike. There are a couple of remix 12″s for my album coming out in the next couple of months featuring Marvin & Guy, Tornado Wallace, Rune Lindbaek, Young Marco and KZA.

I have another EP on Crue-L with a fantastic Backwoods remix coming soon. I did some remix work myself for them on Tomoki Kanda’s forthcoming EP. As well as other remixes for Noodleman from Toronto and Volta Cab in Moscow.

Thanks for your time Eddie, much appreciated.

Thank you for the support!

2012 in particular was a big year for Session Victim, with their first full-length album dropping on Delusions of Grandeur – a sample-heavy, colourful exercise in deep house, typically drawing on their obsession with vintage soul, funk and jazz.

Duncan Pelham caught up with the pair for a quick Q&A over email.

How did Session Victim come about?

Matthias Reiling: It started the week after christmas 2006, when Hauke was at my flat and we made our first two tracks together. It was so much fun that we started to meet every week sequencing and listening to records.

So many labels’ quality control diminishes as time goes on. How have you managed to keep Retreat’s output so fresh?

Hauke Freer: Retreat is run by Quarion and me and includes a very small circle of artists like Iron Curtis, Quarion and Session Victim. We only release a record when we are totally convinced that it’s as good as it gets. That also means that releases are rather infrequent, but we aim to improve on that this year.

There’s a certain hip hop aesthetic to your productions. Can you tell us about those influences?

H: We both grew up listening to 90’s hip hop and got sucked into the sampling aesthetics. Digging records in dusty shops is our favourite occupation. Often we start out jamming with a sample that we’ve found from on one of those old records.

What about modern hip hop – is there anything current that’s taken your liking?

H: Not too many things right now – if you’re talking about the US stuff with euro-dance sounds. I really enjoyed the Figub Brazlevic LP from 2012, but that sounds as if it could’ve been made in the 90’s…

It’s great to watch you guys DJ. You bring a real party spirit to the decks. Do you think this is an important part of any DJ’s performance?

M: DJs should aim to play their best records in the best order and present that in their own best possible way, but they should first of all feel it. If they don’t, why should a crowd? It’s sometimes easier for us because there’s two of us. We try to try to get each other in the zone, because that way we DJ much better and enjoy it more.

I sense your tracks are heavily influenced by your experiences behind the decks? There’s a party spirit that shines through your productions – is this something you are always conscience of ?

M: No, definitely not always. Crafting a one-loop DJ tool can be as exciting as writing and arranging a song. If we try to plan what to do too much, it doesn’t work out that well. The secret is to preserve a certain naivety combined with enthusiasm.

You are known as avid crate diggers. Do you ever get protective about those gems you unearth?

M: Sometimes, but not really, you know. Plus no one stumbles into real gems that often, and that’s a necessary part of the magic.

H: I know if I find a real gem I am often a little reluctant to let it go.. haha!

You spend a lot of time in record stores and no doubt have a burgeoning collection. What do you think lies ahead for vinyl? There’s been a revival lately for sure, but will it last in say 20 years time?

M: Our collections aren’t that impressive yet, but we keep building… Right now, especially the younger DJs we meet tend to play all vinyl. Many people look at laptops all day, at work, while shopping – some of them don’t want to watch a dude with a Macbook when they go out to dance. If you’re 16, how many of your classmates have some sort of Traktor program at home? It feels random, and I don’t think that’s a revival issue.

I hear you have day jobs?

M: Yes, and it’s a good feeling to have them. The problem is that we have reached a point where it’s really hard to fit it all into seven days a week.

Have you got a favourite release of yours? And can you tell us what you like about it?

H: One of my favourite Session Victim tracks is ‘Time To Let You Down’. When I listen to it, it doesn’t feel like I was involved in making it. It’s like the song is detached from us and on its own now. I remember the time when we were jamming on this after a Delusions of Grandeur label night in Hamburg on a late Sunday afternoon. Suddenly the loops just came together and it was pure magic. These moments are the reason we are doing all this, you get addicted to it, but it gets harder to achieve this after every track…

Can you tell us a bit about your live set?

M: Well, we play with a computer, drum machine and bass. We try to be as live as we can with that setup; to be able to build up songs in different ways and react to each other, which can lead to quite chaotic situations sometimes, but we have great, thrilling moments with crowds when we’re playing – and that makes it all worth it.

Finally, what’s next in way of release?

H: We will contribute a track to an EP by our friends from Wolf Music and you can expect 12”s on Delusions of Grandeur and Retreat as well as some remixes.

The young Swede continued to confound expectations with a slew of distinctively nonconformist releases. His edit of Steve Reich’s ‘Nagoya Marimba’ saw him cut a dark bassline under Reich’s chirpy marimba melodies. He also released a 90’s throwback EP on Local Talk in late 2012 to much acclaim.

Tom Rae caught up with the up-and-coming house producer to discuss UK garage influences, the often hostile reactions to his Mariah Carey edit and why digital DJing isn’t such a bad thing after all…

Tom Rae: Hi HNNY, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. I wanted to start by asking about the sort of music you grew up on?

HNNY: Well I started making and listening to music a lot around the age of 12, so I started kind of early. Then I was really into hip-hop and then a few years later started listening to electronica, people like Four Tet and Manitoba – who is now Caribou and Daphni.

Those two in particular both focus on a certain ambient, atmospheric sound….

Yeah I suppose I didn’t really think about dance music in that way. I didn’t start going to clubs until I was 13 or 14, so I’d listen to electronica just for enjoyment at home, a lot of WARP records and stuff like that, but I didn’t know anything about genres. I mean, when I listen to some of those tracks now I hear 4×4 and house, but back then I’d just think ‘this is cool, this is funky’ and I liked it.

So on the hip hop side of things, were you listening to the US output or stuff coming out of Scandinavia?

There were actually a few Swedish bands, I think that was kind of the start, a few Swedish rappers .From that I moved on to American stuff, mostly the ‘nice’ hip hop: De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde… I wasn’t into ‘gangster rap’. I liked the smooth, nice music – but all sorts of genres.

Are there any old haunts you hung around back then?

Yeah one of the guys who owns Studio Barnhaus – the label I release on – was a manager at a club and it had this really cool name ‘Spy Bar’. He’d play techno and electro – that was about seven years ago. It was a little harder than it is now – but they still play house music.

I recently bought the 10” on Studio Barnhaus with your Maria Carey edit and it gets some mixed reviews, I love it but some people hate it…

Yeah that’s the whole thing! Everywhere I play it, there’s always someone who goes mad or just leaves… they ask whether I’m gay for playing it out … (laughs)… but you know it’s just nice that people have an opinion on it, that’s a good thing.

Was that release meant for club play or just a bit of fun?

It was the first one I did as HNNY so I just did the song very quickly, it was just an idea. I saw the video on MTV and heard that phrase and I don’t know why, but I just wanted to try to do something with it. I just played it myself for about a year – I’d either start or end my sets with it. And then somehow Kornel Kovacs [the Barnhaus owner] found it. I didn’t know him at the time, but he played it in almost every DJ set and one day my friends heard him playing it out and told Kornel: “that’s our friend HNNY’s song!” He said he’d been playing it for a good six months! He later emailed me and said: “I’ve played this so much, do you want to release it on vinyl?” So I was like “yeah!”

Just vinyl?

I think it’s mainly because of the sample, you know… plus they have this 10” coloured vinyl series so it worked well with that.

Do you shop for many records?

Well, when I DJ I only play CDs, so I buy records from time to time but I don’t buy dance music. I only buy other types of music on vinyl, mostly for some kind of sampling process. I just don’t really buy new 12”s.
We’ve seen a rise in vinyl sales in the scene over the past few years. With Local Talk are you releasing on both vinyl and digital?

Yeah with Local Talk we release on both, but at least for me there’s the whole copyright on vinyl: it’s easier for labels to see what goes on and what slips through the cracks.

Moving onto DJing, you’ve had a lot of bookings lately. In terms of preparing for a gig do you go with a preceded idea of what you want to do or…

I find new music of course but I don’t ever have anything planned. Five minutes before the set I’ll have a think about which song I’m going to open with, then I just go from there. If you play in a new city, you try a few different songs and gauge the reaction. I have friends who just bring two CDs and it’s all thought out, but for me it’s more fun to search through my case and stumble across something and think ‘I’ve got to play this!’

Do you think availability and easy access to music these days degrades the value of music?

From the DJ perspective I think it’s great to be able to have a huge array of music, plus you can now be sent tracks via email, or do small edits of songs for DJing purposes – but of course none of that can be done with vinyl. It makes things easier. But at the same time, there isn’t the magic that came with buying music 10 years ago – that’s sad – you know, you’d buy an album, go home, put it on and just look through the booklet and listen. That doesn’t happen a lot anymore – I think it has a lot to do with the easiness and the quantity – you want to listen to 500 songs rather than just one album.

When it comes to your own productions I can hear a lot of 90s UK garage influences. Do you draw any inspiration from any artists or DJs from that era?

I try not to be influenced by anything in particular when I produce. So I try to listen to something entirely different. If I put on a house mix and then start making music, I fear that my track will sound just like whatever I was just listening to.

I think a lot of my sounds come from stuff I listened to years ago… it just sits in the back of your head, you know? I listened to a lot of UK 2-step seven or eight years ago: Artful Dodger and all those smooth, RnB influenced artists. And I’m really inspired by Chicago house music as well as all the UK stuff.

Are you set to release on Local Talk again soon?

Yeah in a couple of weeks there’ll be a new track and a B-side – a DirtyTwo remix of ‘For The Very First Time’.

Your Steve Reich edit is really something. People who listen to your music may not know who Steve Reich is but…

He’s really one of my greatest idols… I saw him live once and I actually cried…

So I wanted to ask you, do you know the BBC?

Yeah sure.

Well they have  show called Desert Island Discs: people choose the records they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. Which three would you take?

Well I’d take a few different genres. A Bob Dylan album, definitely. Um, a Steve Reich box set – or is that cheating? And the Four Tet album ‘There Is Love In You’.

Some good choices. And when you’re DJing, if more people are heading for the door what record would you pull out of the bag to get people involved?

Well two records sort of stand out for me at the moment:

Genius of Time – Tuffa Trummor Med Synt

Nick Nikolov – Come Down

‘Come Down’ is a great house track that was released on Liebe Detail a German techno label and if you play it at the right time it just does the trick.

I heard you’re also releasing on Let’s Play House, when is that happening?

It’s all got to be finished… a few remixes we’re waiting on, so hopefully this summer. And then I’ve also got a track I played on the Beats in Space radio show called ‘Boy’ and that’s going to be out as a white label pretty soon.

Well thanks very much for your time, for any people wanting to catch you I know you’re playing your first UK gig next week at the Dance Tunnel?

Yeah it should be good fun!

Have a listen to HNNY’s recent Beats In Space mix here.

Pelski: What was it that first got you into electronic music? Any early experiences that stand out?