And just this morning, I received this rather amazing little video courtesy of online mag Sinning In LA. It’s a video of ill.Gates playing his remix of ‘Fake Heads’ live at the War Of The Roses in Downtown LA last week. The video is below and you can read the full article here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

AMAZEBALLS.

This month we’re headed Stateside to catch up with San Francisco-based DJ, promoter, blogger and all-round musical oracle Kid Kameleon. As well as organising the notorious Surya Dub Club night, Kid Kameleon has also shared stages with the likes of Flying Lotus, Kode9, and Drop The Lime – while still (somehow) finding time to write for XLR8R magazine and run a highly-regarded blog. Check out Kid Kameleon online at KidKameleon.com.

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Intro: Fulgeance – Ann Arbor (Jimmy Edgar Remix)

01. Paul White – Surfing Off The Coast Of Mexico
02. Paul White – Alien Nature (Extended Version)
03. Bullion – Let’s Go Away For Awhile
04. Bullion – Say Goodbye to What
05. Bullion – Rude Effort
06. Paul White – Hustle (Bullion Remix)
07. Airhead – Pembroke
08. Jamie Vex’d – In System Travel
09. Crystal Castles – Courtship Dating (Low Limit Remix)
10. Ernest Gonzales – I’m Here You’re There (Mexicans with Guns Remix)
11. Illum Sphere – Shadowman
12. Illum Sphere – Psycho (Samiyam Remix)
13. Flying Lotus – Parisian Goldfish (Take Remix)
14. Mike Slott – Home
15. Lone – Sungrazer Cascade
16. Clause Four – Bradford
17. Beatbully – Rek Johnny Rek
18. Architeq – Twilight

Outro: MillionYoung – Mien

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This month we’re all about Ikonika, the London-based post-dubstep producer tipped for big things in 2010. With a number of outstanding releases already under her belt, Ikonika is gearing up for the release of her debut album ‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’, dropping April 6th on the legendary Hyperdub Records. And be sure to stay tuned to the end of the podcast to hear an exclusive remix of N.A.S.A’s ‘Gifted’ by Made In Glitch’s own MattB, available now to download (for free!) at the Made In Glitch SoundCloud page.

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Intro: Floating Points – Truly

Optimum – Lily
Ikonika – Shouldn’t Be Here
Zomby – Stargate
Mosca – Nike (Club Edit)
Martyn – Friedrichstrasse
Geiom – Sugar Coated Lover
TRG – Groove Control
Ikonika – They Are All Losing The War
Girl Unit – I.R.L.
Joy Orbison – GR Etiquette
Ikonika – Psoriasis
Jam City – Let Me Bang
Ikonika & Optimum – Buzz

Outro: Mount Kimbie – Sketches On Glass/N.A.S.A. – Gifted (MattB Remix)

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It’s 2010 and the Made In Glitch Podcast is back with a head-nod-tastic blend of backpacker beats and bass-heavy bangers from rising star of the French electronic scene, Ficus. You may also know Ficus as half of the Strasbourg-based dubstep duo Caterva or from his monthly online radio show Ficus Fresh Beats.

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Intro: Rustie – Inside Pikachu’s Cunt

Fratello Beatz – Ballin’ In The 5.4 feat. Rachid Wallas
Dan Matic – Fargone
Lilea – Narrative – Cut Vice
Flying Lotus – Don King Instrumental
Prince Zimboo – Santa Flaws!
6th Sense – Wherever You Are, There U Go
Take – Self Awakening
Knowsleep – Killa Tune
Manndibull – Denia’z Funk
CLP – Designer (Lazer Sword Remix)
Chris Craft – Hooks Is Extra feat. MF Doom

Outro – The XX – Islands (Nosaj Thing Remix)

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Anyway, this year I thought I’d whack the playlist up on this blog; all of my choices are below in the order that they appear on the CD (with the exception of ‘Funky Flex’ by Lil’ Silva which isn’t on YouTube). Enjoy (and feel free to post comments/criticisms or indeed your own end of year lists in the comments):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5y3M5mgmA

Darkstar -- Aidy’s Girl’s A Computer
Hyperdub celebrated their fifth anniversary in 2009, marking the milestone with the (excellent) compilation 5. It’s hard to pick a standout from that 2xCD set but certainly one of the more unusual selections is this oddball 8-bit torch song from Darkstar. Fragments of vocodered speech drift over a delightfully naive mariba-led melody, while every so often the song itself seems to fall apart, seemingly overpowered by the ‘Loading’ sound from an old Commodore64 game. Lovely stuff altogether.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcO4DUSUWcA

The Golden Filter -- Solid Gold

No one could accuse The Golden Filter of being overly adventurous with their sound: the chunky drums, the spiraling analogue arpeggios, the airy female vocals -- it’s all been done before, of course. It’s just this pair do it so very well. The chorus is catchy as hell and the (live sounding) drums inject a sense of urgency to a rhythm track that could have easily come over stiff and robotic. Gorgeous golden-hued video there as well.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLoF7K2UWcQ

Starkey -- Miracles (Jamie Vex’D Remix)

‘Emotional’ is not a word one would usually associate with dubstep music, which is what makes Jamie Vex’D’s soulful reimagining of Starkey’s ‘Miracles’ all the more startling. Stripping the original down to just it’s pitchshifted vocal sample, Vex’d sets about filling the space with all manner of atmospheric whirs and growls, skeletal synth melodies and distorted bass. Epic stuff.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eje6rIn-sZ0

Lil’ Silva -- Funky Flex

Well, this track’s not on YouTube unfortunately, so I’ve posted the A-side of the release, ‘Seasons’. Not that ‘Seasons’ is a bad tune -- like ‘Funky Flex’ it walks a fine line between irresistably catchy and intensely annoying. Oddly reminiscent of Mr. Oizo’s ‘Flatbeat’, ‘Funky Flex’ sports a ringtone-like bleeping melody, booming sub bass, and a nice line in Latin percussion. Good luck trying to track it down though.

myspace | currently unavailable

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8_tyOPyf8

Hudson Mohawke -- Overnight

What to say about this track? I’ve been playing it more or less non-stop since it was (officially) released back in January 2009. The joyous brass stabs and tumbling drumline, topped off with a naggingly catchy wordless vocal hook -- the level of sonic detail in this (very short) song is simply breathtaking. Still, it’s a shame it sounds like he forgot to finish it!

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bIR_YmiuVw

Joker & Ginz -- Purple City

Arguably the producer of the year here, Joker has been credited with breathing new life into dubstep in 2009, introducing a welcome dash of neon-tinged George Clinton-esque synth-funk to what can sometimes be a depressingly grey sound palette. With so many outstanding productions to his name, it’s tough to choose just one but ‘Purple City’, a co-write with Ginz*, is probably my favourite. Heavy, yet melodic, slow, but danceable -- in many ways it’s the quintessential Joker track -- and not forgetting that lead synth melody. How could you? Once that’s burrowed it’s way into deep your brain it’s not going anywhere soon.

*Poor Ginz! Nobody ever mentions him. Check out his MySpace, he’s a funny chap.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=05DZRQJFaug

Nosaj Thing -- Light 2

Something a bit moodier now -- Nosaj Thing’s dark, futuristic vision of hip hop. Metallic arpeggiatted synths swirl around an achingly beautiful central melody, while the lazer-heavy beat holds the whole thing together; easily the standout track from a very strong album.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-uifJJcnCw

The Juan MacLean -- One Day

2009 has been a fairly low-key year for DFA: the next LCD Soundsystem album isn’t expected until mid 2010 and despite a mildly diverting record from YACHT, there hasn’t been much in the way of their trademark take on glitzy New York disco.  All the more opportunity then to focus on The Juan MacLean who delivered their sophomore album The Future Will Come in April. It’s an album that sees MacLean and singer Nancy Whang moving away from the expansive space disco epics (they’re still there, don’t worry -- ‘Happy House‘ is twelve and a half minutes of sheer bliss) and towards more concise, tightly structured bursts of Human League-alike synthpop. The best example of this is ‘One Day’, a track that, with it’s disco strings, piano stabs and call and response vocals already sounds like a classic. And how many songs can you name that feature the word ‘beleagured’?

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ffPVq4aUU

2000F & J Kamata -- You Don’t Know What Love Is

Another track deserving of the tag of ‘instant classic’ (a phrase, incidentally, that I hate but for which I can’t think of a better alternative), ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ takes Joker’s brand of bass-heavy P-funk and runs with it, fashioning a smooth, stylish, and strangely sexy, digital slow jam. It’s a beautiful piece of work -- the talkbox vocals, though largely indecipherable, have a sense of yearning to them that’s as affecting as anything on, say, George Benson’s Erotic Moods or even Prince at his most sensual. Definitely music for… well… you know.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fidtM1Sflno

Ghost -- The Club

Cheating a bit here as this older track comes from the (excellent) Blackdown-curated retrospective of El-B’s work, The Roots Of El-B. I’ve always loved 2-step garage and El-B is the undisputed master of the form. This track is pure fun from start to finish.

myspace | currently unavailable

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AnyCPvYg9s

Instra:Mental -- Watching You (Original Mix)

Traveling around Asia for six months I didn’t get to hear much in the way of new music but one release I stumbled across a few weeks ago was this one from Instra:Mental. As you may have gathered already I have a bit of a thing for robot love songs and ‘Watching You’ is definitely right up my street. The cold, clinical sounding beats contrast nicely with the warm, and oddly wounded, timbre of the vocals. One to watch for the coming year.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxbyBz-342E

Marek Hemmann -- Gemini

Hemmann’s had a lot of nice tunes this year -- most on the excellent Freude Am Tanzen label -- but the standout for me is ‘Gemini’. Mixing acoustic elements with electronics is always a dicey proposition -- particularly something as resolutely earthy sounding as a flippin’ saxophone sample -- but Hemmann executes it beautifully. By the time the Todd Edwards-esque vocal cut-ups arrive in the final three minutes, I gaurantee you’ll already be dancing -- or at the very least engaged in some sort of toe-tapping, head-nodding, subvocal humming equivalent therof.  Plus it’s more than a little reminiscent of this -- one of the best tracks (and videos) of all time.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCAs20c1e6M

DZ -- Right About Now Sounds

A straight-up, wobble-bottomed banger now. I featured DZ’S ‘Fireman‘ in my last podcast and was tempted to include it again here but the B-side ‘Right About Now Sounds’ just managed to nudge its way in at the last minute. Unsubtle it may be, but it’s catchier than swine flu and the rolling piano loop is a nice counterpoint to the juddering beats and basslines.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsJVW5apRmY

Joy Orbison -- Hyph Mngo

For once the hype was justifed as Joy Orbison’s ‘Hyph Mngo’ really did mark the arrival of a major new talent. Blending a superattenuated Janet Jackson vocal sample and an unashamedly euphoric keyboard pad sounds like a recipe for disaster but the incessant, trance-like repetition and jerky rhythms are almost impossible to resist. The track never really ‘takes off’ in the way we might be conditioned to expect -- not even when the slippery synth lines fade into view -- but it’s ‘Hyph Mngo’s (still no clue how to actually pronouce that title, by the way) restraint that really set it out as something different.

myspace | buy on itunes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq5GdutCRo8

La Roux -- In For The Kill (Skream Remix)

Tune. Of. The. Year.

I mean, this is the one, isn’t it? Ellie Jackson’s wailing vocals may not be to everyone’s taste -- her first release on Kitsune back in 2008 sounded horribly tinny and treble-heavy to my ears -- but she’s matured into (after Lady GaGa) one of the most artistically promising pop stars of the new decade. (Sorry Little Boots. Things were looking good there for a while but I’m sure we can both agree it just hasn’t been working for a long time now. Frankly, I think we should see other people). La Roux’s album, though patchy in places, was an unusually strong debut and each of her brilliant singles heralded a boatload of remixes, from the likes of Nero, Midfield General, Foamo, TEPR, Jackbeats, and Slugabed to name but a few. Perhaps the tune most fiddled with however was ‘In For The Kill’, yielding this mix here -- arguably Skreams best work in years. Stripping everything down to an eerie, high-pitched E-Bow-like synth line and ominous slabs of rumbling bass, this remix is a daring exercise in minimalist atmospherics… until of course <spoiler alert!> you reach the (by now, notorious) twist in the tail. Genuinely, the first time I heard this track played out I squealed with joy at this unexpected (and thrilling) coda -- I distinctly remember on another occasion falling over dancing at this point. Yes, it fades all too soon but that’s simply all the more reason to go back and play it again. Simply put, if there was a better tune this year, then (somehow) I didn’t hear it.

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… aaaand that’s the lot. Honourable mentions go to Major Lazer, Simian Mobile Disco, Akira Kiteshi, Grizzly Bear and plenty of others but I’m simply too tired to type any more.

‘Til next year, kids!

In this episode we’re taking a one-way trip inside the demented mind of Made In Glitch cohort, BETAMAXNOMATES (that’d be me, obviously). Indie-pop, dubstep, glitchy hip hop, techno, chiptunes, UK garage, and a healthy smattering of old skool breakbeat rave – it really shouldn’t work, but it does. Look out for forthcoming releases from BETAMAXNOMATES on Made In Glitch Records.

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In this episode we’ve got a glitch-nasty, bass-heavy monster of a mix from up-and-coming London producer MusSck. Keep your eyes on the Made In Glitch website for all the details of MusSck ’s forthcoming release on Made In Glitch Records!

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If I understand the brief correctly I shall be playing before, during and indeed after the ‘battle’ proper. So it’s essentially an extended BETAMAXNOMATES set interrupted by some bouts of laptop-based lunges, parrys and reprisals. The spectacle of Laptop Battle truly is something to behold; every Laptop Battle (and I’ve attended three – twice as a competitor) throws up some genuine eccentrics, the occasional shit-hot talent, and perhaps one or two out-and-out chancers. (Which bracket you might choose to put me in I’ll leave to your own discretion). Suffice to say, there’s not another event like it that I can think of and if you do find yourself in Roppongi of a Friday evening there are far, far worse ways of spending your time.

See you there!

website | myspace |mixi

Podcast time once more! In this episode we’ve got the lowdown on the Tokyo Laptop Battle – an innovative new electronic music event happening Friday June 19th in Super Deluxe in Nishi-Azabu. There’s an interview with the organisers, Matt and Claudius, not to mention a unique ‘ethniglitch’ mix from Matt’s alter ego Control Freak. Be sure to check out Control Freak’s free ‘Desert Fox’ EP, available now from Heavy7Productions.

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Tracklist
01. Shackleton – I Want To Eat You
02. Azam Ali – La Serena
03. Control Freak – Drop Your Guns
04. Cheb I Sabbah – Alkher Illa Doffor (Bassnectar Remix)
05. Control Freak – Forty Breaths
06. Chase & Status – Eastern Jam
07. Control Freak – Doub Taka Dub
08. King Soly – Tamil Dub
09. Maurice Jarre – Lawrence Of Arabia Movie Soundtrack Main Theme

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