RECESSION VOL.1: MIXED BY OCTOBER (Caravan Recordings)

The global economy is pretty unwell. A quick glance at any of the national rags will tell you that we’ll all soon be boiling our worthless cash for food while our children will find themselves working 25 hour days to pay off a debt the size of Gordon Brown’s multiple chins.
With these tough times ahead, Caravan are hoping to capitalise on the malaise affecting us by bringing forth this economically sound collection of beats carefully mixed by Bristol based DJ, producer and part time machine perverter October (aka Julian Raymond Smith) to help us remember that when society gets stressed, music comes to the forefront, creativity leaps forward and Britain likes to party with both balls hanging out of its leotard.
Recession is shot through with October’s own organically glitchy tracks, and is a definite showcase though saved from disappearing into self service by solid selections by artists matching his earthy, yet machinistic sound.
The mix moves effortlessly from twirling, deeply unsettling industrial sounds and twisted laughter, stuttering kicks and lovemaking Tamagochi noises, through disturbingly groovy tech house courtesy of Jilt Van Moorst, and then onto more structured dancefloor fare taking in Etalon and minimal’s man of the moment Tim Green before being brought into a far breakier, more dub influenced territory with October showing us just how skilled he is at mutating a vibe while maintaining energy. His tracks I Have a Trick, Clutterbuck, and Control Room Interior fit together nicely and drag the second half of the mix down to a far deeper level than expected. Jilt Van Moorst gets another track with the trippy, growling Sublimination Ritual before October and his performance buddy Emptyset bring things to a menacingly perverse close.
Like a cross between Perc and Appleblim, this mix shows minimal influenced music moving up a notch on the foodchain, sounding more Lambeth than Leipzig, with broken, dubby beats floating all over the mix and buckets of reverb breaking up heavily sythesised lines and off key bleeps. Everything on this compilation is produced to the highest stardard and some of the techniques employed are so cutting edge the noises they generate are in danger of slicing the very air they travel through. The ideal soundtrack to lynch bank bosses to.

Words by Chris Lawes.