April Dispatch \ Off Modern mix

Hello all, and thank you for tuning into another edition of our Dispatch Monthly mixes for the superb Dummy.

My name is Johnny and I make up one fifth of Off Modern collective, for those who don’t know we’ve been running monthly events out of Corsica Studios in Elephant & Castle for about three years now. As well as the club we also try our hand at doing other bits and bobs such as putting out our relatively infrequent journal.

As I reflect on the month past and assemble songs to adequately fit the mood I can’t help but feel a sense of deep-rooted hatred towards all the people (and friends) who have spent the last week in Austin, Texas. My own personal involvement with South By Southwest Festival this year was unforgettable, just like the last. Special thank you to my boss who didn’t buy me a ticket, but was kind enough to let me trawl through the countless number of amazing bands playing this year and let me pick out all the ones I thought he should go and see. Even attempting to construct an ironic recommended list was near impossible.

Anyway, glad that this part of the year is over, us impoverished and pale music lovers can all finally emerge out of the darkened corners of our bedrooms and look forward to the first glimpse of the sun and all the English festivals that we can attempt to jump the fence too. Before I get into the bit where I start rambling about all the amazing artists that are in this months mix let me first make a completely unrelated salute to all the self-service supermarket checkouts across the UK, especially to those at Morrison’s in Peckham – without their existence I would have had to continue paying full price for pot noodles and donuts, items which have kept me going throughout the immensely difficult task of compiling this mix. If you haven’t yet mastered the art ‘reduced sticker’ thievery, I recommend you learn.

Now to pick out a few personal favorites. Number one comes from Top Nice resident Paul B Davis (aka Brains), the master of all things socca and creator of ‘synthy hip-hop for weirdo’s’ as he calls it. We’ve been lucky enough to have Paul down to Off Modern twice now, and both times he’s effortlessly scooped up the cheesy mess the DJ prior to him had left behind. If you haven’t yet managed to catch him DJ I advise you hunt him down. Secondly, new producer Umaja [no website, sorry] drops an exclusive with the spanking Hanover Grand, perfectly bouncing between UK funky, a bit of Todd Edwards and some Detroit techno. Lois Enchante, another Top Nice representative [without a website] kindly dropped me a sample of the new sounds to expect on his forthcoming release with Greco Roman. Bubbly, Zomby-esque sounds with moments of pure joy. I also couldn’t resist dropping in a crate digging trophy of mine, which I managed to pick up for a mere quid at Soho music exchange recently, a bashment rework of N.O.R.E’s huge house party track Nothin’ including vocal from Elephant Man.

Last but not least, to bring the heat back, Vermont’s own King Tuff and their track Sun Medallion. Apologies if the Westwood samples get a bit much…

Tracklist

1. Brains Who Run It
2. Umaja Hanover Grand
3. DJ DEEON Let Me Bang (Jam City refix)
4. XXXY You Always Start It
5. Hackman Always
6. Lois Enchante Reggay
7. Jessie Ware Nervous
8. Dark Sky Promiscuous Girl
9. Elephant Man Lock Off
10. King Tuff Sun Medallion