Dummy Mix 08 // Skull Juice

Alex Egan and Benedict Bull are amiable fellas. Despite nearly getting arrested at Stoke Newington station on our photoshoot (“We’re not really fare dodgers, officer.”), the Skull Juice duo come good with this brand spanking new mix. Having been London clubscene favourites and seriously on-it remixers (Late Of The Pier, Dance Area) for the last couple of years, the self-confessed slowcoaches are finally teasing us with a debut 12”. Coming soon, apparently. We can’t wait. For now, they dish the dirt on a whole heap of hot’n‘heavy dancefloor stuff. They really know their shit.

Tell us about your mix. What will it do to our heads?

Ben: Assplode them.

Alex: Hopefully it will give them a nice warm fuzzy feeling. It’s a mix in two halves. Ben did the first half, I did the second. Some old tracks, some new.

What new music is currently getting you excited?

Ben: Hmm, there’s a lot at the moment. In terms of clubby stuff, I really like Alan 1, he’s done a couple of 12”s that have been amazing. And I love the Black Meteoric Star stuff. All the revival old school house around at the moment is amazing: Neville Watson, Snuff Crew. I like a lot of the irritatingly named, hyped-up musical sub-genres around at the moment too: Funky, Wonky etc. Zomby has been consistently amazing for ages. That goes for Joker and Guido too. I’m also really feeling the slower stuff at the moment. Dam Funk is the man. I just got a 7” he’s done under the name Wavelength that is incredible. Actress is great too; I love his Thriller (Werk Discs imprint) stuff especially. It’s not new but I reckon boogie is going to be the new disco; everything’s just going to get sexier.

Alex: I really like the new Joakim album ‘Milky Ways’. The Siriusmo ‘Uninvited Guest’ EP is amazing (of course). Then there’s Bibio’s album on Warp, the recent DJ Koze 12” (especially ‘Dr. Fuck’), DyE’s ‘Imperator EP’ on Tigersushi, and Altair Nouveau’s ‘Space Fortress’ 12” and Serge Santiago’s remix of Shit Robot, both on DFA.

You’re very busy chaps by all accords – what’s keeping you out of (or in) trouble at the moment?

Ben: High Horse is probably or biggest trouble maker at the moment, the night we do at the T-Bar with Casper C and Matt Walsh. It’s three Fridays a month and a chance for us to play music that we don’t really play as Skull Juice, mainly deep house, techno, deep techno and tech-house. So it’s really across the board musically, yeah. But seriously, we love house and techno and it’s great to be able to play to a crowd who really love it too. Plus we get to book great guests. We had Twitch from Optimo recently which was fantastic. We’ve got Fredski, Tama Sumo and more coming up.

Alex: It’s fairly different to Blogger’s Delight obviously, which is still a kind of fun house party. It’s great though, and means playing lots of different kinds of records between the two nights. We also recently brought our own night, Walk The Night, back from the grave for a one-off party at this amazing little Japanese basement club called Life which was fun.

So tell us about the first Skull Juice 12”…

Alex: It’s still early days really. We have a few tracks in the works, but the aim is fairly simple, we’re working on a two track 12” for the club. We’ve been testing one of the tracks out when we play, and it seems to have the desired effect: dancing. That’s reassuring!

Ben: One’s a sort of epic peak time monster, so to speak, and the other is a dark funky dance floor mover. Hopefully you can look forward to losing yourself to their beats amidst the smoke and flashing lights of a heaving dance floor as we bestride the decks like the drunken dancing colossuses we (imagine) we are.

When is it out and where can we get our hands on it?

Alex: If it’s like anything else we do, not for a while yet! Together, we’re not the fastest of workers, basically because we rarely have time to work on things at the same time. We’ve had to rush a few things in the past and regretted it, so we want to make sure we’re really happy with this one.

What else have you got up your sleeves this summer?

Alex: As Skull Juice, apart from the 12”, more remixes. We’ve just finished a remix of ’15 to 20’ by The Phenomenal Handclap Band, which we were really happy to have been asked to do. We both love the original track, it’s insanely catchy. We’re also eager to get more mixes out there – on our Skull Juice podcast but also CDs too. Ben’s made a few more edits recently which we’ve been playing out a fair bit and they work really well. I’ve also completed a few remixes on my own, and have a few more plus an EP on the way, all under another name.

And what do you think Dummy’s special skills are? (See Skull Juice’s myspace for theirs.)

Child Pacification +3
Sitting In The Corner +1
Strong against Magic & Poison attacks
Weak against Ice attacks

That’s us told.

Tracklisting

O.R.S. (Orlando Riva Sound) Zen [Ariola]
Jamie Jones Galactic Space Bar (feat. Egyptian Lover) [Crosstown Rebels]
Nicolas Will Air Raid [Comfortable]
Sticky People Party Time (Dub) [Basement Boys]
Kink & Neville Watson Blueprint [Rush Hour]
Chapter 1 Dirtabase [Strictly Rhythm]
George Issakidis & Speedy J Sculpture Hands (Tool 1) [Electric Deluxe]
Alan1 Dunkin’ Doner [Final Frontier]
Black Meteoric Star Death Tunnel [DFA]
Miami Boyz Ready To Go (Dance) (Blade Runner Prod. Mix) [On Top Records]
Snuff Crew Your Soul [Soul Shift]
Mano Le Tough Warhorn [Internasjonal]
Zombie Nation Mystery Meat Affair (Shadow Dancer Remix) [Turbo] James Pants Cosmic Rapp (Egyptian Lover Remix) [Stones Throw]
The Units High Pressure Days (Rory Phillips Remix) [Relish]
Grauzone Eisbar (Choreo’s Re-Polar Edit) [CDR]
Rogue Cat Magic Journey (Todd Terje Remix) [Tiny Sticks]
The Shortwave Set Now Til ’69 (Aeroplane Remix) [PIAS]
Joakim Nebula Laughter [Versatile]