RFI: Border Community - Nathan Fake, James Holden, The MFA, Petter etc.

boooring. wait, before i say that, do i have to read the previous 100 posts? if so, nevermind.

I much, much prefer (and like!) the more structured stuff 'Dinamo' 'Outhouse' etc to the foggy, gauzy, nu-trancey overload of a lot of the material. It's all very pleasant certainly but wow is it sugary. It feels a little regressive.

That said I dtill have James Holden & others to check out. I may well change my mind.

I didn't realise he owned this label actually.

That said I dtill have James Holden & others to check out. I may well change my mind. "

I think James Holden's recent stuff is really the core of the label and its future. The three key tracks for me would be his remixes of Nathan Fake, Andre Kraml and System 7 respectively (also Booka Shade's "Mandarine Girl" is probably the best fake Border Community track).

That's not to say there isn't some other awesome stuff not in this vein - e.g. both Petter's "Altogether" and the MFA remix of Dextro's "Do You Need Help" have this awesome brittle urgency matched with atmospheric eeriness that I love. But Holden's work from "A Break In The Clouds" onwards is what I think really defines the label and marks it out as something distinct and exciting.

http://www.progressive-sounds.com/artists/The-MFA/The-MFA-interview-1-2004.asp

"The first album I ever bought was The Prodigy Experience. I am definitely influenced by that early 90s rave and hardcore scene. I still like The Prodigy, Daft Punk and all sorts of drum n bass"

http://www.thescene.com.au/hype/2004_1_19_22.html

"I started out liking Jungle/DNB, I used to go the original Metalheadz nights at the old Blue Note to see Peshay, Goldie etc - and still do now to listen to Hype, Andy C etc."

Anyone got the Holden set live@sonar from this year? It starts off a bit poorly mixing wise and tunewise but it's brilliant by the end, too many tracks I need to ID in it though.

Yeah I didn't think you were being negative.

"I like the latest Holden, but I saw him playing two years ago and he was definetly progressive. Not progressive house, but sort of, erm, progressive-IDM ???"

I think he still is progressive - he's changed over the last two years and so has progressive - although we should acknowledge that compared to Border Community, Sander Kleinenberg and James Zabiela (the other erm standardbearers for the weirdification of prog) aren't particularly inspiring.

My point was more that the same record can now variously be classed as house, techno, electro, prog.... and yet with tracks like Holden's it's not a case of records being a greyscale krusty imitation gruel hodgepodge of the various micro-genres, but rather being so odd and intriguing that they can (and do) fall into several stylistic corners.

Alex Smoke is another producer which prog tries to claim as its own...

'the sky is pink' is probably one of the best things on the album, and i always think i'd much rather be listening to the james holden rmx instead.

it's all a bit too (sub-)boards of canada-ey for my liking, and too little of the dancefloor action.

Pheeeew, that's a relief.

I dunno, I'm hoping for some tech-MBV stuff like his live performances which are spellbounding (with that little stutterbox of his.)

Anyway, at this point I'm more interested in a Border Community label compilation than a single artist album.

Omar OTM re: label comp.

Yes Tim, I think it's better than the original, which for some reason I never could really get into. But yeah 'Outhouse' also is my favourite.

exactly as i would have guessed :(

nathan fake originals (like cis, i make an exception for 'dinamo' though i think i love the eulberg mix more) sound, in comparison to these remixes, kind of cheap. they remind me of that spectacularly mediocre m83 band who not coincidentally are also vastly improved when remixed.

http://www.bordercommunity.com/gallery.htm

Tracklisting:

CD1
Apparat - Wooden
Plastikman - Cor Ten
Massive Attack Vs Mad Professor - Trinity Dub (Three)
Kate Wax - Angel Blues
Death In Vegas - Anita Berber
Petter - Some Polyphony
Vox Sola - Metro Pop
Issikadis - Hotter Now (Stripped Down Mix)
Holden - Lump
Midimillz - Trace Function
Harmonia - Watussi
Holden - 10101
Skugge & Stavostrand - Medean
Nathan Fake - Charlie's House (Apparat Mix)
Lucky Pierre - Angels On Your Body
Christ - Perlandine Friday
Fennesz - Rivers Of Sand

CD2
meta.83 - Opening Titles
Paul Kalkbrenner - Gebrunn Gerbrunn
Motiivi:Tuntematon - 1939
Malcolm Middleton - Solemn Thirsty
Aphex Twin - Xtal
Milky Globe Vs Holden - Sun Spots
Kalabrese - Aufm Klo
Lazy Fat People - Big City
Water Lily - Lottotron Reboot
Trans Am - Cold War (War Is Stupid Mix)
Slag Boom Van Loon - Poppy Seed (Boards Of Canada Reprise)
Egoexpress - Live At Sirius Prime
Black Strobe - Nazi Trance Fuck Off! (Holden Mix)
Plastikman - Cor Ten
AFX - Every Day

yeah, that sucked. For a second though I thought it was Holden reading out a mission statement: "this mix is my gift to the world, let there be equality among men, let there be an unification of house, etc..etc..."

Lovely mix (although there is a live@Lausanne mp3 doing the rounds that i like even better.)