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

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.)

im still sort of unsure about BC. perhaps it is that bit too fluffy for me. they seem very now, but also out of kilter with everything else, at the same time

soopertrack i like, i always wondered when there would be a marco zaffarano revival;) gazebo is probably my favourite one though

pretty good (I'm talking about the dub version). Maybe not as immediate as the Black Strobe remix after one listen, but another interesting version of his wipe-out style (copyright T.Finney).

Do you have them?

what tracks do they have?

-- blunt

I like hearing his stuff that way a lot more than on record! Pretty OTM description though... it's not so fucked up though (imo) just not ball-achingly over-"beautiful".

Listening to a Holden essential mix now... is it Border Community's mission in life to deliberately wring the unfamiliar only from the utterly familiar & played out sounds of old?

Like how that Nathan Fake record kind of makes an IDM 101/Ulrich Schnauss record with an actual spine, handily cutting most of the crud off in the process?

And this Holden set is like... absolutely bog-standard fluffy prog house, or at least it WOULD be if the whole thing wasn't seemingly pitched down to the entirely wrong speed (Black Dog's "The End Of Time" in slo-mo), but stay with it and it starts to become... kind of interesting!

It felt like he had built a setup with improv/noise features which had him so fascinated that he didn't entirely master it or became too overwhelmed by its possibilities. Also, considering that variations in sound dynamics (beyond the constant, obvious tweaking) were few and far between overall, said possibilities weren't truly explored. It sounded more like "OK, there's this mode in which I can hold it together, let's not stray too far because this shit's messy enough as it is".

Also, losing track of time is what's called for in these proceedings but when a performer doesn't seem to realise he is doing it too, it veers towards self-indulgence.

wait - you can snort e?