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

I'm not sure if it's an actual live set or them DJing, it sounds very pristine for a live set though all the tracks do sound like MFA productions and pristine is sort of their style I guess.

Needless to say it is great, like completely electronic deep house or something, with a good quick tempo, which gives it that really clubby deep house feel, a bit like "Mushrooms" by Marshall Jefferson but alot more of an electronics only feel to it.

the remix of Ellen Allien is amazing.

my first exposure to fake/holden was at razzmatazz in barcelona last month, and even though i didn't see their entire sets, they still felt like total highlights. despite that, i kept forgetting to investigate;
tonite is the first night i've checked out any border community stuff at all. anyway, i've been sitting here for the last two hours, headphones on, totally spellbound. the james holden remix of "the sky was pink" is sublime -- i can't remember the last time i had this strong an emotional response to a 4/4 track. i'm currently about 9/10ths of the way through "balance" and its just been one frozen chill after another. this is wonderful, wonderful stuff.

MFA - The Difference It Makes (Superpitcher Mix)
Dextro - Do You Need Help? (MFA Mix)
Petter - Altogether
Holden - A Break in the Clouds
Nathan Fake - Dinamo
Andre Kraml - Safari (Holden Mix)

does anyone know if the icelandic version is a proper remix or just like a homage? first thing it reminded me of was mum.

Ha! Saw Nathan Fake play a liveset last sunday (after Michael Mayer) and he indeed started out with a blissfull storm of MBV style noise. The great thing: somehow there was a implied beat in there...oh boy when it materialized. :) I had to leave after a while (I saw Tiefschwarz the night before -out of this world btw- so I was a bit tired) As a result I missed James Holden. But now I'm obsessed by this bunch.

And then "Panoramic" sounds like the Mayer "Happiness" mix, right down to the same vaguely malevolent glower.

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/3voor12/festivals/media/index.jsp?event=22956363&episode=23221079

Mayer/Nathan Fake/James Holden sets available here:

http://3voor12.vpro.nl/3voor12/festivals/media/index.jsp?event=22956363&episode=23225470

But yeah some added love for 'Manderine Girl'.
Goes nice with that Holden remix of 'Safari' doesn't it? (as M.A.N.D.Y. proved...that 'Safari' remix is so...woozy? Can't imagine actually dancing to it, just sort of sway and make funny faces.)

Will Holden ever be able to live down his Nathan Fake Remix? The track already has an almost legendary status.

"Will Holden ever be able to live down his Nathan Fake Remix? The track already has an almost legendary status. "

It's interesting how it's this track that has put Holden over the edge for a particular crowd (the one that's come to all of this stuff via German/electro-house), whereas all the prog fans seem to imply he's yet to top "Horizons", which i don't think I've even heard. I think my first love will always be "A Break In The Clouds".

Also interesting is how malleable discussions of influences and sonic signifiers can be - whereas it would seem obvious to "us" that Border Community is part of the German/electro/micro house interzone (albeit a proggy end of it), the prog fans talk about it in entirely different terms, as if this is a form of experimentalism entirely internal to prog, which can be explained immanently or, if one needs to look outside, by reference to rock music (how long before Holden does a Back To Mine??? I see Adam Freeland's just done one). Do these people just ignore things like Fake's Traum release? Or do they see all that stuff as a moment internal to prog as well? I noticed that in the interview upthread that Holden describes Michael Mayer as being basically a very good mid-90s UK prog house revivalist, which of course rings true in many senses but I wondered to what extent Holden was trying to speak the lingo as such.

That interview article also puts Holden in the same boat as James Zabiela - is this accurate? I always thought Zabiela was just Sasha - The Next Generation, or at least that's the impression one gets from looking at his Global Underground or Renaissance comp tracklists. (BTW I listened to Involver in store and it sounded really disappointing - why get all these great distinct tracks and then mix them as if they were all one bleary stompy prog workout???)

Zabiela and Sasha are followers I think, though Zabiela is even more preoccupied with crap breakbeat.

Maybe I'm just resistant to what Sasha does to those particular tunes. I think I'm so used to the Mayer approach to DJing with this sort of stuff, letting the tracks really emerge as songs and having their own distinct identity. The blurring together that Sasha does is annoying in that context, whereas I'd probably be fine with it if he were playing honest to goodness prog.

prog trance producer/dj with idm pretensions and wide knowledge of currently-fashionable tech-house? yes, that's accurate.

yeah none of it is that involved or exciting for most people that use max or equivalent systems/approaches.

to be fair to him though, he never makes out the process to be as if it's a big crazy cutting edge autechre/william fields type thing. more that he's into building systems according to his tastes and trying to make it fun for himself to make music. basically: to be able kosmischely-noodle on one's own.

i read the interview after listening to the album and i kind of assumed it was a curated collection of live jams like the animal spirits record ie. not knowing all the traditional instruments (sax, piano, violin) were just self-overdubs. which probably counts as a big success and proof-of-concept for him.

i am surprised by imago liking thing though! cause what makes me not fully connect with james holden (and luke abbott) - despite generally liking the surface aesthetics and all the interviews etc. - is that i just get bored musically of the majority of their stuff being a single pattern and the track "just" being riding timbral variations, inversions and the arpeggiators-upon-arpeggiators. the same build it-up-and-then-break-it-down structure... obviously that's very much what their whole thing is though!

i do really like "contains multitudes" on here though which does shift a lot more even if it a single progression as well, it just seems a lot more dynamic. i like the almost-rave-stab-pattern stuff (there was some of that on the last nathan fake album too). also the most surprising part of the album for me is on that track - when that portentous piano line comes in.

Agreed I wouldn't have thought there would be enough chord changes for imago (he even says in the interview he hates bridges and loves staying in one harmonic place)

yeah it's totally my issue, just different tastes and wanting music to do different things. i would love to hear a JH or LA track that's *just* bridges!

to be clear: i don't want to cast shade on anyone being super into this! i was just a bit surprised reading this thread after listening and seeing who was singing its praises.

also don't want to sound like a know-it-all in regard to JH's set-up. just more that, if you're totally unfamiliar with that kind of world, the kind of things he is doing are pretty par-for-the-course. not that it really matters or makes them any less valid...

Love this album, but I was also a bit surprised that it's a lot more of a traditional techno record than I had anticipated (maybe feeds into linee's point about it not feeling like an imago record, though I wouldn't have thought that without linee's comment and explanation).

It reminds me of a lot of Lindstrom's Smallhans but with a broader and denser sound palette.

while my first love is indeed melodic development, textural development and the Swelling Sonic Array is a close second. this sounds so lush and adventurous, it is absolutely the sort of exuberant fantasy he describes and I'm way into that

The other album it reminds me of a bit (though not necessarily in strict stylistic terms) is the Khidja & Balabas album - reproducing the density and depth and atmosphere of Monolake's "Lantau" and "Macau" but in a less minimalist context.

*writing emoji*

I need to hear more Lindstrom, ty for the heads-up. Regard WYGIGT as a towering masterpiece but strangely haven't explored more!

The other album it reminds me of a bit (though not necessarily in strict stylistic terms) is the Khidja & Balabas album - reproducing the density and depth and atmosphere of Monolake's "Lantau" and "Macau" but in a less minimalist context.

when Tim mentions an album offhand and you know, not even having heard it yet, that you'll be playing it all summer

lol yeah the K&B is so good

Would be in my top ten "underrated to the point of being unheard of" albums of the past 5 years or so

not familiar. I see a few EPs on bandcamp and will check them out. What is the album?

https://khidja.bandcamp.com/album/khidja-si-balabas

oh yeah I saw that. thought that was an ep and there was some other LP being referred to. Will def listen.

I am unsure what I think of this new James Holden thus far. I was really excited for it but it hasn't quite connected. I adored the Animal Spirits and have played it loads over several years, probably more than The Inheritors which was a big favourite when it came out. My (very minor) antipathy might be contextual - I've been getting over jetlag since I got it on Friday and every time I try and sit down and listen to it on the big stereo I get interrupted or I'm knackered, so it's mostly been ambient music while I've been wfh Monday and today. I think I was expecting more from it in terms of drums and rhythms; it's very vaporous.

Headphones and sunshine turn this into a completely different record for me.

I dig it. Lots of feeling and color and grooves. It's floating and cosmic but a nice kind of busy and the live feel is distinct. Obviously I'm here for any long-form electronic albums with spiritual ethno and jazz touches.

second listen, this time on headphones, def more interesting.

it's deffo a fantastic headphone listen. great for long walks and late night drives (the latter i can only imagine as i don't drive). i love the cheap drum machines and lo fi beats; refreshing in this era of over produced drum beats.

playing live early eveining this sunday in a park in Glasgow. can't wait!

It's a sunshine and sunset record!

the thing about mic'ing speakers...makes so much sense. No amount of lo-fi plug-ins and/or digital reverb is going to create that kind of space.

Had it on outside in the sunshine by a fire this afternoon, so good I played it twice

I have basically had this on repeat for the last month, occasionally flitting back to the last Daniel Avery record. Now the sun is properly out and it's warmer, it makes so much sense. It also makes a great soundtrack to swooping between sky islands in the new Zelda game (while the Daniel Avry works well for exploring subterranian landscapes in same).