Episode 190: FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 150 BPM EXTRAVAJAMZA!!

Holy crow! This episode marks FIVE FULL FRIGGIN’ YEARS of me doing this show! I wasn’t quite sure what to do… in the past special episodes have generally been extra long. One anniversary episode was the first I recorded using Traktor instead of put together in Ableton (which is now my usual method). Another anniversary episode I broadcast live (which I never did again). This time, I decided I’d put together a playlist and let it be as long as it ended up being.

For a while now, I’ve been doing episodes around a tempo, highlighting how certain genres hew to certain BPM ranges. Techno is typically 130-150; NYC hip hop is 95; Dancehall and dembow are 100; disco is famously 120; House is 125; Berlin techno is 127; UK Garage is 138; Dubstep and grime are 140; Jungle and Footwork are 160; Drum’n’Bass is around 170, Autonomic at 171, Neurofunk at 175… etc. and etc.

There is a gap between 150 and 160. It’s a gap into which fall various experiments and generic orphans. I steer clear of that tempo, because in the past whenever I’ve tried to do a 150 episode it’s turned out too weird and dark and unsettling. So in the years and months since, I’ve been collecting quite the backlog of 150 BPM tunes, some of them quite great and sadly left homeless.

So, five times ten is fifty, I figured this was a chance to play some of these tunes. Here they are. It’s eclectic, it gets weird, it gets dark, it goes 20 minutes long… but I think it works pretty nicely…

• CHAI – GREAT JOB [PUNK]
• Objekt – Ratchet [Flatland]
• Sully – We’re Here [Gradients]
• Clap! Clap! – Biafra [4 Years]
• Darren Keen – Big Chords [Total Nerves On Absolute Maximum]
• Machinedrum – Gbye [Room(s)]
• Daniel Avery – Under The Tallest Arch [Song For Alpha – B-Sides & Remixes]
• Acid Arab – Rimitti Dor (feat. Sofiane Saidi) [Jdid]
• Rational Youth – City of Night (Extended Version) [Cold War Night Life (Deluxe)]
• Abyss X – Summon [Nüshu]
• Chloé – Dune [Endless Revisions]
• J-E-T-S – FIRE FLY [ZOOSPA]
• Blackpocket – Footsteps [‘ALAYLY’ LP]
• Jessy Lanza – Ice Creamy [All The Time]
• Equiknoxx – Kareece Put Some Thread In A Zip Lock [Colón Man]
• LSO – TANGO LSO (B.YHZZ edit) [INTRUDER ALERT PACK]
• Pip Blom – Don’t Make It Difficult [Boat]
• SWAN MEAT – PUPPYBREATH [TAME – REMIXED]
• Hanz – Page [Plasty I]
• Air Max ’97 – Mirrored Gate [Nacre]
• Flying Lotus – All Spies [Flamagra]
• Ink & Perpetuum – Enterlude [Hard Soul Vol. 1]
• Plaid – Nurula [Polymer]
• ARIANA GRANDE – LET ME LUV U (AM’97 LIQUID DNG EDIT) [LMLU]
• Georgia – Never Let You Go [Seeking Thrills]
• Yazzus – The Genesis of RAVEVANGELION [THE ANIME PACK]
• Angelique Kidjo – The Great Curve [Remain In Light]
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – She’s There [Sideways to New Italy]
• Imperial Teen – I Think That’s Everything [Now We Are Timeless]

BPM: 150