Episode 193: Baby I Don’t Know

post-vote limbo groove

Well, this episode aired on Wednesday after the 2020 election, which already feels like it was a month ago. As the title suggests, we really didn’t know what was going on. The whole week was just being in limbo.

I put the playlist together and mixed the whole thing on Tuesday night, with a tumbler or rye, neat, to try and stop my hands shaking, just to give myself something to do that wasn’t compulsive doomscrolling. I don’t know if I’m imagining it listening now, but I feel like the anxiety comes through. A mix of dubstep and grime, plus elements of hip hop, underground club, and even 2-step presha, it all begins with a remix of Sir Spyro’s epic “Topper Top.” If anything, Kahn and Neek’s rework ups the menace of the original, before things move on to frantic, skittering beats for a bit. Then Kaiju, as name appropriate as the mix, stomps in with the heaviest bass of the entire affair, grounding things in a brutal half-step. This sets the template: foreboding alternating with hyperactive, until about halfway through when Yeule ushers in a bit of relief.

Rhi and Armand Hammer follow in a more laid-back vein, before SWAN MEAT returns us to the realm of urgent anxiety with her frantic beats and frenetic melodies. Neil Landstrumm herds our ears back into the realm of dubstep and grime. where we stay until Machinedrum closes the mix with a track off his (brilliant) new album.

• Sir Spryo – Topper Top (Kahn & Neek Remix)
• DJ Q & Finn – Baby I Don’t Know
• Air Max ’97 – Ice Bridge [Ice Bridge / Bruxis]
• Sirpixalot – Lost Dub [Eyechild EP]
• Kaiju – Fear no one [Fear no one / Wils fault]
• Morwell – Dream Last Night
• Von D – Hermetica ft Sinerise [Hermetica EP]
• Johnny East – Creep [The Ruthless EP]
• Sneaks – Hong Kong to Amsterdam [Highway Hypnosis]
• Avbvrn – A Small Stage [Caldera]
• Yeule – Pretty Bones [Serotonin II]
• Rhi – Plain Jane [The Pale Queen]
• Armand Hammer – War Stories [Shrines]
• SWAN MEAT – SUCKLING GROWN [THE SINGLES 2017-2019]
• Neil Lanstrumm – Nike Volume (with Profisee) [Lord for £39]
• Truth – Shadow Samurai [Subchaser EP]
• OM Unit – Preshah [Tectonic Plates 3]
• Dub Mechanics – Broken LFO [Broken LFO / Change of Direction]
• Skepta – Shutdown [Konnichiwa]
• Roska – 480 BC [Tectonic Plates 3]
• Machinedrum – Star (feat. Mono/Poly & Tanerélle) [A View Of U]

BPM: 140