Another ~130 BPM episode unfolds with another mix of dance rock, house, techno, and club music. This one, I suppose, distinguishes itself by an even higher than usual genre agnosticism, incorporating hip hop and Damaged Bug’s trash rock, as well as SWAN MEAT’s avant gardism, wandering almost directionlessly through the various genres on its pallet.…
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I Wish That I Could Wish You Well Looking back, episode 182 featured Drum’n’Bass, began with a song by The Beths and ended with a song by Bestiärio. This episode, in a striking contrast, features Drum’n’Bass while it ENDS with a song by The Beths and BEGINS with a song by Bestiärio. Totally different, as…
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A few weeks before this episode, Brian Musikoff aired episode 138 of his always excellent Radio NOPE program Musicon With Musikoff, which consisted of 138 minutes of covers of the Misfits’ “We Are 138.” It got me in mind of times gone by, when I’d do episodes based on their number. SttM #23, twenty-three being…
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Aloha Amigo-San While largely based in grime, this episode ranges quite widely, from Pottery’s wild Texan (though Canadian, actually) post-punk rave-up, to London for Silkie’s posh Dubstep and sinister instrumental grime from Terror Danjah and Johnny East… then to Portland for Modern Melodies and their slowed down take on Juke. Then we head back to…
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StayInYrHouse Party Here we have an episode that was originally 124 BPM or thereabouts, but I misjudged the playlist and it ended up going quite long. Therefore it’s absurdly sped up to fit its hourlong slot. If things seem at all frantic… that’s the reason. To my ears, this is especially true of the first…
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Wotcha! It’s another Footwork/Jungle episode here at Step to the Music Incorporated. This one dives right in and doesn’t let up, straight juke madness until El-P and Killer Mike drop by for some jewel running. The final third of the mix is then more of a mix of jungle, footwork and drum’n’werk tunes, until Fever…
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Grey Area Experiment #04 As I mentioned in the description for the previous one, this episode was partially inspired by a chatbox discussion on Grey Area’s use of polyrhythms to create two simultaneous tempos– usually 127 BPM and 171 BPM (though I’ve recently discovered that producers have expanded into other tempos… a subject for a…
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Comparing this episode to episode 188, which aired last night, I am forced to ask myself “reuse the same tricks much?” Yes, 188 began with Bestiärio and ended with The Beths, where this one switches them and adds a J. Robbins track at the end, but I must berate myself for a lack of variety…
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~100 BPM episodes are often a challenge. While some BPMs mark out definitive genre zones, 100 encompasses an overlap of several disparate sounds. So the ~100 episodes are often extra eclectic and divergent and eccentric and hence difficult to assemble. Describing this episode, therefore, is a challenge right now. There’s no through-line, no apparent theme.…
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This episode starts out moody, with Austra’s downright heartbreaking rumination on romantic doom, “Anywayz,” and gradually picks up. The tempo follows suit, gradually increasing over the course of the mix from a sedate sub-disco 117 BPM to a breakneck 130 by the end. Approaching the midpoint, we have ourselves a downright rave-up, before things turn…
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