In 1986, I got Art of Noise’s “In Visible Silence” LP and you know at this time in my life the only way to make your music mobile was to make a tape cassette of your vinyl. I made a cassette of that album, but it wore out from heavy use in my walkman and in my parent’s car stereo. Blame it on those auto-reverse tape systems. So I made another copy of the Art of Noise album, that cassette wore out, and I recorded another one. And yet another one. This happened over and over again.
The point I’m trying to make is that despite my obsessive music buying in my early life, there were only about maybe 20 impactful albums I got to own in a year in the mid eighties, and sure maybe about another 30 to 40 12″ singles. I even made mix tape compilations of my favorite 80s music during my pre-CD years, and they were so great. But I knew all the tracks on the tape, there were no surprises, and they were played over and over again way too much.
Today it’s hundreds of new excellent tracks I am trying to keep track of … so I can’t imagine a mix tape getting worn out.
For instance, each week my email inbox is flooded with new music promotional cuts from fellow producer friends. Also great independent record labels have very kindly subscribed us to their FatDrop promo services. Then we are also perusing Soundcloud and all the artist and record label accounts we follow and bookmarking new tracks we like. Don’t forget to include Mixmag for the great reviews they have, especially their disco review section, edited now by Yam Who?. Then there’s also Spotify’s Discover Weekly service adding tunes to my playlists.
And the blogs, oh yes, the blogs, they are multiplying. Right now for instance, music blog Stamp The Wax seems to have come out of nowhere with all these great exclusive debuts. For instance, in FSQ’s 2016 Summer Edition for ParadiseUnlimited, this mix here, we have added Fred Everything & Atjazz’s “Hayden’s Dance” which recently was a Stamp The Wax premiere.
We can also count on our host ParadiseULTD.com, itself a blog, to discover new selections for the mix. Corey, aka Colourvision, our blog boss, always has the lead on new production talent. I found out about Rambo V from him in 2015, and then discovered Rambo V’s new track “So Good To See You” right here ParadiseULTD.com just a few weeks back. It’s also included in this mix.
Time is always short with my various projects and getting time to assemble these new jams into a mix is very difficult. But it’s crucial because unlike the 1980s where I could throw a tape cassette together once and a while to keep track of my great music catalog – in 2016 the only way to do this is to make a monthly mix.
So keep in mind as much as I love sharing these FSQ Selections mixes with you via ParadiseULTD.com, secretly they are for me and our group, first and foremost. They are a record of the best new jams that are coming in with such great volume, it’s best to do a mix each month. And we revisit them to understand what was out at the time. You can revisit the series of mixes here going all the way back to October of 2015.
Our April 2016 selections mix posted in June! and well … summer of 2016 got away from us, but frankly at the same time there was too much new good music coming out.
So in this mix, edition 08, we did our best to make sure every single new jam was included and also that we curated the best music from our favorite labels. Some got left out by accident, ugh. For instance, I included a few new cuts from Partyfine label boss and producer Yuksek, but I left out a great new tune, “Lit Up” by his label mate Jean Tonique. And we also wanted to limit the mix to 2 hours.
And what of FSQ’s own music are we including? So many of our recent cuts weren’t released yet this summer, but we did throw in our summer debut for BBE Records, a remix done for Australian boogie god Inkswel. BBE or Barely Breaking Even Records, is a legendary label that is 20 years old this year! The always funky Kon put together a compilation for the label in honor of the anniversary, and in this mix we also featured one of the best cuts on that comp, “Back2Love”, by Eli Escobar.
Before FSQ, we had a band called Fonksquish that later turned into FSQ. Members of Fonksquish have now started a band called The Colorado and we are pleased to debut their first funk release, “O.F.F.S.” in the mix.
Let’s also keep in mind that FSQ is signed to Soul Clap Records so we get access to all the promo our label has way in advance, plus a lead on releases from their sister labels Crew Love Records and Wolf + Lamb. So in this summer 2016 mega mix check out new releases by their artists No Regular Play, and Soul Clap themselves here with funk goddess Nona Hendryx. Also Nick Monaco’s new album “Half Naked” is now out on Crew Love Records but we got our hands on an early demo of the Monaco song “Bathwater” that we quite rather like over the album version.
RazorNTape and Bastard Jazz are two New York City based labels we tend to always feature on FSQ Selections mixes for ParadiseULTD so we were pleased to find they had new jams to throw in the mix that are just outstanding. RazorNTape started a new sub label, “Reserve” that focuses on new original releases like the ones here from Fouk and Kraak & Smaak.
We are happy to feature two labels that will have upcoming FSQ remix production releases later in the year: Pole Position Recordings and Secret Life Music; here in this mix set with their artists Aimes and Mike Boorman respectively.
There are always close friends we cherish who make outstanding music, so we were able to find room in this two hour stampede of music for new tunes by them including our brother Ozgood, Sare Havlicek (aka Softmachine), Alex Harrington, and my child hood friend and inspiration DJ Mighty Mi.
I also went to Saint Vincent in the Caribbean this summer so I picked up a few 2016 soca tunes local to the island and their annual carnival, Vincy Mas, that I felt I must include.
There are some oddball tracks we feature like Soichi Terada’s “Tell Me What” which has the best P-Funk / Parliament sample flip I have ever heard. Let us know in the comments if you know the sample. But if you asked me how I came across Terada’s boogie funk burner, I really have no idea now, we just knew it belonged in this mix when we found it.
Pitch in some productions from Mexican disco monsters like Bufi and Future Feelings here and you have FSQ with one of the most diverse mix sets of the summer. Period.
Also you are don’t reading – the track list for the mix following has plenty more cuts I did not describe in this summary.
Now as I said, we know certain cuts didn’t make it this 2 hour long mix that should of, but we did our best to be inclusive of all the summer 2016 amazing output by the artists and labels we come across by accident or follow religiously.
If only all this was as simple as making a cassette copy of an Art of Noise LP !!! Or an annual mix tape of that year’s 12″ singles.
Regardless, we know we need to make a record and document the catalog of music we are collecting, and look out for a September FSQ Selections 09 with even more brand new material.
Enjoy ..
Chuck Da Fonk Fishman of FSQ
@fsqofficial on all socials …
Artist (and featured artists) – track title – remix title (record label, where available)
