Mix: Quexotic Adventures #021:
live on NSB 18th Sep 2010

This time around we take an all-too-rare dive into the deep, muted, hypnotic tech-breaks, alongside more great progressive and psybreaks promos and releases.
Download (154.2MB 192kbps MP3 112’18”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-09-18.mp3)] downloads

Download (154.2MB 192kbps MP3 112’18”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-09-18.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: deep, hypnotic, nsb, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, techbreaks, techno

Artists: Beat Rangers, Cage Page, Chris Nemmo, Cursor Miner, Dessben, DossPorCuatro track 3, Elastic Fish, F-Word, Hedflux, Ilya Mosolov, Influenza, Ion Driver, Lady Packa, Leuce Rhythms, Line Of Sight, M Spark, Macho, Means, Mesmer, OOOD, Parallax Breakz, Retroid, Robosapiens, Smashback, Tab, Triple Agent, Ways, Zipmix

Labels: Broken Robot, Dead Famous, Digital Distortions, Digital Sensation UK, Dub, Dusted Breaks, Electrofly, Offaudio, Rune, VIM

Show Comments (2)

New additions to the Watchlist

Time for a long-overdue update to the Watchlist, where I list artists and labels who have proven themselves worthy of close attention. And it’s also overdue to give some recognition to those who are forcing forward the field of drum&bass, so this time around the focus is primarily on them…

Before we get there though, let’s deal with the other artists making their way onto this exclusive list. First up is Opiuo, one of a good handful of Aussie guys who are breaking new ground in the midtempo glitch-crunk market. If we’re being brutally honest, Opiuo’s sound is so instantly recognisable and unique, that sometimes it seems like he’s recycling his own tunes a little too much… but nonetheless he deserves recognition as the fattest thing to happen to midtempo since VENT’s Bear Crunk.

Sensient has been around quite a while, but until recently I only owned one of his rare forays into breakbeat. That all changed on seeing him live at Ozora this year. Deep, driving, maxi-minimal, hypnotic, and uber-squelchy, this is another artist with a totally unique sound. It doesn’t necessarily easily fit into a mix, but it deserves to be shoehorned in wherever possible.

We have two new players representing psybreaks — not just that, but progressive psybreaks, the very genre I most want to hear more of in the world… At the lighter end we have Blazer, keeping it rolling, hypnotic, techy and trippy. At the heavier end, still very psychedelic but rising more to a electro/tech-funk/acid mentality, is Triple Agent, whose music I have been very excited about from the beginning but initially dissuaded me with a psychotic tendancy to have odd bars with odd numbers of beats right in the middle of the mixin/out zones. He hasn’t abandoned this trope entirely, but has calmed it down enough that his tunes are now mixable (thanks Luk!)

So then, we turn to the drum’n’bass…

There are two main subgenres of dnb that I’m all over at the moment: blissed out daytime progressive, and gnarly twisted psychedelic neurofunk. One label in particular has been promoting excellent examples of both styles, and generally pushing the envelope, and that’s Hospital Records’ experimental baby brother Med School. Meanwhile two smaller labels that have also been consistently delivering the goods are Mindtech (generally on the twisted tip), and relative newcomer Offworld (generally on the proggy side).

Of all the artists on that progressive, sunny-afternoon vibe, it’s LM1 who most beautifully combines emotive melody with kickass rolling beats, precisely engineered and produced to perfection. If you’ve downloaded my mix Chilliquid Drum’n’Bliss you’ll already be familiar with the power of his tunes, and Frontier remains my absolute favourite track in this style of the past few years. So far…

If there’s an artist or label you think I ought to check out, let me know… get in touch via the contact page

Categories: News, Recommendations // Tags: dnb, midtempo, psybreaks, watchlist

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Mix: Quexotic Adventures #020:
live on NSB 4th Sep 2010

Three weeks having passed since my last NSB show, I’d amassed quite a stack of quality promos… I think this is the most I’ve played in one show by a long way! Mostly on the progressive and nuskool tip, with a healthy side salad of electro and psy and a dash of techno for added sauciness 🙂
Download (163.4MB 192kbps MP3 118’58”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-09-04.mp3)] downloads

Download (163.4MB 192kbps MP3 118’58”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-09-04.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: electrobreaks, nsb, nuskool breaks, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, techno

Artists: A2C, Andrey Mute, Audiohazard, B-Phreak, Beat Rangers, Cannabinoid, Chris Nemmo, DJ Revive, Dockthor, F-Word, Felix Stone, Hedflux, Helbot, Home Alone, Jellyfish, Lady Packa, Line Of Sight, Mesmer, Mikas, Nemmotronic, Neurodriver, OOOD, Plaza De Funk, Pointech, Retroid, Robosapiens, Triple Agent, Will White, Yadek, Youthful Implants, Zeebo, break, dub

Labels: Bombtraxx, Broken Robot, Dead Famous, Digital Sensation UK, Dusted Breaks, Ego Shot, Flextone, Flying Rhino Digital, Held2Ransom, Scarcity, VIM

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live on NSB 4th Sep 2010

Mix: Tales Of The Interstitial episode XIII:
live on PsyMusic 17th Aug 2010
with special guest Fat Mandy / Mr Faster

TOTI is one year old! To celebrate, I was delighted to welcome Jon Ward, in his Fat Mandy and Mr Faster guises, to join me in the studio for both live PA and DJ sets.

After a brief intro from yours truly, Fat Mandy kicked off the show in future-retro style with an Ableton set of electro-swing. I spun a set of progressive and psybreaks after that, then it was the mighty Fat Mandy Live PA, lush evolving breakbeat squelch, interstitially poised somewhere between breaks, dnb and chill. Then Jon switched hats to his Mr Faster persona and we went back to back for nearly three hours of psytrance, rolling, dark, forest, bouncy, you name it. Wicked fun times!

Thanks to Jon for coming along (he’ll be back!), and for all the shoutbox crew for keeping us company!

(In the tracklists below, Jon’s selections are this colour).

Download (437.0MB 192kbps MP3 318’13”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-08-17_full_show_with_fat_mandy_mr_faster.mp3)] downloads (This is the archive of the whole 5+ hour show. Alternatively you can download individual sections below.)

0. Intro

1. Fat Mandy electro-swing DJ set

Download (75.5MB 192kbps MP3 54’59”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-08-17_part_1_fat_mandy_dj_set.mp3)] downloads

2. Quextal progressive/techno/psybreaks DJ set

Download (55.6MB 192kbps MP3 40’27”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-08-17_part_2_quextal_progressive_and_psybreaks.mp3)] downloads

3. Fat Mandy Live PA

Download (69.6MB 192kbps MP3 50’42”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-08-17_part_3_fat_mandy_live_pa.mp3)] downloads

4. Mr Faster vs Quextal psytrance DJ set

Download (223.2MB 192kbps MP3 162’31”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-08-17_part_4_quextal_vs_mr_faster_b2b_dj_set.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: breakbeat, dark, electro-swing, forest, interstitial, live, progressive, psy, psybreaks, psymusic, psytrance

Artists: 1200 Mics, 8220 GOA, ?, Analogik, Andrey Mute, Atriohm, Audiohazard, Benny Berigan, Bombax, Chinese Man, Chris Nemmo, Comadust, Der Dritte Raum, Dickster, Dirty Sole, Dunklebunt, Eat Static, Electrypnose, Encephalopaticys, Fat Mandy, Flanger, Fletric, Frohlocker, Gramophonedzie, Highpersonic Whomen, Home Alone, Jellyfish, Kiwa, Klopfgeister, Kormac, Lena Horne, Loose Connection, Loud, Lucas, Neurodriver, Normalize, Orquesta Del Plata, Parov Stelar, Perfect Stranger, Philter, Psilodump, Quantum, Red Nichols, Schatsi, Scorb, Sensient, Sun Control Species, Techtonic, Troll Scientists, album, cosmo, dub

Labels: ?, Auraquake, Bombtraxx, Demon Tea, Digital Psionics, Digital Sensation UK, Ego Shot, Exogenic, Flying Rhino Digital, Futureaudio, Highly Evolved, Iboga, PsyLife, PsyTropic, Spin Twist, TIP World, Trick, Zenon

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live on PsyMusic 17th Aug 2010
with special guest Fat Mandy / Mr Faster

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #019:
live on NSB 14th Aug 2010

Mainly on the fatter side of progressive breaks, electro, tech-funk and psybreaks this week. Watch yer bassbins, I’m tellin’ ya…
Download (158.8MB 192kbps MP3 115’37”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-08-14.mp3)] downloads

Download (158.8MB 192kbps MP3 115’37”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-08-14.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: electrobreaks, nsb, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic, tech breaks, techfunk

Artists: AMB, Access Denied, Acid, Anodyne, Beatman, Blazer, Cage Page, Cursor Miner, Dirty, Double Negative, Elastic Fish, Future Funk Squad, Introspective, Kiwa, Ludmilla, M Spark, Means, Mouldysoul, Neurodriver, Neurokrem, Parallax Breakz, Paul Lyman, Pheex, Pip Williams, Point B, Sawtooth, Sensient, Sensient breaks, Skor Motion, The Peepshow Ownerz, VIP, Ways

Labels: Audiogore, Ayra, Badbwoy, Combat, Dead Famous, Disconekta, Dusted Breaks, Empathy Digital, En:Vision, Flying Rhino Digital, Held2Ransom, High Grade, Rune, Sinister, VIM, via Soundcloud

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live on NSB 14th Aug 2010

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #018:
live on NSB 24th Jul 2010

Heavy on the soaring progressive breaks this time, heading for more psychedelic territory later on…
Download (187.0MB 192kbps MP3 136’11”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-07-24.mp3)] downloads

Download (187.0MB 192kbps MP3 136’11”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-07-24.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: nsb, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic

Artists: Abdomen Burst, Aeron Aether, Almaz, Andrey Mute, BETA, CJ Prometey, Chris Lake, Colombo, Dual Boot, Eddie Voyager, Freeflow 45, Freerange DJ, Habersham, Hybrid, Hyperion (Oz), Jellyfish, Jinx, Kultur, Mavann, Maxim Kuznyecov, Mesmer, Neurokrem, Oleg Zubkov, Ozgur Can, Parallax Breakz, Pat Foosheen, Pip Wiliams, Play At Dawn, Robosapiens, Rouzbeh Delavari, Ruido, Sawtooth, Seth Vogt, Triple Agent, Underworld, ZB, original edit

Labels: 3 Beat Breaks, Ape, Bombtraxx, Broken Robot, Candy Rush, Dead Famous, Distinct'ive, Far Ace, Flextone, Held2Ransom, Institution Breaks, Junior Boys Own, M-Toxin, Metamorph Muzik, Morphosis, NoiseDepot, Ridiculoud, Scarcity, Swordtail, U&A, VIM, feiyr

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live on NSB 24th Jul 2010

Special guest LIVE PA this Tuesday

Heads up y’all… this Tuesday 17th August on Psymusic Radio I’ll be joined in the studio by special guest Jon Ward aka FAT MANDY aka MR FASTER.

Fat Mandy LIVE PA – awesome interstitial psychedelia… Jon ranges across tempos and genres with an original melodic and squelchy style… you’re gonna love it!

plus Mr Faster DJing alongside yours truly, psytrance vs psybreaks vs progressive and more. Frankly, anything could happen…

Put it in your phone. Write it in your diary / on your hand / on the wall. Do not miss this.

The details:
Tue 17th Aug 19:00 UK time
Go to http://www.psymusic.co.uk/forum – from there you can tune in and say hi in the shoutbox.

Categories: News, Radio Shows // Tags: live, progressive, psybreaks, psymusic, psytrance, Radio Shows

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Mix: Tales Of The Interstitial episode XII:
live on PsyMusic 20th Jul 2010

This month started with a quick tour of midtempo, gentle into glitch-crunk, then switched into psybreaks, but most of the show was given over to the stack of great journeying chunky progressive I’d just bought… with a bit of minimal / tech-house to wind down. Big shouts to all the chatroom crew 🙂
Download (284.8MB 192kbps MP3 207’21”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-07-20.mp3)] downloads

Download (284.8MB 192kbps MP3 207’21”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-07-20.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: crunk, glitch, interstitial, midtempo, minimal, progressive, progressive house, progressive trance, psybreaks, psymusic, tech-house

Artists: AMB, Ajja, Andrea Bertolini, Andrey Mute, Andy Faze, Arksun, Bumel, Chris Micali, Cursor Miner, DJ Ico, DJ Slater, Dan, David K, Dirt Crew, Dos Santos Threesixty, Double D, Dual Boot, Duca, Fiord, Flippers, Francesco Pico, Hedflux, Ill.Gates, Jade, Jellyfish, Jerome Isma-Ae, Josh Millstone, Knowa Knowone, LuQas, Macho, Mesmer, Mouldysoul, Opiuo, Phony Oprhants, Phony Orphants, Phunk Investigation, Pig, Point B, Quade, Quantize, Quextal, Robosapiens, Sawtooth, Seed, Sleek, Slinky Wire, Squarefeet, The Touch, Tomcraft, Triple Agent, Uniphi, Vibrasphere, Visua, Yotopia

Labels: Addictech, Armada, Audio Therapy, Aurium Recordings, Ball of Waxx, Blue Tunes, Broken Robot, Combat, Dead Famous, Dirt Crew, Echoes Records, Exogenic, Freak N Chic, Grooves For You, Iboga, Muti, New State, Operating System, Organic Domain, Peak, Ridiculoud, Scarcity, Tribal Vision, Trunkfunk, http://opiuo.bandcamp.com, via Soundcloud

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live on PsyMusic 20th Jul 2010

Mix: Quexotic Adventures #017:
live on NSB 17th Jul 2010

A huge stack of quality breaks promos for the first half of the show, then we dive into the realms of glitchy, skanky and crunky midtempo shiz for the second half.
Download (170.4MB 192kbps MP3 124’05”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-07-17.mp3)] downloads

Download (170.4MB 192kbps MP3 124’05”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_nsb_2010-07-17.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: acid breaks, breaks, crunk, glitchy, midtempo, nsb, progressive breaks, psybreaks, quexotic

Artists: Ajja, Andrey Mute, Andy Faze, Bran Richards, Double Negative, Dual Boot, F-Word, Freeflow 45, Home Alone, Ill.Gates, Jellyfish, Jnr Hacksaw, Kilowatts, Knowa Knowone, Kraymon, Kyla, Llupa, LuQas, Macho, Mobius, Neurokrem, Opiuo, Perpetual Present, Pip Williams, Quade, Sawtooth, Seed, Spoonbill, System 2, Triple Agent, Uniphi, VENT, VibeSquaD, White Papoo, feat Jess Chambers

Labels: Addictech, Ball of Waxx, Bombtraxx, Broken Robot, Colony, Dead Famous, Dusted Breaks, Empathy Digital, Held2Ransom, Muti, Peak, Ridiculoud, Subatomik, VIM, VibeSquaD, breaks.sk, deliciousmusic.co.nz, http://www.phuturelabs.com/word/chatter/kilowatts/, opiuo.bandcamp.com

Show Comments (1)

Mix: Tales Of The Interstitial episode XI:
live on PsyMusic 21st Jun 2010

Kicking off with some lush early 90s acid trance and pre-Goa, moving through chunky psychedelic techno into tech-psybreaks, into further realms of acid, progressive sounds and some chilled tech-house to finish… next show Tue 20th July at 19:30 BST.
Download (229.7MB 192kbps MP3 167’15”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-06-21.mp3)] downloads

Download (229.7MB 192kbps MP3 167’15”) [downloadcounter(quextal_live_on_psymusic_2010-06-21.mp3)] downloads

Categories: Mixes, Radio Archives // Tags: acid trance, interstitial, progressive, psybreaks, psymusic, tech-house, techno

Artists: 108 Grand, Aerospace, Alan Fitzpatrick, Andrey Mute, BETA_, BSD, Bass Kittens, Criss Source, Cursor Miner, DP-6, Dual Boot, Fabel, Flack.Su, Flippers, Freeflow 45, Gary Clail, Geon, Grouch, Group Therapy, Hugo Rizzo, Hybrid, Imprintz, J. Scott G, Jellyfish, Kilowatts, Kloe, Kultur, Left Right, Li Kwan, Lifecycle, Lusine, Lutzenkirchen, Magitman, Nyquist, Oakenfold, Osborne trance, Perfect Stranger, Petar Dundov, Point B, Quantize, Robosapiens, Triple Agent, Yan Oxygen, dub

Labels: Bedrock, Bombtraxx, Broken Robot, Combat, DP-6, DeConstruction, Dead Famous, Digiprana, Disconekta, Distinct'ive, Full Tilt, Ghostly International, Iboga, Island, Logico Beatz, Perfecto, Plusquam, Pretension, Richochet, Ridiculoud, Shiznit, Six Foot Six, Stereo Seven Plus, Tribal Vision, iBreaks

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live on PsyMusic 21st Jun 2010