Rong records knew where the party was. Nice mix of edits and originals that to my ears sound as good as ever. Think these can still be picked up for not a lot. The kind of records that never leave the bag.

Another year, another legend departs. Deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Phil Asher, Ladbroook Grove don and all round top geezer. I never got to meet Mr Asher but I did meet a lot of his ace friends over the years and the kindness, generosity and wise advice he once gave to one of my own friends, I’ve never forgotten.

I play a lot of his productions and the fact he had multi projects, styles and pseudonyms on the go is very inspiring.

Ten touched by the hand of MPC king Phlash below…

Gary Martin is a bit of an underrated Detroit producer. The sweet spot was in his early years and this stuff still sounds great. It has a certain punky rough quality that still shines through and bangs on a good sound system. Like a lot of quality underground electronic music you can still pick most of it up for cheap and proves you don’t need to spend silly money to get those little gems. Trust your own ears!

There is a certain joy you can get as a DJ, when you stumble upon that drum track/percussive tool number, that you just know will hit a room square on and you are gonna’ be able to play forever.

Below are five stripped back percussive gems that span the decades and never fail to hit that spot in those things called clubs, rem them?

Someone who constantly pushes the envelope of modern electronics, doesn’t play it safe, collaborates with great artists & packs plenty of personality across his musical output/DJ sets is Peter O’Grady aka Joy O. IMO he’s one of the UK’s finest and most interesting artists and as a result always check anything with his name attached too.

Here are five joyous masterpieces…

As we are all homebound this year, here are some suggestions for tonight’s playlist…

Created in 2019 but continued to be on contstant rotation in our house through 2020. This Stan Ray radio guest mix from the Never Never guys is stuffed with great selections is beautifully varied & absolutely top drawer.

https://worldwidefm.net/show/david-holmes-2/

Recorded live at Hostal La Torre in Ibiza this year, Monsieur Holmes played a total blinder & wore his heart on his sleeve for this one. Coming over like a balearic version of his CV, this has lots of beaut little nods to significant points on his trajectory.

Another total masterclass here, Sean Johnston played out of his skin in this 6 hour live Phonox tribute to Andrew Weatherall, on the very same week he passed away. This can not have been an easy mission but one he completely nailed.

Weatherall’s take over on Radio 6 was a slice of perfect radio programming.

https://soundcloud.com/test_pressing/black-bones-test-pressing-mix-504

Lastly, one from us. We enjoyed selecting for and putting together this psychedelic headphone trip for Test Pressing earlier in the year.

I think we can prob all agree that was one stinker of a year. As always music helped me through it, a little more so this year than some others. Here are five diamonds from the shit show of 2020 that I must have listened to at least fifty times or more…

The idea that I can pick a top 5 from this year is obviously impossible. It is always shifting. Below are 5 that jumped out quickly though, some new stuff that sounds old and some old stuff that I didn’t know about but now do (thanks to Cherrystones/Touch Sensitive). Also a special box set from Weatherall – these tracks sort of passed me by when first released but listening to them as a whole totally make sense. Sometimes a bit of distance makes you appreciate things a bit more.

I haven’t been listening to much new music recently. Certainly not anything with a kick drum. I tend to listen to less music near the end of the year in a bid to give my ears a rest. However, there are 5 bangers below I heard being blasted out of my local Co-Op. The Coil one in particular always gets the shoppers into the holiday spirit.