RFI: Border Community - Nathan Fake, James Holden, The MFA, Petter etc.

And they mean this so literally! I mean, one of the most intriguing things about the Border Community 12"s is the inclusion of all these odd ambient or noise snippets (which usually remind me of My Bloody Valentine's "Touched" or something) as, literally, DJ tools!

It strikes me as something very unique and cool that there's this nominally prog house label who sound more like a weird interzone between M83, Superpitcher and Boards of Canada, and yet who are totally devoted to dance music as a fundamentally anti-artist, pro-DJ genre. It's sort of like some ultimate end point away from the middle-brow of "album dance" - not "nightclubbing at home" so much as "blissed out at the club".

That whole conceptual side wouldn't work so well if the music wasn't so consistently ace, but I think I've at least heard all the releases now and I've loved them all.

The MFA's remixing the Junior Boys' 'Bellona'...how swoonsome

their remix of Telepopmusik's 'Into Everything' is gorgeous

and yeah this label is about the ONLY thing i'm liking in prog house these days. so nice and refreshing on so many levels

01. Mathew Jonson - Ultraviolet Dream
02. Covenant - Bullet (Ellen Allien Flow Mix)
03. Superpitcher - Happiness (Michael Mayer Remix)
04. Roel H. - Curly Hair
05. André Kraml - Safari (James Holden Remix)
06. Petter - Untitled Acid
07. Steve Lawler - Out At Night (Nathan Fake's Night In Mix)
08. ADJD - Believe
09. Stryke & Santos - Amazon
10. ID
11. ID
12. The Rapture - I Need Your Love (Playgroup Dub)

It's good and I want more

I'm not sure if it's an actual live set or them DJing, it sounds very pristine for a live set though all the tracks do sound like MFA productions and pristine is sort of their style I guess.

Needless to say it is great, like completely electronic deep house or something, with a good quick tempo, which gives it that really clubby deep house feel, a bit like "Mushrooms" by Marshall Jefferson but alot more of an electronics only feel to it.

the remix of Ellen Allien is amazing.

huge co-sign on that 93 Returning mix

I thought this was going to be about the new track from the upcoming album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHsqkhz4AOg

Holden’s remix of XAM Duo’s “Cold Stones” was one of my top tracks of 2022 - intergalactic jazz techno!

as if the new Katie Gately being great wasn't enough, the new James Holden is sounding fab too!

Absolutely incredible interview about this album's making. Clearly an astonishing feat

https://www.musicradar.com/news/james-holden-interview

Really enjoyed that in-depth process interview. I don't know that there's anything about it that makes it an astonishing feat per se (if you really dig into the nitty gritty of a lot of electronic records I think you'd find an impressive degree of creative processes, resampling, etc) but I'm excited to listen to it now.

Enjoying the record...and I like pretty much everything he does these days, but miss a bit of the noise of the Inheritors. Maybe it's a bit too jazzy and hippie for me.

knowing very little about how electronic music is made i am very easily impressed lol. but it does seem like he went to impressive lengths! it's a very long record and it keeps me interested the whole time. love that he describes it as the album his 12 year-old self wanted to make, and a dialogue with that self

I do really like the looseness and liveness of the record, although it's all a bit too "cosmic jammers" for me too. I don't know that the drums benefit from being recorded through speakers with ribbon mics in a room either, for dance music I like that in-your-face feel. It took me a long time to realize that the room that the music is going to be played in, over a soundsystem, is more important than the one it was recorded in.

But I'm jealous of his process because it sounds fun, and there are some really cool moments and tracks here.

yeah none of it is that involved or exciting for most people that use max or equivalent systems/approaches.

to be fair to him though, he never makes out the process to be as if it's a big crazy cutting edge autechre/william fields type thing. more that he's into building systems according to his tastes and trying to make it fun for himself to make music. basically: to be able kosmischely-noodle on one's own.

i read the interview after listening to the album and i kind of assumed it was a curated collection of live jams like the animal spirits record ie. not knowing all the traditional instruments (sax, piano, violin) were just self-overdubs. which probably counts as a big success and proof-of-concept for him.

i am surprised by imago liking thing though! cause what makes me not fully connect with james holden (and luke abbott) - despite generally liking the surface aesthetics and all the interviews etc. - is that i just get bored musically of the majority of their stuff being a single pattern and the track "just" being riding timbral variations, inversions and the arpeggiators-upon-arpeggiators. the same build it-up-and-then-break-it-down structure... obviously that's very much what their whole thing is though!

i do really like "contains multitudes" on here though which does shift a lot more even if it a single progression as well, it just seems a lot more dynamic. i like the almost-rave-stab-pattern stuff (there was some of that on the last nathan fake album too). also the most surprising part of the album for me is on that track - when that portentous piano line comes in.

Agreed I wouldn't have thought there would be enough chord changes for imago (he even says in the interview he hates bridges and loves staying in one harmonic place)

yeah it's totally my issue, just different tastes and wanting music to do different things. i would love to hear a JH or LA track that's *just* bridges!

to be clear: i don't want to cast shade on anyone being super into this! i was just a bit surprised reading this thread after listening and seeing who was singing its praises.

also don't want to sound like a know-it-all in regard to JH's set-up. just more that, if you're totally unfamiliar with that kind of world, the kind of things he is doing are pretty par-for-the-course. not that it really matters or makes them any less valid...

Love this album, but I was also a bit surprised that it's a lot more of a traditional techno record than I had anticipated (maybe feeds into linee's point about it not feeling like an imago record, though I wouldn't have thought that without linee's comment and explanation).

It reminds me of a lot of Lindstrom's Smallhans but with a broader and denser sound palette.

while my first love is indeed melodic development, textural development and the Swelling Sonic Array is a close second. this sounds so lush and adventurous, it is absolutely the sort of exuberant fantasy he describes and I'm way into that

The other album it reminds me of a bit (though not necessarily in strict stylistic terms) is the Khidja & Balabas album - reproducing the density and depth and atmosphere of Monolake's "Lantau" and "Macau" but in a less minimalist context.

*writing emoji*

I need to hear more Lindstrom, ty for the heads-up. Regard WYGIGT as a towering masterpiece but strangely haven't explored more!

The other album it reminds me of a bit (though not necessarily in strict stylistic terms) is the Khidja & Balabas album - reproducing the density and depth and atmosphere of Monolake's "Lantau" and "Macau" but in a less minimalist context.

when Tim mentions an album offhand and you know, not even having heard it yet, that you'll be playing it all summer

lol yeah the K&B is so good

Would be in my top ten "underrated to the point of being unheard of" albums of the past 5 years or so

not familiar. I see a few EPs on bandcamp and will check them out. What is the album?

https://khidja.bandcamp.com/album/khidja-si-balabas

oh yeah I saw that. thought that was an ep and there was some other LP being referred to. Will def listen.

I am unsure what I think of this new James Holden thus far. I was really excited for it but it hasn't quite connected. I adored the Animal Spirits and have played it loads over several years, probably more than The Inheritors which was a big favourite when it came out. My (very minor) antipathy might be contextual - I've been getting over jetlag since I got it on Friday and every time I try and sit down and listen to it on the big stereo I get interrupted or I'm knackered, so it's mostly been ambient music while I've been wfh Monday and today. I think I was expecting more from it in terms of drums and rhythms; it's very vaporous.

Headphones and sunshine turn this into a completely different record for me.

I dig it. Lots of feeling and color and grooves. It's floating and cosmic but a nice kind of busy and the live feel is distinct. Obviously I'm here for any long-form electronic albums with spiritual ethno and jazz touches.

second listen, this time on headphones, def more interesting.

it's deffo a fantastic headphone listen. great for long walks and late night drives (the latter i can only imagine as i don't drive). i love the cheap drum machines and lo fi beats; refreshing in this era of over produced drum beats.

playing live early eveining this sunday in a park in Glasgow. can't wait!

It's a sunshine and sunset record!

the thing about mic'ing speakers...makes so much sense. No amount of lo-fi plug-ins and/or digital reverb is going to create that kind of space.

Had it on outside in the sunshine by a fire this afternoon, so good I played it twice

I have basically had this on repeat for the last month, occasionally flitting back to the last Daniel Avery record. Now the sun is properly out and it's warmer, it makes so much sense. It also makes a great soundtrack to swooping between sky islands in the new Zelda game (while the Daniel Avry works well for exploring subterranian landscapes in same).

Don’t sleep on the Long Weekend EP by Holden and Zimpel: one of the best trance synth jazz things he’s done.

Also the Leafcutter John album from 2019 is lush.

seconded

I used to work in a hospital and, as an art project, the service users designed some sleeves for early Border Community twelves (I can't really remember the context but I think there was colour-in sleeve that you could download and print). Anyway, they put all the work on their website, which felt fun at the time.

I was having a quick scan to see if I've told that story before on here and feel compelled to say that I loved Michael Mayer's Fabric mix (but don't want to start the next world war).

Fabric 13 is one of the greats imo

Thanks for the Leafholdenzimpelcutter recommendation (John)

Thanks for the reminder about Long Weekend, great record.

that's really cool, djh. I remember the cover coloring thing and the border community site showcasing the results!

xxpost The BC people are great folks.

Holden and Zimpel have just announced an album. Out in June. Psyched.

It is lush.

it's really good

they're playing live here in August for Mutek. I'm hoping to go even though the show starts at 10pm and they're on third ;_;

(helpfully, Valentina Magaletti are on second)

Effervescent and magical! Zimpel seems to bring out the best in the people he collabs with

I'm a big fan of both of them separately. This is easily my favorite of their collaborations.

holy fuck this is good

My CD arrived today. Came with a punk heart shaped sticker that had the album title on it. I like the sentiment.

This is great. Big Harmonia vibes from the second track.

God the Zimpel/Ziolek record is amazing.

fwiw past Zimpel chat has mostly been here: stara rzeka, innercity ensemble, polish underground

should probably rename the thread tbh

this is a lovely new interview that covers a lot of ground...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AbL4P2IkRo

also appreciated scuba as an interviewer - asks some good questions, seems to have done a bit of research beforehand, and otherwise just let's the interviewee talk without getting in the way the whole time