After a brief (ish) mid season break we’re finally back with the next edition in the Slutty Fringe Mix Series and this time we’ve found ourselves boarded by the piratical Danny Berman aka Red Rack’em.

Danny’s been one of my favourite producers and DJs for some time now, going way back to when I ran a record shop and his naughty disco/soul edits would fly off the racks.

Since then he’s clocked up hits under the Hot Coins alias, signed a deal with those lovely people at Tirk Recordings and established himself as a major player with the likes of Todd Terje, Gilles Peterson, Bill Brewster and Prins Thomas all supporting his releases.

A great DJ to boot, his fortnightly Smuggler’s Inn podcast is essential listening for anyone into leftfield beats, and if you see his name on a flyer you can be pretty much guaranteed a good night.

This month he’s just pulled together and released a retrospective of the early Red Rack’em releases on his own label Bergerac and we figured it was as good a time as any to get him in to do a mix and have a natter.

SF: The first Bergerac release is out, why did you choose to start your own label with The Early Years, a career retrospective?

I don’t actually know when I decided to do The Early Years, it was just a vague idea at first.  I wanted to put together a strong artist album and I thought rather than put together a traditional album with 5 or 6 good tracks and some not so good ones, why not pick out some of the best tracks I have released so far and put them onto one CD?

Most of the tracks had been released on limited run vinyl only releases or on very vinyl based labels so the tracks haven’t really been available to many people outside of the the record shop scene.

I love vinyl and my primary goal is still to make vinyl singles which will be played in clubs. But the majority of music bought today is in a digital format. So I would like my music to be available to those listeners as well.

I also wanted to draw a line under the work I have produced so far and really focus on the future. Bergerac was initially set up as vinyl based singles label.The first release was actually the single How I Program which came out about 2 weeks before The Early Years.

SF: Have you been pleased with the response?

The response to both the album and single has been amazing with support from a broad range of DJs including Motor City Drum Ensemble, Kyle Hall, Jazzanova and The Revenge. Gilles Peterson played Bonn (B side of How I Program) on Radio 1 which was a great boost for the first release.

To be honest though, the emails from people who have bought the record have been the most inspiring though. The album has also had quite a lot coverage too which has been great.

How do you measure success though? Is it in profile? Virtual column inches? Or the quality of the music? I would like to think ultimately it’s the latter.

I am trying to make quirky, thoughtful underground dance music which can move people on the dancefloor and in their heads and I think I have achieved what I set out to do.

SF: What’s going to follow it in the coming months?

I am just about to get Berg 002 manufactured. It’s looking like it will be Courting which is a dark garage house thing, Feel My Tears which is some deep techno thing and How We Do which is kind of ecstasy jazz techno. Still not 100% decided on that yet though.

I am also doing a bit of a tour to promote the album so I am off to Japan next monday for a week to play at http://www.dommune.com (live stream club in Shibuya) on 27/10/10 and XEX Nihonbashi on 30/10/10.

Then I’ll be in Berlin, Belgrade and Zagreb sometime before Christmas too. It’s nice to get to play some new places.

I am also putting together a Smugglers Inn compilation album which will feature artists who I play a lot on my Smugglers Inn radio show/podcasts.

SF: You also have a vinyl only label prepped in Nettles, what’s the focus there?

Nettles is going to be more quirky, sample based tracks. Stuff which wouldn’t be appropriate for the digital market. First release is Bill George and Transfer List. Hopefully out before Christmas but it’s looking doubtful now. Where’s the year gone!

SF: Reading between the lines you seem to have an affinity for John Nettles, which is cool everyone needs a favourite TV detective (mine’s Quincy) where does this love for Nettles transpire?

It all stems from Bergerac. I just wanted to call the label something which people already knew and would register in their minds and memories. It’s a place in France so the detective connection was kind of secondary really.

I have always loved the Bergerac music. French accordion reggae anyone? I vividly remember enjoying Bergerac from my childhood in the 80s so it felt appropriate to reference that in the label. Nettles is just a pun and I think it’s a cool name for a label as well.

SF: Who would you back in a ruck between Bergerac and Quincy?

Bergerac for sure. Quincy is wet I think.

SF: Leaving behind my televisual fantasies, take us through your mix – would you say it’s representative of a Red Rack Em DJ set right now?

It’s a bit of a radio mix if that makes sense. I would probably be more banging in a club scenario. I try to start mixes off in quite a mellow way normally.  I tried to include tracks by artists that I am enjoying right now really.

Some new names like Chicago Damn and System Status as well as some older hands like Seiji and Office Gossip. I particularly like the Roman Rauch track on the mix.

I also included a couple of Juju and Jordash tracks as I play at lot of their tracks on the radio and at gigs. It’s quite housey really. I am also feeling a lot of the garage type stuff right now so it could have turned out differently depending on the day…

SF: Gilles Peterson quite famously claimed you couldn’t put a foot wrong, who do you feel similarly about at the moment?

Well I have to say that most artists I like still make the occasional track I don’t fully understand but I am currently digging a lot of stuff by Kyle Hall, A Made Up Sound, Dexter, See The Road, Souled, Juju and Jordash…

The best thing to do is check out my smugglers inn podcasts  @ http://www.redrackem.com or search itunes store for ‘Smugglers Inn’. Thats what I am digging on a week to week basis.

Red Rack’em Slutty Fringe Mix Tracklist
Chicago Damn – Time Waits For No Man (Cdr)
System Status – Planet X (Cdr)
Red Rack’em – How We Do (Bergerac)
Souled – Changin’ (Fresh Minute)
Chicago Damn – Be Your Man (Merc)
Ordell – Court and Paste (Juju and Jordash Remix) (Minuendo)
Red Rack’em – Bonn (Bergerac)
Roman Rauch – Can’t Get Enough (Tjumy)
Lone – Cloud 909 (Magic Wire)
Darling Farah – Berline (Funkineven Remix) (Civil)
Jimi Oh Vs Baby Ford – Fordtrax Edit (Cdr)
Office Gossip – Ver 2 (Dark Energy)
Soul Minority – Six Nine (Bleep District Remix) (Kolour)
San Soda – Shouts In Peace (We Play House)
Julian Love  - Untitled (Cdr)
Juju and Jordash – Tattoos Island (Philpot)
Robotalco – Is The Nite (Cdr)
Seiji – Elevator (Seiji)
Red Rack’em – How I Program (Bergerac)

Stream now from Mixcloud, AND NOW due to popular demand you can finally download the mix to add to your collection.

Download: Red Rack’em – Slutty Fringe Mix 16

Oh hai its halloween on the internet time.

Look at all the themed mixes with french house version of Thriller and Ray Davis Jnr mixed up with Fake Bloods back catalogue.

We couldn’t really compete.

Instead Slutty Fringe thank our transatlantic friends Arawa FM for pulling us back from the precipice of the digital pit of horrors and depravity we call the internet with a mix from South Carolina’s finest JAZ.

Done entirely on vinyl, JAZ teeters menacingly between kraut rock, bollywood and the darkest corners of boogie across what might be the worlds most expensive 80 minutes of music commited to tape.

Download: JAZ – The Minister

Having seen Hounds of Hate live twice – in support for heavy hitting acts Caribou and Health – we can attest to the spellbinding qualities that ooze out of their every musical pore.

A infectious approach to squeezing out hazy sexx jams from computer gear dipped in viscous syrup of sonics has secured them a 12″ on Italian Beach Babes with the brushed up version of their signature track Head Anthem a particluar highlight.

Download: Hounds Of Hate – Head Anthem

Italian Beach Babe will release Hounds of Hate Head Anthem 12″ on November 8 pre order here.

Operating on a blissful subaqueous electronic level augmented by a Surrealist approach to composition is Antwerp. Based in East Ldn but formed elsewhere, Antwerp excels in crafting electronic soundscapes that throb with melodic intent and hiss with melancholic glee.

More than a bit happy to present a brand new Antwerp jam as well as a luscious refix of D/R/U/G/S.

Download: Antwerp – γλ

Download: D/R/U/G/S – Love Lust (Antwerp Remix)

Those who follow Slutty Fringe Twitter may have recently been prompted to hear me drunkenly regurgitate the expressive words Antwerp made contact with on hypem radio in response to the WHAT AM I FEELING RIGHT NOW questions from high pitched presenter.

IF this glorious moment in broadcasting history managed to pass you by a swift ffwd to around the 43 min mark is recommended.

This weekend offers us Londoners two opportunities to catch American woozy slo haus icons Teengirl Fantasy perform live.

On Friday they are just one part of a truly collosal lineup filling the newly greased walls of  big capacity night spot XOYO as BLeeD aka Bloggers Delight 2.0 launches. Alongside the duo, there is a debut UK live performance from Oni Ayhun and a last chance to see OneOhtrix Point Never play live in 2010. Just as excitingly BLeeD have secured a DJ set from Minimal Wave’s Veronica Vassicka – being ravenous devourers of music you all will have discovered Vassicka’s brilliant induction to the FACT Hall of Mixtape fame right?

More details on BLeeD here but be swift as there are few advance tickets left.

If the prospect of a 800 capacity venue just doesn’t suit your intimate needs Teengirl Fantasy play the Forgotten Found night at The Bunker in Deptford on Saturday evening. Very much the antithesis of XOYO, The Bunker is a veritable sweatbox where at least two members of Slutty Fringe have enjoyed many a wasted night.

More details on Forgotten Found here.

All the above works as a gloriously convenient excuse to post Teengirl Fantasy’s “Cheaters” fashionably late, though it should be said this track has swiftly lodged itself amongst the choices for when I get invited onto Desert Island Discs. It sounds monumental loud and a recent whisper from John Talabot stating he had remixed the track along with Mano Le Tough left me wondering why.

Download: Teengirl Fantasy – Cheaters

To be honest I haven’t really given Halloween much thought this year, but seeing as it seems intent on becoming a bigger and bigger deal I guess we should give a passing nod in its increasingly American accented direction.

Plus it would be churlish of me to frown upon any calendar date that seems to compel the women of the world to dress as sex crazed gothic hookers. Seriously girls if you dressed like that 24/7 you’d rule the planet, ok no work would ever get done but it’d be a fun way for civilization to collapse.

Anyway… where were we… oh yes, despite occurring two days early, so technically just an everyday October the 29th party, the most obvious choice to recommend must be Data Transmission‘s Halloween bash at The Silver Bullet up in Finsbury Park featuring, as it does, one man rave from the grave Drums of Death.

Despite being weighed down by some of the most ball achingly annoying anti-piracy voiceovers known to promo kind, voiceovers that literally made the thing unlistenable, DoD’s debut album Generation Hexed showed the face-painted Scotsman coming on leaps and bounds.

Where before I was loving his Chi-town referencing twisted rave efforts but unsure about the vocal tracks, on songs like the Gonzales collab Voodoo Lovers he’s clearly raised his game several notches. So, all in all, his new live show should be something to behold.

Anyway the new single Won’t Be Long is out now on Greco Roman (video above), there’s a Data Transmission podcast recorded by DoD here you can check out here and we also have a new dub of album track Everything All At Once for your spooky pleasure.

Download: Drums of Death – Everything All At Dub

God bless Gomma, never ones to disappoint they’ve once again delivered the goods in the shape of a new Munk video, this time for the excellent new single Violent Love.

As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve also sent over a proper naughty bootleg by CopyShop that marries Munk’s dancefloor bomb La Musica with George Kranz’s epic 1984 proto-house number Din Daa Daa.

Expect to hear this get rinsed out over the next few weeks, especially if I’m allowed anywhere near the decks.

Download: Munk – La Musica (CopyShop Din Daa Daa Edit)

Next up on Optimo Music (in fact I say next, but due to computer issues it may well be out by the time that you read this) comes a 4 track EP from Jakarta’s Space System.

The lead track, Sorrow Show, is a squelching, echo laden slice of cosmic space disco, complete with haunting piano stabs, rubbery bass and lazer synth sweeps that could adequately soundtrack a film noir set aboard an interstellar cruiser.

The EP comes complete with a remix from Johannesburg’s  King of Town, who toughens up the drums for maximum dance floor impact, a JD Twitch mix of Nocturnal Creatures, and the beautiful Petik which finally betrays Space System’s Indonesian roots with its use of Gamelan sounds.

Check out the King of Town remix below and then head here should you fancy buying the lot a limited edition 12″, or here for the MP3s.

Download: Space System – Sorrow Show (King of Town Remix)

In what is a must attend event for all lookbook account holders seeking the next step towards personal enlightenment, Street fashion guru and anthroplogist Ted Polhemus returns to East London this week to discuss the themes and concepts behind The Supermarket Of Style, an addendum chapter to his hugely popular Streetstyle book at Leonard St venue The Book Club.

Taking place on Wednesday evening, the event which is organised by PYMCA will see Tedward  discussing his theory that modern fashion relies on “sampling & mixing diverse, eclectic, often contradictory elements into a unique, personal statement.”

Questions will be fielded and books will be signed and drinks will be drunk.

More info here

Our friends at Dollop step up their game next week (Wednesday 27th October) with the launch of their new night at Heaven in Charing Cross.

The first club I ever regularly went to (like EVERY single week) as a fresh faced, innocent, 16 yr old it will be quick a shock to see how Heaven has changed in the intervening decade and a half.

I’m guessing there will be less transvestites and trance than I was used to but with a line-up that includes The  Invisible and Walls playing live, and DJ sets from Untold, FaltyDL and Work It, it should still be an amazing night.

Tickets are just a ridiculous £4 in advance, and you really cannot say fairer than that, hell they’ve even made a promo video for the launch.

This is the post where James Yuill‘s latest smooth emission from the good ship Moshi Moshi gets dipped in a swathe of unadulterated discoid warmth by Justice Conkers & Dirk The Layer.

Further remixes of “First In Line” from Studio’s Dan Lissvek and Your Twenties are available in other corners of the internet and the track will be available to buy from reputable shops on Monday.

Download: James Yuill – First In Line (Justus Kohncke & Dirk Leyers Remix)

Are The Chap the most blogged about act in Slutty Fringe history? I guess I could check but that would require some research and due dilligence neither of which I’m particularly in the mood for right now so lets just say yes, as even if they’re not they should be, being clearly the most fun and interesting band around today.

Maintaining their current HOT STREAK they’ve just announced a new EP, Your Latest Breakdown, 6 tracks of pop concrete  which follows close on the heels of the chart topping smash hit album that is Well Done Europe.

Featuring the stunning We’ll See To Your Breakdown, a cover of Dire Straits’ Your Latest Trick, plus remixes from Young Michelin, Family Fodder and the amazing Moscow, Your Latest Breakdown is a family sized pack of fun suitable for all ages and is available to buy on Nov 15th.

Sadly due to touring commitments The Chap probably wont be appearing on the X-Factor this series but it does mean that there’s a chance you’ll be able to catch their epic live show at one of the following venues over the next couple of weeks.

22/10 Edinburgh – Voodoo Rooms
23/10 Glasgow – Captain’s Rest
24/10 Hull – The Adelphi
26/10 Winchester – The Railway
01/11 Bristol – The Fleece
04/11 Liverpool – The Kazimier
05/11 London – The Luminaire

We have a pair of tickets to the show at The Luminaire PLUS a copy of the EP to give away to one lucky reader, simply answer the question below, email us here, and we’ll pick a winner next Friday.

Q: The Chap’s latest album is titled Well Done Europe, which recent sporting event should Sky have used this as the soundtrack for?

This Wednesday Poland & I will be trooping along to (and indeed playing low bitrate YouTube ripped MP3s at) the Big Chill House in King’s Cross to toast the venue’s 4th Birthday party.

As you can see from the above flyer it’s a pretty tasty line-up, though I feel sorry for the poor designer who no doubt got an absolute roasting when they saw he/she had put us at the bottom, rather than in the 100pt type with flashing stars as our rider specifies.

Anyway, we can be the bigger men so we’ll let it pass this time, we suggest you go now to the BCH website and download a voucher for a free beer. Salut!