I discovered Chaosmos from Portugal whilst surfing on soundcloud. I was immediately caught by his ravey touch, a delicate mix of good old school techno songs, funky breakbeats and trippy modern tracks. I proposed him to do a mix for 716. Chaosmos has left Portugal and now lives in Berlin. We were trying to get the best mix possible. First of all he sent me a 3hrs live set that was like a journey, but I wanted something more compact. He did something cool, but I thought it was missing his energetic groove. Then he did a bouncy mix, but that was a little bit too ravey. Eventually here it comes : the perfect mix from Bruno aka Chaosmos : melodic, dark, dancing, hypnotic, bass straight in ya face, everything is in there! Enjoy.

Here is the text he sent me about this “Traveler” mix :

“A traveler… Born in Acida Nigeria from parents who lived and travelled 4 continents, I was raised in Lisbon where the Luso-African rhythms beat strong. In music as in life, I assume that nomad side in a cartography of sounds hard to categorize that span from the most cosmic of disco, ancestral proto percussions and afrobeat, new beat and Chicago house and Detroit electro techno. Moving to Berlin a few years ago I embraced more abrasive territories and my selection nowadays can include techno, ebm, experimental and industrial, breakbeat and rave. Infamously (un)known for my work as a young graffiti writer, I transgress that energetic obsession into the music.”

Piotr Ddk is a record collector and records seller specialized in tropical and latin sounds : Cumbia, Salsa, Calypso, Bolero, Funk. This is his online shop on discogs. For 716lavie, he recorded this mix entirely dedicated to the music from Panama. Personally I discovered the unique sound of 70’s Panamean music, made of funky rhythmic, electric guitar, heady volcals, through the compilation “Panama!” released on Soundway in 2006 and compiled by Miles Cleret himself, the founder of Soundway.

Later on, two more volumes have been released. There was one track I particularly loved on this first compilation, it was “Exciters Theme” by The Exciters. Guess what? It is on this mix.

In this 716 Mix, Piotr played some Soul, Salsa, Boogaloo, Cumbia Tipica & Calypso, all coming from Panama. All the records included are for sale! You can write him directly at : djpiotrelpolaco (@) hotmail.com. As Piotr is more a records seller than a dj, don’t a technical mixing, simply enjoy those beautiful tracks played one after another.

I have discovered Plastic Bamboo on my Soundcloud feed. Straight away I was captivated by his Balearic/French Groove/New Age/ Tropical vibe – yes all this at once -, you could just call that great combo, the “Bamboo” style, in reference to the famous French track by Philippe Lavil. It’s funny because this track was absolutely not trendy, at least not underground, at the time of its release in 1982. But the music trend is a lot about revisiting the music that was made 20-30 years ago so lately the new age, ambient scene got a revival. In parallel to this, the 70’s tropical& afro  sounds have been largely, and still are, digged by those dj’s who travel around the world to find the original vinyls. Logically, once a big part of the vintage 70’s sound has been put back into light, some start to dig more into the 80’s and that’s how the synth zouk got reissued for example. I guess Philippe Lavil and his “Il tape sur des bambous” (the refrain means : “he beats on bamboos and it’s number 1 in the charts”) symbolises a laid-back cool vibe that appeal to a chill-out nap in a hammock.

Plastic Bamboo was dropping those Plastic Bamboo sessions, simply called Plastic Bamboo #1, Plastic Bamboo #2, … At the same time I found the Bamboo Shows, another podcast series on Soundcloud promoting the same kind of musical groove. I published a mix of Erevan Dj who is one of the 2 dj’s behind the Bamboo Shows. Discussing with Erevan, I told him about Plastic Bamboo and the similarity of their approaches. He said they wanted to get connected to him and soon after they invited him for one of their shows, which I found of a very cool attitude, in opposition to some podcast series who look at each other with the feelings of hate and competition.

I have contacted Camille Bertin aka Plastic Bamboo in order to propose him to record a 716 podcast. I received a warm and positive answer. We decided to meet and I got a chance to know him better. Before starting his Plastic Bamboo mixes series, he was part of the crew of les Yeux Orange. That was when he got back to France after spending 6 years in UK, Manchester where he discovered the house and balearic scenes thanks to his roommate Patrick Ryder, who now works at Piccadilly Records and has just created his label Talking Drums. Until then, Camille was much more into the indie pop scene. During the years in England he toured and released tracks with his band May68. They got a 12″, “The Prisoner”, published on Kitsuné and that was bridging the gap between pop and electronic music around 2010’s.

Nowadays, alongside his dj activity as Plastic Bamboo, Camille also produces music under the alias Alan Dente. The Ep “Dark Nebula” has been released on Bordello A Parigi in 2016 and a few remixes since then in a sexy house/disco vein.

Time for the 716 mix that Camille describes as a mix of Balearic, early 90’s French House, World and French boogie with a guideline that is cheap synthesizer sounds, not in all the tracks but in most of them. It starts with a cover of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” –  which used to be on my favorite album from her “True Blue” – by the Venezuelian born and Italian resident Lucia Montanari.

 

I invite you to listen to his special podcast in the following links of Soundclound or Mixcloud.

The bassist Jasper Verhulst became fascinated by 70’s alternative Turkish music after a concert he gave in Istanbul with Jacco Gardner. He started the band Altin Gün made of previous bandmates and Turkish musicians he found through facebook. Their musical influence comes from artists such as Selda Bagčan, Barış Manço, Erkin Koray and, most of all, Neşet Ertaş. Their first album “On” has been released on the Swiss label Bongo Joe. Second one is on the way.

This 716 Mix is made of all the records he found while on tour in France, Switzerland and Spain : a killer selection that includes Spanish Disco, Zouk, 80’s pop, French and Italian 70’s and much more. Jasper explained in an interview that he chose the name Altin Gün because he wanted something positive so he type “Golden Days” in google translate and Altin Gün came out. Well you can indeed feel all the good vibes in this mix.

El Turronero – Si Yo Volviera A Nacer (Aires De Huelva)
Oliver’s Planet – Dance Machine
Akofa Akoussah – Sumga Ma Bacci
Midnight Groovers – O Ti Yo
Fatima – Douz, Douz
Gilberto Gil – So Quero Um Xodo
Mario Balaguer – Patio Andaluz
Nino Ferrer – Looking For You
Elysian Spring – Umbrellas in the Sun
Emmanuel Brun – La Voix Psychédélique
Tullio De Piscopo – Stop Bajon
Lola Martinez – Persigueme
Alan Shearer – Sons Of The Snake
Lucas – El Matador
Patrick Abrial – Slag Machine
Experience 7 – Banzai
Evi-Edna Ogholi – Omololo (Small Bottle)
Bwanga – Mugongo
Romy & Complesso Safari Sound – Tarzan
FG’s Romance – What Is Love Today
Sylvie Roche – Les Feux Clignotants
Domenique Dumont – Comme Ca