6. DJ Lance Lockarm, "Shielium" (MP3, www.lancelockarm.com) 4:21. lancelockarm.com
Local mash-up master mixes Ready for the World's "Oh Sheila" with Black Strobe's "The Abwehr Disco."
Exhibit: James Turrell, Light Reign 2003 / Henry Art Gallery, Photo by William Anthony
Kinski contemplate the eight wives of bandleader Artie Shaw.
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"I loved Ready for the World and Front 242 as a kid, pretty much at the same time. Fast-forward 20 years, [when] I discover French duo Black Strobe, basically the Front 242 of today (but good!) at the same time I purchase a copy of the 'Oh Sheila' 12-inch. I played 'em together, messed with the mix a little, and here you go. Melvin Riley's faux-Brit accent, purrs, and grunts make him sound more like a fey villain today than a desperate kid 20 years ago."—Brian MacDonald, aka DJ Lance Lockarm
7. U.S.E., "Umbrella of Love (RK47 Mix)" (Party People, Side Out, Japan) 5:47. iTunes
The city's favorite party band gets their wistful midtempo ballad dubbed into a beefy house groove.
"RX47 is one of our friends, Ron Kurti, from San Francisco, who came up to live in Seattle a little bit. He was a roommate of our guitar player [Jason Holstrom]. He was always in the basement, secluded with all his processors and racks, all kinds of weird instruments. One day we found out he wanted to do a remix. It was like, 'Yeah, go for it,' and he threw out that banger."—Jon E. Rock, drummer
8. Caro, "My Little Castle" (The Return of Caro, Orac) 10:14. Kompakt Store
Dance-floor epic that incorporates jazzy piano, plaintive vocals, and an homage to early, "jacking" Chicago house.
"I was trying to combine some modern musical ideas, like serialism, with something really danceable. It's got this kind of almost Basic Channel–type rhythmic foundation. I was trying to add some melody to that. It was inspired by people like [techno producer Ricardo] Villalobos. It always gets a good reception when I'm playing out, 'cause I'm singing with some vocoder. It's pretty fun; I definitely get into more of a lounge-singer mode with that. It's almost a track that calls for a kind of debaucherous, Weimar Republic–style performance—some weird, sinister lounge vibe."—Randy Jones, aka Caro
9. Jeff Samuel, "Endpoint" (12-inch, Trapez Ltd.) 8:45. Kompakt Store
Seething, bubbling minimal techno epic that found favor with Europe's DJ elite.
"I was still in college when I made that—over winter vacation in December 2000, in my mom's house. I had to borrow a friend's minidisk recorder and record it out and then back into my hard drive. I made all my tracks like that until a few years ago. I didn't have many tracks that sounded like it—I still don't. When I had it done, to me it sounded super Detroit [techno], which is funny because it ends up perfect for Kompakt [label head] Michael Mayer—he really dug it."—Jeff Samuel
10. Bruno Pronsato, "Wuorinen" (12-inch, Orac) 7:44. Kompakt Store
Clicks, clacks, slurps, exhales, pings, and pongs bound around a steady pulse that seems to mutate along with what's on top of it—weird, earthy, sexy.
"That track was put together in March. The name comes from Charles Wuorinen, the modern composer. I fell in love with a tape piece of his called 'Enconium.' I wanted to make the track in his honor—sort of using his sound. It was a gesture toward him [during] my three-month infatuation with him. I tried to approach that track with Charles in mind."—Steven Ford, aka Bruno Pronsato
11. L'Usine, "Breed" (Autonomous Addicts, the Designed Disorder) 5:01. iTunes
Click-clack laptop melodicism, and the easy highlight of an iffy compilation CD.
"I did that one a couple years ago. The comp has been in the making for a while. It [took] a couple weeks. Once I have a simple phrase going, that's where I realize where I want to take the melody and where the transitions will go. I have an MS2000 synth; when I made this track, I was using it for a lot of my tracks. It's got a lot of wave table samples, and I'll start writing a scratch-pad sequence with that. Then I'll resample it. That's what I did with the sort of piano-sounding [melody line]; I had one sequence going, then resampled it and made it into something else. Usually, it starts out a lot more involved, then it gets more and more simplified over time."—Jeff McIlwane, aka L'Usine
12. Swampdweller, "Crunchtime" (Swampdweller, Freetone) 7:01.
Bebop and Destruction's leader's new ensemble that moves away from straight jazz to incorporate hip-hop, funk, and anything else they can cram in.
"That one was written by Ari Zucker, the guitar player in the band. He brought it in as a finished song. That first record was basically two rehearsals—we recorded the whole thing in two days. We're recording another one at Jack Straw [Studios] right now. For the studio sessions, especially with turntables and with so many people, I just tell all those guys if they hear it, they should play it, and if it doesn't work, I'll just take it out."—Marc Fendel, alto saxophone
13. Blue Scholars, "The Ave." (Blue Scholars, Blue Scholars) 3:02.
