Published
Tue, May 8, 2007, 18:10
- "What excites me is to forge the links between rock, breaks, house, minimal, whatever" says Adam Freeland about his new compilation for GU.
Breaks pioneer Adam Freeland mixes up rock, breaks, house and minimal on the latest Global Underground volume. 'GU 32: Mexico' hits shelves in June.
Freeland has been championed as a breaks DJ since the mid-nineties, especially for his genre-pioneering 'Coastal Breaks' volumes and nu-skool mixes 'On Tour' and 'Tectonics'. But he's also been known to mix it up. 'Fabriclive 16' showed he was not averse to crossing breaks with hip-hop and electro while his debut album 'Now and Them' brought the genre to the mainstream by flirting with rock, vocals and rap.
His latest double CD compilation for Global Underground sees him moving another step away from the sound that earned him props: ‘GU 32: Mexico’ has a surprising tracklist, throwing minimal [My My, Cobblestone Jazz], dub techno [Substance & Vainqueur] and French dance punk [Justice, Para One and K.I.M] into the mix. So what happened to the breaks, Adam? "The idea of breaks as a limited formulaic genre that has to sound a certain way to be considered righteous is the spirit of what I've always fought against, " Freeland told RA. "What I play is about attitude and sensibility rather than genre purism. The likes of Justice, Phones, SebastiAn and Evil Nine are the very spirit of breaks, and the finest that have existed date. Pure energy, raw punk attitude and high production value that first excited me about genre."
While CD1 concentrates on dance punk, CD2 sees Freeland moving further towards 4/4 as he cosies up to dub techno and even minimal house. "There are definitely more minimal and deeper moments on this CD than my last few mixes,” explains Freeland. “I think partly down to the fact that this is my first double mix CD in almost ten years, so I've really been able to spread my wings and indulge myself fully in whatever I wanted to do. So many boundaries have broken down now and there is so much incredible music out there. I would never have dreamed two years ago that I could get away with mixing from tracks by Holden and Gui Boratto to Silversun Pickups’ 'Lazy Eye', which is pure drone rock, into dubby minimalism like Substance & Vainqueur, then back into Fujiya and Miyagi."
But Freeland stresses the mix isn't eclectic just for the sake of it. "What excites me is to forge the links between rock, breaks, house, minimal, whatever and be like a clearinghouse for all that is innovative and fucking great in dance music”. Here’s the tracklist that is causing the fuss in breaks purists circles:
Tracklist
CD1
1. Faze Action - In The Trees (Carl Craig Mix)
2. Revl9n - Walking Machine (Sebastian Remix)
3. Superdiscount - F***
4. KIM - Wet n Wild
5. Mr Oizo - Half An Edit
6. Adam Freeland - Silverlake Pills
7. KIM - By The Time They Reach You (Bagraiders Mix)
8. Jape - Floating - Alex Metric Mix
9. Beauty School - Disco Sux (Stone Lions Mix)
10. Oliver Huntemann - 37 Grad
11. Justice - Phantom
12. Minimal Compact - Deadly Weapons (Optimo Mix)
13. DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Thomas Bangaltier Mix)/Spank Rock - Bump (Switch Mix)
14. Phones - Sharpen The Knives
15. Trabant - The One (Para One Mix)
16. Kavinsky - Testarossa (SebastiAn Mix)
17. Evil Nine - Happy Ending
CD2
1. Spaceman 3 - Ecstacy Symphony
2. My My - Butterflies & Zebras
3. Lee Jones - There Comes A Time (Prins Thomas Mix)
4. Justus Kohncke - Advance
5. 120 days - Come Out
6. Gui Boratto -Terminal
7. Holden - Lump
8. Cobblestone Jazz - Dump Truck
9. Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye (Adam Freeland Re-edit)
10. Substance and Vainqueur - Immersion
11. Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle Injuries (Adam Freeland Re-edit)
12. Andrew Weatherall - Feathers
13. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (Adam Freeland Mix)
14. Mylo - Paris 400 (Aswefall Remix)
Adam Freeland tours North America and the UK in May and June in support of the album so keep an eye out for 'GU32' nights in your city.
May 11 Fabric, London
May 18 Shine, Miami
May 19 Ten14, St Louis
May 20 Guvernment, Toronto
May 22 Zinc, Orlando
May 24 Axis, Boston
May 25 Sky, Austin
May 26 Lizard Lounge, Dallas
May 27 Ultrabar, Washington
May 29 Coliseum, Albuquerque
May 31 Last Supper Club, Seattle
June 1 Mezzanine, San Francisco
June 2 Vanguard, Los Angeles
June 8 Fabric, London
June 9 Custard Factory, Birmingham
June 9 Technique, Leeds
June 13 Supercharged, Brighton
June 14 Dogma, Nottingham
June 15 Grounded at The Plug, Sheffield
June 16 Watersplash, Jersey
June 21 The Priory, Cambridge
June 22 Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
June 24 White House, London
June 29 Cielo, New York
June 30 Vinyl, Denver
'GU:32 Mexico City' mixed by Adam Freeland is released on Global Underground on June 4, 2007.