Regular listeners to Resonance FM will surely be already aware of Sine Of The Times, presented by DJ and One-Woman-Army Rita Maia. The show describes itself as ‘a varied and in depth exploration of the past, present and future of London’s underground dance music scene, with a focus on the sound system culture [..] and it’s influence & development across the world‘, but I prefer to just say that it goes out at 9pm Saturday for ninety solid minutes of all the latest cutting-edge tracks from that all-encompassing dance music genre everyone seems to call ‘Bass Culture’ (although in the tradition of ‘dubstep’, ‘trip hop’ or indeed ‘purple’, purists tend to look at you askance if you use the term in mixed company – plus have you ever seen a purple purist?). I should also add that Rita gets all the latest ‘dubs’ miles before anyone else and has a pretty hefty book of contacts from which she picks weekly special guests as well as live sessions from artists and producers before they blow up (and indeed after). For my older readers, to ‘blow up’ in youthful parlance means to suddenly become very popular and successful, rather than the horrific accident you might well now be envisioning. But I’m drifting…
Anyway, as well as running the show and her own label Badmood Recordings, she also DJs all over the place and a recent mix for FACT magazine is something of legend if you can track it down (which you can’t). With all this activity and so much exclusive material passing through her hands, it’s a wonder Sine Of The Times Radio is only just now getting around to releasing it’s first compilation of material by guest artists, DJ and contributors to the show over the past three years. Nevertheless, it’s been worth the wait. ‘Rita Maia presents Sine Of The Times‘ is out this week and its really, really good. Here’s a taster:
Cards on the table: I did make a small contribution in the form of a short ‘Intro’, as Rita asked me to make something ‘radiophonic’ in the most literal sense to promote the show behind the album. As someone who has sat in on many of her sessions over the years I was happy to oblige and set about conjuring up show’s broadcasting heritage using some processed shortwave recordings and other assorted bursts of radio static. It’s gigantic leaps of the imagination such as this that have helped me reach the very pinnacle of my game, but you could argue (and why must we always argue?) that I have a vested interest. But as you’ll hear and as the title ‘Intro’ implies, my contribution is really just an entree and pretty meagre in comparison to brand spanking new material from the excellent My Panda Shall Fly, dFranklin, Modo Fractal, BD1982 and a particularly fine track from NKC of Awkward Movements fame, plus more. Will Ward‘s gorgeous, Detroit-inspired ‘Brighter’ is the pick of the bunch for me, though with Rita’s firm grip on the controls there isn’t even a suspicion of filler. And it’s mostly exclusive too. Read the very complimentary review from the good folk of the aforementioned Awkward Movements here and then immediately go and buy it from Rough Trade here (it’s made their top 20 this week!) or indeed from Juno Records here.
In other exciting news, there’s a party to celebrate the release of the album THIS FRIDAY (8th Feb) at the Notting Hill Arts Club, with LV from Hyperdub leading the charge and a live set from My Panda Shall Fly. I shall always be fond of NHAC as it remains the location of my shortest ever DJ set (somewhere in the region of sixteen minutes) and indeed I was originally supposed to be spinning some tunes at the launch party myself. Unfortunately, however, due to my rather frantic current schedule and a succession of encroaching project deadlines, I had no choice but to force myself to deliberately not even notice the email until it was too late (Sorry about that, Rita!) Probably just as well, the line-up is a stonker and I’d only have ended up embarrassing myself by using expressions such as ‘bass culture’ in front of everyone. Best just to let them get on with it.
Why are you still here? Go and buy the album! Now!
Robin The Fog 