DJ-Kicks

Throughout the 2010s, San Francisco-born Avalon Emerson established herself as one of clublands most creative DJs, packing her sets with custom, on-the-fly edits and frequently darting between styles and eras. Her 2020 contribution to the DJ-Kicks series is an adventurous showcase for several of her own productions as well as obscure favorites, generally maintaining a constant groove but spinning off into some unexpected directions. Rather than picking some atmospheric selections to build up a vibe at the beginning, she sets it off with her own cover of the Magnetic Fields Long Forgotten Fairytale, which is equally club-friendly and faithful to the original, and just as fun. A couple of Emersons own swirling, spacious tracks are threaded throughout the mix, which touches on a grand, exotic proto-techno cut from Yello precursor Tranceonic and plenty of Y2K-era breaks, often leaning toward tracks which seem spiritually descended from early-90s breakbeat hardcore, such as DJ Senses Finest, essentially a 2001 white label update of Foul Plays Finest Illusion. Halfway through the mix, Emerson switches things up and mixes in some more off-beat selections, from a spiraling chugger by Oni Ayhun (the Knifes Olof Dreijer) to a cyber-pop tune by Oklou which swells from minimal techno to euphoric trance. Following some disco loop freakery from German duo Smith n Hack and one of its members solo monikers, Sound Stream, Emerson drops her cybernedit of the Dirtbombs rendition of A Number of Names immortal Sharevari, from the garage rock bands sorely underrated collection of Detroit techno covers, Party Store. The mix keeps up the momentum for a few more tracks, including Emersons sparkling Poodle Power, before concluding with her mix of Austras coldwave pop gem Anywayz, which goes two entire verses before the beat kicks in, providing one last chilling rush of energy. ~ Paul Simpson

眼鏡をかけた一見ナードなルックスとは裏腹のパワフルなDJプレイに定評がある才媛の初ミックス作。クラブでのプレイを凝縮したと語るとおり、幅広い楽曲を70分の尺を存分に用いて自在にミックス。終盤はスミス・ン・ハック～サウンドストリームとビルドアップし、ラブ・ン・タグのリミックスによる!!!の地下アンセム"Hello? Is This Thing On?"から彼女自身の最新トラックで最高の盛り上がりをメイク。これぞDJミックスの醍醐味。
bounce (C)藤堂てるいえ