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So back in the late '90s there used to be a site called mp3.com, a place where musicians released low-bitrate mp3s of original tracks. There was a drum & bass producer I liked a lot there by the name of Red Orc. I got to wondering yesterday: where'd Red Orc go, what'd they end up doing?

Discogs.com tells me that Red Orc is Andrew Smith AKA Professor Smith AKA Jackie's Army. This appears to be the same Andrew Smith that founded XLR8R magazine. Discogs lists three releases by Red Orc in 1998 after which Smith released a series of very interesting minimalist dubby electro EPs on the San Francisco label Voltage Music (all of which are now available on bandcamp).

The one Red Orc track I can remember clearly is Plus Two, a dark sketchy 170 BPM amen workout. I wasn't able to find any Red Orc for download on the web; digging through old burned CDs I found Plus Two and four other tracks, all in 128kbps mp3 format. Plus Two's metadata says it's from a 1999 album called "Red Orc in the Palace of Funk"; I'd very much like to hear that album someday.

Electro in the 130s this week (plus some old British electronic listening music magic to close). This mix features new tracks by Alva Recek (from the recent Soma EP), Shawescape Renegade (from the (forthcoming?) Reconstruct Your Mind EP), and Versalife (from the Shape Shifter 2 EP).

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.

Ambient, chunky beats, and IDM in the 90 and 80 BPM range today. This one features long tracks by Calimex Mental Implant Corp., Lindsheaven Virtual Plaza & SkyTwoHigh, San.dra, and Secret Frequency Crew. Winding down at the end of the month.

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.

Many Worlds by Permutation. Written and produced by Permutation (Dmitry Bogdanov & Edgar D-Mode). Released on Permutation Records in 2019. Digital release, flac, 16bit/44.1khz, ~145M.

Tracklist and credits from the album artwork. Bit depth, bitrate, filesize, and track durations from my downloaded copy. BPM I tap-tempoed myself.

Breaks and electro this week, mid 120s and down. Ends on an old bit of psybreaks by Digitalis (aka Seb Taylor) and some fun west coast tracks by Central Fire and Ambient Temple Of Imagination.

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.

Old Tracker Stuff by Fanu. Compilation of old .xm modules mostly from the Most Valuable Playaz catalog, released March 2022 by Fanu on his bandcamp page. Digital release, flac, 16bit/44.1khz, ~242M.

Tracklist below is from the bandcamp release page. Bit depth, bitrate, filesize, and track durations from my downloaded copy. BPM I tap-tempoed myself (and is probably inaccurate).

~128 BPM electro, techno, and Weird Stuff today. I don't think there's anything new here, but there are a couple long tracks by As Far As I Know, J Shaw, and Seiji.

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.

Electro up in the 130s this week featuring new tracks by Alva Recek and Skee Mask. (Well, new by my standards, anyway). Bunch of tracks from around 2018-2020 too, a more recent selection in general.

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.

Posting today to recommend The Ear & Drum, DJ and drum & bass historian Wozowski's excellent mix blog. I'm a fan of his atmospheric, deep, and intelligent DnB mixes, but there's a lot more on his site, and it's all top quality. I've picked up quite a few releases over the years after hearing them in a Woz mix.

A couple of my favorites from their back catalog:

• Certifiable, Ear & Drum Session 27, Certificate 18 mix
• The Depths, Ear & Drum Session 102
• Fricken Genius, Jungletrain Session 127, all T.Power mix
• and the Dogs On Acid Jungle Competition Mix.

As I write this the latest mix on the site is Ear & Drum Session 229 Killah Deep, which features a bunch of releases from Omni Music, who re-released a couple tracks I played on my own show this week.

In short: great drum & bass mixes, give 'em a listen.

Drum & bass vinyl & digital this week. Used bin finds, netlabel releases, some old tracker mods, and a couple more recent pieces. This mix features tracks by Boymerang, Funky Technicians, Seba, two by Fanu (including one from his recent Old Tracker Stuff compilation), and more.

Right-click save-as here or on the spectrogram above to download this mix. This mix is also available at mixcloud.