Granted, music these days is essentially polyamorous, but dance mixing live or otherwise, has often not been. The phenomenon of the "x" night is somewhat understandable given tribal groupings, but points to a somewhat archaic way of categorizing given the medium, and clouds, or what have you. In terms of alchemical properties, a laptop offers the capability to transcend genre, indeed formal musical constraints, and still maintain a danceable beat in a way more inline with cultural consumption today. To the effect that Ramadanman ushers us into an aural revolution, I would be hardpressed to make a case, with much respect to those that come before. Subjectively though, I hear in his music a kind of syncretism which the dance floor often alludes to but doesn't quite achieve.
If Glut was a microcosm of perfect balance in a single dance track arrangement, then Fabriclive 56 is the debut of DJ/producer David Kennedy's, aka Ramadanman's macro. At once ethereal and earthy, Kennedy's mixes are a throwback to a pre-digital sensibility of wax, the windups and timeouts organized in a familiar way to our collective bodies, but with complicated layering and time play made possible through digital technology. He often favors a tick-tocking, bouncy pinpoint of snares that clears a way through the dark,rhythmically textured, grimey, dubby, steppy haze. The setlist, brimming with syncopated drums, lends itself to opportunity in the spaces between songs where the transition becomes an entity in and of itself rather than simply a clean getaway to the next track. Tonally these are phase shifts but ones that never feel forced or off kilter as some mashups often do. A superb balancing act modulates the crash of genres as well as the particularities of their individual soundscapes, nudging them into a whole bigger than the sum of its parts. As an end of set bonus, an ambient "remix" of Glut seamlessly morphs into Euro juke, raises arms to a house breakdown and segues into dubstep, which in turn evolves into a juke/dub remix of summery house that disintegrates slowly into white noise.
To my mind, Ramadanman is the most paradoxical of djs, thoughtful yet still accessible, technically perfect and emotional, artificial and organic, bridge and jumper, etc. etc. This particularity is what makes his music unique, the subtleties and variety difficult to pin down and copy. His music appeals to eggheads and still rocks the dancefloor, seriously. That's another hard balance struck. Underneath is a mental process that contemplates with the rigor of pure cinema, a reliance on autonomous sound to produce affect rather than style, a core belief of the first digital practitioners, Cage, Stockhausen and their contemporaries. Really, that's the structural noise I've been after.
01. Pearson Sound – Hawker
02. Levon Vincent – Late Night Jam
03. Elgato – Music (Body Mix)
04. Marcello Napoletano – Everyday Madness
05. Tiyiselani Vomaseve - Vanghoma
06. Pearson Sound – Wad (fabric Edit)
07. Julio Bashmore – Battle for Middle You
08. Ramadanman – Grab Somebody
09. Ramadanman & Appleblim – Void23 (Carl Craig Re-edit)
10. Pearson Sound - Project
11. Joy Orbison – GR Etiquette (Pearson Sound symphonic refix)
12. J Kenzo – Ruckus (Martin Kemp Remix)
13. Fugative – Bad Girl (Lil Silva Dub)
14. A Made Up Sound - Demons
15. Jam City – Night Mode
16. Mr Mageeka – Different Lekstrix
17. Pangaea – Inna Daze
18. Pearson Sound - Stifle
19. MJ Cole feat. Wiley – From the Drop
20. Pinch - Qawwali
21. Joy Orbison vs. Ramadanman – J. Doe Them
22. Pearson Sound - Picon
23. Burial - Pirates
24. Die Barbie Musik Kollektive – Face (Junk)
25. GIRL Unit – IRL (Original / Bok Bok Remix)
26. D1 - Subzero
27. S-X - Woo Riddim / Ramadanman - Glut
28. Addison Groove – Fuck the 101
29. Mala – City Cycle / Joe - Claptrap (Tease)
30. Sigha – Light Swells (In A Distant space)
Read the XLR8R article on Ramadanman.
