What ho!?
The sun has shone, the birds have tweep tweeped and the second edition of our Peppered Digs is launched for public enjoyment.
Celebrate the springtime harbingers with some bangers in bloom :)
What ho!?
The sun has shone, the birds have tweep tweeped and the second edition of our Peppered Digs is launched for public enjoyment.
Celebrate the springtime harbingers with some bangers in bloom :)
Glenweiler: Heavy, Downtempo, Acid Euphoria on this split of German trio Manfred Holz, Michael Buchner and Jürgen Blömke’s alias’, reissued by the Heels & Souls crew. Both sides are full of sexy dancefloor energy. Even though Amazonia was actually written for the intro to 1993 German nature documentary ‘Wunder Wildnis’, it’s certainly wild enough to set it off.
Donnabro: Atmospheric post-punk from the back end of 2020, London. Stripped back, jangly, modern. Tego comes through with the goods again...
M-Dogg: Tasty experimental dream music consisting of field recordings, synths, guitar and ‘multiple zithers’ from 1975. I’d never actually heard of a ‘zither’ before so I looked into it a bit. It’s this mysterious instrument originating from either Greece or China that resembles something between a harp and a guitar aesthetically (and sonically). This tune is dripping with nostalgia and optimism and has been a very soothing accompaniment for my day-to-day in yet another unusual month.
M-Arko: Surreal track by an amazing musician. Lena Platonos defined the sound of Greek electronic music in the Late 80s. Coming from a serious musical education at the Athens Conservatoire can only have contributed to her intensely expressive and progressive ideas. This is a piece of art that effortlessly conveys concepts of pain and desire through sound and poetry. Shouts to Dark Entries for reissuing ‘Galop’ and contributing to the rebirth of her music in the past 5 years.
L Ben Gretty: Sludgey Swedish in-dub-strial toilet clogger. Stumbled across the label Monoscope via a discogs rabbit hole but know literally nothing about any of the artists but it’s firmly placed itself amongst Ikea, Abba and mooses in the canon of things I enjoy from Europe’s largest nation (by land mass).
Gretsman: Yet another tragedy of the fuckery that was 2020, Fleetwood Mac’s axemaster Peter Green sadly died last year so a tribute to the man seems right. He’s mostly known for soulful bluesy rock, but not one to be pigeonholed he released this psychedelic funk nugget as the sole saviour on his distinctly average final solo album Kolors.
Donnagan: The initial excerpt from the new Low Company release, taken from Jane Arden and Jack Bond’s ‘Anti-Clock’ (1979). The whole record is as beautiful & unsettling as this track, and the second side is the best thing I’ve heard in yonks. Completely daring and uninhibited, a brilliant soundtrack from a hidden gem of British cinema.
EJ: The films of Takashi Ito are huge favourites of mine; since being introduced to them by a close friend in 2nd year of uni, they have been hugely influential works in my appreciation of experimental filmmaking and video art. Whilst Takashi Ito’s films offer chaotic and beautifully haunting collages of process, places, and space, the accompanying pieces composed by Takashi Inagaki provide a reflexive and hypnotic underscore perfect for traversing the visual landscapes that Ito has created. Compiled and Pressed by Purgexxx for the first time this year.
SP: Beige Banquet’s Beta is DiY bedroom post-punk done proper. The LP is full of catchy, en-ar-jetic riffs and driving fast-mo drum patterns, sanded down with lo-fi production and Tom Brierley’s vocal commandments to keep a balance of consistency and disorder throughout. It’s the sonic version of locking yourself in a small room, chucking away the key and waiting til madness strikes, just to see how you’ll get out again, which we, of course, mean with love.
This dig was dug as a tribute to the demonic influence which YouTube channel tegosluchamPL & their treasure trove of post-punk, garage-rock and hardcore slammers has recently had on The Crew. Beta in particular made all of our tufted little ears prick up, and startled as much by the rare moment of unanimous agreement as we were by the release, we hastily backed it as our second Team Dig.
Our top 8 tracks of 2020 (we’ve listened to tonnes of old ones from the 80s through out the digging process but we’ve tried to keep this strictly 2020 - with some of our fave oldies thrown in) but also less club focussed as clubbing seems so redundant right now (although we have thrown a few heaters in for you). A mixed bag for a funny old time!
A varying degree of musical tastes seem to exist within the Left, Right & Centre camp between ourselves so there may be a bit of disparity between each of our selections. However I think we can both agree that it’s been a topsy turvy year, but there has been lots of highs for us as a label and party, as well as individually. Huge shout out to all the crews doing the do and pushing things along in Manchester and further afield, and of course a big thank you to the Semi Peppered dons for getting us involved.
Taïga: There’s going to be no jungle / 160 I’m afraid, if anyone wants to hear our fave selections from that genre they can just listen to any of our sets! Mia: 2021 has been a great year for music, much like last year, the year before that, and all the other years. I don’t really think it’s possible for there to be an entire year where the whole planet collectively just puts out shit music, even if artists like Burial are giving it their best shot.
We’re long time friends and musical collaborators born and raised in Sheffield and now living West of the Pennines in Manchester. We spent some years in Sheffield running ‘Don’t Look Now’, a series of ludicrous parties, expressing our shared love of club culture and the musical heritage of the Steel City. Having temporarily taken a step back from promotion we now also host a monthly radio show called Roadside Picnic in which we can explore our more otherworldly thoughts and dreams.
Thank you to everyone that has been a part of Choonsmas this year, it's been a lovely way to end a turbulent year <3
The Trouserlings + Papi Ruari bring you another collection of varied morsels to warm the cockles. Here is to another year of following the Semi Peppered boys blindly into the sun.
We’re Emma and Jonah, old friends and lifelong music obsessives. We both share a love for tunes that make us nostalgic for a neon lit past that didn’t happen. If it clears the floor, we want more.
2020 has been tough, and we’ve been fortunate enough to get through it with the help of those close to us. Now we hope you can join us in looking to 2021 as another year to be inspired by one another, and to keep on keeping on together.
ETN: "We've spent most of the year agonisingly far apart from each other so our choices and highlights feel very unconnected. Doing our Noods shows as socially-distanced fb-chat b2bs has been an interesting diversion, but we're longing for the affectionate chaos of the studio sessions. We all miss each other and hopefully next year will be full of the shared experiences and connection that are the best things about being a Shrubbery!" Chukwudi: "Having blown my last ETN royalty cheque investing in phonecards, I've asked the band to get together for one last reunion gig so that I can keep the lights on this Christmas. Unfortunately all the clubs are closed so I've had to make do with an (apparently unpaid) spot on the semi peppered xmas countdown instead."
Tried to keep it as weird as possible. And shed some light on some smaller acts from Bristol to Chicargooooooo.
SP: Huge shouts to everyone who was there for us and supported us in music and beyond last year, we look forwards to sharing good times together again soon!
Some of the stuff we have been digging this year and personal finds!
Ed: My selections reflect exactly what I’ve been listening to over the last year or two - lots of slow music to soundtrack many days spent at home. I’ve thrown one freaky dance tune in there for good measure, to keep the aliens over at Semi Peppered happy. Ben: Mad dog by name mad dog by nature, woof woof MLE: I am so strong haha
Not much new music in here (we’re crap at keeping up to date), but lots of goodies that we’ve played and enjoyed both inside and outside the space this year
d. clemente: Same as last year, I am here with a whole selection of dance music (sorry I actually don’t listen to anything else lol) that made me go like “wow, yeehaw, yes, alright alright, mmmmm”. DJ SWEAT: *siren plays* D-D-D-D-DJ SWEAT on tha haus! *toilet sound* merry all! *jingle jingle*
MLE: Hi, you may remember me from radio stations such as Balamii, Noods, Worldwide FM and the occasional guest appearances on NTS. Find my 2020 highlights alongside my fav bunch of dawgs…May 2021 be infinitely less painful. Solway Canine Collective: Ruff noises straight from the kennel. Another year of gutter tunes from the junkyard dawgs.
This has been a weird af year but here are some highlights from us which we hope you enjoy. Special shout out to Goutham for having the self control to not list Cockroach - Pearl (Bright Edit) [COMPOSE] {1996} multiple times.
We hope you enjoy sifting through our proper mixed bag of tunes that have soundtracked an incredibly west period in history. We feel these releases have been on the ride with us and deserve acknowledgement. What better way than a big old peppered round up eh?
SP: It's actually entirely to do with the pubs reopening. Enjoy with caution
Here are some of my top listens this year - ones that I've been playing and replaying. Most have been released in 2020, with a sprinkle of oldies too. I inevitably remembered loads that should be in here after making this, but I hope in sifting through this list there will be some enjoyable/meaningful listens in store for Semi Peppered friends and followers 🐇
Tracy: The selections picked by us are tunes that we’ve rinsed a lot this year and played quite often on our radio shows. I think they represent our sound as individual DJs but also as a collective.
I really had to stop myself from putting Babyfather’s ‘Meditation’ as my sole entry to this list because I’ve been playing that every day for the last three years. I thought it would be best to solely focus on tracks that have been released this year so here’s a list of my faves. Most of them have been included in mixes and radio shows and danced to in my parents’ living room.
In no particular order these are our top releases from 2020. Coincidentally featuring plenty of previous Cue guests (we’re not biased, honest) alongside some other favourites.
A varying degree of musical tastes seem to exist within the Left, Right & Centre camp between ourselves so there may be a bit of disparity between each of our selections. However I think we can both agree that it’s been a topsy turvy year, but there has been lots of highs for us as a label and party, as well as individually. Huge shout out to all the crews doing the do and pushing things along in Manchester and further afield, and of course a big thank you to the Semi Peppered dons for getting us involved.
Apologies! I’ve not bought a new release since the Music from Memory Almost Grown record, which was still a reissue haha! These ones are some of my fave digs from the year - a mixture of cheap and hard to find stuff, records that I have wanted for a while but managed to cop this year. Lots of digging and hermiting time, hope you like them/find them interesting! Merry xmas 💖💖 xx
Here’s a lil selection of a few of my fave tracks that have gone into Ambient Babestation Meltdown mixes this year, and a few tracks that I plan to feature in upcoming mixes. Finding new music was never a problem working at Rye Wax, but as we’ve been shut since March I’ve been having to dig A LOT DEEPER and I think it’s helped make my mixes a lot weirder haha. Please enjoy my selection and dream of the day we can all float about the club in silly outfits and silly states once again.
I mostly mix techno / breaks / house / fusion music. So I’ve tried to include six tunes that showcase these genres as much as possible! One thing I’ve learned from mixing is that there is endless music to explore and to never make your mind up on whether or not you like an entire genre! Fusing elements of one genre into another is a real game changer for me :)
Robbie: "Some highlights from a rollercoaster year, remembering the soundtrack of initial lockdown turmoil to reminiscing about the last tunes heard in the club." David: "As someone whose main hobby is clubbing and nightlife, this year I haven't stopped listening to dance music. Here's some new tunes I really look forward to listening to on a big soundsystem."
Here's some choons, new and old that kept us going in this weird as hell year. Hope you enjoy.
Compiling this list for the SP crew made me realise how many amazing releases came out this year, a cause for celebration in a year of woe. This list scrapes the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I’ve enjoyed, but I have somehow narrowed it down to 8 LPs of 2020 that I have been rinsing and repeating.
Our top 8 tracks of 2020 (we’ve listened to tonnes of old ones from the 80s through out the digging process but we’ve tried to keep this strictly 2020 - with some of our fave oldies thrown in) but also less club focussed as clubbing seems so redundant right now (although we have thrown a few heaters in for you). A mixed bag for a funny old time!
