Welcome to the first edition of our new series: Peppered Digs!
12 Days of Choonsmas was one of our highlights of last year. After what has been a really difficult time for everyone, the series gave us the chance to connect with people we love and admire, as artists and contributors, and supporters, friends, and family.
At the end of each month we will be delivering a selection of our most recent digs, similarly to Choonsmas, and also, every mid-month, we will be inviting a guest on the series to catch up with and hear about theirs!
How exciting!!!!
Welcome to the first edition of our new series: Peppered Digs!
12 Days of Choonsmas was one of our highlights of last year. After what has been a really difficult time for everyone, the series gave us the chance to connect with people we love and admire, as artists and contributors, and supporters, friends, and family.
At the end of each month we will be delivering a selection of our most recent digs, similarly to Choonsmas, and also, every mid-month, we will be inviting a guest on the series to catch up with and hear about theirs!
How exciting!!!!
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!
Glen De La: Despite getting the reissue treatment from Fantasy Love Records back in 2018, I only just heard ‘How Can I’ via a repress announcement on Seance Centre’s IG. As soon as I saw Juan Atkins was involved I stopped what I was doing and looked it up. Thankfully, I hadn’t missed the repress and now I listen to it once or twice a day, singing along. Can’t wait to hear this on a dancefloor. Absolutely incredible.
EJ: I couldn’t believe what I was first reading when I heard Stroom were reissuing a fellow Stopfordian’s work, but K.S Eden’s Passed Beyond LP is sure to become a captivating favourite. It’s great to read about the journey Kevin Eden’s been on with his music, and to see familiar areas like Cheadle Hulme being talked about! I picked Ghost Fires as my track, but the LP is worth a full listen start til finish.
Gretbox: I’ve heard dribs and drabs of Sandii over the years but am currently a little bit in love with the Haruomi Hosono produced Heat Scale LP from 1981. The whole album sounds like if Jah Wobble and the Tom Tom Club went on an ayahuasca retreat in Japan, with Tohmei Ningen that period of anticipation just before the peak when you start to distrust the dudes you’re with.
The Gretfather: No fucking about with this one. Hooning dubbed-out techno roller which dropped straight from outer space into Germany in 1996. The rest, as they say, is history.
Donnagan: Stand out track from one of my favourite albums of 2020. Really good garage/punk rock from Boston. Doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t, just plain simple & fun to listen to.
Dombot: Despite being German, Ian Pooley sounds like a bloke you’d meet down The Magnet, and this track embodies my imaginary Stockport Ian. To quote our good friend Gav on his own channel: “gaaaahhh! doush doush doush doush.” Seems just as potent in 2021 as I imagine it was in ‘95.
Mark Brick: Hard-hittin’ EBM band from 80s Belgium remixed by a founding father of the New Beat movement Herman Gillis AKA Herman Sherman AKA Sherman. I think the YouTube caption describes it better than I will so I’ll save my ramblings for a rainier day.
‘Smoovely Pumpin' And Slightly Melodramtic Downtempo’.
Cubre: Enchanting track from Ichiko Hashimoto. Its cool to hear a jazz pianist make electronic music like this. Saada Bonaire meets Ingrid Chavez meets Ryo Kawasaki (when he was making bleepy bloopy electronic music in the 80s). Shouts to the forthcoming Music from Memory compilation “Hesei No Oto” and its compilers Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato. The comp got me onto Ichiko Hashimoto and every song on it is pretty special.
SP: For our inaugural collective peppered dig, it feels fitting to shout out la famille Française phénoménale, Bruits De La Passions, as one of the crew’s top diggers, Belec, has teamed up with DJ Sainte Rita to put out an absolute bomb of a compo on Born Bad Records. DYNAM'HIT digs up coy-smile French proto-house alongside jelly-legged new beat and disco-rave hybrid bombastic blasters from the nineteen nineties, baby. Just as much of an educational artefact of French House music as it is a dancefloor essential, this comp was an insta cop from us over at camp pepper, and we look forward to getting down to this one together in the hopefully not too distant future; you know, as a family.
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
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
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.
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.
Tried to keep it as weird as possible. And shed some light on some smaller acts from Bristol to Chicargooooooo.
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?
Some of the stuff we have been digging this year and personal finds!
SP: It's actually entirely to do with the pubs reopening. Enjoy with caution
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
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 🐇
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.
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 :)
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 :)
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.
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.
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
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*
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.
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.
Here's some choons, new and old that kept us going in this weird as hell year. Hope you enjoy.
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.
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.
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."
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
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
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.
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!
