Tired of hearing Noddy Holder strain his larynx to welcome in Christmas? Then you’d best unwrap this mighty gift of eccentric festive electronics from our latest mix artist, Ivan Smagghe.
French DJ Smagghe has, through years of consistently solid sets – and his work in acclaimed electro outfit Black Strobe, which he co-founded with Arnaud Rebotini – become one of the most respected selectors out there. He’s notched up releases on labels such as Fabric, Kompakt and Crosstown Rebels, but doesn’t make a song and dance about what he does – although others certainly do, and with good reason. You can often hear him working through any kind of house, disco and techno, but Smagghe is far too wise and creative to be pigeonholed so easily, and you’ll just as likely hear him going brilliantly off-piste in any DJ set and killing it just the same.
Though it may be titled ‘Festive Music for Sad Little Girls’, you don’t have to be sad, small, female or even festive to enjoy Smagghe’s wonky salute to Christmas, by way of cosmic disco, keta-funk, analogue electro jams, leftfield house and existential spoken word samples. It’s all beautifully weird, woven together by Smagghe’s expert ear and general musical savviness. God knows where he found some of these oddball treasures, but we’re guessing he had to dig very deep into an extensive record collection and blow away a lot of dust in the process.
Here’s Smagghe discussing the mix, in a sense…
“Festive music for sad little girls who do not play club music when they are at home, because a home is not a club, though there are clubs where I allow myself to play this, because restrictions are always self-imposed, as is anything and anything goes. That goes for style – the style of no style, not obscure, not inaccessible – remote, maybe, but that is where I like to hang out. A strange place some would say but everything is strange to them, because they never travel in their own mind whilst you do and you will tell me, but I do not want to know really if the trip was worth it.”
So there you go. And just for the record, the trip is very much worth it. A very merry Mixmas to you all.
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1. Johnny Dangerous - Only Yourself [King Street]
2. Rex Ilusivii -Timpani + Zvona [Offen Records]
3. Eva & Friends-Fantasia Theme (33rpm) [Disco Moda]
4. Ian Anderson - Fly by Night [Chrysalis]
5. Psychemagik - Auf Dem Dub [Discotheque Wreckers]
6. Falcons - Perdido En El Universo [Philips]
7. Anna - Systems Breaking Down (Dub) [RCA]
8. UnknownmiX - Chew the Gun (Red Axes Edit) [Unreleased]
9. Luc Marianni - Icarus Flight (O B Ignitt Flavor Mix) [DDDisque]
10. Skyline - Future Jungle [Four Stars]
11. Goom - Petite Sieste [Philips]
12. Cha Cha Guitry - Unknown tape track [Born Bard/Serendip]
13. Jaakko Eino Kalevi - Macho [Helmi Levit Records]
14. Varoy JD - The Train (demo) [LDDLM]
15. Johnny Dangerous - Only Yourself [King Street]
Words: Tristan Parker
Ivan Smagghe plays The Hydra: Bugged Out on New Year’s Eve at Studio Spaces, Wapping, London, with Erol Alkan and Daniel Avery.
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