FK creates a Masterpiece
Triple CD mix from Lord Kervorkian
Ministry of Sound, what with their own brand lunch boxes, lawnmowers and hair straighteners, its easy for us music snobs to forget that they once stood for quality dance music and not just Best Trance Album Ever type output. Once in a while they pull together something quite good. This time they have roped in one of the patriarchs of the New York scene to put together a 3 disc past/present/future classics type affair and it looks rather good.
Francois K is the man and on it Kevorkian covers alot of bases. He goes through the Detroit rainbow, classic techno, old school house and modern euro/berlin sounds. To this writers eye, its the best looking FK mix since his BBC Essential Mix from way back in 2000 and well worth your few sheckles, if for no other reason than our very own Chymera gets a track on Disc 2! All together now...Sinne Fianna Fáil....
Its available January 28th and here's the tracklist:
CD1
1. François K - Crystal Wind (Soundscape)
2. Dubfire - RibCage
3. Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Remix)
4. Jussi-Pekka - Dead Serious
5. DIM - Sysiphos
6. Audion - Noiser
7. Martin Buttrich - Hunter
8. Gabry Fasano - Time Blender
9. Cobblestone Jazz - Put The Lime In The Coconut
10. Michel de Hey Vs Secret Cinema - Compound (MIRKO Remix)
11. Rino Cerrone - Frame
12. Rejected - Let's Go Juno
13. Deadmau5 - Not Exactly
14. Digitalism - Jupiter Room (Martian Assault Mix)
15. Phantom Power - Acid Über Alles
16. Beroshima - Horizon (Pig & Dan Remix)
17. Gregor Tresher - A Thousand Nights
18. Olivier Giacomotto - Gail In The O (John Acquaviva & Damon Jee Remix)
19. Scuba Feat. Lisa Shaw - Love For You (Nova Dream Sequence)
20. Tom Middleton - Shinkansen
CD2:
1. Detroit Grand Pubahs - Skydive From Venus
2. David Hausdorf - Untitled
3. nsi. - dual
4. Samuel L Sessions - Smokestack
5. Armand Van Helden - I Want Your Soul (Dusty Kid Suga Dub)
6. Airfrog - Bon Voyage
7. Fumiya Tanaka - For Set 3
8. Joris Voorn - Many Reasons
9. Axiom & Eric Powell - Resurgum (Eric Powell's Tribal Bitch Mix)
10. Ben Sims - Feelin Acid 2
11. Robert Hood - Still Hear (Los Hermanos Remix)
12. Kenny Larkin - Track (Alternativemix)
13. Ignacio - Chios
14. Taho - Energy Fields
15. Chymera - Wish
16. Len Faki - Rainbow Delta (Jerome Sydenham Remix)
17. Dub Taylor - Dub Arp 2
18. Drexciya - Powers of The Deep
19. Scape One - Sequence Data 1
20. Model 500 - Nightdrive (Thru Babylon)
21. François K - Space Sweeps
CD3:
1. Toby Tobias Dave's Sex Bits Quiet Village Remix
2. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds (Cumulo Nimbus Mix)
3. François K - Road Of Life
4. Pete Shelley - Witness The Change
5. Deee-Lite - What Is Love (Holographic Goatee Mix)
6. Orange Water - Lo Tek
7. Partial Arts - Cruising
8. Henrik Schwarz - Digital World
9. Virgo - In A Vision
10. Art Of Tones - Praise
11. Akabu - Phuture Bound (Âme Remix)
12. Dennis Ferrer Feat. Mia Tuttavilla - Touched The Sky (Joe’s Dub Beats)
13. The Mountain - People Mountain003
14. Jephté Guillaume Pres Erol Josué - Papa Loko (You Can’t Steal Papa Loko's Thunder Mix)
15. Reel Houze - The Chance
16. Dogma & The Afro-Cuban Rhythms - Ma Suave
17. Konono No 1 - Ungudi Wele Wel
Its sounds good to me so far. You can't really compare it to the Essential mix. Its worth noting that the entire mix was performed using Native Instruments' Tractor Dj studio 3.22 on apple macbook pro running OS-X 10.4.9, using three decks and built-in effects, routed into the softwares internal mixer, running at 24-bit/96 khz, with the hardware conntrollers being one evolution UC-33E and X-session. The audio output was then recorded digitally straight into another workstation at those same bit and sample rates, and edited. From there, anaolg stage payback via a Metric halo 2882 audio interfaces D/A converters, into a summit audio TPA-200B dual valve line amplifier, then a GML 8200 parametric equalizer...........................................................................................................................................Who gives a hoop Francois?
does anybody know where i can get the 2000 essential mix?!i am having serious trouble finding it?!
CD1 looks a bit all over the place, I much rather seing someone like him playing tracks from American producers to an extent as it keeps the American feel off the mixes.
Like Brendon Moeller for example his last RA mix was full of Dubby/Deep techno the kind I think of when I hear a mix from an American dj.
his set at ST in 06 was brillant - that was a great night. was like a mixture of this cd with elements of that essential mix cd he did yonks ago. he does over complicate his set up you might think but i dunno i think its worth it tbh. all that attention to detail he puts in before a gig - its worth it. Mr scruff is pretty similar, really wants everything to be 100%. i usually find djs who spend alot of time setting up and getting the details and sound right tend to be better
Was chatting to a Swordsman (of the lone type) once about FKs set up, he - amusingly - thought it was a load of nonsense, was summit along the lines of "all this gear so he can throw a few fcuking accapellas over other tracks" ha!
(now im sure he does a bit more than that but it's still funny)
yeah theres truth to that for sure. i saw him play sonar and fabric before and alot of time was spent on stage with sound enginners fannying about trying to fix things . when he played with us John spent all day getting his spec sorted so when he played no problem. he was really appreciative after too said usually everyone gets it wrong. it wouldnt be for me that lark though , i like things as simple as possible that sort of set up would do my head in
Great soul/funk/disco & deep space dj ... crap techno dj IMO. Didn't make the Rogue gig but heard both good and bad reports...he wasn't great in the Metropolitan when i did see him
I think his set up is absolutley worth it, because he is master of it. Sure, you could probably do what he does with a Pioneer mixer and one or two others but the attention to detail really comes accross in his set up.
I had to set up an Allen & Heath 464, Yamaha efx processor (with his own presets on memory card) a dope real isolater and a few others, he used Traktor and wasnt overly technical wit his mixing, but the way he rode the isolator and efx was a real master at work, definitley adding to the sound.
rogue gig started off a bit dodgy was fairly whacking it out within 30 minutes. last 2/3 hours was brillant though , completely turned it around
I love FK, but I thought he was pretty poor when he played at the Metropolitan a few years ago. Since then though, I've heard his "Deep Space" sets, and they are stunning. I know what Tom is getting at in saying he's a "crap" techno DJ, as I didn't think he played techno particularly well that night either, but sets I've heard since then have completely changed my view. I do prefer him when he gets to play everything, I think in Metropolitan he might have played 2 hours or so, like Garnier I think you really have to hear him for 4 hours plus to understand what he's all about. The tracklisting on this CD looks ace, and the set-up incredibly complicated (not terribly unlike Richie Hawtin's DE9 project, truth to tell, although maybe a little less complicated than the super geek). His essential mix is one of the most accomplished and varied mixes I've ever heard, I love the way he brought in that James Brown track "there was a time" into it, amazing mix CD. I'll definitely buy this, there's clearly a lot of thought, care, and attention put into it.
not heard this mix....yet. But in my humble opinion, FK is the finest dj i've ever heard, when it comes to working a sound system, he continues to be so passionate about the music he plays and how it is played.
Like any true craftsmen, you use the best equipment you can find, to get the best possible result, wether you are a chippy, or a frigging disc jockey. You have to admire his enthusiasm at the end of the day.
Plus, anyone who does in the region of 150+ overseas gigs per year, at the age of 54 - i take my hat off to.
Thought he was amazing at EP a couple of years ago. perfect techno set IMO.
Obviously wasn't at the ST gig, but I saw him at Deep Space in NY and he was wicked as well.
He's definitely one of the best and most versatile DJs out there. Now I only need to see him playing a B&S set and I'm set!
some people on some forums gave FK awful jip about playing a chill out set at EP06. what actually happened was that Laurent Garnier was due to play last and play live . normally theres time between a DJ and a live act and the sound engineer ( or in recent years yours truly) plays some tunes before live act comes on, Larry wanted especially to have sounds before he played to be very chilled.so I asked FK would he mind doing it , and he said would be his pleasure so for last 20-30mins before garnier came on, and after the time FK was due to have finished anyway, he chilled it right down from peak time techno to Mauel Gotthenings E2E4. t'was a class performance by a class act, was a pity i couldnt tell the crowd what he was trying to do. nothing many djs could or would have done it and he set the mood up perfectly for LG to start from scratch....
Yeah, I loved it when he played E2-E4, it sounded amazing!!
Say what you want about FKs style or set up, hes knows what hes doing and can back the talk up. If he was a bullsh*tter just trying to look good I could understand the jibes but if I died with half the knowledge and life experience of music Im sure he has, Id be a happy man.
As for the rogue gig, it was excellent but if you werent open to anything and everything be thrown at you musically, forget about it
that set in the Metropolitan really put me off him but i'm gonna get hold of this and that 2000 EssMix, see if i can put him back in the good books
Maybe he played in the Metropolitan more than once (i dont think so) but when i saw him there I thought he was brilliant! Cant remember how long he played but we still got the full spectrum of dub/house/techno/DnB. I went to the Metropolitan a fair bit back then and Id certainly never been so entertained (and i saw some great gigs in there). I cant think why anyone else wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as the gig he did in Rogue... with the exception of Conor's most excellent warm up set of course. ;)
the 2000 Essential mix cd is seminal stuff
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conor_l
For the sake of being pedantic (As only an FK fan can!) Id fancy his frequency mix over that any day. Though Id say its still decent
As for the Essential mix, I dont think he will ever top that in a commercial mix