Our 4-yr mix series continues with New York’s finest in Teklife.

[ download ]

“This is probably our best, or our most personal mix yet… just because it’s our shit — that we touched.” DJ Mel Gibson and DBK come to the table with a fresh bag of exclusive/unreleased tracks and cook up one of the most inviting platters of footwork we’ve heard since Double Cup. DJ Rashad introduced us when he put them up during SXSW presenting them as peers, and you can feel the kinship in the music – they both have a tight grip on that comfortable zone between turnt-up and chilled-out, where you can dance or smoke. And when they recall his jazzier, more soulful side, like when the horn section peaks out on mix opener “All I Can Do”, I swear I can hear the ghost of Rashad.
“We sought out to kind of do [footwork] but not really copy it, to use that sound to guide you.” (Their penchant for soul and jazz samples probably owes just as much to Dilla, whom they close the mix with an edit of.) “All I Can Do” is distinctly their own, but then when Rashad/Spinn/Taso’s “Cream” VIP slips in sounding like a continuation of that same thought, it all kind of makes sense. Fittingly, then, their next appearance will also be alongside all of them on Hyperdub’s upcoming Teklife compilation, Next Life. They’ve also got two EPs in the oven, and you can get your first dibs on all that right here.

We visited the duo at their Sunset Park studio….

MORE »