Mother Mix
Bringing in Tapes #55 is DJ & Producer Mother who has been spinning records with varying levels of importance for around two decades.
He currently runs the Concrete Cabin label with 12th Isle's DJ Crud, and has turned in a fairly hefty amount of mixes over the past 5 years in particular: for operators such as L.I.E.S, Firecracker and Berceuse Heroique, made numerous guest appearances on NTS and Rinse FM, and dropped cassettes for the likes of The Trilogy Tapes, V I S and streetwear colossus Brain Dead. To pay his bills, he slings records and hardwear at Rubadub in Glasgow.
Tracklist
Haramia Tapes - Shadows Blooming (Baroque Sunburst)
Deadbeat & Om Unit - Root (Midnight Shift)
Comfortnoise Ploy - Intermediate (Comfortnoise)
Trinity Carbon - Archeoacoustics (ESP Institute)
Ossia - Drum Tangle (Noods)
Marco Shuttle - Through the Cobalt Desert (Incienso)
Cosimo Damiano - Algol (SURVIVE LTD)
Big Hands - A (Graft Label)
Soreab & KRSLD - Butoh (Baroque Sunburst / XCPT)
Felix K - Flower of Destruction 6 (Hidden Hawaii)
Mark - Integrier dich du Yuppie (A Colourful Storm)
Pushlock - Ghosting (XCPT)
Homemade Weapons - Gauntlet VIP (Samurai Music)
Ruffhouse - UVB-76 (Samurai Music)
Source Direct - Technical Warfare (Science)
This Friday, we welcome one half of Concrete Cabin, Mother to the series! How are things, Mark?
Things are good, thanks. Busy with work, which has been consistent over the past two years - I'm pretty lucky I wasn't thrown into some existential or real-world crisis by way of covid. Obviously, I wasn't doing much DJing, but I actually enjoyed the break if I'm going, to be honest. Apart from doing my residency at Refuge Radio, this is the first mix I've done since before the pandemic, and it was good fun engaging with DJing at the bare bones two-turntables-and-a-mixer level again.
How’s the music scene up in Glasgow currently?
It seems to be in pretty rude health, considering. I always found Glasgow to be quite fractured in the past, in terms of the lack of cross-pollination of people & entities who often have similar outlooks and interests, but that seems to have become much less of an issue recently, and it's certainly more diverse than when I first started - at least at the level myself and most of the people I know are operating on. I dunno... There are a lot of good DJs and musicians here, and it's great to see them actually get some attention at the local level. The pandemic obviously put the brakes on the number of international DJs rolling through here every weekend - a field where Glasgow punched way above its weight, relative to its size. It's just nice to see a fresh crop of folk stepping up, and more often than not it's in a DIY tradition I reckon... but then you also remember some of them have been DJing or performing for fucking years too.
What’s your favourite venue there?
For clubbing, La Cheetah, the infamous Queen St basement spot. A big part of that is a friends & family thing, but it's intimate and sounds good. For live stuff the Old Hairdressers and Stereo are solid. I really miss The Art School though!
How’s working at everyone’s favourite distributor Rubadub? What’s your job role?
Yeah, great - we've been lucky that online sales kept us rolling through covid tbh, and in some ways, I was busier than I've ever been during that period. In terms of job roles, fuck... there isn't a lot I haven't done here tbh, and some I'm better at than others, for sure. Currently, I'm definitely more on the tech side I guess, product specialist wise and doing a little purchasing here, some website backend stuff there. I also largely maintain the socials and can still be found behind the counter in the shop twice a week. Pulling out record recommendations is still the most rewarding part of my job - especially if they buy them, and even more especially if the person is new to buying records. I could say the same for synths etc. too though. It's nice to be able to offer up a space where people can come and fuck with gear they might not otherwise have access to, or hadn't considered. You've obviously gotta put money in the till to keep the doors open, but we're not consciously aiming for a car showroom vibe here.
Any release plans lined up for Concrete Cabin that you can let us in on? I remember when that first Hamilton Scalpel release came out - one of the best releases of 2019!
Believe it or not, yes - the debut release from Power, INC. It's gonna be a double cassette album that we managed to whittle down from a frankly immense amount of amazing material, and I guess explores the more abstract side of CC - which is equally as crucial to our thing as the tear-out shit you've heard from Hamilton Scalpel & DJ Skift. The club night that the label was born out of was/is highly irregular, and I guess we're keeping our release schedule in line with that - wittingly or not.
How long have you been DJing and how did you get into it?
I beat matched a record by accident twenty years ago, and it just sort of clicked - like riding a bike!
What’s the best part about running a label?
Getting new music out there that might not otherwise be given a wider platform. And selling enough to not only not lose money, but to be able to cut something off for the artists is a big plus too - contrary to popular belief that's not always possible with physical formats, unfortunately. Thankfully digital sales can now take up the slack on that somewhat, sometimes!
Quick fire: Labels to watch?
XCPT, Ophism, Trule / Amidah, Mana, ANWO, the whole West Mineral / XPQ etc. thing, Ghost Phone are just a scant few I can mention. Not a label obviously, but someone who's been particularly on fire recently is Om Unit. There's so much good shit - it's never been better.
Favourite closing track / tracks?
There was a point where I don't think we'd have considered it a proper Concrete Cabin if we didn't play DJ SS's "Black" 12", the one with the Whitney sample, so I'll go with that. A perfect balance of morose and uplifting... and a wee bit daft.
What genre do you think you listen to the most in your free time?
If anything, Rap is probably gonna edge it tbh, but I listen to such a wide array of stuff day to day that I honestly don't know. Because of my job there's little to no distinction between free and work time when it comes to listening to music, which is more of a blessing than it is a curse! I love not listening to music too though.
Thanks for joining us Mark!