Mixtape is asking DJs and producers coming to town, in their opinions, what are the five best songs ever and forever and ever. Or just five songs that are somewhat interesting for some reason. Or six songs. We're easy鈥�
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Preface: This mixtape originally appeared on our sister site ahead of Shanghai Ultra and the VOID crew DJing at this weekend. We're featuring it here for their contribution to music in Shanghai. For many years, VOID has been the night for true underground techno and house in Shanghai. Highlights include a party with Underground Resistance at on the club's opening night back in 2007 and a warehouse party in 2009 that drew over 1,500 people. The extended VOID crew contains artists like , a Chinese techno producer who called "The Chinese Connection" on Detroit label Cratesavers International last year. The VOID gang consistently put up [and often lose] their own money to fly over seminal producers like Juan Atkins and Robert Hood. They do it strictly for the love of techno.
The mix maker: Representing the VOID techno junta, here's Scottish transplant, Shanghai-living Shanghai Ultra with five techno tracks to elucidate the music they play. A mainstay of the Shanghai underground dance scene for nigh a million years now (7), VOID have hosted into China some of the biggest names in the originating and revisionist waves of Detroit techno and house: Juan Atkins, DJ Bone (x2), Nomadico of Underground Resistance, Robert Hood, Surgeon, Inigo Kennedy, Trax, Neil Landstrumm -- it's a long list. For his own part, the producer / DJ brings a classicist, visceral, and emotive edge to techno, mixing up tried and true analog sounds and tones in a late night drive to euphoria, release, and frenzy. In his sets, Shanghai Ultra is known to augment his trax with a classic piece of gear: the 909.
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Jeff Mills - "Utopia" (Axis Records 1994)"
Shanghai Ultra says: In the '90s before I'd ever thought about coming to China, I was just getting into Detroit Techno legend Jeff Mills. He's known for his slightly silly and pretentious sleeve notes with his productions; but one particular quote of his on an old album stuck out and I think in an indirect way led to be moving to China years later:
"As barriers fall around the world, the need to understand others and the way they live, think, and dream is a task that is nearly impossible without theory and explanation. And as we approach the next century with hope and prosperity, this need soon becomes a necessity rather than a recreational urge."
I think that's a prophetic concept for me, and it applies to all of us who moved to the other side of the world. Mill's track "Utopia" came out several years before and wasn't on the same album as the quote. But it's an awe-inspiring track that crams so many ingredients into one -- atmosphere, orchestral passages, bleepy loops, a driving bass, and positive message about the future. Truly inspirational. It's been played at VOID many times.
Optic Nerve - "Optic Nerve" (Diametric Records)"
Shanghai Ultra says: I found this Detroit track through a good friend of mine, Vuk Dragovic, who has been a long-time supporter of VOID. He made a time-lapse video of a typical Saturday in Shanghai -- him and a few mates going for brunch, a massage, then beers etc, with this tune as the soundtrack, and it just fits so well. With it's busy rhythm yet subtle layered structure, listening to it feels like I'm rushing around the streets of the city in fast-forward. Throw in some beautiful sci-fi chord pads and you have an awesome track fit for a movie and a dance floor.
Astral Pilot - "Electro Acupuncture" (Claude Young Mix) (Harthouse records)
Shanghai Ultra says: This is a really personal inclusion. As foreigners living in China, we are often a bit disconnected from support networks such as close friends and family. So when something goes wrong in your life, sometimes you don't have anywhere to turn as there's just a vacuum which can lead to self-destructive behavior. Music filled this vacuum for me and in this track in particular gave me strength during a some tough times a few years ago. I'd wake up in the morning feeling bad, but one listen to this walking along Changle Lu on the way to work, and that magical strings breakdown in the middle, it would always make me feel much better. This track is a tribute to the power of music.
DJ Shufflemaster - "re:weekend" (Disq)
Shanghai Ultra says: One time I played this a few years back at the old Logo Bar in Shanghai. Mr Stokes (one of the best foreign DJs in Shanghai at that time) was there that night and came running over to me asking what it was as soon as the saxophone riff kicked in. "But that's not techno!" he protested. Techno is such a diverse term really, as this Japan-produced track proves. Always moves the floor. My secret classic.
Convextion - "Miranda" (Matrix Detroit)
Shanghai Ultra says: Juan Atkins played at VOID at the Shelter in Shanghai back in 2008 -- this was the second track he dropped and I think is one of electronic music's finest moments. Hypnotic, spaced-out, weird harmonics sending sparks cascading over your brain -- it's a dance floor winner. People often ask me what's the difference between the techno played at VOID and played at all the other parties around with techno. The difference is we play tracks like this and all the others in this list -- it doesn't sound immediately like a dance floor killer but it is. The track is typical in a way, techno has lots of very deep bass, lots of very high frequencies, and not so much in the middle, as its if its very soul is trying to get away from the middle, the mainstream. Techno set us free!
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