DIFFUSION MIX #1 ~ CHITS

Recently we asked our brother chits to hit us up with a mix. He did, and the delectable fruits of his labour have materialized in a refreshing jolt of dark, washed out juke joints. As a producer, chits represents one of the most interesting and essential movements in modern music, for our liking. Along with the likes of Lil Jabba, Howse, and slava et al, chits engages in the hazy landscape of second generation footwork producers. Unlike the Chicago originators, these fellows have taken the genre off the dancefloor and into the mind – exploring juke’s capabilities within the context of a plethora of other genres. Chits’ selections are a perfect example of this. The mix features everything from Burial to Madlib, with chits’ own new and old productions, as well as the likes of slava and Sully, generously peppered throughout. And what is great about this mix is the maintenance of a very distinct vibe. It is heavy, perfect for late night driving, but also sporadic and jolty; it resides, as an entity, in the stratosphere, yet there is something essentially human about it.



We hope you enjoy, because we certainly have! We also asked the man to do a short interview with us, so here it is, with chits revealing some information about himself, his process, and his intent:

First up, there is barely anything online about you, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, how old you are and what you do?

Ye I'm Zach from Pennsylvania. I've lived a bit in Los Angeles, and rather like it there. Currently I'm 20 years old, hoping to reach 21 sometime this year, and I honestly don't do much...but sometimes I make pizza and music.

How did you get into making music and how did juke music start influencing your beats? Did you start out juke or did your sound evolve from something/somewhere else?

I got into making music through the interwebs u dig? E-homies showin me the basics of making beats on a computer, and then just always expanding on my productions. So eventually I ended up making real fast shit, like juke. I never really intended to do the whole footwork thing, it's just kind of how I would make a beat at those kinds of tempos.

We have been frothing over the abundant experimental juke that has been cropping up all over the world. How do you see yourself fit into the movement from Chicago?

Haha, I really don't have an answer to that question. I'm not too good at looking at the bigger picture or whatever, but I can say that I'd be surprised if I make any mark on the movement. I can't see myself ever sticking to one style long enough honestly, but hopefully that will change.

It seems that juke music, both the ghettotekz and the 2nd wave of artist happen primarily on soundcloud and twitter. How do you think both of these fickle social media affect the scene?

I dunno, they can't hurt really. It's easy as ever to find some new new floating around. If it were up to me though, juke should only be on myspace. It just seems real myspace-y.

Footwork, as a genre is traditionally geared for the battleground. Do you make tunes with footwork (the dance) in mind or are you after a more cerebral experience?

Nah I'm never thinking about the dance while making tunes...I'm really not thinking about much at all. I'm more about just trying things and seeing where I end up. So ya I'd say certainly more cerebral. I would hope people can just feel it, and if dancing is a side effect of that, then that's what's up.

Ssaliva - Yet Another Vase

New Ssaliva tune shows a heavy weed hazed swagger to the Belgian producer's style. With its blistering synth flares and lazy guitar twangs the tune is an immersive swimming jam that serves as the perfect backdrop to any heavy, preferably camfire-adjacent AM sesh after a loose night.

Dj Chap - Hungry. Happy. Sleepy. EP Previews

Yep, lamentably some more previews, this time from Dj Chap a footworker from Montebello. His forthcoming Ep displays a surprising amount of depth and exoticism in his bangs. 'Loser's Finals' suggest a washed out and ambiguously ancient sounding landscape filled with tribalistic rhythms and nomadic instrumental tones.



'WutUNeed' sounds like its powered by steam with pistons pulsing to the tom hits. The vocals were easily ripped from any garden variety house anthem but pulled into a kind of murky refrained focus. An eerie production for sure but one thats just as workable.

Don't forget to check out 'Lift Me Up' a '92 era hardcore banger of the same EP.

Big Synths - New Appropriations

We, here at Diffusion, are suckers for that big synth sound - it is what, after all, got us into electronic music (through James Blake). The glisten, the shimmer, the full warmth in your heart, a tingle down your spine. This sound has been relatively quiet of late, but here are a few producers, from both the UK and the US, who are finding interesting and progressive ways to include it in their music. Dark Sky - Black Rainbows EP In the wake of dubstep, UK music seemed to stem in two directions. One, the hard, dancefloor-centric sounds of "UK Bass", probably best represented best by Ramadanman and his cohort on Hessle Audio. Two, the "post-dubstep" sounds of James Blake, Mount Kimbie and Disclosure, which has slowly disappeared up its own arse thanks to the likes of Blake's album and Bondax.

Bark Sky - Black Rainbows EP
Dark Sky have achieved the perfect synthesis of these two sounds, as, maybe, Joy O did beforehand. The group maintain the tuff, mean sounds of the first branch, while adding, yes, that big synth sound of the second. This is exemplified by 'F Technology', a thunderous dancefloor murderer that features brutal subs, an incessant Bass rhythm and a set of sepic, warbling synths. I can only imagine the destruction caused by this on a system. 'Totem' features drums that could have been lifted from a Ram tune and an earworm synth breakdown that just keeps building and building, with hats, strings and modulations slowly added. 'Totem' is a real demonstrations of Dark Sky's subtle finesse in production - it is beautifully produced and sounds impeccably clean. 'Zoom' sees a return to the UK Bass sound, with a skittering garage swing and an ever-expanding synth sound. One day Diffusion will buy a spaceship and turn it into a club - these are the kinds of beats we'll be playing.

Mess Kid - Slip Slow (Mohegan Son Legboot)
Mohegan Son approaches the big synth from a different angle. In the context of a US sound, he places it on top of jukey, trapy rhythms - all big bass drops that bang and work and short, repetitive vocal samples. The hi-end, however, leans more towards post-dub, it is lush, melodious and a pleasure to listen to. Altogether Mohegan Son has created a magically chilled-out summer's day in song form.

New Sine Field Releases

Neuport, back from his Chorizo EP in Jan, is sounding colder and more on point than ever. The quantized, juke-tinged, blunted Minneapolisness of his sound is sure to come to light on his new EP.

  GET HIGH - FORTHCOMING - PREVIEW by Triple Six Sound Club
 Triple Six Sound cloud has also thrown in a couple of criminally unsatisfying one minute previews for an unspecified forthcoming release. 'Get High' while filling Sine Field's minimum weed reference quota, fills your ears with hissing plumes of nitrogen gas and is weighed down with its sinister club riffs.

The Sine Field label has got to be one of the most interesting and left of field takes on the otherwise annoyingly engrained templates of the dub, tech and house worlds while also holding a mirror to the increasingly temperamental catalyst of the internet. As such, we will be eagerly awaiting their every move.

Lone - Crystal Caverns 1991 / Vulcan Acid Mill

Usually Lone is a straight baller, so anytime a new release of his drops your boys over at Diffusion get wet. After 'Cloud 909', 'Approaching Rainbow' and 'All Those Weird Things', this single is no disappointment. 'Crystal Caverns 1991' is a trademark Lone banger, with outerspace synths and a stomping beat it is a welcome addition to the tunes I mentioned before, the producer maintaining that wildly euphoric, eyes-glazed-over, peaking vibe - painted in technicolour vividness through a star-gazing lens. The B is just as munted, with Lone taking an excursion into acid, an idea that makes so much sense it's silly. And he pulls it off wonderfully, with a syrupy squelch, jerky, syncopated snares and a steel-drum synth line that takes you straight to the Caribbean. Hearing this was like getting a letter from an old friend and remembering just how great they are.

Korallreven - Sa Sa Samoa (Elite Gymnastics Remix)

わめく▷ ⎛VISUAL⎠ from ELITE GYMNASTICS on Vimeo.

Elite Gymnastics deliver a very classy hardcore throwback that pushes all the right buttons while adding something fresh. Rolling breaks and jabbing pianos recall all the glory of a pill-frenzied rave utopia, in that ecstatic, ultra-nostalgic (hence melancholic) way that only hardcore can do. The gymnasts flip on the second half of the tune - an intense wave of Whitehouse-y noise washes over the ecstasy, stirring up the dark undertones of rave culture. The happy and the sad are presented here in their complex dichotomy, both piled into a wonderful 4 minutes of music. Watch out for the resurgence of hardcore this year, after all, it has been exactly 20 years since 92!

Kromestar - Parallel Sounds EP Sampler

Speaking of Om Unit, his label, Cosmic Bridge, has just announced an ep by Kromestar due for April 16th. Fresh from his collab with the label head 'Parallel Sounds' is a collection of expansive tracks and sticky dubstep rhythms with a heavy rolling trap twist. The plunging sub and stylish swagger of 'In 2 Minds' is making me pretty excited for the dubstep pioneer's new work.

Dream Continuum - Reworkz EP

Hallelujah, Me and Tobias pretty much wait on every new Machinedrum release like chronic kidney disease patients wait for dialysis, but thankfully, we never have to wait that long. As mentioned previously, Reworkz find the tireless Travis Stewart and mysterious Jim Cole (aka Om Unit aka Phillip D. Kick) exploring the theoretical middle-ground between jungle and juke. Their individual approaches to this niche thus far have left something to be desired, Cole's work appropriated the soaring synth string, vocal samples and rasta-isms of 90s jungle classics with the cardio-vascular rhythms and bangs of footwork whereas Travis sought to deconstruct jungle's frenzied breaks and confine them to the short, immediate, jukey loops but in both cases the unique appeal of both styles ran parallel with each other and very rarely merged to form something completely new. Reworkz offers a completely different angle entirely in which the disorientating intricacies of the classic jungle swing are executed with the cold, harsh quantization of juke and brought into focus by Stewarts quint-essential transcendent harmonic lifts. 'B Free' surges on a cosmic arc with all the intensity of a mid-90s dark jungle work out constructed out of the cold tones of 808 snares, claps, and hi-hats. 'Set It' however, breaks down its breaks to individual impulses and collages them into hybrid delirium in which the rasta vocals hammer into the track as hard as the ghetto equivalent. 'Give a Little Luv' showcases Machinedrum's current style - the rolling bangs-cum-drone bass, the intricate snare patterns, the buzzing synths. But what is really impressive about this song, and EP in general, is the perfect synthesis of the two genres, as we glide ecstatically from bangs to breaks and back again. Jungle's flailing cymbals compliment the intensity of footwork rhythms stunningly and, conversely, juke's bangs deftly mimic jungle's bass pressure. In the end we have in our hands a beautifully crafted and imaginated piece of dance music.

Wanda Group - Cleaners

Vlek Record's, the guys behind Ssaliva's EP in January, have let out another freebie by 'Wanda Group' a new project from London's Dem Hunger. 'Cleaners' is a throbbing collection of bassy slowjams evoking the hazy depths of Actress, Vessel or another of the darker Tri-Angle imprints. While I can't help but feel like this EP covers some very familiar ground there is a certain urban crispness to Wanda Group's work that in tracks like 'Gold Frame' hit the audio-textural g-spot and makes Cleaners the effortless, elegant release it is.

LiL ♎ JaBBA - WeRKS

This may well be my favourite tune from 2k12 so far. It is an immaculately arranged collage of jazz samples that ebbs and flows in a way that perfectly recalls jazz's malleable structure. Indeed, this is where jazz music should have headed after the trane mastered it, and I'm not complaining about the Meters or Parliament, I'm complaining about Pat Metheny and all the lifeless drivel that calls itself jazz in the modern day. 'Werks' is a blistering workout of pulsing rhythms, screeching sax blasts, and mellow horn washes and swirls. Within its 4 minute run time, it stomps through several different vibes - from frantic to soothing to tense - all situated, amazingly enough, within a restrained sonic palette. Jabba has been dancing around the boundaries for a while; this tune sees him smashing them down and fixating on a refined and idiosyncratic sound that is perfectly balanced between music's past and future. Spend some time with it, lap it all up and enjoy it.

Romare - Meditations on Afrocentrism

This is an absolutely stunning release, and a real pleasure to listen to. The entire thing is expertly crafted, each sound a delicious morsel to be consumed by your ears. 'Freedom' features tense, wheezy strings, a woodblock and the introduction of afrocentric vocal samples, a theme that runs throughout and often relies on spoken word more than disco divas. The last OPN album did the same thing impressively - extracting melodies from non-singing phonetic utterances. Spoken word instantly gives the EP a more IDM vibe, straying from juke's functionalism, which is integral to 'Meditations'. I would not be hard pressed to say that this is juke's most convincing and successful step into the IDM sphere. Sure, I prefer Machinedrum's take, but even that retains juke's need to satisfy the dancefloor. 'Meditations' is, sonically speaking, an absolute delight. It is rich, evocative and textural, almost demanding to be heard through headphones. 'The Blues' is a standout, presenting a positively African vibe - a catchy flute line, throbbing bangs and shuffled tribal percussion. Sweeling synths are introduced, coupled with a wailing siren, and the song beautifully and elegantly drifts towards its climax - a relapse into the over-saturated groove of its first minute. 'Down the Line' is a darker affair than its predecessors. The acoustic guitar instantly brings Mount Kimbie's wonderful 'Crooks and Lovers' to mind, but what stands at the forefront of this song are the vocal samples, Romare has an incredibly refined ear for them in the context of each piece. The echoed "it takes a numbrer" gentley floats through the aural ether, while a surgically manicured childish vocal line comprises a wonderful melody and the shakey wobble caps it all off in effortless style. 'I Wanna Go' is perhaps the most jukey excursion on this release, it is heavily polyrhythmic and maintains a similar attitude towards vocal samples as the footwork masters. Romare brings, by way of a crackling synth, peaking drums and a chopped vocal loop, the song into a beautifully dense yet subtle flight. 'Meditations' is a great addition to the post-footwork (yup i said it) canon.

Forthcoming Releases April/May

Me and Tobias owe our followers an apology for the recent posting lull at Diffusiontunes. Lamentably there has been a pretty comprehensive music drought that has caught up to us, but it is made all the more frustrating by the constant influxes of samplers and mixes for dope forthcoming releases. In that vein here are some of the most tantalising of the new tunes to come. Everyone get pumped yo.

 Clark - Iradelphic
 April 2 [Warp Records]
Free DL Here: http://emailunlock.com/~hp

Traxman - Da Mind of Traxman
April 9 [Planet Mu]

Hype Williams - Black is Beautiful
April 16 [Hyperdub]

 Distal - Civilisation
April 30 [Tectonic]

Squarepusher - Ufabulum
May 2 [Warp Records]

Lone - Galaxy Garden
May 7 [R&S Records]


Jam City - Classical Curves
Expected May [Night Slugs]

Jam City - The Courts from night slugs on Vimeo.

Ryddim 93 - Libido

The libidinous young Ryddim 93 offers up a collection of the hybrid juke stylings he has been posting on Soundcloud over the last month. Despite the name and the artwork this can't really be considered an album but rather an ongoing archive of Ryddim's chilled, sensual footwork aesthetic. As such I can't really criticise it for being repetitive although Ryddim has obviously formulated an ideal footworking template from which he makes his tunes. Taking cues from UK bass and garage Ryddim uses the softly swung rhythms, plunging synths and ethereal diva vocals akin to something like Sepalcure or Damu pinned down to a four to the floor pulse. The Juke flavour comes mostly from the stuttery synth stabs which hype up the tracks footwork appeal. Again, 'She Likes My Footwork' stands out as the perfect balance of juke tipped heat and UK bass depth but this is partly due to the overall lack of variety in his collection overall. That said, 'You Got It' drives a hard thudding groove into your ears intensified by the pointed ecstatic synth stabs only to dissolve into sine heavy swells. Ryddim is certainly brings a new and welcome UK stylings to the ever diversifying footwork movement and although lack in refinement or direction Ryddim is bringing the smooth sweeps and the footwork release.

Darq E Freaker feat. Diesle and Big Narstie - Go Nuts

Grime is something that we here at diffusion, regretfully, do not listen to that much. The exception is Darq E Freaker. The producer of Tempa T's anthem 'Next Hype' and of incredible instrumental 'Cherryade', Freaker is one to keep an eye on, so we did and this came about. With signature synth stabs and crunchy percussion, if this doesn't have you nodding your head and wishing you lived in Bow then I'll eat my hat. The second verse is absolutely mental as well.

DJ Clap - Sparkling

DJ Clap has taken juke to its maximalist extreme. If Rustie suddenly stumbled upon footwork, this is the kind of thing he would make. The song is a frenzied journey and, with the addition of a big phat, clean kick drum to the bangs, finds itself in very ravey, trancey circumstances. For some this may be a little too much to handle, but it just sounds like a fucking banger to me.

chits - Barry Sanders

Chits has to be one of my favourite bedroom producers around at the moment. Juke motifs are sleekly blended with hip-hop and bass tropes and in this case Barry Sanders is a thunderous roller of dark chords and various movements and themes. Starting off with glistening yet restrained vocals and stop-start beats before transferring to deeper territory and ending up in a field of mutated synths and skittering juke percussion. Free DL as well!

BODYGUARD - Silica Gel

Love him or hate him, James Ferraro is one of the most intriguing characters in modern music. He has been involved in everything from punk to kraut to drone and, as last year's Far Side Virtual, a fantastical trip through a psychedelic, postmodern virtual reality, demonstrates, has shifted towards a dense, cerebral electronic music bathed in the internet and heavily dosed with current pop music. Silica Gel continues this idiosyncratic trend with a vengeance, as Ferraro wades through a pool of 'Rude Boy' samples, icepunk allusions, metallic timbres and lo-fi cloud rap. Silica Gel is an exercise in repetition, with songs often containing a single loop with subtle variations and additions, creating vivid sonic landscapes and deep grooves.

Even within this framework, Ferrarro shows his penchant for bringing pleasant listening out of highly abstract and experimental productions. 'E-Cig' is a perfect example - an overwhelmingly weedy, murky jam, soundtracking the landing of a UFO, signalling the landing of the alien album. Ferraro has situated himself in the outskirts of music's fringes, but this tune shows that he still has the ability to engage the listener through catchy phrases and warm sonics. 'Dry Ice' is a nod to the burgeoning and previously mentioned icepunk movement. The synths sound like the biting winds of the Arctic, creating a freezing ambience which encases a slowed, chopped n screwed hip-hop beat and thick, gloopy, low-end. 'Fatal' sounds like it could have been created in an industrial estate, all big metallic synth lines, clanking chains and watery drips and drops. It evokes the too-stoned drawl of a Hype Williams song with its overload of fuzzy echoes and delays and its detuned retard-rapper sample. The album sometimes has you stopping and thinking 'how the fuck did he come up with this and pull it off?' 'Acid Rain' is one of these moments, it is a deluge of eclecticism, a postmodern sonic spew that just doesn't stop splattering multicolour on the ground. Wacky marimbas, vocal chords, drum bursts, piercing twinkles and default horn blares make up the definition of the cut'n'paste schizophrenia that Ferraro has come to be known for.

The album does have its weaker moments - songs like 'Raiden' and 'Turbulence' don't quite work and take the repetitive experimentalism into areas that verge on boring - but these can be excused in such far out territory. 'Blu Smoke Rings' features a twangy wind chime melody, a haze of caustic white-noise glitches, what sounds like a rusty trash can lid for a cymbal and a set of heavy death synths. This is the mind of a New Age yoga instructor gone mad - those chimes on the door of his studio have rattled one too many times. On 'Liquid Metal' a beautiful guitar sample drifts over booming sub throbs, floating vocals and a primordial drum machine. All the elements come together to create something greater than their parts, into a new area of vibe and sonic texture - one removed, for once, from reality and planted in the virtual, in the wondrous unknown.

Free DL here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ct3rlw675bt63w7

DJ Taye - Studio 24

Teklife's Dj Taye the 17 year old prolific prodigy has dropped a full length on Rashad's new 'Lit City Trax' label. Taye has apparently been in the game since he was 14 and obviously shows his skills on the LP. His style is far more disposed to repeat listens as tracks each flaunts an obsessively catchy vocal hook and is teemed with a pop directed, ear-pleasing production. His songs definitely hang together with a more widely palatable eb and flow as opposed to the erratic syncopation and stop-start drops more common amongst the Ghettotekz but his sound is further distinguished by a certain cartoonish cuteness that he brings the album. I have to refer here to 'Popkorn Love' with is ecstatic bounciness and bubbly melody. Taye does loose it sometimes when his high pitched jingles just get too much but overall 'Studio 24' is a very subtle but effective album that will hook you in from first listen.

✞ENNI$R✡DM∆N - The Future Is Now

Rodman with his trademark wonky swagger just came out with this track for one of our favourites 'post religion'. The sloppy hashtaggy vocal clips are layed underneath an almost garage-y swing which is pinned down with Rodmans usual sticky drumwork. The net effect is a sprawling headfuck from an artist who is working the edges of the internet for that post-futuristic sound.

Jlin - EXPAND

Jlin charging in with her new track 'expand'. Its urgent tempo and ominous vibes give the tune a tweaked out pressure and is tinged with jlin's copyrighted dark psychedelia. Jlin works out some screeching sirens, rimshots, snares and elastic vocals like a sped up juggling act. Absolutely killing it

Dj Rolow - Make It

Some banging clean production from new Teklife addition Dj Rolow. Proving yet again that the Ghettotekz are on their game, Rolow hits us with some deep bangs and vocals set against a heavenly synthed backdrop. Perhaps an atypically polished and clearly realised production for the Ghettotekz but one that is equally compulsively listenable.