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Hear Erol Alkan’s Seismic ‘Another ‘Bugged Out’ Mix & ‘Bugged In’ Selection’

Erol Alkan / Photo by Benjamin Diedering

Erol Alkan‘s new double-disc DJ mix, Another “Bugged Out” Mix & “Bugged In” Selection, ought to come with a warning label: “Beware Flying Objects.” While recording the clubbier of the two sets, he says, the bass vibrations dislodged one of his monitors off its shelf and sent it crashing to the floor, where it left a deep dent in the hardwood. But he finished out the mix anyway — fuck a security deposit, right? — and kept the take. The lesson is clear: Assembling a mix in Ableton may be safer, but there’s no plug-in capable of simulating that kind of white-knuckled energy.

The album’s mouthful of a title is a reference to Alkan’s A Bugged Out Mix / A Bugged In Selection, from 2005, which introduced the world at large to the London DJ’s surgically eclectic style. Like its predecessor, the new album is divided into “club” and “home” sets, and, once again, he proves himself the consummate crate digger. “Bugged Out” reaches all the way back to 1982, with Amin Peck’s “Girls on Me,” and sketches a wiggly line through Model 500, Reginald Burrell’s N.Y. House’n Authority, Factory Floor, and Jimmy Edgar. “Bugged In” kicks off with Jan Hammer Group’s dreamy 1977 cut “Don’t You Know” and makes its languorous way through songs from Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Robert Wyatt, Buffalo Springfield, and even the Make Up, alongside more conventionally “electronic” selections from Bibio, Margot, and Walls. Consider it psychic caulking for the dent that “Bugged Out” leaves in your brain.

Another “Bugged Out” Mix & “Bugged In” Selection is out September 3 on K7; for now, get a taste of the album’s more placid half with this 15-minute mini-mix spanning Jai Paul’s “Jasmine,” Margot’s “Voci Giaga,” and Chromatics’ “A Matter of Time.” And check Alkan’s SoundCloud account for a bounty of DJ sets, remixes, and original productions, both under his own name and in his group Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve.

CD1: Bugged Out

1. Smith n Hack / To Our Disco Friends
2. Ron Hardy / Sensation (Obi Blanch edit)
3. In Flagranti / Gridlock
4. Seaside Houz Boyz / From A Man’s Journal
5. Umba / Concussion
6. Jimmy Edgar / This One’s For The Children
7. Model 500 / No UFO’s (D-Mix)
8. Unovidual & Tara Cross / Comme Je Suis (Based in the Sling & Samo mix)
9. Agoria feat. Carl Craig & La Scalars / Speechless (Gesaffelstein Remix)
10. T.S.O.S. / Over And Over
11. Scuba / Never
12. Secondo / Discombabulate
13. Amin Peck / Girls On Me
14. N.Y. House’n Authority / Ravenswood House
15. Jared Wilson / Let Your Body Make Your Body
16. Factory Floor / Two Different Ways
17. Children Of The Night / It’s A Trip (Mike Hitman Wilson’s Mix)
18. Gingy & Bordello / Body Acid (KiNK’s on Acid Remix)
19. Spandex / The Bull (Erol Alkan Rework)
20. Kölsch / Opa
21. Connan Mockasin / Forever Dolphin Love (Erol Alkan Rework Version 2)

CD2: Bugged In

1. Jan Hammer Group / Don’t You Know
2. Matthew Herbert / Leipzig
3. Bibio / All The Flowers
4. Michael Head / Queen Matilda
5. Adjagas / Mun Ja Mun (Instrumental)
6. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci / Miss Trudy
7. Mickey Moonlight / We’ll Meet Again (Bugged In Mix)
8. The Make Up / I Am Pentagon
9. Dibidim / Badminton Bay
10. The Space Lady / Major Tom (Coming Home)
11. Jai Paul / Jasmine [Demo]
12. Margot / Voci Giaga
13. Chromatics / A Matter Of Time
14. Space Dimension Controller / The Love Quadrant
15. Robert Wyatt / At Last I Am Free
16. Walls / Gaberdine (Nathan Fake Ambient Version)
17. Buffalo Springfield / Expecting To Fly
18. Plush / Soaring and Boring