Sounds From The Other All Over

We're delighted to let you know that both Work Them mixtapes so far are now compiled for infinite streaming over on Mixcloud, where they even come complete with tracklisting as standard, plus a full catalogue of all the labels they feature on, which we hope at least a few of you will appreciate and find useful. It's really important to ensure you buy records after because DJs on the internet have told you to do so having obtained them through more dubious means. They didn't close down Wikipedia for nothing.

It is 2 weeks now until the next Work Them featuring London's mind-boggling and enigmatic young master of experimental electronica, patten. Look out for flyers over the next few weeks, or visit the Facebook event page and let us know you're coming, which you most definitely are, right? Tickets are available in advance for £4, which is just 80 pence per quality hour of music.

Speaking of music, that's what we're all about, lest you forget admist other waffle - and we've been doing our fair share of that too. For example, here's a little interview we did for Sounds From The Other City, which we're extremely pleased to be a part of this year. We've more details to follow, but the ticket and line up launch party for the event, which typically combines the best of both a Salford bar crawl and a new music festival, is this Tuesday 24th January, at Deansgate's cosy Gaslamp. And we'll be there, spinning records, as well as the opportunity to buy limited earlybird tickets at just £14.

We've also got a few bookings of our own, live and behind the decks, that we're very excited about over the coming months, but in the meantime, here's some new records you can expect to hear at Kraak on February 3rd.

Hans Peter Lindstrom has returned with his latest LP, the curiously titled 'Six Cups of Rebel'. Best known for his chugging disco remixes, his new, and somewhat gloriously unfashionable new work, deals more than ever in psych and prog but is nonetheless full of his usual disco shimmer. Check out one of the several highlights above.

Many Matthe Dear fan shed a silent, but dicussion forum extolled tear when Matthew Dear began to leave behind the likes of Audion to indulge his experimental pop and dance sensibilities, as heard on 2010's superlative 'Black City'. So God knows what they'd make of this new collaboration from the new Headcage EP on his own Ghostly Records, and a taster for the full LP follow up, featuring Jonny Pierce of Smiths inspired/contrived indie pop lads The Drums. Whilst no fans here at Work Them Towers, Pierce's voice is perfect on this 3.5 minute slice of looped hip-pop, which retains the atmosphere and perfect rhythm that Dear has become best known for. More please.

Like our old pal Maria Minerva, DIY songstress Molly Nillson creates melancholy, witty dance pop, ambient and disco that are a gift for a warm up DJ or those after a night out in. Her fourth album, 'History' is out now, and is highly recommended if you enjoy the above. If you get round to listening to those first three albums from Sweden before we do, let us know what to check out.

Seasonal Affective Disco - #1

 Work Them's series of mixtapes returns with our first ever Seasonal Affective Disco. Perhaps a little more subdued than our clubbier effort, this hour of music new and old is still designed to satisfy tapping toes as well as any general sense of melancholy. Call it night bus, night in or nice night out, SAD encompasses ambient, electronica, proper indie and disco - featuring music from Burial, Beach House, Joe Goddard, Seahawks and more.


 The new mixtape is available below, and embedded at the side of the blog for easy access comparable to that of a walk-in bath. Downloads are available around the top left of the player, and we hope you enjoy the mix.


Work Them - Seasonal Affective Disco #1 by Work Them

 Don't forget, ar from hibernating until Spring however, Work Them will be back in it's body warming club night mode on Friday February 3rd, at our anything goes den down the alley, Kraak Gallery. As well as us DJs, the night will see the debut live performance in Manchester from London's patten, who hides one of the most exciting and experimental minds in electronic music behind his lower cases. His album GLAQJO XAACSS was one of the underground highlights of last year, earning plaudits from the likes of FACT Mag and The Line Of Best Fit, who both placed it high on their end of year lists.

 Tickets, priced just £4 in advance are available from WeGotTickets now http://www.wegottickets.com/event/148260

 Keep your eyes out over the next few weeks for more astute musical recommendations from all over, accompanying witterings and a review of what happened when we enjoyed/endured the final 17 hours of Warehouse Project. Will I finally confront Store Street car park owners with receipts for four pairs of ruined Converse, will we have an epiphany in that weird void near the toilets and we conclusively reveal how many spinbacks it will take for the back room to get sweaty enough to develop a minor strain of malaria.

Patten LIVE at Work Them

Hello there, hope you're well and haven't had your annual listen to The Waitresses' 'Christmas Wrapping' too early, meaning you'll only have walnut whips, Babycham and hard, ill advised acid to reignite your soul by Christmas Eve.


Anyway, all's well at our end. In fact, we're ready to announce the first of several artists we have lined up to compliment our usual clubnight bizznezz, namely Patten. Having released one of the most promising, distinctive and diverse albums of the past 12 months in the shape of GLAQJO XAACSSO on No Pain in Pop, we're very pleased to bring Patten to Kraak Gallery for his debut live show in Manchester. And we hope to see you there, and then, the then being 3rd February.


A one man force of experimental, but fluid electronica Patten's music is both blissful and baffling, recalling such broad influences as Broadcast and Aphex Twin - jittering, unpredictable beats layered above striking shoegaze guitar work. Matching his recorded output, Patten's live show is a raw blend both digital and analogue influences, as anyone who saw him earlier this year on Boiler Room will surely attest.


Full ticket details, artwork and so on are to follow later this month, but for now, check out Patten's stunning and eclectic FACT mix for a 40 minute preview covering his influences and favourite records, each chopped up and compressed into his distinctive style.

We're also working on a new mixtape which will be arriving within a few weeks, which means our original Somewhat Essential Mix will be disappearing for a while. Mixing up everything you can expect from Work Them, (and at 90 minutes, happilly, less) it's still available to stream and download from our Souncloud, and perfect complimentary audio fodder for the sort of seasonal social occasion that you apparently have agreed to have at your house. Why offer a party favour, when you can give the gift of exciting background music?

Work Them Roundup

 A huge thank you to everyone that made it down to the debut Work Them last week at Kraak, we had a brilliant time - got to play loads of good records, you danced to them, can still afford to get our parents something or other for Christmas, jobs a goodun'. Also a big thanks to Dan Nolan and Citylife for our feature in the MEN, which dealt with our personal inspiration for the night/where and who we steal all our ideas from. You can still read that here, if you missed it and are interested.

 We'll be back in February to begin what we hope will be a regular run of 'Work Thems' ("a gaggle of Work Thems") over at Kraak, as well as a possible event of the record playing kind in the party void known as January. Upon our return, we also hope to present a small but golden selection of special guests to reflect our ethos, which we're currently working on, as well as a new mixtape... Anyway, enough cryptic hyperbole, we'll be posting plenty of interesting and fresh music here in the meantime.

 Maria Minerva's A Love So Strong, remixed here by Not Not Fun label boss Ital, proved to be the surprise hit of the night around 2AM last week. Starting off slowly, a good portion of the crowd soon found themselves lost in Minerva's beckoning vocals and hail of chimes, even going for the weird old bit towards the end when the track sounds as if it's reversing in on itself. On later and more sober listens, it becomes clear that this happens a few times throughout, and offers a good example of why the lo-fi dance music of Maria Minerva, Peaking Lights, Grimes and so on has seemed so fresh this year, offering real groove and heart, and still finding time to willfully muck about with conventions.

 Like we said, while our 'Ethos' is a loosely defined, work in progress, we do know what we like; and Tearjerker, a three piece from Toronto, we certainly like. A Bandcamp wild card find, with little information available, Tearjerker describe themselves, in rather meta fashion, as follows;

 'Tearjerker plays music that has been described by various people as indie rock, shoegaze, chillwave, glo-fi/lo-fi and other subgenres that Tearjerker hadn’t really heard of before.'

  'Strangers', a gently touching, almost shoegaze record is the one caught my attention, and something I had on heavy rotation this time last year. It holds off on the fuzziness just enough for you to appreciate the record for what it is, a creepingly melancholic, electronic tinged haze fest. The fuzziness itself, produced by a wonderfully warm and almost droning bass playing with the snare, is one of my favourite aspects of this record; it feeds through the album, leaving you almost enveloped in, well, any other word that equates to 'vibes'.

 In May this year, Tearjerker released a 'self re edit' of Strangers. Track for track re recorded, and slightly tweaked, the result was a lighter, but not necessarily polished version of an already gorgeous record. It retained the fuzziness, but had more clarity, and a generally more airy feel (there's no way I could say 'airy air'), picking up on the track 'Wave' and carrying on. It's interesting that on the two records, different songs stand out more. In my opinion, 'Wave' and 'Downtown' are the stand outs on Strangers, while on Strangers Remade it's 'Slip Away Remake' and 'Best Remake', that I love the most. Possibly something to do with the flipping in tone, they almost turn the lighter heavier, and vice versa with these tracks. That's not to say the original Strangers is 'dark' or 'heavy', it's just a more 'hazy', yet equally layered counterpart. Essentially it comes down to release dates, 'Strangers Remade' is the Summer version of 'Strangers', both wonderful and haunting records, yet without excessive melancholia, it's almost like we have a AW10/11 and SS11 collection of shoegaze, chillwave, glo-fi/lo-fi and other subgenres that Tearjerker hadn't really heard of before, but probably won't stop hearing about from now on.

Peaking Heights

Our favourite local record store and yours, Piccadilly Records, have just released their Best of 2011 list, a trusted annual compilation of the 100 best albums released this year, spanning weirdo indie, disco, post-punk, psych, and everything else we love to play. Hitting the coveted #1 spot this year, just ahead of such luminaries as Metronomy, Maria Minerva and Wooden Shjips, is Peaking Light's stunning debut LP, 936. Piccadilly Records succinctly explain why...

"... Originally out at the end of February on Not Not Fun (now reissued on Weird World), "936" became an instant Piccadilly hit, working its post-punk twisted psych-disco charms on pretty much everyone here - I'm sure you'll love it too. If you do, make sure you check out Maria Minerva and Washed Out as well - all three sit together under the synthwave / chillwave umbrella (whatever that is!)"

Indeed, since it's initial release (ooh, get us) when the LP floated to us down blog river as another promising and doubtlesssly oddball release from Not Not Fun recordings, both of your Work Them hosts became rather obsessed with the album, not to mention it's disinctive cover art, which in itself perfectly encapsulates the warm, heady feel of the album. As the winter nights draw in, it still sounds as great as the soundtrack to another late night ill advised aspirational Amazon purchase, as it did in the summer, strolling through the town centre or hanging over after a night at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Having seen Peaking Light's music described as 'other-wordly' this year, I would disagree with this assessment of an admittedly hazy sounding record.

The husband and wife duo behind the band have instead recorded a psych-pop record that is far from self-indulgent or meandering, and in possession of very personable, even romantic touches, dreamily singing of 'tiger eyes' and 'all the sun that shines (shines for you)'. This winning formula hit it's stride throughout the album's stand-out track, 'Amazing and Wonderful'.

Unsurprisingly for a band who sound to be cautiously, dreamily swaying at the side of the dancefloor, even without quite jumping in to the action, a remix compilation arrives next month, simply entitled 936: The Remixes. Release information and even a streaming selection of the reworked material, coming from both hip hop and house heads and beyond, is available at the band's new online radio station, 936.fm. We've included a remix of 936 cut 'Hey Sparrow' below, which is dubbed out and mystical beyond a hippy teenager's wildest dreams.

Peaking Lights grace Manchester in person for a headline Now Wave show at The Deaf Institute, on Saturday December 9th. Perhaps the only gig this year I am comfortable guaranteeing the quality of using the word 'vibes'. If you purchase the LP in Piccadilly Records itself, you'll also be able to purchase a ticket for the gig for just £6.

Seasonal Affective Disco - #1

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of Work Them's Seasonal Affective Disco. Remember, anything you express here is completely confidential amongst the group.

I often find myself musing, like a shit observational stand up comedian, "What if Jesus had been born in June?" Winter is inarguably miserable. Some of you might disagree, but as I said, 'inarguably', so therefore it is decided. The arrival of Christ coincided with our climate's most unequoivically grim time of year, and without the pomp, circumstance and selection boxes he has gifted us, what would we have to look forward to? We've put together a selection of winter-not-Christmas music to pump through your ears in an effort to stay sane on a Saturday whilst walking down Market Street. Although, we fear our selections may not be enough...

Of course, like all records currently stemming from the bass music genre, whoever has uploaded our first choice, has also included an accompanying photo of a sexxxayyyy lady who also likes music. It's bit of an off trend, but is at least honest in it's connection between young men interested in experimental electronica and young men interested in hopelessly masturbating. Synergy.

The alias of a well-known and much respected producer off of the clubs and the radios, Juk Juk's Winter Turns Spring is unfortunately a good 4 or 5 months early from maximum relevance at this point, but it's a subtle, strange and warm record that manages to encompass it's title without wearing shorts to walk the shop at the end of February. It also has a fantastic kick of fuzz half way through that may knock both pairs of your socks off.

 Another record courtesy of two producers operating under a different alias, although the identities of this pair are admittedly a little better known, Winter in June from Beyond The Wizards Sleeve is a reliably atmospheric slice of psychedelia overlayed with the vocals of a kindly gardener interview by a journalist. I've competely forgotten the source of the sample, but this is a pleasantly optimistic record that's also full of handy tips for maintaing a garden througout a harsh winter, if you were to need them.

Winter Beats was the lead single from I Break Horses, which sounds like a ketamine fuelled rave with no commercial future, but are in fact a feedback laden indie band with no apparent interest in the stuff. Back upon it's release in August, this sounded less relevant than it does as I type, in the dark, at 4PM. It contains just the right measure of both winter and beats for my money (For transparency, that's pproximately 35:65 beats:winter)

Nicolas Jaar will certainly be getting more than a few plays from us at Work Them. Adept at handling both weird electronica, gentle piano led ballads and disco bangers, this frosty and emotive remix of The Bee's Winter Rose has just come out of our seasonal record retirement box. Unfortunately, the accompaying photo here is markedly less sexy than that of Juk Juk. I don't know why when otherwise faceless DJs and producers get an opportunity to do some photos, they'll always lean up against something and pretend not to give two bloody hoots.

Work Them starts this Friday at Manchester's Kraak Gallery, just off Stevenson Square. If you fancy it, or you need further details and devices of persuasion, do us a favour and let us know at our Facebook event here.