We were trying (and failing) to do a sort of mysterious shadowy presence thing as our remix outfit ‘Year Zero’ but it leaked out anyway…which is fine, I was about to blow the gaff as I was fed up with not being able to do promo shizzle.

Anyway hiding in out the sewers with masks and capes wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be

So who is Year Zero? Well it’s me, Ian Fondue (Crimes Against Pop) and Jez aka Celebrity Murder Party, and our first remix is coming out in March as part of Billie Ray Martin‘s Crackdown Project (I previously blogged about this, but didn’t explain the context – Volume 2: Darkness Restored  out on Disco Activisto (on all digital outlets March 15th – already listed over at Juno!) including our mix ‘The Crackdown: Year Zero Remix’. The first volume, Sold Out To Disco is out Feburary 15th.

And you torrent heads aren’t left out cos Billie is collaborating with torrent-site Mininova.org to release free exclusive mixes in a few weeks (January 25) – so no excuse not to go listen, really.

A bit of background – The Crackdown Project is Billie working with Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire on two Cabs songs, ‘The Crackdown’ and ‘Just Fascination’, produced by Berlin tech-house act Maertini Broes. So now you know

What does our mix sound like? Well imagine dubstep crossed with glitch and a bit of an african influence; and you’ll be partway there…part of the manifesto of Year Zero is to treat remixing with the same ethos as our mashup work – a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And given all our diverse influences from dubstep to pop to hiphop to african beats to electro, house and glitch, I think that’s going to be an eclectic mix, and hopefully something different. I’m proud of the mix, but we all agreed it’s only a start and part of what we can do – we’ll see in future months where we go from there

The other very talented remixers involved across the 2 disc set are many names you’d recognise from Radio Clash – Copycat (just heard his mix on Gaydar radio’s exclusive, very good), Celebrity Murder Party (heard early versions of these, very good club choonage),  Divide and Kreate, Dunproofin, Flying White Dots, Phil RetroSpector, Oicho (David Harrow) and Lusty Zanzibar.

Anyway from what I’ve heard both discs are going to be belters and span club action, dark electro to balearic, moody dubstep and nu-disco, and I’m willing to bet a lot more besides.

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‘Dark electro / Disco noir’ is what I call a certain type of music referencing or sampling certain horror movie soundtracks from Goblin to John Carpenter that’s popped up recently in certain electro / electro house quarters, and it’s a music that I can connect to for several reasons, it’s dark and broody and seems to fit the state of the nation at the moment (and I also love the music of those 70s and 80s horror movies).

It seems like a lot of new bands from the French (Zombie Zombie, NOTe Found, daRoc, Justice, Maesthelvin, Mustard Pimp) to the British (Padded Cell, Emperor Machine, Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Sisters of Transistors) and even further outposts (Rico Tubbs, Tsk Tsk, Presets, Supermayer) have a common basis to me, so this is also a manifesto of sorts linking these bands together with older and less obvious inspirations (or just my guilty pleasures!) such as Fad Gadget, David Shrigley, Meat Beat Manifesto and Peter Gabriel.

So although not a ‘Halloween’ mix I’ve mixed together these horror-inspired tracks with some of the original tracks that I think inspired them, and thrown in some horror movie samples (can you spot where they are from?) as a nod to Halloween…and this is the first in a series. It’s also the first mix I’ve done in Ableton.

Thanks go out to several blogs that have helped inspire this in posting various tracks, and are blogs I regularly read also:

• Discodust
• Discoworkout
• Valerie
• Trashbagkids

Instamatic – Dark mix 1 Remember a Monster mix is not just for Halloween (113Mb, 109 mins)

• Justice – Planisphere 1/2
• NOTe Found – Error 403
• Zombie Zombie – What’s happening in the city ?
• Fad Gadget – State Of The Nation
• Late Of The Pier – The Bears Are Coming (Emperor Machine Remix)
• Padded Cell – Savage Skulls (Extended Version)
• Fad Gadget – 4m
• Maethelvin – Lost In Big City
• John Carpenter – The Bank Robbery
• David Shrigley – Loathsome
• Sage Francis – Civil Obedience
• Fad Gadget – Love Parasite
• John Carpenter – Escape From New York
• The Sisters of Transistors – the Don
• Padded Cell – World Of Mouth
• Fad Gadget – 4m
• Rufus Wainwright – Tiergarten (Supermayer Remix)
• Padded Cell – Far Beneath London
• John Carpenter – The End
• Meat Beat Manifesto – Oblivion/Humans
• TSK TSK – Un-Mustered
• Peter Gabriel – Of These, Hope
• The Presets – Girl and the Sea
• Justice – Phantom Pt2 (Soulwax Remix)
• John Carpenter – The Shape Stalks Laurie
• Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Weird Science
• Detroit Grand Pubahs – If Snow Was Black
• The Presets – Kicking and Screaming
• David Shrigley – The Jist
• SebastiAn – Victimo
• John Carpenter – Arrival At The Library
• Ragga Twins – The Homeless Problem
• Giorgio Moroder – If You Weren’t Afraid
• Mustard Pimp – Zombie Revenge
• Rico Tubbs – Gangsters (Original Mix)
• Mustard Pimp – Oh la la Satan (Stereoheroes Remix)
• Glowstyx – 7 Daze
• Legowelt – Electro Race
• Vangelis – End Titles
• DaRoc vs Preston Park – Serie B aka The Ice Entrance
• Eric Idle – That’s Death

Ever wondered what Mr Massey of 808 State is upto nowadays? Well working with these people, the Sisters of Transistors:

Nice to see a) it’s rocking that electro-horror sound I’ve been calling ‘disco noir’ or ‘dark electro’ that takes a lot of inspiration from Mssrs Carpenter and Moroder, with a dash of early 80′s New York 99 Records/ESG-ness. It’s like Zombie Zombie and Padded Cell so I smell a genre – hence I’m working on a mix of this music and it’s inspirations and b) it’s in 3D! weee!!!